Episodes
![Ep 141: Rose Lu chats with Pip](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog705211/Podbean_1120x1120_g3psbm_300x300.jpg)
Saturday Jun 29, 2024
Ep 141: Rose Lu chats with Pip
Saturday Jun 29, 2024
Saturday Jun 29, 2024
I always find talking to Rose really inspiring. Rose's writing is so good and I love hearing about Rose's practice.
In this episode Rose uses Miranda July's new book All Fours as a starting point for this conversation about writing, the novel and how our day jobs can help us.
Rose's magnificent first book is All Who Live on Islands (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2019)
Thanks for listening.
Just a reminder that Art for Palestine 2 is on 4-7 July at The Heads, 24 Canterbury Street, Lyttleton.
You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee
How to listen to Better off Read
Better off Read is available on Spotify and most podcasting apps.
Better off Read is also available on PodBean
An RSS code is available here
![Ep 140: Budget Day Back from the Read Encore: Ep 126: Beyond a Joke 14: James Nokise talks with Pip Adam about Verb After Hours](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog705211/Podbean_1120x1120_2__tqxy94_300x300.jpg)
Thursday May 30, 2024
Thursday May 30, 2024
Today is Budget Day in Aotearoa. I wanted to replay this episode because James talks so well about money and art. Specifically getting paid for art.
In this podcast James talks about his performance at the Verb After Hours event, imperialism and paying artists.
The first thing you'll hear is his performance the Verb After-Hours event: Beyond a Joke which took place on Thursday, 3 November 2022 at Meow. Thank you Verb Festival.
You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee
How to listen to Better off Read
Better off Read is available on Spotify and most podcasting apps.
Better off Read is also available on PodBean
An RSS code is available here
![Ep 139: romesh dissanayake chats with Pip](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog705211/Podbean_1120x1120_1__5ixe2e_300x300.jpg)
Monday Apr 29, 2024
Ep 139: romesh dissanayake chats with Pip
Monday Apr 29, 2024
Monday Apr 29, 2024
In this episode I talk with romesh dissanayake.
romesh's amazing novel when I open the shop (Te Herenga Waka University Press) was launched about a month ago.
I was really grateful that romesh and I were able to have a chat. I asked romesh to bring along an object as a way into a conversation about his book and this stage of its publication. romesh suggested Água Viva by Clarice Lispector.
It was such a great conversation.
Here are some links about some of the things we talk about:
Trying to Keep it Sacred: A conversation with Olive Nuttall & romesh dissanayake in Starling
You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee
Better off Read is available on Spotify and most podcasting apps.
Better off Read is also available on PodBean
An RSS code is available here
Here is a link to the Better off Read website: https://better-read.com/
![Ep 138: Sylvan Spring chats with Pip](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog705211/Podbean_1120x1120_j53aks_300x300.jpg)
Friday Mar 22, 2024
Ep 138: Sylvan Spring chats with Pip
Friday Mar 22, 2024
Friday Mar 22, 2024
In this episode I talk with Sylvan Spring about their incredible book Killer Rack.
https://teherengawakapress.co.nz/killer-rack/
In this episode we talk about a few things, so here are some links:
Sylvan spoke with kitten author Olive Nuttall in what is probably the best thing you'll read this year - thank you to The SpinOff:
‘So gay, thank you for noticing!’: Olive Nuttall and Sylvan Spring in conversation'
In the week leading up to our conversation Wellington-based singer-songwriter Vera Ellen and Georgia Gets By (Georgia Nott) announced they were pulling out of SXSW in protest at the festival's partnerships with tech companies RTX (formerly Raytheon), Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems, which have been linked to manufacturing and supplying weapons to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). You can read more here
You can also support both these artists through Bandcamp:
- Vera Ellen https://veraellen.bandcamp.com/
- Georgia Gets By https://georgiagetsby.bandcamp.com
We also talk about the terrible acts of censorship happening at State Library Victoria. You can read more about that at this link
Last night RNZ published this amazing essay by Henrietta Bollinger and I wanted to put a link to it here:
Why we cannot let the disability support changes happen
Thanks again for listening to the podcast.
![Ep 137: Rachel O'Neill chats with Pip](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog705211/Podbean_hs23c5_300x300.jpg)
Saturday Feb 17, 2024
Ep 137: Rachel O'Neill chats with Pip
Saturday Feb 17, 2024
Saturday Feb 17, 2024
In the most recent episodes I've been talking to people about where they are up to in their creative projects. I've asked these people to bring along an object they are 'using' for this stage of the project.
This episode was recorded at Randall Cottage while Rachel O'Neill was resident there.
You can read more about Rachel at their website:
I have set up a Buy Me a Coffee for Better off Read. If you are able and willing you can make a donation here to help support the podcast:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/betteroffread
![Ep 136: Whiti Hereaka chats with Pip](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/705211/Untitled_design_1__vfp944_300x300.png)
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Ep 136: Whiti Hereaka chats with Pip
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Last Thursday, Whiti Hereaka was kind enough to come into Wellington Access Radio and have a chat with me on the occasion of the end of the year.
I love talking to Whiti and I always learn heaps from her.
Whiti has amazing recommendations. I thought I’d list them below along with the songs Whiti chose, which I can’t play in the podcast for copyright reasons.
Whiti has a great Instagram
Songs chosen by Whiti:
Short and Roung by The Bug Club
Passionflower, Paperbacks and Woodlice by The Bug Club
Read the Room (feat. Laetitia Sadier) by Pearl & the Oysters
Books Whiti talks about:
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
Movies Whiti talks about:
TV Whiti Talks about:
![Ep 135: Kerry Donovan Brown chats with Pip](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/705211/Untitled_design_1__vfp944_300x300.png)
Tuesday Dec 26, 2023
Ep 135: Kerry Donovan Brown chats with Pip
Tuesday Dec 26, 2023
Tuesday Dec 26, 2023
Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be sharing some short chats I’m having with some of my favourite people. These are recorded at Wellington Access Radio and first appear on the Friday Drive show which I host with Amy Delahunty.
In this, the first of these chats, I talk to Kerry Donovan Brown.
I asked Kerry about what they have been up to this year, what they have enjoyed and how they are feeling about 2024.
In this recording, Kerry talks about two songs. Due to copyright I can’t play these in the episode and I was thinking of taking out the reference to them but they are such great recommendations I thought I’d keep Kerry’s descriptions in the recording and include a link to the music here:
![Ep 134: Aaron Lister and Joan Fleming read response to Angela Lane's Phosphene](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/705211/Untitled_design_1__vfp944_300x300.png)
Saturday Dec 16, 2023
Ep 134: Aaron Lister and Joan Fleming read response to Angela Lane's Phosphene
Saturday Dec 16, 2023
Saturday Dec 16, 2023
On 28 October 2023, City Gallery Wellington hosted an event to celebrate the opening of Angela Lane’s amazing exhibition Phosphene
As part of this event Joan Fleming and Aaron Lister wrote and read responses to these works.
Joan wrote a beautiful description of their work:
I read a short, strange essay about awe and the beauty experience with its inevitable fringe of disgust, and about withness and terror and the sun. Aaron Lister read something about Mary Shelley, the year without summer, and Frankenstein as the first climate change novel.
In this episode Joan and Aaron generously recorded these essays at Massey University.
I hope you enjoy these readings.
![Ep 133: Jared Davidson: Blood & Dirt at Verb Festival 2023](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/705211/Untitled_design_1__vfp944_300x300.png)
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
Ep 133: Jared Davidson: Blood & Dirt at Verb Festival 2023
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
I’m incredibly grateful to Jared Davidson and Verb Festival for letting me podcast this amazing event.
Jared’s book Blood & Dirt: Prison Labour & the Making of New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2023) is an outstanding work of scholarship and creativity. I am a huge fan of this book and I feel very grateful to Jared who trusted me with this conversation.
At the end of this talk, we took questions from the audience. Unfortunately, my recording didn’t pick these up very clearly, so I’ve recorded and inserted summaries of the questions in my own words. I hope that is okay with the people who asked them. I was so excited by how many questions were asked - the event felt like a conversation and it was really great.
Thanks also to the amazing team at Verb. Every year they build this incredible ‘city’ made up of communities who are interested in ideas, writing and reading. It is an amazing thing to be involved with and I love it so much.
![Ep 132: Whiti Hereaka talks to Pip Adam about imagined (at the moment) art work in the project she is working on.](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/705211/Untitled_design_1__vfp944_300x300.png)
Thursday Sep 28, 2023
Thursday Sep 28, 2023
As I mentioned in my last post, I am at a really strange moment - without a project, unsure if there will be another one - and in this series, I am speaking to people at various stages of a project to talk process. I’m interested in talking to people about what activities they’re doing and what is useful.
In this episode I get to talk to one of my best friends and someone who inspires me a lot Whiti Hereaka. We talk about Whiti’s latest project.
I’m asking everyone to offer an object that is somehow helping them at this stage of their work. Whiti suggested we use the art works created by a central character in her novel. These works are imagined at the moment, but Whiti is an amazing artist and it wouldn’t surprise me if these don’t come to life in some way.
Whiti sent two photos and said I could use both. I love the way these photos could be ego and alter-ego. Both images were taken the amazing Tabitha Arthur.
I’m so incredibly grateful to Whiti, for this conversation sure but also for all the time and support she’s given me over the years and for all the work she’s done which has produced such amazing work.
Where I’m up to.
I’ve had a really nice week, book-wise. Yesterday Rebecca Priestly and I got to talk to some folk who are doing MA’s up at IIML. It was really exciting to hear about Rebecca’s new book End Times which launches next week. You can read more about End Times at this link
Also yesterday I got to speak at the launch of Emma Ling Sidnam’s amazing novel Backwaters. It was a really great night with lots of my favourite people in the room. I had a great chat with I. S. Belle whose work, and practice I really love.
Here’s a link to learn more about I. S. Belle’s work
Here’s a link to Backwaters by Emma Ling Sidnam
When I ask people on this podcast what sustains them, they often say community and I really felt that last night. It is really nice to see celebrate other people’s success. I found it really motivating and talking to everyone about their projects was also really great.
I still haven’t written anything. I keep saying this but what I mean is I haven’t written any fiction. I’m actually writing an essay for HEAT about writing violence and I’m writing a list of books for someone. So I am writing - and I’m writing this. I am thinking about the novel. And I wrote an application for some time to work on the novel, so that was a really nice way to think about it and also go over what I have written to send a writing sample.
I’m rewatching VEEP which is blowing my mind. It’s all come true!!!!!