'X' marks the spot! We're off in search of hidden treasure. Lesley Jorgensen reads a story about hidden Indian dowries and other treasures squirriled away in unassuming places. We partake of some of the latest booty from the expert excavators of hidden treasure at Going Down Swinging. And we spend time with a real gem: artist Thom Roberts.

Thom Roberts, a member of Studio ARTES and a contributor to 'Trunk', vol.1 ('Hair').
Don Walker and StJAM, 'Country Trains', and Teresia Teawa and Hinemoana Baker, 'Athena and the Breadfruit', 'Going Down Swinging', No.28
Lesley Jorgensen, 'Pure Gold', from Aviva Tuffield (ed), 'New Australian Stories', Scribe

This week we look at the role that power plays in everyday lives. We speak to Chimamanda Adichie, whose work explores the complex power relationships which shape the lives of her characters. And Melbourne author Amy Espeseth drops by to give a reading of her story, 'On a Wire'.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 'The Thing Around Your Neck', HarperCollins
Amy Espeseth, 'On a Wire', from The Death Mook, Vignette Press

Contributors: Amy Espeseth, Paul Kildea

This week we seek some relief from the winter cold with some literary sex and rock ‘n roll. We speak to former Cold Chisel keyboardist, Don Walker, about his life in music. And we speak to some Final Draft listeners about their favourite literary sex scenes.

Don Walker, Shots, Penguin
Bruce Williams, 'More Sex', Love at Cumbersome Corner, episode 20

Contributors: Shamin Fernando, Rochelle Fernandez, Bruce Williams, Paul Kildea

This week we're talking with two artists and a writer about space, places, and the buildings that affect our lives everyday. The towers that look over us, the pubs where we spend our evenings. Zanny Begg and Keg de Souza talk about their ten-year project archiving the history of Sydney's iconic Redfern neighbourhood and we speak with Jennifer Mills about her debut novel, The Diamond Anchor.

Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg, There Goes the Neighbourhood
Jennifer Mills, The Diamond Anchor, UQP

Contributors: Nija Dilal, Benedict Taylor

We all understand the awful toll war takes on the battlefield. This week, we take a look at some of the less obvious effects of warfare. With journalist and editor, Philip Gourevitch we discuss the abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war in Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004. And with academic and memoirist Mira Crouch we talk about life for civilians in occupied cities. Along the way we find out about the chilling effects of war on language, and the way in which food and eating are transformed by war.

Philip Gourevitch, 'Standard Operating Proceedure', Picador
Mira Crouch, 'War Fare: Sustenance in Time of Fear and Want', Gavemer Publishing

Contributors: Benedict Taylor

Franz Kafka pulled a massive swifty. He was no lonely Nostradamus of middle Europe, scribbling away in unrecognised, solitary genius, as we have been lead to believe. He was connected, calculating careerist, a gung-ho imperialist, and a well-heeled ladies man. He was also a frickin funny bastard. Join us as we spend time with James Hawes, the author of an iconoclastic biography of Mr Metamorphosis. And find out what happens when Kafka collides with Suess! (Repeat episode).

James Hawes, Excavating Kafka, Quercus
Jonathan Goldstein and David Rakoff, 'The Gregor Samsa/Dr Suess Letters', from the CBC's show, "Wiretap"

Contributors: Benedict Taylor

Tonight we're looking at ways of speaking with children about difficult truths, and at the surprising and confronting lessons children have to teach the grown ups. The prolific and much-loved writer Christobel Mattingley joins us to talk about her latest book. It's a children's illustrated history of Maralinga, produced in collaboration with the traditional owners of the land. Playwright and author Peta Murray has a story to tell us about learning to see oneself through the eyes of a child. And Bruce Williams reports from the frontiers of parenthood, somewhere deep in Cumbersome.

Christobel Mattingley, 'Maralinga: the Anangu Story', Allen and Unwin
Peta Murray, 'Cameraman', from Louise Swinn and Zoe Dattner (eds), "The Sleepers Almanac No. 5", Sleepers Publishing
Bruce Williams, 'Split', "Love at Cumbersome Corner", part 19

Contributors: Benedict Taylor, Bruce Williams

This week on the show, we're talking about the transformative power of literature and we're wheeling out the big guns: Fyodor Doestoevsky, Phillip K Dick and J R R Tolkein. And we're spending time with some of people they changed, from the good citizens of Marrickville to the 'butcher of the Balkans', Slobodan Milosovic.

Andrew Keefe and Gabrielle Mordy on 'The Lord of the Rings' by J R R Tolkein
Benjamen Walker, 'Remedial Theory'; visit www.toeradio.org for more of Benjamen's work
Emma Miszalski and Jay Fracaro on the books on their shelves

Contributors: Katherine Keefe, Benedict Taylor

This week we’ve got more moral ambiguity than you can poke a question mark at: flawed heroes, beautiful trauma, glimmers in the darkness - you name it, we'll equivocate. We meet Sofie Laguna and talk about her disturbing and strangely uplifting new novel, and we'll try to pin down some shades of grey slipperiness in a graphic novel and a film about neurotic superheroes with mid-life crises. More from Cumbersome too.

Sofie Laguna, 'One Foot Wrong', Allen and Unwin
Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins, 'Watchmen', DC Comics; also the film,'Watchmen', directed by Zack Snyder
Bruce Williams, 'Directions', "Love at Cumbersome Corner", part 18

Contributors: Paul Kildea, Rochelle Fernandez, Bruce Williams, Benedict Taylor

Humans are 'make-believe animals', British essayist William Hazlitt said. We are never so truly ourselves as when we are acting a part, he thought. This week we’re celebrating the power of make-believe. We’ll meet Glenn Fowler and Christopher Smythe, the real funnymen behind a fictitous old codger who successfully spoofed many of this country’s most reputable newspapers. And writer Chris Womersley is along to tell us a story about the bittersweet power of make-believe.

Glenn Fowler, Christopher Smythe and Gareth Malone, 'Dear Editor: The Collected Letters of Oscar Brittle', UNSW Press
Chris Womersley, 'The Possibility of Water', Aviva Tuffield (ed), "New Australian Stories", Scribe

Contributors: Nija Dalal, Benedict Taylor

Welcome to the Final Draft menagerie! We've got birds, we've got dogs, and we've got that strange and wonderful species we call human beings. Dr Irene Pepperberg is along to talk about a prolix parrot called Alex. And with novelist Eva Hornung, we'll revist the classic tale of the human child raised by beasts.

Irene Pepperberg, 'Alex and Me', Scribe
Eva Hornung, 'Dog Boy', Text

Contributors: Sara Peel, Benedict Taylor

It's been a decade since his last novel, but he is considered one of the finest writers working in English today. Fiction, 'in his hands', writer and critic Alberto Manguel says 'becomes the art of rendering the world coherent. For this we must be grateful.' We're talking about, and talking with David Malouf. His latest novel is a delicate re-imagining of one of the oldest tales around, and it's a real gem. Also, more from Cumbersome.

David Malouf, 'Ransom', Random House
Bruce Williams, 'More Heat', "Love at Cumbersome Corner", part 17

Contributors: Benedict Taylor, Bruce Williams

The way of the transgressor may be hard, but it can also be a lot of fun. Tonight, we're gleefully breaking the rules. Find out what happens when a masochist goes on holiday with a sadist. Learn about the reckless abandon with which Led Zeppelin approached the rules of music, and life. And join us in the kitchen, as we re-write the rules for making chocolate cake!

Mary Gaitskill, 'Bad Behaviour', Vintage, 1988
Mick Wall, 'Led Zeppelin: When Giants Walked the Earth', Hachette
Katherine Keefe, 'Recipe Card 32: Twice Cooked Birthday Cake'

Host Benedict Taylor referred to, and read from Meredith Hendley, 'The Voracious Pen of Thomas Carlyle' Humanities, March/April 2009 Volume 30, Number 2

Contributors: Sara Peel, Shamin Fernando, Katherine Keefe, Benedict Taylor

Dylan Thomas wrote of 'the mystery of having been moved by words'. And tonight, dear Watson, mystery is on the menu. Mystery writer Derek Nikitas joins us to help us figure how what happened to mystery - and whodunnit. Local writer Kristy Millard's new short story will get the hairs on the back of your enticingly exposed neck all a-quiver. And, yes it's true, we've solved the mystery of the oldest words in the English language!

Derek Nikitas, 'Pyres', St Martin's Press
Kristy Millard's story, 'The Artist' was read by Ross Ogden
For more on the oldest words in English, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7911645.stm
Aceyalone (with Mumbles), 'The Windows and Walls', from their album "A Book of Human Language" (cut from podcast for copyright reasons)

Contributors: Nija Dalal, Benedict Taylor

This week on the show, Abbas El-Zein tells his story, and what an astonishing tale it is. From the violence and cosmopolitanism of a childhood in civil-war Beirut, we follow Abbas to Baghdad, Paris, Palestine, and Sydney. Along the way, we learn to think about migration as a beautiful mutilation, and find out why Asterix kicks Tintin's ass. Bruce Williams is along too, to tell us about folks in Cumbersome going their separate ways.

Abbas El-Zein, 'Leave to Remain', University of Queensland Press
Bruce Williams, 'Separate Ways', "Love at Cumbersome Corner, part 16

James Arvanitakis' book, 'Contemporary Society', will be launched at Gleebooks on Friday 27 March at 6pm

Host, Benedict Taylor read extracts from the 15 March edition of The New York Times, and Robert Frost's poem, 'The Road Not Taken'

Contributors: Bruce Williams, Benedict Taylor

'If I read a book that impresses me,' Anne Frank said, 'I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind quite queer.' This week we're celebrating the effects books can have on our thoughts and lives. We'll find out how a couple of fictional anti-heroes were there at just the right time for a couple of their readers. In the second installment of the bookclub of the air, we'll learn about the pretty damn profound effect Tom Robbins had on 2ser listener, Peter Shields. And we'll let you in on a plan in which books quite literally help save lives.

Anthony Oakley on 'The Catcher in the Rye', by J D Salinger, and Stephanie Dickson on 'Praise', by Andrew McGahan
Bookclub of the Air: listener Peter Shields recommended 'Jitterbug Perfume', by Tom Robbins

Contributors: Katherine Keefe, Sara Peel, Benedict Taylor

We’re talking about tenderness this week - the surprising and complicated forms it can take when it’s present, and the bleakness of life without it. We’ll spend some time with the cloudspotters and other gentle souls in Delia Falconer’s first novel. Bruce Williams will be along to trace the many kinds of tenderness in his neighbourhood. And activist Kathleen Maltzahn joins us to shed some light on the lives of women who have been trafficked into a world without tenderness.

Bruce Williams, 'Tenderness', "Love at Cumbersome Corner", part 15
Kathleen Maltzahn, 'Trafficked', UNSW Press
Delia Falconer, 'The Service of Clouds', Picador (and Gavin Pretor Pinney, 'The Cloudspotter's Guide', Sceptre)

Contributors: Bruce Williams, Paul Kildea, Katherine Keefe, Benedict Taylor

This week we've got (surprisingly nourishing) stories of catastrophe, apocalypse, darkness, pain and confusion for you. Woo hoo! We'll meet Melbourne writer, Steven Amsterdam, and talk about his debut novel, a delightful catalogue of calamity. And we'll also find out just how dismal, twisted and interesting it gets inside Paul Auster's head.

Steven Amsterdam, 'Things We Didn't See Coming', Sleepers Publishing
Paul Auster, 'Man in the Dark', Allen and Unwin

Things We Didn't See Coming will be launched, in Melbourne, at 6pm on Thursday 5 March at the Glasshouse, 51 Gipps St, Collingwood

Contributors: Lesley Branagan, Benedict Taylor

We're celebrating the quirky, unconventional and downright bizarre. We talk about Steve Toltz's unusual tilt at the Booker, we spend some time with the loving misfits in Cumbersome, and we talk to Colin Bowles about the premier misfits of the musical world. Also, in memory of John Updike, we listen to some of Updike's poetry, read by the guide for middle-class misfits himself. In this episode host, Benedict Taylor, asked for help choosing a poem to read at his sister's wedding. Please email suggestions to finaldraft@2ser.com.

Steve Toltz, 'A Fraction of the Whole', Penguin
Bruce Williams, 'Heat', "Love at Cumbersome Corner", part 14
Colin Bowles, 'I've Been Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart: The 100 Worst Songs Ever', Allen and Unwin
John Updike, 'An Oddly Lovely Day Alone', "Poetry on Record", vol.3 (excluded from podcast for copyright reasons)

Contributors: Sara Peel, Bruce Williams, Shamin Fernando, Benedict Taylor

Illicit romances and reckless trysts are on the menu this week. We meet Peter Goldsworthy and talk about his latest novel, a real Mrs Robinson tale. We taste the forbidden fruit in Manil Suri's second novel, and we listen to a story of a misguided love affair by Canadian literary vagabond, Jim Cristy.

Peter Goldsworthy, 'Everything I Knew', Penguin
Jim Cristy, 'Forever Maria', "Going Down Swinging" No.27 (excluded from podcast for copyright reasons)
Manil Suri, 'The Age of Shiva', Bloomsbury

Click here for more information about Mark Mordue's New Journalism workshop or call the NSW Writers Centre on 02 9555 9757

John August's spoken word performance, 'A Tourist on the Road to Human Experience' is on Sunday 15 March, 10.30am, at the Unitarian Church on Frances St, near Hyde Park

Contributors: Paul Kildea, Lesley Branagan, Benedict Taylor

We're keeping the home fires burning tonight. But we're not stoically waiting for boys to return home from their adventures. Instead, we're unearthing the surprising and the exciting in the seemingly mundane - in our own backyards, and in what we do everyday. Yasmine Musharbash joins us to tell us about the the anthropology of everyday life in remote Aboriginal Australia. And with Shaun Tan we'll explore outer suburbia, that much maligned landscape, and discover that it's not such a barren place after all.

Yasmine Musharbash, 'Yuendumu Everyday: Contemporary Life in Remote Aboriginal Australia', Aboriginal Studies Press
Shaun Tan, 'Tales From Outer Suburbia', Allen and Unwin (interview originally broadcast in August 2008)

Contributors: Benedict Taylor

'Summer afternoon, summer afternoon - to me, those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.' So said Henry James, and tonight, we're chasing summer through the language. Ross Gibson drops by to tell us about 'The Summer Exercises', his account of the temptations of young chaplain serving a locum at an inner Sydney police station in the aftermath of the Second World War. Also, bask with us in the warm light of Katherine Mansfield's prose, and catch up with what the locals down in Cumbersome did with their summer.

Ross Gibson, 'The Summer Exercises', University of Western Australia Press and the Historic Houses Trust of NSW
Bruce Williams, 'A Cumbersome Christmas' "Love at Cumbersome Corner" (episode 13)
Katherine Mansfield, 'The Garden Party and Other Stories'

Contributors: Bruce Williams, Katherine Keefe, Benedict Taylor

It seems somehow appropriate to mark invasion day with stories about sea-changers, doesn't it? This week, in the last of our summer highlights series we bring you tales of migration and escape, from the old world to the new, as well as from the city to the coast. With story-teller extraordinaire Arnold Zable, we'll discuss the sea-changer's sea-changer, Odysseus, and some of his modern heirs and descendants. We'll also talk about the strange places our restlessness can lead us, with novelist Amanda Lohrey.

Arnold Zable, 'Sea of Many Returns', Text Publishing
Amanda Lohrey, 'Vertigo', Black Inc Books

Contributors: Paul Kildea, Benedict Taylor

This week, to mark the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, two of our favourite chats from last year about Americans, and their politics. Final Draft's in-house Obama Boy, Paul Kildea drops by to tell us about about what Barack was like before he got really popular. And, with all eyes on Washington, Don Watson takes us on a tour of some of the union's neglected corners.

Barack Obama, 'Dreams From My Father' and 'The Audacity of Hope', Text
Don Watson, 'American Journeys', Random House

Contributors: Paul Kildea, Benedict Taylor

After the death of his much-loved wife, an aging historian realises he will never write the book that was to crown his life's work. Believing his life all but over, he contemplates suicide, but everything changes when he meets a young Aboriginal academic who sets him on an extraordinary journey. Meanwhile, a retired photographer meets a young woman recently estranged from her fiance and the two form a touching, unconventional bond. This week we're following tales of old dogs learning new tricks.

Alex Miller, 'Landscape of Farewell', Allen and Unwin
Laurence Fearnley, 'Edwin + Matilda', Penguin

Contributors: Paul Kildea, Benedict Taylor

David Sedaris says his friend David Rakoff 'successfully manages to pass himself off as the wittiest and most perceptive man in the world.' We agree, and think one of our favourite guests of 2008 deserves a second airing.

David Rakoff, 'Don't Get Too Comfortable', Scribe

Contributors: Benedict Taylor

More goodies from the vault, tonight, as we look the world through the eyes of young men and boys. We meet Chris Abani, a remarkable novelist from Nigeria and talk about his novella, 'Song for Night' which gives lyrical voice to a wounded boy soldier. Dylan Peek, a ten-year old, visually impaired published author also drops by to talk about 'X-Box Goes Crazy'. And find what Junot Diaz did before he won the Pulitzer; we get up to speed with 'Drown' a collection of tales that catch the turbulence of a young man's life.

Chris Abani, 'Song for Night', Scribe Publications
Dylan Peek, 'X-Box Goes Crazy', Starlight Foundation
Junot Diaz, 'Drown', Faber

Contributors: Kim Forsyth, Ben Falkenmire, Benedict Taylor

This week we're getting caught up in the consuming passions of food and sex: the way each is produced, bought and sold and what happens to people in the process.

Rebecca Huntley, Eating Between the Lines, Black Inc.
Rae Frances, Selling Sex: A Hidden History of Prostitution, UNSW Press
Bruce Williams, 'Renovations', Love at Cumbersome Corner (Part 11)

Everything you thought you knew about one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century is wrong. Sorry, but it's true. Franz Kafka was no lonely Nostradamus of middle Europe, scribbling away in unrecognised, solitary genius. He was a connected, calculating careerist, a gung-ho imperialist and a well-heeled ladies man. He was also a frickin funny bastard. Join us as we spend time with James Hawes, the author of an iconoclastic biography of Mr Metamorphosis. And find out what happens when Kafka collides with Suess!

James Hawes, 'Excavating Kafka', Quercus
Jonathan Goldstein and David Rakoff, 'The Gregor Samsa/Dr Suess Letters', (originally broadcast on the CBC's Wiretap)