For much of the last century, in museums, the works of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists were treated as something outside the main story — consigned to a footnote of history or a side room in major galleries. A new exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art wants to put the record straight. Titled 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australia…

Anthony is joined by Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy at The Planetary Society, and Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica, to talk about the NASA 2026 budget proposal, the Jared Isaacman saga, and all the space policy storylines you could imagine. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 201 - Bad Ass, But Also Bad (with Casey Dreier and …

From feminist beginnings to kitsch commercialism, minigolf has a rich history. But what happens when you let artists loose to design their own holes? Forget white walls and hushed tones—today we're heading to a golf course. Curator Grace Herbert explains the ideas behind Swingers, where putters are swapped for latex tails and square balls add a uni…

Jake and Anthony are joined by Matt Gjertsen, founder of Better Every Day Studios, to talk about leadership and management development in the space industry (and elsewhere!). Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 200 - On the Interstages of Giants (with Matt Gjertsen) - YouTube Better Every Day Studios Follow Matt Easily listen to Leadership Launchp…

Arcangelo Sassolino's work captures a suspended instant: just before collapse, just after ignition. At the 2022 Venice Biennale, Sassolino paid homage to Caravaggio's Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. But where Caravaggio painted light and shadow, Sassolino sculpts with fire and steel: molten light heated to 1500 degrees, falling from above into…

Lori Garver, former NASA Deputy Administrator, joins me to talk about the chaos of the last week: the withdraw of Jared Isaacman’s nomination for NASA Administrator, Starship Flight 9, and of course, the wild public breakup of Elon Musk and President Trump. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 executive producers—David, Donal…

It returns. Hot drama. Also a moon lander is happening right now. Also Twitter fights break out. Also a moon lander doesn’t happen. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 199 - The Thing That We Grow Plants - YouTube Isaacman: people with ‘axes to grind’ about Musk caused withdrawn NASA nomination - SpaceNews White House to withdraw Isaacman nominati…

Del Kathryn Barton exorcised her rage in her critically acclaimed feature film Blaze, but its aftermath is grief. You wouldn't know it if you cast your eye around her Paddington studio: wide-eyed sylphs, sibyls and sages emerge from minutely detailed canvases where chequerboards, dots and strawberries are laden with new meaning. Much like a cinema …

Jake and Anthony figure out if we should panic about Starship, or just Starship Block 2, or not. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 198 - Gotahm - YouTube Starship’s Ninth Flight Test - SpaceX - Launches Northrop Grumman Invests $50 Million in Firefly Aerospace to Advance Medium Launch Vehicle Named Eclipse™ Introducing the new Northrop Grumman l…

Jason Maling works in the expanded field where — through the interface of technology, screens and a sound system — the sonic and the visual are conducted before a live audience. Diagrammatica was inspired by physics diagrams, but it's grown into a beast: part drawing, part durational performance and part musical composition. And it all takes place …

Anthony is in his new studio! He and Jake catch up on his recent trip to Marotta Controls, Anthony shares the good news about valves, and they try to figure out what the hell is going on with VIPER. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 197 - Valves and Cranberries - YouTube T+302: A Tour of Marotta Controls - Main Engine Cut Off Controls Engineerin…

Recently on the show we met Filipino artist Pio Abad to hear about his Turner Prize nominated exhibition 'To Those Sitting in Darkness' which re-presented museum objects to reveal hidden histories and the deep legacies of colonialism. Thai-Australian multidisciplinary artist Nathan Beard takes a different, less didactic, approach but, like Pio Abad…

Although he's one of Australia's most established, commercially successful and prolific artists, Dale Frank is a reluctant interview subject. Eccentric, reclusive, visionary, trailblazer — a sublime colourist, even a likeable arsehole — these are just some of the ways he's described. Which makes it even more remarkable that he agreed to be the subj…

Jake and Anthony talk about Firefly’s latest spectacular Alpha failure, and the skinny budget request. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 196 - ❌ Lady Telescope ❌ - YouTube Trump Proposes $6 Billion Cut to NASA – SpacePolicyOnline.com NASA scrambles to cut ISS activity due to budget issues - Ars Technica Firefly Alpha launches FLTA006 Message In …

Mark Albrecht joins me to talk about his time on the Trump 2024 Transition Team, the thinking behind some of the policy decisions we’re starting to see in the space and national security spheres, and more. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 executive producers—Joonas, The Astrogators at SEE, Will and Lars from Agile, Theo a…

Sydney-based artist Nadia Vitlin works with olfaction — our sense of smell — infusing her artwork, whether it be clay or paint, to create bespoke pieces that mimic the transportive power of scent: one of the most evocative, deeply personal and memory-laden senses humans possess. She experiments in the fourth dimension, and it all began with leaves …

We take a tour of Marotta Controls in Montville, New Jersey, to see how they work, how they develop, produce, and test products at rate, and we learn about the most feared topic in space—valves! This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 executive producers—Joonas, Josh from Impulse, Heiko, Donald, Stealth Julian, Warren, Kris, Fra…

Caleb Henry, Director of Research at Quilty Space, joins me to talk megaconstellations, the hypersonics industry, and more. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 executive producers—Joonas, Josh from Impulse, Heiko, Donald, Stealth Julian, Warren, Kris, Frank, Steve, Bob, Better Every Day Studios, The Astrogators at SEE, Joaki…

Jake and Anthony are joined by Dante Lauretta, Principal Investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, and Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Arizona, to talk about—take a guess!—returning and studying pristine samples from Bennu. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 195 - Dirtiest Thing in the Cleanroom (with Dante Lauretta) - YouTub…

Just as historical objects in museum collections embody certain histories — of British imperialism and modernity — they also map loss and disappearance for those in former colonial states. Pio Abad, whose work is "concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects," has mined the stories embedded in certain cultural material such as…

Jake and Anthony are joined by Roman Chiporukha, founder of SpaceVIP, a travel agency for space. Topics Off-Nominal - YouTube Episode 194 - St. Bart’s on a Tuesday (with Roman Chiporukha) - YouTube SpaceVIP | Your Gateway to the Cosmos Space Prize Blue Origin’s First All-Female Spaceflight Stunt - The New York Times Radian Aerospace – World’s First…

They used to lay-buy contemporary art together when they were low-paid gallery workers, forging a business relationship early on. Now, Ursula Sullivan and Joanna Strumpf are one of Australia's most successful art partnerships in terms of the cultural impact of the artists they represent — Tony Albert, Lindy Lee, Polly Borland, ex de Medici, Sam Lea…