Amanda Nguyen: from rape survivor to astronaut, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Time Woman of the Year

Dan Bain: directing the technically impossible

Dan Bain first read Let the Right One In in 2019 and put it down thinking it was impossible to stage. He's now directing it at The Court Theatre in Christchurch. The Swedish vampire story follows a bullied teenager and his strange new neighbour, adapted by Jack Thorne, who also wrote Adolescence. The set has no right angles, forces perspective, is covered in mirrors, and took three model builds to figure out. Bain joins Culture 101 to explain how you stage a horror without the audience laughing at the wrong moments.

Mike Puru live from the Gold Guitars in Gore

Every King's Birthday weekend, Gore hosts the Gold Guitar Awards, celebrating the best of live country music in New Zealand and launching careers including Patsy Riggir, Kaylee Bell and Jenny Mitchell. Mike Puru, born and raised in Gore and MC of the event for around ten years, joins Culture 101 live from the thick of it.

Scarlett Robinson-Kean and Sefa Tunupopo

Illustrator Scarlett Robinson-Kean and dancer Sefa Tunupopo are two of the 16 early-career artists selected for this year's Arts Foundation Springboard, each receiving $15,000 and a mentorship. Scarlett, whose graphic novel To Seed, To Sprout, To Seed won a bronze at last year's Best Design Awards, says in illustration the doors don't just stay closed, they often don't exist. Sefa, who leads Wellington street dance collective Shifting Center, says the award landed at the right time, and talks about why he and his community decided to build their own infrastructure rather than wait for space to open up. Both join Culture 101 to discuss what comes next.

The Big Screen with Michelle Langstone

Michelle Langstone reviews three films from this year's French Film Festival: A Dash of Love, a charming road trip about two friends with physical disabilities searching for intimacy, aided by a reluctant ex-con turned driver; Case 137, a gripping thriller about a police investigator probing alleged brutality during the 2018 Yellow Jacket protests in Paris, winner of best actress at the Césars; and Guru, a taut psychological thriller about a charismatic life coach whose wellness empire conceals something darker.

David Correos: Fred Award winner, best show at Comedy Festival

Named after John Clarke's Fred Dagg, the Fred Award recognises the New Zealand Comedy Festival's best show. David Correos took home the 2026 award, and the iconic Golden Gumboot, for his show Touching My Active Mind. He joins Culture 101 fresh from the win.