This week’s episode includes: Steve Smith’s “Liquid Knowledge,” Phyllis McGinley on not reading poetry, top five wonderful creatures from Australia, top five Australian movies, Robert Hughes’s Fatal Shore, facts and figures about Australia Day, The Saucy Aussie (1963), Blunder Down Under (1963), On Top Down Under (2000), a identification chart of men’s facial hair types, Banjo Patterson, people born on the unlucky day January 2nd, interview with New York book publishing insider and ex-pat Australian Virginia Lloyd, Jacket magazine, El Caminos in the Outback, Bruce Chatwin’s Songlines, chocolate marsupials, Kath and Kim, invaluable facts about Australia, Fleming’s Follies, featuring the famous cannonball beer ad, the Simpsons go to Australia, Dorothea Mackellar’s “My Country,” Virgin Heat, the worst book cover we’ve seen, Russell Crowe thanks Christ for Australia, fun Australian town names, Richard Dawkins’s Memes, Australian collective nouns, Jindyworobaks, and so much more fun.

This week’s episode includes: Mark Twain and G.K. Chesterton on New Year’s Day, “New Year Letter” by W.H. Auden, top five New Year’s traditions, the movie Bloody New Year, fun New Year’s facts, fun videos of U2, spiders on drugs, and scenes from around the world on Fleming’s Follies, hip hop guide to poetic feet, the world’s smallest country up for sale, the coolest and weirdest jobs, top five writers who practiced medicine, and so much more fun to ring in the new year.