Maria Lewis

Maria Lewis, best-selling Australian author, screenwriter and film curator, talks about her lifelong engagement with Mad Max: Fury Road. She recalls premiere reactions and her journalism tracking the film’s long journey. Conversations cover Fury Road’s feminist turn, stunt recognition, design choices, cultural impact and memorable imagery.

Maria Lewis, a Melbourne-based screenwriter and pop culture etymologist, joins art history professor Elizabeth C. Childs to explore Paul Gauguin's controversial legacy. They dive into the complexity of Gauguin's relationships with Polynesian cultures, questioning whether modern morality should influence historical judgments. The conversation also tackles themes of consent, the ethics of representation in art, and how the legacy of artists like Gauguin shapes contemporary debates about cultural appropriation and exploitation.