Culture File: Prof Ted Dinan's Love Bugs

How research in Cork into gut bacteria reveals how your microbes might steer your relationships

Culture File: The Full Body Workout of Preston Reed's Guitar Music

The American-born Scottish-based guitar innovator on explosively expanding the possibilities of his instrument

Culture File: Chinese ambassador to Ireland, Yue Xiaoyong (2/2

Yue Xiaoyong, on a cultural explanation of China's recent appetite for new ways of being in the world

Culture File: Chinese ambassador to Ireland, Ywe Xiaoyong

Ywe Xiaoyong, diplomat, former schoolteacher and farmer, on Irish history and culture seen through a Chinese lens

Culture File: The Year of The Chicken and The Planet

Our chicken-shaped lens on China zooms in on the environment, with help from Prof. Heidi Ningkang Wang-Kaeding

Culture File: Zhou Tian's Multicultural Musical Mosaic

Composer, Zhou Tian's work brings the sound of Chinese instruments, the erhu and zhongruan to the orchestra

Culture File: The Chinese 20th Century of Years of the Chicken (or Rooster)

Historian, Isabella Jackson, on China's 20th century seen through its Years of the Chicken. Or rooster.

Culture File: The Chinese Food Philosophy of Sláint-Chi

How two Chinese foodies join forces to defeat fake food - and promote the best Chinese cooking in Ireland

Culture File: The Other, Other Grand Canal

Conductor Jia-Ming Song prepares for the premier of a suite inspired by the Beijing and Hangzhou Grand Canal

Culture File: Magic as speculative fiction

Portuguese master magician, Luís de Matos on how illusions and even tricks have long helped us to create our futures

Culture File: Magic as speculative fiction

Portuguese master magician, Luís de Matos on how illusions and even tricks have long helped us to create our futures

Culture File: Gaolbreak at Cork City Hall

For her new installation, artist, Angela Fulcher turns the inventory of Guineys and Penneys into sculpture

Culture File: Yang Wang Preston's Mother River

Yang Wang Preston's "deep mapping" photo project shot the Yangtze from the Tibetan plateau down into Shanghai

Culture File: Say 你好 (Nǐ hǎo) to the Chicken

Welcoming the Year of the Chicken (or Rooster, or ?) in Kevin Hui's family business, China Sichuan Restaurant

Culture File Xtra: Hóngbāo?

Got your Hóngbāo ready? Preparing for tonight's @dcnyf with @ChinaSichuanD18 Kevin Hui 6.05pm @RTElyricfm @LyricLorcan

Culture File: The End of Airports

Chris Schaberg finds the hidden texts of air travel in everything from snacks, to wheelie bags to, er, the toilets

Culture File: Waiting at the Gate P1

What does your wheelie bag mean? How about those overhead bins? Dr. Chris Schaberg decodes air travel for a living

Culture File: Troy Town Art Pottery

Aaron Angell welcome us to his ‘radical and psychedelic' ceramics workshop for artists’ in London's East End.

Culture File: Black Pigs of the Dehesa

Meet the lucky pigs of the Sierra de Aracena Biosphere Reserve, in Southern Spain.

Culture File: Pianist, Izumi Kimura and percussionist, Gerry Hemingway's Thought Bubbles

In Galway's remote Inagh Valley, musicians Izumi Kimura and Gerry Hemingway have found a space for improvisation

Culture File: Jaques Brel Is Alive And Well and Living at the Gate

Cathal Synnott, musical director of the legendary Brel musical, explores the power of Brel

Culture File: Cian Nugent's guitar fictions

Dublin guitar explorer, Cian Nugent, on quietly ploughing his own furrow - and composing music for his dog

Culture File: And would madam like earplugs with that?

LA-based Irish photographer Deirdre O Callaghan's new book is a who's who of alive and kick-drumming percussionists

Culture File: Second Moon of Winter

Irish soprano, Kim Sheehan, explores the extreme possibilities of her voice in an experimental electronic jam band

Culture File: A Birthday Party for Art

Experimental sound curator and Nova presenter, Bernard Clarke, on an tradition invented by French Fluxus artist, Robert Filliou

Culture File: Collecting The World (Part 2)

John Hutchinson on writing and art, and the Douglas Hyde Gallery's role in the Peace Process

Culture File: Collecting The World (Part 1)

John Hutchinson, on the objects and ideas that guided his quarter century curating at The Douglas Hyde Gallery

Culture File: Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann

German director, Maren Ade, on her Oscar-nominated comedy, Toni Erdmann. And Austin Powers' false teeth.

Culture File: On The Road With Darinka Montico

Set sail into the woozy unknown of 2017 with best-selling travel writer and dream collector, Darinka Montico.

A Portrait of the Artist at 100

On the anniversary of its publication, Julian Gough essays his "complicated" relationship with Joyce's novel.

Culture File: The Sex Pistols and Ramadan

Spanish Ambassador, José María Rodríguez-Coso on his early DJ career and Christmas in Barcelona

Culture File: The True Meaning of Czechxmas

Czech Ambassador, Hana Mottlova on the sometimes frightening seasonal traditions of Mitteleuropa

Culture File: Christmas in Mexico City

It's the season of piñatas and posados for the almost brand new Mexican Ambassador to Ireland, Miguel Malfavon

Culture File: Christmas and St Louis

An Irish journey comes to an end for Barack Obama’s appointment as US Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin O Malley.

Culture File: HR and the Revolution

Translator and diplomat, Michael Žantovský, on choosing the right friends after the Velvet Revolution

The Culture File Weekly (No 101, Michael Žantovský, Irish Noggins, Balsamic History, Rosc)

This weekly, we visit the epicentre of the Velvet Revolution with Michael Žantovský, Director of Václav Havel Library in Prague, 3d x-ray machine on some old Irish drinking vessels, sample an array of sticky black dots in the company of a man from Modena, and return to simpler times to the first ROSC art biennale in 1967

Culture File: When Havel Met Woody

Translator and diplomat, Michael Žantovský, on introducing his boss to Woody Allen, and other diplomatic chores

Culture File: Reading Rosc

In the early 1960s, architect Michael Scott cooked up an innovative, blockbuster art show for Ireland: Rosc

Culture File: The Other Black Stuff

Michele Sartori, of balsamic vinegar house of Acetaia Giusti in Modena, on what makes the best best

Culture File: Care for a Noggin?

Is your noggin cooper-made or one of the woven ones? Furniture historian Claudia Kinmonth on a little wooden gem

The Culture File Weekly No 100 (Dr Hook, Merce Cunningham and Vera Klute)

This weekly dancer, Cheryl Therrien on why chance can indeed be a fine thing, particularly in the choreography of Merce Cunningham, artist Vera Klute explains why her portraits of some of Ireland's women scientists and academics are overdue job and Dennis Locorriere, lead singer of 70s hitmakers Dr Hook, shares his origin story

Culture File: The Dr Hook Story (Part 2)

Dennis Locorriere continues the story of his life with the unstoppable 70s hit machine

Culture File: The Dr Hook Story (Part 1)

Dennis Locorriere, voice of songs like Sylvia's Mother & Ballad of Lucy Jordan, on an uncategorisable act

Culture File: Recreating Merce

US choreographer, Merce Cunningham's 1958 Night Wanderings, remade in 2016 Dublin by Cheryl Therrien & John Scott

Culture File: Sheila, Françoise, Phyllis and Eleanor arrive at RIA

After 230 years, the first Irish woman academics are being honoured with portraits at the Royal Irish Academy.

Culture File: Luciana Bianchi's Little Changes (FOTE 2016)

When it comes to the ethics of food, has there been too much talk and too little real action?

The Culture File Weekly No 99 (Simon Reynolds, Angélique Dass and Vickey Curtis)

This weekly, music historian Simon Reynold's on what David Bowie and Donald Trump have in common, photographer and activist, Angélique Dass, on her global project matching human skin colours to the Pantone® system, and spoken word artist, Vickey Curtis stages a "sorry" intervention.

Culture File: The Pantone® of People

Angélica Dass' global photo project, Humanae, matches people's real skin tones to their Pantone equivalent.

Culture FIle: We're All Glam Now

Author, Simon Reynolds, on the roots and fruits of Glam, from Slade and Eno, to Gaga and The Weeknd.

Culture File: Who cares about Glam now?

Simon Reynolds' Shock and Awe, explores glitter 'n' feather boas, but also crowds, charisma & the rise of Trump