Michael Leunig: Cartoonist, humorist, duck-enthusiast

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Michael Leunig: Cartoonist, humorist, duck-enthusiast

Pass it on

I'm reading

Michael Leunig: Cartoonist, humorist, duck-enthusiast

Pass it on

I'm reading

Michael Leunig: Cartoonist, humorist, duck-enthusiast

Pass it on

Behind extraordinary ideas, there are extraordinary people.

This month in the Dumbo Feather podcast, we’re hearing from cartoonist and philosopher, Michael Leunig.

Drawing on six of his works, Leunig explores how ideas such as beauty, sanity, innocence, melancholy, love and nature can console and guide us towards a greater understanding of life’s darker sides.

You can find all images that this conversation is based around below.

You can listen to the full episode here.

Gee Dad (Image one—on beauty)

"The everyday courage with which people grow old and approach death..there is something beautiful in that human quality—and its unproclaimed. Beauty is not just something that you see on Instagram."

Boat in a storm (Image two—on sanity)

"Sanity is a word that hovers about in my conversations, because of this simple idea—is the world going mad?"

Garden Advisory Service (Image three—on innocence)

"When the delightful, small, frail, innocent thing is suddenly confronted by the overpowering brutal thing...and there is this confrontation between innocence and ugliness...what then happens is either something very funny, or something very tragic."

Sorry no ducks (Image four—on melancholy)

"There is a pleasure about walking away from a loud party. We all want to escape and go into the night, where's the stars and a moon, and it's quiet and we can be with ourself, or our inner duck."

Mr Curly comes home (Image five—on love)

"Greater love hath no man or woman than this, that they lay down their phone."

The kiss (Image six—on nature)

"You have got to take the duck for a run. Don't leave it cooped up inside you...be amongst people, be amongst the world. Go into the garden. All of those old things our grandmothers told us. They still work."