Welcome to The Inside List, our monthly guide to what's happening at your place. In each edition we'll be selecting a range of things for you to watch, make, eat, drink, and more. Best of all, you won't even need to leave your front door to enjoy them. It's the most hyperlocal city guide you'll ever need.
July is here with its tiny days, long cold nights, and that particular winter energy where staying in isn't just appealing—it's essential. The couch becomes your office, your dining room, your entertainment centre. Hot drinks multiply mysteriously on every surface. And there's something deeply satisfying about curating your own little world when the one outside feels too cold to contemplate.
In this month's list: Wes Anderson's latest cinematic world; a book that makes brutalist architecture feel intimate; a cycling game that captures the pure joy of movement; a restaurant-quality experience delivered to your door; a podcast that makes nutrition science actually understandable; wooden dolls that sing in harmony; and toilet paper that's changing lives. It's your guide to staying warm, staying curious, and making home the best place to be.
WATCHING:
the PHONECIAN SCHEME
Wes Anderson's latest is a gloriously unhinged espionage caper that feels like the director finally decided to stop restraining his weirdest impulses. The Phoenician Scheme follows Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), a melancholy arms dealer and oligarch who's survived six assassination attempts and counting—plane crashes, quicksand, eccentric assassins around every corner—and has decided it's time to plan his legacy.
What makes this Anderson's most madcap adventure yet is how he applies his signature visual precision to absolute chaos. Every explosion is perfectly framed, every corrupt oligarch dressed like they stepped out of a vintage fashion magazine, and there's one very fateful basketball free throw match that will have you in stitches. Michael Cera steals the show as a bumbling Norwegian tutor with secrets and karate moves, while the ensemble (Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch as an Orson Welles-esque uncle) delivers Anderson's deadpan dialogue with delicious precision.
Dedicated to Anderson's own father-in-law, this is ultimately about family, wealth, and what kind of legacy you leave behind when you've spent your life flattening everything in your way. But it's also Anderson at his funniest—a film that somehow makes biblical themes and oligarch satire feel like the most entertaining thing you'll watch all winter.
FOCUS FEATURES
consuming:
noma projects
When René Redzepi announced Noma would close to become a full-time test kitchen, it felt like the end of an era. But what's emerged is something far more radical: the complete democratization of the world's most innovative culinary mind. Noma Projects isn't just a website selling fermented sauces—it's Redzepi's attempt to fundamentally change how we think about food, delivered directly to your kitchen.
This is where fifteen years of revolutionary cooking techniques, built on a foundation of foraging, fermentation, and an almost scientific obsession with flavor, becomes accessible to anyone curious enough to experiment. The recipes aren't simplified versions of restaurant dishes—they're the actual techniques that made Noma legendary, adapted for home kitchens but losing none of their complexity or ambition.
The real genius is in the curation. Every product, from their decade-in-development coffee subscription to seasonal collections of plant-based sauces, reflects Redzepi's belief that great cooking starts with great ingredients transformed through time and intention. The collaboration with David Shrigley adds an unexpected layer of wit—his irreverent illustrations somehow making fermented foods feel both serious and playful, perfectly capturing Redzepi's own balance of intensity and joy. It's the kind of thoughtful design that turns grocery shopping into an act of discovery. As the team says: TRY NEW THINGS.
NOMA PROJECTS
READING:
Can lis, Jørn Utzon
There's something magical about discovering how great architects actually live—especially when that architect gave Sydney one of its most iconic buildings. Can Lis, from the always-impeccable Apartamento, takes you inside Jørn Utzon's private retreat in Mallorca, the house he designed for his own family after completing the Opera House that defines our harbour.
This is coffee table book perfection: the kind of publication that transforms your living space just by existing in it. Apartamento continues to prove why they're one of our favourite sources for books that blur the line between architecture, lifestyle, and pure visual pleasure, and this one might be their most intimate yet.
What makes this extraordinary is the access—rooms that were never meant for public consumption, personal objects still in place, the daily rituals of genius captured in gorgeous photography. It's architectural voyeurism at its finest, revealing how the man who imagined those soaring concrete shells chose to shape his own private world. Perfect for any Nation apartment where good design matters and every book tells a story about how to live better.
APARTAMENTO
nesting:
yarn'n
Let's be honest about toilet paper: it's something you need, something you buy without thinking, something that's usually boring. Yarn'n changes that completely. This isn't just about bathroom essentials—it's about making every mundane purchase reflect your values.
Founded by Wiradjuri man Lane Stockton and former Wallaby David Croft, Yarn'n produces 100% recycled toilet paper wrapped in artwork from First Nations artists. Each roll features totems, artist profiles, and Dreamtime stories, turning a household necessity into a celebration of Indigenous culture and language.
But the real impact is in the giving: 50% of profits go to the Yalari Foundation, providing boarding school scholarships to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from remote communities. Recently launched in Woolworths nationwide, it's proof that even the most basic household items can be a force for positive change.
Sometimes the best way to make your home feel more meaningful is to fill it with products that actually mean something.
YARN'N
playing:
wheel world
Wheel World arrives July 23rd from Annapurna Interactive with a premise that sounds ridiculous on paper—you're Kat, a rider chosen by ancient cycling spirits to save a universe through the power of bicycles—but somehow becomes the most meditative gaming experience you'll have all year.
This isn't about racing or competing. It's about pure exploration through cel-shaded landscapes that feel like riding through a Studio Ghibli film. Rolling hills stretch endlessly, each vista more gorgeous than the last, begging you to keep pedaling just to see what's around the next bend. The customization is deep but never overwhelming—trick out your bike, discover new routes, perform the occasional ritual to appease those cycling spirits.
What Annapurna Interactive does best is find games that capture feelings you didn't know you were missing. Wheel World nails that particular joy of cycling—the meditative rhythm, the sense of freedom, the way movement becomes its own reward. Perfect for winter afternoons when you're craving summer rides but need to stay warm inside, letting you chase that cycling high without leaving your couch.
ANNAPURNA
LISTENING:
ZOE SCIENCE & NUTRITION PODCAST
In a media landscape drowning in wellness misinformation, the ZOE Science & Nutrition podcast represents something rare: actual science you can trust. This aligns perfectly with Nation's ongoing exploration of how to bring genuine wellness into the home and everyday life—not through expensive supplements or fad diets, but through evidence-based understanding of how food actually affects your body.
Hosted by ZOE CEO Jonathan Wolf with Tim Spector (one of the world's top 100 most cited scientists), this podcast cuts through the noise with research from some of the world's largest nutrition studies. Recent episodes demolish common myths about calorie counting, reveal why your blood sugar response to food is completely individual, and explain why that expensive probiotic might be pointless. It's the kind of practical, myth-busting advice that actually changes how you cook, shop, and eat at home.
What makes this essential listening is the real-world application. Instead of telling you what not to eat, they explain why your body responds differently to the same foods as your partner, how to build meals that actually sustain energy, and which simple swaps make the biggest difference. With over 6.7 million downloads, it's clearly filling a gap for people who want wellness wisdom that actually works in real kitchens, not Instagram fantasy ones.
ZOE
vibing:
teenage engineering choir: ELIO EDITION
When Disney Pixar needed to figure out what alien communication sounds like for their latest film Elio, they turned to Teenage Engineering's wooden choir dolls—and the result is something genuinely magical. This isn't just product placement; it's a perfect collision of tech, artistry, and storytelling that created the film's otherworldly sonic landscape.
Composer Rob Simonsen was searching for something "electronic, but human" to capture the voice of distant alien life communicating with Elio, an 11-year-old who doesn't quite fit in on Earth and finds himself mistaken for humanity's intergalactic ambassador. The choir dolls, with their "robotic but organic" voices, provided exactly that uncanny valley of communication—familiar enough to understand, strange enough to feel truly alien.
Teenage Engineering developed custom firmware to sync up to 24 dolls for the recording sessions at Sony Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, each one mic'd up like a human vocalist. They even created three custom character dolls for the film's VIP premiere at El Capitan Theatre. It's the kind of collaboration that shows how the most unexpected tools can push creative boundaries—turning handcrafted wooden toys into the voice of the cosmos. While you can't get the custom Elio versions, the original choir dolls that inspired this otherworldly soundtrack are available, ready to bring their own magic into your home.
TEENAGE ENGINEERING
