Episode
Tina Turner and the Dance That Conquered Australia
- Podcast
- Decoder Ring
- Published
- Jun 3, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2949
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://shows.acast.com/decoder-ring/episodes/tina-turner-and-the-dance-that-conquered-australia
- Audio
- https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/696572d375c092ac4e159c27/e/6a1f6fd9570c4c93abeb5d18/media.mp3
Actions
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Summary
In Australia, no wedding or school dance is complete without the Nutbush, Australia’s unofficial national dance. The Nutbush – a simple line dance to the song “Nutbush City Limits,” by Ike and Tina Turner – has become as stereotypically Australian as kangaroos, boomerangs, and Vegemite. And yet, hardly anyone outside of Australia even knows the Nutbush exists. Here at Decoder Ring, we certainly didn’t – until we started getting emails from Australians asking us to investigate its origins. How did an American song become the soundtrack for an Australian national tradition? Who invented the iconic steps, and why does every Australian know them? Our producer Max Freedman put on his dancing shoes to get some answers. The global, century-spanning story of the Nutbush involves Australia, Tennessee, Denmark, primary schools, gay discos, and demonstrates that even the goofiest cultural touchstones can go surprisingly deep. In this episode you’ll hear from culture journalists David Mack and Angus Kidman ; Nutbush researchers Panizza Allmark and Jon Stratton ; dance historians Erica Okamura and Richard Powers ; Dr. Fiona Chatteur, Jeremy Santolin, and Brian Kerr. This episode was written and produced by Max Freedman and edited by Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281. Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen. Further Viewing How to do ‘The Nutbush’ - Au…