Good Reading Podcast
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Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.
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James Boyce takes a fresh look at our early history in Origins: The Making of Australia 1788-1825
This fascinating book sets aside the clichés of Australian history and asks us to look again. What really happened when exiled criminals made a home in an occupied and defended country? How were they changed by …
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This fascinating book sets aside the clichés of Australian history and asks us to look again. What really happened when exiled criminals made a home in an occupied and defended country? How were they changed by this new world? What can the first years of settlement tell us about Australia today?
The First Fleet left Britain at the height of the enclosure movement, when traditional rights to communal land were being rapidly extinguished. Many convicts brought those older ideas about land with them, and the first years of the colony saw a distinctive new society develop. Later, it was supplanted by a system favouring free settlers, large land grants and a creed of unstoppable progress. But the first thirty-five years of the colony tell a different story.In Origins, James Boyce brings this formative period to life. The protagonists include convicts, Aboriginal people, soldiers, governors, and the country itself. The picture that emerges will change how you think about Australia's origins.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to James Boyce about why the early colonists were unable to understand the land management practices of the indigenous people, why the British Enclosure movement had such an impact on the way Australia was colonised, and why convicts, not soldiers or the free settlers, were the first to develop a deep connection to the Australian landscape.Antoni Jach on a gathering of friends in the 'Eternal City' in 'A Midsummer Party'
An Australian journalist attends a party in Rome, the Eternal City. The result is at once a celebration and a distillation of what travel can be and still is: an intelligent, hilarious, and sometimes prickly …
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An Australian journalist attends a party in Rome, the Eternal City. The result is at once a celebration and a distillation of what travel can be and still is: an intelligent, hilarious, and sometimes prickly conversation between cultures. With finesse, Antoni Jach affectionately lampoons everything from the publishing world and the writing life to relationships, his beloved hometown Melbourne, and the often-pompous nature of national pride.Erudite and amusing, A Midsummer Party is both a revelation, a romp and a penetrating reflection on the intersection of art and our own human foibles.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Antoni Jack about how 'A Midsummer Party' may or may not be a book about travel, why dialogue is his preferred route for character development, and the source for his distinctive brand of humour.
Anthony Sharwood and Anna Langford on saving a precious Australian tree in, 'The Last Snow Gum'
Snow gums are the most beautiful trees on Earth. But they're vanishing quickly. In this stunning new book, bestselling author Anthony Sharwood and climate activist Anna Langford help us view …
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Snow gums are the most beautiful trees on Earth. But they're vanishing quickly. In this stunning new book, bestselling author Anthony Sharwood and climate activist Anna Langford help us view Australia's unique high country with fresh eyes, show us what's being lost, what can be saved - and how we might just save ourselves in the process.
From Anthony Sharwood, the bestselling author of From Snow to Ash and Kosciuszko, and Anna Langford, an exciting new voice in nature writing, comes the detailed and fascinating story of snow gums and the people trying to save them. This is an Australian story - and it's also a global story. Because snow gums are the canary in the global climate coalmine.
Through the fate of this one exquisite mountain tree species which exists in a small corner of the flattest, driest inhabited continent on Earth, we gain a terrifying snapshot of the future of biodiversity across the world.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Anthony Sharwood and Anna Langford about why the snow gum is a misunderstood species surviving in a misunderstood landscape, how climate change is the number one reason for its potential demise, and why we should be looking at Australia's high country with fresh eyes.Wayne Marshall on his 2026 ARA Historical Novel Society Australasia's People's Choice award-winning novel, 'Henry Goes Bush'
In 1892, New South Wales' most promising writer and least promising teetotaller, Henry Lawson, is banished to Bourke to 'find the real bush'. The goal: sober up, gather fresh material, and stop …
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In 1892, New South Wales' most promising writer and least promising teetotaller, Henry Lawson, is banished to Bourke to 'find the real bush'. The goal: sober up, gather fresh material, and stop being such a disappointment. But what Australia's favourite literary son discovers in the river town is less a glorious national frontier than a collective nervous breakdown.
History records this as the trip that defined his career. Wayne Marshall records it as a surrealist action movie where Lawson must outrun his own myth and a gunslinger known as The Rider, aka Banjo - a poet significantly better at being a legend than Henry is.
Henry Goes Bush confronts the madness that lies behind our colonial dreaming - a moment where history is a hallucination and 'the bush' a phantasmagoric theme park. A reality in which The Bulletin's famed poetry wars are an actual shootout on the banks of the Darling River. It turns out finding 'the real Australia' is easy; the hard part is surviving the encounter.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Wayne Marshall about the enduring interest in Henry Lawson's life and work, the rather unattractive proposition presented to Henry by The Bulletin's JF Archibald and what he thought about it, and how the blurred line between history, fiction and myth became the foundation of 'Henry Goes Bush'.Bernice Barry on her ARA Historical Novel Society of Australasia award-winning book, 'The Names of a Hare'
Cornwall, 1628. Steeped in herbal lore, a woman with no name guards a dangerous secret, while across the land whispers of witchcraft turn deadly. When a witch hunter sets out to track down the woman, their …
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Cornwall, 1628. Steeped in herbal lore, a woman with no name guards a dangerous secret, while across the land whispers of witchcraft turn deadly. When a witch hunter sets out to track down the woman, their meeting will change the course of history. Can she survive in a world that burns what it does not understand?
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Bernice Barry about exploring her own historical connection to the Cornwall landscape of times past, the dangers of being an intelligent, educated woman in 17th century Britain, and how RD Blackmore's classic romance, Lorna Doona became a reference point for her own work of historical fiction.
Meg Caddy on her 2026 ARA Historical Novel Society Australasia's prize-winning YA novel, 'A Flash in the Dust'
1899, Fremantle Asylum, Western Australia. For three years now, Gilberta Brady has kept quiet and stayed out of trouble, hoping to soon be released. But when Norah Devaney screams into the ward with revenge in …
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1899, Fremantle Asylum, Western Australia. For three years now, Gilberta Brady has kept quiet and stayed out of trouble, hoping to soon be released. But when Norah Devaney screams into the ward with revenge in her heart and a story no-one believes, Brady’s carefully guarded peace is shattered.
On the run and out of options, they collide with Malkar and Kedalak, Nyungar brothers on their own journey home. They form an unlikely gang of bushrangers and embark on a dangerous mission: track down the man who killed Norah’s mum.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Meg Caddy about how historical fiction can help fill in the gaps in our documented history, how her research exposed the horrors of the Fremantle Asylum at the turn of the 19th century, and how writing in the first person allows the individual perspective of each character to reveal their inner selves.Carrie Tiffany on her powerful exploration of dementia in the novella, 'The Lady With The Dog'
An elderly couple are driving to the pound. At last, the old lady is getting a dog. The dog is driven through a gate in the fence to its new home. It goes to sleep in front of the black stove, but when it …
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An elderly couple are driving to the pound. At last, the old lady is getting a dog. The dog is driven through a gate in the fence to its new home. It goes to sleep in front of the black stove, but when it wakes, the old lady is confused. Doesn’t she already have a dog? The old lady slips a pair of pantyhose through the dog’s collar and walks it along the fence. For some reason the gate has disappeared. In the dog’s new home objects are uncoupling from their meaning. Is the dog still a dog? When the gate opens for the very last time will the dog go through?
With whimsical drawings from artist Noel McKenna, The Lady with the Dog is a homage to the exquisite sadness of Chekhov’s famous short story. A masterful novella about the importance of animals in language and life.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Carrie Tiffany about the relationship between her story and Anton Chekhov's short story of the same name, how Carrie managed to get inside the head of an Alzheimer's sufferer, and how those muddled conversations with her mother became the foundation of her prose in The Lady with the Dog
Matt Nable on his testosterone-fuelled high stakes crime-thriller, 'Mire'
They say your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. For Dan Milligan it isn't his life ... it's memories of his dad. Dan has spent his whole life chasing something. Fast cars, leggy …
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They say your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. For Dan Milligan it isn't his life ... it's memories of his dad. Dan has spent his whole life chasing something. Fast cars, leggy blondes, the rush of making a lot of money and the cocaine high to celebrate. But as the stock market plummets in 1987, his world comes crashing down.
A new life on the South Coast isn't too bad. Mowing lawns is good, honest work. Most days. But other days, he tells himself he'll get back in the game. He'll get his head together, get his mojo back and master the market again. He just needs some luck. Then one day ... his luck changes. And suddenly he has a choice. Dan has no idea what he could unleash on his life, himself and his family. Or how far he will go to find a way back.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Matt Nable about storytelling from the gritty end of town, how his characters are shaped by research into real world crime , and the distinct and separate creative worlds of screen and page.Dr Norman Swan on 'The Brain Cliff' and how to stay away from the edge
What many of us fear, especially as we hit our forties and fifties, is not being as quick of mind. Not remembering as well as we used to. By our 60s and 70s we worry there's nothing we can do and that we …
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What many of us fear, especially as we hit our forties and fifties, is not being as quick of mind. Not remembering as well as we used to. By our 60s and 70s we worry there's nothing we can do and that we are falling helplessly into an abyss which leads to dementia.
Dr Norman Swan, one of Australia's most trusted doctors, shows us that we've been thinking about brain ageing the wrong way. It doesn't need to be about decline and deficit. It's about how to help our brains adapt, become resilient and maintain cognitive function - and it's much more than what we eat, how we exercise or our genes.
Dr Swan has interviewed people from around the world in their 90s and 100s who still have remarkable cognitive function. These cognitive super-agers have very different life stories, but it turns out that underneath they're pretty much the same, with lessons that will help us all in our 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Dr Norman Swan about why the changes in the brain as we age are more about adaptation than decline, why our genetic make-up isn't as influential on our brain health as we might think, and how the lifestyle choices we make contribute to our brain health.Annabel Stafford on the forgotten horrors of a Western Australian apartheid hospital
When the Wet comes to Wyndham, bones wash down with the loose shale of the surrounding Bastion ranges. Year round, lost spirits wander this tiny port town on the northern tip of Western Australia. Some say they …
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When the Wet comes to Wyndham, bones wash down with the loose shale of the surrounding Bastion ranges. Year round, lost spirits wander this tiny port town on the northern tip of Western Australia. Some say they belong to the forgotten inmates of an apartheid hospital, built here in 1936 on the foundations of Social Darwinism and eugenics, theories that would reach their horrifying climax in the Holocaust.
The Wanted and the Unwanted is the story of the Wyndham Native Hospital, born from a maelstrom of personal animosities, ambitions and beliefs and from the warring spirits of the early twentieth century. It is the tale of a hospital built three miles from a town that banned Aboriginal people, a place where men, women and children were imprisoned, left untreated and subjected to experimental treatments without their knowledge and against their will. And it is the story of those who resisted and survived to transform Three Mile into a place of hope and a site from which a new Wyndham would emerge.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Annabel Stafford about the 'great Australian silence' that obscures our sense of history, the vision and the reality for the Wyndham Native Hospital, and about the cast of white bureaucrats, doctors and politicians who shaped our dark past.AJ Mackinnon on 'Realms of Gold: The Remarkable Return of Jack de Crow'
When A.J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon sailed a tiny dinghy through twelve countries from North Wales to the Black Sea, he survived pirates, the English Channel, international incidents and all the disasters …
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When A.J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon sailed a tiny dinghy through twelve countries from North Wales to the Black Sea, he survived pirates, the English Channel, international incidents and all the disasters, big and small, that can befall a little boat on a long voyage. Those adventures became his beloved bestseller The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow.
Decades later, that trip is a happy memory and Sandy is firmly back on land – until a message from a stranger presents an opportunity too good to refuse. Sandy picks up where his first voyage left off, sailing and rowing single-handedly around the coast from Romania to Venice. From Istanbul to Ithaca, Mount Olympus to the ruins of Troy, he finds himself immersed in the legends of antiquity, plays chicken with mercurial border police, and is saved more than once by the kindness of strangers. He recounts it all with his unbreakable enthusiasm and self-deprecating humour, taking the reader on a hilarious and unforgettable adventure.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to A. J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon about the reincarnation of that little mirror dinghy the 'Jack De Crow', the remarkable people he encountered on his journey from the Danube Delta to Venice, and why it's not curiosity alone that drives Sandy in his travels and his storytelling.
Dr Barbara Lemon on a unique record of Australian history in, 'The Memory Tapes'
The Memory Tapes is a new podcast from the National Library of Australia that brings history to life through the voices of the people who lived it. Drawing on one of the nation’s most significant oral history …
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The Memory Tapes is a new podcast from the National Library of Australia that brings history to life through the voices of the people who lived it. Drawing on one of the nation’s most significant oral history collections, the series explores remarkable stories of resilience, innovation, creativity, migration, activism and everyday life. In each episode, oral historian Dr Shirleene Robinson AM combines firsthand accounts with expert storytelling to reveal the people behind Australia’s history.
From Nobel Prize-winning scientists and pioneering artists to community leaders, workers and families, The Memory Tapes offers listeners a rare opportunity to hear Australians tell their stories in their own words. These recordings capture not only historical events, but the emotions, memories and experiences that give them meaning. Through ten themed episodes, the podcast opens a window into the National Library’s extraordinary Oral History Collection, inviting audiences to discover the voices that have shaped Australia’s past and continue to inspire its future.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Dr Barbara Lemon about why oral history is an essential part of the Australian record of our history, how the emotional truth contained within these recordings communicates something beyond mere facts and opinions, and how listeners can access The Memory Tapes podcast and book through the National Library of Australia's website.Elisabeth Storrs on her heart-breaking story of love and war in, 'Fables and Lies'
World War II Berlin. Freyja Bremer, a patriotic museum assistant, marries Kaspar Voigt, an ambitious SS scholar, to protect her father. Yet she is unaware her husband is instrumental in Himmler’s twisted quest …
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World War II Berlin. Freyja Bremer, a patriotic museum assistant, marries Kaspar Voigt, an ambitious SS scholar, to protect her father. Yet she is unaware her husband is instrumental in Himmler’s twisted quest for Aryan supremacy. As she strives to safeguard the priceless Priam’s Treasure from air raids, Freyja falls in love with Darien Lessing, an archaeologist who exposes the moral decay beneath the Regime’s myths. Her awakening drives her into perilous resistance – aiding a Jewish doctor and his wife, Darien’s sister – while uncovering Kaspar’s role in the SS’s darkest programmes, which subvert history to justify invasion, abduction and murder. As Berlin collapses into chaos and bloodshed, Freyja, caught between duty, deception and desire, must risk everything to preserve truth in a world built on lies.
Fables & Lies shines light on lesser-known aspects of the Nazi Regime. It gives voice to the complex moral struggles of German women, the forgotten resistance of Gentiles married to Jews, the dangers of contested history, the evils of Himmler’s racial studies programme and the unsung bravery of German museum curators who saved their nation’s treasures.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Elisabeth Storrs about creating historical fiction in a world where history is contestable, the compromises women and families were compelled to make under the Nazi regime, and the often overlooked consequences of World War I that sowed the seed for World War II.
Paperback and digital editions of Fables and Lies can be found at Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/fables-lies-elisabeth-storrs/book/9781835744086.htmlDanielle Binks on war, friendship and finding common ground in 'Shakespeare in the Orchard'
Langwarrin, Victoria, 1914. The whole world is at war. In Langwarrin on the Mornington Peninsula, fourteen-year-old Jack Thorning is the best marksman in military cadet training. His brother, Matt, taught him …
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Langwarrin, Victoria, 1914. The whole world is at war. In Langwarrin on the Mornington Peninsula, fourteen-year-old Jack Thorning is the best marksman in military cadet training. His brother, Matt, taught him everything he knew, after their father died. But now Matt has joined the war effort, and it's up to Jack to hold down the home front and help his mother run the family orchard.
When a group of 'enemy aliens' are sent to Langwarrin to be held prisoner at the military base, tensions in the town run high. For Jack and his best friend, Walter, the war feels closer than ever. Like the rest of the town, Jack and Walter want nothing to do with the German prisoners. But as the war progresses, the inmates at the camp are put to work doing manual labour on the farms around Langwarrin, including Jack's family orchard, and Jack begins to see that the prisoners are people, too.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Danielle Binks about her home town and her fascination with it's war-time history, how the works of Shakespeare still resonate for young people today, and why World War I's impact in shaping events of the 20th Century is often overlooked.Warren Rankine on childhood trauma and finding your feet in 'Fifteen Feet Tall'
Fifteen Feet Tall is Warren Rankine's own account of a journey from trauma, tragedy, sadness, to, success and self realisation. Others may have put him on a path. Ultimately he forged his own.In this …
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Fifteen Feet Tall is Warren Rankine's own account of a journey from trauma, tragedy, sadness, to, success and self realisation. Others may have put him on a path. Ultimately he forged his own.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Warren Rankine about his memoir - story of childhood trauma, personal development, growth and achievement. Warren is joined by Tracy Yong who helped bring his story to print through the process of self-publishing with FolioFoxJames O'Loghlin on mesothelioma and friendship in 'The Accidental Activist'
Usually when a friend is dying, there’s not much you can do. But what if there was?James O’Loghlin’s best friend at university was Jum Wallner, but once careers and kids came along, they drifted apart. That …
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Usually when a friend is dying, there’s not much you can do. But what if there was?
James O’Loghlin’s best friend at university was Jum Wallner, but once careers and kids came along, they drifted apart. That was, until the day Jum felt a pain in his side and remembered he had grown up in a house filled with ‘Mr Fluffy’ asbestos insulation. Nearly everyone who contracts an asbestos disease gets it from their work and is entitled to compensation or financial support. Jum discovered that if you got one from your home, tough luck. You were on your own. Before he died, Jum wanted to change that.
James leapt at the chance to help him. But with zero lobbying experience, how were they going to persuade the ACT Labor Government and the Federal Liberal Government to work together to help the victims of the 1000 ‘Mr Fluffy’ houses? In the middle of Covid, how would they attract national media attention? Most importantly, as Jum’s illness worsened, could they get it done in time?
This is a story about amateurs figuring out how to influence government, how friendship can drift and then be found again, and how tragedy can make it clear what really matters.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to James O'Loghlin about the changing contours of friendship as we move through life, how he came to be an activist for the victims of Canberra's 'Mr Fluffy' houses, and how to to prepare for final conversations with dying friends.Justine Hausheer on the fight against extinction in 'The Vanishing Wild'
Australia is a country celebrated for its wildlife, yet native species are in crisis. In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation.In this book, award-winning …
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Australia is a country celebrated for its wildlife, yet native species are in crisis. In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation.In this book, award-winning science writer Justine E. Hausheer encounters pygmy possums that live high in the Snowy Mountains, hears the booming calls of bitterns from their adopted home in the Riverina’s rice fields, crouches after dark in the spinifex grasslands listening for the elusive night parrot and meets adorable fat-tailed dunnarts who might hold the answers to reviving the Tasmanian tiger. The Vanishing Wild immerses us in the harsh reality of the extinction crisis – and shows us the future of conservation and what can be done to save Australia’s native species.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Justine Haushseer about the ever-growing list of endangered species from the iconic koala to the little known pygmy blue tongue lizard, the ethical challenges of de-extinction technologies and... what exactly are the Cane Toad Olympics?
Jess Kitching on love, loss and new beginnings in, 'The Secrets of Strangers'
After suffering a loss, Janine and her husband, Kamal, need a fresh start. They leave their family and everything they know in Manchester and move to Bamblethorpe, a picturesque Lancashire village where they …
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After suffering a loss, Janine and her husband, Kamal, need a fresh start. They leave their family and everything they know in Manchester and move to Bamblethorpe, a picturesque Lancashire village where they expect nothing but peace and quiet. It’ll be just what Janine, a thriller writer, needs to work on her next manuscript.
But the peace of their new village life is disrupted when longtime local Alexa Clarke goes missing. Did she leave her husband, like some people suspect? Or is there credibility to the rumours that something more nefarious has happened to Alexa?
Frozen by writer’s block, Janine stumbles into investigating Alexa’s disappearance, and the more she discovers about Alexa’s life, the more complicated things become. Nothing is as it seems, and Janine begins to realise that there are disturbing parallels between Alexa’s life and her own. What starts as curious procrastination quickly spirals into a tangled web of secrets, lies and a truth Janine may not be ready to face … if she survives.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Jess Kitching about the accidental merging of genres in her writing, how a tree change to a quiet English village comes with hidden dangers, and how grief and loss changes lives.Kerry Jewell on her compelling, candid and darkly funny novel, 'A Little Unwell'
For Amy, being a doctor was supposed to mean winning at life. Helping people. Saving lives. Having a secure job. Earning good money. Tick, tick, tick, tick. But now, in her second year in a city hospital the …
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For Amy, being a doctor was supposed to mean winning at life. Helping people. Saving lives. Having a secure job. Earning good money. Tick, tick, tick, tick. But now, in her second year in a city hospital the reality is a world away from Amy's med school dreams. She is finding out that people don't always want to be 'helped', the pay barely covers rent, her hours are ridiculous, her favourite patients are getting sicker, and her surgical trainee boyfriend has recently gone shy on proposing.
What Amy does have are the friendships forged by dealing with recalcitrant patients, endless nightshifts, and crying in the emergency department bathrooms. And a belief that maybe, underneath it all, it's a job that's still worth doing.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Kerry Jewell about giving the reader the complete hospital/medical training experience, why the idea of being a doctor isn't necessarily the reality, and how cynicism, sarcasm and black humour are all part of the job.Martin McKenzie-Murray on the shadow world of first responders in 'Sirens'
Three first responders – a paramedic, a police officer and a firefighter – are motivated by a desire to serve the community. But they are drawn to their work by more complicated impulses as well: a need for …
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Three first responders – a paramedic, a police officer and a firefighter – are motivated by a desire to serve the community. But they are drawn to their work by more complicated impulses as well: a need for control, an acute awareness of danger, and childhood experiences they are still running from.
Peter, a paramedic, served at high-profile disasters including the Port Arthur massacre and the Beaconsfield mine collapse. Despite helping countless people, he is haunted by the lives he couldn't save.
Tara, a firefighter, experienced devastating loss at a young age. She found camaraderie in the fire brigade, but also confronting reminders of her past.
Brett, a police officer, survived childhood neglect and abuse. Policing offered a way to impose order, but it eventually forced him to question his rigid moral view of the world.
In telling their stories, Martin McKenzie-Murray draws on his own experience and his research into trauma and recovery to ask profound questions about human motivation and survival. What draws people to these intense professions, and how does their work reshape them? And what happens when their carefully built walls between past and present, personal and professional, start to crumble?
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Martin McKenzie-Murray about why we need know about the experiences of first responders, why it is a vocation and not just a job, and reasons for the reluctance to seek treatment for the PTSD that many first responders suffer from.
Luke Taylor on Peter Marralwanga, Painter of the Djang of Western Arnhem Land
Peter Marralwanga (1916–1987) was a leading figure in one of the great art practices of the world. He grew up in western Arnhem Land surrounded by artists painting in rock shelters and he learned to paint this …
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Peter Marralwanga (1916–1987) was a leading figure in one of the great art practices of the world. He grew up in western Arnhem Land surrounded by artists painting in rock shelters and he learned to paint this way himself. The subjects of his paintings were the Djang who made his country and placed the spirits of people within it. Marralwanga’s story highlights the way bark painting became important as a way of evading assimilation policies rife within Northern Territory towns. Marralwanga established an outstation at Marrkolidjban where he could teach his children how to properly care for Ancestral lands, with part of this care involving a knowledge of how to paint. As a senior person who had travelled widely in his youth, and gained extensive ceremonial knowledge, Marralwanga was highly influential among a broad group of painters. Ivan Namirrkki, a painter of note and Peter Marralwanga’s son, has provided here his own account of his father’s life.
This book tracks Marralwanga’s life of learning about country and conveys the religious meaning of numerous major works, offering outsiders a richer understanding and appreciation of Arnhem Land art. It also shows the crucial role of individuals working for the community arts cooperative Maningrida Arts and Culture in facilitating Marralwanga’s rise to recognition as a major Australian and world artist.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Luke Taylor about the tradition of Aboriginal bark painting that Peter Marralwanga drew from, the depth of knowledge of Aboriginal culture and ceremony that he brought to his paintings, and the political dimension to Marralwanga's work and its role in the developing land rights movement of the 1960s and 70s in Australia.
Jane Messer on her compelling memoir, 'Raven Mother: War, family and inheritance'
In Raven Mother, Jane Messer weaves together her Jewish family’s tragic story – stretching back and forth between Berlin, Israel, Palestine, Melbourne and Sydney. Messer retraces the steps of her Jewish …
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In Raven Mother, Jane Messer weaves together her Jewish family’s tragic story – stretching back and forth between Berlin, Israel, Palestine, Melbourne and Sydney. Messer retraces the steps of her Jewish grandmother Bella, as she tries to understand her life in pre-war Berlin and Mandate Palestine, to post-war Melbourne where she didn’t survive the surviving, and why her father was abandoned in England before the war. In this powerful, beautifully written and insightful book, Messer spends time in Berlin, Israel and Palestine and grapples with the effects of nationalism, both historical and contemporary. Along the way, she speaks with historians, activists, refugees and scholars, and constantly to her beloved father.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Jane Messer about the origins of the old German term, 'Rabenmutter', the city of Berlin under the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, and what she discovered about her grandmother Bella along the way.Theresa Miller on stepping up to the microphone and making an impact in 'Speak Up'
Theresa Miller has spent decades working as a journalist and now media trainer, coaching people across all industries – from CEOs and academics to climate campaigners, entrepreneurs and artists – to communicate …
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Theresa Miller has spent decades working as a journalist and now media trainer, coaching people across all industries – from CEOs and academics to climate campaigners, entrepreneurs and artists – to communicate confidently, clearly and concisely. In Speak Up, she shows you how to successfully share your expertise and experience with an audience – whether it’s creating an inspiring work presentation or media release, blitzing a job interview or nailing your message on a podcast, panel, TV or radio interview.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Theresa Miller about why the demand for public speaking is bigger than ever, why being an expert in your field is not enough to get your message across, and why preparation and presentation skills are fundamental to good communication.Vikki Petraitis on a forty-year-old true crime mystery in, 'The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron'
In 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious …
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In 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed Beth and then herself. Vivienne’s body was never found.
But Vikki Petraitis wasn’t convinced. The official line didn’t explain all the evidence, and it certainly didn’t seem like the behaviour of a mother with two small boys. Fascinated by both the case and the bias it revealed in investigators, Petraitis wrote her first true-crime book about the murder, with Paul Daley, and decades later made a podcast on the case. Both brought new evidence and testimony to light, and asked questions that were not asked at the time.
To mark the fortieth anniversary of Beth’s murder and Vivienne’s vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened all those years ago, and why.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Vikki Petraitis about why she has returned to this forty-year-old cold case, about her insights into the Philip island community, and why she is not convinced that the police investigation had reached a reasonable conclusion.Debra Dank on family, culture, connection and the power of memory in 'Ankami'
Debra Dank had long been desperate to paint a fuller picture of her family, to add flesh to the name-bones and the few precious stories she possessed. Debra had been aware of her father's five siblings …
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Debra Dank had long been desperate to paint a fuller picture of her family, to add flesh to the name-bones and the few precious stories she possessed. Debra had been aware of her father's five siblings, some of whom had died before she could come to know them, but there were always whispers and gaps and silences. Her parents had experiences that affected how Debra grew up, but hers seemed to be one of the very few Aboriginal families who had escaped having children stolen, who had viewed this horror from a seemingly safer distance. What Debra discovered would shatter everything she thought she knew about her family and her past. The information she uncovered revealed that her paternal grandmother had given birth to ten children. Four had been taken from her.
Ankami is written from the perspective of those left behind, those who search always for the faces of stolen and lost Aboriginal children, now known only through a few cruel, thoughtless words written by a violent pastoral manager and a paternalistic colonial administrator, a footnote in a yellowed letter.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Debra Dank about the culture of silence she faced in uncovering her family history, the memories she relied on to tell this story and those she was compelled to imagine in the absence of the family she never knew, and the inadequacy of Australian standard english in describing, expressing and communicating Aboriginal culture and the words she invents to address that problem.Aaron Tait on his journey from war to peace in 'Far Horizons'
As a seventeen-year-old officer Aaron Tait was deployed to a war in the Middle East. Far Horizons is the story of what happened next. From war zones to slums, Aaron Tait has travelled to and worked in more than …
Shownotes
As a seventeen-year-old officer Aaron Tait was deployed to a war in the Middle East. Far Horizons is the story of what happened next. From war zones to slums, Aaron Tait has travelled to and worked in more than 70 countries across the globe as a military officer, humanitarian and social entrepreneur, and now writes to help people live deliberate lives filled with purpose.
Far Horizons is a globe-spanning coming-of-age memoir of a fighter turned peace-seeker on a vibrant journey of transformation, adventure and love, set against backdrops of the Iraq War, Africa and the world beyond. Fresh and introspective, it will lead you to exploring not only the far corners of the world but also the uncharted aspects of yourself.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Aaron Tait about the physical and psychological challenges he faced in training as a military officer and as part of a non-compliant boarding unit in the Persian Gulf, how he was morally challenged by his experiences of war and what he did about it, and how the love of his life led him to live and work in Kenya and Tanzania in search of redemption
Vicki Bennett on her story of love, war, and intergenerational healing, 'The Letters'
When rebellious Ruby is bequeathed her late grandfather’s personal letters, she is pulled from peacetime 1973 Australia, to 1917 World War 1 France. Without identification or any way home, she sets out to right …
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When rebellious Ruby is bequeathed her late grandfather’s personal letters, she is pulled from peacetime 1973 Australia, to 1917 World War 1 France. Without identification or any way home, she sets out to right a wrong that has broken her family for generations. She meets her young grandfather, an Australian soldier, who has a secret family – a French wife and daughter. Ruby is the only person who knows the true danger they are in, and sets out to rewrite her family’s past. A local resistance fighter Henri, with secrets of his own, is the only person who can help her. As they navigate dangerous terrain, Ruby is torn between the love of this mysterious hero, and the life she left behind.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Vicki Bennett about the enduring power of the hand-written letter, how the letter can facilitate communication across time and generations, and her deep personal and family connection to this story.
Chris Blake on his gripping crime thriller set on New Zealand's wild west coast, 'Softly Calls the Devil'
Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made …
Shownotes
Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keeps their little world safe. And he's working in spectacular surroundings - the fierce Tasman Sea, the dense beech forest, the dark, cold swamps, the snowy Southern Alps.
But then his much-loved predecessor, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet through his head. He'd been looking into a disturbing murder-suicide from 1978: the parents' bodies were found, but not their daughter's. Suspecting a darker truth, Matt is certain the answers can't be too far away in this close-knit community. How does former forest service ranger Liam, with his gang links, fit into the story? What about Joe, the alcoholic hermit whose knowledge and intelligence seem so at odds with his appearance and lifestyle?
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Chris Blake about the wild west coast of the South Island of New Zealand as the perfect setting for a dark and bloody crime thriller, how Senior Constable Matt Buchanan might have has escaped his demons, and the challenges for Chris Blake as both a serving police officer and an award-winning novelist.
Henry Reynolds’ ground-breaking re-examination of Australian colonisation from the top down, in 'Looking From the North'
When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First …
Shownotes
When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help remedy the situation and ended up transforming Australian history in ways he could never have imagined.
In 'Looking from the North', Reynolds again turns Australian history on its axis with an exploration of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Reynolds tells the stories of the European, Chinese, Japanese and Pacific Islander people who were vital to the settlement of the north. Along with the experience of First Nations peoples, from employment on stations and as native police to the land rights and homelands movements,
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Henry Reynolds about how the the colonisation of Australia's north was very different to the south, how there has never truly been a 'white Australia' in this part of this continent, and why the implications of the Australian Federal government's white paper Our North, Our Future of a decade ago may be contrary to Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007.
Amra Pajalic on her thrilling Balkan war murder mystery, 'Time Kneels Between Mountains'
Overnight, Seka Torlak’s life as a regular teenager is upended as Srebrenica, her once peaceful town, falls under siege and she faces starvation, shelling, and sniper attacks. When desperately needed …
Shownotes
Overnight, Seka Torlak’s life as a regular teenager is upended as Srebrenica, her once peaceful town, falls under siege and she faces starvation, shelling, and sniper attacks. When desperately needed antibiotics and food disappear and are sold on the black market, Seka vows to investigate the corruption and bring the culprits to justice.
As the war ravages Srebrenica, Seka's resilience is tested as she navigates the harsh realities of war. Yet, amidst the devastation, she finds a glimmer of hope as her relationship with Ramo blossoms from friendship to love. But as she fights for justice and love the brutal war threatens to tear everything apart.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Amra Pajalic about the complex Balkan history behind this story, Amra's own experience of living in Bosnia, and how historical fiction has the power to tell the stories of real people amidst the brutal realities of war.
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