Adapt to Survive: Publishing in 2016
In both the big and small ends of town, what does it take to stay afloat in the publishing business? These days, it seems that no matter your skills, the paying of bills looms large – whether you’re in small press, independent journals, magazines, books, ‘new’ media or news media. Through subscriptions, retail, arts funding, sponsorships, donations, ads, crowdfunding and more, we’ll take a fre...
1hr 1m Oct 03, 2016
1hr 1m
Hannah Kent: The Good People
Hilary Harper and Hannah Kent Since 2013, with the international success of her debut novel, Burial Rites, Hannah Kent’s name is often mentioned in the same breath as Hilary Mantel or Geraldine Brooks; masters of literary historical fiction. Burial Rites, about a woman executed for murder in Iceland in 1830, was translated into 20 languages and won a swag of prestigious awards, including the S...
56m Oct 03, 2016
56m
Martin Flanagan and Bob Murphy in Conversation
For this special post-AFL Grand Final episode, join the double-act of Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy and acclaimed sportswriter Martin Flanagan for a discussion of writing and football – recorded mid-season 2015, covering topics such as racism, pressure on players to be role models, the Americanisation of the game, the upcoming Women's League, and the ways in which storytelling holds teams...
57m Oct 03, 2016
57m
Bomber: A Football Life with Mark Thompson
Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson has played a uniquely influential role in Australian Rules football over three decades. He played more than 200 games for Essendon in the eighties and nineties and has been instrumental in five premierships: three as a player at Essendon, two at Geelong as coach. Thompson returned to Essendon in 2010, taking the reigns from James Hird as senior coach in 2014 following the...
59m Sep 25, 2016
59m
Wilder Beasts: The Global Scary and Supernatural
We’ve seen so many werewolves in the last decade that they’re starting to look a little, well, house-trained. With the recent explosion in popularity of genre fiction, many of the loathsome figures of western mythology and pop culture are losing their scare-factor. Are vampires and zombies still lurking in the shadows of your imagination? Please. You can do so much worse. Host Serpil Senelmis...
57m Sep 18, 2016
57m
Let the Games Begin: Storytelling Extended
Something surprising has been happening in screenwriting courses around the world. Though they remain popular as ever, very few students are writing traditional screenplays. Instead, they’re writing for web, for interactives – and very often, for video games. The core elements of storytelling are there in spades; games demand tightly constructed worlds rich with theme, character, plot, dialogu...
1hr Sep 15, 2016
1hr
Starpower: In Conversation with Kim Gordon
She’s crashed at Cindy Sherman’s place, she’s produced a Hole record, she’s collaborated with Yoko Ono and she’s an idol to the likes of Carrie Brownstein and Michael Stipe. There’s only one Kim Gordon, and in this episode of the Wheeler Centre podcast, she joins Fee B-Squared for a conversation recorded live at the Astor Theatre. 'It’s just my personal taste that I like to see things fall apa...
1hr 11m Sep 15, 2016
1hr 11m
Watch It!: Writing for TV, Then and Now
In this discussion, we’ll examine the relationships between viewers, writers and networks. How do screenwriters deal with the heightened attention of on-demand viewing? How do networks and platforms test new shows and talent? What’s the difference between a network and a platform … and will appointment TV endure in any form? We ‘binge’ watch. We re-watch. We consume everything from cheap DIY t...
58m Sep 12, 2016
58m
Crabb and Marr: Power and Personality
David Marr and Annabel Crabb Flashback to pre-election 2010: Malcolm Turnbull, the recently ditched Liberal Party leader, was unsure if he’d stand again for the seat of Wentworth. Meanwhile, Bill Shorten was among the first-term ‘faceless men’ who’d removed a sitting Labor Prime Minister and installed another. A week is a long time in politics, but six years is an eternity. Today, Turnbull an...
1hr 15m Sep 06, 2016
1hr 15m
Forever Young: Children’s Literature Today
Sally Rippin, Leigh Hobbs and Julia Eccleshare From Lewis Carroll to Dr Seuss, JK Rowling to Shaun Tan, some of the most inventive, surreal, hilarious and insightful minds in literature have chosen children as their preferred readership. Why choose children? And which of today’s kids’ books will be tomorrow’s classics? At this grown-up discussion about books for little people, we take a close...
59m Sep 06, 2016
59m
Fair Game: Sport and Human Rights
All sorts of lofty ideals are projected onto the world of competitive sport. Sport is supposed to unite people across races and cultures. It’s supposed to deliver us role models. It’s supposed to provide a common talking point across social divides. Our expectations of sporting figures and sporting events sometimes seem unreasonably high and, at other times, contemptibly low. What happens when...
1hr 5m Aug 14, 2016
1hr 5m
Crime and Punishment
‘The question is, am I a monster, or am I myself a victim? And what if I am a victim?’ One hundred and fifty years since Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, Crime and Punishment, we’ll be talking about our enduring obsessions with transgression, retribution and justice. What purpose does punishment play in society? Is punishment good for you? And what is the connection between punishment, justice, cathar...
1hr 4m Aug 04, 2016
1hr 4m
Howl
Hallucinatory, chaotic and confronting, Allen Ginsberg’s 1955 poem Howl sits with On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs at the very centre of the Beat literary canon. With its wild, visceral depictions of sex, drugs and madness, Ginsberg’s poem is perhaps as famous for the obscenity trial that followed its publication as for its disturbing and much-parodied openin...
36m Jul 28, 2016
36m
William Boyd
Join novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, trickster William Boyd as he talks fiction, photography and the art of the hoax with Toni Jordan. Toni Jordan and William Boyd Boyd has made a career out of blurring fiction and reality. In his vast body of work, including 17 works of fiction, the English writer has darted in and out of real and imagined worlds. In 1998, he wrote a hoax biography of a f...
1hr Jul 21, 2016
1hr
Susie Orbach
Before heroin chic, before #thinspo and #fitspo, before Oprah Winfrey wheeled a wagon full of fat out to a live studio audience and before the Paleo diet craze, Susie Orbach wrote Fat is a Feminist Issue. A lot has changed since that bestselling feminist classic was published back in 1978. For one thing, a lot more people – women and men – are a lot larger, both here in Australia and in Orbach...
56m Jul 21, 2016
56m
Election Special: Stand-Up … and Be Counted
Do you feel anxiety and dread when you think of the looming election? Do you feel sick at the thought of the beckoning ballot box? Then join us for a bout of comedy designed to cure even the worst cases of electoral dysfunction. Comedian and writer Toby Halligan hosts a bunch of Australia’s sharpest political comics as they pull apart the bizarre, the absurd, the dismaying and the disastrous a...
1hr 41m Jun 30, 2016
1hr 41m
Housekeeping #5: Locked Out
There’s one group of Australian citizens in this country that we, as a society, have denied the right to vote. In the fifth and final episode of Housekeeping – the Wheeler Centre's five-part mini-series of short podcast features on Australian democracy – Jarni Blakkarly looks at the confusing status of prisoners' voting rights in Australia. (Don't forget to listen to parts one, two, three and...
14m Jun 30, 2016
14m
Housekeeping #4: Scrutiny
In the fourth episode of Housekeeping – the Wheeler Centre's five-part mini-series of short podcast features on Australian democracy – Jarni Blakkarly looks at how your vote can be compromised … and who's keeping the system honest. (Don't forget to listen to parts one, two and three!) Illustration: Jon Tjhia Producer: Jarni BlakkarlySupervising producer, mix and sound design: Jon Tjhia
17m Jun 27, 2016
17m
Housekeeping #3: No-Shows
'We have a 21st-century society... using a 19th-century system of democracy.' Joe Toscano In the third episode of Housekeeping – the Wheeler Centre's five-part mini-series of short podcast features on Australian democracy – Jarni Blakkarly investigates why some Australian citizens abstain from voting ... and finds some dramatically different reasons. (Don't forget to listen to parts one and ...
12m Jun 17, 2016
12m
Question Time: Economics, Tax and Tax Reform
In the middle of the election campaign, Question Time goes fiscal – with a focus on all things economic. Series host Madeleine Morris leads a full hour of audience questions, covering the budget’s winners and losers, election promises and tax reform – from superannuation and negative gearing to the GST, personal income tax and tax avoidance laws. Madeleine Morris, Michelle Grattan, John Freeba...
1hr Jun 17, 2016
1hr
Housekeeping #2: ID
'The AEC looked into the matter after Australia’s last federal election. They found almost 19,000 names struck off the electoral roll more than once.' In the second episode of Housekeeping – the Wheeler Centre's five-part mini-series of short podcast features on Australian democracy – Jarni Blakkarly looks into the practice of multiple voting. Should voters be required to present photo ID on E...
11m Jun 10, 2016
11m
Introducing Teddy, the Transgender Bear
‘Teddy knows in her heart that she is a girl, not a boy. Will her friends understand? Will they call her Tilly instead of Thomas?’ And with those words, Introducing Teddy’s Kickstarter campaign was born – achieving double its target funding for a picture book representing gender diversity, aimed at kids under five. Well … initially, just one kid. Author Jess Walton was inspired to write the s...
1hr 3m Jun 08, 2016
1hr 3m
Song Exploder and the Art of the Edit
Join Song Exploder podcast producer Hrishikesh Hirway, with Miyuki Jokiranta, for a conversation about music, story, the art of the edit … and his top three most coveted musician-guests. (Plus: a whisper of West Wing Weekly, which Hirway also co-hosts.) Miyuki Jokiranta and Hrishikesh Hirway — Photo: Jon Tjhia 'Here's a way for everybody to recognise that if all of these are songs that are su...
57m Jun 07, 2016
57m
Housekeeping #1: Sizzle
Listen to the first episode of Housekeeping – our five-part series of short features about Australia democracy beyond the ballot box. Presented by Jarni Blakkarly, 'Sizzle' digs into Australia's favourite way to snag voters. Election sausages at Goulburn Street Primary School, Hobart — Photo: Carol Raabus (Flickr: ratinasock / Creative Commons BY-NC 2.0) Producer: Jarni BlakkarlySupervising ...
8m Jun 03, 2016
8m
Kate Tempest: Storming the Castle
Listen to this lively discussion between Kate Tempest – one of the most exciting new voices emerging from Britain today – and host Maxine Beneba Clarke. Musician, rapper, playwright, performance poet, novelist; it’s hard to know which title comes first when referring to Tempest. Maxine Beneba Clarke and Kate Tempest — Photo: Connor Tomas O'Brien In 2013 Tempest won the prestigious Ted Hughes ...
1hr 9m May 27, 2016
1hr 9m
Hanya Yanagihara
Hear from Hanya Yanagihara – a writer whose fictional worlds hold readers in thrall, long after the final page – in conversation with Jason Steger about art, extremity and the language of friendship. Jason Steger and Hanya Yanagihara – on stage at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre, for the Wheeler Centre — Photo: Jon Tjhia Over the course of two very different novels, Hanya Yanagihara has establi...
1hr 2m May 23, 2016
1hr 2m
Into Stella: A Constellation of Writing by Australian Women
In only its fourth year, it’s already impossible to imagine Australia’s literary landscape without the Stella Prize. The prize, named after My Brilliant Career author Stella Maria Sarah ‘Miles’ Franklin, celebrates the best writing by Australian women authors each year. The six shortlisted books for 2016 showcase the depth of talent in Australian women’s writing. This year’s shortlist containe...
57m May 21, 2016
57m
Vivian Gornick
Working as a journalist at New York subculture bible Village Voice in the 1970s, Vivian Gornick honed her skills as an essayist and made her name as a feminist polemicist. But it was a groundbreaking, book-length work of literary memoir, Fierce Attachments, that cemented her reputation as a giant of personal narrative writing. The book, published in 1987, isan extreme close-up account of her ow...
59m May 21, 2016
59m
David Hare in conversation with Julian Burnside
David Hare — Photo: Connor Tomas O'Brien It was anger and idealism that compelled playwright and director David Hare to found his first drama troupe back in the 1960s. The youthful righteousness may have faded, but certain currents have remained strong throughout his oeuvre. In his plays, including Racing Demon and Murmuring Judges, Hare has continued to turn his piercing gaze on the dominant ...
1hr May 12, 2016
1hr
Cole Lotta Love: Jess McGuire on Cheryl Cole
Too much of anything can make you sick, Cheryl Cole warbled in her 2010 smash hit single, 'Fight for this Love'. But is it possible to have too much of Cheryl? Perhaps not in the UK, where the Geordie pop star is a national obsession; an obsession she feeds by regularly changing her job description and surname. And perhaps not for Jess McGuire. As part of our You Don't Know Me series exploring...
30m May 05, 2016
30m
Human Rights Watch: The Politics of Fear
How have the politics of fear affected global developments in recent years? Which rustles are real and which are imagined? And who benefits from stoking our anxieties? In a new Human Rights Watch report, executive director Kenneth Roth identifies fear as a factor in many human rights challenges of our time. Fear of war and torture have driven unprecedented numbers of asylum-seekers from their ...
1hr May 05, 2016
1hr
Like a Prayer
When Wallace Stevens said that ‘the poet is the priest of the invisible’, perhaps he meant that the poet’s job is to tend to the unknown, the intangible and even transcendental elements of human existence. Poetry, like prayer, acknowledges mystery. Both can contain expressions of reverence, gratitude, possibility and doubt. So, in an increasingly secular world, can poetry do the work of prayer...
59m May 05, 2016
59m
Between a Rock and a Hard Scrub: Tim Rogers on Cleaning
Is cleanliness close to rock godliness? It is in the case of Tim Rogers. It turns out this icon of Australian indie music is a demon with the Scotch-Brite. The You Am I frontman opens up about his compulsion to scrub, mop and dust; an obsession he has dealt with quietly and doggedly under trying circumstances. Tim has spent around 20 years working and touring with what he describes as a ‘grubb...
33m May 05, 2016
33m
Fightin’ Words: Poetry as a Means of Resistance
Poetry sometimes suffers from an undeserved reputation as something abstract, lofty or inaccessible – an art form that deals in metaphysics or dwells in the deeply personal. But politics – whether explicit or implied – have always played a part in poetry. Think: Shelley’s ‘The Masque of Anarchy’, Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ and many more before and since. Testing t...
1hr May 04, 2016
1hr
Whistleblowers
Central to a functioning democracy is the notion of an informed public. What happens when we don’t know what the government is doing in our name? Coinciding with a report by Liberty Victoria's Young Liberty for Law Reform into government transparency and border protection policy, our panel will explore the legal and cultural barriers to whistleblowing. In 2014, six Save the Children workers we...
57m Apr 29, 2016
57m
Question Time: Home Grown Energy
Climate change isn’t the only thing that’s reached a tipping point recently: renewable energy investment and implementation has surged worldwide – with more capacity for renewables now being added annually than coal, natural gas and oil combined. What does this shift to renewables mean for households, businesses and industry – and why does the Australian Government continue to spend billions o...
1hr 3m Apr 19, 2016
1hr 3m
The Art of Biography Writing
Biography writing can be a fraught, delicate business – from choosing a worthy subject to ensuring a life is interesting to the reader, a biographer often has to deal with difficult relatives, conflicting stories, and embittered rivals. Their subject may be dead – or worse, infuriatingly alive. And writing memoir and autobiography can have its own set of problems. What choices does a writer ma...
1hr 23m Apr 14, 2016
1hr 23m
Ken Done
If you remember the 1980s in Australia, you remember Ken Done. His bold, buoyant works of art – especially his sunny depictions of Sydney landmarks – are linked in the minds of many Australians with a spirit of 1980s optimism and entrepreneurialism. People decorated their homes, their beds and their bodies with Done’s colourful paintings, prints and designs. His name became a much-loved and in...
59m Apr 14, 2016
59m
Mark Dapin: Fact and Fiction in the Vietnam War
Have our impressions of the Vietnam War been moulded more by Rambo than reality? Mark Dapin suspects so and that’s a problem, he argues, because military history is as much about the way a war is remembered as the conflict itself. So, how can we access the truths of the conflict? A journalist, historian and novelist, Dapin has used various approaches to dismantle what he describes as the ‘canc...
1hr Apr 13, 2016
1hr
Giving for the Common Good: Stephen Heintz on Philanthropy
Philanthropy is celebrated as a noble human act – and in Australia, it’s also growing, with nearly 1,400 new private foundations established in Australia since 2001. But while ‘big philanthropy’ is playing a more prominent role in seeking to address social and environmental challenges all around the world, some question the motives and methods of big philanthropy and so-called ‘philanthrocapita...
1hr Apr 06, 2016
1hr
Penny Arcade: Bad Reputation
I actually coined the term 'cultural amnesia' in Melbourne, and in Sydney. Meet Penny Arcade: performance artist, author, actress and documentary-maker. A former ‘superstar’ of Andy Warhol’s Factory, Arcade is an enduring figure of 1960s New York counterculture. Brash, funny and razor-sharp, Arcade’s body of work shows an ongoing preoccupation with themes of sexuality, censorship, gentrificat...
1hr Mar 24, 2016
1hr
Ross Gittins: Must We Destroy Journalism in Order to Save It?
There will be more to the survival of quality journalism in an age of digital disruption than just moving it to online platforms and adding a few cyber bells and whistles. The journalism itself will need to change in ways many established journalists won’t like. In the keynote address of the 2015 New News conference, celebrated business journalist Ross Gittins argues that the willingness of Fa...
1hr 1m Mar 21, 2016
1hr 1m
Carrie Brownstein
Visiting Melbourne on tour with the reformed Sleater-Kinney, Carrie Brownstein rests her guitar for a chat with Myf Warhurst. Listen in as the pair discuss pop music, fandom, the process of writing – and the act of performance, on the page and on stage. Carrie Brownstein speaks with Myf Warhurst Rising to riot grrrl fame with pioneering 90s punk trio Sleater-Kinney, and later gaining a whole ...
1hr 4m Mar 10, 2016
1hr 4m
Etgar Keret
What’s it like to raise a child in Israel today, with war as a constant backdrop? That’s one of the questions Etgar Keret explores in The Seven Good Years – his new memoir charting the time between his son’s birth and his father’s death. The book’s ruminations, like much of Keret’s writing, unfolds with poignancy and playfulness, wit and tenderness. A major voice in Israeli literature, the aut...
59m Mar 07, 2016
59m
Masha Gessen
In her 2014 book, Words Will Break Cement, Masha Gessen wrote: ‘to create, and to confront, one has to be an outcast.’ The book was about Russian feminist activists Pussy Riot, but themes of alienation and confrontation have coloured much of Gessen’s work and life. Masha Gessen, left, and Maxine Beneba Clarke — Photo: Connor Tomas O'Brien A prolific journalist in both Russia and the United St...
55m Feb 24, 2016
55m
Question time: The Housing Market
In recent years, there’s been an increasing preoccupation in the media with stories on the liveability of cities. This is especially the case in Melbourne, which has topped the Economist magazine’s world liveability rankings for five years running. But not everyone is finding Melbourne as liveable as Economist editors – and an especially contentious issue is the matter of housing. From left to...
1hr Feb 24, 2016
1hr
Blak & Bright: Opening Address: 20 Reasons Why You Should Read Blak
Anita Heiss, Pauline Whyman and Greg Fryer In the opening address for the inaugural Blak & Bright Festival, Anita Heiss ‘unpacks the Blak’ – presenting 20 reasons why and how you should read Indigenous literature. She's joined by two of our finest Indigenous actors, reading excerpts from 20 Blak books. Listen in on a funny and challenging, rapid-fire event. Featuring Anita Heiss, Pauline Whym...
1hr 1m Feb 19, 2016
1hr 1m
Gala Night of Storytelling 2016: The Book that Changed Me: Kon Karapanagiotidis
Kon Karapanagiotidis at the Wheeler Centre Gala Night of Storytelling 2016 ‘I felt so lost, and I was so desperate to fit in.’ Kon Karapanagiotidis At this year’s Gala Night of Storytelling, ten of Australia’s best thinkers, entertainers and storytellers shared how and why certain books have shaped their thinking. In this episode, Kon Karapanagiotidis recalls his discovery, at age 14, of Ma...
11m Feb 14, 2016
11m
Gala Night of Storytelling 2016: The Book that Changed Me: Lee Lin Chin
'I had found not a book, but a writer, to whom my devotion became complete.' Lee Lin Chin Lee Lin Chin at the Gala Night of Storytelling 2016 At this year’s Gala Night of Storytelling, ten of Australia’s best thinkers, entertainers and storytellers shared how and why certain books have shaped their thinking. We’ll hear from Anna Funder, Kon Karapanagiotidis, Russel Howcroft, Susan Carland, ...
13m Feb 13, 2016
13m
Joan Price: Naked at Our Age
Cyndi Darnell and Joan Price ‘If you want your sexual exuberance to match mine three decades after age 40, start listening to your elders’. That’s the advice American author Joan Price gave to Miley Cyrus in a 2013 open letter, after Cyrus announced that over-40s don’t have sex. In 2011, Price wrote Naked at Our Age: Talking out Loud about Senior Sex, which explored the challenges, delights, ...
41m Feb 11, 2016
41m