Hugh White argues that, right now, we confront the world's most dangerous crisis in generations, with the old global order facing a direct challenge in three crucial regions: Eastern Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. And then there’s Donald Trump, under whose leadership America's retreat from any kind of coherence has been both swift and dramatic. For Outspoken Hugh will be discussing his June 2025 Quarterly Essay : Hard New World, Our post-American Future. White examines the dynamics of th...
Jun 19, 2025•1 sec•Season 2025Ep. 6
Our ‘introducing author’ is the wonderful Joanna Jenkins. Her first novel How To Kill a Client, became a massive best-seller. In her new novel, The Bluff, her focus moves from big-city legal firms to a small country town - but we’re still amongst the legal fraternity. I've now read The Bluff and can confirm it's a clever, rich, dynamic novel. So many books set in rural Australia, particularly thrillers, are full of weird stereotypes of bush characters. Joanna avoids this trap. The people in her ...
Jun 19, 20250•Season 2025Ep. 5
Jane Rawson has an interesting backstory (see below) and much of her recent output has been fiction. In the case of Human/Nature, however, she presents a series of linked essays that delve, in a very idiosyncratic and personal way, into the many ways we interact with Nature. In deceptively simple language she prises open the faultlines between what we hope or wish those relationships might be, and the facts on the ground, presenting irrefutable arguments only to subtly pull the rug out from bene...
Apr 24, 2025•1 sec•Season 2025Ep. 4
Our introducing speaker tonight is Dr Barry Traill AM, (BJ). Barry is a long-term resident of Maleny, and is one of Australia’s most successful environmental advocates. He is the former Director of Pew Charitable Trusts’ Australian Outback Program and now leads the Solutions for Climate Australia project, part of the Climate Action Network, working towards creating enduring bi-partisanship in federal politics to achieve decisive action on climate. BJ's an ecologist by training, with a particular...
Apr 24, 20250•Season 2025Ep. 3
Our featured author tonight is Debra Oswald. Debra came to prominence, or maybe the right word is fame, with the production of the immensely popular television series Offspring in 2010, for which she was the Creator and Lead Writer. But Debra had already been immersed in theatre and television for many many years before that - we might come to that in a minute - writing several successful plays and episodes for other series. Since then she has shifted her attention to the writing of novels, the ...
Apr 01, 2025•1 sec•Season 2025Ep. 2
Our first guest tonight is the fascinating Steve MinOn. Steve’s debut novel is First Name Second Name, which won the Glendower Award for an emerging Queensland writer at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards. He has also been a recipient of the 2021 Queensland Writers Centre’s Publishible program for emerging writers and his articles and short stories have appeared SBS Voices, Mamamia, Nightmare Fuel, WQ Magazine and the 2022 Right Left Write Anthology. Self-described as ‘a child of mixed-race Aus...
Apr 01, 20250•Season 2025Ep. 1
I'm going out on a limb here. I think Rick Morton’s Mean Streak is an important book. Its description of the creation, implementation and eventual dismantling of Robodebt reveals a long slow-motion train wreck – one mendacious cruel scheming carriage after another inevitably, inexorably, piling into the one before it. But it’s also necessary. If we want to live in a society which works (and after the events of this week who doesn’t?) we need to have strong, transparent institutions at its centre...
Nov 12, 2024•1 sec•Season 2024Ep. 10
Siang Lu is the author of two novels, The Whitewash and Ghost Cities. The latter, which we'll be discussing, was inspired by the existence of several vacant uninhabited megacities of China. It follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney's Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn't speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work. His first novel, The Whitewash, won the A...
Nov 12, 20240•Season 2024Ep. 9
Gina Chick has written a memoir. It’s titled we are the stars, and it follows her life from when she was almost seven years old, all the way through until she’s fifty, and there’s hardly a page you might choose to describe as conventional. Gina – with all that literary royalty in her blood – made her own way, a path which took her on a dance through the hidden world of 90s Sydney nightlife (right into the arms of a conman) and from there into the wilderness where she began a wondrous love affair...
Oct 24, 2024•1 sec•Season 2024Ep. 8
Andrew Stafford’s book Pig City, about Brisbane music from the 70s through to the millennium, has been re-released for its twentieth anniversary. It is, in itself, a major Brisbane icon. Bernard Fanning wrote of it: ‘Twenty years on, Pig City reminds us of how deeply the political undercurrents (Joe Bjelke Peterson’s government) impacted the cultural output of Brisbane’s artists, and how the pioneers of the scene (unknowingly) laid the platform for the bands to come.' Paul Grabowsky: ‘I read Pig...
Oct 24, 20240•Season 2024Ep. 7
Mark Newman was born and raised in South Africa. As a young man he completed a post-graduate philosophy degree at Johannesburg University (University of the Witwatersrand). This was during the time of Apartheid in South Africa, a regime that had a profound affect on him. As soon as he could he arranged to leave, being awarded a scholarship from the French Government to study film-making at the French National Film School. Over the next thirty or forty years Mark has produced and directed films i...
Aug 20, 20240•Season 2024Ep. 5
Dr Norman Swan was born and raised in Glasgow, but he did his medical training at Aberdeen University, eventually going on to specialise in pediatrics. After he emigrated to Australia in the early 80s, however, he made the move into radio and television broadcasting, mainly with the ABC, and in this role, through a series of programs, including Life Matters, The 7.30 Report, Catalyst, Quantum, Four Corners, and, of course, The Health Report - which he has produced and presented since its incepti...
Aug 20, 2024•1 sec•Season 2024Ep. 6
In the autumn of 2023 Simon undertook to follow the course of the Brisbane River from its source to the sea, in the hope that, by walking its length he might better understand the power and impact of this immense waterway on the environment and communities who rely on it. In Everything is Water, Cleary takes us along on his journey, made both alone and with companions, and explores the way rivers connect landscapes, ecologies, histories, communities and myth. Over four eventful weeks and a serio...
Jun 14, 2024•19 sec•Season 2024Ep. 3
Hugh Mackay has long been recognised as Australia’s leading social psychologist. In The Way We Are, his self-described ‘final book’, he presents a compelling portrait of the country as it stands today. Hugh argues that we have entered a critical period in our social evolution. He identifies several major issues: the unfinished march towards gender equality combined with the concurrent persistence of misogyny; the anti-social consequences of social media and the impacts of information overload; a...
Jun 14, 2024•1 sec•Season 2024Ep. 4
Bri Lee writes investigative journalism, opinion, essays and art criticism. Her work has appeared in, amongst other places, The Monthly, Harper’s Bazaar, The Saturday Paper, Crikey and The Guardian. She is the author of three non-fiction works, the memoir, Eggshell Skull, and the two more journalistic works, Beauty and Who Gets to Be Smart. Just nine days ago she launched her marvellous debut novel, The Work, which she’s here to talk about tonight. In publicising this event I described Bri as a ...
Apr 12, 2024•1 sec•Season 2024Ep. 2
Tyyni and I have now read Carly's memoir, Breath, and are furiously recommending it to everyone we meet. It really is an extraordinary book, telling the story of a remarkable, and some might say difficult, life, but Carly brings to the story a profound sense of humour, combined with a close grasp of something most of us find difficult to deal with, that is, in a word, death. She strikes me as utterly fearless, prepared to speak about everything and anything, which means there is a generosity in ...
Apr 12, 20240•Season 2024Ep. 1
Tony Birch is the acclaimed author of four novels, including The White Girl and Ghost River, as well as three short story collections and two books of poetry. Most recently his short story collection Dark as Last Night won the New South Wales Premier's Christina Stead Prize for fiction, the Queensland Literary Award Steele Rudd prize and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's literary prize. He has previously been awarded the Patrick White Literary Award for his contribution to Australian lite...
Nov 14, 2023•1 sec•Season 2023Ep. 12
Melissa is the best-selling author of The Birdman's Wife, which won many awards, including the Qld Premiers/University of Queensland Fiction Award and the Neilsen Bookscan Award. Her new novel is The Naturalist of Amsterdam. At the turn of the 18th century, Amsterdam is at the centre of an intellectual revolution, with artists and scientists racing to record the wonders of the natural world. Of all the brilliant naturalists in Europe, Maria Sibylla Merian is one of its brightest stars. For as lo...
Nov 14, 20230•Season 2023Ep. 11
Sunbirds is set in Java during the Second World War - at the time of Japan’s inexorable move southwards - it depicts the intricate web of identities and loyalties created by war and imperialism, the heartbreaking compromises that so often ensue. Mirandi’s previous novel, Stone Sky Gold Mountain, won the 2020 Queensland Fiction Book Award and the inaugural ARA History Novel Prize. It was shortlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize and longlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Oct 24, 20230•Season 2023Ep. 11
When David Marr set out to research the life of his great-grandmother the last thing he expected to find was a photograph of her father, dressed in the uniform of the Native Police. As he writes: ‘I was appalled and curious. I have been writing about the politics of race all my career. I know what side I’m on. Yet that afternoon I found, in the lower branches of my family tree, Sub-Inspector Reginald Uhr, a professional killer of Aborigines… and his brother D’arcy… also in the massacre business....
Oct 24, 2023•1 sec•Season 2023Ep. 12
A quote from Bookseller + Publisher: 'When researching a new book on George Orwell, powerhouse writer Anna Funder noticed an interesting omission—Eileen Orwell, George’s first wife, was curiously absent. The basis of Wifedom is six newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Norah. It incorporates other letters and facts from the Orwells’ lives and Funder’s exquisite imagining of Eileen’s days. By reading between the lines, piecing together letters, clues and mentions in other peopl...
Jul 26, 2023•1 sec•Season 2023Ep. 8
Angela O’Keeffe’s new novel The Sitter begins with ‘the author’ in an apartment in Paris, looking out towards the burnt shell of the Notre Dame Cathedral. She is, ostensibly, researching the life of Marie-Hortense Fiquet, but Hortense, dead these hundred years, seems to have, in some way, taken over the process of writing. Hortense was, of course, better known as the wife of Cézanne. He painted 29 portraits of her, in none of which she smiles. This is a beautiful small novel, as tightly construc...
Jul 26, 20230•Season 2023Ep. 7
Kim Mahood grew up in the 1950s and 60s on Mongrel Downs, a cattle station on the edge of the Tanami Desert. Much has changed in those parts in recent years: the land has been handed back to the traditional owners; the mining companies have arrived; Aboriginal art has flourished. Kim, now a writer and artist, still returns every year. Her new book, Wandering with Intent, is a collection of essays she describes as ‘the writer’s equivalent of hunting and gathering… a product of wandering among the...
Apr 17, 2023•1 sec•Season 2023Ep. 6
Louise speaks about her biography of Butjala artist Fiona Foley, a 'beautifully composed, intimate first-person account of the artistic practice of Badtjala artist, Fiona Foley. Each chapter meanders and unfolds, taking us on a vivid journey to place -K'gari or Fraser Island - combined with encounters and conversations with the artist, her family and affiliates. Carefully configured and tenderly composed, each chapter has its own rhythm and title extrapolating on how 'art' and 'life' intersect.’...
Apr 17, 20230•Season 2023Ep. 5
Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as Sandy, is one of the world’s most-loved authors. For many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the UK and abroad before turning his hand to writing fiction. Since then he has written more than 100 books including specialist academic titles, short story collections, and a number of immensely popular children’s books. His novels have sold tens of millions of copies and been translated into 46 languages. Some of his best-...
Mar 10, 20230•Season 2023Ep. 4
When you think of compassion, what comes to mind? Kindness, understanding, tenderness, empathy, maybe warmth? Compassion can be all those things – but it is much more. Drawing on his many years of experience as a clinical psychologist and researcher, Dr James Kirby brings together hard science and real-life examples to offer a guide to a more compassionate life and society. Kirby debunks the myth that compassion is simply a feeling and shows us how it is a motivational force that can shape our b...
Mar 09, 20230•Season 2023Ep. 3
Joanna is the author of the fast-paced and witty thriller How to Kill a Client. Gavin Jones is dead. As an in-house lawyer who controlled millions of dollars in fees per year, he wlelded power with manipulative contempt. The partners relied on his favour to fund their lavish lifestyles and, if sycophantic admiration was what it took to secure work from Gavin, well, that's what they delivered. But no-one liked him. The list of those who suffered from his cruelty (particularly the women) was long ...
Feb 01, 20230•Season 2023Ep. 2
Chris is a Gurang Gurang/Taribelang man and former Queenslander of the Year. His memoir tells the remarkable story of how a young boy from Bundaberg grew up to become Principal of the Cherbourg School, the founder of the Stronger Smarter Insitute and, now, to hold a senior position in the Queensland Government, where he is working to forge a path to Treaty. We’re more than simply delighted to have Chris come to Maleny to talk about his book, but also, in this year - when a referendum on a Voice ...
Feb 01, 2023•1 sec•Season 2023Ep. 1
Heather Rose is the award-winning author of Bruny and The Museum of Modern Love. Her new memoir, nothing bad ever happens here is deeply personal collection filled with reflections on love, death, creativity, and healing. Growing up on the remote island of Tasmania, Heather Rose falls in love with nature, but a tragedy that occurs when she is twelve sets her on a course to explore life’s mysteries. Here is a wild barefoot girl born for adventure, a curious seeker initiated in ancient rituals, a ...
Nov 15, 2022•1 sec•Season 2022Ep. 12
Peter Hudson is a landscape and portrait painter living and working in Maleny. Since the late 1990s he has explored aspects of the natural world, astronomy, mythology, and history to investigate ‘the deep mystery of existence and us being here’. In 1998, he made the first of many trips to the Aboriginal communities of Daguragu and Kalkarinji in Gurindji country in the Northern Territory. The Gurindji people, their land, and the story of the Wave Hill walk-off have been major influences on his wo...
Nov 15, 20220•Season 2022Ep. 12
