The Wheeler Centre

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Subscribe to the Wheeler Centre's podcast to hear full recordings of our talks, featuring the best in books, writing and ideas from Melbourne, Australia.

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Episodes

Kamila Shamsie: Best of Friends

'I don't start a novel thinking I have things to show you or tell you. I always start a novel because there are things I want to discover." - Kamila Shamsie. The author of seven novels, Kamila Shamsie has built an acclaimed career crafting explorations of the personal impacts of political, cultural and historical shadows. Now, the multi-award-winning writer turns her attention to the everchanging nature of female friendship, and the forces that bring people together, or tear them apart. Followin...

Feb 14, 2023•1 hr 1 min

Return to Country: Repatriation and Resilience

Content warning: The Wheeler Centre wishes to advise this recording includes discussion about human bodies in collections, which were taken from their cultural places against the wishes of First Nations communities. Repatriation is an issue at the heart of many cultural institutions, as museums and galleries reckon with the violent colonial histories that underpin significant portions of their collections. Once sought and traded as aesthetic trophies and scientific evidence, Aboriginal and Torre...

Feb 05, 2023•1 hr 2 min

Sophie Cunningham: This Devastating Fever

Sophie Cunningham is one of Australian literature’s most influential figures. She is the author of seven books, a former editor of Meanjin, co-founder of the Stella Prize, and is currently an adjunct professor at RMIT University’s non/fiction Lab. Her novel This Devastating Fever, her first work of fiction in fourteen years, was the Melbourne City Reads pick for September 2022. Weaving together the life of Leonard Woolf, the turn of the millennium and environmental collapse, Cunningham examines ...

Jan 31, 2023•1 hr 3 min

Andrew Sean Greer: Less Is Lost

For American novelist Andrew Sean Greer, the search for joy is a continued source of creative inspiration – as evidenced in his international bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Less, and now again in its humorously honest new sequel, Less is Lost. Warm, witty and profound, Less is Lost sees the lovable Arthur Less return for an unforgettable road trip across America as he confronts his personal demons and attempts to decipher the riddle of love. As part of the Wheeler Centre’s 2022 Spr...

Jan 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min

Stephanie Alexander at Montalto

What better way to celebrate Stephanie Alexander’s latest cookbook, Home , than with an intimate conversation at award-winning restaurant and winery Montalto. Hear Alexander reflect on her unparalleled five-decade career as a cook, writer and restaurateur, and the legacy she has built for generations of professionals and amateurs in kitchens around the country. This event was recorded on Thursday 21 April 2022. Presented in partnership with Montalto. The bookseller for this event was Antipodes B...

Jan 15, 2023•53 min

On The Table: A Matter of Taste

If we are what we eat, then who are we in the twenty-first century? Whether in our home kitchens, at the hottest new restaurant, in a bestselling cookbook, or on a fast-paced reality TV show, the ways we consume food and the narratives surrounding cuisine are inextricably linked to our cultural histories and personal identities. Over a seasonal shared lunch prepared with Indigenous Australian ingredients, a panel of culinary superstars met at Big Esso to discuss their approaches to cooking and s...

Dec 17, 2022•57 min

Shaun Micallef: Tripping Over Myself

Shaun Micallef has been a near constant in Australian comedy and television for almost three decades. His new memoir Tripping Over Myself: A Memoir of a Life in Comedy charts his journey from suburban Adelaide to national TV stardom, offering insight into a career of curiosity, reinvention and humour. As part of the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling program, Micallef joined presenter and RocKwiz host Julia Zemiro at The Capitol for a funny and fascinating conversation about life, satire, politics an...

Dec 10, 2022•58 min

Tiddas, Mothers, Aunties: First Nations Matriarchies

In this panel event, voices from different generations and First Nations backgrounds came together to explore First Nations community and family networks, and how they relate to conceptions of motherhood, parenting and the transmission of First Nations knowledge systems. Ali Cobby Eckermann is the Windham Campbell Prize-winning author of memoir, poetry and verse novels, including Inside My Mother , and a survivor of the Stolen Generations. Dr Jackie Huggins’ decades of work as an author, histori...

Dec 04, 2022•1 hr 4 min

Peter Garrett: A Live of Environmental Activism

From the lead singer of Midnight Oil, one of Australia’s most successful and politically engaged bands, to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage & the Arts in the Rudd/Gillard Labor governments, Peter Garrett has been a long-time campaigner on a range of local and global issues. Through all his work, Garrett has exemplified the power of arts and activism in fighting for positive environmental change; whether performing in protest and benefit shows globally or steering the Australian Con...

Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 7 min

Myf Warhurst: Time of My Life

With a CV including Spicks and Specks, the Eurovision Song Contest, Triple J, ABC Radio, Playschool and the animated global hit Bluey, Myf Warhurst has been a staple of Australian radio and TV for over twenty years. For the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling series, Warhurst took to the stage with her Bang On co-host Zan Rowe for a captivating conversation about music, memory and her new memoir, Time of My Life. Join Myf Warhurst as she shares funny, fabulous and sometimes fraught tales of her journe...

Nov 21, 2022•1 hr 4 min

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