All podcasts

Stan Grant was in conversation with Mark Kenny on his book Murriyang.Song of Time. Stan Grant is talking to his country in a new way. In his most poetic and inspiring work yet, he offers a means of moving beyond the binaries and embracing a path to peace and forgiveness, rooted in the Wiradjuri spiritual practice of Yindyamarra – deep silence and respect.

Geraldine Brooks was in conversation with Alex Sloan on her new book Memorial Days, a heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey toward peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse.

Misha Ketchell was moderating a discussion with Frank Bongiorno, Michelle Grattan and Mark Kenny, contributors to the new collection of essays, How Australian Democracy Works. And why we need it more than ever, edited by Amanda Dunn, a book in which The Conversation‘s best authors reveal the real story of how power works in Australia.

Arnold Dix was in a conversation with Alex Sloan on his new book The Promise. How an everyday hero made the impossible possible.

Juno Gemes was in a conversation with Linda Burney, moderated by Ann McGrath, on her new book Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of The Movement for Indigenous Rights.

George Megalogenis was conversation with Niki Savva on his new quarterly essay Minority Report The New Shape of Australian Politics

Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and another minority government is a real possibility in the future. Politics-as-usual is not enough for many voters.

David Marr, one of Australia's foremost writers and thinkers, was in conversation with Andrew Leigh on the updated edition of his book, My Country: Stories, Essays and Speeches

David Marr is the rarest of breeds: one of Australia’s most unflinching, forensic reporters of political controversy, and one of its most subtle and eloquent biographers. In Marr’s hands, reportage and commentary are elevated to artful and illuminating chronicles of our time.

Best-selling author, Peter FitzSimons was in conversation with Mathew Trinca on his new book The Legend of Albert Jacka: From the brutal shores of Gallipoli to the battlefields of France, the epic story of the first Australian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross in WW1.

John Safran was in conversation with Kim Rubenstein on his new book Squat, in which he recounts his time squatting in a Hollywood celebrity’s abandoned mansion..With the celebrity’s promotion of Hitler as a kick-off point, Safran explores threads of Jewishness, identity and belonging – topics that couldn’t hit closer to home.

Benjamin Stevenson was in conversation with Jack Heath on his new novel Everyone this Christmas has a Secret, a Christmas addition to his bestselling Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe...

Best-selling Italian author Paolo Giordano was in conversation with Marco Lazzarino on his semi-autobiographical novel Tasmania, which captures the fear, anxiety, wonder, and beauty of this time of uncertainty and upheaval, exploring how we can create and maintain relationships with other people when it feels increasingly difficult to connect.

Shaun Micallef was in conversation with Andrew Leigh on his new book Slivers, Shards and Skerricks. “A one-man anthology by one of Australia's most intelligent and more handsome Renaissance men.”

This indefinitive collection brings together under one cover the very best comic writing – parody, poetry, prose, plays, philosophy and political treatise – by Australia's greatest living television host. From 'I Was Scott Morrison's Schnoodle' and 'Around the World in One Pair of Underpants' to the deliciously decadent recipe for 'Satyricon Su'rprise', Shaun Micallef ‘s sublime anthology has it all.

Andrew Leigh was in conversation with Lin Hatfield Dodds on his new book Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia.

Is Australia fair enough? And why does inequality matter anyway? From egalitarian beginnings, Australian inequality rose through the nineteenth century. Then we became more equal again, with inequality falling markedly from the 1920s to the 1970s. Now, inequality is returning to the heights of the 1820s. The housing and cost-of-living crises we face are some of the defining issues of our time.

Gina Chick was in conversation with Kate Grarock on her memoir We Are the Stars, a misfit's story of love, connection and the glorious power of letting go.

Dr Karl was discussing his memoir A Periodic Tale: My Sciencey Memoir, supplemented by audiovisual images of his remarkable life.
How did a shy Polish immigrant kid - Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki - evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl? The only child of Holocaust survivors who fled to Australia in 1950, Karl has always forged his own destiny in an idiosyncratic way. Before he became one of the world's favourite scientific storytellers, he ambled through a convoluted cacophony of a career.

Virginia Trioli was in conversation with Allan Behm discussing her new book A Bit on the Side: Reflections on What Makes Life Delicious.

Virginia Trioli knows that enduring joy is often found not in the big moments but in the small. And as a dedicated, almost obsessive, foodie, she believes that food gives us the perfect metaphor for how to devour the real flavour of life. When the main course is unappetising, the 'bits on the side' make life really delicious. The sweet and the sour; the salty, the bitter - our small, meaningful selections are the ones that make life glorious.

Don Watson will be in conversation with Mark Kenny on his quarterly essay High Noon: Trump, Harris and America on the brink, in which Don offers a report from America that catches the madness and the politics of an election like no other.

Rebecca Huntley was in conversation with Karen Middleton on Rebecca's new book Sassafras. A Memoir of Love, Loss and MDMA Therapy. Rebecca Huntley didn’t know what ailed her, but she knew it was embedded deep within her mind – and her past. Sassafras is the utterly compelling story of her quest to overcome intergenerational trauma and trauma in her own life.When you’ve experienced trauma and conventional treatments have failed, where do you turn?

The Hon. Kevin Bell, following introductory remarks by Dr. Liz Allen, was in conversation with Kim Rubenstein on his new book Housing .The Great Australian Right, which reimagines ‘the great Australian dream’ of housing as ‘the great Australian right’ to housing

Following a welcome to country by Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan, Darren Rix and Craig Cormick’s new book Warra Warra Wai How Indigenous Australians discovered Captain Cook, and what they tell about the coming of the Ghost People, was launched by Karen Mundine, CEO of Reconciliation Australia.