Episodes

  • Chinese Australian dissident artist Badiucao on being followed, threatened - and impersonated
    Nov 22 2024

    In this week's episode we speak with Shanghai-born, Melbourne-based artist Badiucao, who explains what it's like to remain under suspicion and surveillance for his political artwork. Badiucao, a Walkley-award winning artist with The Age, speaks with opinion editor Patrick O'Neil about his early life in China, the kind of things that still happen to him here in Australia - and that strange time someone pretended to be him.

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    49 mins
  • Hannah Diviney on acting, ableist language and not having to always strive for amazing
    Nov 15 2024

    On this week's episode, actor, author and advocate Hannah Diviney speaks about what it was like to call out Lizzo and Beyonce for ableist language, how she doesn't always love her disability, and the freedom to be found in not always needing to be awesome. Speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald culture writer Thomas Mitchell, Diviney also talks about her the new Australian film, Audrey.

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    40 mins
  • Gina Chick on the beauty and power of strangeness
    Nov 8 2024

    In this week's episode we speak with author Gina Chick, winner of the inaugural Alone Australia and author of the memoir We Are The Stars. Chick speaks with journalist David Leser about feeding birds from her own mouth as a kid, how she learned to embrace her weirdness as a young adult, and the wonder of discovering the identity of her famous literary grandmother.

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    41 mins
  • Kate Winslet on photojournalism, sexism, and women in film
    Nov 1 2024

    In this episode, we speak to Academy Award winner Kate Winslet about her new film "Lee" - a biopic about the life of pioneering World War II correspondent Lee Miller, and her sensitive and stunning front-line photography. Hosted by Konrad Marshall, the discussion covers everything from the ups and downs for women in film, to life behind the lens.

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    28 mins
  • Author Joe Aston on what went wrong for the Qantas brand
    Oct 25 2024

    In this week's episode we speak with former Australian Financial Review Rear Window columnist Joe Aston about the national airline and how its reputation has fallen among so many flyers.

    Aston, who penned the upcoming book, The Chairman's Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out, speaks with senior Good Weekend writer Jane Cadzow about how he went from working for Qantas and writing a travel column, to being highly critical of the airline and its former CEO Alan Joyce, to why he wanted to capture that trajectory in a book (with a young baby in tow).

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    41 mins
  • British author Jon Ronson on why psychopaths rule the world - and how we should view Donald Trump
    Oct 18 2024

    In this week's episode we speak with Jon Ronson, who contends the attributes of psychopaths really do help them get ahead. Ronson, who wrote the 2011 bestseller The Psychopath Test, also explores how social media rewards those with an empathy bypass, and looks at the rise of public shaming.

    Speaking with Good Weekend senior writer Konrad Marshall, he also makes a case for non-fiction writers like himself avoiding the temptation of fudging the truth - and the importance of humour in writing.

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    35 mins
  • Literary editor Jason Steger on 25 years of wrangling books, authors and publishers
    Oct 11 2024

    Nobody's desk at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald has been as overflowing with books as that of Jason Steger, who recently left his job as books editor at the mastheads.

    On today's episode he talks with culture writer Kerrie O'Brien about his favourite interviews and books, whether he cops much abuse from writers after a bad review - and that time he drank too much with Richard Flanagan.

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    37 mins
  • Mark Manson, author of 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k' on how the self-help industry gets it wrong
    Oct 4 2024

    In today’s episode, American author, speaker and blogger Mark Manson discusses how the mantra of relentless positivity, which drives so much of the self-help industry, is full of pitfalls. He explains how negative emotions have a purpose - to drive us to do something - and why the willingness to look like an idiot occasionally guards against self-entitlement. He gives us tips on how to be realistic in our lives, how to maintain hope - and what not to do with cyber stalkers.

    Hosting this talk is Good Weekend deputy editor, Greg Callaghan.

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    38 mins