Good Reading Podcast

Allan Reader is one of the last traditional bat-makers and is struggling to keep the family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne. When gifted young batter Todd Harrow catches Allan's eye, he selects the best piece of willow he's harvested in years to make a Reader bat for him. As Harrow charts a meteoric rise to the highest echelons of the sport, Allan's magical bat takes centre stage, awakening something special in both men. But in cricket, as in life, nothing is guaranteed and with great success comes the prospect of failure and the strain it places on relationships – and the human body.

Willowman is a love letter to the art and beauty of cricket and a meditation on the inner lives of men and women, for whom it is a way of life. 

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Inga Simpson about the miracle timber that is white willow, the glory and the tragedy of a life in cricket, the relationship between the sport, music and the art of crafting cricket bats, and the real people that were the inspiration for this remarkable story.

When Stephanie Plum turns up for work at Vinnie's Bail Bonds she finds office manager Connie hasn't shown up for work. Stephanie's worst fears are confirmed when she gets a call from Connie's abductor. He says he will only release Connie in exchange for a mysterious coin that was left as collateral at the Bail Bonds Office. The problem is the coin is nowhere to be found. Stephanie must enlist the help of Grandma Mazur, her best friend Lula, good cop Joe Morelli and hunky security expert Ranger to rescue Connie and find the coin. As the kidnapper grows more threatening Stephanie has no choice but to step outside her comfort zone and the law - and go rogue.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats with Janet Evanovich about how the shaping of the Stephanie Plum character became a long-term project, why Stephanie doesn't really need to choose between her love interests Joe Morelli and Ranger, and what food tells us about 'The Burg' and the cast of colourful characters that drive the story in 'Going Rogue'.

K2 O'Hero is a seemingly ordinary boy from a truly extraordinary family - he and his twin sister Izzabird have been sworn to keep their family's history of magical explorers a secret. Not even their infuriating step-siblings, Theo and Mable, know magic exists. They believe K2 to be the most hopeless person they have ever known.

But K2 has a secret gift. He draws maps of worlds that are beyond the wildest of imaginations. Worlds with six hundred moons, burning rivers, armoured robots and dark, twisty jungles alive with cannibal plants who hunt by the smell of fear. K2 and his warring siblings are going to have to use this gift to cross over into another world on a daring rescue mission to save the one thing they agree on: their baby sister Annipeck. With a terrible beast and a petrifying robot assassin in their way, they must work together and learn how to be brave - because the future of their family is at stake.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs cats to Cressida Cowell about the way her writing and illustration work hand-in-hand in her creative process, how she brings fantasy and reality together to tell real human stories, and her fascination for magical maps from a very early age.

Twelve-year-old Billy Pyke has a talent for sorting things out, whether it’s his chaotic family home or the busy book stall at Paddy’s Market. In 1871, the market is the loud, smelly, marvellous heart of Melbourne, and Billy is delighted to work at the book stall there for the eccentric Mr Cole. When his new friend Kezia warns him of a sinister magician called the Obscurosmith, Billy can’t believe her stories of magical deals gone horribly wrong – until he sees them happening. The night the Obscurosmith crosses a terrifying and dangerous line, Billy realises something: if he wants the Obscurosmith stopped, he’ll have to do it himself.

Amelia Mellor delivers another race-against-time adventure loaded with tricks, riddles, magic and mayhem in this action-packed prequel to The Grandest Bookshop in the World.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Amelia Mellor about working backwards, the different ways her characters handle their magic skills, and the inspiration she took from Melbourne's Coles Book Arcade and the series of Coles Funny Picture Books.

Mia Swainson is an environmental engineer and member of the ACT Climate Council. Happy Planet Living outlines achievable steps for change and the simple everyday things that can make a big difference. Learn how to make your home carbon positive, achieve zero waste living, and get more from reusing and recycling. Try the 'buy nothing new” challenge for a week or a month or even a year. Introduce 'meat free Mondays' and explore delicious and healthy recipes. Discover the joys of 'home-made' and be inspired to become part of the solution. This is the essential guide to a climate positive lifestyle and sustainable living. 

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Mia Swainson about the importance of knowing your own carbon footprint and how to measure it, finding that middle ground in the quest for sustainable and regenerative living, and why we shouldn't just leave the heavy lifting to government and business.

In Search of Perfumes is a journey across the world in search of the beautiful, mysterious and exotic materials that go into creating perfume. Fruits, flowers, herbs, spices and tree bark are just some of the ingredients that are responsible for satisfying our insatiable appetite for beautiful fragrances. From labdunum cistis to lavender and the damask rose, from jasmine and vanilla to cedar and sandalwood,  this the story of the people and places at the source of the fragrances that so excite our olfactory sense.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Dominique Roques about how he works with master perfumers to create the most famous fragrance brands in the world, how his profession has taken him all over the world in search of raw and distilled ingredients, and the incredible people he has met who preserve ancient methods of production into the future.

It's the early 2000s and 9/11 is fresh in the world's memory. The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, and a new threat is emerging: suicide bombings, ordered by military commander of the Taliban, Mullah Dadullah.

The Hunt is a powerful retelling of a real-life Special Forces mission to catch Dadullah. Using classified sources and his unique insight into the way the SAS works, Andy McNab gives a page-turning account of what it took for the Special Forces to find their target and take him down. It's a story of hostage negotiations, undercover missions and a final, epic assault on Dadullah's compound.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Andy McNab about how fiction is the best and safest medium for true storytelling, why senior military leaders considered Mullah Dadullah an important target, and the psychology behind that thinking – and the experience of the hunt through the eyes of a professional soldier.

In The Superpower Transformation Emeritus Professor Ross Garnaut charts the course for Australia to become a leader in a world of zero-carbon emissions. He outlines new evidence that stronger and earlier action on climate change would be good for jobs and incomes and particularly in regional and rural Australia. Garnaut shows how Australia can meet its obligations set at the Paris and Glasgow climate conferences – and the costs for not doing so.

With contributions from Mike Sandford, Ligang Song, Frank Jotzo, Isabelle Grant, Susannah Powell and Maite Meinshausen, The Superpower Transformation covers electricity, renewable energy, hydrogen, steel production and rare earth minerals, exports, carbon-capture in the landscape and reveals how much Australia has to gain by making the most of the opportunities that are available to us right now. 

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Emeritus Professor Ross Garnaut about why it's in Australia's interest to take a leadership role in the transformation to a zero-carbon future, how green hydrogen is already a reality and why using our wealth of renewable energy resources to produce green hydrogen will transform Australia's economy and ensure our national prosperity into the future.

Despite their iconic status in Australia koalas remain a mystery. As a species they are threatened in some states but dying from overpopulation in others. Koala A Life in Trees shines new light on the life and challenges facing this fascinating marsupial. 

Fuelled by her background in biology, Danielle Clode delves into the world of koalas to discover what's behind that sweet face. From their megafauna ancestors to the disastrous effects of colonisation, this is the story of their complex relationship with humans and what the future holds for this extraordinary animal.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Danielle Clode about the ancient ancestors of the koala, why fossils are so rare and the wealth of information a single fossil jaw can tell us, the intricate relationship between our own Eucalypt forests and this icon of Australian fauna, and why the loss of habitat is the koalas' greatest threat.

A series of brazen, violent and ritualistic murders have police baffled and the killer leaves few clues as to their motive or identity. Inspector Eric Ringer is desperate for Dr Jane Halifax to profile the killer but memories of their last case make Jane hesitate to take on the case. But there's something about the killer that intrigues Jane and as more bodies join the list of violent murders she is compelled to find answers. A psychopath is a psychopath any way you slice it and this is where Jane Halifax excels – but she must overcome her own apprehensions and get into the mind of this killer before he strikes again.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Roger Simpson about turning the highly successful TV series Halifax f.p. into a dark and twisted psychological thriller, how the passage of time has treated his characters after a twenty-three year interlude, and what you can do in a novel that you can't do on a TV screen.