Good Reading Podcast

Miriam Duffy is a respectable North Shore widow, real estate agent and devoted mother. When her youngest daughter Ally finds true love, Miriam is cautiously happy. As time goes by Miriam watches in disbelief as Ally's 'perfect' husband begins a campaign of controlling behaviour that cuts them off from her family.In response to escalating reports of horrifying family violence, fearless commentator and feminist icon, Jane Caro has written a deeply-felt novel about when love turns from nurture to threat in the most surprising of circumstances.In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Jane Caro about when love becomes power and control, the fundamentals behind our problem with domestic violence, the obstacle of the law and the importance of compassion, and why men should read this book too.

In 1845 Eliza Acton produced the first cookery book for domestic use, 'Modern Cookery In All Its Branches Reduced to System of Easy Practice for the Use of Private Families'. It revolutionised cookery in the home and introduced the concept of the recipe as we know it. But the details of Eliza Acton's life are a mystery. Her recipes, informed and styled by her poetry, are the narrative of her life. Annabel Abbs has reimagined this extraordinary life as a work of historical fiction bringing together not only the food but the facts and the fiction to create a story of great social change and female emancipation.In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Annabel Abbs about Eliza Acton's landmark contribution to the culinary arts and how new ingredients transformed British food, exactly why Eliza Acton's recipes read so beautifully and the grand story of imagination and invention Annabel Abbs weaves around them.

Sophie Carlton is an understudy of great promise just waiting for her moment in the spotlight. When star soprano Margaret Gardiner suddenly disappears right before the opening night of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Sophie's greatest wish may have come true. But sometimes dreams come with a price.In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Julie Bennett about growing up in the Sydney Opera House, why Madama Butterfly was the perfect operatic companion to the story, her passion for Italian tenors and her long-running love affair for everything Sydney.

Vivian Walker is dying but that's NOT on her list of things to do. Being terminally ill is frustratingly routine but Vivian is determined to prepare for D-day by making lists of things to do.The Very Last List of Vivian Walker is the darkly funny debut novel that will make you laugh, cry and wonder if you've crossed out all those things on your own lists of things to doIn this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Megan Albany about the power of making lists and what happens to them, why we find it so difficult to talk about death, and how lists manage to transcend gender, age and time to become a universal binding force for humanity trying to organise itself.

Have you ever wondered how we can live a more ethical life? Michael Schur has all the answers to the questions we've been asking ourselves for thousands of years. By sifting through centuries of hard work and introspection by some of the smartest people ever known and eliminating the dull and migraine-inducing parts, Michael Schur has produced the ultimate guide to navigating the ethical dilemmas of modern lifeMichael Schur is the writer and executive producer of The Good Place, the award-winning Netflix series that made moral philosophy fun. Now he's written this foolproof guide to making the correct moral decision in every situation, anywhere in the world.In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Michael Schur about why you should read his book instead of a book by an actual philosopher, a 30-second all-encompassing unifying theory that explains “good” and “bad” people, the moral dilemma of leaving the shopping trolley in the carpark, and why Aristotle is eminently more readable that Wittgenstein.

During the darkest days of the Holocaust, Leo and Mina Fink rallied all the forces at their disposal to rescue the Jewish survivors of Nazi death camps. Together they initiated welfare programs, provided urgent relief and resettled thousands of Jewish settlers in faraway Melbourne.In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Margaret Taft about the Jewish diaspora in Melbourne, what led Leo and Mina Fink to marshal local and international agencies to spearhead the resettlement of displaced Holocaust survivors, and how overcoming bureaucracy and public opinion changed the world for the greater good.

Dr Michael Mosley presents the latest scientific research explaining how the ketogenic diet works and why it is good for you. This new approach helps you lose weight safely, improve mood and reduce blood pressure, inflammation and blood sugars.The Fast 800 Keto is a dynamic new weight loss program that combines a ketogenic diet with low-calorie intermittent fasting to give you the key to long term success. It includes clear advice on which foods will help put you into ketosis, and an easy step-by-step program along with 50 delicious low-carb recipes and menu plans.In this episode Gregory Dobbs talks to Dr Michael Mosley about why intermittent fasting and rapid weight loss is the best approach, how to 'flip the metabolic switch', the importance of quitting processed food, and how honesty is the best policy in making a permanent lifestyle change.

F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is an icon of American literature. But what if this timeless classic was told from a completely different perspective?Jillian Cantor reimagines the glittering world of the Jazz Age through the eyes of three of Fitzgerald's female characters, Daisy Buchanan, Daisy's best friend Jordan Baker, and Catherine McCoy, a suffragette fighting for women's rights and for the life of her sister Myrtle Wilson, trapped in an abusive marriage. Their stories unfold in the years leading up to that fateful summer of 1922, and ultimately the murder of a man driven by money, power, love and desire. This inspired reimagining of The Great Gatsby poses the question: who really killed Jay Gatsby?In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Jillian Cantor about her long-held fascination with The Great Gatsby, finding different points of view for a icon of American literature, and crossing the line from historical fiction to crime fiction.

Amalia and Alex fist set eyes on each other at an Oxford college bar. What begins as a friendship soon follows the tricky path to romance. But love comes at a cost – its intensity is both thrilling and terrifying when it threatens the most perfect of friendships.Set across four years and five cities, 28 Questions is suffused with music, literature, art, sex, philosophy and the exquisite pleasure and pain of first love. This is a novel about growing up and figuring out who you are along the way.In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Indyana Schneider about creating a queer love story, finding a unique storytelling form, and how music attaches itself to our lives, loves and memories.

When Sylvia Beach opens an English-language bookshop on the bohemian Left Bank, Sylvia cannot know she is making literary history. Shakespeare and Company soon becomes the meeting place for emerging writers and a second home for the American Lost Generation living in Paris.Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound are frequent visitors and profound friendships blossom within the welcoming and tolerant atmosphere of this unique bookstore. None more so than that between James Joyce and Sylvia Beach. When Joyce's controversial novel Ulysses is banned, Beach takes on the task of publishing the most infamous book of the century but at deep personal cost.In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Kerri Maher about the real Sylvia Beach, walking the line between fact and fiction, and finding the real people behind the towering literary legacy of some of the greatest writers of the 20th century.