Good Weekend Talks

It's not too much of an overstatement to say that for over 30 years, Michael Pollan's books have helped reshape conversations about industrial food systems, animal consciousness and our obligations to other living things.

His new book, A World Appears, is about plant sentience – an immersive exploration of how plants exhibit thinking and memory-like behaviours, respond to physical threats, favour their own species and supply nutrients to struggling neighbouring plants.

In this episode, Pollan discusses compelling new research that argues humans are far from the only living entities exhibiting sentience and indeed, "exquisite" awareness of their environment.

Today’s conversation is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Greg Callaghan.

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Melbourne-born Suzie Miller's background as a lawyer has influenced the 40-odd plays she has written, many of which feature strong social-justice themes. Best known among those works are the award-winning Prima Facie, which has been staged in Sydney, Melbourne and London, and Inter Alia, which premiered in London last year and opens on Broadway in November.
In Miller's new play, Strong is the New Pretty, she tells the story of the birth of the women's Australian Football League, the AFLW, as it moves from pipe dream to sensation.
In this episode, Miller talks to deputy opinion editor Margot Saville about sport, feminism and the manosphere.

Further reading:

• ‘Do we want a world that reflects a kind of tech-bro zone? I don’t think so’: Suzie Miller on raising sons

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Australians know Judith Lucy as the comedian with a sardonic wit and no-fear attitude to mining her personal life, from her unconventional upbringing and numerous disastrous relationships, to drinking too much and the indignities of ageing.

For over three decades, life was work for Lucy – until it wasn't. In 2023, she had a burnout, and she's turned her discoveries from that experience into a book about deep exhaustion.

In today's episode, Judith Lucy opens up about what fulfilment means for her, and the special guilt associated with burning out when you are middle-class and middle-aged. 

She talks to Good Weekend senior writer Gay Alcorn about everything from ayahuasca ceremonies and faecal transplants to finally asking herself, in her 50s, what she wants her life to look like.

And just a heads-up, this episode contains some strong language.

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At just 19, Alexa Leary was a champion triathlete when she suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in an horrific cycling accident. She wasn't expected to survive the crash, but she beat the odds, learning to walk, talk and live again – even jumping back in the pool with renewed purpose, winning two gold medals and one silver at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. In this episode of Good Weekend Talks, Leary talks to Konrad Marshall about living with traumatic brain injury and dealing with acute memory loss, and also reflects on her life before the accident. Now 25, Leary has released a song, Closer, and a biography – Sink or Swim: Defying the Odds.

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Bram Connolly is the type of person you want as a neighbour if there's ever a crisis or an emergency on your street.
Connolly spent 20 years in the Australian special forces navigating the world's most dangerous landscapes, from Afghanistan to Somalia, so he knows how to stay cool in the heat of battle – and in unplanned moments in daily civilian life.
The founder of Hindsight Leadership and Resilience says preparedness begins with situational awareness and controlling emotions like stress and anxiety. In this episode, Connolly discusses his new book, 100 Ways I Almost Died, which features compelling stories of survival during his years as a special forces commander, while also providing life lessons for these increasingly unstable times. This episode is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Greg Callaghan.

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Australian journalist Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times, is perhaps best known for his hard-hitting interviews with US President Donald Trump. Most famous was his August 2020 exchange with Trump, in which Swan's real-time fact-checking (and incredulous facial expressions) while listening to the president's muddled assertions earned the then 35-year-old reporter an Emmy award. Now Swan has teamed up with fellow Times journalist and Trump expert Maggie Haberman to write "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump". It's a withering behind-the-scenes look at how Trump has consolidated executive power in his second term, stripping away institutional checks and balances while padding the bank accounts of his family.
Swan, who is the son of ABC broadcaster Dr Norman Swan and a former reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald, speaks with Good Weekend senior writer Greg Callaghan about what like to be face-to-face with, as Swan describes, the most consequential US president of a lifetime. 

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Think of Myf Warhurst and the word “bubbly” might spring to mind. With everything the radio and TV personality does – from Spicks and Specks to the Eurovision Song Contest or her documentary, The Truth about Menopause – Warhurst is known as the ray of sunshine, the nice one (she’s even the voice of Aunt Trixie, and Indy’s Mum, on Bluey). But she’s no longer playing nice. In a new book, she’s taken on the patriarchy. And she’s angry. In this episode of Good Weekend Talks, Warhurst talks about everything from creepy men to Karens, from Gen X to coercive control, as well as the enviable matriarchal society of bonobo monkeys. This conversation is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Melissa Fyfe.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

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George Megalogenis is known as a big thinker about Australian politics and culture, searching beyond the noise for what’s really going on in our country. He has four decades' experience in the media, including time in the parliamentary press gallery. In his new book, Three Shocks: Who We Are Becoming in the 21st Century, he looks at the seismic changes underway that will influence all of us in the coming decades. He joins Good Weekend Talks today for a chat about immigration – long an interest of his, as the son of Greek migrants – along with the feminisation of the workforce, and the unreliability of both our great ally in the United States, and our great trading partner in China. Hosting this conversation is Good Weekend senior writer Gay Alcorn.

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Maria Ressa is one of the most celebrated journalists in the world. Born in Manila in 1963, she moved with her family to the US, studying at Princeton University before returning to the Philippines to forge a career covering the growth of terrorism in South East Asia. In 2012, she co-founded online news site Rappler, distinguishing herself as a fearless defender of freedom of expression while standing up to an authoritarian regime infamous for, among other things, its campaign against journalists. Ressa’s bravery earned her the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for journalism, and she’s visiting Australia to speak on August 23 at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney. She joins us for a chat about the threat to democracy from disinformation, and the responsibility we all share to tease fact from fiction in the age of AI – a conversation hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Tim Elliott.

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Anthony LaPaglia is best known to audiences for a host of big- and small-screen roles, including films such as Looking for Alibrandi, Lantana and Balibo and US TV shows including Without a Trace.

But the 67-year-old is also no stranger to the stage, having once won a Tony for his performance in the Arthur Miller play, A View from the Bridge.

He’s back in Australia right now to front another Miller play – one the great works in the American canon – playing Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. A limited two-week season kicks off Tuesday, August 11 at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, before moving on to Brisbane.

LaPaglia joins us for a chat about acting and art, family and football – and what he wished he'd known 20 years ago. This episode is hosted by Good Weekend deputy editor Konrad Marshall.

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