What kind of world could we create if we stopped believing inequality is the price of progress?

Archaeology professor David Wengrow’s groundbreaking book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, co-authored with the late David Graeber, overturns the theories of Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens), Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) and Steven Pinker (Enlightenment Now). Challenging dominant narratives that the agricultural revolution meant abandoning an egalitarian Eden, the book unearths advanced early civilisations that weren’t governed by kings, presidents or authoritarian rule.

Transform your understanding of human evolution with David, in conversation with ABC RN’s Richard Fidler, and learn how rewriting history may provide political inspiration for today.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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In Your Favourites’ Favourites, our most loved writers introduce one of their favourite authors.

Acclaimed Women & Children author Tony Birch sits down with debut writer Graham Akhurst, a Fulbright Scholar who drafted his YA novel, Borderland, while studying in renowned writing program at Hunter College in New York City. This gripping coming-of-age story follows a city-born First Nations teenager on an epic quest to figure out who he is.

Join Tony and Graham as they discuss First Nations identity, the impact of colonisation and what happens when you take a stand. 

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

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If you thought you knew the backstory of The Teacher's Pet, the gripping whodunnit podcast downloaded by over 80 million listeners, think again.

Two-time Gold Walkley Award–winning investigative journalist Hedley Thomas’ book takes readers behind the scenes of the podcast investigation with a blow-by-blow account of one of the most intriguing and enduring murder mysteries of our time.

Get the scoop as Hedley reveals to Matthew Condon how fresh leads, old evidence and a groundswell of public attention on a scandalous cold case finally saw justice delivered after nearly four decades.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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“The past is a foreign country”, L.P. Hartley famously wrote. It is also a place readers can visit via masterful historical fiction.

Be transported by esteemed panellists Francesca de Tores (Saltblood), Mirandi Riwoe (Sunbirds) and Abraham Verghese (The Covenant of Water) as they discuss the magic of bringing history to life for contemporary audiences. Learn how these authors conjure the past to make sense of the present and convincingly intertwine fact and fiction in their prose. Hosted by Kate Evans (ABC RN’s The Bookshelf).

Abraham Verghese appeared at this event via video link. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

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Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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Imagine another world with the fantasy writers who are redefining the wildly popular genre.

Australian fantasy heavyweight Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom series) takes to the stage with ascending local star Shelley Parker-Chan (The Radiant Emperor duology) and global sensation Samantha Shannon (The Roots of Chaos series) to explain how they create expansive universes for their epic stories, heroes and heroines.

This is must-listen episode for YA and fantasy fans alike! Hosted by Aimée Lindorff.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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She may be self-absorbed, adrift or unhinged, but the ‘sad girl’ is taking the publishing industry by storm.

Debut novelists Nadine J. Cohen (Everyone and Everything), Madeleine Gray (Green Dot) and Jessie Stephens (Something Bad is Going to Happen) have all created unforgettable protagonists who are fallible, at times unlikeable and painfully relatable.

Hear from these exciting debut novelists as they discuss making and breaking this emerging genre’s rules, and how they crafted compelling portraits of present-day womanhood. In conversation with The Guardian’s Steph Harmon.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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From parched paddocks to sleepy coastal towns, the bodies keep piling up – and Australian readers can’t get enough.

This panel brings together some of Australia’s hottest local crime writers, with Sulari Gentill (The Mystery Writer), Dinuka McKenzie (Tipping Point) and Benjamin Stevenson (Everyone on this Train is a Suspect).

Dust off your Akubra for a thrilling chat about the outback noir genre and what makes Aussie crime fiction unique, with host Alex Adsett.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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In the wake of a shift in the global power balance, how can Australia best protect itself?

Two of Australia’s most interesting foreign policy thinkers take a fresh look at Australia’s place in the world and come to some surprising conclusions. Clinton Fernandes (Sub-Imperial Power) and Sam Roggeveen (The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace) tackle the big questions about the US alliance, the threat of China, and underneath it all, what kind of country Australia really is.

Listen as Sam and Clinton reshape Australia’s understanding of itself in the international arena, in conversation with Verity Firth.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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What is the writer’s role in an era of profound ecological change?

This panel event brings together leading local nature writers James Bradley and Bruce Pascoe to discuss how best to defend our environment. James’ latest book, Deep Water: The World in the Ocean, dives into the waves, and Bruce’s Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra investigates traditional agricultural practices that offer a blueprint for our farming futures.

Reflect on our relationship with the natural world and what lies ahead, as James and Bruce are joined in conversation by Ashley Hay.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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"People have crazy lives," says Paul Murray. "The stuff that happens to – quote-unquote – ordinary folks is very operatic."

Case in point: his Booker Prize shortlisted The Bee Sting which follows an unravelling household in the Irish Midlands who embody Tolstoy's proverb about unhappy families. Paul's third novel has been acclaimed by critics as “generous, expansive and glorious as a cathedral” (The Guardian).

One of three superb Irish writers at this year's Festival, this is your chance to catch Paul solo, in conversation with Kate Evans (ABC RN's The Bookshelf).

This episode was recorded live in May 2024. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

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