Many column inches have been devoted to ideas about who gets to be heard. The ubiquitous cry of ‘cancel culture’ is bandied around to suggest that we have a collective cultural problem with free speech, but the nature of disagreement in the public sphere suggests that the real difficulty lies elsewhere. Different platforms speak at different volumes, structural power rejects dissent and our discourse is increasingly polarised. Hear Jeff Sparrow (Fascists Among Us: Online Hate and the Christchurch massacre), Randa Abdel-Fattah (Coming of Age in the War on Terror) and journalist Kishor Napier-Raman explore the loaded ways we understand the privilege, responsibilities and dangers of public speech, with Sophie Black.

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"If I go on believing I might be able to have my mind changed then the possibilities are endless." Michael Williams, Artistic Director of Sydney Writers' Festival 

Join Annabel Crabb and Artistic Director Michael Williams as they unveil the 2022 Festival program.

The pair discuss the 2022 Festival theme, Change My Mind – an invitation, a challenge, and a promise of intent – and the litany of impressive local authors as well as writers from further afield joining us this year, ready to inspire conversation, spark new ideas and start robust debates about the world and our place in it.

Thank you to 2SER for facilitating the recording of this podcast.

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Each of us – including your favourite YA authors – has a treasured protagonist, antagonist or side character who we firmly believe should have nothing bad ever happen to them. Listen to this special gala event from 2021 All-Day YA as Gary Lonesborough (The Boy from the Mish), Zana Fraillon (The Lost Soul Atlas), Garth Nix (The Left-Handed Booksellers of London), Leanne Hall (The Gaps), Michael Pryor (Gap Year in Ghost Town), Jenna Guillaume (You Were Made for Me) and Will Kostakis (Rebel Gods) share which characters they would protect at all costs from malevolent authors and literary harm. Introduced by Amelia Lush and hosted by Will Kostakis, with a Q&A at the end.

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"I think it's valuable to dwell on the difficult stuff sometimes, and that this can actually be very productive and germinating in terms of writing." – Claire Thomas

Rebecca Starford and Claire Thomas discuss their acclaimed 2021 novels with Declan Fry. Hailed as a gripping thriller and deft character study, Rebecca’s The Imitator is the story of a female spy recruited into an elite MI5 counterintelligence unit during World War II. Named one of The Sydney Morning Herald’s most anticipated books of the year, Claire’s The Performance is a tightly woven portrayal of three women forever changed during a night at the theatre as bushfires burned nearby.

Listen as these two talented authors touch on the joys of inhabiting their characters' heads, their shared need to make sense of the world through art and the growing societal pressure to adopt a false sense of positivity.

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Celebrated journalist Barrie Cassidy breaks down the challenges and opportunities for the then newly minted US President Joe Biden with a panel of experts and colleagues. Joining him are journalist for The New Yorker and award-winning author of Joe Biden: American Dreamer Evan Osnos; UNSW Law Professor Rosalind Dixon; and former foreign minister Bob Carr. Throughout their lively discussion, the group offers their insights into the man who took the presidency in a time of extraordinary turmoil.

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“Maybe the fingernail in the flesh is your dream too, now that loving and staying away are newly conjoined.” – Maria Tumarkin

For our 2021 Festival, an all-star line-up of guests came together to deliver a speech on the Festival theme, Within Reach. Speakers celebrated the power of writing to generate empathy, imagination and action. In this moving highlight, cultural historian and novelist Maria Tumarkin (Axiomatic) muses on the blurred boundaries between personal and shared space in a world of colonial theft, social distancing measures and rolling crises.

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"I am not magically transformed by my relationship with mushrooms, but I am certainly on the right path." – Krissy Kneen

Faced with the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, award-winning author Krissy Kneen (Affection; An Uncertain Grace; and The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen: Travels with My Grandmother’s Ashes) was forced to rethink her writing practice and took an unexpected deep dive into the world of mushrooms. In this Curiosity Lecture, Krissy gives a mushroom-making masterclass, argues the case for why mycologists are the cheeriest scientists and explains how mycelium might become the saviour of our planet.

Please note, experiences of depression and anxiety are discussed in this podcast episode.

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“I was never in pain or afraid, but it was a journey that’s left me cherishing every bit of every day and I’m so happy that it’s within reach.” – Alison Lester

For our 2021 Festival, an all-star line-up of guests came together to deliver a speech on the Festival theme, Within Reach. Speakers celebrated the power of writing to generate empathy, imagination and action. In this moving highlight, children’s author Alison Lester recounts her harrowing time spent in a six-day medically induced coma and what unexpected treasures came from this miraculous experience.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic ushers in a new era of remote communication, machines are being programmed to mimic the way humans make friends, grow intimate and fall in love. In this compelling talk from our Curiosity Lecture series, evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks (Artificial Intimacy: Virtual Friends, Digital Lovers and Algorithmic Matchmakers) explains how these artificially intimate devices can help us make friendships in a world of cognitive overload, stay close in a time of isolation and feel better despite the rising rate of mood disorders.

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For too long our understanding of how to build urban spaces has relied on a particular set of orthodoxies and expertise. But what does it mean to reconceive of the places where we live; how might we combine other knowledges and ideas with an appetite for change? Jess Scully (Glimpses of Utopia), Fiona Murphy (The Shape of Sound) and Alison Page (Building on Country) talk with Manisha Amin from the Centre for Inclusive Design about how we might design our way to a better, more inclusive and more sustainable way to live.

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