The Readings Podcast

In this episode, we have a recording taken from the launch of Follow Your Gut, with co-creators Briony Barr & Gregory Crocetti, writers Lisa Stinson & Ailsa Wild and illustrator Ben Hutchings.

In this graphic novel, one meets the ecosystem inside them ... A timid Bifidobacterium named Biffy is forced to leave their family and become part of a new community, in the gut of a newborn human baby. Follow Your Gut is a comic that ate a biology textbook. It's an epic adventure set over the first three years of a new life, exploring one of the most important relationships you will ever have - the one with your gut microbiome.

A new instalment of The Comics Question, a series where Bernard Caleo and I discuss comics, graphic novels, and all manner of illustrated books, zines, and other associated productions.

In this episode, Bernard spoke with Li Chen, author and illustrator of the graphic novel Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat.

In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of Emma Hakansson’s Sub-Human.

The book delves into what it means to be an animal, how our view of other animals impacts our view of other people, oppressions, and the planet, how we got here, as well as how we can move forward together.

The event was opened with a launching speech by Georgie Purcell MP of the Animal Justice Party, followed by a reading from Emma Hakansson, and audience questions.

In this episode, Andy McCarthy, author of Here Comes the Sun, in conversation.

Misunderstood, tormented and bullied for years, Andy McCarthy was unable to find his pack. When he dropped out in Year 10, his prospects weren't good. He had no idea then that his personal drive and dogged determination would lead to incredible success. At 19, Andy connected his first solar panel and suddenly found himself powered by a purpose: to accelerate the world's transition to renewable energy. Where best to make that happen? Coal country, and a place that has provided Victoria with most of its energy for a century, the Latrobe Valley.

From tiny beginnings in his home garage, Andy overcame a tide of ridicule, setbacks and opposition to build one of Australia's largest employers in the renewable energy sector: Gippsland Solar.

In this episode, Jordan Prosser, author of Big Time, in conversation.

The book is set in a not-too distant future Australia, where the eastern states have become the world's newest autocracy – a place where pop music is propaganda, science is the enemy, nationalism trumps all, and moral indecency is punishable by indefinite detention. Big Time is an anti-fascist ode to the power of pop music and a satire about art in the face of entropy, all wrapped up in an unforgettable road trip.

Jordan Prosser was joined in conversation by Jacinta Parsons, broadcaster and author of Unseen and A Question of Age. To introduce, here's the publisher of Big Time, Aviva Tuffield of University of Queensland Press.

In this episode, returning guest, Sarah Street, author of A Curse of Salt, in conversation to discuss their new book, A Sea of Wolves.

The book is billed as a sapphic romantasy inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. It features an enemies-to-lovers fairytale twist set upon the stormy seas. It’s perfect for fans of Lies We Sing to the Sea and Marissa Meyer.

Sarah Street is interviewed by Lucie Dess, the Readings Marketing and Events Coordinator.

In this episode, a conversation with Paul Ham, author of The Soul: A History of the Human Mind.

Almost everyone thinks they have a soul, but nobody knows quite what it is. For thousands of years the soul was an 'organ', an entity, something that was part of all of us, that survived the death of the body and ventured to the underworld, or to heaven or hell. The soul could be saved, condemned, tortured, bought. And then, mysteriously, the 'soul' disappeared. The Enlightenment called it the 'mind'. And today, neuroscientists demonstrate that the mind is the creation of the brain. The 'religious soul' lives on, in the minds of the faithful, while the secular 'soul' means whatever you want it to mean.

In The Soul: A History of the Human Mind critically acclaimed historian Paul Ham embarks on a journey that has never been attempted: to restore the idea of the soul to the human story and to show how belief in, and beliefs arising from, the soul/mind have animated and driven the history of humankind. The Soul is much more than a mesmerising narrative and uniquely accessible way of explaining our story. It transforms our understanding of how history works. It persuasively demonstrates that the beliefs of the soul/mind are the engines of human history.

Paul Ham was interviewed by Mark Rubbo, chairman of Readings. I hope you enjoy their conversation.

In this episode, a conversation with Khin Myint, author of a new memoir, Fragile Creatures.

Khin's sister Theda has a strange illness and a euthanasia drug locked in a box under her bed. Her doctor thinks her problem is purely physical, and so does she, but Khin is not so sure. He knows what they both went through growing up in Perth - it wasn't welcoming back then for a Burmese-Australian family. With Theda's condition getting worse, Khin heads off to the United States. He needs to sort things out with his ex-partner. Once there, events take a very odd turn, and he finds himself in court.

This is a family story told with humour, wonderment and complete honesty. It's about care, truth and the hardest choices - and what happens when realities clash. How do we balance responsibility for others with what we owe ourselves?

In this episode, recorded live at Readings Carlton, a talk and a Q&A session with public intellectual and widely published author Clive Hamilton.

Hamilton’s most recent book is Living Hot, a collaborative effort written with George Wilkenfeld. The book tells the blunt truth about our current climate change predicament: it’s time to get cracking on making Australia resilient to intensifying climate extremes.

If we prepare well, we can give ourselves a fighting chance to preserve some of the best of what we have, build stronger and fairer communities, find a path through the escalating pressures of a warming world – and even find new ways to flourish.

In this episode, a conversation with Emma Kowal, anthropologist and physician and author of the book Haunting Biology: Science and Indigeneity in Australia.

The book recounts the troubled history of Western biological studies and Indigenous Australians. The stories Kowal tells feature a variety of ghostly presences: a dead anatomist, a fetishised piece of hair hidden away in a war trunk, and an elusive white Indigenous person.

By linking this history to the contemporary moment, Kowal outlines the fraught complexities, perils and potentials of studying Indigenous biological difference in the twenty-first century.