Each year at the Melbourne International Film Festival, a panel of guests gather to dissect the highs and lows of the zeitgeist.

Host Michael Sun, essayist and regular writer for the Guardian, is joined by actor and writer Maria Angelico, Chicago–based New York Magazine Vulture culture critic Angelica Jade Bastién and visiting Los Angeles Times film critic Amy Nicholson to discuss the most overrated, underrated and personal favourite moments in movies, TV, podcasts and books of the past 12 months. Hear hot takes, heated discussions and great recommendations to enjoy post-festival. 

Featured music is ‘Golden Hour’ by Sarah the Illstrumentalist.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

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What can ageing teach us? For broadcast and writer Jacinta Parsons, the answer is – perhaps everything.  

Inspired by many conversations with women across the country, A Wisdom of Age captures the brewing tone of revolution that sits in the hearts of women who are ready to tell a new kind of story about the experience of growing older.  Set against the backdrop of an intimate two-course dinner at Montalto, Parsons reflects on her own experience of ageing, alongside the powerful stories of the remarkable women she’s encountered – each offering unique tales of resilience, wisdom and grace – and the lessons they’ve imparted.  

She joins host Hilary Harper for an honest, thought-provoking and energising conversation about ageing with love and the spirit of rebellion.

This event was recorded on Friday June 6th 2025. It was presented in partnership with Montalto.

The official bookseller was Farrells.

Featured music is 'Lucy’s Trail (Don’t Give Up)' by Sarah the Illstrumentalist.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

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Join New York Times bestselling author Lauren Roberts in her exclusive Melbourne appearance to celebrate Fearless, the highly anticipated third and final book in the Powerless series.  

Romance, fantasy and intrigue collide in this runaway BookTok success known for its fierce heroine, witty banter and deliciously fraught enemies-to-lovers plot. After the shocking cliff-hanger ending of Reckless, Fearless sees Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya where Paedyn has a life-altering choice to make. Whatever she decides will determine her fate – and the fate of those around her – forever. In the ultimate battle of love and loyalty, who wins?  

Joined by Amie Kaufman, Roberts discusses writing slow-burn romance, gripping plot twists and bringing her smash hit, dagger-to-the-throat romantasy trilogy to its thrilling conclusion.

This event was recorded on Wednesday 25 June 2025 at Melbourne Town Hall.

The official bookseller was Readings.

Featured music is ‘Golden Hour’ by Sarah the Illstrumentalist.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

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In 2020, Cheng Lei was working as a business reporter for China's state-run English language television station when she was arrested on charges of sharing state secrets. She was detained in China for over three years under harsh conditions, including prolonged solitary confinement and restricted access to her family, before finally being released. 

Now, back in Australia and free to write and speak her mind, Lei recounts her story in A Memoir of Freedom, an extraordinary memoir of her arrest, trial, imprisonment – and most importantly, her survival. Written with vivid immediacy, this new book is a powerful meditation on hope, freedom and the power of the human spirit.

In conversation with James Scullin, Lei offers a complex, deeply personal account of her experience in confinement, resisting black-and-white thinking in favour of a more nuanced view.

This event was recorded on Wednesday 18 June 2025.

It was presented in partnership with Asia Society Australia.

The official bookseller was Amplify Bookstore.

Featured music is ‘Travelling Again’ by Sarah the Illstrumentalist.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

American Jewish journalist Peter Beinart reflects on the world around him – and his place within it – amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. 

Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza offers a timely reflection, seeking to reimagine what it means to be Jewish in the wake of the horrors unfolding in the Middle East. 

Drawing on Jewish tradition and history, and global efforts at moral reconstruction, Peter Beinart calls for a new story to take hold – one in which Palestinian and Jewish safety are interconnected, and where the veneration of nation states cannot be at the expense of human life. 

He joins host Sarah Schwartz for an examination of one of the most pressing issues of our time and offers his vision for a future of peace and equality.

This event was recorded on Tuesday 27th May 2025 at The Wheeler Centre.

It was presented in partnership with The Jewish Council of Australia.

The official bookseller was Mary Martin Bookshop.

Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

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In 1985, Jeanette Winterson published her debut novel – the groundbreaking and subversive Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. Genre-bending and narratively bold, it garnered then-rare mainstream success for a story that was fiercely feminist and challenged traditional gender roles.  

Four decades on, Winterson remains one of our most distinguished writers, renowned for her singular voice and restless curiosity. Her work spans a vast landscape of ideas, from artificial intelligence to religion, from myth to memory.  

In this episode, hear from one of literature’s most provocative and original minds, as Winterson joins the Wheeler Centre for an exclusive Melbourne appearance at The Capitol, reflecting on her remarkable career and the themes that continue to shape her writing. 

This event was recorded on Saturday 24th May 2025 at The Capitol.

It was presented in partnership with RMIT University.

The official bookseller was Hares and Hyenas.

Featured music is 'Traveling Again' by Sarah the Illstrumenalist.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry, hosts of the Guardian’s political podcast Back to Back Barries, for a clear-eyed analysis of the 2025 Australian federal election.

After five weeks of relentless campaigning, Australians have cast their votes – and political commentators and former major party insiders Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry are here to offer a discerning examination of how, and why, we arrived at the results on 3 May 2025.

In this special post-election live recording of the Guardian’s Back to Back Barries podcast, they look at the key moments that shaped the campaigns, unpack the role that Independents and minor parties had on the balance of power and discuss what has been revealed about the political, cultural and social issues shaping Australia.

This event was presented in partnership with The Guardian. It was recorded on Thursday 15 May 2025 at The Edge, Federation Square.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

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Over an intimate two-course dinner at Montalto, broadcaster and social policy expert Jamila Rizvi and comedian and podcaster Rosie Waterland come together with host Tracee Hutchison for a candid discussion about their deeply personal new book, Broken Brains.  

Drawing from their own experiences, Rizvi and Waterland reflect on their journeys with illness – Rizvi's rare brain tumour diagnosis and Waterland’s ongoing mental trauma from childhood abuse – and explore the unexpected ways these struggles intersect. Through a rare blend of humour and honesty, they offer solidarity and invaluable insights for anyone who has faced illness or cared for someone who has.  

Hear from two women who have navigated their own battles and now wish to share the hope, healing and perspective they’ve gained along the way.  

This event was recorded on Friday 9 May 2025. It was presented in partnership with Montalto. The official bookseller was Farrells.

Featured music is 'I See You Out There' by Tellsonic.

Please note this recording includes references to suicide. For support in Australia contact: 

Lifeline: 13 11 14
Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 36
Headspace: 1800 650 890

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Legendary tech journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher opens up about a lifetime of reporting on Silicon Valley with host Sophie Black.  

In a world where tech billionaires operate beyond the reach of government regulation and press scrutiny, Kara Swisher has devoted her career to holding them to account.  

Her new memoir Burn Book offers an insider’s history of some of Silicon Valley’s most influential companies, laying bare the utopian ideals and troubling compromises of the people who created them. Here, she discusses her wide-ranging experiences of reporting on the tech industry from boom and bust to global domination and offers a clear-eyed view on how big tech has shaped our lives.  

Hear this witty, scathing and frank account from a journalist who has seen the dark inner workings of the industry – and yet remains optimistic about tech's potential to deliver a better and fairer world.

Originally presented on Thursday 6 March 2025 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT Culture.

The official bookseller was Readings.

Featured music is ‘Different Days’ by Chill Cole.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

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Trailblazing journalist and proud Gamilaroi woman Brooke Boney opens up like never before in All of It, her powerful debut essay collection.

Like many millennial women, Brooke Boney is navigating a society that expects her to chase it all – career, success and personal fulfillment – while doing so under an unforgiving public gaze.

In her highly anticipated essay collection, All of It, she reflects on the pressures of life in the spotlight as the first Indigenous host of Australian commercial breakfast television and now as an ambitious scholar striving to inspire others. With honesty and insight, she explores the competing expectations placed on young women today.

In conversation with Jacinta Parsons, the charismatic and thought-provoking Boney delves into what drives her sense of purpose and meaning while grappling with the generational impacts of colonisation, love, friendship, fertility and ambition.

This event was recorded on Friday 4 April 2025 at The Wheeler Centre.

The official bookseller was Readings.

Featured music is ‘Golden Hour’ by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.

Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.