The Wheeler Centre

“What I discovered eventually was to use all your resources to get as much support as you can, it makes a huge difference to everybody. And give up on asking people for help that don’t want to help you” - Esther Freud.

Motherhood is an intense period of introspection and change. For some, these may be ideal conditions for creative inspiration to strike, but it comes with immense demands on time, money and energy. For the Wheeler Centre’s M/OTHER series, writer and musician Edwina Preston, British novelist Esther Freud and musician and mother Thndo explored the ideas and complications behind balancing art-making and motherhood.

Together with host, Radio National presenter Hilary Harper, they delved into pertinent and honest questions about the roles of mother and artist, the barriers to creativity placed upon them by caregiving, and what structures can be put in place to better support mothers pursuing creative careers.

This event was recorded on Saturday 4 March 2023 at the Wheeler Centre as part of M/OTHER: a weekend of fearless conversation about the ways ‘motherhood’ is experienced, portrayed and labelled by those who mother, have been mothered, wish they were mothers, do not identify as mothers, cannot or do not want to mother, and by society at-large.

The official bookseller for M/OTHER was Neighbourhood Books.

Featured music is ‘Travelling Again’ – Sarah the Illstrumentalist

Conversations from M/OTHER may include references to topics such as mental health, reproductive rights, and childbirth. If you need assistance with any of these issues, you can learn more and seek advice via the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Perintal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) and Beyond Blue.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“It felt like energy, like the words, the story, it just felt like something that had to come out of my body. And if I wasn’t going to write it, I was going to scream it or I was gonna dig it, or something. I mean seriously, that’s where I was when I was writing this” - Rachel Yoder.

An ode to the all-consuming and sometimes feral experience of motherhood, Rachel Yoder’s debut novel Nightbitch tells the story of a new mother who begins turning into a dog at night.

Chronicling the joy, mundanity and instability of modern motherhood, Nightbitch drew international acclaim, cementing Yoder as one of America’s most exciting contemporary novelists and luring the attention of Hollywood, with a film adaption starring Amy Adams currently in production.

For her first ever conversation event in Australia, Yoder joined Australian author Kate Mildenhall (The Mother Fault) to discuss the strangeness of motherhood, the challenges new parents often confront to retain a sense of self, and the many complexities involved in depicting the fullness of the mothering experience in fiction.

This event was recorded on Friday, 3 March 2023 at the Wheeler Centre as part of M/OTHER: a weekend of fearless conversation about the ways ‘motherhood’ is experienced, portrayed and labelled by those who mother, have been mothered, wish they were mothers, do not identify as mothers, cannot or do not want to mother, and by society at-large.

The official bookseller for M/OTHER was Neighbourhood Books.

Featured music is ‘Different Days’ by Chill Cole.

Conversations from M/OTHER may include references to topics such as mental health, reproductive rights, and childbirth. If you need assistance with any of these issues, you can learn more and seek advice via the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Perintal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) and Beyond Blue.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Women who often have the least amount of resources, that have the least safety net, that have the least visibility, that have the least voices or representation in parliament - are usually the ones who launch the fiercest protests. The most dangerous protests." - Fatima Bhutto.

On International Women’s Day 2023, three powerhouse women came together for a galvanising conversation exploring politics and power through a global feminist lens.

Bestselling Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto has spoken around the world about women in leadership, the role of violence in politics and the challenges of democracy, sharing her personal experiences growing up in a political family shadowed by violence. Author, journalist and artist Shokoofeh Azar sought political asylum in Australia after being jailed three times in Iran while covering stories about Iranian social and human rights issues. Her novel The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the International Booker Prize.

With journalist and filmmaker Santilla Chingaipe, they shared their personal and professional experiences as creative women in public life. Together, they interrogated the importance of freedom of speech and agency for women around the world, reflecting on the most pressing global issues affecting women and how feminist innovation can create a better, equal future.

Presented in partnership with RMIT Culture.

This event was supported by the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, a Victorian Government and City of Melbourne partnership.

This event was recorded on Wednesday 8 March 2023 at The Capitol.

The official bookseller for this event was Amplify Bookstore.

Featured music is AVA LOW - No One There.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2022, Jonathan Van Ness – Emmy nominated television personality, comedian, best-selling author, podcaster and hairstylist – joined Australian writer and transgender rights activist Nevo Zisin for a digital conversation about JVN's essay collection Love That Story, the contemporary queer experience, and the importance of sharing and celebrating everything that makes our stories unique.

This digital event was recorded and released in May 2022 as part of the Wheeler Centre's Postcards From Abroad series.

The online bookseller for this event was Hill of Content Bookshop.

Featured music is City Phases by John Abbott.

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

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"It was important to me to try and use the book to explore this shift and this gap between what I see in the media, what I see in fiction and on television and what I'd observed in life." - Natasha Brown

Bold and provocative, Natasha Brown’s debut novel Assembly cuts to the heart of race relations in modern Britain.

A clear-eyed and harrowing exposé of privilege, ambition and the legacies of colonisation, Assembly was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Orwell Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Brown joined host Jamila Rizvi for the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling series for a wide-ranging discussion about race, class and identity.

Presented in partnership with RMIT Culture and supported by Future Women.

With thanks to UNSW Centre for Ideas.

This event was recorded on Thursday 10 November 2022 at The Capitol

Featured music is Diffuser by Shiruky

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

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"Exercise is like a vacuum cleaner for aging tissue and renews your tissue. You can look at the biopsy of muscle and your muscle is frail and old. After you've done weight training, your muscle is indistinguishable from a young person's." Norman Swan

With a career spanning over thirty years as a radio and television presenter, health journalist Norman Swan is a stalwart of the Australian media landscape.

Over lunch at Montalto Winery, Swan discussed his career as a medical professional in the public eye and his latest book So You Want To Live Younger Longer? Combining wellbeing and health tips with scientific insights, the book provides a practical and factual perspective, sans sensationalism, about how to live a healthy and positive life – at any age.

Join one of Australia’s most trusted medical voices for a conversation about lifelong health and communicating in a crisis. Hosted by Sally Warhaft.

Presented in partnership with Montalto.

This event was recorded on Thursday 29 September 2022 at Montalto.

Featured music is Flyin - New Location

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Mark Twain said, fiction must be plausible, truth needn't be, or words to that effect. And truth is, it's so much more unlikely. And so everything in this book that seems unlikely, those are the true things." – Geraldine Brooks.

Geraldine Brooks is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist behind works such as March, Year of Wonders and Foreign Correspondence. Her latest release, Horse, is a sweeping narrative that weaves together three encounters with Lexington, the greatest racehorse in US history, to explore the legacy of racism and slavery in America.

Over a warming wintry lunch at Montalto, with produce straight from the kitchen garden, Brooks joined Santilla Chingaipe for a discussion about Horse, what drew her to the story of Lexington, as well as her own illustrious career.

Presented in partnership with Montalto.

This event was recorded on Friday 22 July 2022 at Montalto

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"We do, we sing gospel, we sing country, we sing rock, reggae, we sing ballads. If we could, we'd do opera. You know, we just like all sorts of music. Our sound has been our harmony. That's our thing. You know, we just enjoy harmonising together." - Vika Bull

Whether at church in suburban Melbourne; with The Black Sorrows; alongside artists including Paul Kelly, Kasey Chambers and John Farnham; or on one of their seven studio albums, singer-songwriters Vika & Linda have been performing together since childhood.

Their new collaborative memoir No Bull sees the sisters recount the highs and lows of their three-decade long career with honesty and humour.

As part of the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling: A Short Series of Big Ideas, Vika & Linda joined us for an afternoon of music and conversation. The duo spoke with journalist and broadcaster Namila Benson about their lifelong connection to music, their experience of releasing three albums in the last three years, and the significance of their Tongan heritage within their creative practice.

This event was recorded at The Capitol as part of the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling in September 2022.

Featured music is Tellsonic - I See You Out There

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

'I don't start a novel thinking I have things to show you or tell you. I always start a novel because there are things I want to discover." - Kamila Shamsie.

The author of seven novels, Kamila Shamsie has built an acclaimed career crafting explorations of the personal impacts of political, cultural and historical shadows. Now, the multi-award-winning writer turns her attention to the everchanging nature of female friendship, and the forces that bring people together, or tear them apart.

Following the story of two best friends from Karachi to London, Best of Friends is Shamsie’s first novel since Home Fire, for which she won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize.

In this episode, Kamila Shamsie speaks with Love and Virtue author Diana Reid about her latest work and explores our shifting perspectives on friendships, from fickle flings to the fiercely faithful.

With thanks to UNSW Centre for Ideas

Presented in partnership with RMIT Culture

This event was recorded on Wednesday 9 November 2022 at The Capitol as part of the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling program.

Featured music is Johannes Bornlöf - Friend of Mine.

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

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Content warning: The Wheeler Centre wishes to advise this recording includes discussion about human bodies in collections, which were taken from their cultural places against the wishes of First Nations communities.

Repatriation is an issue at the heart of many cultural institutions, as museums and galleries reckon with the violent colonial histories that underpin significant portions of their collections. Once sought and traded as aesthetic trophies and scientific evidence, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander objects and ancestral remains, housed and hidden in institutions across the world are thought to number in the many thousands.

Malthouse Theatre’s production of The Return which premiered as part of RISING in 2022, engaged with the importance of returning these items and remains back to Country. This epic theatre experience spanned 250 years and explored the untold perspectives of these macabre true histories and the false justifications behind them.

In this episode, hear from The Return’s writer John Harvey and co-director Jason Tamiru, along with senior curator Kimberley Moulton. With host Daniel James, the panel consider the play’s themes, alongside Moulton’s insights into alternative models of collection and display that prioritise community access and situate these cultural belongings within a continuous flow of history. At the intersection of creative exploration and institutional knowledge, they discuss how the repatriation of Ancestors can bring us closer to truth-telling and First Peoples agency in museums.

Presented in partnership with RISING and Malthouse Theatre.

This event was recorded on Tuesday 31 May 2022 at the Wheeler Centre.

Featured music is DEX 1200 - The Chakra Movement

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.