In this panel event, voices from different generations and First Nations backgrounds came together to explore First Nations community and family networks, and how they relate to conceptions of motherhood, parenting and the transmission of First Nations knowledge systems.

Ali Cobby Eckermann is the Windham Campbell Prize-winning author of memoir, poetry and verse novels, including Inside My Mother, and a survivor of the Stolen Generations. Dr Jackie Huggins’ decades of work as an author, historian and academic have focused on First Nations identity, activism and the question of feminism’s relevance for Indigenous women. An education academic and frequent media commentator, Dr Amy Thunig’s forthcoming memoir Tell Me Again explores the shaping of identity amidst intergenerational trauma and poverty – and deep familial love.

For this wide-ranging conversation in partnership with Blak and Bright, they joined host Bridget Caldwell-Bright for an insightful conversation about the women they have known, loved and learned from, and the women they are. The event opened with a Yarn Bomb from emerging Kamilaroi artist Emily Wells.

Presented in partnership with Blak and Bright.

Featured music is City Phases by John Abbot. 

This event was recorded on Monday 7 November 2022 as part of the Wheeler Centre's Spring Fling: A Short Series of Big Ideas program. Spring Fling was supported by the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, a Victorian Government and City of Melbourne partnership.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the lead singer of Midnight Oil, one of Australia’s most successful and politically engaged bands, to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage & the Arts in the Rudd/Gillard Labor governments, Peter Garrett has been a long-time campaigner on a range of local and global issues.

Through all his work, Garrett has exemplified the power of arts and activism in fighting for positive environmental change; whether performing in protest and benefit shows globally or steering the Australian Conservation Foundation as its youngest ever president.

During Spring Fling, the Wheeler Centre went to Macedon for a thought-provoking conversation between Garrett and award-winning author and journalist Anna Krien presented in partnership with the inaugural Mountain Writers Festival. Together they reflect on Garrett’s incredible life of environmental activism, and the role art, politics and campaigning can play in creating positive, lasting change.

Presented in partnership with Mountain Writers Festival.

This audio recording of this event was produced by motion media students from Alice Miller School in Macedon.

Featured music is Golden Hour by Sarah, The Illstrumentalist

This event was part of the Wheeler Centre's Spring Fling: A Short Series of Big Ideas program – supported by the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, a Victorian Government and City of Melbourne partnership.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With a CV including Spicks and Specks, the Eurovision Song Contest, Triple J, ABC Radio, Playschool and the animated global hit Bluey, Myf Warhurst has been a staple of Australian radio and TV for over twenty years.

For the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling series, Warhurst took to the stage with her Bang On co-host Zan Rowe for a captivating conversation about music, memory and her new memoir, Time of My Life.

Join Myf Warhurst as she shares funny, fabulous and sometimes fraught tales of her journey from a music lover growing up in regional Victoria, to a much-loved presence on airwaves across the country.

This Melbourne City Reads event was generously supported by George and Rosa Morstyn.

This event was part of the Wheeler Centre's Spring Fling: A Short Series of Big Ideas program – supported by the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, a Victorian Government and City of Melbourne partnership.

Featured music is Electric Eyes by Sarah, The Illstrumentalist.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

'I remember the first emails that I would send I was really caught up in, oh gosh, this is Trigger Warning for everything, and that's important. But by the end of the collaborations I felt like I could write whatever I wanted and I wouldn't shock or completely gross out the other person. It was all going to be okay, like, things could get weird and that's fine. And they did get weird.' – Sarah Stivens 

Curated by award-winning poet Andy Jackson, this showcase event features an assembly of writers with disability sharing their visions for what the future of health can and should be, through performance, poetry, essay and memoir. 

Featuring writers including Alex Creece, Gemma Mahadeo, Anna Jacobson, Beau Windon and Sarah Stivens, immerse yourself in creative explorations of ableism, love, shame, solidarity, ingenuity and more, while imagining a better and more inclusive future of health. 

This conversation was recorded on Monday 3 October 2022 and presented in partnership with RMIT Culture and UNSW as part of The Big Anxiety festival, the largest mental health and arts festival in the world. 

Featured music is ‘Different Days’ by Chill Cole. 

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An inability to focus can feel like a personal failing – a flaw in each one of us. In his acclaimed latest book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again, award-winning writer and journalist Johann Hari posits that our failure to focus is not personal, but a social phenomenon caused by powerful external forces. Our focus has been stolen.

In this special digital lecture recorded at the Wheeler Centre for the Big Anxiety Festival, Hari shares his discoveries following a three-year journey interviewing leading experts on attention and uncovering the reasons behind our shortening attention spans.

Don’t miss this podcast about how – as individuals, and as a society – we can get our focus back, if we are determined to fight for it.

Presented in partnership with RMIT Culture and UNSW as part of The Big Anxiety

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘Remember what Bertrand Russell said, most people would rather die than think, and most people do. And that's the world's tragedy. So to get people to think is the very, very first step in motivating the people of the planet to rise up and do something about the difficulties that we face, because there is no alternative.’ 

Is global agreement on global challenges possible? World-renowned philosopher A.C. Grayling believes an answer to this question is urgently needed.

In his latest book, For the Good of the World, Grayling proposes that the three biggest challenges facing the world today are climate change, the rapid development of high-impact technology and a global deficit in social and economic justice.

At this special keynote lecture, Technology, Climate, Justice and Rights: Can We Get the Whole World to Agree on Any of Them?, Grayling expands his thinking on these ideas, before answering burning questions from the audience. Can we agree on a set of values that will allow us to confront the threats facing our planet? Or will these issues progress at a rate that continues to outstrip our ability to deal with them?

Don't miss this thought-provoking address recorded on Thursday 15 September 2022 and hosted by Bhakthi Puvanenthiran. This conversation was presented with support from Dumbo Feather.

Featured music is Formations by Van Sandano.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘But, you know, the thing about putting together a diary is, that when you read through the old books, you can see these points where you're about to walk off a cliff. And you see yourself walk off a cliff like one hundred times and you think, wake up, but it's too late because you're already off the cliff.’ 

Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most respected writers. Her novels, short stories, essays, journalism, and more recently her diaries – including her latest instalment, How to End a Story: Diaries: 1995–1998 – have influenced generations of Australian writers and are a fixture of Melbourne’s collective consciousness. 

Over a long lunch at Montalto, she joined Sean O’Beirne, author of the recent monograph On Helen Garner, to discuss her immense contribution to Australian literature, and the unmistakable currents of candor and independence that have run through her writing life. 

This event was recorded on Friday 20 May 2022. 

Presented in partnership with Montalto 

Featured music is Traveling Again by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist. 

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘7 ½ felt a little bit like being a young writer again. Physically I can't call myself that (laughs), but in writing 7 ½ I felt that. Like, let's just go by instinct, in a way... 

7 ½ was a way of me trying to think of what it was about being a writer that I enjoyed, what was it that I wanted to do.’ 

The acclaimed author of novels such as The Slap, Damascus and Barracuda, Christos Tsiolkas is known as one of Australia’s most beloved – and provocative – writers. In his latest novel, 7½, a novelist arrives in a secluded coastal town to escape the self-congratulatory moralism of the modern world and immerse himself in the beauty of nature. Here, he begins to write a book about an ageing ex-pornstar offered one last impossible-to-refuse job, and so begins a meditation on the choice between beauty and righteousness.   

In this event at Montalto, Tsiolkas joined Angela Savage for a conversation about the power and transformative mysteries of art, creativity and transgression, as well as the moral crises affecting contemporary fiction. Enjoy a delicious lunch and thought-provoking conversation with a writer whose warmth and insight flows through even his most challenging work.  

This event was recorded on 31 March 2022.

Presented in partnership with Montalto 

Featured music is ‘Greasy’ by Timothy Infinite

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘Who are you feeding? Who is your audience? Is it the one percent of the one percent and that is what’s so beautiful and amazing and artistic or do you want to feed a community?’ 

Jess Ho is one of the most influential voices in Australia’s bar and restaurant scene, well known for their searingly honest opinions on the hospitality industry. 

Growing up confronting racism in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Ho’s family’s traditional Cantonese cooking was both a comfort and a source of shame. As the Australian restaurant scene boomed, they embarked on a career in food writing at a time when the once ‘embarrassing’ foods of immigrant childhoods were quickly becoming commodified trends. 

In their new memoir, Raised by Wolves, Ho weaves a coming-of-age story into an exploration of the industry they love, revealing the truths – both ugly and inspiring – behind Australia’s fine-dining obsession. 

For this episode, Jess Ho spoke with host Clem Bastow about the role of food in their upbringing and offer a peek behind the kitchen door with their fierce, funny and razor-sharp lens. 

This podcast was recorded on Thursday 28 July 2022 as part of Melbourne City Reads, a series generously supported by George and Rosa Morstyn.  

Featured music is ‘Believe Me When I Say It’ by Matt Large. 

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“You know, for me, I loved reading, but I didn’t exist on those pages and when a child of any age doesn’t exist in our mainstream, in our books, in our stories, they start believing they’re not important.” 

– Melina Marchetta 

Looking for Alibrandi broke new ground with its honest and empowered portrait of an Italian-Australian teen coming of age in 1990s inner Sydney, speaking authentically about systemic racism in Australia from a migrant perspective.  

For generations of teens, the beloved novel (and later cult movie) is a foundational story. Its exploration of family, womanhood, first love, identity and othering still resonates with readers today, 30 years after its release. 

Now, Melina Marchetta’s novel has been adapted for the stage. In this special collaboration between the Wheeler Centre and Malthouse Theatre, Marchetta joined playwright Vidya Rajan, director Stephen Nicolazzo, and the film’s star Pia Miranda to discuss Looking for Alibrandi’s journey from page to screen to stage, the art of adaptation, and the enduring impact of this Australian classic.  

This conversation was hosted by Brodie Lancaster and recorded at the Malthouse Theatre on 18 July 2022. 

The bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop. 

Music: Pastel Colours by Sarah, The Illstrumentalist 

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.