The Wheeler Centre

Sophie Cunningham is one of Australian literature’s most influential figures. She is the author of seven books, a former editor of Meanjin, co-founder of the Stella Prize, and is currently an adjunct professor at RMIT University’s non/fiction Lab.

Her novel This Devastating Fever, her first work of fiction in fourteen years, was the Melbourne City Reads pick for September 2022. Weaving together the life of Leonard Woolf, the turn of the millennium and environmental collapse, Cunningham examines questions about colonial history, the return of fascism, living through disaster and what it means to cultivate a full, loving and creative life.

Join Cunningham and host Emily Bitto for an intimate conversation as they discuss this exhilarating new novel.

This event was recorded on Tuesday 22 September 2022 at the Wheeler Centre.

The Melbourne City Reads series is generously supported by George and Rosa Morstyn.

The bookseller for this event was The Paperback Bookshop.

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.

For American novelist Andrew Sean Greer, the search for joy is a continued source of creative inspiration – as evidenced in his international bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Less, and now again in its humorously honest new sequel, Less is Lost.

Warm, witty and profound, Less is Lost sees the lovable Arthur Less return for an unforgettable road trip across America as he confronts his personal demons and attempts to decipher the riddle of love.

As part of the Wheeler Centre’s 2022 Spring Fling program, Andrew Sean Greer made his own journey to Australia to join writer and broadcaster Benjamin Law in-conversation. Together they waded through ageing, grief and unavoidable change to find creativity, friendship and love.

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

Presented in partnership with RMIT Culture.

Andrew Sean Greer’s appearance was made possible with the generous support of Hachette Australia.

Featured music is Tape Machines, Le June, Nbhd Nick - Br1ghter (Instrumental Version)

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What better way to celebrate Stephanie Alexander’s latest cookbook, Home, than with an intimate conversation at award-winning restaurant and winery Montalto.

Hear Alexander reflect on her unparalleled five-decade career as a cook, writer and restaurateur, and the legacy she has built for generations of professionals and amateurs in kitchens around the country.

This event was recorded on Thursday 21 April 2022.

Presented in partnership with Montalto.

The bookseller for this event was Antipodes Bookshop and Gallery

Featured music is Living in a Fantasy by Pulsed.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If we are what we eat, then who are we in the twenty-first century?

Whether in our home kitchens, at the hottest new restaurant, in a bestselling cookbook, or on a fast-paced reality TV show, the ways we consume food and the narratives surrounding cuisine are inextricably linked to our cultural histories and personal identities.

Over a seasonal shared lunch prepared with Indigenous Australian ingredients, a panel of culinary superstars met at Big Esso to discuss their approaches to cooking and sharing food, and the intersections and impact of multiculturalism, immigration and First Nations cuisine on Australian food culture.

Inspired by Griffith Review 78: A Matter of Taste, the event featured Mabu Mabu owner and head chef Nornie Bero and award-winning author and broadcaster Alice Zaslavsky with host Jaclyn Crupi.

This event was recorded on Friday 4 Nov 2022 as part of the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling: A Short Series of Big Ideas program.

Presented in partnership with Griffith Review and Blak & Bright.

Featured music is In a Little While by Lofive.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shaun Micallef has been a near constant in Australian comedy and television for almost three decades.

His new memoir Tripping Over Myself: A Memoir of a Life in Comedy charts his journey from suburban Adelaide to national TV stardom, offering insight into a career of curiosity, reinvention and humour.

As part of the Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling program, Micallef joined presenter and RocKwiz host Julia Zemiro at The Capitol for a funny and fascinating conversation about life, satire, politics and television, from Full Frontal to Mad As Hell – and beyond.

This conversation was recorded on Saturday 5 November 2022 as part of the Wheeler Centre's Spring Fling: A Short Series of Big Ideas.

Featured music is Midnight Set by Dusty Decks.

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

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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

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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.