The Wheeler Centre

“I love it once a story takes hold of me. That’s what I’m always looking for. That pleasure of losing your sense of self.”

Liane Moriarty is the author of nine internationally bestselling novels include Truly Madly Guilty, Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers – the latter two of which have produced critically celebrated television adaptations starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon. 

In this illuminating conversation with host Sarah L’Estrange recorded at the Castlemaine Town Hall,  Liane discusses her latest work Apples Never Fall and its themes of unfulfilled promise and delves into her ongoing global success. 

The bookseller for this event was Northern Books. 

This podcast was recorded on 4 May 2022 and presented in partnership with Castlemaine State Festival – A Dialogues Special Event.

Featured music is ‘Traveling Again' by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist

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“At the very least I wanted to make people focus on an actual more honest rendering of these canonical texts of Australian literature ... We were not visible in these stories because we were not meant to exist in these narratives.” 

On Thursday 12 May, Evelyn Araluen joined host Jeanine Leane live on stage at the Wheeler Centre to discuss her debut poetry collection Dropbear and its landmark win. 

For 10 years, the Stella Prize has celebrated books by Australian women and non-binary writers. The annual $50,000 prize is awarded to the work of fiction, non-fiction, YA, graphic novel or (eligible for the first time in 2022) poetry deemed most original, excellent and engaging. This year, Stella has awarded a further $10,000 to Araluen – bringing the total prize money for the winner of the 2022 Stella Prize to $60,000. 

The Stella judges said ‘Dropbear is a breathtaking collection of poetry and short prose which arrests key icons of mainstream Australian culture and turns them inside out, with malice aforethought. Araluen’s brilliance sizzles when she goes on the attack against the kitsch and the cuddly: against Australia’s fantasy of its own racial and environmental innocence.’ 

This event was presented in partnership with Stella.

The bookseller for this event was Hill of Content.

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“I want us to really love our country and not see it as the problem. Stop talking about sharks and spiders and snakes. Start talking about the beauty of a grassland.” 

Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage need no introduction. Both have authored books that changed the conversation about pre-settlement history in Australia and speak to the importance of listening to First Nations wisdom: Bruce with his groundbreaking Dark Emu, which argued that Indigenous people did not follow a hunter-gatherer lifestyle at the time of colonisation, and Bill with his 2011 book The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia, which explored how Aboriginal people have managed the land to their advantage for millennia. 

Now, Bruce and Bill join forces to continue the conversation in Country: Future Fire, Future Farming, delving into the remarkable agricultural and land care practises of First Nations people. Country examines how, through complex seasonal burning programs, Aboriginal people managed the land to avoid the late season destructive bushfires we fear today. 

Together they join writer Sophie Cunningham to discuss how employing Indigenous land management practises is critical to creating a more sustainable future for people and country.  

The bookseller for this event was The Paperback Bookshop. 

Featured music is ‘Red Orchard’ by Justnormal, frumhere. Courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

This podcast was recorded on 20 April 2022.

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“I think a lot of the choice around having children or not is completely illusory. I don’t think we have as many choices as we think.” 

The way we live is ever-changing, but societal expectations about women’s relationships to motherhood have remained stiflingly rigid. Too often, popular narratives around motherhood disregard the varied and often challenging experiences that inform a person’s decision and opportunity to parent (or not). In this podcast episode, Gina Rushton, Sian Prior, and Natalie Kon-yu, three remarkable writers and thinkers from different backgrounds, consider the complexities of contemporary motherhood. They draw on their respective recent books, which each explore the political and personal implications of the journey towards, around or away from motherhood. Hosted by Eleanor Jackson. 

Content note: this episode includes discussion of topics that some listeners may find difficult or sensitive, such as fertility and medical procedures. 

Featured music is ‘In A Little While’ by Lofive, courtesy of Epidemic Sound. 

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“There really isn’t a line where one project ends and the next begins. It’s always many things happening at once.”

The First Time is the podcast brainchild of writers Katherine Collette and Kate Mildenhall. Like getting warm and reassuring advice from two friends, The First Time is all about what happens the first time you publish a book, offering a behind the scenes look at all the thoughts and feelings writers experience when their book enters the world.

In this special live podcast recorded at the Wheeler Centre in April 2022, they turn their attention to the often challenging experience of how to follow up a brilliant first book.

Having just released second novels themselves, Collette and Mildenhall were joined by second-time authors Yumna Kassab (Australiana) and Robert Lukins (Loveland) for a candid and generous discussion of all the joys and anxieties inherent in the writing and publishing process.

This event was presented as part of Mic Drops, a Wheeler Centre original series celebrating all things audible that brings together podcasting’s best and brightest to share their thoughts and insights on the art (and business) of listening.

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

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'I disagree with Einstein that the definition of insanity is doing things over and over again and expecting different results; to me that’s the definition of hope.’

On Thursday 17 March, designer, author and host of the award-winning podcast Design Matters Debbie Millman joined host Michaela Webb live on stage at the Wheeler Centre.

Design Matters is one of the world’s first breakthrough podcasts, and the first dedicated to design and the artistic mind. For fifteen years, Millman has interviewed the world’s most innovative creative thinkers. In her forthcoming book Why Design Matters, Millman collects 80 of her best interviews and pairs them with photographic portraits of the subjects – including Brené Brown, Malcolm Gladwell and Aminatou Sow. These intimate conversations with legends, truth tellers, trendsetters and visionaries offer insights into the craft of creativity, and what it can teach us about living well and loving openly.

Discussing Why Design Matters with Webb at this lunchtime event, Millman shared the lessons she’s learned from over 15 years interviewing the sharpest artistic minds in the world.

Debbie Millman: By Design was part of Melbourne Design Week 2022, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria. This conversation is supported by the Australian Graphic Design Association and the Design Institute of Australia.

Featured music is ‘red orchard’ by JUSTNORMAL and FRUMHERE, courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Photo by Tobias Titz. Photography courtesy of the NGV as part of Melbourne Design Week 2022.

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‘Push back when people try to deny you. When people say you shouldn’t be taken seriously. Because what they’re really saying is that they don’t have the ability to recognise true, interesting perspectives.’

Part of the exciting return of international artists to live events with the Wheeler Centre, in March 2022, writer and cultural icon Roxane Gay returned to Australia for an insightful and audacious conversation with commentator and gender equality advocate Jamila Rizvi.

Following critical acclaim for her bestselling works, including Bad Feminist, Difficult Women and Hunger, Gay is now turning the spotlight on powerful emerging literary talent through her newsletter, The Audacity and the accompanying Audacious Book Club. Her work in promoting new talent doesn’t stop there – last year she launched her own publishing imprint, Roxane Gay Books, which seeks to publish and support works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry from underrepresented perspectives.

In this conversation, Gay discusses her unapologetic and audacious approach to writing and culture and her commitment to opening doors for others along the way.

This event was supported by Future Women

The official bookseller for this event was Brunswick Bound

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‘We don't know what another person is experiencing ... but I think we can have some certainty that it's very different to our own experience and that's something we should probably start acknowledging more when we're thinking about consciousness.’

What exactly do we mean when we refer to human consciousness? For a long time, many scientists steered clear of the study of consciousness, deeming it subjective and impossible to observe. But thanks to innovative interdisciplinary research and advances in neuroimaging tools, scientists have a greater ability than ever to monitor neural activity connected to changing states of consciousness.

In this panel discussion hosted by Hilary Harper live at the Wheeler Centre, leaders in neuroscience Professors Jakob Hohwy and Olivia Carter discussed the current state of neuroscientific understandings of consciousness. They identified the major gaps in our knowledge, the latest medical, psychological and philosophical developments, and the limitations of scientific methods and language in this field.

This event was part of Present Sense, a Wheeler Centre original series inviting experts at the forefront of interdisciplinary research into human consciousness to discuss their work and its implications for Artificial Intelligence, mental health, aged care and philosophy. The next event in this series, Consciousness Unconstrained, will be hosted live at the Wheeler Centre on 22 March.

Presented in partnership with Melbourne-Monash Consciousness Research.

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Wild Abandon, the second novel from Melbourne writer Emily Bitto (The Strays), follows its protagonist Will, heartbroken at the end of his first serious relationship, as he flees Australia for New York City and then into the American heartland on an odyssey that seems fated to have a dark conclusion.

This breathtaking new novel was chosen as the October book in the 2021 Melbourne City Reads initiative, supported by inner-city bookshops. In this special podcast conversation, Bitto is joined by Jason Steger, books editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, to discuss the novel and its haunting, headlong tumble through the hyperreal world of end-days capitalism.

The online bookseller for this event is the Paperback Bookshop

Melbourne City Reads is supported by the City of Melbourne, Victorian Government and ABC Radio Melbourne

This conversation was originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday 26 October 2021 but was cancelled in response to Victorian Government COVID-19 health advice. We are now presenting this discussion exclusively as a podcast.

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In Our Nature

As lockdowns force many of us indoors, our relationship with the natural world is more important than ever. We’ve all experienced the benefits nature can bring to our mental health and well-being. In this special podcast conversation as part of Victoria Nature Festival, a panel of passionate nature-lovers explores the many different ways we can reconnect with nature and advocate for its care.

Hear from Gardening Australia host Costa Georgiadis, Darug researcher and archaeologist Maddison Miller and VicHealth CEO and public health advocate Dr Sandro Demaio, who along with host and​ author of Fathoms: The World in the Whale Rebecca Giggs, discuss their personal experiences of connecting with nature and the focus they place on action for the climate and environment in their lives and work.

The online bookseller for this podcast is Readings

Presented in partnership with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the Victoria Nature Festival project partners

This conversation was originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday 14 September 2021 but was cancelled in response to Victorian Government COVID-19 health advice. We are now presenting this discussion exclusively as a podcast.

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

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