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PODCAST

Sydney Writers" Festival

Sydney Writers" Festival

Australia"s largest celebration of literature, stories and ideas. Bringing together the world"s best authors, leading public intellectuals, scientists, journalists and more. Subscribe to our channel for new releases.

society & culture books

All Episodes

52:52

Philippe Sands: 38 Londres Street

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/29

In 1998, at the beginning of his esteemed career as an international human rights lawyer, Philippe Sands was invited to advise Augusto Pinochet as the Chilean dictator faced arrest in London. Instead, Philippe chose to act as a barrister for Human Rights Watch, where he uncovered the well-hidden connection between Pinochet and former SS commander Walther Rauff. In his latest book, part memoir and part detective story, Philippe draws on interviews and archives to link two of the most brutal regimes

en-AU

52:20

Mariana Enriquez: Mastering the Macabre

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/24

The dead permeate the supernatural and strange worlds of Argentinian writer Mariana Enriquez. Sometimes they’re simple ghosts, but other times they’re a different kind of haunting: apparitions of queer counterculture and a country’s brutal past that follow you off the page. Following her International Booker Prize–shortlisted The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Premio Herralde de Novela winner Our Share of Night, Mariana’s third short story collection, A Sunny Place for

en-AU

51:47

Peter Beinart: Being Jewish After the Destruction of...

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/22

Acclaimed columnist and political commentator Peter Beinart issues a bold appeal to rewrite the narrative of Jewish identity to embrace nuance, tradition and culture. Bringing together his personal experience and understanding of politics with history and a clear vision for the future, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning is a provocative work that grapples with persecution, victimhood, supremacy, morality and the distinction between the nation-state. Hear Peter tell a new story

en-AU

50:19

Culinary Culture

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/17

On the one hand, food is about comfort, love and passion. On the other, it’s about the economics of the restaurant rat race and the politics of identity and historical context. Hear chefs, restauranteurs and culinary stars Parwana’s Durkhanai Ayubi (Returning the Moon), Adam Liaw (Time for Dinner) and Melbourne icon Tony Tan (Tony Tan’s Asian Cooking Class) discuss the good and bad of food culture. They consider our relationship with food, the flavours of identity,

en-AU

54:07

Samantha Harvey: Orbital

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/15

On the International Space Station, a team of astronauts watch our big blue planet as it silently turns beneath them.  This 2024 Booker Prize–winning novel is largely observations of the astronauts as they collect data and record small, slow changes in their environment and their own bodies. Yet Samantha Harvey’s prose is expansive, delicately encompassing life and death, fragility and strength, hope and fear in concentric circles of human life. Hear Samantha discuss the profundity of

en-AU

56:33

The Art and Science of AI

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/10

Artificial intelligence’s collision with human creativity is one of the most important stories of our time. With the accelerating impact of AI, so much of what we understand about being human is being re-written.Acclaimed writer Jeanette Winterson (12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love) sees AI changing our lives in unprecedented ways. Academic and researcher Toby Walsh (The Shortest History of AI) predicts the place AI will have in our futures. Hear

en-AU

57:32

Queer Love and Longing

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/08

Local treasure Dylin Hardcastle and international gems Alan Hollinghurst and Yael van der Wouden trace love, longing and queer experience through the decades in their heartfelt new novels. In Dylin’s A Language of Limbs and Yael’s The Safekeep, teenage girls and women navigate unexpected Sapphic desires, while Alan paints a portrait of one man’s journey of self-discovery from childhood into adulthood in Our Evenings. Discover how these intimate yet expansive queer histories came to

en-AU

66:53

Barrie Cassidy and Friends: State of the Nation

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/03

Festival favourite State of the Nation returned bigger and better than ever this year for an Australian post-election wrap-up.  Assess the state of Australian politics in this panel discussion featuring broadcaster and Walkley Award–winning journalist Waleed Aly, Prime Minister’s Literary Award– and Walkley Award–winning journalist George Megalogenis, The Australia Institute’s chief political analyst Amy Remeikis and Melbourne Press Club Lifetime Achievement Award

en-AU

36:47

Closing Address: Anna Funder: Bears Out There

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/07/01

We closed out the 2025 Festival with an address from award-winning Australian writer Anna Funder. As a writer who places being human at the centre of her work, Anna (Wifedom, Stasiland) has explored the best and worst that humans are capable of – surveillance, fascism and the tyranny of patriarchy – and the many forms of human courage and resistance. As artificial intelligence accelerates and patriarchy takes the gloves off, the world of bots and tech bros sees humans as raw material

en-AU

48:03

Past and Future of Indigenous Recognition

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/06/27

[Content warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners should be aware that this podcast contains reference to deceased persons.] The fight for First Nations rights in Australia is ongoing, most recently frustrated by the lost 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum. Indigenous leader and author Thomas Mayo’s newest work, Always Was, Always Will Be: The Campaign for Justice and Recognition Continues, is a guidebook to action for Indigenous recognition and a rallying cry for those

en-AU

54:51

Making a Writer

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/06/24

What enables writers to grow and flourish? Writing is mostly a solitary pursuit that draws on individual reserves of talent and skill. But writers are also part of a national community that can help, or hinder, celebrate or ignore them. Ireland provides bountiful support to its writers and literary ecosystem, but Australia fails to adequately nurture its own. Listen to prominent writers Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín (Brooklyn, Long Island) and Booker Prize–shortlisted

en-AU

63:40

State of the Art: The Novel

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/06/19

The novel has continued to evolve since its inception as a major literary form centuries ago. It has seen styles and genres come and go, adaptation and translation between languages and cultures and countless publishing trends and cycles. In this panel discussion featuring four extraordinary novelists, Rumaan Alam (Entitlement), Robbie Arnott (Dusk), Samantha Harvey (Orbital) and Torrey Peters (Stag Dance), join host Kate Evans (ABC Radio National’s The Bookshelf) to consider the novel, its

en-AU

38:51

2025 Program Announcement: Benjamin Law and Ann Mossop

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/03/13

Join Benjamin Law and Artistic Director Ann Mossop as they discuss the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival program. The pair talk about the 2025 Festival theme, In This Together, and how books bring us closer to one another, our planet and ourselves. The 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival is out now. Head to our website to explore the program: https://www.swf.org.au/ Tickets on sale Saturday 15 March at 10am. Thank you to 2SER for facilitating the recording of this podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for

en-AU

50:48

Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood: Black Duck: A Year at...

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/03/05

Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood invite us onto the Country they call home in Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra, reflecting on life after publishing Dark Emu. In the aftermath of devastating bushfires in north-eastern Victoria, the couple rebuilt their farm. Here, they run the Aboriginal social enterprise Black Duck Foods, committed to traditional food-growing processes that care for Country and give back to the community. Sit down with Bruce and Lyn, in conversation with Kerry O’Brien to explore how

en-AU

51:32

How We Learn to Read with Sally Rippin

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/02/27

We all know the importance of literacy for school and life, but what happens when, despite all your efforts, reading just doesn’t “click”? Sally Rippin, the Australian Children’s Laureate and author of the book Wild Things: How we learn to read and what happens if we don’t is joined by journalist and Dyslexia advocate, Cat Rodie, in an exploration of literacy, education and those who often fall through the gaps. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney

en-AU

50:17

First Fictions

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/02/18

Jennifer Croft, Bri Lee and Louise Milligan have earned widespread acclaim in the realms of translation, non-fiction and investigative journalism, respectively. Now, these authors are branching out into novels for the first time in their illustrious careers, revisiting themes in their previous writing to create stunning, gripping and beguiling works of the imagination. Separate fact from fiction with Jennifer, Bri and Louise as they discuss the pleasures and pitfalls of braving a new genre. This

en-AU

59:24

Literary Legends

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/02/13

Explore the literary histories of Charmian Clift, Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower. Following her biographyThe Life and Myth of Charmian Clift, Nadia Wheatley contributed the afterword to The End of the Morning, Clift’s final manuscript, which was recently published more than 50 years after her death. Literary scholar Brigitta Olubas (Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life) joins forces with journalist Susan Wyndham to edit Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower: The Letters, which reveals the

en-AU

68:37

The Great Debate: Is AI Better than the Real Thing

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/02/03

Humankind stands at a crossroads: will artificial intelligence make us superhumanly productive, liberating us from life’s most mundane tasks? Or have we opened Pandora’s box, unleashing sentient technology that will eventually destroy us? In a colossal contest of persuasion and wit, two teams of our best and brightest debate whether artificial intelligence is better than the real thing. Decide once and for all with team captains Annabel Crabb and David Marr, as they duke it out

en-AU

46:11

Robyn Davidson: Unfinished Woman

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/01/30

Robyn Davidson once described Unfinished Woman as an “infinite book”. “I feel absolutely that I have to write it and absolutely that I can’t write it.” Twenty-five years in the making, this unforgettable memoir charts her expeditions since crossing the Gibson Desert with camels –  the subject of her debut, Tracks, which her then-landlord, Doris Lessing, presciently declared “a classic”. Robyn’s exploits include having a “volcanic”

en-AU

54:30

The Austen Formula

Sydney Writers" Festival ·

2025/01/28

Some consider Pride and Prejudice the first romantic comedy, with Jane Austen having set the ground rules for others to follow. Certainly, with its witty heroine and enemies-to-lovers plotting, Pride and Prejudice has created many of the tropes we continue to see in rom-coms today. YA authors Kate and Angourie Rice (Stuck up and Stupid), Sophie Gonzales (The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist) and Gabrielle Tozer (The Unexpected Mess of it All) talk with Nathan Luff about Austen’s lasting influences on

en-AU

188 results

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