From two-up to bingo halls and gaming apps  – Shaun Micallef on our gambling obsession

Shaun Micallef has graced our TV screens since 1989 – from crime caper Mr and Mrs Murder to long-running game show Talkin' About Your Generation and weekly satirical news comedy Mad as Hell. But he's not averse to tackling the big issues, either: his latest series, Going for Broke, examines our nat…

'Angertainers' are dividing society: Author Ed Coper explains why we fall for 'rage bait'

Social media was once harnessed by Barack Obama to spread hope. Now “angertainers” are exploiting our human instinct to seek threat to divide society and to build their own cultural, political and social capital, often based on misinformation and lies. They create content for platforms that reward …

300th episode: Bob Brown on finding optimism – live at the Melbourne Writers Festival

Bob Brown has spent the past 50 years trying to make people put the planet before profit. The environmental crusader, former senator and medical doctor, and founding member of the Wilderness Society has fought pivotal battles, including campaigns to save the Franklin River and the Swift parrot. He …

‘Even today, the cost continues’: Christie Whelan Browne on speaking out

You might know her best from Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell, but over the past 20 years, Christie Whelan Browne has become one of the most in-demand stars of the Australian stage, appearing in Britney Spears: The Cabaret, The Producers, Shane Warne: The Musical and Muriel's Wedding. But the thing th…

Fran Lebowitz on smoking, Trump and today's young people being another species

When Fran Lebowitz was growing up in suburban New Jersey in the 1950s, she won a school award for being “the Class Wit” – and in her 50-year career as a writer and speaker, she’s repeatedly earned that label. Among her countless famous aphorisms, this zinger: "The best fame is a writer's fame. It's…

Luke Bateman: Former NRL star and gambling addict, now lumberjack ‘bookfluencer’

Luke Bateman is perhaps Australia’s most unlikely book critic – a former rugby league star and recovered gambling addict who works as a logger on a remote Queensland property. While hardly your average inner-city literary type, Bateman had always loved reading – especially fantasy books – but livin…

The New Yorker's Patrick Radden Keefe on investigating 'an unnatural death'

Investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has made a career out of chasing the kinds of stories that most people would be wise to leave alone. The New Yorker writer is drawn to powerful institutions and the people at their heart – from the Sackler dynasty, whose pharmaceutical company created t…

Bourdain and Batali's 'right-hand' woman Laurie Woolever on her tell-all book

New York food writer, editor and podcaster Laurie Woolever spent the early years of her career assisting two very famous chefs: first Mario Batali, then Anthony Bourdain, for whom she worked for nine years. Woolever was also, for much of this time, an addict – using alcohol, marijuana and sex to ge…

From finance to front row: Australian fashion boss Marianne Perkovic

Marianne Perkovic spent decades working in the finance sector. In 2006, she was the youngest chief executive of an ASX-listed company and in 2018, as a banking executive, she faced a grilling at a royal commission. This is not the standard path for nailing the best seat at Australian Fashion Week. …

Stephanie Alexander on writing, eating, air-frying – and The Cook’s Companion turning 30

Stephanie Alexander is a national icon: an internationally renowned cooking guru, best-selling writer and inspirational founder of a nationwide kitchen-garden scheme for schoolkids. She's also the final arbiter of kitchen disputes in homes all over Australia – resolving disagreements about how to s…