Sydney Writers' Festival

Join Yumi Stynes and Artistic Director Ann Mossop as they discuss the 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival program. The pair talk about the 2026 Festival theme, Show Me The Truth, and how fiction, poetry and creative writing and bring us closer to the truth. Unpack the program and get a glimpse behind the scenes of the Sydney Writers' Festival office. The 2026 Sydney Writers' Festival is out now. Head to our website to explore the program: https://www.swf.org.au/ Tickets on sale Saturday 14 March at 10am. Thank you to 2SER for facilitating the recording of this podcast.

‘Cancel culture’ may seem like a 21st century invention sparked by contemporary politics and stoked by social media, sometimes with deadly consequences. However, as philosopher A.C. Grayling illustrates in Discriminations: Making Peace in the Culture Wars, disagreement and public shaming are ancient traditions. Learn how ‘cancel culture’ evolved and what effect it’s having on intellectual discourse. Festival favourite A.C. Grayling searches for a middle ground in an environment where everything is up for debate. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Detective Inspector John Rebus first hit bookshelves in 1987 as a witty Scottish crime fighter but now the legendary detective is behind bars himself, living a literal locked-room mystery. Midnight and Blue is Ian Rankin at his tense and thrilling best, mixing the police procedural genre with a literary character study of his best-known detective and his home city of Edinburgh. Explore the latest instalment of the Inspector Rebus series and reflect on Ian’s bestselling career in crime writing, with television adaptations and translation into more than 20 languages. In conversation with Michael Williams. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

In Your Favourites’ Favourites, our most loved writers introduce one of their favourite authors. Bestselling Australian crime writer Michael Robotham speaks with British crime novelist Chris Whitaker about his sensational new thriller, All the Colours of the Dark, described as a “must-read” by favourite thriller writer Gillian Flynn. Over decades, Saint Brown has been hunting the man who kidnapped her best friend, Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley, when they were teens. Meanwhile, Patch is on his own hunt for a girl named Grace, who saved him in a dark room years ago. But his search turns to obsession with little evidence that Grace ever existed. Hear Michael and Chris discuss his unforgettable story, already in development for the screen. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Over a masterful career spanning 10 novels, a memoir and various children’s books, Maggie O’Farrell has established herself as a modern literary monument. Her two latest novels, Hamnet, inspired by Shakespeare’s family, and The Marriage Portrait, set in 16th-century Italian court, represent a turn into historical fiction. The former won the UK’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, while the latter was shortlisted for it. In conversation with Kate Evans, Maggie teases out the details of her writing life, including her interest in the depth of women’s stories and the intricate intimacy of families, and the wild popularity of Hamnet. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Undercover agents aren’t just the stuff of stories for writers Jack Beaumont and Ben Macintyre. A French intelligence officer turned spy thriller writer, Jack (Dark Arena) has all the insider knowledge to craft true-to-life operations in his novels. Ben (The Siege) is an espionage expert and he’s written the definitive account of the siege that put the SAS on the world stage. Hear these two connoisseurs of the clandestine share the truth behind the spy stories that thrill us. With Michael Williams. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Myths of cryptid big cats stalking the Australian landscape are as old as colonisation. In Dusk, the puma hunting Tasmania’s lowlands has left enough evidence – in the form of dead and missing men – to prove her existence. Two-time winner of The Age Book of the Year and winner of the Voss Literary Prize Robbie Arnott returns with another immanently beautiful story of loss and redemption. Hear Robbie discuss his new novel, told with his renowned mastery of language, and the gothic myths of beasts and prey that underpin it. In conversation with Michaela Kalowski. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Zoë Foster Blake is a multi-talented and ambitious novelist, beauty journalist and skincare entrepreneur whose bio is long enough to leave you wondering how she does it all. Channelling that can’t-stop, won’t-stop energy is Kit, a thriving hairstylist and the protagonist of Zoë’s latest novel, Things Will Calm Down Soon. Kit has itchy feet and always wonders what’s next. So when she can’t find the perfect product for a look, it makes sense for her to make it herself, right? Sit down with Zoë, in conversation with Mamamia’s Holly Wainwright, for a breather and reminder that things will definitely calm down soon. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

On 30 April 1980, armed gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in London and took 26 hostages in what would become a six-day siege. Millions around the world were glued to their TVs as the previously secret SAS planned and executed a rescue mission. Ben Macintyre’s The Siege: The Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama recounts minute-by-minute the negotiations, media frenzy and cutting-edge intelligence work that changed a nation forever. It draws on unpublished source material and interviews with members of the SAS, hostages and witnesses, providing unprecedented insight. Join Ben as he discusses his definitive account of this astonishing event. In conversation with Richard Fidler (ABC Radio National’s Conversations). This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

As politicians and analysts attempt to manoeuvre with the global superpower, these writers reflect on how the 20th century got the nation where it is today. Bombard the Headquarters!: The Cultural Revolution in China is Linda Jaivin’s account of the ideological quarrels and personalities that underpinned the violent beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Louisa Lim’s Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong and Edward Wong’s At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China mix national history with personal archives to paint detailed portraits of Hong Kong and China, respectively. Hear Linda, Louisa and Edward in conversation with Peter Hartcher as they discuss the crucial history that made China what it is today. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Commonwealth Writers’ Prize winner Catherine Chidgey’s 9th novel, The Book of Guilt, sparked an international bidding war. With undertones of Shirley Jackson and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, the story’s teenage triplets discover – when the government decides to shut down their home – that some lives are valued more than others in this dystopian 1970s England. Join Catherine, in conversation with Beejay Silcox, to hear about her deeply unnerving new novel. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

This trio of Australian literary talents make writing a family affair. The Moriarty sisters, Jaclyn (the Kingdom and Empires series), Liane (Here One Moment, Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers) and Nicola (Every Last Suspect and The Fifth Letter) have decades of writing experience between them. Their achievements include international bestsellers, film and television adaptations and prestigious awards. In this panel discussion, they reflect on their career beginnings – including how they used to earn pocket money for writing stories – their different publishing paths and their many successes over the years. Hosted by writer and broadcaster Sarah Macdonald. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Every family has a secret but not every family has a memoirist to reveal it to the world. Writer and former restaurant reviewer Candice Chung’s memoir Chinese Parents Don’t Say I Love You is a tender account of reconnecting with her family and breaking down the barriers of cultural taboos. Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional Wars is award-winning writer Peter Godwin’s exploration of his changing relationship with his mother, his sister and his ex-wife and the winding histories that got them where they are now. Journalist Michael Visontay in Noble Fragments unravels a rare-book mystery linked by a legal document to his family’s history. Hear Candice, Peter and Michael in conversation with Georgina Godwin reveal the tender underbellies of their family memoirs. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival.  If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Space, in all its awe-inspiring, mind-blowing expanse, is still the final frontier. Its greatness and grandness force us to reflect on our humanity, our existence and our place within the universe. In Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize–winning Orbital, six astronauts contemplate the Earth and its inhabitants from the International Space Station. Ceridwen Dovey’s newest short story collection, Only the Astronauts, imagines the perspectives of non-humans in space, from an abandoned mannequin orbiting the Sun to a team of ‘tamponauts’ journeying to Mars. Consider the limits of humanity in the universe with Samantha and Ceridwen in conversation with host Ashley Hay. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

After a lifetime of bringing Shakespeare’s female characters to life on stage, multi-award-winning British actor Harriet Walter lends them her pen in She Speaks!.  Shining a new light on classic stories, Harriet writes between the lines of some of Shakespeare’s most compelling characters – from servants to sovereigns. She imagines what Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Juliet’s nurse, Cleopatra and others could have said without the constraints of the Bard’s perspective and reveals what might be their true desires Join Harriet in conversation with Ailsa Piper as they delve into the unexplored depths of the English literary canon.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

[Content warning: sexual assault] Feminism has a checkered past, but what can we expect from feminist ideas these days?  CEO of independent news commentary platform Cheek Media Co. Hannah Ferguson (Taboo: Conversations we never had about sex, body image, work and relationships), Stella Prize winner and investigative journalist Jess Hill (See What You Made Me Do, Quarterly Essay 97, Losing It) and human rights lawyer and Fulbright Scholar Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (Long Yarn Short) discuss whether feminism can find solutions to some of our current crises. Join them as they reckon with what feminism has to offer and predict future solutions to complex social problems in this panel discussion with host Sisonke Msimang.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement probes complex racial and social dynamics much like his New York Times bestselling Leave the World Behind, which was adapted into a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali. In his new novel, Rumaan introduces themes of wealth and philanthropic aspirations when an ageing white billionaire hires an ambitious young African American woman to help him dispose of his money – through worthy causes, of course. Join Rumaan in conversation with Sisonke Msimang as they examine the promise (or the lie) of the American Dream in the 21st century.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

International bestselling novelists Liane Moriarty and David Nicholls share the experience of seeing their powerful local stories turn into bingeable television series and films. Liane’s Big Little Lies was the first book by an Australian to debut at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and, since then, all 10 of her novels have been optioned for screen adaptation. David executive produced the Netflix adaptation of his bestselling novel One Day and has written screen adaptations for Far from the Madding Crowd and Great Expectations. Join Liane and David as they talk about their new books, Here One Moment and You Are Here, and being sensations across page and screen. With host Claire Nichols (ABC Radio National’sThe Book Show). This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Wars, coups and economic and climate crises: each new headline can make it feel like the world is suddenly falling apart. But behind many dramatic world events are long-term historical patterns and the rise (and sometimes the fall) of tyrannical and authoritarian rulers. From the Arab Spring to the fall of dictators like Syria’s Assad, find out more about telling these stories from the inside with award-winning foreign correspondent Peter Greste (The Correspondent) and political scientist and author Marcel Dirsus (How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive). In conversation with Avani Dias. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

After the success of her two best known works, The Secret River, adapted for stage and television, and Restless Dolly Maunder, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Festival favourite Kate Grenville is still grappling with what it means to be a descendant of colonisation in Australia. Journey through time and place with Kate as she reframes her family’s history in Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Place, placing First People in the same picture. With Kate Evans. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Stories about brotherhood are a mainstay of classical writing, from brothers Romulus and Remus to brothers-in-arms Achilles and Patroclus. Ferdia Lennon's award-winning debut tells the story of two unemployed theatre-loving best friends in ancient Sicily who tempt Athenian prisoners of war with food and drink in exchange for recitations of their favourite Greek poetry. From there to a full production of a Greek tragedy is only a small step in this this exhilarating story of friendship, art and war that brings the ancient world vividly alive. Find out more about the best and worst that humans are capable of with Ferdia Lennon, in conversation with Australian playwright Tom Wright. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Colm Tóibín returns to the world of Brooklyn – adapted into a BAFTA- and Oscar-nominated film starring Saoirse Ronan – with the long-awaited sequel, Long Island. Set 20 years after Rose Lacey’s death, Long Island follows Eilis Lacey after an unknown Irishman unexpectedly brings a baby into her family’s midst. Full of longing and regret, the book exhibits the hallmarks of a master storyteller’s restraint and Colm’s customary wit. In conversation with Kate Evans (ABC Radio National’s The Bookshelf), Colm discusses his latest portrait of the people of picturesque Enniscorthy, which is being heralded as his best work yet.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Home is a beginning, an origin, a safe harbour, a memory or a dream. Some homes we arrive at, some find us and some we make ourselves.     International bestselling novelist Hannah Kent (Burial Rites and Always Home, Always Homesick), academic and writer Abbas El-Zein (Bullet, Paper, Rock: A memoir of words and wars) and George Orwell Prize winner Peter Godwin (Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional Wars) have had markedly different experiences of home. Divided between countries, dismantled by conflict and erased through exile, home becomes a symbol of identity and a beacon of hope. Hannah, Abbas and Peter tell host Sisonke Msimang what ‘home’ means to them. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

The Safekeep, the debut novel from Yael van der Wouden, took the literary world by storm when it was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Incorporating desire, family loyalty and betrayal in this twisted tale set in post-WWII Netherlands, Yael captivates and tantalises readers in equal measure with the forbidden love between Isabel and her brother’s graceless new girlfriend Eva. Hear how Yael uncovered unexpected secrets of the past, both familial and national, in conversation with Claire Nichols (ABC Radio National’s The Book Show). This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Jessica Townsend, one of Australia’s bestselling and most loved authors, discusses the highly anticipated fourth book in The New York Times bestselling Nevermoor series. In Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow readers rejoin Morrigan in her Wundrous world of magic on another adventure to go somewhere she’s never been before. In conversation with Reece Carter (A Girl Called Corpse). This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Distinguished international and local writers working across the crime genre unpick the relationship between fact and fiction. Miles Franklin Literary Award winner Shankari Chandran, whose newest novel is a gritty thriller set in Colombo, ten-time Walkley Award–winning investigative journalist Kate McClymont and international bestseller and Diamond Dagger Award winner Ian Rankin each have a lifetime of mysteries under their belt. Listen to them question the line between truth and fiction and interrogate the ethics of telling crime stories and exploring the search for justice. With host Michael Robotham. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Torrey Peters burst onto the literary scene in 2021 with her debut novel, Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and was named one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st century by The New York Times. Her kaleidoscopic follow-up, Stag Dance, combines three gender-blurring novellas for a romp through gender apocalypse, secret romance and cross-dressing lumberjacks. Join Torrey and host Yves Rees as they discuss Torrey’s eye for the rough edges of the LGBTQIA+ community and her desire to push the limits of trans writing in this new work about womanhood, trans identity and queer relationships. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Meet the baking besties who are queens of the Australian pastry game. Nadine Ingram of Sydney’s Flour and Stone, Natalie Paull of Melbourne’s Beatrix Bakes and Kate Reid of nationwide Lune Croissanterie come together to talk all things pastry – from building their baking empires to their favourite recipes and their friendships. With host Jennifer Wong, pull out your recipe cards, line your baking trays and get special insight into the poetry of pastry. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

The Ministry of Time landed on multiple bestseller lists thanks to its highly original, genre-defying story, which combines elements of time travel, romance and spy thriller. Described by Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton as “outrageously brilliant”, Kaliane Bradley’s debut challenges the boundaries of literary and genre fiction as the past meets the future when a disaffected civil servant accepts a job at a mysterious new government ministry specialising in ‘historical expats’. Hear Kaliane and host Spectrum editor Melanie Kembrey unpack the triumph of Kaliane’s debut novel and what it means to change the world by defying history. With an introduction from Fiona Morrison. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

It seemed improbable enough in 2016, but here we are now in Donald Trump’s second term at the White House. What does the return of the 45th President of the United States mean for the international superpower?  And how will it affect the rest of us? Listen in as journalist and political commentator Peter Beinart, foreign correspondent Nick Bryant and Director of the Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program Emma Shortis join host Barrie Cassidy to unpack the election outcome, Trump’s first few months in office and what to expect over the next four years.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Beloved Irish author Marian Keyes unpacks her latest story of lost sparks and old flames and what happens when high-flyer Anna swaps New York’s skyscrapers for the rugged Irish coast. Readers were first introduced to the loveable and chaotic Walsh Family 30 years ago. They’ve watched the five beloved sisters, including middle daughter Anna, grow into middle age. Anna enjoys a solid and enviable life in New York until her spark goes out and she needs the warm embrace of her family in Dublin to kickstart her passion for life. A thorny local public relations project and the reappearance of an old flame might just do the trick. As Marian introduces a wonderful cast of new characters to fall in love with in her sixteenth novel, she also sheds light on the novel’s themes including midlife lessons, friendship break-ups, letting go of mistakes, regret and perceiving yourself differently. Expect laughter, heartfelt moments and inspiring storytelling that showcases Marian’s fearless honesty, warmth and wit for an uplifting event with one of the most beloved voices in fiction today. Hear bestselling author Marian Keyes discuss the latest Walsh Family instalment in conversation with author and Mamamia podcast host Holly Wainwright.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 of the 20th century at the infamous 38 Londres Street in Santiago. Hear Philippe in conversation with Rosalind Dixon. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 Shady People, presents a delicious array of macabre and horrible happenings. Hear Mariana exorcise the inspiration for these queer and twisted tales in conversation with Carody Culver. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 of Jewish identity in conversation with Debbie Whitmont.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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, capitalism’s control of the restaurant industry and the social change on the horizon. With host Virginia Trioli. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 this meditative novel in conversation with ABC Radio’s Claire Nichols (The Book Show). This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 Jeanette and Toby bring the perspectives of an artist and a scientist together in this important contemporary conversation. With an introduction from Verity Firth. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 be in this discussion with host Maeve Marsden. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 winner Niki Savva. They join veteran political journalist and former host of Insiders and Offsiders Barrie Cassidy. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 – free data they can profit from – in the same way that men have profited from women’s work for so long. How can we resist this exploitation of our humanity? Hear how Anna sees the future of tech’s role in our lives in a formidable Closing Address. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:

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[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 working to close the gap. Historian Clare Wright’s conclusion to her democracy trilogy, Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy, tells the story of how the Yolŋu of Arnhem Land created the Yirrkala Bark Petitions in 1963 and gave birth to the land rights movement. Join Thomas and Clare as they explore these important struggles and what we can learn from them. With host Lorena Allam. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 author Charlotte Wood (Stone Yard Devotional, The Natural Way of Things) discuss how they became writers and the state of their nations’ literature. What can be done to wake Australia up to the need to support its writers? With host Michael Williams. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:

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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 place in contemporary times and how their work fits into the larger literary landscape. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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.

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 Australian agriculture can be transformed through the practices of the past. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest X (Twitter): @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

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 Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
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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 episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest X (Twitter): @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Explore the literary histories of Charmian Clift, Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower. Following her biography The 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 deep and vexed friendship between two of Australia’s greatest writers.  Learn more about these fabled authors’ work and writing lives with the scholars who are salvaging their stories from the archives. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
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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 alongside teammates Matilda Boseley, Rhys Nicholson, Tracey Spicer and Toby Walsh. Adjudicated by Yumi Stynes. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
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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” love affair with Salman Rushdie in London, migrating with nomads in Tibet and marrying an Indian prince in the Himalayas. She finally returns to the long-avoided country of her childhood and her mother’s tragic suicide. Explore her remarkable life, in conversation with Michaela Kalowski. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: @sydwritersfest Facebook: @SydWritersFest X (Twitter): @SydWritersFest TikTok: @sydwritersfest