[Content warning: discussions of mental health and suicide]

How can we apply the wisdom of the ages to modern living? This is the question at the heart of books by Worimi storyteller Paul Callaghan and journalist and author Brigid Delaney. Paul’s The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life reveals the power of Indigenous spirituality as a deep source of contentment and wellbeing, while Brigid’s Reasons Not to Worry examines how ancient Stoic principles can help us regain a sense of agency and tranquillity. Listen to them in conversation with Ailsa Piper.

This episode was recorded live at the 2023 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
Twitter: @SydWritersFest
TikTok: @sydwritersfest

[Content warning: discussions of mental health and suicide]
How can we apply the wisdom of the ages to modern living? This is the question at the heart of books by Worimi storyteller Paul Callaghan and journalist and author Brigid Delaney. Paul’s The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life reveals the power of Indigenous spirituality as a deep source of contentment and wellbeing, while Brigid’s Reasons Not to Worry examines how ancient Stoic principles can help us regain a sense of agency and tranquillity. Listen to them in conversation with Ailsa Piper.
This episode was recorded live at the 2023 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: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

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.

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.

Australia's largest celebration of writing and ideas.

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.

Wisdom of the Ages

Join two of the most admired writers in Australia today, Booker Prize–winning Richard Flanagan and Miles Franklin–winning Anna Funder as they discuss writing in the margins between fiction and non-fiction, history and memoir, personal and public. 

Historian Clare Wright leads this conversation, examining their genre-bending masterpieces. Through a hypnotic melding of dream, history, science and memory, Question 7 traces the ripples of history through Richard’s own family and is described by Anna as holding “a life between its covers”. Wifedom is Anna’s “counterfiction”, an attempt to write Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s first wife, back into the narrative from which history has so carefully excised her. Not only a New York Times Notable Book of 2023, Wifedom also described by Geraldine Brooks as “Simply, a masterpiece”.

Redefine genre with Richard and Anna as they discuss the craft of writing, the parts of themselves left excavated on the page and the consequences of the choices we make.

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

Join two of the most admired writers in Australia today, Booker Prize–winning Richard Flanagan and Miles Franklin–winning Anna Funder as they discuss writing in the margins between fiction and non-fiction, history and memoir, personal and public. 
Historian Clare Wright leads this conversation, examining their genre-bending masterpieces. Through a hypnotic melding of dream, history, science and memory, Question 7 traces the ripples of history through Richard’s own family and is described by Anna as holding “a life between its covers”. Wifedom is Anna’s “counterfiction”, an attempt to write Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s first wife, back into the narrative from which history has so carefully excised her. Not only a New York Times Notable Book of 2023, Wifedom also described by Geraldine Brooks as “Simply, a masterpiece”.
Redefine genre with Richard and Anna as they discuss the craft of writing, the parts of themselves left excavated on the page and the consequences of the choices we make.
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: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> X (Twitter): <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

Richard Flanagan and Anna Funder on Writing

While everyone has dirty laundry in their lives, not everyone will choose to air theirs publicly.

Whether on social media, in written memoir, public speaking or on television, how can sharing the ‘self’ when the story touches on family and community, still be navigated ethically? What are the consequences and ramifications of bringing the personal into the public realm? Join writers Benjamin Law, Rhys Nicholson and Amy Thunig as they unpack the fallout on the other side of publication, with host George Haddad.

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

While everyone has dirty laundry in their lives, not everyone will choose to air theirs publicly.
Whether on social media, in written memoir, public speaking or on television, how can sharing the ‘self’ when the story touches on family and community, still be navigated ethically? What are the consequences and ramifications of bringing the personal into the public realm? Join writers Benjamin Law, Rhys Nicholson and Amy Thunig as they unpack the fallout on the other side of publication, with host George Haddad.
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: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> X (Twitter): <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

Dirty Laundry

Sean Turnell spent almost two years in Myanmar’s terrifying Insein Prison, accused of being a spy. Ma Thida was also incarcerated there, where, denied medical treatment, she came very close to dying.

How did they survive? What hope do these important players in Myanmar’s government and politics hold for the return of democracy three years after the military seized power in a coup? In conversation with Catherine Renshaw.

This event was presented in partnership with PEN Sydney and 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

Sean Turnell spent almost two years in Myanmar’s terrifying Insein Prison, accused of being a spy. Ma Thida was also incarcerated there, where, denied medical treatment, she came very close to dying. How did they survive? What hope do these important players in Myanmar’s government and politics hold for the return of democracy three years after the military seized power in a coup? In conversation with Catherine Renshaw.
This event was presented in partnership with PEN Sydney and 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: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> X (Twitter): <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

Wisdom of the Ages

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