In the lead-up to the 2014 Victorian state election, advertising expert Dee Madigan (Gruen Planet) gave us the inside running on how political advertising works, why negative ads strike a chord, the secrets of spin, and more. In conversation with Ben Birchall.

Find out how politicians use journalists who use politicians, how gender plays into it, and what happens when it all falls apart. Get the tools to analyse all those ads we’re bombarded with during elections.

In the lead-up to the 2014 Victorian state election, advertising expert Dee Madigan (Gruen Planet) gave us the inside running on how political advertising works, why negative ads strike a chord, the secrets of spin, and more. In conversation with Ben Birchall.
Find out how politicians use journalists who use politicians, how gender plays into it, and what happens when it all falls apart. Get the tools to analyse all those ads we’re bombarded with during elections.

Subscribe to the Wheeler Centre's podcast to hear full recordings of our talks, featuring the best in books, writing and ideas from Melbourne, Australia.

The Wheeler Centre

The Hard Sell: Dee Madigan on Political Advertising

Literary icon Nell Zink joins host Jaclyn Crupi to discuss her seventh much acclaimed novel, Sister Europe. 

In this dazzling satire of modern life, an eclectic cast of characters gathers at a tedious literary award ceremony in Berlin. Over the course of the evening, their assumptions, foibles and irrepressible humanity are slowly brought to light.

A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and the celebrated author of Avalon, Doxology and Nicotine, among others, Nell Zink is widely hailed as a singular voice in literary fiction. In a Melbourne first, she takes the stage at The Wheeler Centre to discuss her sharp and tightly wrought new novel, Sister Europe, and its animating themes: loneliness and the possibility of transcending it, the tension between old and new worldviews and the challenge of defining one’s identity in an increasingly complex world.

This event was recorded on Tuesday 3rd March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre.

The official bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop.

Featured music is Lucy’s Trail (Don’t Give Up) by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.

Literary icon Nell Zink joins host Jaclyn Crupi to discuss her seventh much acclaimed novel, Sister Europe.&nbsp; In this dazzling satire of modern life, an eclectic cast of characters gathers at a tedious literary award ceremony in Berlin. Over the course of the evening, their assumptions, foibles and irrepressible humanity are slowly brought to light. A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and the celebrated author of Avalon, Doxology and Nicotine, among others, Nell Zink is widely hailed as a singular voice in literary fiction. In a Melbourne first, she takes the stage at The Wheeler Centre to discuss her sharp and tightly wrought new novel, Sister Europe, and its animating themes: loneliness and the possibility of transcending it, the tension between old and new worldviews and the challenge of defining one&rsquo;s identity in an increasingly complex world. This event was recorded on Tuesday 3rd March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre. The official bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop. Featured music is Lucy&rsquo;s Trail (Don&rsquo;t Give Up) by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.

Nell Zink: Sister Europe

Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel is a chilling dissection of surveillance culture, technological overreach and the quiet, everyday ways people become complicit in their own monitoring. 

Set in a near-future America shaped by predictive surveillance, Lalami tells the story of a woman swept into a surreal dystopia where dreams are weaponised by the state. Accused of a crime she hasn’t committed – yet – and detained indefinitely in a retention centre in the Californian desert, she must navigate a world in which corporations trade in the contents of our subconscious and algorithms claim the authority to determine guilt, innocence and destiny. 

Lalami joins host Sonia Nair to explore the seductive pull of technology, the commodification of the private self and the unnervingly plausible future where a single line of code could seal a person’s fate. 

This event was recorded on Wednesday March 4th 2026 at The Wheeler Centre.

The official bookseller was The Chestnut Tree Bookshop.

Featured music is ‘Different Days’ by Chill Cole.

Longlisted for the 2025 Women&rsquo;s Prize for Fiction, Laila Lalami&rsquo;s The Dream Hotel is a chilling dissection of surveillance culture, technological overreach and the quiet, everyday ways people become complicit in their own monitoring. Set in a near-future America shaped by predictive surveillance, Lalami tells the story of a woman swept into a surreal dystopia where dreams are weaponised by the state. Accused of a crime she hasn&rsquo;t committed &ndash; yet &ndash; and detained indefinitely in a retention centre in the Californian desert, she must navigate a world in which corporations trade in the contents of our subconscious and algorithms claim the authority to determine guilt, innocence and destiny. Lalami joins host Sonia Nair to explore the seductive pull of technology, the commodification of the private self and the unnervingly plausible future where a single line of code could seal a person&rsquo;s fate.&nbsp; This event was recorded on Wednesday March 4th 2026 at The Wheeler Centre. The official bookseller was The Chestnut Tree Bookshop. Featured music is &lsquo;Different Days&rsquo; by Chill Cole.

Laila Lalami: The Dream Hotel

At 13, Kate Reid already knew exactly where she was headed: a career in Formula 1 and a life lived at full throttle. But after earning a degree in aerospace engineering and taking up a coveted position at one of the top F1 teams in the UK, she discovered that the reality didn’t match what she’d dreamed. So, she made a swerve no one expected: to forge a career in pastry. 

With her Melbourne-born bakery Lune Croissanterie now famous worldwide, Reid sits down to reflect on her unique path, from initially pursuing aerospace engineering at RMIT University, to following her lifelong passion for F1 racing, to finding fame as the mastermind behind ‘the best croissant in the world’ (The New York Times). 

Join Reid as she discusses perfection, obsession and making her own kind of success story, with host Alice Zaslavsky.  

 

At 13, Kate Reid already knew exactly where she was headed: a career in Formula 1 and a life lived at full throttle. But after earning a degree in aerospace engineering and taking up a coveted position at one of the top F1 teams in the UK, she discovered that the reality didn&rsquo;t match what she&rsquo;d dreamed. So, she made a swerve no one expected: to forge a career in pastry.&nbsp;
With her Melbourne-born bakery Lune Croissanterie now famous worldwide, Reid sits down to reflect on her unique path, from initially pursuing aerospace engineering at RMIT University, to following her lifelong passion for F1 racing, to finding fame as the mastermind behind &lsquo;the best croissant in the world&rsquo; (The New York Times).&nbsp;
Join Reid as she discusses perfection, obsession and making her own kind of success story, with host Alice Zaslavsky.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;

The Hard Sell: Dee Madigan on Political Advertising

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