Gleetalks from Gleebooks
Episodes
Michael Wesley - Blind Spot: Southeast Asia and Australia’s Future
29 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Australia has forgotten what keeps it safe. So argues Michael Wesley in this sharp and compelling essay about our place in the world. His previous boo...
Simon Chapman AO - Better to be looked over, than overlooked
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
One of Australia’s most influential public health thinkers, Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman AO has released a new book that reflects on a career ...
Out of the Woods - Gretchen Shirm
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the year 2000, an Australian woman travels to The Hague to work as the secretary for an Australian judge. There, she sits through the trial of a fo...
Vanessa Berry - Calendar
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Calendar is an essay collection in the form of a daybook, written in real-time over a year. The book takes inspiration from writers who use experiment...
Charlotte Grieve - A Duty to Warn
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
***WARNING: Contains some graphic medical content ***It all started when a daughter asked her father 'Are there any risks?'.Investigative jour...
James Bradley - Landfall
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Above an already swamped Sydney, a disastrous weather system looms. The city is not repaired from one storm before the next hits. There is enormous di...
Evelyn Araluen - The Rot
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Rot is a recalcitrant study of the decaying romances, expired hopes and abject injustices of the world. A liturgy for girlhood in the dying days ...
Ann Curthoys - The Last Tour
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Robeson was once the most famous African American in the world. Not only was he a renowned singer and actor with a stunning bass baritone voice, ...
Judith Brett - The Fearless Beatrice Faust
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Beatrice Faust was the transformative feminist activist, writer and intellectual who founded the Women’s Electoral Lobby in Melbourne in 1972. She c...
Linda Jaivin - Bombard the Headquarters!
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1966, with the words ‘Bombard the Headquarters!’ Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletaria...
Lisa Portolan - 10 Ways to Find Love and How to Keep It
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We’re all looking for love, but although it’s been years since I was lucky enough to find the love of my life, the world of online dating seems fr...
Hugh White - Hard New World: Our Post-American Future
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
“The Canberra establishment is shocked by any suggestion that we should walk away from the ANZUS commitments. They think we can and must depend on A...
Graeme Turner - Broken: Universities, Politics and the Public Good
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us would agree that a strong higher education system is crucial for a functioning democracy and economic prosperity. However, a 2024 review f...
Jenny Macklin - Making Progress: How Good Policy Happens
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Is big policy reform still possible? Does Australia have the political will to tackle generational issues such as climate change, the housing crisis, ...
Nathan Dunne - When Nothing Feels Real
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nathan Dunne was living the life of his dreams in London until, one evening, he jumped into a lake for a swim. When he emerged, his identity was simpl...
50th Birthday Poetry Special
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode of Gleetalks, we celebrate not only our 50th birthday this year since Gleebooks was founded in 1975, but our equally long asso...
Gavin Fang & Tracey Kirkland - Age of Doubt: Building Trust in a World of Disinformation
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today, trust seems harder to find than ever before. It’s hardly surprising we feel that way. Our politics is polarised, our online world is awash wi...
Earthquake: The election that shook Australia
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the Coalition government was overthrown in 2022 after nine years in office, it was tempting to portray the loss as merely a personal repudiation ...
Kumi Taguchi - The Good Daughter
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up, journalist and presenter Kumi Taguchi thought her father was just difficult: reserved to the point of silence, obsessively frugal, and –...
Briony Neilson - Dangers of Youth
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
France at the turn of the twentieth century was deeply preoccupied with the conduct of its young people, especially juvenile offenders, who were viewe...
John Lyons - A Bunker in Kyiv
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
By daytime, Ukraine is a sophisticated European country going about its business, and Kyiv seems like an enchanting city. But by night, the sirens roa...
Zeny Edwards - Painting with Stone: The Story of the Melocco Brothers
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the swathe of destruction and demolition in recent decades, Sydney has some architectural gems: the State Library of NSW, the State Theatre, H...
Nick Kaldas - Behind the Badge
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Kaldas is a cop's cop. From investigating war criminals to taking down global drug operations, Kaldas has seen the worst humanity can offer. But ...
Justin Narayan of Masterchef - Everything is Indian
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We all love Indian food, but why aren't garam masala or tamarind as common as soy sauce and tomato paste?It’s a question answered by Masterchef winn...
Emma Shortis - After America
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australian political leaders have bent the knee for decades, placing the ANZUS treaty at the centre of the nation’s security. AUKUS has become the l...
George Megalogenis - Minority Rule
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and another minority government is a real possibility a...
Michael Visontay - Noble Fragments
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One hundred years ago, a New York bookseller Gabriel Wells, committed a crime against history. He broke up the world’s greatest book, the Gutenberg ...
Lauren Samuelsson A Matter of Taste
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since 1933, the Australian Women’s Weekly has been Australia’s highest-selling women’s magazine. And from birthday cakes to barbecues, the Weekl...
Michelle de Kretser - Theory and Practice
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1986, and ‘beautiful, radical ideas’ are in the air. A young woman arrives in Melbourne. In bohemian St Kilda she meets artists, activists,...
Geoff Raby - Great Game On
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the Nineteenth Century, the Russian and British played what was dubbed the Great Game for strategic influence in Central Asia.Today, the players ha...
Chris Baker - Swimming Sydney
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From Palm Beach to Cronulla, Mount Druitt to Bondi, Sydney is a city made for swimming.Over a calendar year, lifelong swimmer, educator and writer Chr...
Ronni Salt - Gunnawah
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 1970s. The era of flares, treads, Gough… and the founding of Gleebooks – but that’s another story!It was also the age of the advent of femin...
Dr Norelle Lickiss - On the Kindness of Strangers LauncH
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Renowned Australian physician and academic Dr Norelle Lickiss AO discusses her collection of essays "On the Kindness of Strangers and Other Essays: Mu...