StoryFest
Episodes
StoryFest 2025 - Creating Change for Good with Richard Glover, Inga Simpson, Pia Winberg & Caitlin Chang
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
An author, doctor-come-eco-entreprener, an award-winning podcaster and a social change communicator take the stage to discuss the power of words and s...
StoryFest 2025 - The Aussie Crime Wave with Candice Fox, Chris Hammer and Mitch Jennings
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two of the genre’s biggest Australian names take the stage with a successful debutant to unpack the keys to success and how to keep the genre fresh ...
STORYFEST 2025 - The Kindness Connection with Gina Chick and Hana Assafiri
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join rewilding facilitator, adventurer, writer and inaugural winner of Alone Australia Gina Chick, and social activist, radical entrepreneur and found...
STORYFEST 2025 - Fiction in Focus with Markus Zusak and Michaela Kalowski
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Great authors capture our imagination not just through their latest publications, but across a body of must-read work. Rarely do we take time to discu...
STORYFEST 2025 - Artificial Intelligence: Bogeyman or Saviour with Toby Walsh, Tracey Spicer AM and Anne Markey
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Technology makes life easier, right? But how easy is too easy? How do we manage the consequences - expected or otherwise - of AI on society, and with ...
STORYFEST 2023 - OPENING NIGHT: Stories from the South - Markus Zusak, Kirli Saunders, Bronwyn Adcock, Paul Greene
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for the opening of StoryFest 2023 when key storytellers with strong connections to our community shared their own perspectives of what makes t...
StoryFest 2023 - Is Truth a Dying Art - Wendy McCarthy, Alan Moir, Bronwyn Adcock, David Hunt
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a world of fake news, AI, and concentrated media ownership this session explores the nature of truth and our increasingly tenuous grip on it. Autho...
StoryFest 2023 - Only in Australia - Chris Hammer, Holly Wainwright, Michael Winkler, Kirk Docker
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join us as we dive into the world of character and caricature in our nation’s storytelling, and what makes the Australian character and character wr...
StoryFest 2023 - Story as Recovery - Jackie Bailey, Dominic Frawley, Frances Peters-Little & Lee Kofman
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Stories can be transformative and none more so than real-life writing. Writer and mentor, Lee Kofman (The Writer Laid Bare: Emotional Honesty in a Wri...
StoryFest 2023 - Seriously Funny - Holly Wainwright, Jackie Bailey, Katharine Pollock, David Hunt
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Laughter may be the best medicine, but comedy is the hardest thing to write. Leading authors Holly Wainwright (I Give my Marriage a Year), Jackie Bail...
StoryFest 2023 - You Must Ask That - Kirk Docker, Zaheda Ghani, Kirli Saunders, Michael Mohammed Ahmad
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Creator of award-winning documentary series You Can’t Ask That, Kirk Docker brings his unique interviewing style to StoryFest when he explores th...
Storyfest 2023 - Love a Good Story - Peter FitzSimons and Richard Glover
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Almost 10 years ago, author and columnist Peter FitzSimons AM and broadcaster Richard Glover set a world record for the longest interview (24 hours). ...
StoryFest 2023 - Changing the Game - Clementine Ford & Wendy McCarthy
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wendy McCarthy and Clementine Ford come together in conversation to explore how ways of disrupting and breaking the system have changed - or if they h...
Storyfest 2023 - Do Songwriters Make the Best Storytellers? - Dave Warner, Frances Peters-Little, Katharine Pollock
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Katharine Pollock (Her Fidelity and @thatrecordstoregirl) interviews former punk rocker and award-winning crime author Dave Warner (After the Flood), ...
StoryFest 2023 - Embracing a Life of Crime - Chris Hammer, Hayley Scrivenor, Dave Warner
27 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly half of all Australians have read a crime, mystery or thriller novel in the past twelve months. Hear from some of the biggest names in Australi...
StoryFest 2023 - The Wonder of Words - Pip Williams & Michelle Barraclough
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pip Williams’ novel The Dictionary of Lost Words was the highest selling novel in Australia in 2022 and her follow-up, The Bookbinder of Jericho, is...
StoryFest 2023 - Where the Magic Lies - Robbie Arnott & Inga Simpson
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join Robbie Arnott (Limberlost, The Rain Heron) and Inga Simpson (Willowman, The Last Woman in the World) for this intimate conversation between two o...
StoryFest 2023 - Live and Local
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this fast-paced storytellers shootout, David Hunt interviews six locals from the Shoalhaven who have recently published their work. You’ll hear...
StoryFest 2023 - The Antidote to Our Times
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Romance novels are sometimes dismissed as a lesser genre compared to more critically acclaimed writing styles. Leading romance writers Penelope Janu ...
StoryFest 2021 - Lost for Words with Patricia Ellis & Inga Simpson
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lost for Words The publication of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learner's Grammar in 2019 is the culmination of decades of work and a turning point in the...
StoryFest 2021 - Brave New Worlds with Kate Mildenhall, Charlotte McConaghy & Inga Simpson
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In their latest novels, Charlotte McConaghy and Kate Mildenhall have imagined the future. One where climate change has resulted in mass extinctions of...
StoryFest 2021 - Brazen Hussies with Sue Maslin and Jane Caro
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
BRAZEN HUSSIES reveals a revolutionary chapter in Australian history, when the bold women of the Women's Liberation Movement reignited Australia’s f...
StoryFest 2021 - Call of the Reed Warbler with Charles Massy and Jane McCredie
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
SHOW NOTES Charles Massy OAM gained a Bachelor of Science (Zoology, Human Ecology) at ANU, before going farming for 35 years, developing the prominent...
StoryFest 2021 - Honeybee with Craig Silvey and Suzanne Leal
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Craig Silvey is the author of the bestselling multi-award winning novel, Jasper Jones. Released in 2009, it went on to be turned into an acclaim...
StoryFest 2021 - "The Dressmaker's Secret" with Rosalie Ham & Nicole Abadee
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In her debut novel, The Dressmaker, Rosalie Ham introduced the world to the outback town Dungatar with its eccentric residents, petty polit...
StoryFest 2019 - Criminal Minds: Candice Fox, Michael Robotham & Christian White
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Christian White, Candice Fox & Michael Robotham. Hosted by Meredith Jaffé. One of the most well-attended sessions at StoryFest 2019 was Criminal ...
StoryFest 2021 - "Truth is Trouble" with Wendy Harmer, Malcolm Knox, Nikki Gemmell, David Hunt
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Freedom of expression is often touted as the right of individuals to espouse publicly views that were once held privately. No more so than in times wh...
StoryFest 2021 "The Golden Maze" - Richard Fidler & Nicole Abadee
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Golden Maze - Richard Fidler in conversation with Nicole Abadee Richard Fidler first visited Prague in 1989, the moment in history when the decrep...
StoryFest 2021 "Upturn: A Better Normal After Covid-19" - Tanya Plibersek & Jane Caro
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you had asked most people before covid hit our shores, they would have told you there was no way that school children could shift overnight to onli...
Storyfest 2019 "The Art of Forgetting"
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a live version of his popular 2017 TedX talk, The Art of Forgetting, David Hunt argues that in order for Australia to understand who we are, we mus...
Storyfest 2019 "Searching Out the Bundian Way"
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Naturalist, poet and seasoned bushwalker John Blay worked for over a decade to uncover the Bundian Way, a 380-kilometre ancient pathway from Mount Kos...
Storyfest 2019 "We're Not Getting Any Younger"
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
They call it the Sandwich Generation. Adult children juggling children of their own, work and ageing parents. In her latest book, journalist Amal Awad...
Storyfest 2019 "Unforgettable Settings"
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
So often, we talk about landscape as character and how setting informs the story. Join Candice Fox, Robert Hollingworth and Karen Viggers as they disc...
Storyfest 2019 "Weaving History through Stories"
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Female highwaywomen and the Estonian underground may not sound like they have much in common but each reveals a story of women tested by adversity. On...
Storyfest 2019 "Becoming a Bestseller"
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Natasha Lester swapped a career in marketing to become a writer. Her first two novels were works of literary fiction but Lester found her passions lay...
Storyfest 2019 "The Power of Sound"
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
David Hunt’s narration of Girt is one of Audible Australia's bestselling audio books of all time. Rolling Stone declared his Australian history podc...
StoryFest 2021 "Love Objects" - Emily Maguire & Caroline Baum
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this chat with Caroline Baum, Emily Maguire talks about love and family, betrayal and forgiveness, and the things we do to fill our empty spaces. A...
Storyfest 2019 "Accidental Feminists"
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Born in the 50s and 60s, they faced the future armed with the pill, free education and the chance to earn their own paycheque. But it's been a long ro...
2021 StoryFest - Markus Zusak - The Books That Change Us
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Opening Night event at StoryFest 2021 featured the inaugural Garry Evans Memorial Address, delivered by StoryFest patron and international bestsel...
2018 STORYFEST LAUNCH with Markus Zusak and Suzanne Leal
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the Storyfest Podcast where you can hear recordings of the thought-provoking, inspiring and sometimes hilarious sessions from StoryFest, a ...