Writers & Ideas: A NewSouth Publishing Podcast
Episodes
Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook, and Joan Beaumont, "Challenging Anzac: Stories That Don't Fit the Legend" (NewSouth, 2026)
25 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Challenging Anzac: Stories that don’t fit the legend Edited by Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook, and Joan Beaumont The Anzac legend has shaped...
Justine Nolan and Martijn Boersma, "Addressing Modern Slavery" (UNSW Press, 2019)
14 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Before you left your house this morning, chances are that you used products and consumed goods that were produced by modern slavery. From the coffee ...
Fiona Crawford and Lee McGowan, "Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women's Football" (NewSouth Books, 2019)
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by two guests: Dr. Fiona Crawford, a writer, editor, and researcher whose work engages with social, environmental, and sports. Dr....
John Fitzgerald, "Cadre Country: How China Became the Chinese Communist Party" (NewSouth Books, 2022)
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since the founding of the Communist Party in China just over a century ago there is much the country has achieved. But who does the heavy lifting in C...
Eda Gunaydin, "Root and Branch: Essays on Inheritance" (NewSouth, 2022)
08 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eda Gunaydin joins us today to talk about Root and Branch: Essays on Inheritance (NewSouth, 2022). Lots of themes: Turkey, Australia, Sydney, fami...
Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor, "Waiting for Gonski: How Australia Failed Its Schools" (UNSW Press, 2022)
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Anyone interested in how education policy is made and unmade, in school funding models, their historical and contemporary development and their effect...
Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson, "Upheaval: The Great Digital Disruption in Journalism and Its Aftermath" (NewSouth, 2021)
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Ricketson joins to discuss how newsrooms, the engine rooms of reporting, have shrunk. A generation of journalists has borne witness to seismic...
Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements, "Tongerlongeter: First Nations Leader and Tasmanian War Hero" (NewSouth, 2021)
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas, today's guest, explains Australia has no war hero more impressive than Tongerlongeter. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation of south-east Tasman...
Inger Mewburn and Katherine Firth, "Level Up Your Essays: How to Fix Your University Essays and Get Better Grades" (NewSouth, 2021)
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I've had 18 years of formal education - why is writing so hard? Today's guests Dr Katherine Firth explains the disease's cure. The book Level Up Y...
Erin Stewart, "The Missing Among Us: Stories of Missing Persons and Those Left Behind" (NewSouth, 2020)
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'To be missing, you must be missed'. Erin Stewart's 2021 book examines missing for just about every point of view. In Australia 38,000 people are r...
Kama Maclean, "British India, White Australia: Overseas Indians, Intercolonial Relations and the Empire, 1901-1947" (NewSouth, 2020)
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Commonwealth, curry and cricket: now that explains India and Australia! Not really, and not according to today's guest. Kama Maclean discusses her b...
Sam van Zweden, "Eating with My Mouth Open" (NewSouth, 2021)
26 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Wow! Food, family, memory, insight, body, mind - worth the effort this one. Eating with My Mouth Open (NewSouth, 2021) is food writing like you’ve...
Meredith Lake, "The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History" (NewSouth, 2020)
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The bible and Australian society! Meredith Lake's published a new 2020 edition of The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History (NewSouth Books, 2...
Meredith Lake, "The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History" (NewSouth, 2020)
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The bible and Australian society! Meredith Lake's published a new 2020 edition of The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History (NewSouth Books, 2...
Melissa Harper, "The Ways of the Bushwalker: On Foot in Australia" (U Washington Press, 2020)
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Melissa Harper about her book The Ways of the Bushwalker: On Foot in Australia (University of Washington Press, 2020). Australian...
Joy McCann, "Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean" (U New South Wales Press, 2018)
13 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Joy McCann discusses the great circumpolar ocean that surrounds Antarctica. McCann is the author of Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean (Univers...
Seamus O’Hanlon, "City Life: The New Urban Australia" (NewSouth Publishing, 2018)
27 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, City Life: The New Urban Australia (NewSouth Publishing, 2018), Seamus O’Hanlon, an Associate Professor at Monash University, explo...
Joy McCann, “Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean” (NewSouth Publishing, 2018)
07 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean (NewSouth Publishing, 2018), historian Joy McCann explores the history of the vast Sou...
Christina Twomey, “The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia” (NewSouth Books, 2018)
13 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia (NewSouth Books, 2018), Christina Twomey, Professor of History at Monash University, exp...
Rodney Tiffen, “Disposable Leaders: Media and Leadership Coups from Menzies to Abbott” (NewSouth Publishing, 2017)
22 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Disposable Leaders: Media and Leadership Coups from Menzies to Abbott (NewSouth Publishing, 2017), Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor ...
Mandy Sayer, “Australian Gypsies: Their Secret History” (NewSouth Publishing, 2017)
08 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Australian Gypsies: Their Secret History (NewSouth Publishing, 2017), award-winning writer Mandy Sayer explores the neglected history...
Paul Irish, “Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney” (NewSouth Publishing, 2017)
01 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney (NewSouth Publishing, 2017), historian Paul Irish debunks the myth that...
Jayne Persian, “Beautiful Balts: From Displaced Persons to New Australians (NewSouth Publishing, 2017)
24 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Beautiful Balts: From Displaced Persons to New Australians (NewSouth Publishing, 2017), Jayne Persian, a Lecturer in History at the U...
Claire Higgins, “Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy” (New South Press, 2017)
03 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy (New South Press, 2017), Claire Higgins, a Senior Research Associate at the A...
Mark Dapin, “Jewish Anzacs: Jews in the Australian Military” (New South Press, 2017)
27 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Jewish Anzacs: Jews in the Australian Military (New South Press, 2017), author, journalist and historian Mark Dapin explores the litt...