Good Weekend Talks

In this episode, we talk to Andy Griffiths. The children’s author has written 40 books, including The Day My Bum Went Psycho, and the wildly popular Treehouse series. Griffiths has been published in more than 35 countries, and sold an astonishing 13 million copies in Australia and New Zealand alone. He’s led an interesting life, too. He wanted to be a frontman in a punk band, but ended u...

In this episode, we talk to Tracey Holmes. The TV trailblazer has spent more than three decades covering Australian sport and dissecting some of the biggest sporting events on the planet, bearing witness to the rise and rise of women's sport, which has had to bust through the walls of misogyny and male chauvinism. Her new book, The Eye of the Dragonfly is part memoir, part sporting manifes...

In this episode, we talk to AFLW star Libby Birch. She's done something no other female or male player has done - winning three premierships at three different clubs, with the Western Bulldogs, the Melbourne Demons and the North Melbourne Kangaroos. Since joining the league in its inaugural season, Birch has also played 91 consecutive games of AFLW (only two women have played more), and at just 27 has more than a few years left. Sh...

In this episode we talk to Jess Cattelly, the co-founder of Sydney swingers club Our Secret Spot. The 32-year-old got into swinging – also known as The Lifestyle - when she was just 20, and her Parramatta Road venue has since become an example of the way in which the swinging community is changing. Middle-class suburban key parties are no longer, nor is the practice as grimy or seedy as popular culture might have you imagine....

In this episode, we talk to Sarah Wilson. She’s had an incredibly diverse career - from teenage model, to newspaper columnist, to women’s magazine editor, and then best-selling author of the book, I Quit Sugar, in 2012. More books followed, on anxiety, and finding purpose in a disconnected world, especially through the climate change crisis. Now she’s focused on cascading and wicke...

In this episode, we talk to Hugh de Kretser. The president of the Australian Human Rights Commission has quite the job. Never has society been more polarised, with distressing displays of religious and ethnic hatred bursting onto our streets - while at the same time the relevance of the commission itself has been called into question. De Kretser, who gave up a promising corporate legal career to work in community law, is up for the...

In this episode, we talk to Danielle de Niese. The internationally acclaimed soprano has dazzled audiences since childhood – from her breakthrough on the TV show Young Talent Time at just nine years old to starring on the world’s greatest opera stages. She joins us to chat about her life in music, and what keeps her voice – and spirit – so vibrant. Following a remarkable path which also includes an early Emm...

In this episode, we speak with Mark Dapin. Dapin is a veteran true crime writer, with a career including a stint as editor of the lad mag Ralph - but also as a columnist for Good Weekend. He has spent many, many hours with infamous hardened criminals, and now - for a story in the current issue of Good Weekend - has flipped sides to see through the eyes of aspiring police officers. Dapin - an irreverent but incisive and insightful w...

In this episode, we talk to Vincent Fantauzzo – the Melbourne portrait artist famous for hyperrealist renderings of a long list of prominent people. He’s painted movie stars (like Hugh Jackman), underworld figures (like Mick Gatto), politicians (like Julia Gillard), sporting heroes (like Oscar Piastri) and icons (like Michael Gudinski). Good Weekend senior writer Konrad Marshall profiled Fantauzzo for a June cover story...

In this episode, we talk to Mark Brandi. The renowned crime novelist writes about outsiders: heroin addicts, former prisoners and child victims of poverty and violence – and joins us to chat about his new book, Eden, out on June 25. We take a look at Brandi's family background, including the racist, small-town harassment of his father – as well Brandi' earlier career in corrective services – both of which shed lig...

In this episode, we talk to award-winning investigative journalist Patrick McGee, who for years led the Financial Times’ reporting on the meteoric rise of Apple Inc to become the world’s most valuable company after being on the brink of bankruptcy in 1996. As the iPod, iPhone and iPad revolutionised the way we live, Apple injected eye-watering amounts into China – more than $US50 b...

In this episode, we talk to Anthony Burke. You might know him as the ubiquitous host of multiple renovation TV shows on the national broadcaster, including Grand Designs Australia, Grand Designs Transformations and Restoration Australia. (He's even got a new one about Asian design, called Culture by Design.) Today, he shifts from sympathising with those in the midst of their own particular building dilemmas to offer more general ad...

In this episode we bring you the remarkable story of Miriam* (not her real name), a survivor of forced marriage. Often confused with arranged marriage, forced marriage means one person is not giving their full consent – sometimes due to coercion, deception, incapacitation or threats. Each year the Australian Federal Police deal with about 90 cases, although this is thought to represent a fraction of the problem, which was mad...

In this episode, we talk to Hugh Allen. Allen, of course, was made executive chef of iconic three-hat Melbourne restaurant, Vue de Monde, at the tender age of 23. The son of a nurse and a paediatrician – both terrible cooks, it must be said – Allen was once marked at high school as a "struggling" student, but through food, he became a star. Allen just turned 30, yet has already enjoyed stints under chefs such as Neil Pe...

40/20 is a brand new NRL podcast from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. During this year's State of Origin and Finals series we'll be breaking down the biggest stories from across the game with the best journalists and NRL insiders from around the country. We'll be giving you press pass access as we breakdown the latest news, controversy and performances from the biggest matches in the Rugby League calendar. To listen to our e...

In this episode, we speak with Matthew Walker. The British neuroscience professor is the author of “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams”, and he’s coming to Australia shortly to speak at Vivid Sydney in conjunction with the Sydney Writers' Festival. Walker has lately become the sleep expert of choice around the world for his deep research and clear thinking about one of life’s great mysteri...

In this episode, we talk to Hannah Kent. The South Australian author burst onto the literary scene in 2013, with the publication of her debut historical novel, Burial Rites, about the execution of a young woman in Iceland, two centuries ago. The book was a global bestseller, optioned by Hollywood with Jennifer Lawrence attached to star in the film version, but Kent’s success also gave her that thing that all writers crave - n...

In this episode, we talk to Rutger Bregman. You might remember the Dutch historian and author from a 2019 appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which went viral after he called out millionaires and billionaires for tax avoidance. He joins us to talk about everything from the loss of America's moral authority after the re-election of Donald Trump, to why we need more ordinary people...

In this episode - one week before the federal election - we talk to Kos Samaras. Samaras had a long career as a Labor strategist - particularly in running campaigns for the Victorian party - before founding the political consultancy firm RedBridge in 2020. He's one of the big thinkers in Australian politics, who grew up in a blue collar Labor family, and is now sometimes critical of Labor for what he sees as the neglect of its hear...