PODCAST · arts
Outspoken Maleny
by Steven Lang
A series of conversations with authors discussing their recently released works.
Episodes
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Kate Holden in conversation
Why, Kate Holden asks, must an essay dash like an arrow to its arrival, piercing and startling as it goes? In this series of six essays, bound together around the idea of longing and belonging, of exile and home, Holden proves that an essay can be much more than a simple dash. Each one is a grand...
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Georgia Harper in conversation
Georgia’s first novel What I Would Do to You, won Best Debut Book at the 2025 Davitt Awards and was shortlisted for Best Crime Fiction Debut at the 2025 Danger Awards. Georgia has worked as a psychologist with both serious violent offenders and victim-survivors of crime. She was also the Senior...
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Lisa Wilkinson in conversation
In The Titanic Story of Evelyn Lisa Wilkinson - one of Australia's most admired and respected media personalities - explores the life of the only Australian survivor of the sinking of the Titanic. She tells the story of a brave young nurse who wanted to see the world, fell in love, but then…
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David Carlin & Peta Murray in conversation
This is a book of great contemplation… inviting us into tricky and uncertain territory… places we generally shy away from. Its dual voices unfold along parallel and intersecting tracks, charting the complex dance steps of Father/Daughter, Mother/Son, as they try on different roles. Weaving…
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Bob Carr in conversation
We are delighted - honoured in fact - to open our 2026 series of conversations with former journalist and State Premier, Bob Carr, speaking about his new memoir, Bring Back Yesterday. In October 2023 Bob’s wife of more than fifty years, Helena, suddenly died . In this memoir he records his…
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Emily Lighezzolo in conversation
Maisie and Charlie meet at a life-drawing session as undergraduates: she’s the model, he’s an artist. Their immediate connection carries them across two decades as they navigate the slippery dynamics of friendship, estrangement and family. Emily Lighezzolo’s bold debut interrogates the collision…
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Hugh Mackay in conversation
Hugh Mackay, social psychologist extraordinaire - ‘the man who explains us to ourselves’ has a new book. Just Saying is a series of twenty-five essays that take as their starting points statements from writers and thinkers as varied as Susan Sontag and Bertrand Russell, from Samuel Johnson to...
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Peter Stevens in conversation about Lake Baroon Catchment Care
We are, tonight, discussing the new book written by Elaine Green, acclaimed local author of 14 books about community and local history. Unfortunately Elaine is unwell. In her absence Peter Stevens, President of Lake Baroon Catchment Care Group, and myself, will do our best to explain why it was...
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Bob Brown in conversation
How to begin to introduce Dr Bob Brown? I mean, clearly, you all know exactly who he is and so any introduction is redundant. But, at the same time, the sheer breadth of his achievements over the last six decades are probably not as well known as they should be, so, please, bear with me for a...
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Heather Rose in conversation
It is a few years now since Heather Rose came to Maleny to speak about her memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here. The book revealed that, aside from being a best-selling, internationally-published, award-winning novelist, she had also managed to live a truly remarkable life, pushing the boundaries...
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Chris Hammer in conversation
These days Chris Hammer is best known for his ‘bush noir’ novels - a category which might even have been created to describe his books. They unravel in far-flung parts of Australia: in the opal fields of Lightning Ridge, out in north-western Victoria, in marginal country. They’re incredibly...
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Hugh White in conversation
Hugh White argues that, right now, we confront the world's most dangerous crisis in generations, with the old global order facing a direct challenge in three crucial regions: Eastern Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. And then there’s Donald Trump, under whose leadership America's retreat…
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Joanna Jenkins in conversation
Our ‘introducing author’ is the wonderful Joanna Jenkins. Her first novel How To Kill a Client, became a massive best-seller. In her new novel, The Bluff, her focus moves from big-city legal firms to a small country town - but we’re still amongst the legal fraternity. I've now read The Bluff and...
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Jane Rawson in conversation
Jane Rawson has an interesting backstory (see below) and much of her recent output has been fiction. In the case of Human/Nature, however, she presents a series of linked essays that delve, in a very idiosyncratic and personal way, into the many ways we interact with Nature. In deceptively simple...
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Barry Traill AM (BJ) in conversation
Our introducing speaker tonight is Dr Barry Traill AM, (BJ). Barry is a long-term resident of Maleny, and is one of Australia’s most successful environmental advocates. He is the former Director of Pew Charitable Trusts’ Australian Outback Program and now leads the Solutions for Climate Australia...
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Debra Oswald in conversation
Our featured author tonight is Debra Oswald. Debra came to prominence, or maybe the right word is fame, with the production of the immensely popular television series Offspring in 2010, for which she was the Creator and Lead Writer. But Debra had already been immersed in theatre and television…
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Steve MinOn in conversation
Our first guest tonight is the fascinating Steve MinOn. Steve’s debut novel is First Name Second Name, which won the Glendower Award for an emerging Queensland writer at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards. He has also been a recipient of the 2021 Queensland Writers Centre’s Publishible program…
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Rick Morton in conversation
I'm going out on a limb here. I think Rick Morton’s Mean Streak is an important book. Its description of the creation, implementation and eventual dismantling of Robodebt reveals a long slow-motion train wreck – one mendacious cruel scheming carriage after another inevitably, inexorably, piling...
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Siang Lu in conversation
Siang Lu is the author of two novels, The Whitewash and Ghost Cities. The latter, which we'll be discussing, was inspired by the existence of several vacant uninhabited megacities of China. It follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a...
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Gina Chick in conversation
Gina Chick has written a memoir. It’s titled we are the stars, and it follows her life from when she was almost seven years old, all the way through until she’s fifty, and there’s hardly a page you might choose to describe as conventional. Gina – with all that literary royalty in her blood – made...
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Andrew Stafford in conversation
Andrew Stafford’s book Pig City, about Brisbane music from the 70s through to the millennium, has been re-released for its twentieth anniversary. It is, in itself, a major Brisbane icon. Bernard Fanning wrote of it: ‘Twenty years on, Pig City reminds us of how deeply the political undercurrents...
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Marko Newman in conversation
Mark Newman was born and raised in South Africa. As a young man he completed a post-graduate philosophy degree at Johannesburg University (University of the Witwatersrand). This was during the time of Apartheid in South Africa, a regime that had a profound affect on him. As soon as he could he...
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Dr Norman Swan in conversation
Dr Norman Swan was born and raised in Glasgow, but he did his medical training at Aberdeen University, eventually going on to specialise in pediatrics. After he emigrated to Australia in the early 80s, however, he made the move into radio and television broadcasting, mainly with the ABC, and in...
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Simon Cleary in conversation
In the autumn of 2023 Simon undertook to follow the course of the Brisbane River from its source to the sea, in the hope that, by walking its length he might better understand the power and impact of this immense waterway on the environment and communities who rely on it. In Everything is Water,...
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Hugh Mackay in conversation - The Way We Are
Hugh Mackay has long been recognised as Australia’s leading social psychologist. In The Way We Are, his self-described ‘final book’, he presents a compelling portrait of the country as it stands today. Hugh argues that we have entered a critical period in our social evolution. He identifies…
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Carly-Jay Metcalfe in conversation
Tyyni and I have now read Carly's memoir, Breath, and are furiously recommending it to everyone we meet. It really is an extraordinary book, telling the story of a remarkable, and some might say difficult, life, but Carly brings to the story a profound sense of humour, combined with a close grasp...
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Bri Lee in conversation
Bri Lee writes investigative journalism, opinion, essays and art criticism. Her work has appeared in, amongst other places, The Monthly, Harper’s Bazaar, The Saturday Paper, Crikey and The Guardian. She is the author of three non-fiction works, the memoir, Eggshell Skull, and the two more...
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Tony Birch in conversation
Tony Birch is the acclaimed author of four novels, including The White Girl and Ghost River, as well as three short story collections and two books of poetry. Most recently his short story collection Dark as Last Night won the New South Wales Premier's Christina Stead Prize for fiction, the...
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Melissa Ashley in conversation
Melissa is the best-selling author of The Birdman's Wife, which won many awards, including the Qld Premiers/University of Queensland Fiction Award and the Neilsen Bookscan Award. Her new novel is The Naturalist of Amsterdam. At the turn of the 18th century, Amsterdam is at the centre of an...
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Mirandi Riwoe in conversation
Sunbirds is set in Java during the Second World War - at the time of Japan’s inexorable move southwards - it depicts the intricate web of identities and loyalties created by war and imperialism, the heartbreaking compromises that so often ensue. Mirandi’s previous novel, Stone Sky Gold Mountain,...
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David Marr in conversation
When David Marr set out to research the life of his great-grandmother the last thing he expected to find was a photograph of her father, dressed in the uniform of the Native Police. As he writes: ‘I was appalled and curious. I have been writing about the politics of race all my career. I know…
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Anna Funder in conversation
A quote from Bookseller + Publisher: 'When researching a new book on George Orwell, powerhouse writer Anna Funder noticed an interesting omission—Eileen Orwell, George’s first wife, was curiously absent. The basis of Wifedom is six newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Norah.…
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Angela O'Keeffe in conversation
Angela O’Keeffe’s new novel The Sitter begins with ‘the author’ in an apartment in Paris, looking out towards the burnt shell of the Notre Dame Cathedral. She is, ostensibly, researching the life of Marie-Hortense Fiquet, but Hortense, dead these hundred years, seems to have, in some way, taken...
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Kim Mahood in conversation
Kim Mahood grew up in the 1950s and 60s on Mongrel Downs, a cattle station on the edge of the Tanami Desert. Much has changed in those parts in recent years: the land has been handed back to the traditional owners; the mining companies have arrived; Aboriginal art has flourished. Kim, now a…
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Louise Martin-Chew in conversation
Louise speaks about her biography of Butjala artist Fiona Foley, a 'beautifully composed, intimate first-person account of the artistic practice of Badtjala artist, Fiona Foley. Each chapter meanders and unfolds, taking us on a vivid journey to place -K'gari or Fraser Island - combined with...
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Alexander McCall Smith in conversation, a snippet
Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as Sandy, is one of the world’s most-loved authors. For many years he was a professor of Medical Law and worked in universities in the UK and abroad before turning his hand to writing fiction. Since then he has written more than 100 books including...
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James Kirby in conversation
When you think of compassion, what comes to mind? Kindness, understanding, tenderness, empathy, maybe warmth? Compassion can be all those things – but it is much more. Drawing on his many years of experience as a clinical psychologist and researcher, Dr James Kirby brings together hard science…
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Chris Sarra in conversation
Chris is a Gurang Gurang/Taribelang man and former Queenslander of the Year. His memoir tells the remarkable story of how a young boy from Bundaberg grew up to become Principal of the Cherbourg School, the founder of the Stronger Smarter Insitute and, now, to hold a senior position in the...
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Joanna Jenkins in conversation
Joanna is the author of the fast-paced and witty thriller How to Kill a Client. Gavin Jones is dead. As an in-house lawyer who controlled millions of dollars in fees per year, he wlelded power with manipulative contempt. The partners relied on his favour to fund their lavish lifestyles and, if...
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Peter Hudson in conversation
Peter Hudson is a landscape and portrait painter living and working in Maleny. Since the late 1990s he has explored aspects of the natural world, astronomy, mythology, and history to investigate ‘the deep mystery of existence and us being here’. In 1998, he made the first of many trips to the...
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Heather Rose in conversation
Heather Rose is the award-winning author of Bruny and The Museum of Modern Love. Her new memoir, nothing bad ever happens here is deeply personal collection filled with reflections on love, death, creativity, and healing. Growing up on the remote island of Tasmania, Heather Rose falls in love…
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Kate Holden in conversation
We’re failing this continent. We have been for some time. The latest State of the Environment Report only confirms what we’ve all known for years. In Northern NSW, west of the Divide, it used to be brigalow scrub, growing on what turned out to be the richest soil in the country - not a…
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Katie McMahon in conversation
Katie’s first novel, The Mistake, was exceedingly well-received, with cover notes by such luminaries as Liane Moriarty - I absolutely loved this novel… fresh, funny and heartfelt… I didn’t want it to end. Now she returns with The Accident, revealing the inner lives of Grace, Zoe and Imogen, whose...
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Norman Swan in conversation
Outspoken is delighted to bring Dr Norman Swan to Maleny for a conversation about his new book, So You Want to Live Younger Longer? Trained in paediatrics, Dr Swan was one of the first medically qualified journalists in Australia, and has had a broadcast career spanning more than 30 years. He...
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Fiona Robertson in conversation
Fiona Robertson is a writer and doctor (yes, two doctors for the price of one!). Her short fiction has been published in literary magazines and anthologies in Australia and the UK, and has been shortlisted for international competitions. Her collection of stories, If You’re Happy, won the…
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Kári Gíslason in conversation
Kári Gíslason was born in Iceland. He’s the author of four books, two non-fiction and two novels. The Promise of Iceland tells the story of return journeys he’s made to his birthplace, while Saga Land: The island of stories at the edge of the world, co-written with Richard Fidler, is an account…
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Kevin Rudd in conversation
The Honourable Kevin Rudd AC. Mr Rudd was first elected as Prime Minister in 2007. Early initiatives of his government were the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, A Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations, and the 2020 Summit. During the term of his government Labor also managed to keep...
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Linda Jaivin in conversation
Chinese history is long, sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, extraordinary cultural and scientific leaps and deep dark times. Linda Jaivin distils this vast history into a concise narrative that allows us a glimpse of...
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Warren Ward in conversation
Warren is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Queensland. His writing has appeared in many publications and he is a winner of the New Philosopher’s Award. His book, Lovers of Philosophy explores the intimate lives of seven philosphers, investigating the way their most personal...
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Kevin Smith in conversation
Kevin grew up on the western edge of the Snowy Mountains, in a small sawmill village. He has worked primarily in drama and theatre, as actor, writer and teacher. His poetry has been published in Australia and overseas but Awake to the Rest of My Days is his first anthology. His poems have been...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A series of conversations with authors discussing their recently released works.
HOSTED BY
Steven Lang
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Outspoken Maleny currently has 96 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Outspoken Maleny about?
A series of conversations with authors discussing their recently released works.
How often does Outspoken Maleny release new episodes?
Outspoken Maleny has 96 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts Outspoken Maleny?
Outspoken Maleny is created and hosted by Steven Lang.
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