Gleetalks from Gleebooks

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 books include There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia and Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life. He is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne and was formerly head of the Lowy Institute and dean of ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific.

One of Australia’s most influential public health thinkers, Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman AO has released a new book that reflects on a career spent reshaping how Australians understand health and responsibility.Better to be looked over, than overlooked: 50 years of public health research and advocacy, is part memoir, part manifesto, tracing five decades of scholarship and advocacy that helped counter powerful industry interests and bring public health into the national conversation. For many, public health may feel like something that happens behind the scenes in government departments or academic journals. Professor Chapman’s career demonstrates the opposite. Public health is about applying a critical lens to social norms, changing environments, and equipping communities with the information they need to live healthier lives. Few have done more to advance that mission in Australia than Professor Chapman. 

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 former military man who has been charged with war crimes. As the trial proceeds, she is confronted with two conflicting impulses: being deeply affected by the testimony of witnesses, while at the same time plagued by an enduring doubt as to the defendant's guilt.Meanwhile, she begins an unexpected romance and friendship, and these relationships help her to understand the stories of extraordinary survival she hears about during the trial. When she is called back to Australia to reckon with her own childhood, she finds she can't quite leave everything she's heard behind. Out of the Woods asks what it means to bear witness to the suffering of people who have experienced real tragedy and whether it is possible, afterwards, to resume a normal life.'A triumph. Out of the Woods traces the complex lines of complicity and grief a deeply compelling and humane story about what it means to bear witness. This is a book that looks into your soul.' Stephanie Bishop'This searchingly original novel counters the historical weight of human cruelty with small acts of attention and persistence. Shirm's empathy and intelligent precision exert a quiet moral authority on every page.' Delia Falconer

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 experiments and constraints, such as Georges Perec/Oulipo and Bernadette Mayer, as well as autobiographical writers who use inventive structures, such as Christina Sharpe in Ordinary Notes, and Sheila Heti in Alphabetical Diaries. Calendar is based on the French Republican calendar of the late 18th century, in which every day was dedicated to an object, and applies this concept to objects of contemporary life. For a year Berry paid attention to her encounters with objects over the course of the day, and every night wrote an essay based on one object, and drew an illustration of it. Combining the narrative of a year and stories of the 365 objects themselves, Calendar is about tuning in to the unexpected, playful and solemn lives of the objects around us.

***WARNING: Contains some graphic medical content ***It all started when a daughter asked her father 'Are there any risks?'.Investigative journalist Charlotte Grieve had a very personal reason to be interested in celebrated orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis. Her father had lost his leg almost sixty years before a chance meeting with Dr Al Muderis, who raised concerns about her father's ongoing mobility. The famous doctor told him that osseointegration surgery would keep him out of a wheelchair. Her mother suggested a second opinion. The collision of the personal and professional would spark an investigation that led to a $20 million defamation trial.Charlotte uncovered serious concerns about the doctor's surgical practice and evidence that he routinely failed to adequately inform patients of the risks involved in his signature procedure. Doctors have a duty of care, but they also legally have a duty to warn. It means that they must warn patients of any risks. When that is not done, vulnerable people have to live with the consequences.Buy the book here: https://gleebooks.com.au/p/duty-to-warn

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 of late-stage capitalism, these poems expose fraying nerves and tendons of a speaker refusing to avert their gaze from the death of Country, death on Country, and the bloody violence of settler colonies here and afar. Across sleepless nights, fractured alliances and self-destructive coping strategies, The Rot is what happens when poetry swallows more rage than it can console, quiet or ironise – this book demands you ready yourself for a better world.Buy the book here - https://glee.circlepos.com/p/the-rot

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 distrust of the civil service, including police. Redfern is now a swampland. Anyone who has the financial means or the property to, sells up and heads to the Blue Mountains and beyond, or better yet, New Zealand.Sydney is full of climate refugees from Asia and the Pacific, and from the east coast of Australia. Food and water insecurity have created tension. There is poverty, suspicion and cultural disharmony. A world of have and have nots. Developers raise most of their money here from building detention camps. But how closely are those builds monitored? After all the 1% aren't going to be living there.

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, he was also a former professional athlete, lawyer and civil rights activist. To the delight of his many fans, he and his wife, Eslanda—a notable civil rights activist, author, United Nations journalist and anthropologist—were finally able to tour Australia and New Zealand after a three decade delay, just as the Cold War tipped into the turbulent 1960s. The Robesons’ tour encompassed concerts, talks to unionists, fans, women’s organisations, communists, peace activists and Indigenous peoples and their struggles in both countries, encompassing intersections of race, gender and women’s political activism. Historian Ann Curthoys talks to Professor Lorena Allam of the University of Technology’s Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Research about how Paul and Eslanda’s trip energised new forms of First Nations protest.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/last-tour-the-paul-and-eslanda-robesons-visit-to-australia-and-new-zealand-in-1960/⁠  

Beatrice Faust was the transformative feminist activist, writer and intellectual who founded the Women’s Electoral Lobby in Melbourne in 1972. She campaigned for abortion law reform, and thought, talked and wrote about sex and feminism.She also endured a miserable childhood, and suffered chronic ill health as well as a later-life addiction to prescription drugs. Her letters reveal a complex, troubled inner life that belied the confident charisma of her public persona.In this fascinating episode of Gleetalks award-winning biographer Judith Brett talks to ABC political correspondent and presenter Annabel Crabb about this gifted, argumentative woman who refused to be a victim, in her book The Fearless Beatrice Faust: Sex Feminism and the Body Politic,  published by Text Publishing. Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/fearless-beatrice-faust-sex-feminism-and-body-politics/⁠ 

In 1966, with the words ‘Bombard the Headquarters!’ Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China’s cultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, its institutions of government were damaged and its society was bitterly divided.Author and China watcher Linda Jaivin talks to award-winning author Lech Blaine about the Cultural Revolution, and Bombard the Headquarters! published by Black Inc.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/bombard-the-headquarters-the-cultural-revolution-in-china/⁠ 

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 fraught with obstacles, uncertainties and contradictions. Or so I’m told!Although modern society and media have sold us the fairytale of that one big, romantic love – chemistry, sparks, passion – the majority of people don’t think a big love can be discovered on dating apps. And given our consumer culture’s fixation on the disposable and the new, many lonely hearts become stuck in a cycle of looking for the next, even better relationship. Ironically, while we’re on this quest for romantic novelty, we may also be craving long-term partnerships, feeling like failures if we don’t achieve them. How can we reconcile these conflicting desires? Dating app academic Dr Lisa Portolan talks to presenter of A Better World Blueprint Shevonne Hunt about what love looks like in the digital age.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/ten-ways-to-find-love-and-how-to-keep-it/⁠ 

“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 America more than ever in today’s hard new world. But that misses the vital point. It’s America that is walking away from the commitments it made in very different circumstances seventy-five years ago. That was plain enough under Joe Biden. It’s crystal clear today under Trump.So argues defense and intelligence analyst Hugh White in his urgent Quarterly Essay,  Hard New World: Our Post-American Future.White talks to former US and Australian political advisor Bruce Wolpe of the United States Studies Centre about the big strategic geopolitical trends across the world as America exits the field and how Australia should respond.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/quarterly-essay-98-on-australia-the-new-world-order/⁠ 

Most of us would agree that a strong higher education system is crucial for a functioning democracy and economic prosperity. However, a 2024 review found the system broken and in urgent need of reform. Major issues include an over-reliance on international enrolments, widespread casualisation, academic burnout, political interference in research and teaching, lack of national coordination, and the long-term impact of funding cuts. These challenges threaten the sector's ability to produce well-educated citizens and maintain its role in society. Urgent action is needed to restore higher education’s capacity to serve both national and global interests.In this episode of Gleetalks, Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner AO talks to Adjunct Professor Hannah Forsyth about the misconceptions around academic life, revealing the possible solutions to the higher education sector’s malaise.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/broken-universities-politics-and-the-public-good-in-the-national-interest/⁠ 

Is big policy reform still possible? Does Australia have the political will to tackle generational issues such as climate change, the housing crisis, rising inequality and Closing the Gap? And how did the Rudd and Gillard governments develop such transformational initiatives as the Apology to the Stolen Generations, paid parental leave and the National Disability Insurance Scheme?According to Labor policymaker and former Social Services Minister Jenny Macklin, Australia wants to remain prosperous and fair, big policy reform is not just possible, it’s essential.In this episode of Gleetalks, Macklin talks to her successor as Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek about how she and policymakers such as such as Julia Gillard, Brian Howe, Bill Kelty and Ross Garnaut war-gamed ways to turn good policy ideas into reality in her book Making Progress: How Good Policy Happens, published by Melbourne University Press. Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/making-progress-how-good-policy-happens/⁠ 

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 simply gone. He felt completely lost and in acute, inexplicable pain. He knew who he was supposed to be but had no connection to the person named Nathan. His memories were distant and separate, not his. Everything was unfamiliar. All he felt was terror.This was the beginning of his experience with depersonalisation, a little-understood and on-the-rise mystery mental illness that causes a person to dissociate from their body and thoughts. In this intriguing episode of Gleetalks, Dunne talks to author and researcher Dr Rebecca Huntley about his sometimes fraught but always inspiring journey back to himself in his book When Nothing Feels Real: A journey into the mystery illness of depersonalisation. Like what you heard? Buy your copy here. https://gleebooks.com.au/product/when-nothing-feels-real-a-journey-into-the-mystery-illness-of-depersonalisation/⁠ 

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 association with poets and poetry. One of our very first book launches was for Lee Cataldi’s poetry collection Invitation to a Marxist Lesbian Party. Since then, we’ve proudly hosted hundreds of poetry launches and readings with some of Australia’s best and best-known poets.To celebrate our 50th, patron Liz Allen hosted a very special evening of poetry with poets Chris AndrewsJudith BeveridgePeter BoylePam BrownJoanne BurnsLaurie DugganJane GibianDebbie LimGreg McLaren and Miroslav Sandevreading some of their poetry, and one of their favourite Australian poems. Settle in and enjoy this special stocking filler! Like what you heard? You can purchase any of the poetry collections and poets' work upstairs at Glebe or searching here: https://gleebooks.com.au/

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 with misinformation, and we’ve lost faith in our bedrock institutions. Yet, without trust, we cannot work together to solve the big problems we face.But there is a way back. A way to rediscover trust in our leaders and institutions. A way to tackle the doubt.Gavin Fang – ABC Editorial Director – and Tracey Kirkland – the ABC’s Continuous News Editor – talk to author and broadcaster Richard Glover about how, if we are to address the big issues facing our world, then we must have trust, because without it we have no sense of shared reality in their book Age of Doubt: Building Trust in a World of Disinformation, published by Monash University Publications.  Like what you heard? Buy your copy here. ⁠https://gleebooks.com.au/product/age-of-doubt-building-trust-in-a-world-of-misinformation/⁠ 

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 of Scott Morrison. Then, when opposition leader Peter Dutton torpedoed the Voice referendum in 2023, his popularity rocketed as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's nose dived. That was when, according to former political staffer and now commentator Niki Savva, the Coalition thought it had the election in the bag.But Niki had noticed the ground shifting – the emergence of the teal independents and the long-term threat they represented to the Liberals and the overlooked reality that, according to her, the 2022 federal election result was no ordinary defeat but delivered last rites to Menzies’ broad-church party.In this Killing Season special episode of Gleetalks, Savva talks to broadcaster and author David Marr about what went on behind the scenes, accompanied by her trademark access to important players and eyewitnesses, of an election that transformed Australian politics in her new book Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia, published by Scribe Publications.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.⁠https://gleebooks.com.au/product/earthquake-the-election-that-shook-australia/⁠ 

Growing up, journalist and presenter Kumi Taguchi thought her father was just difficult: reserved to the point of silence, obsessively frugal, and – after her parents’ divorce – almost entirely absent. Still, when her father died, she was far away and Kumi’s feelings about him – and her own heritage – remained tangled.But just because a parent has gone doesn’t mean they’re absent. Over time Kumi came to understand more about what made her father as he was, including his harrowing experiences as a child in wartime Japan and, above all, the culture she both loved and felt burdened by. Kumi talks to journalist Leigh Sales about her journey to understand her father – and herself – in her book The Good Daughter, published by Simon and Schuster Australia.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.https://gleebooks.com.au/product/good-daughter-the-a-memoir-of-losing-my-father-and-finding-home/⁠ 

France at the turn of the twentieth century was deeply preoccupied with the conduct of its young people, especially juvenile offenders, who were viewed at a time of great economic distress and social turmoil as harbingers of national decline and agents of disorder. Sound familiar?Legislators and social reformers debated whether children who committed offences should be held criminally responsible or if their age should exempt them from liability. Nonetheless, others saw young people, including juvenile offenders, as victims of neglect and essential vehicles for national regeneration. In this episode of Gleetalks, historian Briony Neilson talks to Emeritus Professor David Garrioch about how greater age consciousness in the criminal justice system emerged in modern France, leading to the creation of a distinct branch of justice for juveniles in her book Dangers of Youth: Age, Criminality, and Juvenile Justice in Third Republic France, published by McGill-Queens University Press.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.⁠https://gleebooks.com.au/product/dangers-of-youth-age-criminality-and-juvenile-justice-reform-in-third-republic-france/⁠ 

By daytime, Ukraine is a sophisticated European country going about its business, and Kyiv seems like an enchanting city. But by night, the sirens roar, and the war begins. Acclaimed former ABC Global Affairs Editor – and now ABC News Americas Editor – John Lyons doesn’t write about geopolitics or military strategy in his evocative book A Bunker in Kyiv, published by Harper Collins Australia. Instead, he focuses on  the everyday resilient civilians who are taking part in it.Lyons talks to Network Ten political correspondent Hugh Riminton and Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko about the huge army of civilians — from old punk rockers to university professors and Coca Cola brand managers — who are working behind the scenes to outwit the Russian army.  Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.⁠https://gleebooks.com.au/product/bunker-in-kyiv-the-astonishing-story-of-the-peoples-army-defying-putin-from-respected-australian-journalist-and-author-of-balcony-over-j/⁠ 

Despite the swathe of destruction and demolition in recent decades, Sydney has some architectural gems: the State Library of NSW, the State Theatre, Hyde Park’s Anzac Memorial and more. And adorning these iconic buildings is the exquisite work of three Italian brothers whose ornate and beautiful mosaic, terrazzo, and marble work constitutes up to 90% of Sydney’s early 20th Century marble and terrazzo work. Yet despite their monumental contributions – including the decade they spent working on the floor of St Mary’s Cathedral crypt – the legacy of the Melocco Brothers—Peter, Antonio, and Galliano—has remained largely unacknowledged.  Until now.  Award-winning author, architectural historian, cultural heritage consultant and human rights advocate Zeny Edwards reveals the artistry behind the inspirational story of these incredible artists, as she talks to Dr Christopher Allen, National Art Critic for The Weekend Australian.

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 he's also seen which human qualities can lead to greatness.An immigrant boy from Egypt who rose from beat cop to become one of the most senior police officers in Australia.In this episode of Gleetalks, Kaldas talks to former detective, author and podcaster Gary Jubelin about his memoir Behind the Badge, published by HarperCollins Australia.Like what you heard? Buy your copy herehttps://gleebooks.com.au/product/behind-the-badge/⁠ 

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 winner Justin Narayan in his cookbook Everything is Indian, published by Murdoch Books, drawing on his Fijian-Indian heritage.Think: roast potatoes with masala flavours, MasterChef-certified chicken curry tacos, the best pizza ever and a cardamom-hit caramel slice.In this episode of Gleetalks, Justin takes us on a flavourful journey as he chats to food critic Nicholas Jordan. Like what you heard? Buy your copy herehttps://gleebooks.com.au/product/everything-is-indian/

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 latest symbol of strategic solidarity. For Australia’s governments, of whatever political persuasion, America continues to define the global rules-based order.Now that the American people have elected Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president, how will his presidency affect Australia's foreign policy, trade, climate action and approach to human rights? More importantly, will Australia be able to act in its own interests, or will it simply defer to Trump’s idea of America?In this episode of Gleetalks, Director of the Australia Institute’s Security and International Affairs program, Dr Emma Shortis discusses this crazy brave new world order with journalist Richard Cooke and her new essay, After America, part of the Australia Institute’s new ideas series, Vantage Point.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and another minority government is a real possibility at this one. Politics-as-usual is not enough for many voters.In this timely episode of Gleetalks (Gleetalks Link) George Megalogenis traces the how and why of a political realignment in his Quarterly Essay: Minority Rule: The New Shape of Australian Politics with broadcaster and author David Marr.This is about the teals, the Greens and the Coalition. In a contest between new and old, progressive and conservative, which vision of Australia will win out? But it’s also about Labor in power – is careful centrism the right strategy for the times, or is something else required? With the election only weeks away, this is essential listening to understand the new political landscape.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

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 Bible, and sold it off in individual pages, which he marketed as Noble Fragments.Half a century later, Sydney journalist Michael Visontay stumbled upon a mysterious legal document that linked Wells to his own family and changed its destiny.In this episode of Gleetalks, Visontay talks to critic and author Caroline Baum about his hunt for those fragments, what he discovered in the arcane world of antique book collectors, and his family’s debt to an act of literary vandalism in his book Noble Fragments: The Maverick Who Broke Up the World’s Greatest Book.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

Since 1933, the Australian Women’s Weekly has been Australia’s highest-selling women’s magazine. And from birthday cakes to barbecues, the Weekly taught generations of Australians what to eat and how to cook it at home.Drawing on recipes, food editorials and readers’ memories, Lauren Samuelsson’s A Matter of Taste: The Australian Women’s Weekly & Its Influence on Australian Food Culture is a celebration of the Weekly’s essential role in the development of Australian food culture.On this deliciously nostalgic episode of Gleetalks, Lauren talks to historian Professor Michelle Arrow about how the Weekly encouraged us to be adventurous, to experiment in the kitchen, and to try new ingredients and flavours, stimulating an eclectic, Australian way of eating which is still reflected on our tables today.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here: gleebooks.com.au/product/matter-o…an-food-culture/

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, students—and Kit.In her seventh novel, Theory and Practice, award-winning writer Michelle de Kretser bends fiction, essay and memoir into exhilarating new shapes making and unmaking fiction as we read and expanding our notion of what a novel can contain.In this episode of Gleetalks, she chats to Professor Elizabeth McMahon of the University of NSW about this mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame, of theory and practice, where art and life intersect.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

In the Nineteenth Century, the Russian and British played what was dubbed the Great Game for strategic influence in Central Asia.Today, the players have changed. Combine Putin’s Ukraine folly and American isolationism and, China now has the chance to project its power globally, as the US did from the early Twentieth Century. What are the implications and consequences, especially for Australia?In this episode of Gleetalks, Australia’s former ambassador to China Geoff Raby AO talks to broadcaster Geraldine Doogue about his new book Great Game On: The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy, which explores these geopolitical forces and strategic questions.Like what you heard? Buy a copy here

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 Chris Baker swam at iconic beaches, municipal pools, harbour baths, tidal rock pools, bushland lakes and a backyard pool,In this episode of Gleetalks, he talks to curator and broadcaster Michaela Kalowksi about his book Swimming Sydney: A Tale of 52 Swims, a valentine to the beautiful obsession of swimming in the world’s most beautiful city, and how storytelling is the best way to navigate life’s emotional currents.

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 feminism, rampant police and political corruption, and the rise of drug-fuelled organised crime in Australia, where Nugan Hand, Mr Asia and Robert Trimbole became household names.In this episode of Gleetalks, investigative journalist Ronni Salt talks to Gleebooks Events Manager Sunil Badami about the intrigues and politics in her new crime thriller, Gunnawah, featuring a colourful cast of characters and gripping escapades in Trimbole’s old Riverina stomping ground.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

Renowned Australian physician and academic Dr Norelle Lickiss AO discusses her collection of essays "On the Kindness of Strangers and Other Essays: Musing on Medicine as a Human Science" (40South, 2024).Drawing on her long and acclaimed career as a doctor, teacher and scholar, these writings cover a range of topics, from the practice of medicine, to art, philosophy and death.Many of the pieces have been published elsewhere in professional journals, while others are more personal, and they offer a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of an extraordinary Australian.