Sydney Writers' Festival

‘Cancel culture’ may seem like a 21st century invention sparked by contemporary politics and stoked by social media, sometimes with deadly consequences.However, as philosopher A.C. Grayling illustrates in Discriminations: Making Peace in the Culture Wars, disagreement and public shaming are ancient traditions. Learn how ‘cancel culture’ evolved and what effect it’s having on intellectual discourse. Festival favourite A.C. Grayling searches for a middle ground in an environment where everything is up for debate. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Your Favourites’ Favourites, our most loved writers introduce one of their favourite authors. Bestselling Australian crime writer Michael Robotham speaks with British crime novelist Chris Whitaker about his sensational new thriller, All the Colours of the Dark, described as a “must-read” by favourite thriller writer Gillian Flynn. Over decades, Saint Brown has been hunting the man who kidnapped her best friend, Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley, when they were teens. Meanwhile, Patch is on his own hunt for a girl named Grace, who saved him in a dark room years ago. But his search turns to obsession with little evidence that Grace ever existed. Hear Michael and Chris discuss his unforgettable story, already in development for the screen. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Undercover agents aren’t just the stuff of stories for writers Jack Beaumont and Ben Macintyre. A French intelligence officer turned spy thriller writer, Jack (Dark Arena) has all the insider knowledge to craft true-to-life operations in his novels. Ben (The Siege) is an espionage expert and he’s written the definitive account of the siege that put the SAS on the world stage. Hear these two connoisseurs of the clandestine share the truth behind the spy stories that thrill us. With Michael Williams. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zoë Foster Blake is a multi-talented and ambitious novelist, beauty journalist and skincare entrepreneur whose bio is long enough to leave you wondering how she does it all. Channelling that can’t-stop, won’t-stop energy is Kit, a thriving hairstylist and the protagonist of Zoë’s latest novel, Things Will Calm Down Soon. Kit has itchy feet and always wonders what’s next. So when she can’t find the perfect product for a look, it makes sense for her to make it herself, right? Sit down with Zoë, in conversation with Mamamia’s Holly Wainwright, for a breather and reminder that things will definitely calm down soon. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As politicians and analysts attempt to manoeuvre with the global superpower, these writers reflect on how the 20th century got the nation where it is today. Bombard the Headquarters!: The Cultural Revolution in China is Linda Jaivin’s account of the ideological quarrels and personalities that underpinned the violent beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Louisa Lim’s Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong and Edward Wong’s At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China mix national history with personal archives to paint detailed portraits of Hong Kong and China, respectively. Hear Linda, Louisa and Edward in conversation with Peter Hartcher as they discuss the crucial history that made China what it is today. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This trio of Australian literary talents make writing a family affair. The Moriarty sisters, Jaclyn (the Kingdom and Empires series), Liane (Here One Moment, Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers) and Nicola (Every Last Suspect and The Fifth Letter) have decades of writing experience between them. Their achievements include international bestsellers, film and television adaptations and prestigious awards. In this panel discussion, they reflect on their career beginnings – including how they used to earn pocket money for writing stories – their different publishing paths and their many successes over the years. Hosted by writer and broadcaster Sarah Macdonald. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Space, in all its awe-inspiring, mind-blowing expanse, is still the final frontier. Its greatness and grandness force us to reflect on our humanity, our existence and our place within the universe. In Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize–winning Orbital, six astronauts contemplate the Earth and its inhabitants from the International Space Station. Ceridwen Dovey’s newest short story collection, Only the Astronauts, imagines the perspectives of non-humans in space, from an abandoned mannequin orbiting the Sun to a team of ‘tamponauts’ journeying to Mars. Consider the limits of humanity in the universe with Samantha and Ceridwen in conversation with host Ashley Hay. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[Content warning: sexual assault] Feminism has a checkered past, but what can we expect from feminist ideas these days? CEO of independent news commentary platform Cheek Media Co. Hannah Ferguson (Taboo: Conversations we never had about sex, body image, work and relationships), Stella Prize winner and investigative journalist Jess Hill (See What You Made Me Do, Quarterly Essay 97, Losing It) and human rights lawyer and Fulbright Scholar Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (Long Yarn Short) discuss whether feminism can find solutions to some of our current crises. Join them as they reckon with what feminism has to offer and predict future solutions to complex social problems in this panel discussion with host Sisonke Msimang.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

International bestselling novelists Liane Moriarty and David Nicholls share the experience of seeing their powerful local stories turn into bingeable television series and films. Liane’s Big Little Lies was the first book by an Australian to debut at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and, since then, all 10 of her novels have been optioned for screen adaptation. David executive produced the Netflix adaptation of his bestselling novel One Day and has written screen adaptations for Far from the Madding Crowd and Great Expectations. Join Liane and David as they talk about their new books, Here One Moment and You Are Here, and being sensations across page and screen. With host Claire Nichols (ABC Radio National’sThe Book Show). This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After the success of her two best known works, The Secret River, adapted for stage and television, and Restless Dolly Maunder, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Festival favourite Kate Grenville is still grappling with what it means to be a descendant of colonisation in Australia. Journey through time and place with Kate as she reframes her family’s history in Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Place, placing First People in the same picture. With Kate Evans. This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Colm Tóibín returns to the world of Brooklyn – adapted into a BAFTA- and Oscar-nominated film starring Saoirse Ronan – with the long-awaited sequel, Long Island. Set 20 years after Rose Lacey’s death, Long Island follows Eilis Lacey after an unknown Irishman unexpectedly brings a baby into her family’s midst. Full of longing and regret, the book exhibits the hallmarks of a master storyteller’s restraint and Colm’s customary wit. In conversation with Kate Evans (ABC Radio National’s The Bookshelf), Colm discusses his latest portrait of the people of picturesque Enniscorthy, which is being heralded as his best work yet.  This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Safekeep, the debut novel from Yael van der Wouden, took the literary world by storm when it was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Incorporating desire, family loyalty and betrayal in this twisted tale set in post-WWII Netherlands, Yael captivates and tantalises readers in equal measure with the forbidden love between Isabel and her brother’s graceless new girlfriend Eva. Hear how Yael uncovered unexpected secrets of the past, both familial and national, in conversation with Claire Nichols (ABC Radio National’s The Book Show). This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.  Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.  After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:Instagram: @sydwritersfestFacebook: @SydWritersFestTikTok: @sydwritersfestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.