The Readings Podcast

In this episode, another instalment of The Comics Question, with Bernard Caleo. Bernard spoke with Steve Mushin, an industrial designer, illustrator and inventor, and, writer and illustrator of Ultrawild: an illustrated science and design book about tackling climate change with hilarious engineering ideas and extreme rewilding. Ultrawild has been created in collaboration with experts ranging from climate scientists and marine biologists to mechanical engineers and soil scientists. The book contains over 100 ludicrous sounding, scientifically possible inventions illustrated with over 1000 drawings. It’s packed with curious facts on everything from how plants and fungi share resources and the soil engineering power of megafauna, to insect and mechanical flight, high-tech microbe-powered toilets and the carbon-sequestering power of algae. Ultrawild is an optimistic book about creative thinking and the potential for change. Filled with laugh-out-loud design-ridiculousness, it aims to empower and excite a new generation of designers, scientists, engineers and wild thinkers.

In this episode, a conversation with cheese experts Ellie and Sam Studd, authors of The Best Things In Life Are Cheese. In this new book, they share their wealth of knowledge and all the practical info you need to up your cheese game, guiding you through the key categories of cheese – from blues and washed rinds to fresh cheeses such as mozzarella – telling the story of each, explaining how they are made and sharing tasting notes for their favourite cheeses in each category.

In this episode, a conversation with Charlie Porter, author of Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion. In this book, Porter brings us face to face with six members of the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of artists and thinkers who were in the vanguard of a social and sartorial vision. As Porter carefully unpicks what they wore and how they wore it, we see how clothing can be a means of artistic, intellectual and sexual liberation, or, conversely, a tool for patriarchal control.

In this episode, The Dominatrix Next Door: when a cash-strapped single mother of two in suburban Melbourne has a fun idea to start a side hustle running workshops for hens' parties, she has no idea it will lead her on a surreal adventure (or twenty) through the underground world of kink clubs and swingers' parties. Nor does she know that it will bring her out on the other end as one of Australia's most recognised Dominatrixes. Mistress Jane has penned a memoir that is both a salacious tell-all and a love letter to Melbourne's BDSM community. Complete with celebrity encounters, exciting opportunities, and lessons in kink, love, and parenthood, she shows us how having multiple identities is not only possible, but incredible, and that some mums really are superheroes – they might just use their rope and masks in a different way than you'd expect.

In this episode of The Comics Question, Bernard Caleo interviews Sarah Firth on the topic of Eventually Everything Connects. Eventually Everything Connects is Firth's debut graphic novel, a collection of interconnected visual essays created over eight years. Firth invites you into her wild mind as she explores ways to see with fresh eyes, to face the inevitability of change, and to find freedom in sensuality.

In this episode, hear an online conversation between Zadie Smith and Esther Anatolitis (editor of Meanjin). Smith’s new book The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity, and the mystery of 'other people.’ Set in late 19th century London, Smith uses the real-world Tichborne Trial as a storytelling spine. At the time, this trial captivated England. At its core, it was a trial about identity: Sir Roger Tichborne, long believed dead, arrives back in England to claim his title. The only witness called is Andrew Bogle, a former enslaved man from Jamaica. Reacting to the story is Mrs Eliza Touchet, the housekeeper and cousin of once successful novelist William Ainsworth.

In this episode, a conversation with academics and writers Mark Edele and Marko Pavlyshyn. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine came as a shock to most of the world. In order to understand why this happened, a growing army of self-declared experts provided explanations often misrepresenting the history of Ukraine and of Russia and misinterpreting the pre-history of this war and the role of outside forces. Mark Edele, a world authority on the history of the Soviet Union, explains why and how this conflict came about in his new book, Russia's War Against Ukraine. He considers competing historical claims and arguments with authority and lucidity. The book informs a more nuanced and well-informed debate about this war and its implications. Please note, this is a recording from a live in-store event.

In this episode, a conversation with author, speechwriter and poet Joel Deane, on his eagerly-awaited new novel, Judas Boys. Deane’s protagonist (of sorts) Pinnock is, as the title suggests, a Judas Boy – a private schoolboy gone to seed. He's lost his job as a political staffer. He sleeps in the garage of his estranged wife. He has finally run out of friends and must face his accusers – both the living and the dead. This book is a searing de profundis that reads like the secret history behind today's political headlines. Deane brings the aftermath of professional catastrophe, personal betrayal, and public disgrace to life with a poet's ear for the human voice fractured in extremis.

In today’s episode, a conversation with David McAllister, author of Ballet Confidential. Ballet Confidential takes us backstage, in a manner of speaking, and serves as a wonderfully elucidatory introduction to the world of ballet. McAllister’s enthusiasm paired with experience, mastery even, means that Ballet Confidential has something for everyone, from longtime fans of ballet to those who it might have never occurred to step a foot inside the theatre. Mcallister is the former artistic director and principal dancer of The Australian Ballet, which he joined in 1983. Among many major works, he performed principal roles with the company in The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Onegin, and Manon.

Please note, this episode contains discussion of child sexual abuse. In this episode, hear David Meagher, author of Secrets and Lies, in conversation. Secrets and Lies is a story about child sexual abuse; the culture that enabled it; how the perpetrator groomed his victims; how the abuse came to an end; and how, four decades after the crimes were committed, his victims embarked on a successful two-year journey to bring the offender to justice. To interview David about this book, and this story, we’re joined by Stephen Brook, deputy editor of The Sunday Age.