An unmissable episode for Slow Horses fans, writer Mick Herron unveils the next instalment in his phenomenally successful Slough House series with host Jason Steger. Originally presented on Thursday 21 May 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University.Spies lie. They betray. It is what they do. Readers were first introduced to Jackson Lamb and his team of misbegotten secret service agents in Slow Horses, an offbeat spy story filled with biting satire, murky morality and political prescience.In Clown Town, the latest instalment of the series, the ugly side of state security threatens to come to light as the disappearance of a mysterious book and the death of a sadistic former IRA informant has secret agent River Cartwright asking some uncomfortable questions. Filled with blackmail, covert operations and cover-ups that go all the way to the top, this page-turner sees the slow horses embroiled in their most high-stakes spy games yet.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hear from acclaimed author and broadcaster Stan Grant in this special edition of The Fifth Estate as he reflects on the fragility of words and why contemplation and philosophy matter in an era of increasing division, with host Sally Warhaft. Originally presented on Tuesday 16 July 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University. Drawing wisdom from an array of thinkers and artists, including Plato, Simone Weil, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Aquinas and even Radiohead, Stan Grant’s expansive and philosophical new book When Words Fail Us invites readers to reconsider the meaning and necessity of silence in an age of noise, speed and relentless distraction. Written after stepping away from public life, the book explores how words can fail to meet the moment in the context of Australia’s history, identity and political division. Grant offers a rare insight into how the power of listening can lead to connection, compassion and love. Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole. The official bookseller was Hill of Content.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ed Coper explains how angertainment has co-opted our social media feeds and taken over our lives, in conversation with Sushi Das.Originally presented on Wednesday 24 June 2026 by The Wheeler Centre and supported by RMIT University. Social media is no longer a platform for connection – it’s a gladiatorial arena powered by an addictive mix of anger and entertainment. As a result, we’re being driven apart: our politics more extreme and empathy on the decline, while those who know how to game the outrage economy for clicks only become more powerful and influential. In this illuminating in-conversation, pioneer communications expert and the strategist behind GetUp! – Australia's first major online political movement – Ed Coper sits down to unmask the architects of this new power. From manosphere gurus and tech oligarchs to political demagogues and corporate giants, he reveals how social media has evolved into an outrage machine that feeds on scandals, spectacle, extremism and notoriety to bait us into constant engagement. Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celebrated writer and thinker Amitav Ghosh explores rebirth, regeneration and the cycles of life with host Dr Sreedhevi Iyer. Originally presented on Wednesday 27 May by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University. Amitav Ghosh is one of India’s most celebrated writers. With a career effortlessly spanning fiction, non-fiction and reportage, his work is characterised by big picture thinking with an unwavering drive to bring the climate crisis into stark focus. These qualities are on display in his captivating new novel, Ghost-Eye, a story that begins in mid-century Calcutta, with a child who claims to remember a past life and leaps to contemporary Brooklyn, where a middle-aged antiquarian is drawn into investigating a family mystery. As the two seemingly unrelated stories converge, Ghosh crafts a narrative that offers a powerful meditation on fate, meaning and the awakening of wonder. Ghosh sits down with Sreedhevi Iyer to discuss his latest novel, what it means to write about the climate breakdown and his remarkable career to date. Featured music is 'No One There' by Ava Low.The official bookseller was Readings.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hear from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales as he discusses the importance of trust in our online and offline communities and how Wikipedia evolved into one of the internet’s most reputable sources of information. With host Sally Warhaft. Originally presented on Wednesday 20 May 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University.When Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia more than two decades ago, he changed the landscape of knowledge forever – although at the time, almost no one realised it. Today, Wikipedia draws 11 billion monthly views in the English language alone.In the current ‘post-truth’ era, the internet is a sea of disinformation, the rise of AI threatens to erode hard-won knowledge and facts are increasingly malleable. In his new book, The Seven Rules of Trust, Wales shows us that it's more important than ever to return to the problem at the heart of it all: that without trust, we have no knowledge. And without knowledge, we can't fight back.In this fascinating edition of The Fifth Estate, Wales sits down with host Sally Warhaft to discuss the importance of trust in our online and offline communities, how Wikipedia evolved into one of the internet’s most reputable sources of information and shares his optimistic take on the future.The official bookseller was Hill of Content.Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beloved humourist Kathy Lette joins host Elizabeth McCarthy to discuss her big-hearted, cheeky and deeply relatable novel, The Sisterhood Rules.  Originally presented on Wednesday 25th March 2026 by The Wheeler Centre.Full of laugh-out-loud humour and flashes of devastating pathos, Kathy Lette’s The Sisterhood Rules is a romp through secrets, scandal and the unbreakable – if occasionally exasperated – bonds of sisterhood. Twin sisters Isabel and Verity have always been inseparable – until Verity has an affair with Izzy's husband, leaving them hopelessly estranged. But when their mother goes missing, Verity and Izzy are forced to reunite to find her. From there, the problems only get bigger: their mother has a new younger lover and where there's a will … he'd clearly like to be in it. Can the sisters stop their mother from making a truly terrible mistake? And, while they’re at it, can they salvage their own relationship from the rubble? The official bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop. Featured music is 'Lucy's Trail (Don't Give Up)' by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acclaimed British journalist Emily Maitlis reflects on a remarkable career at the forefront of global news, sharing insights and behind-the-scenes stories from some of the world’s most explosive headlines. With host Sally Warhaft. Originally presented on Thursday 5 March 2026 by The Wheeler Centre.Over a decades-long career, Maitlis has covered everything from the Paris terror attacks and the Grenfell fires to Brexit, interviewing everyone from prime ministers and presidents to Nobel laureates and Hollywood stars.She is perhaps best known for her 2019 interview with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – then Prince Andrew, Duke of York – regarding his association with Jeffrey Epstein. The four-hour conversation was widely credited with prompting Mountbatten-Windsor to relinquish his honorary military titles, royal patronages and ultimately resign from public duties.Maitlis recounts the world-changing events she has witnessed, as well as the bust-ups, blow-ups, scoops, walk-outs and unexpected triumphs that come with making – and breaking – the news. The official bookseller was Readings. Featured music is 'Living in a Fantasy' by Pulsed.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join national treasure Shaun Micallef as he takes the stage to delve into this bitingly funny Victorian Gothic tale for the modern age. With Jacinta Parsons. Originally presented on Tuesday 31 March 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Move over, Dracula, and take a number, Nosferatu: there’s a new vampire in town, and after several thousand years he’s realised that the trouble with immortality is that eventually … it sucks.To soothe his sickened soul, the Comte De’Ath embarks on a grand holiday. From psychoanalysis in Vienna to blood transfusions in London, the Comte learns that a change of scenery can do wonders for the eternally living. Along the way, he meets the Queen, helps win the Second Matabele War, nudges Henry Ford towards the American Dream and even manages to fall in love. But with his own funeral scheduled at Carfax Abbey, the real question looms: can he become mortal again in time to attend it? The official bookseller was the Sun Bookshop. Featured music is ‘Traveling again’ by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A host of Melbourne International Comedy Festival comics gather to explore how comedy survives, thrives and occasionally lands a punch on authoritarianism.  The powerful often say they have a sense of humour. This turns out to be true – provided the joke is about someone else. From public denunciations to legal action and intimidation, comedians across the world are increasingly required to work within narrowing spaces, where the right punchline at the expense of the wrong politician carries the risk of personal and professional consequences. When laughter is policed this closely, what does it reveal about the strength – and fragility – of power? Join host Tom Ballard alongside leading comic voices Bahaa Dabbagh, Leon Filewood and Sam Jay for a timely conversation on the role and power of comedy in an age of rising authoritarianism.  This event was recorded on Saturday 28 March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre. It was presented in partnership with Melbourne International Comedy Festival  Featured music is ‘Golden Hour’ by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist. Content warning: This episode contains strong course language.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Literary icon Nell Zink joins host Jaclyn Crupi to discuss her seventh much acclaimed novel, Sister Europe. In this dazzling satire of modern life, an eclectic cast of characters gathers at a tedious literary award ceremony in Berlin. Over the course of the evening, their assumptions, foibles and irrepressible humanity are slowly brought to light.A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and the celebrated author of Avalon, Doxology and Nicotine, among others, Nell Zink is widely hailed as a singular voice in literary fiction. In a Melbourne first, she takes the stage at The Wheeler Centre to discuss her sharp and tightly wrought new novel, Sister Europe, and its animating themes: loneliness and the possibility of transcending it, the tension between old and new worldviews and the challenge of defining one’s identity in an increasingly complex world.This event was recorded on Tuesday 3rd March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre.The official bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop.Featured music is Lucy’s Trail (Don’t Give Up) by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.