The Wheeler Centre

What happens when the promise of reinvention collides with the ruthless machinery of reality television? Drawing on his own experience as a two-time Survivor contestant, Stephen Fishbach’s sharply observed novel Escape! follows a washed-up reality television star and a disgraced producer, each chasing a second chance on a new survival show where every contestant has been cast as a type, ever...

Hear from one of the country’s most acclaimed authors, Kate Grenville, on her dazzling new work of non-fiction – a colonial-era cold case that’s part locked-room mystery, part captivating exploration of a writer's imagination navigating the blurred boundaries between fact and possibility. The Country Schoolmaster: A Mystery in 88 Letters begins with the discovery of an unassuming...

India’s great chronicler of memory, family, identity and belonging sits down with host Mridula Nath Chakraborty to discuss her luminous, genre-defying books and extraordinary literary career.  Originally presented on Wednesday 12 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre. ‘Anything worth doing transcends borders,’ writes Geetanjali Shree in her 2022 International Booker Prize-winnin...

Tech critic Cory Doctorow on the broken promise of the utopian internet, the systems that sustain it and what it might take to reclaim a more open digital future. With host Professor Lisa M. Given, Director, Centre for Human-AI Information Environments at RMIT University. Originally presented on Tuesday 25 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with Now or Never and RMIT University. You&...

What does it take to keep showing up to the blank page? Award-winning author Alice Pung offers reasons for optimism in this year’s E. W. Cole Lecture. Originally presented on Thursday 6 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre, supported by the E. W. Cole Foundation.   Two decades ago, Alice Pung published Unpolished Gem, a funny, loving and irreverent portrait of a migrant family’s everyday...

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...

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,...

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&rsq...

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...

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 decad...

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 occa...

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 t...

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...

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 require...

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 ce...

Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel is a chilling dissection of surveillance culture, technological overreach and the quiet, everyday ways people become complicit in their own monitoring. Set in a near-future America shaped by predictive surveillance, Lalami tells the story of a woman swept into a surreal dystopia where dreams are weaponise...

At 13, Kate Reid already knew exactly where she was headed: a career in Formula 1 and a life lived at full throttle. But after earning a degree in aerospace engineering and taking up a coveted position at one of the top F1 teams in the UK, she discovered that the reality didn’t match what she’d dreamed. So, she made a swerve no one expected: to forge a career in pastry.  With her...

Hear Omar El Akkad discuss his searing work, 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This' with host Tasneem Chopra. Sparked by his viral tweet during the bombardment of Gaza – viewed over 10 million times – Omar El Akkad’s 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This' lays bare the fractures he has seen in the West’s empty promises of freedom and justice....

Hear from Atlantic culture critic and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer Sophie Gilbert as she discusses her new book 'Girl on Girl' with host Kate Jinx. They dive into the pop cultural forces of the late 1990s and Y2K era that shaped and warped women's relationships with themselves and other women. Casting her eye across pop culture of the past 30 years, she tackles everything from Madonna, the Spic...

After arriving in Australia as a refugee, Jelena Dokic shot to fame when she made the semi-finals of Wimbledon at just 17 years of age. But off the court, there were even greater challenges: from her struggles with mental health to surviving the abuse of her tennis coach father.    In this special live recording of Australian Story, Dokic opens up to Leigh Sales about the details of her...

An exclusive Wheeler Centre live-recorded podcast featuring best-selling American author Eric Puchner, as he lifts the curtain on his latest novel 'Dream State', in conversation with host Ronnie Scott. Selected by Oprah for her book club in 2025 and an instant New York Times bestseller, 'Dream State' tells the story of Charlie, a gifted anaesthesiologist; his best friend Garrett, a brooding, intro...

Get your fix of honest and original media analysis from two insiders who’ve broken plenty of news and been broken by it, too. In this special live recording of We Used to be Journos, hosts Antoinette Lattouf and Jan Fran sit down to reveal the way the media works, from questionable editorial decisions that shape the weekly news to the stories that masquerade as unbiased reporting. They unpac...

In the age of algorithms, music is under constant pressure to respond to mood, brand and data. Hear from music journalist and cultural critic Liz Pelly with host Lauren Taylor in this sharp and insightful exploration into how streaming platforms have transformed our relationship with music. Pelly unpacks the shift from art to algorithm-driven content, where music is reduced to a commodified experi...

Beloved author David Nicholls takes to the stage with host Beverley Wang, to discuss his latest novel 'You Are Here'. This talk was originally presented on Tuesday 20 May 2025 by The Wheeler Centre. In 'You Are Here', David Nicholls weaves the stories of these two seemingly disconnected characters, bringing them together in a powerful, emotionally rich narrative brimming with his trademark blend o...

Each year at the Melbourne International Film Festival, a panel of guests gather to dissect the highs and lows of the zeitgeist. Host Michael Sun, essayist and regular writer for the Guardian, is joined by actor and writer Maria Angelico, Chicago–based New York Magazine Vulture culture critic Angelica Jade Bastién and visiting Los Angeles Times film critic Amy Nicholson to discuss the...