The Conversation Room podcast with Sarah Malik

Public libraries promise free access to knowledge, but who has historically been welcomed, excluded or overlooked? In this recorded public lecture at the State Library of NSW on its 200th anniversary, The Conversation Room host Sarah Malik investigates the social, political and class dynamics that have shaped library access over time and made the library a site of contestation and cultural power....

In this month's The Conversation Room, host Sarah Malik speaks to Sarah Wilson on her new book I Eat The Stars. I Eat the Stars is a book about living in a time of poly-crisis- climate degradation, authoritarianism, AI automation, and growing inequality. It asks existiential questions about what does it mean to stay sane and be human while grappling with loss - the loss of our natural environments...

In this episode, Professor Anita Heiss joins The Conversation Room host Sarah Malik to discuss her latest novel, The Paradise Pact, a delicious romance following three First Nations friends in their fifties on a girls' trip to Hawaiʻi. Abbey is recovering from heartbreak after a relationship with the well-meaning Robert, who'll happily drive her to a protest but won't join the march. Anita discuss...

In this episode, acclaimed writer Fatima Bhutto opens up about growing up inside Pakistan’s most famous political dynasty - often compared to the Kennedys. At just 14 years old, Fatima’s life changed forever when her beloved father, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, was assassinated outside their Karachi home. Drawing from her memoir, The Hour of the Wolf, Fatima speaks candidly about trauma, secrets and the lo...