Good Weekend Talks

At just 19, Alexa Leary was a champion triathlete when she suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in an horrific cycling accident. She wasn't expected to survive the crash, but she beat the odds, learning to walk, talk and live again – even jumping back in the pool with renewed purpose, winning two gold medals and one silver at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. In this episode of Good Weekend Talks, Leary talks to Konrad Marshall about living with traumatic brain injury and dealing with acute memory loss, and also reflects on her life before the accident. Now 25, Leary has released a song, Closer, and a biography – Sink or Swim: Defying the Odds.
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Bram Connolly is the type of person you want as a neighbour if there's ever a crisis or an emergency on your street.Connolly spent 20 years in the Australian special forces navigating the world's most dangerous landscapes, from Afghanistan to Somalia, so he knows how to stay cool in the heat of battle – and in unplanned moments in daily civilian life.The founder of Hindsight Leadership and Resilience says preparedness begins with situational awareness and controlling emotions like stress and anxiety. In this episode, Connolly discusses his new book, 100 Ways I Almost Died, which features compelling stories of survival during his years as a special forces commander, while also providing life lessons for these increasingly unstable times. This episode is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Greg Callaghan.
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Australian journalist Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times, is perhaps best known for his hard-hitting interviews with US President Donald Trump. Most famous was his August 2020 exchange with Trump, in which Swan's real-time fact-checking (and incredulous facial expressions) while listening to the president's muddled assertions earned the then 35-year-old reporter an Emmy award. Now Swan has teamed up with fellow Times journalist and Trump expert Maggie Haberman to write "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump". It's a withering behind-the-scenes look at how Trump has consolidated executive power in his second term, stripping away institutional checks and balances while padding the bank accounts of his family.Swan, who is the son of ABC broadcaster Dr Norman Swan and a former reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald, speaks with Good Weekend senior writer Greg Callaghan about what like to be face-to-face with, as Swan describes, the most consequential US president of a lifetime.
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Think of Myf Warhurst and the word “bubbly” might spring to mind. With everything the radio and TV personality does – from Spicks and Specks to the Eurovision Song Contest or her documentary, The Truth about Menopause – Warhurst is known as the ray of sunshine, the nice one (she’s even the voice of Aunt Trixie, and Indy’s Mum, on Bluey). But she’s no longer playing nice. In a new book, she’s taken on the patriarchy. And she’s angry. In this episode of Good Weekend Talks, Warhurst talks about everything from creepy men to Karens, from Gen X to coercive control, as well as the enviable matriarchal society of bonobo monkeys. This conversation is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Melissa Fyfe.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
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George Megalogenis is known as a big thinker about Australian politics and culture, searching beyond the noise for what’s really going on in our country. He has four decades' experience in the media, including time in the parliamentary press gallery. In his new book, Three Shocks: Who We Are Becoming in the 21st Century, he looks at the seismic changes underway that will influence all of us in the coming decades. He joins Good Weekend Talks today for a chat about immigration – long an interest of his, as the son of Greek migrants – along with the feminisation of the workforce, and the unreliability of both our great ally in the United States, and our great trading partner in China. Hosting this conversation is Good Weekend senior writer Gay Alcorn.
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