The “fusion of hilarity and horror” that inspired children’s author Andy Griffiths
In this episode, we talk to Andy Griffiths. The children’s author has written 40 books, including The Day My Bum Went Psycho, and the wildly popular Treehouse series. Griffiths has been published in more than 35 countries, and sold an astonishing 13 million copies in Australia and New Zealand alone. He’s led an interesting life, too. He wanted to be a frontman in a punk band, but ended up as a schoolteacher. He’s serious about fitness – a former obsessive runner who now loves the gym, flexing wiry muscles that are covered in sticker tattoos. His latest book – You And Me And The Peanut Butter Beast – is out now. Hosting this conversation about the “fusion of hilarity and horror” that inspired Griffiths, and the “sacred moment” when he meets his young readers – is Good Weekend senior writer Konrad Marshall.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Tracey Holmes: Meeting a Beatle, driving with Pele – and ‘this thing that still exists’ in sport
In this episode, we talk to Tracey Holmes. The TV trailblazer has spent more than three decades covering Australian sport and dissecting some of the biggest sporting events on the planet, bearing witness to the rise and rise of women's sport, which has had to bust through the walls of misogyny and male chauvinism. Her new book, The Eye of the Dragonfly is part memoir, part sporting manifesto, and details her nomadic childhood as the offspring of surfer parents, her start in television, her amusing first meeting with partner and fellow TV journalist Stan Grant, and how racism towards their relationship briefly unbuckled their careers. Holmes, a natural raconteur, describes her meetings and interviews with sporting giants like Pele and Cathy Freeman, and how her trademark calm has helped get her through some challenging moments. Hosting this conversation is deputy editor Greg Callaghan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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‘Connecting your identity to sport is a dangerous game’: AFLW star Libby Birch
In this episode, we talk to AFLW star Libby Birch. She's done something no other female or male player has done - winning three premierships at three different clubs, with the Western Bulldogs, the Melbourne Demons and the North Melbourne Kangaroos. Since joining the league in its inaugural season, Birch has also played 91 consecutive games of AFLW (only two women have played more), and at just 27 has more than a few years left. She's a media performer of note, bringing sharp analysis to a TV special comments role, as a radio pundit for 3AW, and as a columnist for The Age - not to mention a buoyant voice on our own Real Footy podcast. If that weren’t enough, Birch has also become a published author, just releasing “Libby’s Footy Adventures” - the first ever children’s book by an AFLW player. Hosting this conversation is Good Weekend senior writer Konrad Marshall.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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From dance floor to ‘orgy room’: What happens on a typical swingers’ night?
In this episode we talk to Jess Cattelly, the co-founder of Sydney swingers club Our Secret Spot. The 32-year-old got into swinging – also known as The Lifestyle - when she was just 20, and her Parramatta Road venue has since become an example of the way in which the swinging community is changing. Middle-class suburban key parties are no longer, nor is the practice as grimy or seedy as popular culture might have you imagine. Instead, The Lifestyle is big on respect and consent, joy and community, and, as Cattelly notes, usually led by the female gaze. It's also welcoming a new generation of Zoomers who are experiencing app fatigue, and see swinging as a more transparent and intentional option for hooking up. Hosting this conversation is senior writer Konrad Marshall, who interviewed Cattelly along with dozens of venue owners, party organisers, kink performers and “consent angels” for this week’s Good Weekend cover story: Swing Set.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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What worries Sarah Wilson? Nothing less than the collapse of civilisation
In this episode, we talk to Sarah Wilson. She’s had an incredibly diverse career - from teenage model, to newspaper columnist, to women’s magazine editor, and then best-selling author of the book, I Quit Sugar, in 2012. More books followed, on anxiety, and finding purpose in a disconnected world, especially through the climate change crisis. Now she’s focused on cascading and wicked problems - such as climate change, inequality, artificial intelligence and political polarisation - that will lead to nothing less than the collapse of civilisation. But she also thinks there might just be an upside. Wilson is the subject of our cover story this week - THE CRUSADER - and hosting our conversation today is the journalist behind that profile, Good Weekend senior writer Gay Alcorn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Good Weekend Talks features in-depth conversations with the people fascinating Australians right now, from sport to politics to the arts, business and beyond, interviewed weekly by the country's top journalists. Consider it a magazine for your ears.
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