The Big Tent

In the week of International Women's Day, co-host Grace Brennan sits down with her Mum, historian and writer Margaret A. Clark, to explore the trailblazing women who helped build Australia’s healthcare system. In Good Company tells the 140-year story of how the Little Company of Mary cared for the sick and dying with radical hospitality. Grace and Margaret reflect on the quiet courage of women who kept showing up wherever care was needed most – at the bedside, in training new nurses, as leaders in maternity health and pioneers of palliative care, whose legacy continues through the work of Calvary Health Care today – and what these women's spiritual commitment means for new generations following in their trails.

In Good Company by Margaret A. Clark was launched in Sydney by Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales, and is available to purchase.

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Vatican reporter and author Colleen Dulle joins Geraldine Doogue in this new year episode of The Big Tent to reflect on what it means to remain – and grow – as a Catholic in the face of disenchantment and polarisation in the institution. How might Pope Leo's Lenten call to disarm our language, 'refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbour,' be heard by Catholics everywhere but especially in Leo's American Catholic heartland, schooled in a more permissive speech culture? And how will Leo be known by his words and actions about women and leadership in the Church?

Mentioned in this episode:

Pope Leo's Lenten message, Listening and Fasting: Lent as a Time of Conversion

Massimo Faggioli's Commonweal article, Leo’s Transatlantic Task

Hendro Munsterman's Substack article, Lay People Exercising Authority Over Clergy

Colleen's book, Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter and her reporting for America Magazine

Follow us on Facebook and let us know where you'd like us to head next in 2026.

Geraldine Doogue, Julie Thorpe, Grace Brennan and Joe Wehbe offer their 2025 Christmas stocking recommendations for summer reading, watching and listening. Join us in 2026 for more conversations in The Big Tent!

The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck

Reasons for Hope: Helder Camara, Global Catholicism and the Australian Church by Julie Thorpe

Donkey Roads and Camel Treks: A Pilgrim's Guide for Advent by Gemma Simmonds

Ethan Zuckerman, Artificial intelligence isn't magic. It's just weird, in Prospect magazine

Michael Kalisch, We need friends not followers, in The New Statesman

The Summertime of Our Dreams by Michael Pascoe

Metaphors: Understanding Philosophy through Images by Pedro Alcalde and Merlín Alcalde, illustrated by Guim Tío

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard

Freud's Last Session film

Geraldine Doogue, We can make a difference by deciding to act together, in The Australian

Time of the Child by Niall Williams

Ben Abraham's music website

The Dream Life of Mr. Kim drama series

Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Thanks for listening, stay tuned for the new year, and find us on Facebook in the meantime!

In this special episode of The Big Tent, Geraldine Doogue speaks with Sydney journalist Michael Visontay in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack at a Hanukkah festival about its impact on Jewish Australians and the broader Australian community. Drawing on research and his personal experience as the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors from Hungary, Michael’s article on how antisemitism education can backfire, published in the days before the attack, offers a now even more urgent question: how can education truly combat antisemitism in a changing Australia?

Recommendations:

Michael's article: Mishandled antisemitism education is not just ineffective, it’s dangerous

The Jewish Independent editorial: A message from TJI at this time of profound grief

Massimo Faggioli in Commonweal, No More Nostalgia: It’s time to talk about Vatican II in new ways

Relisten to The Big Tent episode, Bridges not walls: Nostra Aetate at 60

Michael Visontay's book on his family history, Noble Fragments: the maverick who broke up the world’s greatest book

Plus Michael's book recommendations: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, and The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink

All feedback and recommendations very welcome via The Big Tent Facebook page.

As Pope Leo wrapped up his first international visit, Geraldine Doogue spoke to Pope Francis’ biographer Austen Ivereigh about the continuities and priorities of the two papacies. While Leo’s twin messages of peace and unity to Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim believers in Türkiye and Lebanon put interfaith and ecumenical relations at the heart of the new pontificate, Leo is also continuing his predecessor’s agenda through an eco-village that will open to the public on the grounds of Castel Gandolfo. And in his first address to the cardinals who elected him, Leo signalled his commitment to the implementation of Vatican II through synodality, which Austen sees as Leo’s roadmap for the Church in our times. Plus Austen’s reading tips to help us distil the times we’re living in.

Further reading:

Austen's Tablet articles, Laudato si' puts down roots, and Pope Leo's roadmap for the Church (185th anniversary Tablet lecture)

Austen's book recommendations, The Tears of Things, by Richard Rohr, and Do Not Judge Anyone: Desert Wisdom for a Polarized World, by Isaac Slater

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