Welcome to the Good Reading Podcasts.
Browse our podcasts by genre or check out our most recent podcasts below.
Crime / Thrillers Contemporary Fiction Historical Fiction
Food & Wine Biography / Memoir Current Affairs
General Non-Fiction Young Adult
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or any other app by searching for the Good Reading Podcast.
LISTEN TO OUR LATEST PODCASTS
Elfie Shiosaki on Noongar women's stories of resilience in Homecoming
Homecoming is a work of extraordinary beauty that awakens the voices of four generations of Elfie Shiosaki's family. Written using archival records, family letters and oral history, it is the culmination of five years of research that shares stories of indigenous resistance and renewal.
Homecoming weaves a vivid tapestry of history, language, memory, landscape and spirit that asks something special of the reader. It is a book to be treasured, a reminder of a brutal past and a remarkable story of survival.
In this episode, Gregory Dobbs talks to Elfie Shiosaki about research and writing, about new and ancient ways of storytelling and the process of recasting history in a unique form.
Rebecca Wilson on the untold story of Ned Kelly's little sister Kate Kelly
A huge celebrity in her day, Kate Kelly was eventually forgotten while the reputation of the Kelly Gang graduated from folklore to cultural icon. Kate was a talented horsewoman and often ran decoy for the Gang and was present at the infamous gun battle at Glenrowan.
In later life she changed her name in an attempt to escape the notoriety but her life ended in tragedy. Kate was found drowned in a lagoon outside Forbes but the circumstances around her death remain a mystery.
In this episode, Gregory Dobbs talks to Rebecca Wilson about her fascination with the Kate Kelly story and how she came upon this missing chapter in Australian history.
Lisa Genova on why forgetting isn't as bad as you think, and her first non-fiction book Remember
In this episode, Heather Lewis chats to Lisa about the process of writing her first non-fiction novel, how she got started in neuroscience, and some mind-blowing facts about the brain.
Madelaine Dickie and Sam Carmody on Australian surf culture in Lines to the Horizon
This anthology of Australian surf writing celebrates the diversity of surf culture from epic surf adventures in Mexico to the relationship of humans with the sea and to Taj Burrows final campaign in Fiji. Featuring the writing of Sally Breen, Emily Brugman, Sam Carmody Madelaine Dickie, Jake Sandtner and Mark Smith, these non-fiction stories explore the passion, the fear, the joy and the pain of Australian surfing culture in Australia and abroad.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Madelaine Dickie and Sam Carmody about a surfing as a sport, a culture and a lifestyle told in very different ways.
Elizabeth Becker on three extraordinary female wartime journalists in You Don't Belong Here
Catherine Leroy, Frances Fitzgerald and Kate Webb arrived in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968 at the height of the war. Leroy was a French daredevil photographer; Frances Fitzgerald a blue-blood American intellectual; and Kate Webb was the first Australian woman to report on the war in Vietnam.
Together these three women permanently shattered the barriers to women reporting on war in a field of journalism dominated by men. You Don't Belong Here is the story of the lives and legacy of three journalists that fills a void in the history of women and war.
In this episode, Gregory Dobbs talks to Elizabeth Becker about the barriers these women faced and the extraordinary achievements in reporting on a complex and the highly politicised Vietnam war.
Debra Oswald on the ethical and legal dilemmas of exploring family violence in The Family Doctor
Paula is a dedicated GP who witnesses the brutal murder of her friend and her children at the hands of their estranged husband and father. Paula is haunted by the thought that she couldn’t protect them when they most needed it.
Soon after a patient with suspicious injuries attends her surgery and Paula is faced with a decision that could make this woman safe but also compromise everything her training as a doctor has instilled in her.
The Family Doctor is a thrilling and provocative novel about women’s fury, grief and the preciousness of life.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs talks to Debra Oswald about a problem very much of these times.
'Mistakes come from vulnerability' - Katie McMahon on her salacious debut, The Mistake
Bec and Kate are sisters, but they couldn’t be less alike. Bec lives the domestic dream with her surgeon husband Stuart and three perfect children. So why is she so attracted to free-spirited Ryan? Kate’s life is hardly a dream. But when she meets Adam – tall, kind, funny – things start looking up. Until she finds out he’s been keeping secrets from her.
Then there is the incident both sisters are desperate to ignore…
Will they discover that some mistakes can’t be put right?
In this episode, Max Lewis joins debut author Katie McMahon to chat about her suburban thriller The Mistake.
Tanya Bretherton on the post-WWII Sydney women who killed in The Husband Poisoner
After World War II, Sydney experienced a crime wave that was chillingly calculated. Discontent mixed with despair, greed with callous disregard. Women who had lost their wartime freedoms headed back into the kitchen with sinister intent and the household poison thallium, normally used to kill rats, was repurposed to kill husbands and other inconvenient family members.
Yvonne Fletcher disposed of two husbands. Caroline Grills cheerfully poisoned her stepmother, a family friend, her brother and his wife. Unlike arsenic or cyanide, thallium is colourless, odourless and tasteless; victims were misdiagnosed as insane malingerers or ill due to other reasons. And once one death was attributed to natural causes, it was all too easy for an aggrieved woman to kill again.
This is the story of a series of murders that struck at the very heart of domestic life. It's the tale of women who looked for deadly solutions to what they saw as impossible situations. The Husband Poisoner documents the reasons behind the choices these women made - and their terrible outcomes.
Helen Fitzgerald on blue light discos and small town disasters in Ash Mountain
Helen Fitzgerald vividly portrays small town life, and a woman and a land in crisis in her latest thriller 'Ash Mountain'.
Fran vowed she'd never return to Ash Mountain but circumstances draw her back to a blisteringly hot summer in the rural town of Ash Mountain. Confronting the past and dealing with future are sidelined by an impending disaster – a mega-fire is roaring towards Ash Mountain and it will expose all kinds of secrets in its wake.
In this episode, Gregory Dobbs chats to Helen Fitzgerald about growing up in a small Victorian country town, about Blue Light Discos and how disaster and humour can be comfortable bedfellows in this ripping disaster thriller.
Susan Johnson on unlikely friendships in From Where I Fell
Susan Johnson exposes the truths and deceptions in relationships amid a blossoming online friendship between two women in 'From Where I Fell'.
Pamela and Christhani live on different continents, but through a series of email exchanges the two women begin sharing the stories of their lives. Although temperamental opposites they soon establish a connection based on the common ground of grief, loss and new beginnings. 'From Where I Fell' is a funny and endearing story of how unlikely friendships can be the catalyst for deep reflection, new directions and confronting the past.
In this episode. Gregory Dobbs chats to Susan Johnson about the what inspired her to recast the epistolary novel in contemporary form and the overlap between fiction and non-fiction.
Gretel Killeen on the highs and lows of mother-daughter love in My Daughter's Wedding
Nora Fawn's daughter Hope disappeared four years ago and only maintained contact through her big sister Joy. But last night Hope rang Nora to say, 'I'm coming home, I'm getting married, the wedding is in three weeks and it's your job to organise it.'
Desperate to regain her daughter's love and prove her worth as a mother Nora accepts the challenge. Through the medium of a discarded diary, Nora plots the hilarious and emotional journey to redemption through the rocky terrain of mother-daughter relationships and a wedding to end all weddings.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Gretel Killeen about the confounding complexity of mother-daughter love across three generations.
Madeleine Ryan on autism, self love, and her introspective debut A Room Called Earth
A young woman gets ready to go to a party. She arrives, feels overwhelmed, leaves, and then returns. Minutely attuned to the people who come into her view, and alternating between alienation and profound connection, she is hilarious, self-aware, sometimes acerbic, and always honest.
And by the end of the night, she’s shown us something radical about love, loss, and the need to belong.
In this episode, filmmaker and writer Madeleine Ryan joins Max Lewis to chat about her prismatic debut A Room Called Earth.
Michael Brissenden on criminal thrills and a lost Sydney in Dead Letters
Michael Brissenden's second crime thriller Dead Letters brings counter terrorism expert Sid Allen into the sordid and complicated world of Canberra politics.
From the seedy backstreets of 1980s Sydney to the corridors of power in contemporary Canberra, Sidney Allen must pursue the truth behind a baffling crime. Dan LeRoi, rising star of politics and Chair of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has been shot dead. But it's not all it seems.
Life becomes complicated for Sid when he joins forces with tenacious journalist Zephyr Wilde. She's still getting letters from her dead mother who was murdered twenty years ago. They're both asking too many questions and knowing who to trust will make the difference between life and death.
Gregory Dobbs chats to Michael Brissenden about the nexus between journalism and politics, and reflections on a lost Sydney.
Maggie Hamilton on reconnecting with others in When We Become Strangers
We're more connected that ever before says Maggie Hamilton and yet feelings of loneliness and isolation have never been more prevalent. We are now more affluent and busier and yet we are leaving our homes less and less as we become more dependent on technology to communicate. 'We've become strangers, exiled from people and situations that are meaningful to us.' says Maggie
When We Become Strangers examines in detail all levels of human interaction and looks into the future with a warning for what we might become. Parenting, love and relationships, brain fatigue, entertainment and the changing nature of the workplace are put under the microscope and placed in the context of our increasing reliance on technology to solve problems.
Maggie proposes simple and effective solutions and actions we can all take to restore the balance and reclaim our unique selves and the places we live and work.
In this episode, Greg Dobbs chats to Maggie Hamilton about how we can reconnect with our fellow humans in a world of instant digital gratification.
B Michael Radburn on the thunderous new novel in the Taylor Bridges series, The Reach
In secluded Devlins Reach, on the shores of the Hawkesbury River, three bodies are unearthed in an excavation site. When a wilderness expert, Park Ranger Taylor Bridges, is called in to assist local police, he soon discovers the town has an unsettling history – one to match Taylor's own haunted past.
But the quiet location and picturesque beauty of The Reach are hiding something darker than Taylor could have anticipated. Within the town's tight-knit community of loggers, store owners and tight-lipped locals, someone is targeting the residents one by one.
As a torrential storm surges ever closer, and the river swells at the levee walls, The Reach goes into lockdown. With no way in or out, Taylor finds himself in a race against the power of nature to find a desperate killer before the whole town goes under.
In this episode, B Michael Radburn chats to Max Lewis about the origins of his Taylor Bridges series, how the Hawkesbury region in NSW inspired the titular Reach and its buried secrets, and how exciting it is to work on a film of your own book.
Aaron Smith's new memoir holds up a unique mirror to Australia. What he sees is at once amazing, disturbing and revealing.
The Rock explores the failings of our nation's character, its unresolved past and its uncertain future from the vantage point of its most northerly outpost, Thursday Island. Smith was the last editor, fearless journalist and the paperboy of Australia's most northerly newspaper, The Torres News, a small independent regional tabloid that, until it folded in late 2019, was the voice of a predominantly Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal readership for 63 years across some of the most remote and little understood communities in Australia.
The Rock is a story of self-discovery where Smith grapples to understand a national identity marred by its racist underbelly, where he is transplanted from his white-boy privileged suburban life to being a racial and cultural minority, and an outsider. Peppered with his experiences, Smith gradually and sensitively becomes embedded in island life while vividly capturing the endless and often farcical parade of personalities and politicians including Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott.
In this episode, Aaron Smith joins Max Lewis to unpack his thoughts around The Rock, and how his time on Thursday Island has shaped his life.
Hailing from two sparsely populated nations on the far edge of the former Empire - neighbours that are siblings in spirit, vastly different in landscape - Australian and New Zealand crime writers offer readers a blend of exotic and familiar, seasoned by distinctive senses of place, outlook, and humour, and roots that trace to the earliest days of our genre.
Southern Cross Crime is the first comprehensive guide to modern Australian and New Zealand crime writing. From coastal cities to the Outback, leading critic Craig Sisterson showcases key titles from more than 200 storytellers, plus screen dramas ranging from Mystery Road to Top of the Lake. Fascinating insights are added through in-depth interviews with some of the prime suspects who paved the way or instigated the global boom, including Jane Harper, Michael Robotham, Paul Cleave, Emma Viskic, Paul Thomas, and Candice Fox.
In this episode, Craig Sisterson joins Gregory Dobbs to chat about how he began his love with crime, and his experiences founding the Ngaio Marsh awards and Rotura Noir.
It is 1953 and Melbourne society is looking forward to coronation season, the grand balls and celebrations for the young queen-to-be. Tilly Dunnage is, however, working for a pittance in a second-rate Collins Street salon. Her talents go unappreciated, and the madame is a bully and a cheat, but Tilly has a past she is desperate to escape and good reason to prefer anonymity.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Farrat and the McSwiney clan have been searching for their resident dressmaker ever since she left Dungatar in flames. And they aren't the only ones. The inhabitants of the town are still out for revenge (or at least someone to foot the bill for the new high street). So when Tilly's name starts to feature in the fashion pages, the jig is up. Along with Tilly's hopes of keeping her secrets hidden...
In this episode, author Rosalie Ham joins Gregory Dobbs to chat about returning to Tilly Dunnage and the residents of Dungatar, 20 years after readers were first introduced.
Tim Flannery’s new book The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of Covid-19 marks a change in attitude toward those in government and the lack of action in the fight against climate change.
'The Federal Liberal/National Party is the last blockage in the fight against climate change,' says Tim Flannery. While state governments and local councils are doing great things in advancing clean energy prospects, the Federal government is holding the entire country to ransom – there are just 25 sceptics in this Federal Liberal/National Party.
Gregory Dobbs talks to Tim Flannery about the challenges and the solutions to the climate emergency and busts a few myths along the way.
Ground-breaking music educator Dr Anita Collins' new book The Music Advantage draws on the latest international neurological research to reveal the extraordinary and surprising benefits of children learning music. Music plays an important role in brain development that promotes learning, concentration and the ability to persevere with challenging tasks.
Gregory Dobbs talks to Anita about the value of singing to your baby and why sound is one of the most valuable senses in cognitive development. Discover why learning music as a child supports and promotes learning and is a critical component in learning to read. 'Music learning', says Dr Collins, 'promotes confidence and persistence, and creates a culture of lifelong learning that has benefits right through to adulthood.'
In this episode, Alan Carter joins Max Lewis to talk about his experiences living in the Wakamarina Valley of New Zealand inspired the latest chapter in the Sergeant Nick Chester series, Doom Creek.
Now founder and CEO of the food rescue organisation OzHarvest, Ronni leads hundreds of staff and thousands of volunteers with the goal to nourish Australia. She serves in an advisory capacity to government and is an instrumental leader in changing federal laws to improve social justice and environmental policies.
A Repurposed Life is the story of how Ronni found her voice, her heart and her deepest calling. From her early years growing up under the brutal system of apartheid South Africa, to a socialist commune in Israel, Ronni finally settled in Australia to discover a profound new way of living. Shared with the humour, warmth and energy that have made her an internationally renowned keynote speaker, this heartfelt exploration of the choices that define us will speak to anyone seeking a more passionate expression of being alive.
In this podcast, Ronni joins Greg Dobbs to chat about finding her calling in OzHarvest, and the process of co-writing the memoir with her daughter-in-law, Jessica Chapnik Kahn.