Podcast Episodes

Jessica Urwin, "Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia" (U of Washington Press, 2025)

Though a nonnuclear state, Australia was embroiled in the military and civilian nuclear energy programs of numerous global powers across the twentieth century. From uranium extraction to nuclear test…

Published on 11 hours ago

Zachary Gorman, "The Menzies Watershed: Liberalism, Anti-Communism, Continuities 1943-1954" (Melbourne UP, 2023)

The eleven years that passed between the 1943 and the 1954 elections were arguably some of the most pivotal in Australian history.

This was a period of intense political, policy and strategic transit…

Published on 5 days, 11 hours ago

Michelle De Kretser, "Theory & Practice" (Catapult, 2025)

Episode 526

Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and lives in Australia on unceded Gadigal land. She writes fiction but has also published a short book about Shirley Hazzard's work. Theory & Practice, her s…

Published on 1 month ago

Nicholas Thomas, "Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific" (Apollo, 2020)

Episode 115

In Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific (Apollo, 2020), the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas tells the story of the peopling of the Pacific. In clear, accessible language Thomas shows …

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Zachary Gorman, "The Young Menzies: Success, Failure, Resilience 1894-1942" (Melbourne UP, 2022)

Sir Robert Menzies is a towering figure in Australian history. The Young Menzies: Success, Failure, Resilience 1894-1942 (Melbourne UP, 2022) explores the formative period of Menzies' life, when his…

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

Matthew Allen, "Drink and Democracy: Alcohol and the Political Imaginary in Colonial Australia" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2025)

The nineteenth-century spread of democracy in Britain and its colonies coincided with an increase in alcohol consumption and in celebratory public dinners with rounds of toasts. British colonists rai…

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Is Beach Safety Signage Fit For Purpose?

We often take the meaning of signs for granted but that's far from the case in a linguistically and culturally diverse society. The instruction to "Swim between the flags!" can be interpreted in mult…

Published on 3 months ago

Stuart Ward, "Untied Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

Episode 171

How did Britain cease to be global? In Untied Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2023), Professor Stuart Ward tells the panoramic history of the end of Brita…

Published on 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Georgina Banks, "Back to Bangka: Searching for the Truth about a Wartime Massacre" (Viking Australia, 2023)

Georgina Banks searches for the truth of what happened to her Great Aunt ‘Bud’, killed in the Second World War.

Bangka Strait, Indonesia, 1942. Allied ships are evacuating thousands in flight from Sin…

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Tuomas Tammisto, "Hard Work: Producing Places, Relations and Value on a Papua New Guinea Resource Frontier" (Helsinki UP, 2024)

On the podcast today I am joined by socio-cultural anthropologist, Tuomas Tammisto, who is an academy research fellow in Social Anthropology at Tampere University. Tuomas is joining me to talk about …

Published on 5 months ago