The Wheeler Centre

A host of Melbourne International Comedy Festival comics gather to explore how comedy survives, thrives and occasionally lands a punch on authoritarianism.  The powerful often say they have a sense of humour. This turns out to be true – provided the joke is about someone else. From public denunciations to legal action and intimidation, comedians across the world are increasingly required to work within narrowing spaces, where the right punchline at the expense of the wrong politician carries the risk of personal and professional consequences. When laughter is policed this closely, what does it reveal about the strength – and fragility – of power? Join host Tom Ballard alongside leading comic voices Bahaa Dabbagh, Leon Filewood and Sam Jay for a timely conversation on the role and power of comedy in an age of rising authoritarianism.  This event was recorded on Saturday 28 March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre. It was presented in partnership with Melbourne International Comedy Festival  Featured music is ‘Golden Hour’ by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist. Content warning: This episode contains strong course language.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Literary icon Nell Zink joins host Jaclyn Crupi to discuss her seventh much acclaimed novel, Sister Europe. In this dazzling satire of modern life, an eclectic cast of characters gathers at a tedious literary award ceremony in Berlin. Over the course of the evening, their assumptions, foibles and irrepressible humanity are slowly brought to light.A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and the celebrated author of Avalon, Doxology and Nicotine, among others, Nell Zink is widely hailed as a singular voice in literary fiction. In a Melbourne first, she takes the stage at The Wheeler Centre to discuss her sharp and tightly wrought new novel, Sister Europe, and its animating themes: loneliness and the possibility of transcending it, the tension between old and new worldviews and the challenge of defining one’s identity in an increasingly complex world.This event was recorded on Tuesday 3rd March 2026 at The Wheeler Centre.The official bookseller was Hill of Content Bookshop.Featured music is Lucy’s Trail (Don’t Give Up) by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel is a chilling dissection of surveillance culture, technological overreach and the quiet, everyday ways people become complicit in their own monitoring. Set in a near-future America shaped by predictive surveillance, Lalami tells the story of a woman swept into a surreal dystopia where dreams are weaponised by the state. Accused of a crime she hasn’t committed – yet – and detained indefinitely in a retention centre in the Californian desert, she must navigate a world in which corporations trade in the contents of our subconscious and algorithms claim the authority to determine guilt, innocence and destiny. Lalami joins host Sonia Nair to explore the seductive pull of technology, the commodification of the private self and the unnervingly plausible future where a single line of code could seal a person’s fate. This event was recorded on Wednesday March 4th 2026 at The Wheeler Centre.The official bookseller was The Chestnut Tree Bookshop.Featured music is ‘Different Days’ by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At 13, Kate Reid already knew exactly where she was headed: a career in Formula 1 and a life lived at full throttle. But after earning a degree in aerospace engineering and taking up a coveted position at one of the top F1 teams in the UK, she discovered that the reality didn’t match what she’d dreamed. So, she made a swerve no one expected: to forge a career in pastry.  With her Melbourne-born bakery Lune Croissanterie now famous worldwide, Reid sits down to reflect on her unique path, from initially pursuing aerospace engineering at RMIT University, to following her lifelong passion for F1 racing, to finding fame as the mastermind behind ‘the best croissant in the world’ (The New York Times).  Join Reid as she discusses perfection, obsession and making her own kind of success story, with host Alice Zaslavsky.    Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hear Omar El Akkad discuss his searing work, 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This' with host Tasneem Chopra. Sparked by his viral tweet during the bombardment of Gaza – viewed over 10 million times – Omar El Akkad’s 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This' lays bare the fractures he has seen in the West’s empty promises of freedom and justice.  In this timely session, the Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist reflects on how events like the Black Lives Matter protests, the escalating climate crisis and the violence in the Middle East have reshaped his understanding of migration, power and inequality and forced him to confront what it means to live in a West that has betrayed its fundamental values.   Praised by Richard Flanagan as ‘a howl from the heart of our age’, El Akkad’s book explores exactly how the West has failed and offers hope for a way forward. Originally presented on Wednesday 22 October 2025 by The Wheeler Centre. The official bookseller was Amplify Bookstore. Featured music is 'City Phases' by John Abbot.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hear from Atlantic culture critic and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer Sophie Gilbert as she discusses her new book 'Girl on Girl' with host Kate Jinx. They dive into the pop cultural forces of the late 1990s and Y2K era that shaped and warped women's relationships with themselves and other women. Casting her eye across pop culture of the past 30 years, she tackles everything from Madonna, the Spice Girls and the Kardashians, to MySpace, the #GirlBoss movement and The Simple Life. In this new book, Gilbert reveals the cultural forces that shaped a generation and laid the groundwork for the misogyny of today. In this conversation, Gilbert discusses how millennial pop culture twisted feminism into objectification, the insidious power of media narratives and the pervasive influence of porn, and her own experience of growing up during these defining decades.Originally recorded on Tuesday 21 October 2025 at The Wheeler Centre.The official bookseller was The Sun Bookshop.Featured music is 'No One There' by Ava Low.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After arriving in Australia as a refugee, Jelena Dokic shot to fame when she made the semi-finals of Wimbledon at just 17 years of age. But off the court, there were even greater challenges: from her struggles with mental health to surviving the abuse of her tennis coach father.    In this special live recording of Australian Story, Dokic opens up to Leigh Sales about the details of her extraordinary life, from escaping war-torn Yugoslavia to becoming a Grand Slam finalist. She reflects on her past, from overcoming child abuse and domestic violence and explores the impact it had on her mental health. Despite the obstacles she faced, Jelena found a way to not only survive, but thrive – transforming her pain into power and purpose. She discovered her voice, built a successful career after tennis and ultimately found happiness.  Hear Dokic speak with grace and honesty about her hard-won wisdom and the strength it takes to rise above hardship.This event recorded on Thursday 18 September 2025 at The Edge, Federation Square. It was presented in partnership with the ABC.The official bookseller was Readings. Featured music is 'Different Days' by Chill Cole.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An exclusive Wheeler Centre live-recorded podcast featuring best-selling American author Eric Puchner, as he lifts the curtain on his latest novel 'Dream State', in conversation with host Ronnie Scott. Selected by Oprah for her book club in 2025 and an instant New York Times bestseller, 'Dream State' tells the story of Charlie, a gifted anaesthesiologist; his best friend Garrett, a brooding, introverted nerd; and medical school drop-out Cece, whose engagement to Charlie seems certain – until she meets Garrett.  A love triangle plays out across generations in this panoramic and deeply human tale of family, loss and the fragile dreams that shape our lives. Hear from Puchner as he discusses this work of exceptional literary depth in this exclusive podcast recording. This podcast was originally recorded on Monday 6 October 2025 by The Wheeler Centre. Featured music is ‘Diffuser’ by Shiruky.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get your fix of honest and original media analysis from two insiders who’ve broken plenty of news and been broken by it, too. In this special live recording of We Used to be Journos, hosts Antoinette Lattouf and Jan Fran sit down to reveal the way the media works, from questionable editorial decisions that shape the weekly news to the stories that masquerade as unbiased reporting. They unpack some recent headlines and reveal how the media sausage gets made – so you know what you’re being fed. In this fearless assessment of the Australian media landscape they have a low tolerance for spin and absolutely no time for BS. You’ll never look at the news in the same way again. Originally presented on Saturday 20 September 2025 by The Wheeler Centre, in partnership with Ette Media.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the age of algorithms, music is under constant pressure to respond to mood, brand and data.Hear from music journalist and cultural critic Liz Pelly with host Lauren Taylor in this sharp and insightful exploration into how streaming platforms have transformed our relationship with music. Pelly unpacks the shift from art to algorithm-driven content, where music is reduced to a commodified experience and listeners to mere data points.Drawing from years of investigative reporting culminating in her bold exposé 'Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist', Pelly uncovers how the economics of streaming are reshaping the music industry and what this seismic change means for artists, listeners and cultural production at large.The conversation explores ways to reclaim that human connection in music and fight for a more meaningful future in the age of corporate playlists and mood marketing. This event was recorded on Thursday 28 August 2025 at The Wheeler Centre. It was presented in partnership with Now or Never. The official bookseller was The Paperback Bookshop.Featured music is 'Traveling Again' by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.