Tracey Holmes: Meeting a Beatle, driving with Pele – and ‘this thing that still exists’ in sport

In this episode, we talk to Cate Campbell. Australian Dolphin number 665 debuted at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 at the tender age of 16. The teenager won two bronze medals at those games, and that was only the beginning. In her 16-year career in the pool, Campbell won eight Olympic medals – four of them gold – and breaking seven world records (her record for the 100-metre short-course freestyle still stands). The 33-year-old retired last year, and has since gone on to explore new fields including commentary and coaching – as well as opening up in a very brave and vulnerable way about the loneliness and depression she dealt with throughout her career. Now a mental health campaigner, Campbell is currently learning how to man the phones as a Lifeline crisis counsellor. She speaks to Good Weekend senior writer Konrad Marshall.Lifeline: 13 11 14See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In this episode, we talk to Hugh de Kretser. The president of the Australian Human Rights Commission has quite the job. Never has society been more polarised, with distressing displays of religious and ethnic hatred bursting onto our streets - while at the same time the relevance of the commission itself has been called into question. De Kretser, who gave up a promising corporate legal career to work in community law, is up for the challenge of defending the institution. But he’s also got to protect the rights of people caught up in the most contentious conflict of our time, the war in the Middle East and how it affects communities in Australia. He’s the topic of our cover story this week - Man in the Middle - and hosting our conversation is the writer of that profile, James Button.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we talk to Danielle de Niese. The internationally acclaimed soprano has dazzled audiences since childhood – from her breakthrough on the TV show Young Talent Time at just nine years old to starring on the world’s greatest opera stages. She joins us to chat about her life in music, and what keeps her voice – and spirit – so vibrant. Following a remarkable path which also includes an early Emmy win and teenage debut with the Los Angeles Opera, de Niese now has a passion for making opera feel fresh, cool and accessible to new audiences. Hosting this conversation – about everything from backstage rituals and vocal care to what it truly feels like to stand under stage lights and inhabit a role – is Spectrum editor Melanie Kembrey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we speak with Mark Dapin. Dapin is a veteran true crime writer, with a career including a stint as editor of the lad mag Ralph - but also as a columnist for Good Weekend. He has spent many, many hours with infamous hardened criminals, and now - for a story in the current issue of Good Weekend - has flipped sides to see through the eyes of aspiring police officers. Dapin - an irreverent but incisive and insightful writer - joins us today for a chat about that piece, but also the wild popularity of the true crime genre more generally, touching on his own encounters with the likes of hit man Chopper Read, and con man Jack Karlson (of “succulent Chinese meal” fame). And hosting this conversation - about kidnappers and murderers, and the darkness in us all - is Good Weekend acting editor Greg Callaghan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we talk to Vincent Fantauzzo – the Melbourne portrait artist famous for hyperrealist renderings of a long list of prominent people. He’s painted movie stars (like Hugh Jackman), underworld figures (like Mick Gatto), politicians (like Julia Gillard), sporting heroes (like Oscar Piastri) and icons (like Michael Gudinski). Good Weekend senior writer Konrad Marshall profiled Fantauzzo for a June cover story – "Keeping it real" – about not just his prize-winning works but his rough-and-tumble beginnings, which included more than mere brushes with violence and crime. As they discuss in this emotionally charged conversation, Fantauzzo endured a dysfunctional early life, not to mention an unhealthy dose of insecurity and shame over a learning disorder he kept hidden. He overcame all that to receive plaudits – and occasional brickbats – for his work so far, but his real mission is both simple and grand: “To Jamie Oliver the art world”.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.