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In this episode, Hugh White, author of a new Quarterly Essay, in conversation with Michael Wesley about Australia’s place in the new global landscape. Are we ready for our post-American future? In an era of rising danger for all, and dramatic choices for Australia, White explores how the world is changing, and Australia should respond. Under Donald Trump, America's retreat from global leadership has been swift and erratic. China, Russia and India are on the move. White explains the big strategic trends driving the war in Ukraine, and why America has "lost" Asia. He discusses Albanese Labor's record and its post-election choices, and why complacency about the American alliance – including AUKUS – is no longer an option. This essential essay urges us to make our way in a hard new world with realism and confidence.

In this episode, a conversation with writer Tyler Jenke, author of an in-depth look at the rise of enigmatic Australian rock band TISM, the unexpected success of their 1995 album, Machiavelli and the Four Seasons, and the continued trajectory of their storied career. Focusing on one of Australia's most enigmatic bands, This Is Serious Mum (better known as TISM), Jenke forms an analysis of the anonymous, pseudonymous Melbourne collective's rise to prominence and unlikely success on the popular music charts with their third album, Machiavelli and the Four Seasons (1995). Jenke details TISM's origins as they slowly went from a bedroom concept to an underground success to a staple of concert stages and commercial radio in Australia, growing a rabid fanbase in the process.

In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of acclaimed author Laura Elvery’s novel, Nightingale, inspired by the life of Florence Nightingale; part historical fiction, part ghost story, and utterly original. Mayfair, 1910. At the age of ninety, Florence Nightingale is frail and no longer of sound mind. After a storied career as a nurse, writer and statistician, she now leads a reclusive existence. One summer evening she is astonished to receive a visitor – a young man named Silas Bradley, who claims to have met her during the Crimean War fifty-five years ago. But how can this be? And how does the elusive Jean Frawley connect their two lives? In this eagerly anticipated novel, Laura Elvery shows why she is one of the most lauded writers of her generation. Nightingale is a luminous tale of faith and love, bravery and care, and the vitality of women's work.