Bookoccino Conversations

Terra Nullius. A No Man’s Land. Met with European notions of civilisation, Indigenous Australia was brutally overlooked. But the worlds oldest living culture survives. Indigenous approaches to architecture are gaining ground. Indigenous voices are demanding respect and self-determination. 2023 will likely reveal how far we've come…Paul Memmott is an anthropologist and architect. For 5 decades he has been Director of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. His work has focussed on a range of topics including institutional architecture, indigenous housing, crowding, governance, well-being, homelessness, family violence and social planning. He has is referenced by many scholars, including in Dark Emuby Bruce Pascoe, and in the rebuttal to Dark Emu: Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? by Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe. He is the author of 11 books, including the magisterial Gunyah Goodie and Wurley: the Aboriginal Architecture of Australia. Peter Stutchbury is an acclaimed and award-winning architect known for his innovative approach to sustainability and design. He has a deep appreciation for the Australian landscape, having spent his formative years in the desert country of western NSW. He was winner of the International 'Living Steel' competition for extreme climate housing in Cherepovets, Russia, held the Catedra Luis Barragán in Mexico and has been a tutor on McKay-Lyons Ghost Studio in Canada.

On January night a large group gathered at Moby Dicks, Whale Beach for Bookoccino's annual 'China Night', a foreign policy conversation hosted by Jane Perlez. This year we welcomed Michael Green of the US Studies Centre, author Linda Jaivin and Lowy Fellow Richard McGregor. If you would like to learn more about Bookoccino's acclaimed event series please join our mailing list 

On the 31st of October 2022 we welcomed the inimitable Richard Fidler, discussing his new 'Book of Roads and Kingdoms' with Geraldine Doogue. 

It was our pleasure to host Foreign Correspondents Damien Cave and Nick Bryant on Wednesday June 13 at Moby Dicks, Whale Beach. Together they discuss the experience of living abroad, what defines the Australian character and Why America is no longer the great nation it was. 

A truly engaging and powerful discussion on the war in Ukraine. Hosted by Lowy fellow Richard McGregor, with Bobo Lo and Zoya Sheftalovich. Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine has turned global politics upside down. The US and Europe have co-operated more closely than they have for decades, along with allies like Australia, reinvigorating the West. Germany has committed to a huge boost in defence spending and Finland has dropped 70 years of neutrality. Energy prices have soared. On the other side, China has strongly backed Russia, perhaps with an eye to future conflicts in the Pacific. 

Our guest is Anthropologist Wade Davis who’s written a best seller on Colombia... its beauty, people and the nation's entanglement with the cocaine trade and the 50 year Colombian Civil War...His new book is entitled 'Magdalena River of Dreams: A Story of Colombia'Wade is interviewed by Martin Kane one of your friendly booksellers at Bookoccino.

Bookoccino's Jane Perlez (NYT) interviews Hugh White to discuss the role of a divided America and a rising China in the Asia-Pacific as well as many of the themes contained in his groundbreaking 2019 book "How to Defend Australia."Can Australia defend itself in the Asian century? How seriously ought we take the risk of war? Do we want to remain a middle power? What kind of strategy, and what Australian Defence Force, do we need? Hugh White AO is an Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University in Canberra.

A  Bigger Picture has generated sensational headlines and was an instant best seller. In an interview with Peter White, a former radio journalist, the former prime minister ranges from the affect that his mother walking out on him at age nine had on his personality and career, to whether will there be a war with China, and the future of the Republican movement in Australia...as well as walking us through some of his infamous run-ins with US President Donald.J.Trump. This podcast was created by the Bookoccino book shop in Avalon, consider supporting them through a small donation or a membership to get discounts on events and books throughout the year. Visit https://www.bookoccino.com.au/  Piano music by @vananhofficial. 

Episode 1, Bill Finnegan, one of America's most prominent man of letters, a long-time writer at the New Yorker. Bill is also an avid surfer, which he recounts in Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, which won the Pulitzer Prize and has been a consistent best seller at Bookoccino. In our first edition of Bookoccino Conversations, he is interviewed by Jane Perlez, the Pulitzer prize winning New York Times correspondent. Bill talks about the monumental swells he surfed around the world as well as some anecdotes of his travels as a wartime correspondent. Piano pieces performed by concert pianist Van-anh Nguyen, find her music on itunes https://music.apple.com/au/album/pop-alchemy/1446350487 and spotify. Produced by willfarge.com.au