Gleetalks from Gleebooks

We’re all looking for love, but although it’s been years since I was lucky enough to find the love of my life, the world of online dating seems fraught with obstacles, uncertainties and contradictions. Or so I’m told!Although modern society and media have sold us the fairytale of that one big, romantic love – chemistry, sparks, passion – the majority of people don’t think a big love can be discovered on dating apps. And given our consumer culture’s fixation on the disposable and the new, many lonely hearts become stuck in a cycle of looking for the next, even better relationship. Ironically, while we’re on this quest for romantic novelty, we may also be craving long-term partnerships, feeling like failures if we don’t achieve them. How can we reconcile these conflicting desires? Dating app academic Dr Lisa Portolan talks to presenter of A Better World Blueprint Shevonne Hunt about what love looks like in the digital age.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

“The Canberra establishment is shocked by any suggestion that we should walk away from the ANZUS commitments. They think we can and must depend on America more than ever in today’s hard new world. But that misses the vital point. It’s America that is walking away from the commitments it made in very different circumstances seventy-five years ago. That was plain enough under Joe Biden. It’s crystal clear today under Trump.So argues defense and intelligence analyst Hugh White in his urgent Quarterly Essay,  Hard New World: Our Post-American Future.White talks to former US and Australian political advisor Bruce Wolpe of the United States Studies Centre about the big strategic geopolitical trends across the world as America exits the field and how Australia should respond.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

Most of us would agree that a strong higher education system is crucial for a functioning democracy and economic prosperity. However, a 2024 review found the system broken and in urgent need of reform. Major issues include an over-reliance on international enrolments, widespread casualisation, academic burnout, political interference in research and teaching, lack of national coordination, and the long-term impact of funding cuts. These challenges threaten the sector's ability to produce well-educated citizens and maintain its role in society. Urgent action is needed to restore higher education’s capacity to serve both national and global interests.In this episode of Gleetalks, Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner AO talks to Adjunct Professor Hannah Forsyth about the misconceptions around academic life, revealing the possible solutions to the higher education sector’s malaise.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

Is big policy reform still possible? Does Australia have the political will to tackle generational issues such as climate change, the housing crisis, rising inequality and Closing the Gap? And how did the Rudd and Gillard governments develop such transformational initiatives as the Apology to the Stolen Generations, paid parental leave and the National Disability Insurance Scheme?According to Labor policymaker and former Social Services Minister Jenny Macklin, Australia wants to remain prosperous and fair, big policy reform is not just possible, it’s essential.In this episode of Gleetalks, Macklin talks to her successor as Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek about how she and policymakers such as such as Julia Gillard, Brian Howe, Bill Kelty and Ross Garnaut war-gamed ways to turn good policy ideas into reality in her book Making Progress: How Good Policy Happens, published by Melbourne University Press. Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

Nathan Dunne was living the life of his dreams in London until, one evening, he jumped into a lake for a swim. When he emerged, his identity was simply gone. He felt completely lost and in acute, inexplicable pain. He knew who he was supposed to be but had no connection to the person named Nathan. His memories were distant and separate, not his. Everything was unfamiliar. All he felt was terror.This was the beginning of his experience with depersonalisation, a little-understood and on-the-rise mystery mental illness that causes a person to dissociate from their body and thoughts. In this intriguing episode of Gleetalks, Dunne talks to author and researcher Dr Rebecca Huntley about his sometimes fraught but always inspiring journey back to himself in his book When Nothing Feels Real: A journey into the mystery illness of depersonalisation. Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

Today, trust seems harder to find than ever before. It’s hardly surprising we feel that way. Our politics is polarised, our online world is awash with misinformation, and we’ve lost faith in our bedrock institutions. Yet, without trust, we cannot work together to solve the big problems we face.But there is a way back. A way to rediscover trust in our leaders and institutions. A way to tackle the doubt.Gavin Fang – ABC Editorial Director – and Tracey Kirkland – the ABC’s Continuous News Editor – talk to author and broadcaster Richard Glover about how, if we are to address the big issues facing our world, then we must have trust, because without it we have no sense of shared reality in their book Age of Doubt: Building Trust in a World of Disinformation, published by Monash University Publications.  Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

Growing up, journalist and presenter Kumi Taguchi thought her father was just difficult: reserved to the point of silence, obsessively frugal, and – after her parents’ divorce – almost entirely absent. Still, when her father died, she was far away and Kumi’s feelings about him – and her own heritage – remained tangled.But just because a parent has gone doesn’t mean they’re absent. Over time Kumi came to understand more about what made her father as he was, including his harrowing experiences as a child in wartime Japan and, above all, the culture she both loved and felt burdened by. Kumi talks to journalist Leigh Sales about her journey to understand her father – and herself – in her book The Good Daughter, published by Simon and Schuster Australia.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

France at the turn of the twentieth century was deeply preoccupied with the conduct of its young people, especially juvenile offenders, who were viewed at a time of great economic distress and social turmoil as harbingers of national decline and agents of disorder. Sound familiar?Legislators and social reformers debated whether children who committed offences should be held criminally responsible or if their age should exempt them from liability. Nonetheless, others saw young people, including juvenile offenders, as victims of neglect and essential vehicles for national regeneration. In this episode of Gleetalks, historian Briony Neilson talks to Emeritus Professor David Garrioch about how greater age consciousness in the criminal justice system emerged in modern France, leading to the creation of a distinct branch of justice for juveniles in her book Dangers of Youth: Age, Criminality, and Juvenile Justice in Third Republic France, published by McGill-Queens University Press.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

By daytime, Ukraine is a sophisticated European country going about its business, and Kyiv seems like an enchanting city. But by night, the sirens roar, and the war begins. Acclaimed former ABC Global Affairs Editor – and now ABC News Americas Editor – John Lyons doesn’t write about geopolitics or military strategy in his evocative book A Bunker in Kyiv, published by Harper Collins Australia. Instead, he focuses on  the everyday resilient civilians who are taking part in it.Lyons talks to Network Ten political correspondent Hugh Riminton and Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko about the huge army of civilians — from old punk rockers to university professors and Coca Cola brand managers — who are working behind the scenes to outwit the Russian army.  Like what you heard? Buy your copy here.

Despite the swathe of destruction and demolition in recent decades, Sydney has some architectural gems: the State Library of NSW, the State Theatre, Hyde Park’s Anzac Memorial and more. And adorning these iconic buildings is the exquisite work of three Italian brothers whose ornate and beautiful mosaic, terrazzo, and marble work constitutes up to 90% of Sydney’s early 20th Century marble and terrazzo work. Yet despite their monumental contributions – including the decade they spent working on the floor of St Mary’s Cathedral crypt – the legacy of the Melocco Brothers—Peter, Antonio, and Galliano—has remained largely unacknowledged.  Until now.  Award-winning author, architectural historian, cultural heritage consultant and human rights advocate Zeny Edwards reveals the artistry behind the inspirational story of these incredible artists, as she talks to Dr Christopher Allen, National Art Critic for The Weekend Australian.

Nick Kaldas is a cop's cop. From investigating war criminals to taking down global drug operations, Kaldas has seen the worst humanity can offer. But he's also seen which human qualities can lead to greatness.An immigrant boy from Egypt who rose from beat cop to become one of the most senior police officers in Australia.In this episode of Gleetalks, Kaldas talks to former detective, author and podcaster Gary Jubelin about his memoir Behind the Badge, published by HarperCollins Australia.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

We all love Indian food, but why aren't garam masala or tamarind as common as soy sauce and tomato paste?It’s a question answered by Masterchef winner Justin Narayan in his cookbook Everything is Indian, published by Murdoch Books, drawing on his Fijian-Indian heritage.Think: roast potatoes with masala flavours, MasterChef-certified chicken curry tacos, the best pizza ever and a cardamom-hit caramel slice.In this episode of Gleetalks, Justin takes us on a flavourful journey as he chats to food critic Nicholas Jordan. Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

Australian political leaders have bent the knee for decades, placing the ANZUS treaty at the centre of the nation’s security. AUKUS has become the latest symbol of strategic solidarity. For Australia’s governments, of whatever political persuasion, America continues to define the global rules-based order.Now that the American people have elected Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president, how will his presidency affect Australia's foreign policy, trade, climate action and approach to human rights? More importantly, will Australia be able to act in its own interests, or will it simply defer to Trump’s idea of America?In this episode of Gleetalks, Director of the Australia Institute’s Security and International Affairs program, Dr Emma Shortis discusses this crazy brave new world order with journalist Richard Cooke and her new essay, After America, part of the Australia Institute’s new ideas series, Vantage Point.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and another minority government is a real possibility at this one. Politics-as-usual is not enough for many voters.In this timely episode of Gleetalks (Gleetalks Link) George Megalogenis traces the how and why of a political realignment in his Quarterly Essay: Minority Rule: The New Shape of Australian Politics with broadcaster and author David Marr.This is about the teals, the Greens and the Coalition. In a contest between new and old, progressive and conservative, which vision of Australia will win out? But it’s also about Labor in power – is careful centrism the right strategy for the times, or is something else required? With the election only weeks away, this is essential listening to understand the new political landscape.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

One hundred years ago, a New York bookseller Gabriel Wells, committed a crime against history. He broke up the world’s greatest book, the Gutenberg Bible, and sold it off in individual pages, which he marketed as Noble Fragments.Half a century later, Sydney journalist Michael Visontay stumbled upon a mysterious legal document that linked Wells to his own family and changed its destiny.In this episode of Gleetalks, Visontay talks to critic and author Caroline Baum about his hunt for those fragments, what he discovered in the arcane world of antique book collectors, and his family’s debt to an act of literary vandalism in his book Noble Fragments: The Maverick Who Broke Up the World’s Greatest Book.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

Since 1933, the Australian Women’s Weekly has been Australia’s highest-selling women’s magazine. And from birthday cakes to barbecues, the Weekly taught generations of Australians what to eat and how to cook it at home.Drawing on recipes, food editorials and readers’ memories, Lauren Samuelsson’s A Matter of Taste: The Australian Women’s Weekly & Its Influence on Australian Food Culture is a celebration of the Weekly’s essential role in the development of Australian food culture.On this deliciously nostalgic episode of Gleetalks, Lauren talks to historian Professor Michelle Arrow about how the Weekly encouraged us to be adventurous, to experiment in the kitchen, and to try new ingredients and flavours, stimulating an eclectic, Australian way of eating which is still reflected on our tables today.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here: gleebooks.com.au/product/matter-o…an-food-culture/

It’s 1986, and ‘beautiful, radical ideas’ are in the air. A young woman arrives in Melbourne. In bohemian St Kilda she meets artists, activists, students—and Kit.In her seventh novel, Theory and Practice, award-winning writer Michelle de Kretser bends fiction, essay and memoir into exhilarating new shapes making and unmaking fiction as we read and expanding our notion of what a novel can contain.In this episode of Gleetalks, she chats to Professor Elizabeth McMahon of the University of NSW about this mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame, of theory and practice, where art and life intersect.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here

In the Nineteenth Century, the Russian and British played what was dubbed the Great Game for strategic influence in Central Asia.Today, the players have changed. Combine Putin’s Ukraine folly and American isolationism and, China now has the chance to project its power globally, as the US did from the early Twentieth Century. What are the implications and consequences, especially for Australia?In this episode of Gleetalks, Australia’s former ambassador to China Geoff Raby AO talks to broadcaster Geraldine Doogue about his new book Great Game On: The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy, which explores these geopolitical forces and strategic questions.Like what you heard? Buy a copy here

From Palm Beach to Cronulla, Mount Druitt to Bondi, Sydney is a city made for swimming.Over a calendar year, lifelong swimmer, educator and writer Chris Baker swam at iconic beaches, municipal pools, harbour baths, tidal rock pools, bushland lakes and a backyard pool,In this episode of Gleetalks, he talks to curator and broadcaster Michaela Kalowksi about his book Swimming Sydney: A Tale of 52 Swims, a valentine to the beautiful obsession of swimming in the world’s most beautiful city, and how storytelling is the best way to navigate life’s emotional currents.

The 1970s. The era of flares, treads, Gough… and the founding of Gleebooks – but that’s another story!It was also the age of the advent of feminism, rampant police and political corruption, and the rise of drug-fuelled organised crime in Australia, where Nugan Hand, Mr Asia and Robert Trimbole became household names.In this episode of Gleetalks, investigative journalist Ronni Salt talks to Gleebooks Events Manager Sunil Badami about the intrigues and politics in her new crime thriller, Gunnawah, featuring a colourful cast of characters and gripping escapades in Trimbole’s old Riverina stomping ground.Like what you heard? Buy your copy here