Good Reading Podcast

Good Reading Magazine

Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.

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Yesterday · 21 min
Annabel Stafford on the forgotten horrors of a Western Australian apartheid hospital
When the Wet comes to Wyndham, bones wash down with the loose shale of the surrounding Bastion ranges. Year round, lost spirits wander this tiny port town on the northern tip of Western Australia. Some say they belong to the forgotten inmates of an apartheid hospital, built here in 1936 on the foundations of Social Darwinism and eugenics, theories that would reach their horrifying climax in the Holocaust. The Wanted and the Unwanted is the story of the Wyndham Native Hospital, born from a maelstrom of personal animosities, ambitions and beliefs and from the warring spirits of the early twentieth century. It is the tale of a hospital built three miles from a town that banned Aboriginal people, a place where men, women and children were imprisoned, left untreated and subjected to experimental treatments without their knowledge and against their will. And it is the story of those who resisted and survived to transform Three Mile into a place of hope and a site from which a new Wyndham would emerge. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Annabel Stafford about the 'great Australian silence' that obscures our sense of history, the vision and the reality for the Wyndham Native Hospital, and about the cast of white bureaucrats, doctors and politicians who shaped our dark past.
Wednesday · 29 min
AJ Mackinnon on 'Realms of Gold: The Remarkable Return of Jack de Crow'
When A.J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon sailed a tiny dinghy through twelve countries from North Wales to the Black Sea, he survived pirates, the English Channel, international incidents and all the disasters, big and small, that can befall a little boat on a long voyage. Those adventures became his beloved bestseller The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow. Decades later, that trip is a happy memory and Sandy is firmly back on land – until a message from a stranger presents an opportunity too good to refuse. Sandy picks up where his first voyage left off, sailing and rowing single-handedly around the coast from Romania to Venice. From Istanbul to Ithaca, Mount Olympus to the ruins of Troy, he finds himself immersed in the legends of antiquity, plays chicken with mercurial border police, and is saved more than once by the kindness of strangers. He recounts it all with his unbreakable enthusiasm and self-deprecating humour, taking the reader on a hilarious and unforgettable adventure. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to A. J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon about the reincarnation of that little mirror dinghy the 'Jack De Crow', the remarkable people he encountered on his journey from the Danube Delta to Venice, and why it's not curiosity alone that drives Sandy in his travels and his storytelling.
August 5 · 33 min
Dr Barbara Lemon on a unique record of Australian history in, 'The Memory Tapes'
The Memory Tapes is a new podcast from the National Library of Australia that brings history to life through the voices of the people who lived it. Drawing on one of the nation’s most significant oral history collections, the series explores remarkable stories of resilience, innovation, creativity, migration, activism and everyday life. In each episode, oral historian Dr Shirleene Robinson AM combines firsthand accounts with expert storytelling to reveal the people behind Australia’s history. From Nobel Prize-winning scientists and pioneering artists to community leaders, workers and families, The Memory Tapes offers listeners a rare opportunity to hear Australians tell their stories in their own words. These recordings capture not only historical events, but the emotions, memories and experiences that give them meaning. Through ten themed episodes, the podcast opens a window into the National Library’s extraordinary Oral History Collection, inviting audiences to discover the voices that have shaped Australia’s past and continue to inspire its future. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Dr Barbara Lemon about why oral history is an essential part of the Australian record of our history, how the emotional truth contained within these recordings communicates something beyond mere facts and opinions, and how listeners can access The Memory Tapes podcast and book through the National Library of Australia's website.
July 28 · 21 min
Elisabeth Storrs on her heart-breaking story of love and war in, 'Fables and Lies'
World War II Berlin. Freyja Bremer, a patriotic museum assistant, marries Kaspar Voigt, an ambitious SS scholar, to protect her father. Yet she is unaware her husband is instrumental in Himmler’s twisted quest for Aryan supremacy. As she strives to safeguard the priceless Priam’s Treasure from air raids, Freyja falls in love with Darien Lessing, an archaeologist who exposes the moral decay beneath the Regime’s myths. Her awakening drives her into perilous resistance – aiding a Jewish doctor and his wife, Darien’s sister – while uncovering Kaspar’s role in the SS’s darkest programmes, which subvert history to justify invasion, abduction and murder. As Berlin collapses into chaos and bloodshed, Freyja, caught between duty, deception and desire, must risk everything to preserve truth in a world built on lies. Fables & Lies shines light on lesser-known aspects of the Nazi Regime. It gives voice to the complex moral struggles of German women, the forgotten resistance of Gentiles married to Jews, the dangers of contested history, the evils of Himmler’s racial studies programme and the unsung bravery of German museum curators who saved their nation’s treasures. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Elisabeth Storrs about creating historical fiction in a world where history is contestable, the compromises women and families were compelled to make under the Nazi regime, and the often overlooked consequences of World War I that sowed the seed for World War II. Paperback and digital editions of Fables and Lies can be found at Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/fables-lies-elisabeth-storrs/book/9781835744086.html
July 20 · 24 min
Danielle Binks on war, friendship and finding common ground in 'Shakespeare in the Orchard'
Langwarrin, Victoria, 1914. The whole world is at war. In Langwarrin on the Mornington Peninsula, fourteen-year-old Jack Thorning is the best marksman in military cadet training. His brother, Matt, taught him everything he knew, after their father died. But now Matt has joined the war effort, and it's up to Jack to hold down the home front and help his mother run the family orchard. When a group of 'enemy aliens' are sent to Langwarrin to be held prisoner at the military base, tensions in the town run high. For Jack and his best friend, Walter, the war feels closer than ever. Like the rest of the town, Jack and Walter want nothing to do with the German prisoners. But as the war progresses, the inmates at the camp are put to work doing manual labour on the farms around Langwarrin, including Jack's family orchard, and Jack begins to see that the prisoners are people, too. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Danielle Binks about her home town and her fascination with it's war-time history, how the works of Shakespeare still resonate for young people today, and why World War I's impact in shaping events of the 20th Century is often overlooked.
June 30 · 21 min
Warren Rankine on childhood trauma and finding your feet in 'Fifteen Feet Tall'
Fifteen Feet Tall is Warren Rankine's own account of a journey from trauma, tragedy, sadness, to, success and self realisation. Others may have put him on a path. Ultimately he forged his own. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Warren Rankine about his memoir - story of childhood trauma, personal development, growth and achievement. Warren is joined by Tracy Yong who helped bring his story to print through the process of self-publishing with FolioFox
June 14 · 23 min
James O'Loghlin on mesothelioma and friendship in 'The Accidental Activist'
Usually when a friend is dying, there’s not much you can do. But what if there was? James O’Loghlin’s best friend at university was Jum Wallner, but once careers and kids came along, they drifted apart. That was, until the day Jum felt a pain in his side and remembered he had grown up in a house filled with ‘Mr Fluffy’ asbestos insulation. Nearly everyone who contracts an asbestos disease gets it from their work and is entitled to compensation or financial support. Jum discovered that if you got one from your home, tough luck. You were on your own. Before he died, Jum wanted to change that. James leapt at the chance to help him. But with zero lobbying experience, how were they going to persuade the ACT Labor Government and the Federal Liberal Government to work together to help the victims of the 1000 ‘Mr Fluffy’ houses? In the middle of Covid, how would they attract national media attention? Most importantly, as Jum’s illness worsened, could they get it done in time? This is a story about amateurs figuring out how to influence government, how friendship can drift and then be found again, and how tragedy can make it clear what really matters. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to James O'Loghlin about the changing contours of friendship as we move through life, how he came to be an activist for the victims of Canberra's 'Mr Fluffy' houses, and how to to prepare for final conversations with dying friends.
May 25 · 32 min
Justine Hausheer on the fight against extinction in 'The Vanishing Wild'
Australia is a country celebrated for its wildlife, yet native species are in crisis. In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation. In this book, award-winning science writer Justine E. Hausheer encounters pygmy possums that live high in the Snowy Mountains, hears the booming calls of bitterns from their adopted home in the Riverina’s rice fields, crouches after dark in the spinifex grasslands listening for the elusive night parrot and meets adorable fat-tailed dunnarts who might hold the answers to reviving the Tasmanian tiger. The Vanishing Wild immerses us in the harsh reality of the extinction crisis – and shows us the future of conservation and what can be done to save Australia’s native species. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Justine Haushseer about the ever-growing list of endangered species from the iconic koala to the little known pygmy blue tongue lizard, the ethical challenges of de-extinction technologies and... what exactly are the Cane Toad Olympics?
May 20 · 20 min
Jess Kitching on love, loss and new beginnings in, 'The Secrets of Strangers'
After suffering a loss, Janine and her husband, Kamal, need a fresh start. They leave their family and everything they know in Manchester and move to Bamblethorpe, a picturesque Lancashire village where they expect nothing but peace and quiet. It’ll be just what Janine, a thriller writer, needs to work on her next manuscript. But the peace of their new village life is disrupted when longtime local Alexa Clarke goes missing. Did she leave her husband, like some people suspect? Or is there credibility to the rumours that something more nefarious has happened to Alexa? Frozen by writer’s block, Janine stumbles into investigating Alexa’s disappearance, and the more she discovers about Alexa’s life, the more complicated things become. Nothing is as it seems, and Janine begins to realise that there are disturbing parallels between Alexa’s life and her own. What starts as curious procrastination quickly spirals into a tangled web of secrets, lies and a truth Janine may not be ready to face … if she survives. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Jess Kitching about the accidental merging of genres in her writing, how a tree change to a quiet English village comes with hidden dangers, and how grief and loss changes lives.
May 2 · 22 min
Kerry Jewell on her compelling, candid and darkly funny novel, 'A Little Unwell'
For Amy, being a doctor was supposed to mean winning at life. Helping people. Saving lives. Having a secure job. Earning good money. Tick, tick, tick, tick. But now, in her second year in a city hospital the reality is a world away from Amy's med school dreams. She is finding out that people don't always want to be 'helped', the pay barely covers rent, her hours are ridiculous, her favourite patients are getting sicker, and her surgical trainee boyfriend has recently gone shy on proposing. What Amy does have are the friendships forged by dealing with recalcitrant patients, endless nightshifts, and crying in the emergency department bathrooms. And a belief that maybe, underneath it all, it's a job that's still worth doing. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Kerry Jewell about giving the reader the complete hospital/medical training experience, why the idea of being a doctor isn't necessarily the reality, and how cynicism, sarcasm and black humour are all part of the job.
April 27 · 29 min
Martin McKenzie-Murray on the shadow world of first responders in 'Sirens'
Three first responders – a paramedic, a police officer and a firefighter – are motivated by a desire to serve the community. But they are drawn to their work by more complicated impulses as well: a need for control, an acute awareness of danger, and childhood experiences they are still running from. Peter, a paramedic, served at high-profile disasters including the Port Arthur massacre and the Beaconsfield mine collapse. Despite helping countless people, he is haunted by the lives he couldn't save. Tara, a firefighter, experienced devastating loss at a young age. She found camaraderie in the fire brigade, but also confronting reminders of her past. Brett, a police officer, survived childhood neglect and abuse. Policing offered a way to impose order, but it eventually forced him to question his rigid moral view of the world. In telling their stories, Martin McKenzie-Murray draws on his own experience and his research into trauma and recovery to ask profound questions about human motivation and survival. What draws people to these intense professions, and how does their work reshape them? And what happens when their carefully built walls between past and present, personal and professional, start to crumble? In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Martin McKenzie-Murray about why we need know about the experiences of first responders, why it is a vocation and not just a job, and reasons for the reluctance to seek treatment for the PTSD that many first responders suffer from.
April 4 · 24 min
Luke Taylor on Peter Marralwanga, Painter of the Djang of Western Arnhem Land
Peter Marralwanga (1916–1987) was a leading figure in one of the great art practices of the world. He grew up in western Arnhem Land surrounded by artists painting in rock shelters and he learned to paint this way himself. The subjects of his paintings were the Djang who made his country and placed the spirits of people within it. Marralwanga’s story highlights the way bark painting became important as a way of evading assimilation policies rife within Northern Territory towns. Marralwanga established an outstation at Marrkolidjban where he could teach his children how to properly care for Ancestral lands, with part of this care involving a knowledge of how to paint. As a senior person who had travelled widely in his youth, and gained extensive ceremonial knowledge, Marralwanga was highly influential among a broad group of painters. Ivan Namirrkki, a painter of note and Peter Marralwanga’s son, has provided here his own account of his father’s life. This book tracks Marralwanga’s life of learning about country and conveys the religious meaning of numerous major works, offering outsiders a richer understanding and appreciation of Arnhem Land art. It also shows the crucial role of individuals working for the community arts cooperative Maningrida Arts and Culture in facilitating Marralwanga’s rise to recognition as a major Australian and world artist. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Luke Taylor about the tradition of Aboriginal bark painting that Peter Marralwanga drew from, the depth of knowledge of Aboriginal culture and ceremony that he brought to his paintings, and the political dimension to Marralwanga's work and its role in the developing land rights movement of the 1960s and 70s in Australia.
March 30 · 26 min
Jane Messer on her compelling memoir, 'Raven Mother: War, family and inheritance'
In Raven Mother, Jane Messer weaves together her Jewish family’s tragic story – stretching back and forth between Berlin, Israel, Palestine, Melbourne and Sydney. Messer retraces the steps of her Jewish grandmother Bella, as she tries to understand her life in pre-war Berlin and Mandate Palestine, to post-war Melbourne where she didn’t survive the surviving, and why her father was abandoned in England before the war. In this powerful, beautifully written and insightful book, Messer spends time in Berlin, Israel and Palestine and grapples with the effects of nationalism, both historical and contemporary. Along the way, she speaks with historians, activists, refugees and scholars, and constantly to her beloved father. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Jane Messer about the origins of the old German term, 'Rabenmutter', the city of Berlin under the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, and what she discovered about her grandmother Bella along the way.
March 16 · 28 min
Theresa Miller on stepping up to the microphone and making an impact in 'Speak Up'
Theresa Miller has spent decades working as a journalist and now media trainer, coaching people across all industries – from CEOs and academics to climate campaigners, entrepreneurs and artists – to communicate confidently, clearly and concisely. In Speak Up, she shows you how to successfully share your expertise and experience with an audience – whether it’s creating an inspiring work presentation or media release, blitzing a job interview or nailing your message on a podcast, panel, TV or radio interview. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Theresa Miller about why the demand for public speaking is bigger than ever, why being an expert in your field is not enough to get your message across, and why preparation and presentation skills are fundamental to good communication.
February 10 · 28 min
Vikki Petraitis on a forty-year-old true crime mystery in, 'The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron'
In 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed Beth and then herself. Vivienne’s body was never found. But Vikki Petraitis wasn’t convinced. The official line didn’t explain all the evidence, and it certainly didn’t seem like the behaviour of a mother with two small boys. Fascinated by both the case and the bias it revealed in investigators, Petraitis wrote her first true-crime book about the murder, with Paul Daley, and decades later made a podcast on the case. Both brought new evidence and testimony to light, and asked questions that were not asked at the time. To mark the fortieth anniversary of Beth’s murder and Vivienne’s vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened all those years ago, and why. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Vikki Petraitis about why she has returned to this forty-year-old cold case, about her insights into the Philip island community, and why she is not convinced that the police investigation had reached a reasonable conclusion.
January 14 · 36 min
Debra Dank on family, culture, connection and the power of memory in 'Ankami'
Debra Dank had long been desperate to paint a fuller picture of her family, to add flesh to the name-bones and the few precious stories she possessed. Debra had been aware of her father's five siblings, some of whom had died before she could come to know them, but there were always whispers and gaps and silences. Her parents had experiences that affected how Debra grew up, but hers seemed to be one of the very few Aboriginal families who had escaped having children stolen, who had viewed this horror from a seemingly safer distance. What Debra discovered would shatter everything she thought she knew about her family and her past. The information she uncovered revealed that her paternal grandmother had given birth to ten children. Four had been taken from her. Ankami is written from the perspective of those left behind, those who search always for the faces of stolen and lost Aboriginal children, now known only through a few cruel, thoughtless words written by a violent pastoral manager and a paternalistic colonial administrator, a footnote in a yellowed letter. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Debra Dank about the culture of silence she faced in uncovering her family history, the memories she relied on to tell this story and those she was compelled to imagine in the absence of the family she never knew, and the inadequacy of Australian standard english in describing, expressing and communicating Aboriginal culture and the words she invents to address that problem.
Nov 24, 2025 · 27 min
Aaron Tait on his journey from war to peace in 'Far Horizons'
As a seventeen-year-old officer Aaron Tait was deployed to a war in the Middle East. Far Horizons is the story of what happened next. From war zones to slums, Aaron Tait has travelled to and worked in more than 70 countries across the globe as a military officer, humanitarian and social entrepreneur, and now writes to help people live deliberate lives filled with purpose. Far Horizons is a globe-spanning coming-of-age memoir of a fighter turned peace-seeker on a vibrant journey of transformation, adventure and love, set against backdrops of the Iraq War, Africa and the world beyond. Fresh and introspective, it will lead you to exploring not only the far corners of the world but also the uncharted aspects of yourself. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Aaron Tait about the physical and psychological challenges he faced in training as a military officer and as part of a non-compliant boarding unit in the Persian Gulf, how he was morally challenged by his experiences of war and what he did about it, and how the love of his life led him to live and work in Kenya and Tanzania in search of redemption
Nov 23, 2025 · 17 min
Vicki Bennett on her story of love, war, and intergenerational healing, 'The Letters'
When rebellious Ruby is bequeathed her late grandfather’s personal letters, she is pulled from peacetime 1973 Australia, to 1917 World War 1 France. Without identification or any way home, she sets out to right a wrong that has broken her family for generations. She meets her young grandfather, an Australian soldier, who has a secret family – a French wife and daughter. Ruby is the only person who knows the true danger they are in, and sets out to rewrite her family’s past. A local resistance fighter Henri, with secrets of his own, is the only person who can help her. As they navigate dangerous terrain, Ruby is torn between the love of this mysterious hero, and the life she left behind. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Vicki Bennett about the enduring power of the hand-written letter, how the letter can facilitate communication across time and generations, and her deep personal and family connection to this story.
Nov 23, 2025 · 18 min
Chris Blake on his gripping crime thriller set on New Zealand's wild west coast, 'Softly Calls the Devil'
Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keeps their little world safe. And he's working in spectacular surroundings - the fierce Tasman Sea, the dense beech forest, the dark, cold swamps, the snowy Southern Alps. But then his much-loved predecessor, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet through his head. He'd been looking into a disturbing murder-suicide from 1978: the parents' bodies were found, but not their daughter's. Suspecting a darker truth, Matt is certain the answers can't be too far away in this close-knit community. How does former forest service ranger Liam, with his gang links, fit into the story? What about Joe, the alcoholic hermit whose knowledge and intelligence seem so at odds with his appearance and lifestyle? In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Chris Blake about the wild west coast of the South Island of New Zealand as the perfect setting for a dark and bloody crime thriller, how Senior Constable Matt Buchanan might have has escaped his demons, and the challenges for Chris Blake as both a serving police officer and an award-winning novelist.
Nov 21, 2025 · 34 min
Henry Reynolds’ ground-breaking re-examination of Australian colonisation from the top down, in 'Looking From the North'
When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help remedy the situation and ended up transforming Australian history in ways he could never have imagined. In 'Looking from the North', Reynolds again turns Australian history on its axis with an exploration of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Reynolds tells the stories of the European, Chinese, Japanese and Pacific Islander people who were vital to the settlement of the north. Along with the experience of First Nations peoples, from employment on stations and as native police to the land rights and homelands movements, In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Henry Reynolds about how the the colonisation of Australia's north was very different to the south, how there has never truly been a 'white Australia' in this part of this continent, and why the implications of the Australian Federal government's white paper Our North, Our Future of a decade ago may be contrary to Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007.

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