Here are authors who work in the field of climate change, natural history, investigative journalism and personal research into some of the major issues facing us today.
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JAMES BRADLEY - Deep Water: The World in the Ocean
Come sink down and down into the deepest part of the ocean with James Bradley as he reveals myriad wonders but also reminds us that we are destroying extraordinary lives before we have even had a chance to understand and value them.
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2024
ELLEN BROAD -' Made by Humans'
Ellen Broad has been out there asking all those questions some of us are only just beginning to formulate such as : is A.I a threat to social stability, can we be harmed by some forms of technology, what of our civil rights, our privacy, and how do we all keep pace with the rate of change and ensure it is ethical ? If these issues are keeping you awake during the night ( or maybe even the day..) read her comprehensive and ongoing examination of how technology is shaping our present and our future.
Recorded at the Byron writers Festival 2018
ALISA BRYCE - Grounded: How Soil shapes the games we play, the lives we make and the graves we lie in
Have you ever thought deeply about the ground you walk on every day? How absolutely critical it is to all life on earth? Alisa Bryce has spent a long time digging deeply into this amazing resource and has written a fascinating and well researched book.
Recorded at Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival 2024
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TIM CADMAN – Changes
Tim Cadman wants us to wake up and smell the disaster – his book is a fictional extrapolation of our current denial of climate change and how it will affect us.
Recorded at the Bellingen Writers Festival 2018
HAYLEY CAMPBELL - All the Living and the Dead
Hayley Campbell must have had wonderful parents as a child - who would understand a 10 year old's preoccupation with death?! Hayley was curious about how Western society deals ( or not) with this most inevitable of life endings and has researched deeply into procedures and processes. An important and useful, and even entertaining look at the last rites.
Recorded at Byron Writers Festival 2023
DANIELLE CLODE - Koala
So much attention has been focused on Koala populations that are threatened it is good to hear there are some healthy colonies out there. The question, though is for how long? The more knowledge we have of what Koalas need, the better we can protect them.
Recorded at the Bellingen Reader's and Writers Festival 2023
KATE COLE-ADAMS- Anaesthesia
What really happens when we ‘go under’ for an operation ? It may surprise you to learn that doctors and scientists aren’t really sure.
Recorded at the Bellingen Writers Festival 2018
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PETER DOHERTY - The Knowledge Wars
Climate change is everyone’s problem- here professor Peter Doherty explains that we are running out of time simply because of the inaction and wilful ignorance of those who have the power to make a difference.
Are you confused by conflicting information on Climate Change? Academic Peter Doherty has written a book to help you sort climate facts from climate fiction and also helps you to understand a how to assess and compare the large amounts of information that flow into our lives.
This recording was made at the Sydney Writers Festival 2016
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TIM FLANNERY - Atmosphere of Hope
Prolific author, scientist and tireless campaigner for the environment Tim Flannery has written a book to give hope to those who may be feeling climate change is now irreversible.
Recorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2016
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DAMON GAMEAU - 2040
2040 is the title of the documentary as well as the book by Damon Gameau who is also famous for endangering his health in the name of research when making 'That Sugar Film'.
2040 also led him to many unusual places on the planet. The book has lots of wonderful pictures plus lots more info than Damon could fit into the film .He reads from his introduction to the book.
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2019
LISA-ANN GERSHWIN - Stung!
Lisa-ann Gershwin is the only woman I have ever interviewed who was able to pull a deadly jellyfish out of her bag to illustrate a point! ( Point taken Lisa- ann!)
This read from her book 'Stung!' will fascinate and horrify you by turns - jellyfish are the canary in the coalmine when it comes to indicators of the health of our ocean.
Recorded a the Byron Writers Festival 2019
JEFF GOODELL - Heat
We all know the Earth is warming, but what does this mean on a deeply personal level? Jeff Goodell's book is titled 'The Heat Will Kill you First' in it's USA edition - and in this book he lays out exactly how dangerous excessive heat is and what we should be doing on a planning level globally to prepare ourselves for it.
Recorded at Byron Writers Festival 2023
KATE GRENVILLE – The Case Against Fragrance
Does walking past the department store scent counter leave you with a headache and aching sinuses? You are not alone. As a fellow sufferer, Kate Grenville sets out to find just what you are reacting to in today's over -scented world.
Recorded at the Sydney Writers Festival 2017
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CLIVE HAMILTON - Living Hot
Who is responsible for ensuring that we don't all become victims of our climate over heating? It will affect every part of our everyday lives yet governments continue to tinker around the edges while time is running out to set in place codes of practice from housing to schooling to transport and more that will safe guard our health and futures.
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2024
REBECCA HUNTLEY - Sassafras
Australia is at the forefront of using MDMA for clinical use. The author has both undergone this therapy and researched its source- the Sassafras tree. While she doesn't think it is a silver bullet or even suitable for everybody with mental health issues, she found it life changing. Here she gives us a little botanical history of the Sassafras tree.
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2024
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ROYCE KURMELOVS - Slick
It shouldn't come as a surprise to any of us that the fossil fuel industry will do almost anything to put a spin on their industry, but very few of us ever see them working their lobbying of government and business up close. Royce Kurmelovs sets out how difficult it is going to be to loosen their grip on our environment.
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2024
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PAT LOWE - Our Friends the Termites
Pat Lowe has written a fascinating and informed account of the secret world of termites.
After Reading this book you’ll think twice before calling for a pest exterminator next time you encounter these extraordinary insects.
This book is published by BACKROOM PRESS (click to learn more)
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JACINTA PARSONS- A Question of Age
Everything on Earth ages- including us. But different cultures and genders view ageing in different ways. In Western Society, women are particularly handicapped by this perfectly natural progression. How can we change the way we view ageing for women to one of empowerment?
Recorded at Byron writers Festival 2023
STEPHEN PYNE- Burning Bush
Australia has known terrible bushfires in the past- but Stephen Pyne explains here why it is going to become our future and only increase in severity. Why is due to a number of interlocking factors, some of which we can control.
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2019
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AMANDA REICHELT - BRUSHETT- Marine Pollution
At the forefront of monitoring the damage that we are doing to the environment, marine biologists are finding more and more evidence that our dependence on plastics has insinuated its damage into almost every corner of the earth, two thirds of which are oceans and seas. Amanda sets all of this out in a highly readable book that still has a great sense of urgency in its prose.
Recorded at Byron Writers Festival 2023
ISABELLE REINECKE - Courting Power: Law, Democracy and the Public Interest in Australia
Isabelle Reinecke is the founder of the Greta Fund, Australia's first strategic litigation funder and incubator. In this extract she recounts attending the start of a public interest case launched by Torres Strait Islanders against the Australian government for the loss they have had and will experience through climate change
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2024
Rosie Ross - Approaching the Pause
Middle Tyre Disease
Insomnia
Recorded at the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival 2022
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HARRY SADDLER - Questions Raised by Quolls
Harry Saddler writes evocatively about an environment we are in danger of losing forever. As he faces fatherhood, he asks us all, how far are we prepared to go to save so many of our endangered species?
Recorded at Kyogle writers Festival 2022
HARRY SADDLER - The Eastern Curlew:The Extraordinary Life of a Migratory Bird
When I was a child I liked nothing better than fossicking about on the banks of the muddy Clyde river finding small crustaceans and other mysterious creatures- turns out vast number of our shore birds aslo love nothing better, in fact their lives depend on those mud flats and estuaries, and mangroves. Harry Saddler goes in search of the Eastern Curlew and uncovers its amazing life cycle.
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2019
TRACEY SPICER -Man Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future
Tracey Spicer has nailed one of the most glaring problems with AI. It's respondents are almost all overwhelmingly gentle female voices - in short , we are creating a race of 'fembots' that will do our bidding, and in the process setting back women's liberation by decades.
Recorded at Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival 2023
PETER SINGER - Ethics in the real world
The pale blue dot at the hinge of history - this is a description of our Earth that places it both geographically in the cosmos and historically at a tipping point. We are the only life at our part of the galaxy- where is everyone else? The fundamental fragility of our position and the sheer unlikelyhood of our existence on this planet should make all of us rise up and rail against those who would imperil this beautiful , lonely world.
Recorded at Byron Writers Festival 2024
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BRENDAN TAYLOR - Wildlife Crossings
Brendan Taylor says it only took him nine months to write this book, but really there is thirty years of research and practice that brings the reader to an awareness of the havoc our road systems are causing to our wildlife and the steps that are being undertaken to find the best possible protection for creatures such as wombats, wallabies, possums, koalas and all that need to get to the other side of a highway or motorway. Why do some systems work and not others? This book answers those questions but is also a travelogue, a road trip companion to help you understand and appreciate the work that researchers are mandating into road development.
Recorded at Studio 3 Bangalow NSW 2023
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CHARLIE VERON - A Life Underwater
Charlie Veron is recognised as the absolute world expert on coral reefs. He has spent his life recording the minute changes to our environment and is despairing at the damage we are doing to the planet. Here he writes from ,as he says ' the view from my coffin', that is, he imagines looking back over his lifetimes work, to see if things can still be saved.
Recorded at Byron writers Festival 2017
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ROBERT WALDINGER - The Good Life
Robert Waldinger has been at the forefront of an 85 year old study of human happiness and contentment. For two Generations Harvard researchers have followed up regularly selected participants in the study and asked them questions. about their lives. It is the largest single study of it's kind in the world. Here he recounts one of the many case history incidents in the book. Unsurprisingly, people value relationships over all else in life.
Recorded at Byron Writers Festival 2023
TOBY WALSH - Faking it! Artificial Intelligence in a Human World
It's not too late to start having the conversation about how AI is going to change our lives. In most cases it is totally for the better, but we need to start working out the boundaries of this technology before it is too late.
Recorded at Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival 2024
MAGGIE WALTERS- Split
Maggie Walters has Multiple Personality Disorder and lives with the presence of many different voices in her head. What caused this and how does she cope and lead a relatively normal life? A fascinating life story. Make sure you listen to the interview in the Posts!
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2024