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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Natasha Mitchell |Claire Slattery |Matthew Crawford |David Le May
Gina Chick made her name as the inaugural winner of Alone Australia, but her story begins a long time before that. It involves unimaginable hardship, death grief, illness and injury. How has she learnt to sit with all that life has thrown at her, and remain joyful and true to herself, in the face of adversity? This event was recorded at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, with thanks to Readings Books.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Jonathan Green |Kim Jirik |Matthew Crawford |Rhiannon Brown
If you were to list the world's best bakers working today, Richard Hart's name would have to be right near the top. After honing his craft at big-name bakeries in California, he teamed up with the world-famous Noma to open Hart Bageri in Copenhagen. His skills with sourdough are so well-known, he was even namechecked on The Bear. Richard recently published his first book. It's called Richard Hart Bread.
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Mar 18, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Natasha Mitchell |Claire Slattery |Matthew Crawford |David Le May
How many times have you checked your phone today? How many tabs are open in your web browser? Do you feel in control of your attention? In the digital age, attention is now a commodity. Can practices like meditation and mindfulness help us feel more free to focus on what really matters? This event was hosted at the Brunswick Ballroom by the Sophia Club in partnership with the University of Melbourne's Contemplative Studies Centre.
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Mar 14, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Jonathan Green |Kim Jirik |Matthew Crawford |Rhiannon Brown
If you took the sodium chloride out of human history, you would have a very different and strangely flavourless tale to tell. Salt has historically been one of the world's most valuable commodities. Its discovery, extraction and commodification has shaped the story of humanity. So, let's take a trip from the test tube to the kitchen, to salt tolerant plants that could revolutionise agriculture. This is an episode of Blueprint for Living, originally broadcast on March 24, 2018.
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Mar 13, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Natasha Mitchell |Claire Slattery |Matthew Crawford |David Le May
The Murray Darling Basin is the most important river system in Australia, and the most contested. What does it mean to live by those rivers, through the droughts, the floods, and the water politics that shape these communities? A beautiful and evocative history of the Murray Darling Basin, as told by people who live there. This speech was recorded at the History Council of Victoria's annual lecture at the State Library of Victoria on 14 November 2024.
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Feb 21, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Jonathan Green |Kim Jirik |Matthew Crawford |Rhiannon Brown
Whether it is Nigella, Stephanie or Yotam on your shelf, there's a good chance that you and I are cooking from the same book. The two best-selling books in Australia in 2024 were both cookbooks — and they were both written by Nagi Maehashi, the founder of the website RecipeTin Eats. Her two books — Dinner and Tonight — have together sold one million copies worldwide. So, what is it about the floury, greasy pages of a cookbook that unite us and shape our conceptions of food?
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Feb 20, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Natasha Mitchell |Claire Slattery |Matthew Crawford |Tim Jenkins
Zoos are changing — they are no longer just places for us humans to gawk at animals in cages. In the midst of a global extinction crisis, they are now playing a vital role. So what is their future? This event was recorded at the International Society of Behavioural Ecology Congress in Melbourne on 2 October 2024, with thanks to organiser Professor Andy Bennett from the University of Melbourne.
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Feb 5, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Matthew Crawford |David Le May |Claire Slattery |Natasha Mitchell
When Kasey Chambers was growing up, her dad had one simple, yet profound piece of advice. Just don't be a d***head. This event was recorded at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, with thanks to Readings bookshop. Kasey Chambers Musician, 13th album BackboneAuthor, Just Don't Be A D**khead And Other Profound Things I've LearntYoungest female inductee, ARIA Hall of Fame (2018)24-time Golden Guitar winnerClare Bowditch (host) MusicianAuthor, Your Own Kind of Girl
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Matthew Crawford |David Le May |Natasha Mitchell
Meet two men who will change the way you think about an experience most of us fear but will be touched by in some way. In Patting the Shark, Surfing writer Tim Baker describes his wild ride to reclaim a sense of control and agency after a cancer diagnosis. Celebrated author and GP Peter Goldsworthy’s memoir The Cancer Finishing School started out as a journal but became so much more.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Natasha Mitchell |Matthew Crawford |David Le May
A freckle-faced kid from Bondi, Pauline Menczer fought the entrenched sexism of the pro-surfing scene to became women's world surfing champion and pave the way...er, waves..for girl grommets today. But all the while she was also fighting another battle inside her own body’s cells. Ironwoman and surf lifesaving champion Bonnie Hancock became the fastest and youngest person, and the first Australian woman, to circumnavigate Australia on a small surf ski, solo.
