Good Weekend Talks

In this episode, we speak with Senator Katy Gallagher. The busy politician is close to both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers, and manages an almighty workload. With four big portfolios in finance, women, the public service and government services, she’s also firmly in the crosshairs of the opposition, which has promised to slash jobs, and cut back on diversity hires and working from home. Gallagher talks to us today about all of the above, but also her own life and times – including her unusual family upbringing, and the immense tragedy she suffered with the loss of her fiancé, Brett Seaman, when she was 26 and pregnant with their first child. Gallagher is the subject of our cover story this week – “From that worst place, I found a way out” – and hosting this conversation is the writer of that in-depth profile, freelance correspondent Deborah Snow. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

In this episode we speak with Kara Swisher, the American journalist, author and podcaster who has been covering the tech sector for 30 years - and now finds herself at the epicentre of public debate over the convergence of tech and power in the new Trump administration. Swisher hosts the podcasts On With Kara Swisher, and Pivot, both of which are part of the Vox Media/New York magazine stable. Her tech sector memoir, Burn Book, sub-titled "A Tech Love Story", was released last year. Hosting the conversation - about everything from the nexus between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, to where Swisher finds solace and hope right now - is Good Weekend editor Katrina Strickland. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

In this episode we speak with Callum Linnane, a principal dancer with The Australian Ballet. Linnane, 29, has been dancing since he enrolled in tap classes as a seven year old in regional Victoria. Now he’s a star of the show - the kind of person who does magazine spreads and launches spring fashion campaigns. (His social media followers have described him as everything from Australia’s  answer to Rudolf Nureyev, to a young David Bowie.)  Good Weekend senior writer Konrad Marshall talks to this son of a bricklayer about growing up in Ballarat, surviving (and thriving) on the grandest stage, and his upcoming titular role in Nijinsky, the latest offering from The Australian Ballet. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

In this episode, we speak with journalist Peter Greste and actor Richard Roxburgh. Greste is a former foreign correspondent, arrested with two other Al Jazeera journalists in Cairo in 2013, ultimately serving 400 days in an Egyptian prison before his release. Roxburgh, meanwhile, is known for various acting roles in film (Moulin Rouge) and television (Rake). More recently, he has turned his dramatic talent to portraying Greste in a new film, The Correspondent. The pair speak with freelance writer David Leser. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

We speak with Millie Millgate, the director of Music Australia, established by the federal government two years ago to support our contemporary music scene. It’s a tough gig given the issues facing the local music industry. Festivals have been paused or cancelled. Live music venues are struggling. And local hits are few and far between. Millgate knows the industry back to front, having started out booking acts for Sydney pubs, then working in artist management, before running the music export initiative “Sounds Australia”. She talks to Sydney Morning Herald senior writer Garry Maddox about everything from the “glocalisation” of music, to the power of algorithms, to how we’ll find the next G Flip or Kid Laroi. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.