Series: On Series

As extreme weather becomes the norm, scientists agree that our climate is changing. But it seems too many of our leaders aren't listening to the science and are failing to act. In On Hope, one of the lead organisers of the Australian Climate Strike, 17-year-old Daisy Jeffrey, shows how ordinary people are fighting back and demanding we address climate change...

Why does identity demand a choice between black and white? Tribalism, nationalism, and sectarianism are dividing the world into us and them. Are we hard-wired for hate? Stan Grant argues that it is time to leave identity behind and to embrace cosmopolitanism. On Identity is a meditation on hope and community. 'Love is always the answer, it is said. Not...

Internationally bestselling author Nikki Gemmell writes on the power of quiet in today's shouty world. Quiet comes as a shock in these troubled times. Quietism means 'devotional contemplation and abandonment of the will ... a calm acceptance of things as they are'. Gemmell makes the case for why quiet is steadily gaining ground in this noisy age: why we need...

On June 4, Federal Police raided the home of Walkley award-winning journalist Annika Smethurst, changing her life forever. Police claim they were investigating the publication of classified information, her employer called it a 'dangerous act of intimidation', Smethurst believes she was simply doing her job. Smethurst became the accidental poster woman for press freedom as politicians debated the merits of...

It's time to rethink rape. Centuries of different approaches to rape - as inflicted by men on women - have got us nowhere. Rape statistics remain intractable: one woman in five will experience sexual violence. Very few rapes find their way into court. The crucial issue is consent, thought by some to be easy to establish and by others impossible....

ON SLEEP is the story of our love-hate relationship with slumber. Part-time insomniac Fleur Anderson ponders the big questions: Why can't I sleep? Do politicians and other high-fliers ever admit they too are exhausted? Do they get enough sleep to make sensible decisions? Where is society heading, and why did I have that glass of cab sav?

If we denounce the artist, then what becomes of the work that remains? The #MeToo movement is overturning a cliché that has forgiven bad behaviour for years: to be creative is to be prone to eccentricity, madness, addiction, and excess. No longer can artists be excused from the standards of conduct that apply to us all. On Artists delves into...

Corrosive, mad and frequently fatal, indignation is a great destructive force in human affairs, and just as often a wellspring of mirth and merriment. Don Watson traces this seemingly ineradicable emotion in a journey that takes us, via his forebears, Flaubert and The Sopranos, from the Old Testament to Donald Trump. Trump's pitch had less to do with offering voters...

What happens when the usual political tactics of deflect and dodge are no longer enough? A reckoning. The Guardian's political reporter Amy Remeikis has spoken before about being a survivor of sexual assault, but Brittany Higgins going public with her story ripped the curtain back not just on political attempts to deal with real-world issues, but also how unsafe women...

Most of us believe in fairness. Why then do we have creeping inequality in the land of the fair go? The answer lies in stagnant wage rises, gender pay inequity, insecure work, and the lack of real opportunities for all while corporations are still consuming large profits and executives claim record bonuses. Sally McManus confronts these truths every day. In...

In the kitchen, via the garden, I am often torn between theory and praxis, when surely the latter is all that matters here. Yet the largest bench, the one dividing the dining area from the kitchen itself, is never used for culinary preparation. It is this surface which many Australian kitchens, including mine, feel they need, the one piled with...

They're labelled as selfish, as 'deliberately barren', and sometimes as crazy old cat ladies, but increasingly women are choosing to be childfree. Over the next few decades, couples without children are set to outnumber those who have them. On Freedom by Tory Shepherd looks at how women's freedom to choose motherhood is reshaping their own lives as well as society....

Merit has very little to do with the increasing dominance of men in the modern Liberal Party. Yet Liberal women continue to defend it. Until now. On Merit explores this imbalance, its implications for the party's future, and how a pair of red shoes may spark a rebellion against the merit myth. When referencing the title, avoid putting it in...

My Polish grandmother made a chicken soup like no other chicken soup. To this day, it has, to my knowledge and experience, never been bettered ... Her chicken soup was the Caravaggio of soups. The Rainer Maria Rilke of soups. The Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli of soups. A compelling and entertaining storyteller, Barrie Kosky explores the feelings of intense joy and...

The internet has shaken the foundations of life: public and private lives are wrought by the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week news cycle that means no one is ever off duty. On Disruption is a report from the coalface of that change: what has happened, will it keep happening, and is there any way out of the chaos?

Renowned barrister, ethicist and human rights advocate Julian Burnside QC's grandparents lived in a world of handsome cars, elegant tennis parties and coiffed women. As a five-year-old, he saw privilege before he heard the word or learned its meaning. In this powerful broadside that takes in politicians and infamous legal cases, Julian Burnside explores the concept of privilege and the...

Australia's public broadcaster, Aunty, is about to turn 90, yet your ABC has seldom been in this much trouble: budget cuts, ferocious political pressure, sagging staff morale, leadership chaos and hostile commercial rivals. Meanwhile audiences are deserting broadcast TV and radio. What is the ABC's place in this era of media disruption? Can it reach a younger audience on new...

How has militarisation come to define Australian valour? Why has the long shadow of World War I dominated our sense of patriotism? On Patriotism explores what it really means to love and serve your country. Paul Daley contemplates ways to escape the cultural binds that tie us to Anzac, British settlement, and flag-waving. 'Straight from the heart and deeply informed....

Tony Wheeler is 'the trailblazing patron saint of the world's backpackers and adventure travellers'. New York Times En route to his next destination, Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler looks at the world's biggest business: travel. An unashamed travel addict, Wheeler writes about the joys of escaping home, satiating wanderlust, and why the bird's-eye view from the window seat is best....

'I wonder if some of the most deeply passionate experiences of my life have happened between the covers of a book' A wonderful, ultimately joyous, insight into the creative life of one of our best loved poets. In On Passion, celebrated Australian poet Dorothy Porter delves headfirst into the passions, both literary and earthly. We discover the young Dorothy Porter's...

Why do we continue to vote for politicians who say 'I don't hold a hose, mate' or who advocate that we drink bleach to fight COVID-19? On Charlatans by Chris Bowen, who was set to be Treasurer had Labour won the 2019 federal election, is a reflection on what went wrong and why charlatans are gaining power in politics. For...

How is hate shaping our society? When nationalist populism has the capacity to threaten social cohesion, it's time to question the powers at play. On Hate is an urgent call for citizens to defend democracy against extremism. 'A searing analysis of hate, and what happens when it infects our body politic. Tim reminds us that standing against hate is patriotism....

This book is quite possibly the most comprehensive book on Australian politics ever written. That's right, it covers both houses of parliament. We'll take you inside the halls of power. And if we can't actually get inside because of security, we'll do some very fun speculating on what might be in there. One thing we know for sure is that...