Location: Haymarket, NSW, 2000, Australia

In 1976, the young Bob Brown fasted at the top of Hobart’s Mount Wellington in protest against the arrival of a nuclear warship. Now, after 16 years in the Senate, where he consistently took courageous and often lonely stands on issues across the national and international spectrum, he’s joined the Sea Shepherd to direct their campaign against Japanese whalers. Amanda Lohrey will talk to him about the future of activism. (shawjonathan)… (more)

Really smart people have argued that the Western model - market economies and democracy - is no longer the best way forward. Might they finally be right? With the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, a nasty first world recession, terrorism, and rising sea levels, what economic model will bring the world the most stability? Former New York Times economic correspondent and bestselling author Sylvia Nasar draws on thinkers from her latest book, Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius and the historical record to parse the evidence. She talks with the author of Double Entry, Jane Gleeson-White (shawjonathan)… (more)

Karl Ove Knausgaard discusses My Struggle with Sarah Kanowski, part of his six volume autobiographical novel that intrigued the people of Norway to the extent that some workplaces had to declare ‘Knausgaard-free days’. By turning a frank and unforgiving eye on his childhood, adolescence, marriage and the death of his father - without changing any names - Knausgaard shocked his family and became a media sensation. He emerges from ‘virtual hiding’ to discuss the novel and its first two volumes published in English (shawjonathan)… (more)