Series

Lunchbox / Soapbox

Event Series

We love exploring ideas at the Wheeler Centre, and encouraging others to do the same. That’s why every Thursday lunchtime we hand the microphone over to the great thinkers, dreamers and orators of our time.

With a dazzling range of passionate speakers and unusual topics, our soapbox provides a platform for the eclectic, topical and enlightening stories you won’t hear elsewhere. This is the most memorable lunch break you’ll have all week.

If you’re in need of sustenance of body as well as mind, the MOAT lunch cart will be serving delicious $10 lunchboxes in the Performance Space from 12.20pm.

Past Events

Lunchbox / Soapbox

Simon Griffiths: On Giving a Crap

Simon Griffiths

Lunchbox / Soapbox

Past Events

Simon Griffiths: On Giving a Crap

Liz Jones: In Pursuit of Excellence

Marian Rakosi: The New Unionists: Early Childhood Education and the Big Steps Campaign

Beth Wilson: Health Service Providers and Conscientious Objection

Julian Cribb: Poisoned Planet

Mark Yettica-Paulson: Cross Cultural Leadership

Rob Fowler: Rolling Back the Years: Regression in Commonwealth Environment Laws

Emerging Writers' Festival: Jack Colwell on Tweeties for Sweeties: Narrative in Grindr and social media

Emerging Writers' Festival: Sam George-Allen on Literary Sexting: Scum Mag & Online Sex Writing

Lynne Segal: The Pleasures (and Perils) of Ageing

Mark Isaacs: Nauru: an insider's account of Australia's offshore detention policy

Adam Alter: Drunk Tank Pink: The subconscious forces that shape how we think, feel and behave

Emma Ayres on The Viola: A big violin, a small cello, or just a joke?

Gregory Phillips on The Republic and Aboriginal Peoples

Dyani Lewis: Are We Too Promiscuous For Our Own Good?

James Brown on Anzac's Long Shadow

Sally Rippin on Rescuing Reluctant Readers

Rafael Epstein on Prisoner X

Kerry Arabena: International Women's Day Address

David Vann: An Ode to Literary Tradition

Mark McMillan on Indigenous Identity and the Law

Siobhan McHugh: Audio Storytelling and the Affective Power of Voice

Cyndi Darnell: Sex? What's Up With That?

Jonathan Green on The Year My Politics Broke

Tim Dunlop: New Media Versus Old Media is Old News

Ali Alizadeh: Beyond Culture and Identity: the Case for a New Universality

Susan Wyndham on Losing a Parent

Henry Reynolds on the Forgotten War

Merv Moriarty on Understanding Colour Relationships

Patricia Edgar: In Praise of Ageing

Frank Moorhouse on the Dark Conundrum: A citizen’s guide to ASIO

Nicholas Smith on China's Choral Tragedy: 50 Years of Arrested Development

Dennis Altman: The End of the Homosexual?

Jane Martin: Obesity at Large

Jon Rose on The Music of Place: Reclaiming a Practice

Chris Sarra on Indigenous Education

Bill Garner: Born in a Tent: How Camping Makes us Australian

Belinda Hawkins on Every Parent's Nightmare: Jock Palfreeman's Story

Karen Pickering: In Defence of the Country Women's Association

Michael Carr-Gregg on Parenting Adolescents

Michael Green on Bursting the Carbon Bubble

Tara Moss: Deadlier than the Male: The Myth of the Evil Woman

Jo Case: Asperger's Syndrome: Identity or Illness?

Hugh de Kretser: All Right For Us But Not for Them: Selectivity in Australia's Human Rights Protection

Adam Smith: Where is the Love: Are Our Public Institutions Failing Our Young People?

Catriona Rowntree on A Grandmother's Wisdom

Yvonne Ward: Unsuitable for Publication: Editing Queen Victoria

Kirstie Clements: Inside the Fashion Juggernaut: The good, the bad and the really ugly

Jill Stark: High Sobriety: My Year Without Booze

Sarah Marland on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their Homelands

Greg Foyster: Against Advertising

Sean Faircloth: Attack of the Theocrats: How the Religious Right Harms Us All

Adam Laidlaw on Water Aid

Clive Hamilton: Earthmasters: Playing God with the Climate

Catherine Deveny on Pernickety Parents

Adam Kerezsy: Desert Fishing Lessons: Saving Species from Extinction

Tim Coronel: What Next for the Australian Publishing Industry?

Susan Harris Rimmer on Why Refugee Law is Difficult ... Even Without the Politics

Paul Ham on The Atrocities of Sandakan

Nouria Salehi on Basic Health and Education in Afghanistan

Richard Broinowski: Fallout from Fukushima

Michelle Smith: From Prim to Poledance: Girls, Sex and Popular Culture

Tim Soutphommasane: Don't Go Back to Where You Came From: Why Multiculturalism Works

Michael Shuman on Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age

We're All Equal Now, So We Should Shut Up and Go Home

Janine Burke on Artful Nesting

Bigger or Better? Australia's Population Debate

Australians and Modern Slavery

Modern Day Nomads

How Not to Get An Agent

Fighting Extinctions

Sex as a Weapon of War

An Old Take on Justice: County Koori Court

Australia and the Monarchy

The Human Experience in the Digital Age: Conversation, Relationships and Social Connection

Animals, Equality and Democracy

Art for Everyone

Why Sex Matters So Much to Men

Michael Shmith: Away with Cliché