Sophie Black and June Thomas at the Wheeler Centre — Photo: Emily Harms

June Thomas is the senior managing producer of Slate podcasts – and if you’ve ever listened to a Slate podcast, you’re probably already familiar with her affable Northern English accent.

Through her two decades on staff, Thomas has featured in the outlet’s popular ‘Gabfests’ (Culture, Political) The Waves (née Double X Gabfest), and helmed projects like The Americans(analysing the TV series of the same name) and Afterword (a 30-episode exploration of the art of non-fiction writing).  The pioneering New York-based digital magazine joined the podcast game early, and with vigour; today, it continues to produce hugely popular talk-based shows. Thomas has been there to observe it all.

She’s also been the publication’s foreign editor, as well as the editor and podcast host of its LGBTQ+ section, Outward. A respected cultural critic, she’s known for her unorthodox tastes. She’s big on podcasts about pens and pencils – and subscribes to the member magazine of the American Dental Association.

In December, she joined Sophie Black to discuss the value of niche culture, the maturation of podcasting, and what makes a conversation worth eavesdropping on.

For the final Fifth Estate of 2018 – and in the wake of the Victorian election and its recriminations – we look back at the year in Australian politics with series host Sally Warhaft and seasoned political observers George Megalogenis and Gabrielle Chan.

Our panellists unpack and reflect on the issues that have monopolised domestic headlines – from yet another leadership spill to the banking royal commission and the senate’s controversial ‘It’s OK to be white’ vote. They examine the major events that have attracted international attention, too: the suggested relocation of the Australian embassy in Israel, live animal export bans and damning reports of Resignation Syndrome in children on Nauru.

Of course, the year isn’t over just yet. Mark Latham has joined One Nation, the ScoMo Express has been out campaigning, and the NSW Labor party is grappling with a sexual harassment scandal ahead of the 2019 election. Join us as we examine the wild ride that was – is – 2018 in Australia … and ponder what may lie ahead in an election year.

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Simon Winchester is a giant of narrative non-fiction. Across four decades of working as a journalist and author, Winchester’s reverence for the natural world and love of adventure have defined his extraordinary career. This is a man, after all, who has travelled on a Russian tramp steamer from Antarctica to England and seen the inside of an Argentine jail cell.

As a foreign correspondent during the 1970s and 1980s, Winchester covered major international events including the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Watergate scandal and the Falklands War, and is the author of books on a dizzying array of subjects. He’s written about the history of the Yangtze River, the eruption of Krakatoa and, perhaps most famously, the making of the Oxford English Dictionary in the bestselling The Surgeon of Crowthorne.

Winchester’s timely new book, Pacific, profiles the world’s largest ocean and considers its crucial role in the planet’s present and future. From the Bikini atoll hydrogen bomb tests of the 1950s to the rise of China as a global economic superpower, Winchester explores the history of the Pacific – and the countries that border it.

Join us for a conversation with one of the most prolific, polymathic writers of our time, hosted by Sophie Black.

Books and Ideas at Montalto series sound design and music: Jon Tjhia.