‘Where do you get your ideas?’

It’s a common question, asked of all kinds of writers and storytellers – and of musicians, artists, journalists. Their answers typically involve some combination of curiosity, hard work and practice. Often, a simple prompt or idea becomes the seed of something unexpected and engrossing.

This event marks the opening of applications for Signal Boost – the Wheeler Centre’s new podcast mentorship and development scheme. Applications are open until 17 June 2020. (Update: the application deadline has been extended to 22 June 2020!)

Becky Sui-Zhen, Daniel Browning, Jess O'Callaghan, Helen Zaltzman, Elizabeth Kulas and Ivy Shih

This year, applicants will be asked to share a creative response to a theme – 'public'. To show us how it’s done, we’re inviting a range of accomplished audio makers to share stories, pitches and short audio samples interpreting the theme ‘float’.

Hear from an outstanding group of audio producers: Helen Zaltzman (The Allusionist, Answer Me This, Veronica Mars Investigations; UK), Daniel Browning (Awaye!), Jess O’Callaghan (Audiocraft, The Party Room, Background Briefing, RN Fictions) and Elizabeth Kulas (Planet Money, 7am, Reply All) – plus musician Becky Sui Zhen, and 2019 Signal Boost pilot participant Ivy Shih.

Together, they launch Signal Boost 2020, toast the open-ended power of audio storytelling and celebrate the act of creating great ideas from small beginnings. Hosted by Wheeler Centre audio producer Beth Atkinson-Quinton. #TWCSignalBoost

The 2020 Signal Boost programme is supported by the Ian Potter Foundation and LOM.

Sami Shah, Samah Sabawi, Mammad Aidani and Roza Germian at the Wheeler Centre

Writers and journalists are often among the first citizens targeted and punished by autocratic leaders. With creeping authoritarianism and instability in many regions around the world, it's an increasingly dangerous time for writers of all kinds.

On the eve of PEN International's Day of the Imprisoned Writer, we held a special panel event as part of our Writers in Exile series to discuss old and emerging threats to literary freedoms today.

Host Sami Shah welcomed back the three writers who have shared their personal stories of exile  – journalist Roza Germian, playwright Samah Sabawi and playwright and poet Mammad Aidani – for the last conversation in the series. They discuss their own experiences and their knowledge of press and literary restriction in their respective home countries – as well as the role Australia can and should play on the international stage with regards to protecting and protesting the freedom of writers here and overseas. 

Presented in partnership with PEN Melbourne.

The panel, from left to right: Santilla Chingaipe, Fatima Bhutto, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Jia Tolentino and Aminatou Sow — Photo: Hannah Koelmeyer

What is feminism under capitalism? What is feminism without it?

'Art does become so very important – because it does help a community articulate a way of understanding the world that allows them to reimagine it, rather than reproducing it.'

Tressie McMillan Cottom

Not all of us can afford to lean in, because some of us aren’t even in the room. We’re rightly galvanised by the fact that there are more CEOs at ASX200 companies in Australia named Andrew than there are women – but when did feminism become about earning power? Doesn’t it have to be anti-capitalist? Market ideas about success and failure seem like a shaky foundation for liberation for the 99% of women, so what does an uncommodified resistance look like?

In this conversation from Broadside 2019, hosted by Santilla Chingaipe, our panellists – Aminatou Sow, Fatima Bhutto, Jia Tolentino and Tressie McMillan Cottom – discuss she-EOs, 'ethical consumption', reimagining value and good ancestorship.

Tressie McMillan Cottom, Jia Tolentino and Aminatou Sow on stage at Melbourne Town Hall — Photo: Hannah Koelmeyer