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Luke Bateman is perhaps Australia’s most unlikely book critic – a former rugby league star and recovered gambling addict who works as a logger on a remote Queensland property. While hardly your average inner-city literary type, Bateman had always loved reading – especially fantasy books – but living in the bush with only black snakes for company, had no one to talk to about it. So one day in April last year, he posted a clip of himself on TikTok, talking about his love of books. The post made him famous – he now has more than a million social media followers, including Reese Witherspoon. His mission: to make reading cool again, and he is most definitely succeeding. Today's episode is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Tim Elliott. (Please note, this conversation deals with difficult topics – from addiction to suicide. If you are seeking help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has made a career out of chasing the kinds of stories that most people would be wise to leave alone. The New Yorker writer is drawn to powerful institutions and the people at their heart – from the Sackler dynasty, whose pharmaceutical company created the opioid painkiller OxyContin, in Empire of Pain, to the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in Say Nothing. His latest book, London Falling, delves into the story of 19-year-old Briton Zac Brettler, who had been living a double life, pretending to be the son of a Russian oligarch, before he mysteriously fell to his death from a luxury apartment building in London. Radden Keefe, the so-called “journalist’s journalist”, joins us to discuss London Falling, the ethics of true-crime reporting, and a reporter’s need for scepticism. Plus, we get our own scoop on what he might tackle next – and why it could bring him to Australia. Today’s episode is hosted by Spectrum editor Melanie Kembrey. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New York food writer, editor and podcaster Laurie Woolever spent the early years of her career assisting two very famous chefs: first Mario Batali, then Anthony Bourdain, for whom she worked for nine years. Woolever was also, for much of this time, an addict – using alcohol, marijuana and sex to get through the ups and downs of work, marriage and motherhood. She writes about all of this in her candid 2025 memoir, Care & Feeding, which suggests that while she did a lot of care and feeding for others, it took some time to learn how to do it for herself. Hosting today’s episode is Good Weekend senior writer Katrina Strickland. Lifeline: 13 11 14. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marianne Perkovic spent decades working in the finance sector. In 2006, she was the youngest chief executive of an ASX-listed company and in 2018, as a banking executive, she faced a grilling at a royal commission. This is not the standard path for nailing the best seat at Australian Fashion Week. In fact, becoming executive chair of the Australian Fashion Council in 2023 was meant to be her “fun board” (while giving her couture credibility with her two daughters). Perkovic joins us to discuss her unlikely role determining the future of fashion in this country, and how she wrested control of Australian Fashion Week in her best Carla Zampatti outfit. She’s also the subject of a profile in the current issue of Good Weekend – "Seriously invested" – and today's episode is hosted by the writer of that piece, fashion editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Damien Woolnough. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Good Weekend Talks celebrates 300 episodes in May, and to observe the occasion we’re hosting a special live event podcast at the Melbourne Writers Festival, where Good Weekend deputy editor Konrad Marshall will be on stage in conversation with the iconic environmentalist, Bob Brown. We’re pleased to offer a 10 per cent discount on a limited number of tickets to the event. Just hit this hyperlink  and then enter the promo code “GOOD10”, while tickets last. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephanie Alexander is a national icon: an internationally renowned cooking guru, best-selling writer and inspirational founder of a nationwide kitchen-garden scheme for schoolkids. She's also the final arbiter of kitchen disputes in homes all over Australia – resolving disagreements about how to store tomatoes and when to take the sponge out of the oven – as the author of Australia's most famous cookbook, The Cook's Companion. The 2.8-kilogram culinary doorstopper turns 30 this year, and Alexander joins Good Weekend senior writer Amanda Hooton for a chat about restaurants and writing, eating and air-fryers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Carr has done hard jobs before. He was premier of NSW for 10 years, and later served as foreign minister under Julia Gillard’s government. But when his beloved wife, Helena, died suddenly of a brain aneurysm in 2023, he faced the hardest job of his life – learning how to live without her. Carr worked through his deep shock and sadness by obsessively walking the Sydney streets he once presided over as premier, often weeping as he did so. He knows he made his friends uncomfortable by talking too much about Helena’s death at dinner parties. The silence of their shared Maroubra home was unbearable. Carr joins us to discuss his grief memoir, Bring Back Yesterday, about the loss of Helena and scrounging his way forward into what he calls “the left-over life” – a life still full of pleasures like reading, opera and the foam of a wave on your face as you enter the ocean. Today's episode is hosted by Sydney Morning Herald senior writer and columnist Jacqueline Maley. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we talk to Courtney Barnett, who broke into the musical mainstream a little over a decade ago as an Aussie singer-songwriter with deadpan delivery, with work veering from the witty and rambling to something evoking Margaret Atwood. The Grammy-nominated artist chats to Konrad Marshall from her home in Los Angeles, where she's about to release her fourth album, "Creature of Habit". See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kathy Lette is a comic writer and pioneering voice in contemporary feminism whose first book, Puberty Blues, was published in 1979. Co-authored with Gabrielle Carey, it catapulted her into the public eye, horrifying her headmistress mother with its graphic depictions of teenage sex and drug taking. She has subsequently written 21 best-selling books and today speaks with The Sydney Morning Herald’s deputy opinion editor, Margot Saville, ahead of the release of her newest novel, The Sisterhood Rules. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Todd Sampson began his TV career on Gruen, the long-running ABC series about advertising, before transforming himself into a human guinea pig to scrutinise the limits of the human brain and body. His upcoming show, called Why?, explores the reasons behind why people turn to extreme beliefs and behaviours such as doomsday prepping, base-jumping or alien worship. In this chat, hosted by The Sydney Morning Herald science reporter Angus Dalton, Sampson talks about his upbringing, how he went from 'ad man' to TV, and the moment marrying a doomsday prepper really came in handy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Konrad Marshall is Good Weekend magazine's deputy editor, he's also the regular host of this podcast and he's just released a new book. Run For Your Life is a year-long journey on why we run, and explores a year Konrad spent in constant motion – jogging and sprinting, shuffling and loping, while also interviewing some of Australia's most interesting runners. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we talk to reality TV star, youth worker and mental health advocate Brooke Blurton. Many know her as the first Indigenous and bisexual Bachelorette from the dating-show franchise, but she's also an author, presenter and podcaster. Blurton talks with Konrad Marshall about everything from growing up in Western Australia to life after The Bachelorette and her recent TV collaboration with Tony Armstrong. As well: the "surreal experience" of working on the new season of the SBS program, Going Places with Ernie Dingo. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Martin Luther King III carries one of the most famous names in 20th century history, that of his father, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. The second child and eldest son of Dr King, Mr King was just 10 years old when his father was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Mr King joins Good Weekend senior writer Amanda Hooton for a discussion on what it was like to have the most famous civil rights activist in history for a father, and his fears for present day America. Mr King is visiting Australia soon, where he'll be addressing First Nations university students and young professionals. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon Lovett is a former speech writer for Barack Obama, a progressive activist and co-host of a global hit political podcast. Sounds serious, right? Yet, out of the four hosts of the popular Pod Save America, Lovett it is known as the funny one. He's a comedian who appeared on a season of Survivor, wrote a political sitcom that lasted one season and even worked on Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom. Lovett joins Good Weekend Talks ahead of his podcast's Australian tour for a chat about everything from how Australia should deal with Trump to the way Democrats and America generally are coping with the increasingly confronting events of Trump's second term. Today's episode is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Melissa Fyfe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tennis star Alex de Minaur will lead the homegrown charge in the Australian Open, which begins on Sunday, off the back of a tough 2025. De Minaur spoke to Konrad Marshall for this episode late last year, during a rare and all-too-brief break between seasons. It was an opportunity to ask the tennis champion at length about everything from his lowest point, which he himself calls his rock bottom, along with how he plans to take his game to the next level, before, finally, why playing in front of a home crowd at Melbourne Park is the greatest gift. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's episode we speak with acclaimed author Helen Garner, who followed the travails of her grandson's footy team for her new book, The Season. She speaks with Konrad Marshall about what she now envies about male contact sports, the benefit of coming to footy with limited prior knowledge, and the debate over the book's cover image. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.