Hosted by Avid Reader, 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start | 60 mins

Anne Tiernan will be in conversation with Waleed Aly for his Quarterly Essay: Time of Monsters. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

In this wonderfully clarifying essay, Waleed Aly examines what happened to liberalism. As a set of ideas, it offered formal equality and guaranteed freedoms. But more and more, we live in a post-liberal world.

Aly looks and how and why this has happened. He discusses what has taken liberalism's place as we tackle thorny questions of freedom of speech and equality of opportunity. And he examines the limits of liberalism, the rise of illiberal democracy and the new battles over identity.

This is a supple and original essay about the forces transforming our politics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Waleed Aly is a writer, academic, lawyer, broadcaster and lecturer in politics at Monash University. He is the author of People Like Us and Quarterly Essay 37, What’s Right? With Scott Stephens, he co-hosts Radio National’s The Minefield program.

Anne Tiernan will be in conversation with Waleed Aly for his Quarterly Essay: Time of Monsters. 

In this wonderfully clarifying essay, Waleed Aly examines what happened to liberalism. As a set of ideas, it offered formal equality and guaranteed freedoms. But more and more, we live in a post-liberal world.

Aly looks and how and why this has happened. He discusses what has taken liberalism's place as we tackle thorny questions of freedom of speech and equality of opportunity. And he examines the limits of liberalism, the rise of illiberal democracy and the new battles over identity.

This is a supple and original essay about the forces transforming our politics.

Waleed Aly is a writer, academic, lawyer, broadcaster and lecturer in politics at Monash University. He is the author of People Like Us and Quarterly Essay 37, What’s Right? With Scott Stephens, he co-hosts Radio National’s The Minefield program.

We are delighted to host the launch of Matt Lloyd-Cape's guide to solving Australia's housing crisis, Our Place.

Australia has faced a housing crisis before – and solved it. We can do it again. In Our Place, leading policy expert Matt Lloyd-Cape cuts through the noise, showing exactly how our housing system broke. Drawing on the latest research, he reveals that although social housing tenants, renters and first-home buyers are worst affected, the whole of society suffers in a housing crisis. From the rise of far-right politics to intergenerational inequality, the housing crisis is reshaping the nation.

Matt Lloyd-Cape joined the progressive think tank Per Capita in 2019, and in 2022 he was the founding director of the Centre for Equitable Housing, where he is now the principal fellow. He is a prominent commentator and adviser on housing issues.

The legendary Kate Grenville discusses her new mystery The Country Schoolmaster with Toni Jordan.

Entry includes a copy of the book and refreshments  

Join us at Albert Park Yacht Club to hear from author and raconteur extraordinaire A.J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon on his new book Realms of Gold.

When A.J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon sailed a Mirror dinghy through twelve countries from North Wales to the Black Sea, he survived pirates, the English Channel, international incidents and all the disasters, big and small, that can befall a little boat on a long voyage. Those adventures became his beloved bestseller "The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow".

Decades later, that trip was a happy memory and Sandy was firmly back on land – until a message from a stranger presented an opportunity too good to refuse. In "Realms of Gold" Sandy picks up where his first voyage left off, sailing and rowing single-handedly around the coast from Romania to Venice. From Istanbul to Ithaca, Mount Olympus to the ruins of Troy, he finds himself immersed in the legends of antiquity, plays chicken with mercurial border police, and is saved more than once by the kindness of strangers. He recounts it all with his unbreakable enthusiasm and self-deprecating humour, taking the reader on an hilarious and unforgettable adventure.

Doors open at 7pm, and Sandy's talk commences at 7:30pm.