Acclaimed wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta has been mugged by whales, touched by a baby whale and covered in whale snot (just casually - as you do).  Pirotta’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge of whales shine through in her book Humpback Highway as she explores a variety of timely topics – from why whale snot and poo are important for us and the ocean to the life cycle of whales, the challenges humans present to these marine giants, and new technologies - so we can see where they swim, listen to them talk and even spy on them underwater. This week at Missing Perspectives, we're keen to pla ..read more

Hello, friends - we're back with a really special episode! Soaliha Iqbal got to sit down with Samah Sabawi to discuss Samah's book Cactus Pear For My Beloved. It's a really moving conversation. Samah shares the story of her parents, and many like them, who were born while their parents were being forced to leave their homelands. Cactus Pear For My Beloved is a narrative memoir of her own family's story from before the Nakba in 1978 until now - and draws on Samah's PhD in post memory within the context of generational trauma and exile. As you can imagine, this book is more timely than eve ..read more

TW: Discussion of violence against women We are only 41 weeks into the year — which means we have surpassed the much-quoted statistic of one woman being killed every week in Australia. By the time this podcast is edited and published, it’s probable that another woman will have been killed by an intimate partner. Around the world, a woman is killed every 11 minutes. It was with this heavy heart that Soaliha Iqbal spoke to Kate Fitz-Gibbon, a Professor at Monash University, who has dedicated her life to researching the causes of (and solutions to) violence against women in Australia. “2024 ha ..read more

Introducing a **very** different episode this week, just to shake things up here at Booksmart. Because honestly, why not? This week, Tash sits down with the iconic Dr Jen Gunter for an equally iconic conversation. Dr Gunter is also known as "Tik Tok and Twitter's Resident Gynecologist", having used the platform to debunk myths about women's health, amassing a huge following in the process.  The Canadian-American gynecologist, New York Times columnist, author and most important truth teller in women’s health, is passionate about setting the record straight on dubious wellness product cl ..read more

“I had to relearn how to live after nearly dying. It felt like a rite of passage no-one else had ever experienced, a journey there was no map for, and for so long afterwards, I was lost to myself.  This book is for anyone who is interested in knowing more about life. And maybe a little about death, too. " Queensland-based writer Carly-Jay Metcalfe was born with cystic fibrosis, survived a double-lung transplant at the age of twenty-one and faced a rare cancer at the age of thirty.  What she has endured should have killed her, but her humour, courage and optimism became her best surv ..read more

If Dr Mykaela Saunders isn't on your radar, then we are changing that today. Mykaela is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, researcher, editor and teacher. Her incredible speculative fiction collection Always Will Be (casually) won the David Unaipon Award and has taken the literary world by storm. In this new thought-provoking collection, Mykaela poses the question: what might country, community and culture look like in the Tweed if Gooris reasserted their sovereignty? She imagines different scenarios for how the local Goori community might reassert sovereignty - reclaiming country, exerting ..read more

Shankari Chandran was once told that her stories weren't 'Australian enough.' She later went on to win the prestigious Miles Franklin Award - an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". Here at Missing Perspectives, we are huge fans of Shankari - it's actually  the second time we've hosted her on our podcast (be sure to listen to our episode on her last book, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens). This week, Shankari joins Hannah to talk about her incredible new book Safe Haven that is making huge wave ..read more

Everyone. We know we say that every episode of Booksmart is special, but this one is PARTICULARLY so (we promise). And it's poetry too, so even better. This week, Hannah Diviney got to sit down with proud Wiradjuri poet Jeanine Leane to discuss her new work of poetry titled Gawimarra: Gathering. We don't want to spoil the collection, or this discussion, but here's the poetry in a nutshell: 'Gawimarra: Gathering' moves from deeply tender meditations on Country, culture and kinship, to experimental archival poems dissecting the violence and destruction of the settler-colony. Jeanine Leane’s po ..read more

Breaking our (small yet needed) hiatus from Booksmart and coming back with an absolute BANGER: the one and only Lisa Taddeo! Our EIC Hannah was lucky enough to sit down with Lisa to chat about her incredible writing, career, and bestselling novel Three Women.  The book has been adapted into a TV show for Stan - and we got to hear all about it. This is an episode not to be missed (although honestly, we say that about pretty much every episode...SO KEEP LISTENING ..read more

CW: Discussion of sexual assault It's been described as the game-changing book about sex and consent that every woman - and man - should read. In 2021, Chanel Contos posted on Instagram asking people to share their stories of sexual assault during their schooling years. This post unexpectedly went viral, and almost 7000 people sent in testimonies describing behaviour that constitutes rape. Virtually none of these instances were reported, and almost all of them were by people they knew. How and why is this happening in an era of growing equality? In her new book, Chanel argues that when it co ..read more