Vol 35 No 4

24 February 2025

ARTS AND CULTURE

Flesh is a revelation of what fiction can do
- Peter Craven
- 07 March 2025
David Szalay’s Flesh unfolds with quiet, mesmeric intensity, charting a life shaped by desire, disappointment and disaster. As the ordinary shades into the catastrophic, Szalay’s controlled, unshowy prose builds a world of betrayals, longings and subtle devastations, proving, once again, that no one writes the ache of being alive quite like him.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

True crime, fake illness, real profits
- Nikki Richardson
- 06 March 2025
In Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar, Belle Gibson’s wellness scam has been repackaged for the streaming era, perfectly illustrating how news, entertainment, and advertising function as overlapping parts of the same machinery to keep us consuming content.
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EDUCATION

History matters. So why don't students think so?
- Erica Cervini
- 06 March 2025
Despite public fascination with ancestry, true crime, and historical podcasts surging, formal study of history is in free fall. With university departments shrinking and misinformation rising, historians face an urgent question: how do you persuade students—and the public—that history isn’t just interesting, but essential to understanding the present?
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ARTS AND CULTURE

If he be an honest man, so much better
- Warwick McFadyen
- 06 March 2025
What does a forgotten cemetery job ad from 1860 reveal about the lives we honour, the work we overlook, and the honesty we still hope for? A chance discovery in the archives becomes a meditation on honesty, mortality, and the curious poetry of forgotten lives.
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INTERNATIONAL

The week America betrayed Ukraine and itself
- Sergey Maidukov Sr.
- 06 March 2025
Thirty years after the US pledged to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty, Zelensky arrived in Washington asking America to honour its promise. What he found was a White House willing to humiliate him because the cost of keeping its word has become too high.
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RELIGION

Lent was never just about giving things up
- Andrew Hamilton
- 05 March 2025
Lent is often reduced to private acts of restraint. But its history tells a richer story; of communal memory, public reckoning, and the need to confront human suffering. As new crises unfold, from war to political decay, Lent reminds us that forgetting the past is a luxury we cannot afford.
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AUSTRALIA

The power of narrative medicine
- Jo Skinner
- 05 March 2025
Pressed for time and under mounting pressure to diagnose, doctors risk missing what matters most. But as one GP has learned, the real work of medicine begins when patients are heard as people — and when their fears, grief, and stories become the starting point for genuine care.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

What makes a writer, and what breaks one
- Gillian Bouras
- 28 February 2025
What makes a writer? Is it exile, loss, or the relentless pull of history? In One Another, Gail Jones traces the lives of two outsiders—Joseph Conrad and a young Australian academic—both adrift between worlds, both seeking meaning in words. A novel about displacement, identity, and the burden of storytelling.
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ENVIRONMENT

Saving the Reef means learning from its past battles
- Michele Gierck
- 28 February 2025
Dr. Paul Hardisty has spent years chronicling the Great Barrier Reef—not just its breathtaking beauty, but its battles for survival. In In Hot Water, he traces a century of near-misses and looming catastrophe, from oil drilling threats to climate-driven bleaching, revealing the fragile, high-stakes fight to save the world’s largest coral ecosystem.
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INTERNATIONAL

Whither Europe?
- Gillian Bouras
- 27 February 2025
Europe faces a moment of strategic recalibration as shifting U.S. priorities put transatlantic ties under strain, raising concerns about Europe’s defence standing. With war on its borders and internal divisions mounting, the European Union must rethink its role in an increasingly uncertain world.
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ENVIRONMENT

Our next health crisis? The air we breathe
- Jo Skinner
- 27 February 2025
Poor indoor air quality is considered one of the five top environmental risks to public health. Despite breakthroughs in mapping disease and recognizing airborne hazards, the quality of the air we breathe indoors remains overlooked and outdated ventilation standards persist.
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INTERNATIONAL

Can justice survive in a divided world?
- Andrew Hamilton
- 26 February 2025
Amid debates over inclusion, dignity, and the rule of law, how do entrenched power structures shape our futures, and can renewed commitment to cooperation mend a divided society?
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INTERNATIONAL

Cheques and (power) balances reshape aid in a post-liberal world
- Cameron Hill
- 26 February 2025
With cuts to USAID, international aid programs confront mounting challenges. Amid evolving power dynamics and strategic realignment, humanitarian assistance now faces fundamental questions about its future.
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INTERNATIONAL

Is this the end of American hegemony?
- David James
- 26 February 2025
With China and Russia asserting influence, alliances shifting, and economic nationalism rising, the unipolar era may be over. Is the U.S. retreating, recalibrating, or losing control? For decades, America dictated the global order. Now, the world is learning to move without it.
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AUSTRALIA

In a cashless society, inclusion must rule
- Mark Gaetani
- 26 February 2025
As cash fades from everyday transactions, its decline underscores a growing divide in access. With digital payments dominating and cash use dropping sharply, questions loom over the future of currency in an increasingly cashless society, and who might be left behind.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Chill in the Air
- Barry Divola
- 25 February 2025
Martin Phillipps of The Chills cheated death for years. After his passing last year at 61, his music lives on, with a posthumous album and a lasting legacy.
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Vol 35 No 4