Mark Seymour is an artist who has lived many musical lives. He was the founder and frontman of notable Australian rock band Hunters & Collectors, but he started out in his family choir. He’s sung solo acoustic gigs, and inadvertently created one of the great sporting anthems from a song inspired by a Jeanette Winterson novel.
Soon Seymour will bring his old hits to life with a full symphony orchestra for a one-off concert in Melbourne.
Seymour tells special correspondent Stephen Brook what keeps him writing, what his religious parents thought of his music and whether he is still in touch with his old bandmates.
And after he is done talking, as a special treat for Good Weekend Talks listeners, Seymour serenades us with an acoustic version of one of the Hunters’ much loved ballads.

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The 2000-year-old philosophy of stoicism is having a moment – and no one has popularised it for a modern audience more than American author Ryan Holiday.

The college dropout turned marketer has written 13 books, including The Obstacle Is the Way and Discipline Is Destiny, and his Daily Stoic email and social media accounts reach millions of people.

In this episode, we ask Holiday a few questions, including: What does Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius's book Meditations have to teach us about how to live in the 21st century? And what can we learn from the former slave Epictetus? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Hosting our conversation today is Good Weekend senior writer Gay Alcorn.

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Hamish Blake has made a career (and a pretty decent fortune) from being a bumbling, nice-guy Mr Everyman – on radio, on podcasts, on TV and, occasionally, in movies. But after more than two decades in the public eye, much of it with his professional brother-in-arms Andy Lee, Blake admits he hasn't developed much by way of skills other than talking for a living. And that's the premise of his new show, Unskilled Adult, in which he sets about learning some proper, grown-up abilities, simply by doing stuff – for real clients, for real money. In this episode, the Lego Masters host talks about the genuine sense of inadequacy that underpins his latest foray into good-natured self-mockery, what he actually learnt along the way, and whether his goofball efforts to master carpentry, welding, cooking and more in the blink of an eye run the risk of alienating his core audience. Today’s conversation is hosted by senior culture writer Karl Quinn.

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Pia Miranda has been a fixture on Australian screens for more than 25 years, winning Australian Survivor, starring in the TV series Mustangs FC, heading back to her Sicily homeland with Shaun Micallef, and now, co-hosting Recipe of the Year with Adam Liaw. But it's for her breakout role in the 2000 film, Looking For Alibrandi, that she is best known and most loved. In this episode, she talks with senior culture writer Karl Quinn about the ups and downs of a life lived so publicly, the online bullying she endured after winning Survivor, her diagnosis with the skin pigmentation condition vitiligo, her sometimes-ambivalent relationship with food, and the role that changed her life.

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On the cusp of 65, Bonnie Garmus published her debut novel Lessons in Chemistry. It was a global sensation and the copywriter, who had a previous manuscript rejected by publishers 98 times, sold almost 10 million copies and enjoyed being co-executive producer when it was made into an eight-part streaming hit starring Brie Larson.

Today, Garmus talks about her new novel Peck & Peck, which explores – through a delightfully-named young man Batter Gray – the themes of art in a time of pragmatism, and empathy in a world driven by technology intended “to make money, not make what is worthwhile”.

The US-born, now UK-based Garmus also opens up about the importance of poetry, explaining why she reads a new poem every day and how that ritual has changed her. Plus: her 5am starts, the work of writing and rewriting – and beginning anew when everyone believes your time is done.

Today’s conversation is hosted by National Books Editor at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Melanie Kembrey.

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It's not too much of an overstatement to say that for over 30 years, Michael Pollan's books have helped reshape conversations about industrial food systems, animal consciousness and our obligations to other living things.

His new book, A World Appears, is about plant sentience – an immersive exploration of how plants exhibit thinking and memory-like behaviours, respond to physical threats, favour their own species and supply nutrients to struggling neighbouring plants.

In this episode, Pollan discusses compelling new research that argues humans are far from the only living entities exhibiting sentience and indeed, "exquisite" awareness of their environment.

Today’s conversation is hosted by Good Weekend senior writer Greg Callaghan.

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Melbourne-born Suzie Miller's background as a lawyer has influenced the 40-odd plays she has written, many of which feature strong social-justice themes. Best known among those works are the award-winning Prima Facie, which has been staged in Sydney, Melbourne and London, and Inter Alia, which premiered in London last year and opens on Broadway in November.
In Miller's new play, Strong is the New Pretty, she tells the story of the birth of the women's Australian Football League, the AFLW, as it moves from pipe dream to sensation.
In this episode, Miller talks to deputy opinion editor Margot Saville about sport, feminism and the manosphere.

Further reading:

• ‘Do we want a world that reflects a kind of tech-bro zone? I don’t think so’: Suzie Miller on raising sons

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Starting a business is one thing, running it successfully is another – but doing it with your spouse and four kids is a different kettle of fish. Janine Allis has done all of the above, after founding Boost Juice as a single store in the 2000s and growing it into a global empire. She’s since become one of the most sought-after entrepreneurs in the country and a regular on small screens, both as a judge on Shark Tank and as a competitor on Australian Survivor - twice. She also owns one of Australia’s fastest-growing dessert chains, Yochi. Allis joins Good Weekend Talks to chat about the challenges and delights of building a family business, how she finds time to surf, and what she learned about leadership as a stewardess on David Bowie’s boat. Today’s episode is hosted by business reporter Jessica Yun.

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