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Fair game: Lessons from sport for a fairer society and a stronger economy
Andrew Leigh | September 13, 2023Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities & Treasury and the Assistant Minister for Employment argued that sport shows we don’t have to sacrifice egalitarianism and honour in pursuit of victory in a recent address at the National Library.
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Learning how to live
Oscar Davis | August 22, 2023We all have feelings and questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives, and it is not as simple as picking a side between the Aristotelians, the existentialists, or any of the other moral traditions.
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Remembering Michael Parkinson
Lea Redfern | August 19, 2023Genial, humane and engaging, Michael Parkinson was Britain’s most famous chat show host for fifty years and also enjoyed a loyal following in Australia.
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Books, balderdash and bowlderisation
Dan Dixon | August 18, 2023The censorship of books by Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Ian Fleming and Agatha Christie to remove potentially “offensive” and addition of content warnings and disclaimers to books by Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Raymond Chandler and P.G. Wodehouse have provoked much debate about the balance between delicate modern sensibilities and artistic integrity.
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AFL must waltz like the Matildas
Max Thomas | August 15, 2023The unprecedented popularity of the Women’s soccer world cup in Australia is a sign that Australia’s own football code needs to up its game to retain the interest of the next generation.
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Blood-red and black
Tamara Lewit | August 14, 2023Melbourne University’s Ancient Lives exhibition presents around 100 objects from the University’s Classics and Archaeology collection, offering visitors insights into the hidden lives of women, children, slaves and artisans of the ancient Graeco-Roman world.
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Remembering Tony Bennett
Jose Valentino Ruiz | July 23, 2023American crooner Tony Bennett drifted in and out of fashion over his long career, but he survived his contemporaries to become a much loved icon of the classic age of American song.
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On the beach
Alexander Howard | July 20, 2023Nevil Shute may fallen out of literary fashion but he remains one of Australia’s best and most popular writers, as a theatrical revival of his most famous book attests.
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Remembering Milan Kundera
Jen Webb | July 15, 2023The death of Milan Kundera, that remarkable novelist, essayist, poet, philosopher and fearless critic of Soviet tyranny deprives the literary world one of its brightest stars.
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Half a century of 2001
Nathan Abrams | July 13, 20232001 reinvented the science fiction genre upon its release in 1968 and left an inedible mark on modern culture, not least in highlighting the dangers of misaligned AI.
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100 not out for Vegemite
Hannah Viney | July 11, 2023Launched in 1923 and marketed as everything from a children’s wonder food to a secret weapon, 80% of Australian households now have a jar of vegemite in a kitchen cupboard, though how many are ever opened is anyone’s guess.
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Faith in the age of reason
David Hoinski | July 5, 2023Born 400 years ago, philosopher Blaise Pascal was one of the first philosophers to grapple with the role of faith in an age of science and reason