A Podcast of One's Own with Julia Gillard

In this episode, Julia is joined by Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, a leading Pacific feminist and peacebuilder who has spent more than three decades ensuring women’s voices shape the decisions that affect their lives, from local communities across the Pacific to the United Nations Security Council.

Sharon reflects on the family and intergenerational women’s movement that shaped her activism, and how political upheaval in Fiji influenced her understanding of democracy, peace and women’s leadership. She and Julia discuss the vital role women play in peacebuilding and disaster response, why climate change must be understood as a human-rights issue, and how local women’s knowledge can inform decision-making on the world stage. They also look ahead to COP31 and explore the Pacific’s leadership in the global climate movement.
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In this month’s Book Club episode, Julia Gillard and her co-host Kathy Lette discuss May We Feed the King, the debut fiction novel from British poet Rebecca Perry.

The novel won Waterstone’s Debut Fiction Prize and has been shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize.

The novel tells the story of a curator, who dresses the rooms of historic buildings using furniture, ornaments and fake food. While working in a medieval palace, the curator becomes transfixed by the reign of a reluctant and mostly forgotten King.

As readers are taken back to the time of the King, Perry poses questions about how history is recorded, who it’s determined by and what makes a good leader.

Julia and Kathy discuss how Perry’s talents as a poet shine through in the beautiful prose, what they look for in a fiction novel and how some elements of this book did not resonate with them.

Show notes:

May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry is published in Australia by Allen and Unwin.

To find out more about the Booker Prize visit https://thebookerprizes.com/
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Sherele Moody is an award-winning journalist, anti-violence campaigner and founder of the RED HEART Movement and Australian Femicide Watch. For more than a decade, Sherele has tirelessly documented every woman and child who has been violently killed in Australia, telling their stories to ensure they are remembered for who they were, not defined by how they died or reduced to a headline or statistic.

For Sherele, this work is deeply personal. As a young woman, she discovered that her stepfather had murdered two girls: five-year-old Sandra Dorothy Bacon and nine-year-old Stacey-Ann Tracy. Although she never met them, their stories profoundly shaped her life and work.

In this deeply moving conversation, Sherele tells Julia about her childhood, the devastating truth she learned about her stepfather and how it led her into a life of journalism and activism. They discuss the RED HEART Movement, Sherele's work with families, the importance of remembering victims beyond the circumstances of their deaths, and what must change to create a safer future for women and children.

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of childhood abuse, sexual violence, domestic and family violence, and the murder of women and children. Please take care while listening.

If anything raised in this conversation affects you, or you’re concerned about someone you know, you can contact 1800RESPECT 24 hours a day by calling 1800 737 732, texting 0458 737 732 or visiting https://1800respect.org.au/. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call Triple Zero.

Show notes

There are a number of different ways you can learn more about Sherele's work and how you can support it:

Learn more about Sherele’s work and the RED HEART Movement here: https://australianfemicidewatch.org/
Support this work by donating here: https://australianfemicidewatch.org/support/
Shop RED HEART merchandise, with proceeds supporting Sherele’s work: https://australianfemicidewatch.org/shop-2/
Find other ways to take action here: https://australianfemicidewatch.org/take-action/
Listen to Sherele’s She Matters podcast here: https://australianfemicidewatch.org/podcast/
And learn about the campaign for a Femicide Royal Commission and sign the petition here: https://australianfemicidewatch.org/campaigns/femicide-royal-commission/
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In this extra special crossover episode, Julia is joined by Sophie Gee, co-host of The Secret Life of Books podcast, for a joyful conversation celebrating their shared love of books and reading.

Julia and Sophie compare notes on hosting book podcasts, share their lifelong love of literature, and reflect on their experiences chairing two of the world's leading literary prizes for women and non-binary writers – the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Stella Prize.

Sophie is a Professor of English at Princeton University, author of The Scandal of the Season, Chair of the 2026 Stella Prize judging panel and of course, hosts The Secret Life of Books, alongside her co-host, Jonty Claypole.

Show notes

If you enjoyed this conversation, you can find The Secret Life of Books, hosted by Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole, wherever you get your podcasts.

Julia and Sophie reflect on this year's Women's Prize for Fiction and Stella Prize, celebrating outstanding books by women and non-binary writers. You can explore the 2026 Stella Prize shortlist here: https://stella.org.au/the-stella-prize-2026-shortlist/ and find out more about the Women's Prize for Fiction here: https://womensprize.com/.

They also discuss this year's winning titles: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction, and Cannon by Lee Lai, the first graphic novel to win the Stella Prize. Find out more about The Correspondent here: https://womensprize.com/library/the-correspondent/ and Cannon here: https://stella.org.au/the-stella-prize-2026-winner/.

The episode also explores the future of reading in the age of AI, including trends in reading for pleasure in Australia. You can read more in Creative Australia's latest National Arts Participation Survey here: https://australiareads.org.au/news/naps-2025/.
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In this month’s episode of Julia’s Book Club, Julia Gillard and Sarah Holland-Batt discuss a truly iconic novel that became a cultural phenomenon, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

First published in 1985, the story follows Offred, a woman who has been assigned as a Handmaid to a household in the Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state that has overthrown the United States government amidst environmental catastrophe, political instability and declining birth rates. Offred’s sole function is to produce children.

Julia and Sarah discuss why this book has continuously resonated with readers over the four decades since it was released.

They also delve into its wider cultural impact, through the hugely successful television series starring Elizabeth Moss and at present day political protests.

Show notes:

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is available online and at all good bookstores.

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