A Podcast of One's Own with Julia Gillard

When Katherine Bennell-Pegg was in high school, she was asked to write down three career options to pursue. She wrote down one - astronaut.

Last year, she not only fulfilled that ambition but she made history in doing so, becoming Australia’s first female astronaut and the first person to qualify as an astronaut under the Australian flag.

For this episode, Julia met Katherine at the Australian Space Agency in Adelaide, where ...

In this month's Book Club episode, Julia Gillard and her co-host Kathy Lette discuss Tell Me Everything, the latest novel by Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Strout.

Tell Me Everything is Strout's 10th novel, and it returns readers to the fictional town of Crosby, Maine - where several of her novels have taken place. It also features many of the characters from her previous books, including Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridg...

In this live event recording Julia sits down with the UK's Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities Bridget Phillipson. 

In a wide-ranging conversation, they reflect on her journey from a working-class upbringing in Sunderland and running a domestic abuse refuge, to becoming a Cabinet Minister in the first Labour government for 14 years.

The pair discuss the state of gender equality today, t...

In this Book Club episode, Julia Gillard and her cohost Sarah Holland-Batt dive into Audition, the latest novel from Katie Kitamura.

Audition follows an unnamed actress as she rehearses a play that blurs the lines between performance and personal history. When a mysterious young man appears, claiming to be her son, she’s drawn into a spiral of uncertainty that challenges her sense of self and reality.

Together, Julia and Sara...

Cheng Lei was riding high in a successful career as a news anchor in China when her life changed in an instant. 

Lei is a Chinese born Australian citizen and mother of two, who spent more than three years detained in a Beijing prison after being wrongly accused of illegally supplying state secrets. 

In this emotional and candid conversation, Julia and Lei delve into her early life in China and then Melbourne, her ex...

In this month’s book club episode Julia Gillard and Kathy Lette discuss Fundamentally, by Nussaibah Younis. 

It’s the British author’s debut novel and it follows the story of Nadia Amin - an academic disowned by her mother and dumped by her long-term partner, who accepts a job with the United Nations in Iraq to rehabilitate ISIS women so their home countries will take them back.

While struggling to get the program off th...

In this episode of Julia's Book Club, Julia and co-host Sarah Holland-Batt delve into Theory & Practice by Australian author, Michelle de Kretser.

Short-listed for the Stella Prize, the seventh novel from the Miles Franklin winner tells the story of a first generation immigrant from Sri Lanka living in Melbourne in the 1980s.

The young academic is writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf, who this podcast is named in honour of,...

In this special episode, we take you inside Julia's first ever Australian live recording of A Podcast of One's Own.

Recorded in front of an audience at the Australian National University in Canberra, home to the Global Institute for Women's Leadership, Julia is joined on stage by one of Australia's most respected journalists, Leigh Sales.

The pair discuss Leigh's incredible career achievements, preparing for Prime Ministerial...

In our April Book Club episode, Julia and Kathy unpack Butter, the cult Japanese bestseller by Asako Yuzuki.

Inspired by the real-life case of the “Konkatsu Killer” and translated into English, the book follows journalist Rika Machida as she tries to get inside the mind of convicted serial murderer Manako Kajii.

Kajii, a gourmet cook, is serving time behind bars for the murders of lonely businessmen who she seduced with her d...

In this episode, Julia Gillard is joined by Dr. Beverley Ditsie – pioneering filmmaker, artist, and gender non-conforming activist – whose fearless activism has shaped the fight for queer rights in South Africa and beyond.

From co-founding South Africa’s first multiracial LGBTQ+ rights group at just 16 to leading the country’s first Pride March in 1990, Beverley has been at the forefront of the battle for equality for decades. I...

In our first Book Club episode of 2025, Julia and co-host Sarah Holland-Batt explore the newly-released Wild Dark Shore by Australian author, Charlotte McConaghy.

Out this month, the mystery novel is set on a tiny, remote island near Antarctica, where Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers.

The island is home to the world’s largest seed bank. But with sea levels rising, the family needs to move the precious cargo ...

Eluned Morgan is the first woman to lead Wales.

Before that, she made history as the youngest member of the European Parliament at just 27 years old.

Ahead of International Women’s Day, Julia travelled to Cardiff to sit down with the First Minister in her office.

In this season-opener, they discuss Ms Morgan’s political upbringing, her path to the leadership, building resilience, misogyny on social media, how her faith sha...

In the final episode of 2024 Julia sits down with her good friend Josephine Linden to discuss their favourite books of the year, and look ahead to the new releases they can’t wait to read in 2025.

Thank you to all our listeners for joining us again this season, the whole A Podcast of One’s Own team hopes you’ve enjoyed the interviews and book club episodes as much as we have!

Show notes:

Books discussed by Julia and Joseph...

In this special episode of A Podcast of One’s Own, we take you inside Julia’s live event with international best-selling author, Paula Hawkins, at the Hay Festival Winter Weekend.

After the huge global success of Paula’s first novel ‘The Girl on the Train’, the pair sat down to explore her latest thriller ‘The Blue Hour’.

Set on a Scottish tidal island connected to the mainland for just a few hours a day and home to only one ...

Dr June Oscar AO is a is a proud Bunuba woman from the remote town of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

Her remarkable decades-long career has taken her from a small office in a cattle station in a tiny Western Australian town, to serving a five-year term as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. June was the first woman to hold this role in its 20-year history and used her...

Angie Murimirwa personifies the transformative power of education.

Growing up in Zimbabwe, Angie was one of the first girls to receive support from the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) to go to secondary school.

Angie is now the organisation’s CEO.

In this episode Julia - who is Patron of CAMFED - and Angie discuss the huge barriers to education that many girls still face, and the impact finishing school has on not o...

It’s been arguably the most eventful US Presidential campaign in history and the stakes couldn’t be higher, not just for the United States, but for the world.

There’s been two assassination attempts on Republican nominee Donald Trump, who became the first US President to be convicted of a felony over hush money payments to an adult film star.

We've seen President and Democratic nominee Joe Biden sensationally withdraw from th...

In this episode of Julia’s Book Club, Julia and co-host Sarah Holland-Batt delve into the latest novel by best-selling author, Elif Shafak. There are Rivers in the Sky charts the story of three characters from across history brought together by two great rivers, with one epic poem flowing through the story. Spanning centuries and continents, the novel follows a single drop of water from the Tigris to the Thames, from antiquity to t...

Alexis Wright is one of the most highly-regarded Australian authors in recent times, winning both the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize - twice.

Her work is challenging the traditional publishing world and asking some tough questions.

But her passions extend far beyond writing.

In this episode, Julia explores Alexis’ early beginnings as a young activist, her lifelong dedication to Indigenous land rights an...