Clare Wright

And, Lorena, your other book is different altogether, Nakudarak.

It's a third in Clare Wright.

She's an historian, Clare Wright's Democracy Trilogy.

Nakudarak is about the...

Nakudarak,

In his book, Goliath's Curse, The History and Future of Societal Collapse, he is sifting through the wreckage of fallen civilisations, Rome, the Mayans, ancient Egypt, for warning signs helpful for us right now.

So to talk big histories and why navigating the present means understanding the past at the 2026 Sydney Writers Festival on Gadigal Country, let's go join them with historian and award-winning author Professor Clare Wright from La Trobe University.

Luke, I'm going to start with you on some of the basics here.

So we hear a lot about risk, managing risk, mitigating risk, appetite for risk in these highly corporatised times when even universities have been hijacked by the language and the logic of neoliberalism.

What are you thinking? The ABC Radio National text line for your messages.

Send them to 0418 226 576.

Back now to historian Clare Wright.

I'm interested in the fact that you haven't mentioned there any kind of idea of moral decay.

"Yawn," Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

"Why on earth would you think I'd endorse this book?" Clare Wright.

I mean, [laughs]

These are great.