August 2020
Magazine
The Monthly Essays
Storm in a port: The unfolding disaster of the Ruby Princess
The system breakdowns onboard and onshore that led to the docking of the coronavirus cruise ship
How decades after Murdoch and Packer destroyed the popular appeal of a game created for the masses, Peter V’landys is putting rugby league back on top
The Nation Reviewed
The Morrison government is using the COVID-19 crisis to devastate the public service, the ABC, the arts and tertiary education
Coronavirus lockdown is undoing gains for women in employment, shared domestic labour and protection from family violence
Louisa Lawson, our first public feminist
The pioneer of publishing and women’s rights has been unjustly overshadowed by regard for her famous son, Henry
Traditionally offering non-medical support to women during pregnancy, doulas are now providing care during abortions
Vox
Might challenges to neoliberal orthodoxies emerge from the pandemic, as challenges to Christian faith did after the Black Death?
Arts & Letters
America’s imperfect angels: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Hamilton’
Post Black Lives Matter, the hit musical already feels like a souvenir from a vanished pre-Trump America
What are the odds?: Toby Ord’s ‘The Precipice’
The Australian philosopher’s rational exploration of existential risk is bracing but ultimately hopeful
Poetry from the author of ‘The Boat’
Noted
‘A Room Made of Leaves’ by Kate Grenville The author of ‘The Secret River’ returns with a canny twist to fictionalise the life of Elizabeth Macarthur, wife of the Australian pioneering settler
‘Antkind’ by Charlie Kaufman The debut novel from the screenwriter and director of ‘Being John Malkovich’, ‘Synecdoche, New York’ and more is the zippiest postmodern, self-referential doorstop you’ll ever read
In Light of Recent Events
By Oslo Davis
To combat COVID-19, a Japanese amusement park asked thrillseekers to “please scream inside your heart” — npr.org, July 2020
