Samantha Harvey: Orbital

Samantha Harvey: Orbital

Author: Sydney Writers' Festival July 15, 2025 Duration: 54:07

On the International Space Station, a team of astronauts watch our big blue planet as it silently turns beneath them.

This 2024 Booker Prize–winning novel is largely observations of the astronauts as they collect data and record small, slow changes in their environment and their own bodies. Yet Samantha Harvey’s prose is expansive, delicately encompassing life and death, fragility and strength, hope and fear in concentric circles of human life.

Hear Samantha discuss the profundity of this meditative novel in conversation with ABC Radio’s Claire Nichols (The Book Show).

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel.

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
Instagram: @sydwritersfest
Facebook: @SydWritersFest
TikTok: @sydwritersfest

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


Step into the vibrant heart of Australia's largest celebration of literature, stories, and ideas with the Sydney Writers' Festival podcast. This audio companion captures the festival's dynamic spirit year-round, offering front-row access to conversations you might have missed. Each episode pulls you into the room for live, unscripted discussions with a remarkable lineup of international authors, sharp journalists, groundbreaking scientists, and provocative public intellectuals. The range is deliberately broad, reflecting the festival's own eclectic programming-you'll find deep dives into the craft of fiction alongside frank explorations of societal issues, business innovation, and cultural critique. It’s more than just author interviews; it’s where books meet the big ideas they inspire. The Sydney Writers' Festival podcast serves as a permanent record of those fleeting, brilliant moments of connection and insight, all curated by the festival team. For anyone curious about the world and the words we use to describe it, this series provides a regular dose of intellectual stimulation and narrative pleasure. Tune in to hear the arguments, the stories, and the questions that shape our contemporary conversation, all delivered with the authentic energy of the live event.
Author: Language: en-au Episodes: 100

Sydney Writers' Festival
Podcast Episodes
Suzie Miller: Prima Facie [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:19
[Content warning: Sexual assault] Suzie Miller’s disturbingly prescient play, Prima Facie, dramatises the price sexual assault victims pay for speaking out. This blistering one-woman show wowed audiences on Broadway and…
Nick Bryant: America's Unending Conflict With Itself [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:19
What is driving American decline, and what does it mean for the world? Long-time foreign correspondent Nick Bryant’s most recent posting took him to New York City to cover the Trump years. In his compelling analysis of A…
Celeste Ng: Our Missing Hearts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:36
Banning books, waving flags and persecuting racial minorities. Sound familiar? After New York Times–bestselling novel Little Fires Everywhere – which was adapted into a popular miniseries starring Kerry Washington and Re…
Creativity, Joy, Grace [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:20
Find sanctuary in this uplifting celebration of creativity, chaired by Michaela Kalowski. Award-winning journalist Julia Baird follows her international bestseller, Phosphorescence, with Bright Shining, a stunning and in…
Charlotte Wood: Stone Yard Devotional [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:55
Can a person truly be good? What is forgiveness? Is losing hope a moral failure? And is the business of grief ever really finished? These questions pervade Charlotte Wood’s latest novel, Stone Yard Devotional, which is s…
Queer Love and Longing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:44
Love is indeed a many splendoured thing in the work of K Patrick and Christos Tsiolkas, who know firsthand the pleasures of writing queer love stories. Hosted by Madeleine Gray, this beautiful conversation brings togethe…
The Secret Lives of Women [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:09
“We are invisible”, writes Balli Kaur Jaswal in Now You See Us. “We clean your houses, we look after your children, we know your secrets.” The Singaporean-Australian writer is joined by Dominican-American novelist Elizab…
Paul Lynch: Prophet Song [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:44
In his Booker Prize acceptance speech, Paul Lynch admitted his fifth novel, Prophet Song, had been difficult to write. “The rational part of me believed I was dooming my career,” he said, “though I had to write the book…
The War on Journalists [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:19
War correspondent Marie Colvin stated: “It has always seemed to me that what I write about is humanity in extremis, pushed to the unendurable, and that it is important to tell people what really happens in wars.” With co…
Play Like a Girl [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:46
Matildas fever swept across Australia during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, taking hold of new soccer fans and diehards alike. But where do we go next to tap into the potential of women’s sport? Hosted by The Ticket po…