One of Australia’s best-loved forums for literature, ideas and storytelling, Sydney Writers’ Festival will stream its headline events from Carriageworks in Sydney direct to Brisbane Powerhouse on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 May.

Prepare to be stimulated and engaged by conversations, debates and discussions, as the Festival brings the world’s finest authors to Brisbane Powerhouse in real time via digital live-streaming project, Live & Local. As well as hearing new ideas from great thinkers, audiences have the opportunity to participate in Q&A sessions at each event, sending questions direct to the Sydney stage. This event is FREE.

Live & Local streaming line-up:

SATURDAY 5 MAY
Session 1 – 10am
New Power
With Jeremy Heimans, Henry Timms and Susan Dodds (Facilitator)
For millennia, power was something to be seized and jealously guarded. However, the rapid emergence of new technologies is changing the game. From Bernie Saunders to President Donald Trump, from taxis to B&Bs, new ideas, political movements and businesses now spread with astonishing speed. In conversation with Professor Susan Dodds, New Power authors Jeremy Heimans (co-founder of GetUp!) and Henry Timms draw on examples from politics, popular culture, business and social justice to explain the disruptive forces that are changing the course of our age.

Session 2 – 11.30am
Peter Greste: The First Casualty
With Peter Greste and Hugh Riminton (Facilitator)
Foreign correspondent Peter Greste spent two decades reporting from the frontline in the world’s most dangerous countries before making headlines himself following his incarceration in an Egyptian prison. The First Casualty is his enlightening firsthand account of how the war on journalism spread from the battlefields of the Middle East to the governments of the West. Fellow correspondent Hugh Riminton speaks to Peter about the extent to which investigative journalism is under threat in the age of terrorism and fake news.

Session 3 – 1.30pm
Resisting Unjust Authority
With Masha Gessen, Alexis Okeowo, Mohammed Al Samawi and Sarah Krasnostein (Facilitator)
Three of the Festival’s brightest minds come together to examine our evolving relationship with power. The Future is History author Masha Gessen, The Fox Hunt author Mohammed Al Samawi and A Moonless, Starless Sky author Alexis Okeowo consider how unjust authority is wielded and resisted in the modern world, how we can free ourselves from its messages and impact, and how these strategies are changing over time. This thought-provoking panel is curated and hosted by The Trauma Cleaner author Sarah Krasnostein.

Session 4 – 3pm
Women in Tech: Okay Ladies, Now Let’s Get Information
With Angela Saini, Aminatou Sow, Elanor Huntington and Deb Verhoeven (Facilitator)
Why do the tech and science industries remain a boys’ club after so many years? How are inroads finally being made? And who are the success stories bucking the trend? Join three inspiring speakers in conversation with Deb Verhoeven as they celebrate the incredible women of tech and science. Aminatou Sow is a digital strategist and co-founder of Tech LadyMafia; Angela Saini is a BBC science journalist and author of Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong; and Professor Elanor Huntington is the first female Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University.

Session 5 – 4.30pm
Annabel Crabb’s BooKwiz
With Leigh Sales, Richard Fidler, Julia Zemiro and Annabel Crabb (Facilitator)
Which book are you ashamed of loving? Which do you reread when you’re in a reading slump? What have you always meant to read but now suspect you never will? Beloved journalist and presenter Annabel Crabb returns to the Festival for BooKwiz, a thorough interrogation of some well-known readers, including ABC 7.30 anchor Leigh Sales, Conversations presenter Richard Fidler and – lending cult appeal – the RocKwiz host herself, Julia Zemiro.

SUNDAY 6 MAY
Session 1 – 10am
Economic Inequality: From Wisconsin to Whyalla
With Don Watson, Richard Holden, Amy Goldstein and Emma Alberici (Facilitator)
Economic inequality is on the rise, including in Trump’s America and in Australia. Middle-class jobs are disappearing, especially in towns that relied on manufacturing. Where does this leave people in affected industries and areas, and the generation to follow? And what are the political implications for democracies? Join award–winning author Don Watson, Pulitzer Prize–winning staff writer for The Washington Post Amy Goldstein and economics professor Richard Holden in a wide-ranging conversation with ABC’s Chief Economics Correspondent Emma Alberici about the challenges posed by inequality today.

Session 2 – 11.30am
Johann Hari: On Our Depression, Anxiety and Addiction Crisis
Live from Sydney, New York Times bestselling author Johann Hari presents a solo talk about a series of interconnected crises: Australia high levels of depression and a chronic methamphetamine crisis. Based on his first-hand deep-diving research across the world, the acclaimed author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections seeks to confront the deep causes of the Western World’s crisis of despair and look at the practical ways that we can find our way back.