Hugh Mackay is a social psychologist, and the author of twenty-two books, including eight novels. His non-fiction writing covers social analysis, psychology, communication and ethics. He has had a sixty-year career in social research, and was also a weekly newspaper columnist for twenty-five years. His publication, The Mackay Report, was the benchmark of social research in Australia for over thirty years.

Hugh has a masters degree in moral philosophy, is a fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015, and is currently an honorary professor in the Research School of Psychology at the Australian National University.

Sarah Kanowski co-presents Conversations on ABC Radio and podcast. She previously presented Books and Arts on ABC RN and joined the ABC as Phillip Adams’s producer on Late Night Live.

Sarah studied English at the University of Oxford, where she wrote a thesis on the Mosley family. She then spent a year in South America before settling back in Australia. In Hobart she edited the literary magazine Island, until sun and grandparents beckoned her back to Brisbane where she now lives with her husband and three children.