Events at PCUEvents at PCU
Come along to PCU’s Polska Campus and meet Australia’s most renowned Radio Interviewer, Richard Fidler.
David Vaughan from PCU’s School of Media & IT will be interviewing Richard, the host of Australia’s most successful podcast and radio series, Conversations. Richard will also be launching his book The Golden Maze, a history of Prague.
Richard has had a long and varied career in the entertainment industry. He first came to public notoriety as a member of the Doug Anthony Allstars, a provocative musical comedy-alt rock group who toured Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. They were immensely popular with the Edinburgh crowd which led to regular, comedic television appearances in the UK. On returning to Australia DAAS grew in popularity and eventually landed their own television show DAAS Kapital.
Richard left the group in 1994 to pursue a writing career and occasional hosting gigs on TV. In 2005, he began his career in radio for the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).
He is best known for his Conversations programme on ABC’s Radio National. The programme is a one-on-one conversation with a local or international guest with a story to tell and is broadcast throughout Australia every weekday and internationally through the Conversations Podcast. It is the most popular podcast in Australia with more than six million programme downloads a month.
Richard has continued to pursue his writing career and has successfully published non fiction works, particularly on history and politics. His latest work – The Golden Maze, is a history of the city of Prague and stretches back to the city’s origins right up to now. The book will be officially launched at this special MITS speaking event.
Richard has a long held fascination for Prague and its people having made the decision to fly to Prague during the Velvet Revolution to witness the Czech nation emerge from communism. The Golden Maze is the result from years of research, as well as one-on-one interviews with Czech historians and dissidents undertaken during his Prague residency at Prague City of Literature. Since publication, The Golden Maze has been shortlisted for the General nonfiction book of the year at the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards.