When I began as editor in early 2025 I was struck by how much great reading P&I offered. Now we are branching out to bring you great listening as well, with a big new project, Pearlcast.

I will be your host for Pearlcast, which will draw together the most authoritative leaders on the topics you care. As always we will attack issues through a progressive lens, and seek truth through evidence and robust debate.

Pearlcast #1

We kick off with a topic close to our hearts, the 50th anniversary of the Dismissal of the Whitlam Government. We have three of the best sources in the nation taking part: our Editor-in-Chief John Menadue - the living link to the scandal and the nation’s top public servant at the time; Jenny Hocking, author of The Palace Letters and Australia’s pre-eminent Dismissal historian; and Brian Toohey, the journalist who has dug deepest into the darkest elements of the events. We all, no matter our political convictions, remember where we were when we heard that Whitlam had been sacked. Fifty years later, we still don’t have all the facts. Menadue, Hocking and Toohey will shed new light on the most extraordinary event in Australian political history.

Podcast #2 On Episode 2 of Pearlcast on the Dismissal, we focus on the events of the day itself. The day an unelected representative of the Queen sacked Australia’s Prime Minister.

I look forward to joining you on Pearlcast,

Catriona Jackson