'I esteem foreigners no better than other people, not any worse' — Abraham Lincoln, Ohio, 1861

On this day in 1861, America's greatest Republican president, America's greatest president, spoke to a German immigrant crowd in Cincinnati, Ohio. He…

Feb 13 • Tony Wilson

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'Without commitment you'll never start. Without consistency, you'll never finish'

Denzel Washington's 2017 NAACP Image Awards Acceptance is one of the shortest speeches on Speakola, yet the seventh most viewed speech in the history of…

Feb 11 • Tony Wilson

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'Goodbye, my beautiful girl'

Last month, I watched Australian screenwriter Adam Zwar deliver a eulogy for his writer/director wife, Amanda Brotchie. It was a near perfect piece of…

Feb 9 • Tony Wilson

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January 2026

'Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition' — Mark Carney's Davos masterpiece

It's the speech of the year, and one of the great foreign policy speeches of all time.

Jan 30 • Tony Wilson

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December 2025

Happy New Year from Speakola

That's it for 2025! Hope it was a good one for you.

Dec 31, 2025 • Tony Wilson

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Twelve years of Christmases

My best man took his own life twelve years ago. Like everyone who has lost someone they love to suicide, I flailed in the aftermath. I still flail…

Published on Good one, Wilson! • Dec 22, 2025

'The hate that begins with Jews, never ends with Jews' — Rabbi Jonathan Sacks 'Understanding Antisemitism'

Australia is reeling from the Bondi murders. For decades we've thought our gun laws would protect us from mass shootings, and our isolation would…

Dec 16, 2025 • Tony Wilson

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'All is not lost, all has not been in vain' — Lyndon Johnson's last speech

LBJ delivered his last public words at a Civil Rights Symposium at the LBJ Library 40 days before he died. If you watch the YouTube, he's clearly weak…

Dec 12, 2025 • Tony Wilson

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'President Trump is trying to silence me, threatening to kill me for saying what is true'

Today Senator Mark Kelly delivered a speech that made me think of John Glenn and his famous Gold Star Mothers speech.

Dec 2, 2025 • Tony Wilson

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NEW PODCAST EPISODE #60 — Steve Kilbey at The Church's ARIA Hall of Fame induction, 2010

The Church had two singles voted into Australia's Triple J Hottest 100 singles of all time and are one of our greatest bands with classics like 'Under…

Dec 1, 2025 • Tony Wilson

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November 2025

'He was just jogging beside me, smiling, as he caught me'

Jonah Lomu died ten years ago today. He had a heart attack from a complication relating to his chronic kidney disease. His arrival as a rugby star was…

Nov 19, 2025 • Tony Wilson

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Race Around the World Tips #1 - The 'Here's Me!' PTC

The first in a series of posts aimed at helping contestants apply for the new season of Race Around the World. This one is my 1997 piece to camera intro…

Published on Good one, Wilson! • Nov 15, 2025

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