'In Dubai, it's Abu Dhabi, or as we say in Perth, Abu Derby'— RIP Dennis Cometti

Dennis Cometti has died. Overseas readers won't know him, but for Australians he was our Red Barber, our Jim Nantz, our Peter Drury.

Mar 4 • Tony Wilson

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February 2026

NEW PODCAST EPISODE #61 — 'Singing for me is sweet relief', Meg Washington's TEDx talk, 2014

My guest on the podcast is singer-songwriter-screenwriter Meg Washington, whose TED talk on stuttering and the power of singing has had three million…

Feb 20 • Tony Wilson

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'I am somebody' — RIP Reverend Jesse Jackson (1941-2026)

A civil rights titan and one of the greatest speakers of all time has died, aged 84. .

Feb 18 • Tony Wilson

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'That's my stick' — Rob Carlton's story about a meaningful object

Ten years ago today, Australian Silver Logie winning actor Rob Carlton participated in my Wheeler Centre night called 'Show and Tell for Grown Ups'. He…

Feb 17 • Tony Wilson

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'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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