Speakola is the home for great speeches on the web. Tony Wilson is the founder and curator of Speakola, which now hosts more than 2000 speeches, some famous - think Churchill, Obama, Gandhi - some not so well known. In each episode, Tony interviews someone who has written, delivered or studied a great speech to reveal the stories behind the scenes, to provide context to the historical moment, or in the case of eulogies, birthdays and other common events, to inspire people to hit new creative…
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On 26th April 2014, Megan Washington delivered a TEDx Talk that immediately trended on Twitter, and has gone on to be viewed nearly three million times. It's a beautiful public declaration about her stutter, and has so many interesting and funny moments about what a stutter is, and how it affects the life of a public performer. In her own words, Meg ends her TED Talk with a TED Sing, and it's…
In 2010, The Church were reluctant inductees to the ARIA Rock Hall of Fame, and reluctant speakers too. Steve Kilbey says in this interview that they hadn't planned to speak, but felt the pressure to say something as every other inductee spoke beautifully before them. What he eventually delivered was an after dinner classic, a funny, virtually off the cuff speech about Australian music, the other…
In March, I chatted to speech collector Dana Rubin for Women's History Month (there have been delays releasing the episode - my apologies, Dana). It's a great chat with a kindred spirit. Dana has created the Speaking While Female speech bank that showcases speeches by women across history and around the world. She also edited the book Speaking While Female: 75 Extraordinary Speeches By American…
My mother, Margaret Joan Wilson died on the 20th of April 2025 while I was away in Budapest. It was a big shock and a terrible day. We had a private family ceremony on 7th May and a more public celebration of life on the 8th. This speech was delivered at the second event. The text and video of the eulogy is up at Speakola newsletter and in the Speakola library. My brother Ned did the MCing and was…
Author & documentary maker John Safran talks in this episode about his eulogy for 'the People's Priest', Father Bob Maguire at St Patrick's Cathedral Melbourne in May 2023. He also discusses his latest book ' Squat' about his week squatting at Kaye West's LA Mansion and his creative life as Australia's best known 'valid troll' (to use John's own expression) Safran has a live show Squatting at…
Comedian Sammy J is a Melbourne International Comedy Festival Great Debate regular. He is the interviewee for this first episode of 2025 and the feature speech is his opening argument for the negative team in 2018, ' That we must go to Mars' . Sammy J's currently touring show is 'The Kangaroo Effect' which is on in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth in the next month or so. This years Melbourne…
A brief update confirming that the podcast will resume in March 2025. Episodes have already been recorded with Sammy J (on comedy debates), John Safran (eulogy for Father Bob Maguire) and Dana Rubin (speech collector, Speaking While Female). I'm also announcing the release of our documentary 'Ange & The Boss - Puskas in Australia'. After selling out at the Greek Film Festival (second most viewed…
Since 2006, Andrew Moran has been a baritone with Opera Australia in Sydney. When he visited Melbourne as part of a touring production of Puccini's Tosca , Tony spoke to him about a lovely eulogy he delivered for his father, Lawrie Moran, the man who inspired him to sing, in Surrey Hills, Melbourne, on 9 November 2023. You can read and listen to the eulogy on Speakola . To support the podcast and…
Comedy writer Declan Fay is Tony's Speakola guest. Declan was the co-writer of Ronny Chieng International Student and the hilarious Crossbread podcast, about a Christian rap duo who hit the big time, but don't happen to be Christians (stars Megan Washington and Chris Ryan). Declan was head writer for this year's AACTA Awards, and has been part of writers' rooms for Rove, Dirty Laundry Live,…
The cohost of ABC breakfast radio in Adelaide, Jules Schiller delivered a beautiful best man speech for his old comedy partner Tony Moclair when he married Kate in 2003. It's a Speakola favourite, and in this episode, Jules comes on in the aftermatch of a Married at First Sight best man speech abomination to talk about what makes a great best man speech, or wedding speech generally. Opening audio…
