A Lap of Caulfield Park
Episodes
28 episodes
David Smorgon, businessman and adviser
At its peak, in the early 1990s, Smorgon Consolidated Industries was one of the largest and most diverse family businesses in Australia.David Smorgon estimates that there were 25 family members across three generations working in the bu...
Julie Szego, journalist
On the final Lap of Caulfield Park podcast for 2021, Ashley Browne is joined by fellow journalist (and fellow The Age alumnus) for a broad discussion and occasional deep dive into the news and views of the day and the year.
Paul Fink, stroke survivor and podcaster
What is it like to be 34, having just had your first job, just starting your dream job and then having it all ripped out of your grasp by a shocking, life-altering event?In the latest Lap of Caulfield Park podcast, stroke surviv...
Cara Davies, entrepreneur
Talk to people in start-ups and one of the first questions is usually about the so-called ‘lightbulb’ moment. For Cara Davies, the fitness-obsessed CEO of Steppen, it was the regular trips to the gym, but then having no real clue wh...
Brae Sokolski, racehorse owner
What runs through the heart and mind of the owner of a runner in the Melbourne Cup?Brae Sokolski, the owner of race favourite Incentivise, walks Ashley Browne through what his lead-up to the 2021 Melbourne Cup race is likely to be. (Note...
Adam Faigen, restaurateur
Anyone who has worked in hospitality will tell you running a restaurant or cafe is a tough gig. Margins are small, customers are fickle and competition is fierce. Add a pandemic into the mix – including mandated closures – and it's proved near ...
Josh Kay, television researcher/producer
For more than two decades, Channel 7's sports broadcasters and presenters have come to rely on the knowledge of one producer: Josh Kay. Every weekend during the AFL football season – and every four years for the Olympics – Kay serves up pages o...
Libbi Gorr, broadcaster
If you were at home on a Friday night in the early 1990s, chances are you were watching Live and Sweaty. The popular sports television show launched the media careers of many a young Melbourne articled clerk turned comedian Libbi Gorr ...
Dean Cohen, Chief Executive Officer of Flying Fox
A decade ago, commerce student Dean Cohen began a regular soccer meetup with a boy who had autism. Although Dean's exposure to people with autism was limited, the experience changed him. Dean soon he became committed to creating a more inclusiv...
Kim Rubenstein, legal scholar and advocate
If you've been watching ABC's Q&A in recent years you might have come across the erudite legal scholar Professor Kim Rubenstein. Kim is an expert on citizenship and in recent years she's been called upon to explain the comple...
Bram Presser, writer
Dreadlocked and heavily pierced, Bram Presser cuts an unique figure in Melbourne's relatively staid Bagel Belt. The lawyer and criminologist made a name for himself in the late 90s and early 00s as frontman of the punk rock band Yidcore. The ba...
Jemima Montag, racewalker
A chance encounter with the sport of racewalking in Little Athletics changed Jemima Montag's life forever. By her own admission, Montag was "so bad" at other track and field events but racewalking called for something different: stamina, faultl...
Natalie King, curator and writer
In the mid 1980s, Natalie King was in her late teens; she was restless and searching. Uninspired by law school and unsure of what to do 'when she grew up', King undertook a gap year to Italy. The experience proved transformative. She fell in lo...
Michael Shafar, comedian
When Michael Shafar graduated from high school with a teriary entrance score of 99.95, a world of study options lay before him. The Mount Scopus College alumnus choose a challenging route: a dual degree in Law and Biomedical Science. For a peri...
William Mora, art dealer and son of Mirka Mora
Few people can lay claim to changing a city forever – it's food, art and culture – but Mirka Mora can. The Holocaust survivor fled war-torn France for Australia in 1951. Together with her husband, Georges, she brought a cosmopolitan sensibility...
Dr Leah Kaminsky, physician and writer
Leah Kaminsky is a rare breed: a medical doctor and an award-winning writer. She combines a career treating patients in a busy general practice clinic, with writing poetry, fiction and non-fiction. In fact, she's been doing it for over three de...
Lindy and Eddie Tamir, film festival directors
When Lindy and Eddie Tamir embarked on their first date together, aged 15, they went to the movies. Two abiding passions were sparked that day: cinema and a romantic partnership. After respective careers in fashion and property developmen...
Ashley Browne, sports journalist and podcast host
Few people get to realise their childhood dreams but Ashley Browne has. Our podcast host has spent much of his working life writing about Australian Rules football. His media career began at The Age newspaper but these days he's senior...
Adam McNicol, writer and publisher at Ten Bag Press
Adam McNicol has a gift for telling other people's stories. In his two decade-long journalism career, he's profiled everyone from elite AFL footballers to sheep farmers and pub owners. These days he heads up his own publishing house, Ten ...
Sara Kowal, criminal lawyer and Manager of Partnerships and Clinic for Eleos Justice
From defending Melbourne underworld identities to supporting the cases of those on death row in Asia, Sara Kowal's criminal law career has taken some intriguing turns. It was the execution of drug couriers Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers in Mal...
Ralph Horowitz, horse racing analyst and podcast producer
When Ralph Horowitz dropped out of high school to pursue his dream of working in the horse racing industry, his Plan B was become a tradie. But after several years as a horse strapper at Caulfield Racecourse, Ralph changed tracks an...
Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute
Professor Sharon Lewin knows a thing or two about infectious diseases. She's devoted her career to the study and treatment of HIV, and currently leads the world-renowed Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. Yet as 2020 began, even...
Danny Ben Moshe, filmmaker
UK-born, Caulfield-based Danny Ben Moshe stumbled into a career making documentaries with his 2005 film The Buchenwald Ball. Since then he's crafted films about rabbis in the Australian outback, a Chinese disident, Jews in Bollywood an...
Pip Mushin, actor and director
After getting his big break in Baz Luhrmann's cult classic, Strictly Ballroom, Pip Mushin carved out a solid career in film, TV and eventually theatre. In recent years he's moved off-stage, and was resident director of musical The ...
Keren Ludski, Chief Executive Officer of Red Nose Australia
In 1998, Keren Ludski was busy leading her successful biscuit brand Kez's Kitchen and raising three young children, when tragedy struck – her 12-week-old son Ben died of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Keren sold up her business a...