The Case for Optimism

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the author of seven books, including The Anatomist, Insomniac City, and How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic. His latest book, SWEAT: A History of Exercise, is a narrative nonfiction look at exercise from antiquity to the present. Hayes also recently completed the screenplay for a film adaptation of his memoir Insomniac City, to be produced by Brouhaha Entertainment. Hayes is a photographer as well, with credits including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times. A volume of his street photography, How New York Breaks Your Heart, was published by Bloomsbury. His photographs have been exhibited at the Steven Kasher Gallery and at The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), New York City. Hayes has lectured at NYU, UCSF, and University of Virginia, and has appeared at the Sydney Writers Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Times of India (Mumbai) LitFest, and other venues. He has served as a co-editor of his late partner Oliver Sacks’s posthumously published work, including Gratitude and The River of Consciousness. Hayes, 62, lives in New York.

Dr Lachlan McIver is a medical doctor, writer, activist and musician. He specialises in rural & remote medicine, tropical medicine and public health, and has a PhD in global health. Originally from Millaa Millaa in Far North Queensland, his travels to date have spanned almost one hundred countries. Lachlan has treated patients in some of the most isolated, volatile, resource-deprived communities on the planet, while grappling with complex health challenges such as climate change and antibiotic resistance. He has co-authored close to fifty scientific publications in medical journals and textbooks on topics ranging from environmental health and infectious diseases to anaesthetics and emergency medicine. He is an adjunct Associate Professor at James Cook University in Australia and the co-founder of the international non-profit organisation Rocketship Pacific Ltd, which focuses on improving health in Pacific island countries through stronger primary care. Lachlan and his wife live in Switzerland, where he is the Tropical Diseases & Planetary Health Advisor at the Geneva headquarters of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). In his spare time, Lachlan writes and records cheeky, ironic punk-rock music in his basement under the pseudonym The Serpent’s Nest. His first book, Life & Death Decisions, an explosive memoir that combines Lachlan’s personal journey with an urgent call to arms for action on some of the greatest but neglected health crises of our time, was published in September 2022.

Tracey Kirkland is a career news journalist, working in broadcast and print for more than 30 years, 25 of those at the ABC. She is currently the Continuous News Editor at ABC News Channel. Before that, she was the ABC's Senior Newsgathering Editor and has been a presenter, reporter or producer for all of the ABC's flagship news programs. Tracey is the co-editor of Pandemedia: How COVID changed Journalism.