Virginia Trioli

The award-winning journalist and broadcaster spends her mornings co-hosting ABC News Breakfast. Here’s what fills the rest of her days.

The last book I read was…

Good Arguments by champion Australian debater Bo Seo. In a time when no-one wants to hear any view that doesn’t conform to their own, Seo’s beautifully written and very witty book is a tonic: he’s coached the Harvard and Australian national debating teams and his argument that debating can teach us how to listen and disagree better is one I deeply connect with (okay, I was a school debater, too). Because if I can’t get an audience to engage in the meaningful contest of ideas then there’s no hope for us!

The podcast I listen to the most is…

A confession: I’m not really a podcast person. I find after hours of my own “blah blah blah” and many different people and voices in my head, I need silence or some music. But if

I do listen, I usually go back to Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History to be jolted awake by his challenge of seeing an old issue through a new perspective. Hmmm, I think there’s a theme developing here...

The last show I streamed was…

I’m semi-embarrassed to admit it but HBO’s Industry is enthralling: young money-market wannabes trading their way through deals I barely understand then partying the night away in fabulous London bars is a safe and thoroughly enjoyable way of vicariously making some very bad choices. It’s brilliantly scripted and gorgeous-looking. The GFC changed precisely nothing, by the way.

The app I spend the most time on is…

I’m not embarrassed to say that it’s 1stDibs, the luxury resale app, on which you could buy a 1900 Lalique vase for $25,000 or an original Dior gown for something similar. I don’t buy a single thing but it’s like getting a private tour of the great homes of the world and discovering the kinds of things that would be put out on the sidewalk of a Fifth Avenue apartment building if there was a hard-rubbish collection. It’s a lot of fun.