Closing Address: Anna Funder: Bears Out There

We closed out the 2025 Festival with an address from award-winning Australian writer Anna Funder.

As a writer who places being human at the centre of her work, Anna (Wifedom, Stasiland) has explored the best and worst that humans are capable of – surveillance, fascism and the tyranny of patriarchy – and the many forms of human courage and resistance. As artificial intelligence accelerates and patriarchy takes the gloves off, the world of bots and tech bros sees humans as raw material – free data they can profit from – in the same way that men have profited from women’s work for so long. How can we resist this exploitation of our humanity?

Hear how Anna sees the future of tech’s role in our lives in a formidable Closing Address.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

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