Plus61 Media presents: John Safran in conversation with Sally Warhaft

Writer/filmmaker JOHN SAFRAN's new book Puff Piece is a wild, hilarious and thought-provoking look into Big Tobacco and the vaping industry, and how words can be literally a matter of life and death.

To mark the book's release, Plus61J Media is hosting a rare conversation between Safran and leading Australian interviewer, writer and editor SALLY WARHAFT. 

Join them as they discuss Philip Morris's desperate bid to keep their tobacco business alive – all the while upending language and changing the meaning of words.  

John Safran

John Safran is a writer and filmmaker who always gets in too deep for his own good. His debut book, Murder in Mississippi, won the Ned Kelly Award for best true crime. His follow up, Depends What You Mean by Extremist, found him lost among radicals and was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards. His wild and hilarious documentaries, such as ‘John Safran vs God’ and ‘Jedis & Juggalos’, have received accolades from the Australian Film Institute and Rose d’Or Festival. His latest book is Puff Piece: How Philip Morris set vaping alight (and burned down the English language).

Sally Warhaft

Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year, a Wheeler Centre podcast about Australians' lives in the fog of the Covid-19 pandemic. She is a former editor of the Monthly magazine and the author of the bestselling book Well May We Say: The Speeches that Made Australia.

Sally is a regular host and commentator on ABC radio and has a PhD in anthropology. She did her fieldwork in Mumbai, India, living by the seashore with the local fishing community.