Profile: In Conversation with Caroline Baum (Part 3)

Walking away from Between the Lines in 1997 meant leaving behind what Caroline Baum considered the high point of her career. But her story was far from over.

In the third and final part of our special Fourth Estate profile, we pick up with Caroline back at the ABC, where a hoped-for return to the national broadcaster as Executive Producer of Radio National’s Arts Today instead became another difficult chapter in her career.

But what followed was also a period of reinvention.

Caroline reflects on becoming the founding editor of Good Reading magazine, her return to television, her time as Editorial Director at Booktopia, and the twists and turns of building a successful freelance career across print, radio and television.

Then came perhaps her most personal piece of work: Only: A Singular Memoir.

For the first time, Caroline put into print the truth of her complicated childhood and her turbulent relationships with both her parents, confronting memories she had carried with her for decades.

And now, with Life Sentences, Caroline has returned to what she has always done best: conversation. The podcast sees her speaking with biographers about the lives they spend years trying to understand—and, in a fitting full-circle moment, it is now coming to the ABC Listen app.

Caroline Baum joins Tina Quinn for the third and final part of a wide-ranging conversation about journalism, ambition, disappointment, reinvention, family—and what it takes to build a life and career on your own terms.

Catch up on parts one and two in the Fourth Estate podcast feed.

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