About

Dr Leslie Cannold is an author, commentator, ethicist and activist. She has a BA from Wesleyan University in the USA, a Masters Degree in Medical Ethics from Monash University and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. Her books include the award-winning The Abortion Myth and What, No Baby? which made the Australian Financial Review’s top 101 books list. Her first novel, The Book of Rachael was published in 2011 and reprinted in 2012 by Text.

Leslie is an award-winning columnist, oft-noted as one of Australia’s leading public thinkers. She has been listed alongside Professor Peter Singer, Professor Gustav Nossal and Inga Clendinnen as one of Australia’s top 20 public intellectuals and recently made the Power Index’s Top Ten List of most influential brains. In 2013, she was listed alongside Prime Minister Julia Gillard as one of Melbourne’s most influential women. She was a finalist in the best science tweet contest for Science Week 2010 and in 2011 was honoured as Australian Humanist of the Year. Her 2012 Tedx talk has over 10,000 views and has widely shared on sites as influential and diverse as RHReality Check & Mamamia.

You can hear Leslie talk ethics on the morning show on ABC Central West NSW, with past regular ethics appearances including ABC 774 Melbourne, 702 Sydney, Brisbane radio 4BC and the 7pm Project on Network Ten. She reads the morning papers with Virginia Trioli & Michael Rowland on ABC News Breakfast, appears regularly on ABC TV’s The Drum and Q & A, and her columns have appeared in the Fairfax Press for nearly 20 years. Since the 1990’s, Leslie’s views have appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Crikey!, The Herald Sun, ABC The Drum Unleashed, The Courier Mail and the national broadsheet The Australian. Radio and TV appearances include ABC Radio National, triple j, Q & A, Today Tonight, The 7:30 Report, A Current Affair, The Catch-Up, The Einstein Factor, SBS Insight, 9am with David & Kim, and Lateline.

Leslie is an adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Gender, Leadership & Social Sustainability Research Unit of the Department of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at Monash University and is the research or community member of several Victorian committees, councils and boards, including the Department of Health’s Human Research Ethics Committee, the Consultative Council for Clinical Trial Research, the Physiotherapy Board and the Nursing & Midwifery Board. She mentors young thinkers and writers through the Writing Centre for Scholars and Researchers at the University of Melbourne and the Australian Society of Authors and as an ICMI exclusive speaker, entertains and provokes audiences on topics including leadership, professional ethics, ending stigma and work/life balance. Leslie is the Founding President of Reproductive Choice Australia and Pro Choice Victoria. She is a Dying with Dignity ambassador for law reform and co-founder of No Chicks, No Excuses.

Leslie is the lead vocalist for the Melbourne-based rock cover band Speedy Fish.