James Button is a former writer and editor for The Age, and worked extensively as the European correspondent.

He has won two Walkley awards for feature articles, and served as speech writer for former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

He is now a communications manager of the Grattan Institute.

This podcast is the seventh episode of Life After Journalism, a series of interviews with former journalists.

Matt Smith is a Master of Global Communications student at La Trobe University, and is upstart’s co-editor. You can follow him on Twitter: @nightlightguy.