We’re going to go Down Under for this weekend’s newsletter. That’s because without some Australian ingenuity, you wouldn’t be receiving this newsletter…or reading any of our articles. In fact, we wouldn’t exist.

This past week marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of The Conversation. Our unique model of journalism was born in Australia in 2011 when co-founders Andrew Jaspan and Jack Rejtman came up with the idea of essentially treating a university like a newsroom. It was an interesting concept: academics would be the authors; journalist editors would help them shape their stories for a general audience. One of the early proponents of the concept was Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty. “What if instead of a journalist sitting across the desk firing questions at me, I had someone working with me to help me get my ideas out in a way everyone can understand,” he said a decade ago. This week, Doherty tweeted that The Conversation was “one of the best things we've done in Oz over the past decade.” Within a few years of the launch in Australia, the model moved to other parts of the world – including, in 2017, here in Canada. The Conversation now has editions in nine countries and reaches more than 30 million users each month.

So to celebrate the anniversary – and to honour our colleagues Down Under – I’ve assembled a number of stories that The Conversation Australia editors have chosen as their personal favourites from the last 10 years. And read the essay by Misha Ketchell, Editor & Executive Director of The Conversation Australia, who gives a detailed history of how this whole thing started.

Please join me in wishing a Happy Anniversary to our friends and colleagues in Australia. Have a great weekend and we’ll be back in your Inbox on Monday.