Conversations

By ABC Radio

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Category: Relationships

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Reviews: 10

Harry
 Oct 25, 2021


 May 9, 2021


 Aug 17, 2020


 Jul 18, 2020

Kara
 Mar 25, 2020

Description

Spend an hour in someone else's life. Conversations draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met.

Episode Date
Deserter, archaeologist and spy – the extraordinary adventures of Charles Masson
54:48
Dr Edmund Richardson tells the story of the East India Company deserter who went in search of one of Alexander the Great's lost cities, in Afghanistan (R)
Jun 30, 2022
Taming the Black Dog, and burnout
52:03
Gordon Parker is the founder of the Black Dog Institute, which works to remove the stigma around mental illness. His latest focus is the phenomenon of burnout at home and at work (R)
Jun 29, 2022
Finding a dad, zoology and a life-threatening illness
52:28
Ben Bravery tells the story of his childhood in Logan, Queensland, how he went from a career at KFC to studying male satin bowerbirds and why being a patient led him to study medicine
Jun 28, 2022
My grandfather and his pet lion
26:14
Author Victoria Mackinlay with the story of how her grandfather, Francis came to have a pet lion, as a gift from an Indian Maharaja
Jun 27, 2022
The art of taking sperm from a rhino
23:20
Dr Tamara Keeley uses reproductive technology to help save rhinos, Tasmanian devils and koalas from extinction
Jun 27, 2022
Richie Ramone and the record shop
52:28
No, he's not 'that' Richie Ramone, but this Richie Ramone's passion for punk is just as fierce.
Jun 24, 2022
Lisa Curry on winning gold and losing Jaimi
50:18
Swimmer and entrepreneur Lisa on her life in and out of the pool, and how the loss of her daughter Jaimi has changed her
Jun 23, 2022
The Needle in the Tofu
00:00
Zen priest and writer Ruth Ozeki takes us into world brimming with the voices of people and household objects, and her own experience of hearing her late father's voice in her ear (R)
Jun 22, 2022
The Chloroformist — extraordinary Doctor Joseph Clover
53:39
Christine Ball is an anaesthetist at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne who chanced upon an old casebook of a doctor named Joseph Clover (R)
Jun 21, 2022
A daring escape from Vietnam, and a brilliant career
51:10
Anh Nguyen Austen's family fled Vietnam by sea in 1982, on a wooden boat bound for the Philippines. When a once-in-a-century storm struck in South China Sea, they thought all hope was lost
Jun 20, 2022
Howard Jacobson and the rocky path to writing
53:31
The Booker prize winning English novelist on disappointing his parents, the time before he was a writer, and his gift for unhappiness
Jun 17, 2022
Shanna Whan's best sober life
52:15
When country woman Shanna Whan hit rock bottom in 2014 after a lifelong battle with alcohol addiction, she began a grassroots movement to tackle how we talk about booze in the bush
Jun 16, 2022
RAF Pilot Frank Dell's story of survival in Nazi occupied Holland
52:12
Frank Dell survived being shot down over Nazi Germany, with the aid of courageous Dutch families and resistance fighters (R)
Jun 15, 2022
The turtle effect — their mysterious allure and surprising history
47:51
Louise Pryke returns with a cultural history of turtles, from ancient times to modern day, and from turtle tears to Al Capone, Lou attempts to understand why they are such a widely-loved creature (R)
Jun 14, 2022
Understanding Russia's 1917 Revolution and Civil War
50:24
Historian Antony Beevor depicts the conflict through the eyes of ordinary Russian workers to officers on the battlefield, to crystalise one of the most influential and devastating wars of the modern era
Jun 13, 2022
Catherine Martin: making Elvis and loving Baz
52:03
How a fashion-loving misfit from Sydney took over Hollywood with husband Baz Luhrmann, winning more Oscars than any other Australian
Jun 10, 2022
Maggie Dent — raising strong girls
53:34
Guiding daughters to become confident young woman in an age of smartphones and early sexualisation is tough. The parenting expert says in this complex arena, we can't leave these lessons to chance
Jun 09, 2022
INTRODUCING — Dig: Sirens Are Coming
04:17
Three crooked cops. Four courageous women. A decades-long power struggle that remains full of mysteries to this day.
Jun 08, 2022
The cerebral cartographer
46:48
Professor George Paxinos has mapped more parts of the brain than anyone else in the world. He's been creating atlases of this most mysterious organ for more than 40 years, and is still journeying into unchartered cerebral territory
Jun 08, 2022
Michelle versus the Atlantic Ocean
52:04
From working in a bank and behind a bar, to rowing solo across an ocean, the story of Michelle Lee's remarkable transformation and the voyage which made her reconsider her ideas about being alone (R)
Jun 07, 2022
Artificial Intelligence — a moral future
47:09
Professor Toby Walsh is a world leader in AI research. He asks questions like, 'can we train machines to be fair?' and 'how do we resist the spread of lethal autonomous weapons?' His job is making sure the future of AI is for better, not worse
Jun 06, 2022
Putting lipstick on a great white shark
53:51
Rodney Fox was torn apart by a great white shark and it took 462 stitches to put him back together again. He was then instrumental in filming Jaws, the most terrifying shark film of all time. But over time, this salty seadog has become the apex predator's fiercest protector
Jun 03, 2022
The Jane Austen cure
50:01
After 50 years of marriage Ruth Wilson took some time alone. In a yellow cottage with a dogwood tree in the garden, she began re-reading the novels of Jane Austen. Eventually, Austen's heroines helped her seize a second chance at happiness
Jun 02, 2022
Gillian Bell — life and cake
51:29
Gillian has the best job in the world — travelling overseas to bake sumptuous and heartfelt wedding cakes, using foraged and fresh produce to tell a couple's story through taste, texture and fragrance. Cake has been a staple in Gillian's life, through immigration, adventure and loss
Jun 01, 2022
Megan Davis: the road to the Uluru Statement from the Heart
52:25
Megan Davis was raised as a 'Queensland Rail kid', then in a book-loving household in a housing commission home. She grew up to become a lawyer at the UN, then began a history-making process of helping Australia's First Nations people speak the truth to power (R)
May 31, 2022
Mawunyo's life in love, journalism and hip hop
47:15
Mawunyo Gbogbo grew up in a church-going Ghanaian-Australian family in the mining town of Muswellbrook, NSW. As a young woman she grabbed the chance to further her media career in New York City at the Bible of Hip Hop, The Source
May 30, 2022
Wendy McCarthy's bold life
52:05
How a sheltered girl who grew up on a soldier settlement farm in country New South Wales grew up to become a feminist trailblazer
May 27, 2022
Upside down in Bass Strait
53:06
Ocean racing navigator Will Oxley first learned his trade through celestial navigation, using a sextant and the stars. He then began ocean racing around the world, and in 1998, he found himself upside down in a storm-wrecked Bass Strait (R)
May 26, 2022
Briana, Max and Freddy: love, trains and mouth music
48:57
Briana Blackett was a journalist working in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to his name. When Max was diagnosed with autism, and in time her second son Freddy was too, she left Doha to begin an entirely different life
May 25, 2022
The caving time lord
50:28
Dr Kira Westaway is a geochronologist who places modern and ancient humans in context by dating things found in caves. For Kira, how we understand ourselves now, is tied up in the past
May 24, 2022
The hunt for Hitler's horses
52:08
Art detective Arthur Brand met neo-Nazis, billionaire collectors and underground art dealers on his hunt for the two enormous bronze horse sculptures once owned by Hitler. It was all part of his quest to find the criminal masterminds attempting to sell the artwork on the black market (R)
May 23, 2022
Healing the grieving heart
50:57
Wendy Liu has spent many years right up close to death. As a forensic counsellor she worked with families who had lost someone to an accident or violence, and as a grief counsellor she supports people surviving all kinds of losses. Wendy says her work brings her a keener appreciation of life
May 20, 2022
Music, mothering and Martha Wainwright
50:14
The folk singer on the songs in her blood and the intergenerational conflict between professional creativity and family
May 19, 2022
Oumuamua's secrets
51:30
Avi Loeb was Harvard's top astronomer when he became intrigued by reports of a pancake-shaped object the size of a football field hurtling through our solar system (R)
May 18, 2022
A history of war
51:18
Historian Gwynne Dyer on his search to understand whether war is embedded in human nature, and why things are changing, despite the world becoming less violent over the past seven decades
May 17, 2022
Anita Jacoby uncovers painful secrets hidden by her loving father
50:22
Anita Jacoby has spent decades uncovering the truth about other people, but when she turned the lens on her own father, she was shocked
May 16, 2022
Building a school for the world’s poorest children — Gemma Sisia's story
55:08
A donation of land and $10 was all Australian-born Gemma needed to establish The School of St Jude in Tanzania (R)
May 13, 2022
Tom Tilley: losing my religion
53:21
Tom Tilley was raised in a loving Pentecostal family, but as he grew up he began to question the church's teachings, especially when it came to speaking in tongues
May 12, 2022
Searching for Margot
44:12
When teacher and actor Ned Manning lost his mother when he was 12 years old, he knew little about her life. So as an adult, he set off to re-imagine the life she shared with his father through WWII
May 11, 2022
The audacious athletes who cheated their way to the top
51:42
From dodgy marathon runners to table tennis stars who 'dope' their paddles, there are few sports which can claim immunity from cheating
May 10, 2022
Louisa and the King of Kowloon
55:10
Louisa Lim with a history of the city of Hong Kong, including the true story of Tsang Tsou Choi, the 1950s graffiti artist who became a cultural icon
May 09, 2022
Teddy Tahu Rhodes and the letter that changed his life
51:10
He's one of the world's most acclaimed opera stars, but Teddy Tahu Rhodes did everything he could, for a very long time, to avoid his destiny on stage
May 06, 2022
The hunt for the world’s largest owl
51:06
Wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght on his adventurous quest to save the rare, shaggy fish owls of Russia's Far East (R)
May 05, 2022
Maggie Dent — helping teenage boys grow into good men
52:15
Maggie grew up around boys, then raised four sons of her own. Now she helps parents understand the changes teenage boys are going through as they cross the bridge from boyhood to manhood (R)
May 04, 2022
The ghosts of Babylonia
51:10
Dr Irving Finkel on the ghosts who joined the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians in their day to day lives
May 03, 2022
Jackie Huggins: my father Jack
50:31
Jackie Huggins with the story of her father Jack, who was a surf lifesaver, a rugby league player, a soldier taken prisoner in the Fall of Singapore, and the first Indigenous Australian to work in the post office
May 02, 2022
Tony Bull is looking at the stars
49:25
Tony spent three decades in and out of jail for property crimes and safecracking. When he joined an unusual club inside Hobart's Risdon Prison, he found his voice for the first time. Then a few years ago, on a fishing trawler far out to sea, he began the painful process of changing his life
Apr 29, 2022
Sylvie and the magical stew
47:18
Writer Sylvie Bigar thought her assignment was simple — cover the history of cassoulet, a French ancestral dish. What she discovered was a world of passion, disagreement and her own family's complicated tale
Apr 28, 2022
What the Totem Pole gave Paul
50:33
Ever since he was a boy, Paul Pritchard has been fascinated with climbing rocks. His compulsion took a terrible and beautiful turn on a matchstick of rock that sticks out of the Southern Ocean in Tasmania
Apr 27, 2022
Lost at sea: losing faith as a Navy Chaplain
51:16
How the Royal Australian Navy's top chaplain lost his faith
Apr 26, 2022
Two spoons and a dugout canoe — the story of Jock McLaren
51:16
Tom Gilling with the story of how a Scottish-born soldier named Jock McLaren became one of Australia's greatest World War II guerrilla fighters (R)
Apr 25, 2022
The green suitcase and the secret family
52:34
Betty O'Neill's father disappeared when she was a baby. Decades later, she opened a suitcase in Poland to find a series of clues to his secret life (R)
Apr 22, 2022
Don Winslow — private eye, safari guide and inside the narco wars
51:30
The US crime novelist on his unlikely career progression, and how he uses his books as a way of showing the human stories behind the headlines of the opioid epidemic in America
Apr 21, 2022
Di Morrissey and the tragedy on Lovett Bay
52:22
Di Morrissey grew up in a tiny village on the water, only accessible by rowboat, with film star Chips Rafferty and poet Dorothea Mackellar as her neighbours. When she was a young woman, a tragedy on the bay altered her life (R)
Apr 20, 2022
Maddy, the shipwreck mermaid
53:13
Dr Maddy McAllister's job as a marine archaeologist involves diving into the deep to uncover the artefacts and human stories sunk in shipwrecks
Apr 19, 2022
Meryl Tankard: dancing beyond ballet
49:19
How a former ballerina revolutionised Australia's dance landscape (R)
Apr 18, 2022
My brother, our farm, and seeking the source of consciousness — Mark Solms
52:12
When he was a child in South Africa, Professor Mark Solms watched his older brother sustain a terrible brain injury. He then began his own path, to understand how a person's brain shapes them. CW: description of a medical procedure (R)
Apr 15, 2022
Jason Om shines a light on his family secrets
53:04
When journalist Jason Om turned his skills towards his own family story he began to understand the real story of his perfectionist Buddhist Cambodian father and his Catholic Eurasian mother, who was stricken with an inexplicable sadness
Apr 14, 2022
Pack ice, seal fat and the big slide: Tim and Ernest's incredible journey
51:00
Tim Jarvis on his adventures following in the footsteps of explorer Ernest Shackleton, who tried valiantly to cross Antarctica from sea to sea, from 1914-17
Apr 13, 2022
Sara El Sayed: love, tradition and rebellion
53:05
Sara El Sayed on growing up Arab in South-East Queensland, while juggling conflicting expectations from her father to be a good Muslim girl, and from her grandmother who encouraged her to write, and not marry
Apr 12, 2022
Why chronic pain is like a bilby in a bathtub
52:15
Clinical pain neuroscientist Dr Tasha Stanton explains her studies into the power of the mind when it comes to coping with injury and illness
Apr 11, 2022
Taking your cat for a walk and why dogs never stop loving — Jeffrey Masson
52:01
The bestselling author explores animal behaviour and grief — the loss we feel when a beloved pet dies, and how other species understand death (R)
Apr 08, 2022
Indira Naidoo: losing a sister and finding healing
53:23
After her younger sister died suddenly, broadcaster Indira Naidoo's world was shattered. Then she turned to her urban landscape for solace (CW: mentions suicide)
Apr 07, 2022
The unusual life of Elizabeth Macarthur
50:33
Novelist Kate Grenville on the story of love, grief and mental illness she unearthed when she revisited the letters of colonial gentlewoman Elizabeth Macarthur
Apr 06, 2022
The world-record-breaking sheep shearer turned outback cop
40:00
Laurie Bateman went on an intense, lonely 18-month journey to become a Guinness World Record-holding sheep shearer, but it's not the accomplishment the Kamilaroi man is most proud of
Apr 05, 2022
Hannah Gadsby and the point of no return
52:27
The Australian comedian on Nanette, her 'farewell' to stand up comedy; being diagnosed with autism as an adult; and on Douglas, the show and the dog (R)
Apr 04, 2022
Sian Prior: reckoning with childlessness
53:13
Sian Prior with the story of the years of longing and loss which marked her quest to become a mother, and what happened when she found herself childless at the age of 50
Apr 01, 2022
Patrick Gale's family secrets
50:13
English author Patrick Gale finds inspiration in the endless sunset beyond his Cornish farm, old family letters and a pair of bearskin gloves from his childhood dress-up box
Mar 31, 2022
A magical life: Arthur Coghlan
52:15
Arthur made his name escaping from a locked 44-gallon drum in a pool of sharks, and his death-defying escapes from the 1970s soon earned him the title of 'Australia's Houdini' (R)
Mar 30, 2022
Feeding the body, mind and spirit: J.C Faulk
46:11
J.C Faulk gives out over a million kilos of food each year to the hungry in his Baltimore food program. He tells how his own life story has guided him to the work
Mar 29, 2022
The hunt for mutant waves
43:13
Big wave surfer Kerby Brown's obsessive quest to find 'slab waves' to ride, far off the Australian coast has almost cost him his life
Mar 28, 2022
The mystery of the eel
53:27
Author Patrik Svensson was just a boy when his dad introduced him to the wonders of this enigmatic fish — their birthplace in the Sargasso Sea, their powers of navigation, and the ongoing secret of their reproduction
Mar 25, 2022
The poker-playing cardiologist
51:01
As a child, before she escaped communist Hungary, Bo Remenyi had no ambitions. But when she got to Australia all of that changed. She's gone from cruising the casino floor as a high-stakes professional poker player, to saving the lives of children in remote Australia.  
Mar 24, 2022
Searching for who betrayed Anne Frank
52:27
War crimes investigator Brendan Rook on the case that was 'more frozen than cold', and his years with the International Criminal Court, scrutinising Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi
Mar 23, 2022
Barlinnie, the Gorbals and me
51:39
Thriller writer Helen Fitzgerald on her life as a social worker inside some of Scotland's toughest prisons (R)
Mar 22, 2022
Lindy Lee and the only game in town
54:27
As a Chinese-Australian girl growing up in the era of the White Australia Policy, artist Lindy Lee always felt that she didn't belong. When she began studying Zen Buddhism, some big shifts began to happen in her life, and her art
Mar 21, 2022
How Australia built the internet of the 19th century
46:11
Northern Territory historian Derek Pugh recalls the 36,000 poles, undersea cable and sheer ingenuity that went into the greatest feat of engineering in 19th century Australia — the Overland Telegraph Line
Mar 18, 2022
Raised in a cult
48:51
Serafina Tane was born into a religious cult on New Zealand's South Island. The cult leader was a charismatic but abusive man named Douglas Metcalfe, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ (R)
Mar 17, 2022
How Indigenous elders read the stars
54:25
Dr Duane Hamacher on his study of Indigenous Astronomy, which covers 65,000 years of observation, deduction, and experimentation
Mar 16, 2022
Mark and the rainbow connection
39:51
Mark Trevorrow on how the music of composers Anthony Newley and Paul Williams influenced the course of his life and began the evolution of his alter ego, Bob Downe
Mar 15, 2022
Dara McAnulty and the beauty of nature
44:09
The young naturalist shares his deep connection to the wild landscapes and creatures of Northern Ireland. Dara's first book has been highly awarded, and is all the more exceptional for his being just seventeen years of age (R)
Mar 14, 2022
The cannabis grow house, Dartmoor prison, and making amends
50:05
When Kim Crotty was locked up in Dartmoor prison for growing marijuana, his two young sons were bereft. He began writing bedtime stories for them from his cell, as a way to reach them
Mar 11, 2022
Diego Garijo — fighter and lover
51:18
The Mexican-American Mixed Martial artist and bare knuckle boxer on being smuggled into the US as a child in a pickup truck, and how almost losing his eye turned him toward the art of the city of his birth
Mar 10, 2022
The queen of Chinese cookery
51:14
At 90, Elizabeth Chong recalls the familiar abundance of the Queen Victoria Market of the 1930s, how her father popularised the dim sim in Australia and the 37,000 people she has taught to cook
Mar 09, 2022
Eliza Hull: playing from the heart
53:25
Musician Eliza Hull has a condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth which affects her mobility, and for many years she tried to hide it. But after she had a daughter, she became proud of her disability
Mar 08, 2022
The last keeper of Boston Light
47:13
One of America's oldest lighthouses was built in 1716 and survived the Revolutionary War. Its first two keepers met dismal ends, but Sally Snowman was always enamoured by it. She is the first woman to care for the lighthouse, and now she will be the last
Mar 07, 2022
PRESENTS – Dig: The Ring In
44:15
In 2019 Peter "Jack the Insider" Hoysted told Richard Fidler about one of the biggest scandals in Australian horseracing history on Conversations. The Fine Cotton Ring In was a plan to swap a slow horse with a much faster look-alike, involving a motley crew of small-time crooks, a couple of horses and a hell of a lot of women's hair dye. Now that story comes to life in Dig: The Ring In. Dig is a history podcast with a fresh take on an iconic story from Australia's not-so-glorious past. The full series is ready to binge so listen to the first episode here then find Dig: The Ring In wherever you get your podcasts.
Mar 04, 2022
Jodi and the people with possibilities
51:21
'Love on the Spectrum' star Jodi Rodgers on her life as a sexologist and relationship counsellor for people with Autism, and her unexpected chapter in reality TV (R)
Mar 04, 2022
Agent Sonya, Queen of Spies
51:04
Ben Macintyre with the true tale of 'Agent Sonya'; a housewife with 3 children and a Soviet super-spy. Sonya trained Communist rebels in Manchuria in the 1930s, arranged a plot to kill Hitler, and smuggled the plans for the atomic bomb to the Soviets  
Mar 03, 2022
Tana Douglas — a life inside the rock 'n' roll circus - Part 2
49:05
In 1973, Tana Douglas found her calling. She became the world's first woman roadie in rock and roll, touring with AC/DC, Iggy Pop and Elton John *CW: discussion of drugs and drug use (R)
Mar 02, 2022
Tana Douglas — a life inside the rock 'n' roll circus — Part 1
45:32
In 1973, Tana Douglas found her calling. She became the world's first woman roadie in rock and roll, touring with AC/DC, Iggy Pop and Elton John *CW: discussion of drugs and drug use (R)
Mar 01, 2022
Living to 120 and beyond
51:31
Biologist David Sinclair believes aging is a disease, and we can find a cure for it
Feb 28, 2022
The fashion bloodline
53:31
Claudia Chan Shaw’s life has been both bizarre and exquisite, moving from chronicling a man who collected his own belly button fluff, to unearthing her family's deep connection to fashion, told in three acts
Feb 25, 2022
Nourishing the heart
52:16
Psychiatrist Dr Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding the mystery of human nature has driven him since he was a young doctor, and has led him down a strange path into examining the love lives of philosophers
Feb 24, 2022
From child preacher to wicked defector: leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses
50:24
Naomi Mourra grew up as a door-knocking Jehovah's Witness and closeted lesbian. At 21, she realised Doomsday was not upon her, and left the religion for good
Feb 23, 2022
A restaurant named Parwana — Afghan treasure in Adelaide
48:09
Durkhanai Ayubi and her family keep alive the stories and flavours they carried to Australia from Afghanistan, in the dining room of their 'accidental' and thriving restaurant (R)
Feb 22, 2022
Delia and the monkey
51:22
Iain McCalman on the life of adventurer Delia Akeley, and her profound connection with a vervet monkey she named 'J.T'
Feb 21, 2022
Taking the drop: the life of a freediver
51:31
Freediver Amber Bourke on the serene, otherworldly experience of floating down through crystal-clear water, with no oxygen tanks or fins, 70 metres below the surface of the sea
Feb 18, 2022
Yuri Gagarin, Cold War Cosmonaut
52:21
Stephen Walker with the thrilling, surreal story of the loyal communist and father of two who became the first person to journey into space, in a capsule perched on top of a modified Soviet R-7 missile
Feb 17, 2022
Love, grief and discipline: raising working dogs
51:10
Dog trainer Neil McDonald and cattle wrangler Joni Hall on their loyal, emotionally intelligent charges: outback working dogs
Feb 16, 2022
Peter Garrett: rock and roll changemaker
53:03
Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett on his life in music, environmental action, and politics, and his life now on The Oils final tour
Feb 15, 2022
The case of the unknown sailor
47:01
DNA expert Dr Jeremy Austin on his 14-year quest to help solve one of Australia's enduring military mysteries: the identity of the 'unknown sailor'
Feb 14, 2022
The Cloudspotter
46:33
Gavin Pretor-Pinney loved gazing at clouds as a child. As an adult, his fascination with clouds drew him from England to Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria to see the Morning Glory, the world's most spectacular cloud formation (R)
Feb 11, 2022
Kate Forsyth on the intrepid and curious Charlotte Waring Atkinson
51:25
Charlotte was Australia's first children's author. She came to the colony of NSW from London in 1826, and now her trailblazing, tragic and dramatic life story has been written by her descendants, Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell (R)
Feb 10, 2022
Mimi and Viggo — a love story
49:16
Mimi Wellisch on the tumultuous path that led her back to where their story started — a Danish milkbar in 1964
Feb 09, 2022
Love and loss, in Watsonia
42:13
Damian Callinan with the grand love story of his parents Adrian and Kathleen, who met in 1946 at a football match. They were together for 62 years until a ridiculous, terrible accident brought their lives together to a close
Feb 08, 2022
The story of the voice
51:48
John Colapinto was singing a Beatles song in front of Bette Midler when he injured his vocal cords. The experience set him on the path to investigating the miracle of the human voice
Feb 07, 2022
Meet Ash Barty's mindset coach — Ben Crowe
53:04
Ben works with athletes including the Richmond Football Club and surfer Steph Gilmore in a counter-intuitive way. He helps them own their flaws, and find an intrinsic purpose so they can take both wins and losses in their stride. Ash Barty credits Ben with helping her become World Number 1 (R)
Feb 04, 2022
Lisa Leong: how fascinating!
51:33
Lisa Leong on her colourful and curious working life in radio, and how a personal crisis after the birth of her daughter upended almost everything she knew
Feb 03, 2022
The rise of the Super Bilby
50:27
Ecologist Katherine Moseby is helping Australia's bilbies, quolls, and stick-nest rats evolve to become tougher, faster and stronger, so they can survive the looming threat of more than 2 million feral cats
Feb 02, 2022
The hermit of Wild Rivers
45:13
Mark May was a brilliant but troubled young man who made a decision to leave society altogether in the 1980s. He descended into a remote gorge in NSW and survived in the bush by hunting and living in rough camps for 35 years. Writer Tom Patterson tells his story
Feb 01, 2022
Spymasters and secret agents: the birth of ASIO
52:12
Historian Phillip Deery on how ASIO recruited ordinary people as secret agents, including a 'nice widow from Adelaide' named Anne Neill
Jan 31, 2022
Saving lives with Aunty Val
53:06
Dr Andrew Browning first went to Ethiopia as a young medical student. He has now spent nearly two decades working with Africa’s most disadvantaged women (CW: Andrew discusses the medical condition and treatment of some of his patients. Listener discretion required)
Jan 28, 2022
From arachnophobe to spider woman
49:03
Dr Samantha Nixon used to be a quivering mess at the sight of a huntsman in the house. Today, she catches, cares for and milks tarantulas, funnel web and trapdoor spiders in a normal working day
Jan 27, 2022
Being Sharon Stone's stunt double
53:00
Ky Furneaux spent 16 years in Hollywood as a professional stunt performer, falling, fighting and breaking glass on cue. She has managed to make her next life even more extreme — surviving in the wild, sometimes with just a knife, often naked
Jan 25, 2022
A father and his sons, across The 'Strez'
50:01
When Justin Carter crossed the Strzelecki Track by motorbike with his brother Chris and his aging father Neville, he knew he was in for an adventure. But then the odyssey changed his family in an unexpected way
Jan 24, 2022
Painter Wendy Sharpe on her Jewish roots
49:19
When Wendy Sharpe read her late father's diaries, she began a new exploration of her Jewish family's history, including the story of her psychic grandmother, Bessie
Jan 21, 2022
The ballad of Ally Colquitt
48:01
When stripper and tattoo artist Ally Colquitt was arrested for drug dealing, it became a turning point. Inside her jail cell, she began reading, drawing, and embarked on the painstaking process of rebuilding her life from its ashes (CW: mentions suicide, grief and loss, drug use)
Jan 20, 2022
Searching for the Countess of Kirribilli
51:07
Joyce Morgan with the story of Elizabeth Von Arnim, the Australian-born literary sensation who captivated Victorian London
Jan 19, 2022
The butterfly effect — collecting in the Torres Strait
43:24
Entomologist Dr Trevor Lambkin says the main thing butterfly collectors need is a sense of adventure — something he has honed over 40 years of travel to the Torres Strait
Jan 18, 2022
Steve Killelea and the measure of world peace
51:00
After an early life spent surfing around the world, an Australian businessman got serious about his career and created a global tool for measuring peace in every country, and has since been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize
Jan 17, 2022
Best of 2021 - Paul Livingston
52:27
Paul is a musician, author and performer best known for his comedic alter-ego, Flacco. In recent years he's joined an eclectic band of people who ring the bells at his local church tower in inner Sydney. He's also been working as a volunteer, listening to and writing down the stories of people at the end of their lives (R)
Dec 17, 2021
Best of 2021 - Christian Wright
51:21
Midwife Christian Wright with tales of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land, helping Yolŋu women birth their babies (R)
Dec 16, 2021
Best of 2021 - Mandy McCracken
51:34
Mandy's life changed completely in 2013 when she fell terribly ill with sepsis. Since then, with prosthetic replacements for all four limbs, she has learned to walk and drive again, and she doesn't want applause for living her life like everyone else (CW: mention of suicide) (R)
Dec 15, 2021
Best of 2021 - Sue-Ellen Kusher
52:05
When Sue-Ellen Kusher was growing up in Brisbane suburbia, behind closed doors her Dad was an ASIO spy, training his three children as foot soldiers in the Cold War (R)
Dec 14, 2021
Best of 2021 - Charlie King
51:54
Gurindji man and ABC presenter Charlie knew a little about his mum's life story as he grew up. But after she died, he began to reckon with what she had lived through as a child (CW: contains mention of ATSI people who have died; mentions of sexual violence) (R)
Dec 13, 2021
The animal that walked into my life — story collection
52:29
A cat, a hawk, a monkey, a crow and a lop-eared rabbit: animals who walked into the lives of five people leaving the humans to wonder, 'What am I to this creature?' (R)
Dec 10, 2021
A very William McInnes Christmas
38:25
William returns to reminisce about the Christmases of his childhood and his brief but brilliant stint as a department store Santa (R)
Dec 09, 2021
Ann Patchett's three fathers, her writing and her secret power
50:30
American novelist Ann Patchett reflects on the men who made her, going a year without shopping and her power to make herself invisible
Dec 08, 2021
Podcast extra: If computers could speak
20:32
As a child, Jamie Teh wanted a computer of his own so badly, he used to pretend, using his dad's business calculator. As an adult, he used this obsession to give online access to more than 100,000 blind computer users around the world, for free
Dec 07, 2021
Mick and the life-changing friendship
51:26
Michael Curran met his friend Jamie at a music camp for blind children. Within a few years they had invented a free software to give more than 100,000 blind people around the world the power to use the internet
Dec 07, 2021
Adam Zwar's twelve summers of cricket
48:35
The Australian actor and writer measures the major events of his life against big moments in Australian cricket, including the nadir of his performing life when he was cast as an angry chicken
Dec 06, 2021
The unusual life of Rima Hadchiti
50:13
At 100cm tall, Rima is one of the smallest people in the world. But throughout her life, she's demanded to be heard (R)
Dec 03, 2021
The case for constitutional monarchies
49:23
Dennis Altman is an avowed Australian republican, but he can see the use of constitutional monarchies in times of transition. The question is: do they have the ability to withstand pressure from autocrats?
Dec 02, 2021
Cradle Mountain's great love story
51:01
Kate Legge traces the lives of pioneering naturalists Kate Cowle and Gustav Weindorfer in Tasmania's sublime wilderness (R)
Dec 01, 2021
Jess Hill: a new kind of power
53:18
Jess Hill was a teenage magazine founder, a travel writer, a Middle East correspondent and a survivor of serious illness before she wrote her groundbreaking book on domestic violence
Nov 30, 2021
John Grisham: lawyering, writing and innocence
49:10
Novelist John Grisham with his life story; from his work as a trial lawyer, to writing, and how he became involved in a movement using DNA testing to exonerate the innocent
Nov 29, 2021
Abbas Nazari: After the Tampa
53:24
Abbas Nazari was a 7 year old refugee on a sinking fishing boat in the Indian Ocean when he was rescued by the MV Tampa, just as Australia closed its doors to asylum seekers. After being given a home in New Zealand, Abbas grew up to become a Fulbright scholar
Nov 26, 2021
Roxanne McDonald's deadly life on stage
51:59
The Mandandanji, Darambal and Wangan woman's career in theatre has taken her from Roma, in outback Queensland, around the world, with a brief break as a guard at a children's hospital
Nov 25, 2021
The country kid economist
49:32
When Ken Henry was starting out in his career, Australia was known as the 'miracle economy'. Economics got inside him and Ken eventually helped the country sail through the 2008 global financial crisis
Nov 24, 2021
The story of English
51:09
Linguist Kate Burridge with the story of how Old English began on a small, damp island on the periphery of the world
Nov 23, 2021
Harry and the monster croc
49:15
Harry Bowman tells adventurous tales from his three decades driving tour boats in the crocodile-infested Adelaide River, including the day he saved the life of a croc named Brutus (R)
Nov 22, 2021
Lioness Liz and her surfer boys
52:08
Elizabeth Osborne with tales of struggle, love and grief from raising her five kids as a single mum, and the moment she saw her youngest, World Champion surfer Mick Fanning survive a shark attack on live TV
Nov 19, 2021
The Beatles, Brian Epstein and me
51:15
Joanne Petersen recalls working as a personal assistant to The Beatles' manager, the freedom of the Swinging Sixties in London and eloping to the Bahamas with a Bee Gee
Nov 18, 2021
The brave lives of Charmian and Neen
53:31
Nadia Wheatley with the stories of two women ahead of their time: the writer Charmian Clift and her own mother Nina Watkin
Nov 17, 2021
The voice of a child who can’t speak
54:03
Samantha Wheeler’s daughter Charlotte has Rett Syndrome, a rare ‘locked-in’ disorder (R)
Nov 16, 2021
The trailblazer: Wendy Harmer
52:31
Much-loved broadcaster and writer Wendy was born with a cleft lip and palate, into a struggling family. As a young journalist she saw an anarchic cabaret show which changed the course of her life
Nov 15, 2021
Growing kindness, humanising medicine
56:12
When Dr Catherine Crock saw her young leukemia patients suffering, she knew music would ease their pain, but she didn't know that years later she would be on the receiving end of the healing power of melody
Nov 12, 2021
Surviving Currowan
53:17
Bronwyn Adcock with the story of one of the most terrifying episodes of Australia’s 2019 Black Summer: the Currowan fire
Nov 11, 2021
Dr Meryl, Death Detective
53:06
Meryl Broughton with stories from her work conducting autopsies at a country mortuary (CW: Graphic descriptions)
Nov 10, 2021
From the ashes of a failed farm
51:15
Robert Pekin lost his family’s 4th-generation farm, and in despair, walked away from everything and into the wilderness. After much soul-searching and trial and error, he developed a new way to link food producers more directly with those who eat the produce (R) CW: mentions suicide
Nov 09, 2021
Confessions of a drama kid
49:28
Actor and writer Brendan Cowell with tender and funny tales from his boyhood as a child actor and a budding playwright
Nov 08, 2021
David Stratton's reel life
50:28
The critic on what he has learned from watching 25,000 films, and that time he peed on Federico Fellini
Nov 05, 2021
After Covid, the possibility of hope
52:25
Andrew Wear on how Australia might change in the post-pandemic world
Nov 04, 2021
A rebel on the bench
52:26
David Heilpern with stories of drama, crime and heartache from his 21 years as a country magistrate (CW: references to drug use and sexual assault)
Nov 03, 2021
The hero of The Zebra
52:43
Hannah Kent with the true story of the Prussians who fled Europe for a new life in South Australia in 1838, then met a malevolent doctor on board their ship
Nov 02, 2021
Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
53:04
Megan Phelps-Roper grew up inside the notorious Westboro Baptist Church family. In 2012 she left the church, and her family, to live in the world she once reviled (R)
Nov 01, 2021
Jazz kings and wayward women
51:06
Deirdre O'Connell with a tale of music, race and a secret militia set in Australia's Jazz Age (CW: discretion is advised when listening)
Oct 29, 2021
How music keeps Allison alive
53:36
As a child, ordinary sensations of clothes on her skin made Allison Davies feel as though her life was under threat. She recognised the life-changing power of sound when she became a music therapist — both for herself and others
Oct 28, 2021
A blind croc, a missing man and his dog
48:02
Kylie Stevenson delves into the story of Paddy Moriarty, who went missing from Larrimah, an outback Northern Territory town known for a weird pink panther in a gyrocopter.
Oct 27, 2021
Night of the midget subs — Sydney under attack
52:08
In 1942 three midget submarines armed with torpedoes made their way into Sydney Harbour to launch an attack on Allied warships. They were sent by the Imperial Japanese Navy (R)
Oct 26, 2021
How a fish with tiny fingers changed history
52:10
Palaeontologist John Long found his first fossil in a Melbourne quarry as a 7 year old. He grew up to unearth new clues as to how we became human, and to the origins of sex
Oct 25, 2021
Stupid crooks, crooked cops, and honest John
51:33
Former narcotics agent, John Shobbrook battled corruption when investigating an audacious plan to air-drop heroin into Far North Queensland in the 1970s
Oct 22, 2021
Motorbikes, cheetahs, and the Maggie Island mail run
43:29
Roland de Chazal is best known for being the 81-year-old motorbike postie on Magnetic Island, but his earlier life in Rhodesia had its moments too — it was there he met the Queen Mother and kept his pet cheetah, Jackals
Oct 21, 2021
Judy Brewer's Mudgegonga love song
53:10
Judy on life with her late husband, the politician Tim Fischer, and how her son Harrison helped inspire a new beginning on her farm (R)
Oct 20, 2021
Rock and Dave Grohl
52:04
Stories from Dave Grohl about his life in music, including how he went from being "that guy from Nirvana” to a superstar rock star fronting the Foo Fighters
Oct 19, 2021
Finding Stalin's wine cellar
49:07
John Baker on hunting down a cache of rare and impossibly valuable French wine hidden away by Josef Stalin, deep in the Republic of Georgia (R)
Oct 18, 2021
Ed Ayres' life in music
53:04
Music was always a friend to Ed, but while he struggled to come to terms with being trans, he couldn't face his beloved instruments. Once he accepted himself, his relationship with sound flourished
Oct 15, 2021
The railway child: Monica from Clare
53:06
Monica McInerney with tales from her childhood in a railway family in the South Australian town of Clare (R)
Oct 14, 2021
Costa Georgiadis: Heart and Soil
52:26
Australia's most famous landscape architect on learning from the garden, Greek school and his Yiayia
Oct 13, 2021
The Nazi Brigadeführer who got away
50:52
Philippe Sands on how a cache of letters sent him on the trail of Nazi war criminal Otto Von Wachter, who escaped to Rome on the 'Ratline' (R)
Oct 12, 2021
Jenny Kee's incandescent life
45:09
Designer Jenny Kee with the story of her wild and creative life, including how she and Linda Jackson began a movement which changed Australian fashion (CW: discretion required. Drug references, suicide and content that might be upsetting)
Oct 11, 2021
Paul Kennedy on finding his way
53:21
The ABC Sports presenter describes his life at 17, a year dominated by football, girls, beer, and a serial killer stalking his neighbourhood
Oct 08, 2021
The Powerful Owls of Wombat Forest
50:19
While they greet one another with soft "woohoos", carefully feed their fat, fluffy babies and bleat at sunset, field naturalist Tanya Loos keeps an eye on the beautiful and ferocious population in her backyard
Oct 07, 2021
Surviving two volcanoes — Ngaiire's story
47:34
When an eruption began in 1994 in Papua New Guinea, the last thing singer-songwriter Ngaiire expected was a second volcano to begin spewing ash. Tuning in to the mystery and majesty of PNG has become a lifelong project (CW: Some listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening)
Oct 06, 2021
The needle in the tofu
48:48
Zen priest and writer Ruth Ozeki takes us into world brimming with the voices of people and household objects, and her own experience of hearing her father's voice in her ear after he'd died
Oct 05, 2021
The rise and fall of the Rock Star
44:16
David Hepworth charts our fascination with that most earth-bound of gods, the rock star; and discusses some of music history's striking examples (R)
Oct 04, 2021
The Soldier and the mare
49:17
After Isaac Adams returned from Afghanistan struggling with anger and hypervigilance, he found that working with traumatised racehorses was helping him heal
Oct 01, 2021
A Rainbow's arc
43:13
Lynn Rainbow grew up in a castle in one of Australia’s most theatrical families. In the 1970s she became a famous actress, before she began a new life as a philanthropist
Sep 30, 2021
Neddy Smith's last stand
48:11
'Jack the Insider' returns with the story of Neddy Smith, the violent criminal and heroin dealer who became an enforcer for a cabal of corrupt police detectives in the 1980s (CW: discussion of violent acts)
Sep 29, 2021
How a young Dutch woman discovered her savage self in the wild
52:06
Miriam Lancewood on her life roaming the New Zealand bush, hunting possums and goats to survive (CW: Graphic descriptions) (R)
Sep 28, 2021
The brilliant Miriam Margolyes
53:18
Miriam was conceived in an air raid during WWII and brought up in a nice Jewish home with a charismatic mother. She became the naughtiest girl at Oxford High School and then grew up to be one of the world's best known actors
Sep 27, 2021
Colin Hay's real life
53:17
How the 'Men at Work' front man managed the trip to mega-stardom and back again (R)
Sep 24, 2021
Behind the cake and the rain: the life of Jimmy Webb
43:22
Singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb on how growing up as the child of an Oklahoma preacher inspired his music (R)
Sep 23, 2021
Joan Jett's life in music
46:00
When Joan Marie Larkin was given a guitar at the age of 13, she was on the path to becoming the Godmother of Punk (R)
Sep 22, 2021
Jimmy Barnes — a broken homecoming
50:05
Jimmy Barnes grew up as a boy called James Swan in Glasgow, then in South Australia. In his late teens, he joined a band called Cold Chisel and became a huge star. But on and off stage Jimmy was battling the demons of his troubled childhood (R)
Sep 21, 2021
A heart full of ancestors
53:04
Museum curator Imelda Miller on the history and vibrancy of Australian South Sea Islanders
Sep 17, 2021
The mystery of the hole in the universe
53:17
Physicist Paul Davies on the mysteries of our universe, including the puzzle of the 'super-void' inside the constellation of Eridanus
Sep 16, 2021
Psychics, mediums, astrologers and me
52:03
Journalist Gary Nunn on what he learned about grief, comfort, and the influence of clairvoyants during his two year investigation of the supernatural industry
Sep 15, 2021
The healing power of dogs
48:01
Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days (R)
Sep 14, 2021
John Safran and the truth behind the push to 'unsmoke the world'
50:28
Tobacco giant Philip Morris was financing what looked like anti-smoking initiatives around the world, but what they were advertising wasn't safe
Sep 13, 2021
How Nicole Highet helps new mothers cope
52:03
She didn't know it at the time, but religiously eavesdropping on her mother's phone conversations and counselling her grandmother through a breakup made her the psychologist she is today
Sep 10, 2021
Canopy Meg: the Arbornaut
52:13
Treetop scientist Meg Lowman on her working life among the leaves, birds and insects in the world's forest canopies, which she calls the '8th continent'
Sep 09, 2021
Life as a quadruple amputee and more – Mandy McCracken
51:33
Mandy's life changed completely in 2013 when she fell terribly ill with sepsis. Since then, with prosthetic replacements for all four limbs, she has learned to walk and drive again, and she doesn't want applause for living her life like everyone else (CW: mention of suicide)
Sep 08, 2021
Stranded - what Claire learned from falling
55:16
Claire Nelson was in the Joshua Tree National Park hiking alone when she strayed from the trail and slipped, shattering her pelvis. Her phone was out of range, and she knew she had to stay alive long enough for someone to realise she was missing (R)
Sep 07, 2021
John Howard recounts being in Washington on September 11, 2001
55:00
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on witnessing the events of September 11th, 2001 from the window of a Washington hotel room (R)
Sep 06, 2021
From Croatia to the Canefields: a love story
55:00
Debra Gavranich with the story of her mother Marija, who left her tiny Croatian island to make a life with a man she’d never met, in Far North Queensland's Cassowary Valley
Sep 03, 2021
Deserter, archaeologist and spy – the extraordinary adventures of Charles Masson
55:28
When the red-headed Englishman deserted the East India Company in 1827 to conduct his own archaeological digs in Afghanistan, he never imagined the Company would find him again, or try to blackmail him into spying
Sep 02, 2021
The boy with op shop fever
52:22
Writer Tony Birch with tales of his Fitzroy childhood including his grandmother Alma's 'op shop fever', his love for pine cones and blankets, and the macabre holiday he lived through when he was 5 years old
Sep 01, 2021
Hayley Katzen's unexpected life as a farmer's wife
45:15
When Hayley moved to a cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, the rural idyll wasn't quite as she imagined (R)
Aug 31, 2021
Eliminating fear and unlocking the mysteries in our brains
52:08
Professor Pankaj Sah has a special interest in researching the amygdala and the possibility of treating PTSD to remove the fear and anxiety that come with it
Aug 30, 2021
Krystyna Duszniak and Poland's lost histories
52:25
As a young woman, Krystyna thought her father had taught her everything about Poland’s history, but she didn’t know that what he’d left out would become a focus of her life
Aug 27, 2021
Judith Heumann - disability warrior
51:09
One of the most influential disability rights activists in history tells her story of her fight for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human
Aug 26, 2021
Bill Crews and the Calais epiphany
51:17
Reverend Bill Crews on the moment which changed how he saw his own life story, and his ideas on how we can all cultivate compassion, tolerance, empathy and love in difficult times
Aug 25, 2021
The art of precision engineering with Simon Winchester
52:17
The modern world functions on precision - phones, computers, cameras that operate with exactness. But in the quest for perfection, have we lost the art of craftsmanship? (R)
Aug 24, 2021
The hunt for deep sea bioluminescence (and a giant squid)
48:24
Marine biologist Dr Edith Widder was inside a submersible searching for bioluminescence in the ocean depths when she saw a giant squid as big as a two story house
Aug 23, 2021
Friends with a fox
52:58
Biologist Catherine Raven was living off-grid in a remote valley in Montana when she unexpectedly became friends with a wild red fox
Aug 20, 2021
David McAllister: A life in dance
51:12
When David McAllister began ballet lessons in Perth in the 1970s, being a 'ballet boy' was a kind of social death. But his school bullies helped spur him on to become one of the world's best dancers (R)
Aug 19, 2021
Inside a rogue force
53:31
Journalist Mark Willacy on his investigations into alleged war crimes by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan CW: Some listeners may find elements of this conversation upsetting
Aug 18, 2021
Anna Sale talks about hard things
52:18
Anna hosts Death, Sex and Money a podcast about money, race, #MeToo, and what to say when someone dies
Aug 17, 2021
Linda Jaivin on the sprawling, messy history of China
50:30
From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Linda Jaivin has written a new account of China which pulls together its sprawling history
Aug 16, 2021
Amani, Salwa and Layla
52:09
In 2015, Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father (CW: Domestic violence)
Aug 13, 2021
Fascinating fungi - the intelligent kingdom
52:54
Biologist Merlin Sheldrake's extreme experiments, many of which involve his physical body and varying forms of fungi, have led to equally remarkable discoveries (R)
Aug 12, 2021
Modern slavery and the value of things — Molly Harriss Olson
51:18
As current CEO of Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand, Molly wants to put an end to human exploitation by delivering transparent supply chains throughout the world. But whether working in the White House, or from a tiny village outside Canberra, Molly's work fulfills the purpose she discovered as a college student raised in a Quaker family
Aug 11, 2021
The man with five lives
52:22
Roger Pulvers lived an adventurous life in the Soviet Union, Japan and Poland, before he chose a whole new identity in 1976 (R)
Aug 10, 2021
The Chloroformist — extraordinary Doctor Joseph Clover
51:03
Anaesthetist Christine Ball traces the world-changing work of the man who brought an end to surgery performed on conscious patients
Aug 09, 2021
The silver medal which changed Laurie Lawrence
51:55
As a child, the superstar swim coach lived with a chronic lung condition, and had part of a lung removed. In 1956, a huge event held right in his family's backyard changed the course of his life (R)
Aug 06, 2021
The life of Anna Meares
53:07
Anna's stellar cycling career saw her smash Australian Olympic records and become the World Champion 11 times. Then to the surprise of many, she walked away (R)
Aug 05, 2021
The struggle and strife behind Steven Bradbury's win at Salt Lake City
53:06
At the age of 20, speed skater Steven Bradbury nearly died on the ice. Then he won history's most unexpected gold medal (R)
Aug 04, 2021
Patrick Johnson's golden run
50:33
How a boy who grew up on a fishing trawler became the first man in Australia to run 100 metres in under 10 seconds (R)
Aug 03, 2021
Paralympian Christie Dawes is super/normal
55:29
Christie splits her time between training for road and track wheelchair races, holding down several jobs, and raising her family. The Tokyo Paralympics will be her seventh as a competitor, but Christie almost gave up marathons after the 2013 Boston Marathon, and the most frightening experience of her life (CW: mention of suicide)
Aug 02, 2021
The life of Dr Norman Swan
52:35
How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctor
Jul 30, 2021
Getting psychoactive — plant-derived drugs that change our minds
52:06
From his daily coffee addiction to the 'war on drugs', science writer Michael Pollan's research into three psychoactive substances derived from plants was broad in scope. In this episode he talks about how caffeine, opium and mescaline affect our brains, change us as people, and make a profound impact on societies that use them (CW: Drug references)  
Jul 29, 2021
Love, power, and my PNG family — Dame Carol Kidu
50:33
Brisbane-born Carol followed her heart to Papua New Guinea in the 1960s. Her husband, Buri Kidu, a young lawyer from a village near the capital with a deep sense of duty went on to became the nation's first Indigenous Chief Justice. After Sir Buri's premature death, Carol entered politics, blazing a trail for women in a intensely patriarchal political system
Jul 28, 2021
Reconsidering morality
52:00
Philosopher Tim Dean on why human morality needs an update for the modern world
Jul 27, 2021
Finding Mer-Neith-it-tes
51:11
When archaeologist Dr Jamie Fraser opened an 'empty' Egyptian sarcophagus, he found a 2600 year old mummy of a temple Priestess inside (R)
Jul 26, 2021
Rebel doctor Caroline de Costa — smuggling condoms and scaring priests
52:30
Being a single mother and student doctor in 1960s Ireland was merely the 'first act' in Caroline's gutsy adult life. She became a pioneering obstetrician, delivering sometimes contraband contraception, and babies, for fifty years
Jul 23, 2021
Taming the Black Dog, and burnout
54:00
Gordon Parker is the founder of the Black Dog Institute, which works to remove the stigma around depression, mental illness and bipolar disorder. For the past few years he's been looking closely at the phenomenon of burnout at home and at work
Jul 22, 2021
When I am dead I will love this
52:28
From Scotland's Orkney Islands, stories of how a chance meeting in a pub led Andrew Greig to climb the Himalayas, how golfing helped him recover from a near death experience, and his quest for the Loch of the Green Corrie
Jul 21, 2021
40 years in journalism — Philip Williams and his brilliant career
54:07
A former ABC chief foreign correspondent, Philip began at the ABC as a stagehand in 1975. He left the organisation 46 years later after reporting from Japan, Washington, the Middle East, Nyngan and the Ukraine
Jul 20, 2021
Dr Anne Aly's passion for justice
53:28
When Anne was ten, she walked onto the school playground and a girl spat in her face after calling her ‘a dirty, Arab Muslim’. To her shock, her teacher did nothing. The incident changed how she saw the world, and helped set her on the path to becoming the first Australian Muslim woman elected to parliament (R)
Jul 19, 2021
Ben and the birth of Miss Ellaneous
50:35
Darwin's Ben Graetz on becoming one of Australia's best-known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Drag Queens
Jul 16, 2021
Megan Davis: the road to the Uluru Statement from the Heart
51:26
Megan Davis was raised as a 'Queensland Rail kid', then in a book-loving household in a housing commission home. She grew up to become a lawyer at the UN, then began a history-making process of helping Australia's First Nations people speak the truth to power
Jul 14, 2021
Australia after COVID-19
53:06
George Megalogenis looks at the Morrison government's response to the pandemic so far, and asks whether the 'exit strategy' fully comprehends the changed landscape of the post-COVID world
Jul 12, 2021
Basketball and belonging — Cheryl Kickett-Tucker
50:10
Cheryl is a Wadjuk traditional owner playing the long game in the Swan Valley community where she grew up (R)
Jul 09, 2021
Mick Gooda on working for a better day for all of us
50:15
A Gangulu elder, Mick was Co-Commissioner of the high profile Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. Mick's fierce advocacy for young people is due in part to a sliding doors moment in his teens (CW: Discussion of suicide.  And for ATSI listeners please be advised this conversation contains the names of people who have died.  Take care when listening.)
Jul 08, 2021
Quandamooka Country to Canberra — Dr Valerie Cooms
56:19
Aunty Kath, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, was Valerie's godmother, and just one of many staunch political figures on both sides of her family. Val worked her way to becoming a powerful advocate for Aboriginal people and her family CW: ATSI listeners please use discretion when listening as the program references people who have died.
Jul 07, 2021
Vic Simms and Luke Peacock on bringing new life to 'The Loner'
43:17
Vic grew up on an Aboriginal mission in Sydney's La Perouse in the 1950s, becoming a singing star in his teens. He went on to write and record Australia's first Aboriginal protest album, while in prison. Luke Peacock 'unearthed' Vic's album decades later, and worked alongside him, to bring it to a new public (R)
Jul 06, 2021
Charlie King — my mother Ningardi's story
51:57
Gurindji man and ABC presenter Charlie knew a little about his mum's life as he grew up. But after her death, he began to reckon with what she'd lived through as a child (CW: contains mention of ATSI people who have died; mentions of sexual violence)
Jul 05, 2021
For the love of Niki Chawla
53:03
Tarang Chawla with his family's story of migration from India to Melbourne to make a new life, and how the murder of his sister Niki changed his own path (CW: graphic discussion of family violence. Discretion advised)
Jul 02, 2021
Meet Ash Barty's mindset coach — Ben Crowe
53:00
Ben works with athletes including the Richmond Football Club and surfer Steph Gilmore in a counter-intuitive way. He helps them own their flaws, and find an intrinsic purpose so they can take both wins and losses in their stride. Ash Barty credits Ben with helping her become World Number 1
Jul 01, 2021
Where the Music Began — a story collection
51:33
Vic Simms, Jen Cloher, Vika and Linda Bull, Rob Hirst, Elena Kats-Chernin, William Barton with stories from their formative years
Jun 30, 2021
Mapping two and a half million guitars
52:33
Even the cheapest guitars are made in part from trees which are becoming increasingly rare. Chris Gibson's curiosity about these timbers led him on a worldwide journey to understand the guitar's past and future
Jun 29, 2021
Betty Queen of Donks
50:11
Betty Klimenko grew up as an heiress to the Westfield fortune. Then she turned her back on it all to marry the man of her dreams (R)
Jun 28, 2021
A wild mother and her loving son
53:28
Ianto Ware with the story of growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide with his radical feminist lesbian mother Dimity
Jun 25, 2021
Ben and the Big Issue
52:19
Ben grew up in a Glasgow housing estate, then married, went to University and made a life for himself as a musician. But some years later, he was homeless (R)
Jun 24, 2021
Kyle Mewburn — transwoman superhero
52:15
Kyle was a 55-year old children's author and husband when she began living her truth as a trans woman
Jun 23, 2021
On becoming a memory champion
52:10
Lynne Kelly became a senior memory champion after she began researching ancient ways of transforming landscapes, objects and the human body into 'memory palaces.'
Jun 22, 2021
River, desert, island — Julie Janson's stories
51:27
After years teaching in the remote Northern Territory, Julie began to trace her ancestry among the Darug people around the Hawkesbury River. Her most recent novel was written in response to Kate Grenville's The Secret River
Jun 21, 2021
Jodi and the people with possibilities
52:08
'Love on the Spectrum' star Jodi Rodgers on her life as a sexologist and relationship counsellor for people with Autism, and her unexpected chapter in reality TV
Jun 18, 2021
The Tsars, the lady-in-waiting and Potoroo Palace
49:00
Alexandra Seddon with the story of her aristocratic Russian family and their legacy, which helped her found a wildlife refuge for potoroos, koalas, snakes and kangaroos (CW: childhood abuse, historic suicide)
Jun 17, 2021