Podcasts by Conversations
Further podcasts by ABC Radio
Podcast on the topic Beziehungen
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Don Winslow — private eye, safari guide and inside the narco wars from 2022-04-21T11:00
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
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Maddy, the shipwreck mermaid from 2022-04-19T11:00
Dr Maddy McAllister's job as a marine archaeologist involves diving into the deep to uncover the artefacts and human stories sunk in shipwrecks
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Meryl Tankard: dancing beyond ballet from 2022-04-18T11:00
How a former ballerina revolutionised Australia's dance landscape (R)
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Sara El Sayed: love, tradition and rebellion from 2022-04-12T11:00
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, an...
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Why chronic pain is like a bilby in a bathtub from 2022-04-11T11:00
Clinical pain neuroscientist Dr Tasha Stanton explains her studies into the power of the mind when it comes to coping with injury and illness
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The world-record-breaking sheep shearer turned outback cop from 2022-04-05T10:00
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
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Sian Prior: reckoning with childlessness from 2022-04-01T11:00
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
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Patrick Gale's family secrets from 2022-03-31T11:00
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
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A magical life: Arthur Coghlan from 2022-03-30T11:00
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)
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Feeding the body, mind and spirit: J.C Faulk from 2022-03-29T11:00
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
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The hunt for mutant waves from 2022-03-28T11:00
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
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The mystery of the eel from 2022-03-25T11:00
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...
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The poker-playing cardiologist from 2022-03-24T11:00
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 professi...
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Searching for who betrayed Anne Frank from 2022-03-23T11:00
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
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How Australia built the internet of the 19th century from 2022-03-18T11:00
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 Telegra...
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How indigenous elders read the stars from 2022-03-16T11:00
Dr Duane Hamacher on his study of Indigenous Astronomy, which covers 65,000 years of observation, deduction, and experimentation
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Mark and the rainbow connection from 2022-03-15T11:00
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
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Dara McAnulty and the beauty of nature from 2022-03-14T11:00
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 ju...
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The cannabis grow house, Dartmoor prison, and making amends from 2022-03-11T11:00
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
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Diego Garijo — fighter and lover from 2022-03-10T11:00
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 h...
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The queen of Chinese cookery from 2022-03-09T11:00
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
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Eliza Hull: playing from the heart from 2022-03-08T11:00
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
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The last keeper of Boston Light from 2022-03-07T11:00
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...
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PRESENTS – Dig: The Ring In from 2022-03-04T17:00:27
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 ...
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Agent Sonya, Queen of Spies from 2022-03-03T11:00
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 ...
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Tana Douglas — a life inside the rock'n'roll circus - Part 2 from 2022-03-02T11:00
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)
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Tana Douglas — a life inside the rock'n'roll circus — Part 1 from 2022-03-01T11:00
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)
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Living to 120 and beyond from 2022-02-28T11:00
Biologist David Sinclair believes aging is a disease, and we can find a cure for it
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The fashion bloodline from 2022-02-25T11:00
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 ...
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Nourishing the heart from 2022-02-24T11:00
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 ...
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From child preacher to wicked defector: leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses from 2022-02-23T11:00
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
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A restaurant named Parwana — Afghan treasure in Adelaide from 2022-02-22T11:00
Durkhanai Ayubi and her family keep alive the stories and flavours they carried to Australia from Afghanistan, in the dining room of their 'acciden...
Delia and the monkey from 2022-02-21T11:00
Iain McCalman on the life of adventurer Delia Akeley, and her profound connection with a vervet monkey she named 'J.T'
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Taking the drop: the life of a freediver from 2022-02-18T11:00
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
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Yuri Gagarin, Cold War Cosmonaut from 2022-02-17T11:00
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 mis...
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Love, grief and discipline: raising working dogs from 2022-02-16T11:00
Dog trainer Neil McDonald and cattle wrangler Joni Hall on their loyal, emotionally intelligent charges: outback working dogs
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Peter Garrett: rock and roll changemaker from 2022-02-15T11:00
Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett on his life in music, environmental action, and politics, and his life now on The Oils final tour
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The case of the unknown sailor from 2022-02-14T11:00
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'
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The Cloudspotter from 2022-02-11T11:00
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 s...
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Kate Forsyth on the intrepid and curious Charlotte Waring Atkinson from 2022-02-10T11:00
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, K...
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Mimi and Viggo — a love story from 2022-02-09T11:00
Mimi Wellisch on the tumultuous path that led her back to where their story started — a Danish milkbar in 1964
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Love and loss, in Watsonia from 2022-02-08T11:00
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 thei...
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The story of the voice from 2022-02-07T11:00
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
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Lisa Leong: how fascinating! from 2022-02-03T11:00
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
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The rise of the Super Bilby from 2022-02-02T11:00
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 f...
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The hermit of Wild Rivers from 2022-02-01T11:00
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 ...
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Spymasters and secret agents: the birth of ASIO from 2022-01-31T11:00
Historian Phillip Deery on how ASIO recruited ordinary people as secret agents, including a 'nice widow from Adelaide' named Anne Neill
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Saving lives with Aunty Val from 2022-01-28T11:00
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...
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From arachnophobe to spider woman from 2022-01-27T11:00
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
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Being Sharon Stone's stunt double from 2022-01-25T11:00
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 wi...
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A father and his sons, across The'Strez' from 2022-01-24T11:00
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 u...
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Painter Wendy Sharpe on her Jewish roots from 2022-01-21T11:00
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
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The ballad of Ally Colquitt from 2022-01-20T11:00
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 ...
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Searching for the Countess of Kirribilli from 2022-01-19T11:00
Joyce Morgan with the story of Elizabeth Von Arnim, the Australian-born literary sensation who captivated Victorian London
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The butterfly effect — collecting in the Torres Strait from 2022-01-18T11:00
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
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Steve Killelea and the measure of world peace from 2022-01-17T11:00
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 nominat...
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Best of 2021 - Paul Livingston from 2021-12-17T11:00
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 S...
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Best of 2021 - Christian Wright from 2021-12-16T11:00
Midwife Christian Wright with tales of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land, helping Yol?u women birth their babies (R)
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Best of 2021 - Mandy McCracken from 2021-12-15T11:00
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...
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Best of 2021 - Sue-Ellen Kusher from 2021-12-14T11:00
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)
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Best of 2021 - Charlie King from 2021-12-13T11:00
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 mentio...
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The animal that walked into my life — story collection from 2021-12-10T11:00
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)
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A very William McInnes Christmas from 2021-12-09T11:00
William returns to reminisce about the Christmases of his childhood and his brief but brilliant stint as a department store Santa (R)
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Ann Patchett's three fathers, her writing and her secret power from 2021-12-08T11:00
American novelist Ann Patchett reflects on the men who made her, going a year without shopping and her power to make herself invisible
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Podcast extra: If computers could speak from 2021-12-07T15:00
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 ...
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Mick and the life-changing friendship from 2021-12-07T11:00
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...
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Adam Zwar's twelve summers of cricket from 2021-12-06T11:00
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
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The unusual life of Rima Hadchiti from 2021-12-03T11:00
At 100cm tall, Rima is one of the smallest people in the world. But throughout her life, she's demanded to be heard (R)
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The case for constitutional monarchies from 2021-12-02T11:00
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 au...
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Cradle Mountain's great love story from 2021-12-01T11:00
Kate Legge traces the lives of pioneering naturalists Kate Cowle and Gustav Weindorfer in Tasmania's sublime wilderness (R)
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Jess Hill: a new kind of power from 2021-11-30T11:00
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
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John Grisham: lawyering, writing and innocence from 2021-11-29T11:00
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
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Abbas Nazari: After the Tampa from 2021-11-26T11:00
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 ho...
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Roxanne McDonald's deadly life on stage from 2021-11-25T11:00
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
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The country kid economist from 2021-11-24T11:00
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 cr...
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The story of English from 2021-11-23T11:00
Linguist Kate Burridge with the story of how Old English began on a small, damp island on the periphery of the world
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Harry and the monster croc from 2021-11-22T11:00
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)
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Lioness Liz and her surfer boys from 2021-11-19T11:00
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 o...
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The Beatles, Brian Epstein and me from 2021-11-18T11:00
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
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The brave lives of Charmian and Neen from 2021-11-17T11:00
Nadia Wheatley with the stories of two women ahead of their time: the writer Charmian Clift and her own mother Nina Watkin
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The voice of a child who can’t speak from 2021-11-16T11:00
Samantha Wheeler’s daughter Charlotte has Rett Syndrome, a rare ‘locked-in’ disorder (R)
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The trailblazer: Wendy Harmer from 2021-11-15T11:00
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
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Growing kindness, humanising medicine from 2021-11-12T11:00
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 ...
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Surviving Currowan from 2021-11-11T11:00
Bronwyn Adcock with the story of one of the most terrifying episodes of Australia’s 2019 Black Summer: the Currowan fire
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Dr Meryl, Death Detective from 2021-11-10T11:00
Meryl Broughton with stories from her work conducting autopsies at a country mortuary (CW: Graphic descriptions)
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Confessions of a drama kid from 2021-11-08T11:00
Actor and writer Brendan Cowell with tender and funny tales from his boyhood as a child actor and a budding playwright
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David Stratton's reel life from 2021-11-05T11:00
The critic on what he has learned from watching 25,000 films, and that time he peed on Federico Fellini
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After Covid, the possibility of hope from 2021-11-04T11:00
Andrew Wear on how Australia might change in the post-pandemic world
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A rebel on the bench from 2021-11-03T11:00
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)
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The hero of The Zebra from 2021-11-02T11:00
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
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Jazz kings and wayward women from 2021-10-29T11:00
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)
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How music keeps Allison alive from 2021-10-28T11:00
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 therapis...
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A blind croc, a missing man and his dog from 2021-10-27T11:00
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.
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Night of the midget subs — Sydney under attack from 2021-10-26T11:00
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)
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How a fish with tiny fingers changed history from 2021-10-25T11:00
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
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Stupid crooks, crooked cops, and honest John from 2021-10-22T11:00
Former narcotics agent, John Shobbrook battled corruption when investigating an audacious plan to air-drop heroin into Far North Queensland in the 1970s
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Motorbikes, cheetahs, and the Maggie Island mail run from 2021-10-21T11:00
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 hi...
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Judy Brewer's Mudgegonga love song from 2021-10-20T11:00
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)
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Rock and Dave Grohl from 2021-10-19T11:00
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
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Finding Stalin's wine cellar from 2021-10-18T11:00
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)
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Ed Ayres'life in music from 2021-10-15T11:00
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
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Costa Georgiadis: Heart and Soil from 2021-10-13T11:00
Australia's most famous landscape architect on learning from the garden, Greek school and his Yiayia
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The Nazi Brigadeführer who got away from 2021-10-12T11:00
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)
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Jenny Kee's incandescent life from 2021-10-11T11:00
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, sui...
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Paul Kennedy on finding his way from 2021-10-08T11:00
The ABC Sports presenter describes his life at 17, a year dominated by football, girls, beer, and a serial killer stalking his neighbourhood
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The Powerful Owls of Wombat Forest from 2021-10-07T11:00
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 ...
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Surviving two volcanoes — Ngaiire's story from 2021-10-06T12:00
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 beco...
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The needle in the tofu from 2021-10-05T12:00
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 father's voice in her ear after he'd died
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The rise and fall of the Rock Star from 2021-10-04T12:00
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)
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The Soldier and the mare from 2021-10-01T11:00
After Isaac Adams returned from Afghanistan struggling with anger and hypervigilance, he found that working with traumatised racehorses was helping him heal
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A Rainbow's arc from 2021-09-30T11:00
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
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Neddy Smith's last stand from 2021-09-29T11:00
'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 viol...
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How a young Dutch woman discovered her savage self in the wild from 2021-09-28T11:00
Miriam Lancewood on her life roaming the New Zealand bush, hunting possums and goats to survive (CW: Graphic descriptions) (R)
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The brilliant Miriam Margolyes from 2021-09-27T11:00
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 th...
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Colin Hay's real life from 2021-09-24T11:00
How the 'Men at Work' front man managed the trip to mega-stardom and back again (R)
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Behind the cake and the rain: the life of Jimmy Webb from 2021-09-23T11:00
Singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb on how growing up as the child of an Oklahoma preacher inspired his music (R)
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Joan Jett's life in music from 2021-09-22T11:00
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)
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Fifa Riccobono — godmother of Australian music from 2021-09-20T11:00
Fifa started in the music industry at 16, and worked her way up the ranks of Albert Music to become CEO. In the 1970s she formed a beautiful friendship with AC/DC's wild lead singer, Bon Scott (R)
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A heart full of ancestors from 2021-09-17T11:00
Museum curator Imelda Miller on the history and vibrancy of Australian South Sea Islanders
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The mystery of the hole in the universe from 2021-09-16T11:00
Physicist Paul Davies on the mysteries of our universe, including the puzzle of the 'super-void' inside the constellation of Eridanus
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Psychics, mediums, astrologers and me from 2021-09-15T11:00
Journalist Gary Nunn on what he learned about grief, comfort, and the influence of clairvoyants during his two year investigation of the supernatural industry
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The healing power of dogs from 2021-09-14T11:00
Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days (R)
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John Safran and the truth behind the push to'unsmoke the world' from 2021-09-13T11:00
Tobacco giant Philip Morris was financing what looked like anti-smoking initiatives around the world, but what they were advertising wasn't safe
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How Nicole Highet helps new mothers cope from 2021-09-10T11:00
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
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Canopy Meg: the Arbornaut from 2021-09-09T11:00
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'
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Life as a quadruple amputee and more – Mandy McCracken from 2021-09-08T11:00
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...
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John Howard recounts being in Washington on September 11, 2001 from 2021-09-06T11:00
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on witnessing the events of September 11th, 2001 from the window of a Washington hotel room (R)
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From Croatia to the Canefields: a love story from 2021-09-03T11:00
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
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Deserter, archaeologist and spy – the extraordinary adventures of Charles Masson from 2021-09-02T11:00
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...
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The boy with op shop fever from 2021-09-01T11:00
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 ...
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Hayley Katzen's unexpected life as a farmer's wife from 2021-08-31T11:00
When Hayley moved to a cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, the rural idyll wasn't quite as she imagined (R)
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Eliminating fear and unlocking the mysteries in our brains from 2021-08-30T11:00
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
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Krystyna Duszniak and Poland's lost histories from 2021-08-27T11:00
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
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Judith Heumann - disability warrior from 2021-08-26T11:00
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
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Bill Crews and the Calais epiphany from 2021-08-25T11:00
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
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The art of precision engineering with Simon Winchester from 2021-08-24T11:00
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)
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The hunt for deep sea bioluminescence (and a giant squid) from 2021-08-23T11:00
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
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Friends with a fox from 2021-08-20T11:00
Biologist Catherine Raven was living off-grid in a remote valley in Montana when she unexpectedly became friends with a wild red fox
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Inside a rogue force from 2021-08-18T11:00
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
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Anna Sale talks about hard things from 2021-08-17T11:00
Anna hosts Death, Sex and Money a podcast about money, race, #MeToo, and what to say when someone dies
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Linda Jaivin on the sprawling, messy history of China from 2021-08-16T11:00
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 ...
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Amani, Salwa and Layla from 2021-08-13T11:00
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)
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Modern slavery and the value of things — Molly Harriss Olson from 2021-08-11T11:00
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...
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The man with five lives from 2021-08-10T11:00
Roger Pulvers lived an adventurous life in the Soviet Union, Japan and Poland, before he chose a whole new identity in 1976 (R)
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The Chloroformist — extraordinary Doctor Joseph Clover from 2021-08-09T11:00
Anaesthetist Christine Ball traces the world-changing work of the man who brought an end to surgery performed on conscious patients
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The silver medal which changed Laurie Lawrence from 2021-08-06T11:00
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)
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The life of Anna Meares from 2021-08-05T11:00
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)
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The struggle and strife behind Steven Bradbury's win at Salt Lake City from 2021-08-04T11:00
At the age of 20, speed skater Steven Bradbury nearly died on the ice. Then he won history's most unexpected gold medal (R)
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Patrick Johnson's golden run from 2021-08-03T11:00
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)
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Paralympian Christie Dawes is super/normal from 2021-08-02T11:00
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 Chri...
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The life of Dr Norman Swan from 2021-07-30T11:00
How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctor
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Getting psychoactive — plant-derived drugs that change our minds from 2021-07-29T11:00
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 a...
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Love, power, and my PNG family — Dame Carol Kidu from 2021-07-28T11:00
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 natio...
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Reconsidering morality from 2021-07-27T11:00
Philosopher Tim Dean on why human morality needs an update for the modern world
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Finding Mer-Neith-it-tes from 2021-07-26T11:00
When archaeologist Dr Jamie Fraser opened an 'empty' Egyptian sarcophagus, he found a 2600 year old mummy of a temple Priestess inside (R)
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Rebel doctor Caroline de Costa — smuggling condoms and scaring priests from 2021-07-23T11:00
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 contracept...
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Taming the Black Dog, and burnout from 2021-07-22T11:00
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...
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When I am dead I will love this from 2021-07-21T11:00
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 ...
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40 years in journalism — Philip Williams and his brilliant career from 2021-07-20T11:00
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...
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Dr Anne Aly's passion for justice from 2021-07-19T11:00
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 sa...
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Ben and the birth of Miss Ellaneous from 2021-07-16T11:00
Darwin's Ben Graetz on becoming one of Australia's best-known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Drag Queens
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Megan Davis: the road to the Uluru Statement from the Heart from 2021-07-14T11:00
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 hel...
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PRESENTS — Unravel Juanita from 2021-07-13T17:00:03
We wanted to share this special preview of the new ABC Unravel True Crime podcast series. In 1975, Australia was transfixed by the disappearance of...
Australia after COVID-19 from 2021-07-12T11:00
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
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Basketball and belonging — Cheryl Kickett-Tucker from 2021-07-09T11:00
Cheryl is a Wadjuk traditional owner playing the long game in the Swan Valley community where she grew up (R)
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Mick Gooda on working for a better day for all of us from 2021-07-08T11:00
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 du...
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Quandamooka Country to Canberra — Dr Valerie Cooms from 2021-07-07T11:00
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 Aborigina...
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Vic Simms and Luke Peacock on bringing new life to'The Loner' from 2021-07-06T11:00
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 p...
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Charlie King — my mother Ningardi's story from 2021-07-05T11:00
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 AT...
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For the love of Niki Chawla from 2021-07-02T11:00
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....
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Meet Ash Barty's mindset coach — Ben Crowe from 2021-07-01T11:00
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 ...
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Where the Music Began — a story collection from 2021-06-30T11:00
Vic Simms, Jen Cloher, Vika and Linda Bull, Rob Hirst, Elena Kats-Chernin, William Barton with stories from their formative years
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Mapping two and a half million guitars from 2021-06-29T11:00
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 pa...
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Betty Queen of Donks from 2021-06-28T11:00
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)
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A wild mother and her loving son from 2021-06-25T11:00
Ianto Ware with the story of growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide with his radical feminist lesbian mother Dimity
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Ben and the Big Issue from 2021-06-24T11:00
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)
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Kyle Mewburn — transwoman superhero from 2021-06-23T11:00
Kyle was a 55-year old children's author and husband when she began living her truth as a trans woman
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On becoming a memory champion from 2021-06-22T11:00
Lynne Kelly became a senior memory champion after she began researching ancient ways of transforming landscapes, objects and the human body into 'memory palaces.'
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River, desert, island — Julie Janson's stories from 2021-06-21T11:00
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 Gr...
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Jodi and the people with possibilities from 2021-06-18T11:00
'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
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The Tsars, the lady-in-waiting and Potoroo Palace from 2021-06-17T11:00
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, histor...
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Steve Biddulph and the lightbulb moment from 2021-06-16T11:00
Parenting educator and retired psychologist Steve Biddulph was in his 50s when a chance conversation over lunch shifted almost everything about how he saw himself
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My second family is in Vanuatu from 2021-06-15T11:00
Physiotherapist Sky Fosbrooke’s stint as a volunteer health worker led to a deep attachment to the people of a small South Santo village (R)
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Wakefield's Kristen Dunphy — turning pain into gold from 2021-06-14T11:00
The screenwriter and showrunner on writing television drama, her struggles with mental health, and how her time in psychiatric hospitals inspired the acclaimed ABC TV drama series Wakefield (CW: dr...
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British double agent ‘Celery’ — his daring and scandalous life from 2021-06-11T11:00
By uncovering the complicated history of her grandfather, Carolinda Witt also gained a sizeable extended family (R)
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Michelle versus the Atlantic Ocean from 2021-06-10T11:00
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 an Australian Geographic Adventurer of t...
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Judith Anderson and the Warwick bakers from 2021-06-09T11:00
Judith's life story is intertwined with the story of her family's bakery in the country town of Warwick, in rural Queensland
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If these (dry-stone) walls could talk — Bruce Munday from 2021-06-09T11:00
Bruce, a grazier and former teacher, fell in love with building dry stone walls and then began to delve into their fascinating history
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Cornish Pasties and Powerhouse boys — a love song to Moonta from 2021-06-08T11:00
Kristin Weidenbach on her father's early life in Moonta, a Methodist-run mining town in South Australia (R)
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Bob Rogers — The Beatles, the radio, and me from 2021-06-07T11:00
A broadcasting veteran, Bob spent 70 years on air, hosting TV shows as well as topping the radio ratings in Sydney. In 1964 he was sent to London to join The Beatles on their only Australian tour
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What might a kindness revolution look like? from 2021-06-04T11:00
Hugh Mackay believes humans are ‘hardwired’ to behave kindly. He returns to the program to talk about how his early-pandemic prophecies on community, loneliness, and resilience have played out
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When the Library Burned from 2021-06-03T11:00
Writer Susan Orlean on the enduring mystery of who set fire to the Los Angeles Central Library (R)
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The gay preacher from 2021-06-02T11:00
Anthony Venn-Brown was a gay teenager when he gave his life to God. He tried to destroy his sexuality by exorcism and 'gay conversion' therapy before he became a rock star Pentecostal preacher. The...
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Growing up in old Broome from 2021-06-01T11:00
Anne Poelina, the daughter of a Timorese pearl diver and an Indigenous mother, has always been drawn back to her home town of Broome (R)
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The five personalities of China from 2021-05-31T11:00
Jason Yat-sen Li on how his family story, marked by war, migration and knighthoods, and his own working life helped him embrace the complexities and contradictions of modern China
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A work of the heart from 2021-05-28T11:00
High school English teacher, Brendan James Murray with funny, heartbreaking, inspirational and strange tales from his working life
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Mama Simba — love and Tanzania from 2021-05-27T11:00
Donna Duggan fell in love with a Tanzanian man and together they built a safari company, before an accident changed everything (R)
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The turtle effect — their mysterious allure and surprising history from 2021-05-26T11:00
Louise Pryke returns with a cultural history of turtles. With stories ranging from ancient times to modern day, and from turtle tears to Al Capone, Lou attempts to understand why they are such a wi...
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A magical life — escapologist and illusionist Arthur Coghlan from 2021-05-25T11:00
Arthur made his name escaping from a locked 44-gallon drum in a pool of pool of sharks. His death-defying escapes in the late 1970s earned him the title of 'Australia's Houdini', and he was magicia...
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Christiaan Van Vuuren's fully sick life from 2021-05-24T11:00
While confined to hospital with a rare form of tuberculosis, Christiaan found love and an entirely new path (R)
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The girl who ran away to sea — the making of Kathryn from 2021-05-21T11:00
Working as a deckhand on a fishing trawler became the refuge Kathryn Heyman needed from the wreckage of her early life. Hitchhiking to Darwin, then working in the Timor Sea, far from her old life, ...
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Let them ring — Paul Livingston on making a great big noise from 2021-05-20T11:00
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 S...
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Jessica Cottis — inside the colour of sound from 2021-05-19T11:00
Jessica is an orchestral conductor and also a synesthete who 'sees' colour in her mind's eye. As an organ virtuoso she performed in some of Europe's great cathedrals. When forced to retire, Jessica...
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The mystery of broken-hearted syndrome from 2021-05-18T11:00
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp reveals how emotional shock can be fatal (R)
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Henry Reynolds and the truth from 2021-05-17T11:00
One of the foremost historians of black and white Australia, Henry says now is the time to acknowledge how the country was founded. Frontier violence, the myth of peaceful settlement, and the failu...
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How a doctor's suicide broke the silence from 2021-05-14T11:00
Gastroenterologist Andrew Bryant's active, social and positive exterior gave no hint of the depression he was suffering. Days after his tragic death his wife Susan wrote an email making it clear sh...
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New York, Oenpelli, the Village People and me from 2021-05-13T11:00
Allen Murphy was raised in New York and grew up to become a drummer for The Village People. When he arrived in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory he fell in love with Indigenous culture and musi...
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A Renaissance scholar on love, power, Florence and folly from 2021-05-12T11:00
Dale Kent is a Professor of Italian history who grew up in Australia. Rejecting her Christian Science upbringing, Dale forged an unapologetic life of her own design. She lived and worked in Europe ...
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The family and the jail sentence — the ripple effect of losing a parent to prison from 2021-05-11T11:00
Dennis Van Someren works as a transport volunteer with young people going to visit a parent in the prison system. Dennis does the work because he's been in their shoes (R)
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Knuckles, ruffles, flesh-bags and fences: the story of Australia's first dictionary from 2021-05-10T11:00
Kel Richards with the story of the gentleman thief James Hardy Vaux, who wrote Australia's first dictionary of convict slang
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Inside the world of Australian camel vet Margie Bale from 2021-05-07T11:00
Margie's car is loaded with ultrasounds, milk crates and angle grinders: all things needed when tending to seven ft camels in the middle of nowhere (R)
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Love and letting go — Sarah, Eric, and Coco from 2021-05-06T11:00
When Sarah Sentilles became a foster parent she gave herself wholeheartedly to caring for baby Coco. A year later her understanding of love, motherhood and herself were utterly transformed (CW: Ado...
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Enron, schizophrenia, the Bowls Club and me - the life of Glenn Jarvis from 2021-05-05T11:00
Glenn was working at Enron in London when his mental health began to unravel. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and lost nearly everything. Then a Bowls Club in Queanbeyan helped him begin again
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Kitty Flanagan's unlikely path to comedy from 2021-05-04T11:00
Kitty has woven together a series of true stories from her life including being locked in a crayfish freezer for talking too much (R)
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Confronting my grandmother the Baba Yaga from 2021-05-03T11:00
Krissy Kneen grew up under the strict control of her grandmother, Lotty, who was the eccentric and sometimes cruel matriarch of her small family. Krissy was forbidden to investigate Lotty's past or...
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Sarah Dingle — finding my donor dad from 2021-04-30T11:00
Sarah was twenty-seven when she discovered she had been conceived using a sperm donor. When she set out to find her biological father, she found out the truth about the global fertility business
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Hope, hype and exploitation — the wild history of stem cell science from 2021-04-29T11:00
Physician scientist Professor John Rasko on some of the charlatans and shining lights from the problematic and often tragic field of regenerative medicine. Long regarded as a coming salvation, the ...
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The blue budgie in Berlin — Gisela Kaplan's story from 2021-04-28T11:00
Animal behaviourist Gisela Kaplan grew up in devastated post-WWII Berlin, forced to eat soap and wild nettles to survive. A brilliant student who loved music, she trained as an opera singer and an ...
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The green suitcase and the secret family from 2021-04-27T11:00
Betty O'Neill's father disappeared when she was a baby. Decades later, inside a tiny apartment in the Polish city of Lublin she opened a green suitcase to find a huge clue to his secret life
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The bloody futility of WWI's Battle of Passchendaele from 2021-04-26T11:00
Historian Paul Ham and the story of the terrible 'wearing down war' that took place in Ypres (R)
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Meeting Japan's ghosts from 2021-04-23T11:00
The story of the 2011 earthquake that triggered multiple disasters in Japan, and took many thousands of lives, as told by Richard Lloyd Parry (CW: descriptions may be distressing) (R)
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Veronica Gorrie stands up from 2021-04-22T11:00
Ronnie looks back on the ten years she worked as a police officer; the childhood which shaped her, and pays tribute to the guiding strength of her proud Aboriginal father (CW: family violence)
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Helen Zaltzman is the Allusionist from 2021-04-21T11:00
Lacking the patience required to work on a dictionary, Helen turned her abiding interest in language into the subject of a highly successful podcast. Her search for curious and revealing stories ab...
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Lily Brett — love and Shelter Island from 2021-04-19T11:00
New York-based Australian writer Lily Brett moved her family to Shelter Island during the pandemic. There she's found a different speed of life and been adjusting to the absence of her late father....
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Tina Arena — singing it loud from 2021-04-16T11:00
Raised in a loving but strict Italian household, Pina Arena became ‘Tina’ to compete on Young Talent Time. Reinventing herself as an adult singer was tough, and it took a disastrous marriage and ye...
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The AIDS angel of Arkansas from 2021-04-15T11:00
Ruth Coker Burks was a young single mum in Hot Springs, Arkansas, when she began helping the dying men everyone else had rejected
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Floating through the dolines — cave diving under the Nullarbor and around the world from 2021-04-14T11:00
Stefan Eberhard on his life as a subterranean ecologist cave diving around the world, including inside the vast glowing chambers found beneath the Nullarbor Plain (R)
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Villainesses and Vulcans — the life of Judith Anderson from 2021-04-13T11:00
Widely known for her performance as Mrs Danvers, in the Hitchcock film, Rebecca, Judith gained a new cult following when she played a Star Trek Vulcan high priestess. Biographer Desley Deacon unear...
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Why Dr Brad's diet pills won't help you lose weight from 2021-04-12T11:00
Sydney GP Dr Brad McKay is often in the media warning against taking health advice from those unqualified to give it, such as Instagram 'wellness influencers'. Then in 2020 Brad learned his name an...
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The girl in the vintage lace from 2021-04-09T11:00
Lydia Pearson with the story of the chance meeting which saw her co-found a fashion label which became a global sensation
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Judith Lucy - flying solo from 2021-04-08T10:00
Judith was nearly 50 and dealing with grief, menopause and a world in climate crisis when the unthinkable happened
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Outposts — what Dan found at the ends of the Earth from 2021-04-07T10:00
Dan Richards follows his curiosity to some of the most remote habitable places in the world including an Icelandic cabin and a monastery high in the mountains of Japan (R)
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After the crash from 2021-04-06T10:00
Lech Blaine was 17 when he walked away unscratched from a fatal head-on collision outside Toowoomba which killed three of his friends and left two of them in comas (CW: contains graphic descriptio...
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The secret life of the Grey Plover from 2021-04-05T10:00
Andrew Darby flew around the world on the trail of a small, unassuming migratory shorebird called the Grey Plover. In the middle of his journey, without warning, he began to fear for his own surviv...
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Stories from Elmswood Farm from 2021-04-02T11:00
Patrice Newell was a model and a TV host before she began a new life as a biodynamic farmer (R)
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Love, sex and the secret life of retirees from 2021-04-01T11:00
Screenwriter Samantha Strauss on her grandmother's vibrant last years in a Gold Coast retirement home where love, sex and startlingly pragmatic conversations about dying were all part of daily life...
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Blood like honey — Kirsty's two rounds with childhood cancer from 2021-03-31T11:00
Instead of becoming an Olympic gymnast as she'd dreamed, by nineteen Kirsty Everett had survived leukaemia twice and fought her way to university. A childhood marked by punishing treatment regimes ...
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George Saunders on life lessons from Russian writers from 2021-03-30T11:00
Writer George Saunders says stories by Russian writers Chekhov, Turgenev, Gogol and Tolstoy can guide us as to 'how we are supposed to be living down here'
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Stan Grant on a world of crisis and hope from 2021-03-29T11:00
With countries in lockdown, the showdown with China accelerating and the rise of white supremacy, the planet stands on a precipice. Journalist Stan Grant looks at a possible way forward
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The male midwife from 2021-03-26T11:00
Midwife Christian Wright with tales of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land, helping Yol?u women birth their babies
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My brother, our farm, and seeking the source of consciousness — Mark Solms from 2021-03-25T11:00
When he was a young boy in South Africa, Professor Mark Solms watched his older brother fall from a roof and crack his skull. His brother survived but was greatly changed by the injuries to his br...
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Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller — Broadway and me from 2021-03-24T11:00
Jeffrey tells stories of grit, brilliance and tragedy behind the making of the smash hit musicals 'Rent' and 'Hamilton'
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Robina Courtin — listening to prisoners on death row from 2021-03-23T11:00
In 1978 Australian Robina Courtin became one of the first westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun. Then a letter from a young prisoner in a California jail began a huge change in her own story (R)
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Rachael Maza's tale of three islands from 2021-03-22T11:00
Palm Island, Mer Island, and Australia are the cornerstones of Rachael's work as an actor and a director (R)
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Pandemic nurse from 2021-03-19T11:00
Simone Sheridan on working at the coalface of Australia's Covid-19 pandemic
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The Admiral and the Ecstasy from 2021-03-18T11:00
When Admiral Chris Barrie retired as the Chief of the Defence Force, he became increasingly concerned about life for veterans with PTSD. Then he discovered certain psychedelic drugs were being used...
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A very vulnerable year from 2021-03-17T11:00
After Rick Morton was unexpectedly diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder he set out on a year-long mission to rediscover love
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The life-changing power of honeybees from 2021-03-16T11:00
When Helen Jukes was given a colony of bees they helped release her from the numbing grind of her working life (R)
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Barlinnie, the Gorbals and me from 2021-03-15T11:00
Thriller writer Helen Fitzgerald on her life as a social worker inside some of Scotland's toughest prisons
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Singing with strangers and Spooky Men from 2021-03-12T11:00
Choir master Stephen Taberner was raised a Christadelphian, but in his adult life he celebrates the pleasure of music (R)
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The horse whisperer from 2021-03-11T11:00
Candy Baker was a cash-strapped single mum with too many horses when she moved to the hills outside Byron Bay and discovered a new way of communicating with her herd
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Keenan's courage from 2021-03-10T11:00
Justice advocate Keenan Mundine broke the cycle of crime and incarceration in his own life after a chance meeting at a birthday party (CW: mentions suicide, references to drug use. Strong languag...
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The babies of Holnicote House from 2021-03-09T11:00
Deborah Prior was one of more than 2000 mixed-race babies born to white British women and black American GI's during WWII. As an adult, she finally found her birth mother again under strange circum...
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Deborah's fight for her wings from 2021-03-08T11:00
Deborah Lawrie had her first flying lesson at 16, then became a flying instructor herself. But when she applied for a job as a pilot, she found herself in the fight of her life
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The determination of Caroline O'Connor from 2021-03-05T11:00
When Caroline O'Connor was told she had 'too much personality' for the ballet, she turned to musical theatre and braved cattle calls and years of working as an understudy in order to make it on Bro...
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Two spoons and a dugout canoe — the story of Jock McLaren from 2021-03-04T11:00
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
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Bill Birtles on China from 2021-03-03T11:00
Bill began his dream job as the ABC's China Correspondent in 2015. Five years later, seven State Security police officers visited him in the middle of the night to tell him he was barred from leavi...
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A twitcher's life from 2021-03-02T11:00
Sean Dooley's passion for birdwatching began with the coo of a spotted turtle dove. Decades later he broke the Australian birdwatching record (R)
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The cold case secret in a Brisbane garage from 2021-03-01T11:00
When Mark McKenna set out to write a history of the centre of Australia, and Uluru, he unearthed new evidence about an 86-year old cold case *CW: For our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liste...
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Raised in a cult from 2021-02-26T11:00
Serafina Tanè was born into a doomsday cult led by a charismatic and abusive man who claimed he'd been abducted by aliens
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Water, Water — a story collection from 2021-02-25T11:00
Eight thrilling encounters in and on the water, as told by previous Conversations guests (R)
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When Jeanne was Jean — sailing the high seas disguised as a man from 2021-02-24T11:00
Danielle Clode with the story of the adventurous Jeanne Barrett, a French peasant from Burgundy who became the first woman to sail around the world
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Trump's Last Stand from 2021-02-23T11:00
Political reporter Jonathan Swan with the inside story of Donald Trump’s last few months in office
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The history of libraries from before stone tablets to printed books from 2021-02-22T11:00
Stuart Kells' life as a bibliophile began with one ancient, leather-bound, blue book (R)
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The race to live on Mars from 2021-02-19T11:00
Cosmologist Tamara Davis on the complicated scientific quest to explore and colonise the Red Planet
Curlew Man of the south west from 2021-02-18T11:00
After Kim Scott became a teacher and a father, he started looking for his Aboriginal family *CW: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners p...
Mary Wilson: Dream Girl from 2021-02-16T12:00
The late Mary Wilson rose up from Detroit's housing projects to find worldwide fame with The Supremes (R)
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Oumuamua's secrets from 2021-02-15T11:00
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 ...
Secret agents in the suburbs: a real life family spy story from 2021-02-12T11:00
Sue Ellen Kusher’s father was an ASIO agent, and she and her siblings were taught to memorise number plates, spot unusual behaviour, and keep the f...
Upside down in Bass Strait from 2021-02-11T11:00
Ocean racing navigator Will Oxley first learned his trade through celestial navigation, using a sextant and the stars. He then began ocean racing a...
The mystery of Lasseter's Reef from 2021-02-10T11:00
Warren Brown with the story of the fever sparked by claims of a gold reef in the Central Australian desert during the Great Depression (R)
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The secret life of George from 2021-02-09T11:00
Georgina Godwin grew up in Zimbabwe with a father who was the model of a British gentleman. Many years after she fled Africa for London, she discov...
The hunt for Hitler's horses from 2021-02-08T11:00
Art detective Arthur Brand met neo-Nazis, billionaire collectors and underground art dealers on his hunt for the two enormous bronze horse sculptur...
Gail Force from 2021-02-05T11:00
Gail Austen was 7 years old when she started her first business, selling hand-made billycarts on the streets of Redfern. She grew up to become a le...
Philippa Perry says yes to feelings from 2021-02-04T11:00
Philippa's parents wanted her to move in the 'right' circles, so they sent her to a Swiss finishing school. Instead she became a debt collector, we...
When Robert found Maida from 2021-02-03T11:00
Former politician Robert Tickner grew up in country NSW, 'showered with love' by his adoptive parents. When he was reunited with his biological mum...
A life inside the rock 'n' roll circus - Part 2 from 2021-02-02T11:00
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 *C...
A life inside the rock 'n' roll circus - Part 1 from 2021-02-01T11:00
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
This anxious life: Dr Mark Cross from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Mark is an experienced consultant psychiatrist who also suffers from Australia's most common mental health condition, anxiety. His direct insight helps him...
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The pavlova in the suitcase from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Michelle Garnaut on how she began one of the world's most famous restaurants in communist-era Shanghai (R)
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After triple zero — a paramedic's tale from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Benjamin Gilmour describes the hectic work of saving lives, and what it's like to bring people back from the brink of suicide ...
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Mary's three gurus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How a young woman fell under the spell of spiritual cult leaders in the 1970s
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How Sean Sweeney found his deaf heart from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Sean was the first hearing baby to be born to his mother’s family in four generations. He became an Auslan interpreter, and an instantly recognisable figur...
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Claire G. Coleman's many lives from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Claire grew up running wild in the Banksia forests of Southern Western Australia. As an adult she had a period of homelessness, living on the streets of Me...
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Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 ...
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Best of 2019 — Bryan Brown from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Bryan’s played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have been his ticke...
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Best of 2019 — Ron McCallum from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Left totally blind by treatment he received as a premature baby, Ron credits technology, love, and good timing with his success in life and the law (R) ...
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Best of 2019 — Archie Roach from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Archie tells of writing Took the Children Away and playing it in public for the first time, of his belated reunion with his siblings, and his love story wi...
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Best of 2019 — Pia Winberg from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Pia began her own seaweed farm after decades as a marine ecologist. One ordinary working day there was a terrible accident (R) ...
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Best of 2019 — Vickie Roach from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Vickie's met with trouble all through her life, starting with a police record at the age of two. She went on to challenge a Federal law on the rights of pr...
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Peter Helliar's gothic side from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When comedian Peter Helliar was a child, he was fascinated by the idea of death, and wrote about it endlessly. Then he grew up to become the 'world's happi...
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Summer Holidays: a story collection from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tales of the great Australian summer holiday from Mark Trevorrow, Alice Pung, Jack Hoysted and Steph Tisdell
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Helen Garner: from Paris to Moonee Ponds from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Helen recently published her diaries from 1978-1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, the quest for the right pair o...
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The end of the Milky Way from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith on how Andromeda is due to collide with our galaxy in five billion years time (R)
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British actor Timothy Spall digs deep from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Timothy’s stellar screen career, including roles in ‘Mr Turner’, ‘Secrets and Lies’, the Harry Potter films, and his latest, ‘Mrs Lowry & Son’, was almost ...
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Dylan Moran and the white-knuckle ride of stand up comedy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Irish comic Dylan Moran on his unusual childhood, the story behind Black Books, and why he's given up drinking for good
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Craig Foster and the battle to save fellow footballer, Hakeem al-Araibi from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After Hakeem was imprisoned while on his honeymoon in Thailand, Craig fought the power of two monarchies, a military junta, and the world's largest sportin...
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The doctor known as 'The God of Sight' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Nepalese surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit on his work in the villages of Nepal which has restored the sight of more than 150 000 people (R) ...
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Rescuing the boys from the cave — Richard Harris from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
An anaesthetist and cave diver, Richard had the exact combination of skills needed to help save the lives of a Thai soccer team trapped deep underwater ...
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Drones and forgiveness from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How a young computer scientist found his way out of a traumatic childhood
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War crimes, bombings, secret lives — Tony Jones turns truth into thrillers from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The retiring host of Q&A reflects on his time with the show, and how his years reporting from the former Yugoslavia have helped him craft best-selling fict...
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How Christos found radical compassion from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Writer Christos Tsiolkas broke away from the Christian church as a teenager. As a grown man, in a moment of personal crisis, he rediscovered the letters of...
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Inside the engine room of power from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How Samantha Power became one of world's most influential foreign policy thinkers
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The honourable fight: 16 years as Director of Public Prosecutions NSW from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Nicholas Cowdery oversaw some of Australia's most sensational cases during his 16 years in the role. His decisions often made him enemies in politics and t...
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Watching the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
NASA astronomer Jennifer Wiseman on exploring the design of the universe (R)
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Capturing the souls of abandoned pets from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When Peter Sharp's severe back pain forced him to give up work, he believed he was unemployable. Then began photographing lost and abandoned dogs, cats, gu...
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Ray Bonner, Bolivia and the big risk from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
New York Times journalist Ray Bonner spent decades reporting from some of the world's most dangerous places. Then he moved to Australia, and made one of th...
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Postcards from God — artist William Robinson from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
William is considered one of Australia's greatest living artists. But it took years for his work to be recognised as brilliant ...
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The ferocious power of Rebekah from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
At the age of 2, Rebekah Robertson's son George calmly explained to his mum that he was a girl. After years of turmoil in the family, Rebekah began devotin...
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Clare Bowditch and the breakthrough from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How Clare overcame grief she'd stored away since childhood, found a way to manage anxiety, and embraced a joyful, messy life ...
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Inside the dictator's mind from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Frank Dikotter on the common personality traits of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao and other twentieth century dictators
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Armistice: The Good Friends from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The story of two men who fought for different sides on the western front, and an unexpected friendship between their descendants (R) ...
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Finding new ways to grow old from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After both her parents died young, Charlotte Wood grew up believing she would never grow old. When she reached her 50s, she began to ask some big questions...
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David McAllister: a life in dance from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 o...
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Archie Roach: turning spirit into song from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Archie tells of writing Took the Children Away and playing it in public for the first time, of his belated reunion with his siblings, and his love story wi...
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Di Morrissey and the tragedy on Lovett Bay from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Di Morrissey grew up in a tiny village only accessible by rowboat, with film star Chips Rafferty and poet Dorothea Mackellar as her neighbours. In 1954, a ...
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The writer and the Prince from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
While fleeing the aftermath of a failed marriage, Hilary McPhee accepted a job in Jordan to write the autobiography of a Hashemite Prince. Living alone for...
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Murgon's shining star: Leah Purcell from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Leah was a teenager working in a small-town meatworks when she discovered her true path in life (R)
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The force of Will from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Winemaker Will Rikard-Bell was working at Hunter Valley winery when a catastrophic explosion knocked him off his feet. He sustained burns to 70% of his bod...
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In the shadowlands: McMafia author Misha Glenny on organised crime from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As a young man studying in Europe, Misha formed underground links that would propel his whole career. The former BBC correspondent interviews criminals all...
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Que Minh Luu doesn’t need a hug from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How hot young widows, perceptive friends and twitter kept television executive Que afloat after the death of her husband
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Tara Westover's escape from ignorance from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tara was raised by parents who were radical Mormon survivalists, preparing for the End of Days. Although they didn't believe in traditional schooling, Tara...
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Life in the shadow of Long Bay from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Patrick Kennedy on growing up next door to some of Australia's most violent criminals (R)
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Surviving kidnap in Sierra Leone from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Aminata Conteh-Biger was kidnapped by rebel militia when they stormed her village and ransacked her family home. A strange series of events saw her release...
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The chair with five legs from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As a girl, Davida Allen was brought up to be a proper young lady. Instead, she covered her naked body in paint and rolled around to make art. She grew up t...
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Child convicts, lost boys and the murder at Point Puer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
British boys as young as nine were transported to Van Diemen's Land for petty crime. 3000 of them were incarcerated at Point Puer, the first prison in the ...
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Strange rescuers: my father's Holocaust from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Juliet Rieden traces the story of her Czech father, who was taken as a child refugee to Britain a week before the Nazis arrived in Prague, and thus spared ...
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Kumi’s Japanese inheritance from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Australian journalist Kumi Taguchi grapples with divided loyalties after the death of her father
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Story of a blood red rose from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kate Forsyth tells the origin story of a fairy tale staple, the ever-flowering red rose. Her version has its roots in Imperial China, and arrives via the F...
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Dear Dolly Doctor, Am I normal? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Dr. Melissa Kang explained sex, puberty and periods to teen girls in her role as Dolly magazine's ‘Dolly Doctor’. She spent 23 years answering questions se...
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Dinosaur fields: finding fossils on the family farm from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The random find of a dinosaur bone on her Queensland property led Robyn Mackenzie to develop an outback museum of international importance, and a deep sens...
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Chasing the dream that was Prague from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Author Favel Parrett’s grandmother escaped from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, but her sister stayed behind - suffering the twin nightmares of Nazism and St...
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Robert Dessaix — Just as I please from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Robert built a whole life out of things which sparked his curiosity, whether they were languages, people or places. But when he met his birth mother in mid...
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Jimmy Barnes - A Broken Homecoming from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 hu...
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Hetty McKinnon: lessons from my mother's kitchen from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Cookbook author Hetty McKinnon was raised by a mum who was a passionate and creative cook. But Hetty was never particularly interested in cooking herself, ...
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James Earl Jones — Not Quite What I Had Planned from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How the man who voiced Darth Vader and Mufasa overcame a childhood stutter to build a career on his rich, resonant voice (R) ...
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Geoff Goodfellow's poetry captures the spirit of working-class Australia from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A former boxer and builder's labourer, Geoff is now a highly successful poet (R)
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Taking your cat for a walk and why dogs never stop loving — Jeffrey Masson from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jeff's latest book on animal behaviour tackles grief — the loss we feel when a beloved pet dies, as well as the understanding other species have of death ...
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The great hope of Isaiah Dawe from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Isaiah lived in 17 places in his first 18 years, none of them with his parents. Now he's established an organisation to give Indigenous young people in the...
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The ancient trails of the South East Forests from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After decades walking in the South East Forests of NSW, John Blay thought he knew them well. Then Indigenous friends showed him the Bundian Way, a trail fr...
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Myth and Legend — Battles, fairie curses and the evil eye: why old Irish tales still delight us from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Irish novelist Paedar O'Guilin weaves old myths into startling new stories (R)
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Bronze age pigs and ancient dingoes — stories from the bones from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How zooarchaeologist Melanie Fillios uses the remains and fossils of animals, including dingoes, to understand more about ancient humans ...
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Territory taxidermist — Jared Archibald from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jared spent his childhood behind the scenes at the Museum of the Northern Territory, up close to prehistoric kangaroo fossils, opulent trading pearls, and ...
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Nardi Simpson on Crocodile Country from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Yuwaalaraay writer, storyteller and performer, Nardi Simpson of the Stiff Gins talks about her life, art and the meaning of country ...
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The epic hunt for the deadly Taipan from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Brendan James Murray on the elusive copper-coloured snake species which terrorised post WWII North Queensland (R)
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The Nazi Brigadeführer who got away from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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' ...
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The women of Steel City from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Robynne Murphy, film-maker and former steel worker, on the Wollongong women who took on BHP for the right to work alongside men at the steelworks ...
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Hannah Gadsby and the point of no return from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Australian comedian on Nanette, her 'farewell' to stand up comedy; being diagnosed with high-functioning autism as an adult; and on Douglas, the show a...
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Uncle Jack Charles — not true blue, true blak from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Uncle Jack was forcibly removed from his mother as a baby and denied his Aboriginality. A one-off trip to Fitzroy connected him with a family he didn’t kno...
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This is your Captain speaking from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On 9/11 Captain Beverley Bass diverted her American Airlines jet to a tiny town in Newfoundland, along with thousands of other airspace refugees (R) ...
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Moomins, motherhood and me — Sheila Heti from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Sheila Heti on the life of Finnish writer Tove Jansson who created the Moomins, and some of her own reflections on her choice about whether or not to becom...
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Marian Keyes on growing up from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A new conversation with the Irish novelist, on what it means to be a grown up, and standing her ground on Ireland’s moral questions ...
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16 sunrises and sunsets in a day — life aboard the Space Shuttle from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Astronaut Jim Bagian on working, eating and sleeping in micro-gravity while orbiting the earth at 28 000 kilometres an hour ...
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Big Adventures — aviator Charles Kingsford Smith from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Biographer Ann Blainey with the tale of Smithy, king of the Milky Way, and his audacious flight across the Pacific in his plane the Southern Cross (R) ...
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Ray Collins — life in the black, and the blue from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ray was a coal miner when an accident underground left him lying prone in a tunnel a kilometre beneath the earth. What he did next changed the course of hi...
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The strange new science of ageing from 2021-01-29T11:00
Andrew Steele on the race to crack the scientific code of why we get old, and whether we can delay or suspend ageing for good
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Pink Diamonds and Crocodiles: A Kimberley Tale from 2021-01-28T11:00
How Frauke Bolten-Boshammer raised a farm, a family and a diamond empire from the red dirt of Kununurra (*CW: this episode contains discussion of s...
Benjamin's epic flight from 2021-01-27T11:00
When Benjamin Jordan landed his paraglider in a swarm of millions of Monarch butterflies over-wintering in a Mexican valley, the experience changed...
Hidden histories of Chinese Australia from 2021-01-26T11:00
Tim Watts MP has a deeply personal reason for wanting to resurface stories about Chinese migrants to Australia. From pre-Federation, to the Kelly g...
The story of the Bible in Australia from 2021-01-25T11:00
Historian Meredith Lake with the Bible's Australian history, from the convict era, to the Mabo land rights campaign, and the modern-day Pentecostal...
Lighthouses, daring rescues, and an ANZAC tortoise from 2021-01-21T11:00
Shona Riddell on the adventurous lives of women lighthouse keepers
Wilma Reading's life in song from 2021-01-20T11:00
Cairns-born Wilma Reading was sixteen when her friends first urged her to get up and sing in a Brisbane cafe. Her show-stopping voice later made he...
Cyrus the Great: 'the anointed one' from 2021-01-19T11:00
Stephen Dando-Collins with the story of the life and deeds of the Persian King Cyrus the Great, whose exploits inspired Alexander the Great and Jul...
Dr Fish Feelings from 2021-01-18T11:00
Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know when it's the weekend (R)
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Best of 2020 — Joy McKean from 2020-12-11T11:00
Joy's travels with her late husband Slim Dusty brought both challenges and rewards (R)
Best of 2020 — John Doyle from 2020-12-10T11:00
Comedian John Doyle (aka Rampaging Roy Slaven) was raised in a mining town in a Catholic family. Behind closed doors, family life was often turbule...
Best of 2020 — Peggy McDonald from 2020-12-09T11:00
Peggy has spent much of her life as wildlife carer specialising in helping wedge-tail eagles, falcons, owls and other raptors recover their ability...
Best of 2020 — Peter O'Brien from 2020-12-08T11:00
The lessons Peter learned as a brand new teacher in a one-room bush school in 1960, in the tiny town of Weabonga, New South Wales.
The li...
Best of 2020 — Nardi Simpson from 2020-12-07T11:00
Yuwaalaraay writer and storyteller, Nardi Simpson of the band, Stiff Gins, talks about her life, art and the meaning of country (R)
...
Kai and the 99th koala from 2020-12-03T11:00
Arborist Kai Wild used his tree-climbing expertise to rescue burned, injured and orphaned koalas during the Black Summer bushfires (*CW: this episo...
Sir Michael Parkinson — my father John from 2020-12-02T17:00
Broadcaster Michael Parkinson with the life story of his late father John William - Yorkshireman, miner, humourist and fast bowler
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Fabulous Ada Delroy — serpentine dancer and vaudevillian from 2020-12-02T11:00
Kaz Cooke traces the dramatic life of a singular woman (R)
Dara McAnulty and the joys of nature from 2020-11-30T11:00
The young naturalist shares his deep connection to the wild landscapes and creatures of Northern Ireland. Dara's first book has been highly awarded...
Australia's fearless women pilots from 2020-11-27T11:00
Kathy Mexted with true stories of extraordinary Australian women compelled to take to the skies in Spitfires, Tiger Moths, Cessnas and fighter jets...
The girl from Orroroo — Fleur McDonald from 2020-11-26T11:00
Fleur grew up in a fuel depot in a tiny South Australian town. As a girl she would ride along in road trains with her Dad, singing songs and eating...
Intrepid and curious Charlotte Waring Atkinson — as told by Kate Forsyth from 2020-11-25T11:00
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...
The true history of the Ark before Noah from 2020-11-24T11:00
How Irving Finkel stumbled upon the true story of the Ark before Noah on a Babylonian clay tablet (R)
A very modern history of swearing from 2020-11-23T11:00
Amanda Laugesen with the rich history of Australian 'bad language', and how the words we classify as swearing have changed over time. *CW: Discussi...
From the ashes of a failed farm from 2020-11-20T11:00
Robert Pekin lost his family’s 4th-generation farm, and in despair, walked away from everything and into the wilderness. After much soul-searching ...
The hunt for the world’s largest owl from 2020-11-19T11:00
Wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght on his adventurous quest to save the rare, shaggy fish owls of Russia's Far East
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Falafel and Fatherhood from 2020-11-18T11:00
John Birmingham found himself rebuilding his life years after the devastating loss of his father (R)
Ben Folds' dream of lightning bugs from 2020-11-17T11:00
Ben on his musical career, the art of song writing and his brief stint as a one-man polka band in a German restaurant (R)
<...
Alannah Hill — behind the mask from 2020-11-13T11:00
At sixteen, Alannah fled Tasmania and a traumatic past. In Melbourne, she began her wildly distinctive fashion label, which became an empire. Then ...
What happened to the USA? from 2020-11-12T11:00
Nick Bryant reports from New York for the BBC. It's a city he's loved since his first visit in the 1980s. Now when he looks at the USA he wonders i...
Tim Cope in the footsteps of Genghis Khan — Part Two from 2020-11-11T11:00
Tim continues his epic three-year adventure on horseback across the Eurasian Steppe, in this episode journeying from Kazakhstan all the way to Hung...
Tim Cope in the footsteps of Genghis Khan — Part One from 2020-11-10T11:00
Tim's epic journey across the Eurasian Steppe on horseback, in the style of the Mongol nomads, took him three years (R)
Sophie and the red balloon from 2020-11-06T11:00
Mary Li was a star ballerina when she fell in love with Li Cunxin, her dance partner at the Houston Ballet. When their daughter Sophie was born pro...
Born to climb the Dawn Wall — Tommy Caldwell from 2020-11-05T11:00
Yosemite’s most punishing climb is the 3000ft sheer face of El Capitan mountain called the Dawn Wall. Tommy grew up exploring Yosemite and in 2015 ...
How Richard Glover survived a strange upbringing from 2020-11-03T11:00
Richard's family story is hard to beat in a game of who has the strangest parents. The Sydney broadcaster began to understand more about his eccent...
Comedian Fiona O’Loughlin on living in the light from 2020-11-02T11:00
Fiona’s alcoholism took her a long time to acknowledge and cost her a great deal. In recent years she’s been reckoning with all that’s happened sin...
Losing baby Miles from 2020-10-30T11:00
When Annabel Bower’s fourth child Miles was stillborn, she decided to begin to break the silence around stillbirth and miscarriage
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From the meatworks to mending men's souls from 2020-10-29T11:00
Peter Stojanovic was working in a Melbourne meatworks when a spiritual epiphany led him to a new life, working with violent men to help change thei...
Introducing — Days Like These from 2020-10-28T18:00
During Australia's worst bushfires Cate Tregellas and her family were forced to evacuate their home in Mallacoota and retreat to the local wharf as...
How to catch a wild bull from 2020-10-28T11:00
Lach McClymont mustered hundreds of wild cattle, untouched for decades, from a remote area of the Northern Territory (R)
When Cathy went to Canberra from 2020-10-27T11:00
Cathy McGowan never imagined a future for herself as a politician. So when she became Federal Member for Indi she began doing politics very differe...
Bill Bailey on happiness from 2020-10-26T11:00
From playing Crazy Golf with his dad, listening to birdsong, and fixing the dishwasher — to swimming in Arctic waters and skydiving, Bill dips into...
Ajay Rane and the gift of the earthenware pot from 2020-10-23T11:00
Ajay is an obstetrician and urogynecologist who grew up in rural India. His father, born to one of India’s lowest classes, was also a surgeon — an ...
Lamorna and the sea from 2020-10-22T11:00
When Lamorna Ash began to explore her Cornish ancestry she started work on a rusty yellow fishing trawler called the Filadelfia, scaling fish, gutt...
Jacqui Lambie — the unlikely Senator from 2020-10-20T11:00
From painkiller addiction to parliament, Jacqui's life has been a rollercoaster (R)
Mary-Louise and her fourth pandemic from 2020-10-19T11:00
Epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws on life during COVID-19, the virus she classifies as both vulnerable and ruthless
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On the Salt Path from 2020-10-16T11:00
When Raynor Winn and her husband Moth lost their home then faced a terrible diagnosis, they found solace in walking more than 1000 kilometres of th...
Psychotherapy on the couch from 2020-10-14T11:00
Demystifying the art of talk therapy and the complex relationship between therapist and patient (R)
Robin Ince — inside the comic mind from 2020-10-12T11:00
Becardiganed polymath Robin Ince on the fascinating brains of stand-up comics (R)
David Astle's brain on puzzles from 2020-10-07T11:00
How one of the world's most influential crossword setters became increasingly interested in the science behind them (R)
Richard and the island from 2020-10-06T11:00
Richard Flanagan on writing his apocalyptic novel on a remote island, as bushfires burned through Tasmania's forests
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Kumi's Japanese inheritance from 2020-10-05T12:00
Television presenter Kumi Taguchi's story of searching for her Japanese heritage began with searching for her grandparent's house in Tokyo, which n...
The railway child - Monica from Clare from 2020-10-02T11:00
Monica McInerney grew up in a family of railway children, as her Dad was the stationmaster in the tiny South Australian town of Clare. At 16, she l...
Sick in the Land of the Well from 2020-10-01T11:00
Jacinta Parsons was in her 20s when she became horribly unwell with Crohn's disease, a chronic disease of the digestive system. Then, doctors gave ...
Sophie and Russell and Bear and Poppy from 2020-09-30T11:00
How Sophie Townsend kept on, after losing her beloved husband to a sudden illness
Tracking the trial of a Mississippi murder from 2020-09-29T11:00
John Safran had a personal interest in the death of white supremacist, Richard Barrett. What he discovered when digging into the case revealed more...
Wil Paterson aka Mr Ordinary — Not Quite What I Had Planned from 2020-09-25T11:00
Wil Patterson was a suburban dad who wanted all the good things in life for his family. Then he made a decision which upended everything
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Helen Elliott — Not Quite What I Had Planned from 2020-09-24T11:00
Helen was working as a psychologist when she became so ill she was held in a locked psychiatric ward. There she was given ECT, one of the most extr...
Zenith Virago — Not Quite What I Had Planned from 2020-09-23T11:00
Zenith Virago married at seventeen, and had two children. Then she left her young family to create a life of her own on the other side of the world...
Akmal Saleh — Not Quite What I Had Planned from 2020-09-22T11:00
When Akmal and his wife decided to have a treechange by moving to Byron Bay, almost immediately a comedy of errors ensued, involving a python in th...
Dave Graney — a musician's take on the art of the bludge from 2020-09-18T11:00
Dave looks back on the many forms of employment and unemployment to have sustained him as a hard working musician (R)
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The Salami Sisters, Puberty Blues, and beyond from 2020-09-17T11:00
In the late 70s, Gabrielle Carey co-wrote a blisteringly honest novel about the real lives of teenage surfie chicks in Cronulla which caused a stor...
The story of a tank named Mephisto from 2020-09-16T11:00
Why the only remaining WW1 German A7V tank is in Brisbane, Australia (R)
A Herdwick shepherd's epiphany from 2020-09-15T11:00
A new conversation with James Rebanks on how he saved his family farm by returning to ancient ways of growing crops and meadows
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Jane Fonda - writing her own script from 2020-09-11T11:00
Jane Fonda's big life has included Barbarella, activism, three husbands, workout videos and hair epiphanies. Now in her 80s, she's devoting her ene...
Mudlarking and beachcombing — a family story of London rubbish from 2020-09-10T11:00
Lisa Woollett's family made their living from combing through London's waste for treasures. Her great-grandfather was a scavenger and her grandad w...
Bangarra's bold leader: Stephen Page from 2020-09-09T11:00
When they were kids, Stephen and his brothers would climb onto the laundry roof and put on a show for their neighbourhood. Stephen's since made an ...
How Dyarubbin became the crucible of a colony from 2020-09-08T11:00
Grace Karskens with the story of the riverlands of the Hawkesbury-Nepean, where ancient and modern Australia first collided
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Maggie Dent - helping teenage boys grow into good men from 2020-09-07T11:00
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 c...
Ivan Milat, tribal law, and making my father proud — Andrew Boe's story from 2020-09-04T11:00
Andrew was a 4 year old when his family migrated to Australia from Burma. By his mid-20s he had his own criminal law practice. When he took on a cl...
One thumb, one toe — Billy's escape from paralysis from 2020-09-03T11:00
When a powerful wave he was riding sent him smashing into the sand, breaking his neck, former Army Ranger Billy Hedderman came within a breath of d...
Craig Foster's fight to save Hakeem from 2020-09-02T11:00
After young Australian soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi was imprisoned in Thailand, Craig fought the power of two monarchies, a military junta, and t...
The amazing life of Frida DeGuise from 2020-08-31T11:00
How a girl from the suburbs of Melbourne grew up to become Australia's first female Muslim standup comedian
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Melina Marchetta — that Italian girl from 2020-08-28T11:05
The true story behind Looking for Alibrandi (R)
Richard Fidler's Prague from 2020-08-28T11:00
Richard shares stories gathered while writing his biography of the city of Prague. Some emerged from his research trip of 2019, others involved dee...
Timothy Spall — the British actor digs deep on screen and in life from 2020-08-26T11:00
Timothy’s stellar career, including roles in ‘Mr Turner’, ‘Secrets and Lies’, the Harry Potter films, and his latest, ‘Mrs Lowry & Son’, was almost...
Ray versus the road toll — a lifelong campaign against road deaths from 2020-08-25T11:00
Dr Raymond Shuey saved countless lives during his career with Victoria Police, driving significant change to road rules, as well as how police resp...
A daughter's unswerving love — Sarah Holland-Batt and her father from 2020-08-21T11:00
Sarah Holland-Batt's dad Tony was a loving father, her intellectual mentor and her friend. At 18, she became one of his carers. Later she battled a...
Dylan Moran and the white-knuckle ride of standup from 2020-08-19T11:00
Dylan Moran on his County Meath childhood, making Black Books, and why he gave up drinking for good (R)
Rozanna's curious life from 2020-08-18T11:00
Rozanna Lilley was raised in a bohemian household by her parents, writers Dorothy Hewett and Merv Lilley. In her early teens, her childhood was car...
Walking from Camooweal to Birdsville with nine goats from 2020-08-17T11:00
Owen Davies on his 98-day trek with goats and dogs, walking more than 990 kilometres down the Georgina River in outback Queensland (R)
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The brutal and beautiful world of Australia's native bees from 2020-08-14T11:00
Sugarbag bees who headbutt their queen to death are among the many Australian bee species which fascinate ecologist Toby Smith (R)
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Stranded — what Claire learned from falling from 2020-08-13T11:00
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 o...
Falling for a fake from 2020-08-12T11:00
Stephanie Wood was a successful, confident journalist when she fell for a romantic fraudster (R)
The apartment on Memorial Drive from 2020-08-11T11:00
Natasha Trethewey was 19 when her mother Gwendolyn was brutally murdered. During this great rupture in her life Natasha began to garner acclaim for...
The Weabonga lessons from 2020-08-10T11:00
Peter O'Brien was a new minted teacher in 1960 when he took a job at a one-room bush school in Weabonga, NSW. The living was hard, but the job was ...
Myth and Legend — Kate Forsyth on the dark origins of beloved fairytales from 2020-08-07T11:00
The stories which preceded modern iterations of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood were often much more disturbing (R)
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Myth and Legend — the creation of Wonder Woman from 2020-08-05T11:00
Historian Jill Lepore untangles the secret history of one of the 20th Century's most striking superheroes. She explains the myths, politics and ecc...
Myth and Legend — Neil Gaiman on classic Norse mythology from 2020-08-04T11:00
Neil explores some of the stories from Nordic mythology which have captivated him since childhood (R)
Myth and Legend — the monsters and morals of Sarah Perry from 2020-08-03T11:00
Sarah's life took a gothic turn as she crafted her version of Melmoth (R)
The dark Lithgow childhood of Rampaging Roy Slaven from 2020-07-31T11:00
Comedian and writer John Doyle was raised in a mining town in a music-loving Catholic family. Behind closed doors, his family life was often turbul...
The world of the holocaust's 'hide-away' children from 2020-07-30T11:00
Author Bart van Es with the story of the young Jewish girl Lien de Jong, hidden by Bart's Dutch grandparents during WWII when they joined the resis...
The sister who stayed behind from 2020-07-28T11:00
Writer Favel Parrett’s grandmother fled Prague as a teenager, but her sister stayed on, and then lived through both Nazism and Stalinism (R)
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Stan Grant's life in storytelling from 2020-07-27T11:00
Stan Grant on his life as a journalist, author and filmmaker from the Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal First Nations of Australia
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Swimming, the Sisters of Mercy, and the search for meaning from 2020-07-24T11:00
At 15, Rebecca McCabe was on track to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics for swimming. As swam, she would often ask herself big questions abo...
Fascinating fungi — the intelligent kingdom from 2020-07-23T11:00
Biologist Merlin Sheldrake's extreme experiments, many of which involve his physical body and varying forms of fungi, have led to equally remarkabl...
Rise and fall of the Rock Star from 2020-07-22T11:00
David Hepworth charts our fascination with that most earth-bound of gods, the rock star; and discusses some of music history's striking examples
Eddie Woo on finding the right formula from 2020-07-21T11:00
Despite never really liking maths at school, Eddie made up his mind in the teaching sign-on queue, to become a maths teacher. This split-second dec...
Floating though the dolines from 2020-07-20T11:00
Cave diver Stefan Eberhard has spent decades exploring the vast underwater caves of the Nullarbor Plains, where the water teems with blind shrimp a...
From a mountain monastery from 2020-07-17T11:00
Paul Haller grew up Catholic in Belfast, and his pursuit of meaning has since taken him around the world. Now a Zen priest, Zen practice and teachi...
Lying on the job — the story of an undercover officer from 2020-07-16T11:00
Keith Banks spent twenty years in his dream career with the Queensland Police. He was awarded for bravery several times, but left the job angry and...
Bill Bryson and the wonders of the human body from 2020-07-15T11:00
Why is scratching an itch so pleasurable? How can someone leap from a burning plane in the sky and survive with a few bumps and scratches? A journe...
A boy, his pony and the Sydney Harbour Bridge from 2020-07-10T11:00
Lennie Gwyther was 9 years old when he rode Ginger Mick from country Victoria to Sydney to be at the opening of the Bridge (R)
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In Pico Iyer's Japan the air is thronged with ghosts from 2020-07-09T11:00
Pico was a journalist in New York when a 20-hour layover at Narita airport in Japan made him question everything. He decided to begin again as a mo...
The raptor whisperer from 2020-07-08T11:00
Peggy McDonald has spent much of her life as wildlife carer who specialises in helping wedge-tail eagles, falcons, owls and other raptors recover t...
Magic mushrooms, micro-dosing and Michael Pollan from 2020-07-07T11:00
How Michael Pollan 'shook the snowglobe' of his mind by investigating the therapeutic effects of psychedelic substances
The heart expands to fit — a family's adoption story from 2020-07-06T11:00
Justine Flynn's five children were all born in South Korea and adopted into her family
Not your average dentist from 2020-07-02T11:00
Sharonne Zaks was working as a dentist when an encounter with a patient named Anna led her to develop a radical new branch of dentistry (R)
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The life of 'Mr Eternity' from 2020-07-01T11:00
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Arthur Stace rose before dawn to write a one-word sermon in chalk on the footpaths of Sydney. Writer Roy Williams une...
Leigh Sales and the days after the worst possible day from 2020-06-30T11:00
Leigh went through an event in 2014 which changed her profoundly. She was left questioning how we cope when the unimaginable happens (R)
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Tim Rogers' daydreams from 2020-06-29T10:00
The frontman of You Am I on his life in music, his Kalgoorlie childhood, and his battles with anxiety (R)
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Glennon Doyle's untamed life from 2020-06-26T10:00
Glennon was the world's most famous Christian mummy blogger when she fell wildly in love with U.S Women's Soccer star Abby Wambach
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Deborah Feldman: rejecting my Hasidic roots from 2020-06-25T10:00
Writer Deborah Feldman grew up inside the claustrophobic world of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect in Brooklyn, and as a teenager she was married off ...
The daredevil of Monte Cristo from 2020-06-24T11:00
Lawrence Ryan grew up in a dilapidated Victorian-era homestead called Monte Cristo. From when he was young, he knew he'd grow up to become a profes...
Peter Norman and the day that shook the Olympic movement from 2020-06-23T11:00
Matt Norman's late uncle Peter won a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics, then was notoriously cast out of Australian sport (R)
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What Jack Reacher did next from 2020-06-18T11:00
How a Birmingham boy became best-selling thriller writer, Lee Child (R)
How Johnathan Thurston became one of the greats from 2020-06-17T11:00
When Johnathan was a boy he was written off as too skinny and too wild for rugby league (R)
Jesse Blackadder: when Lucie left from 2020-06-16T11:00
The late writer with the story of a terrible accident in 1976 which completely changed her family (R)
Vika and Linda Bull — on song and in harmony from 2020-06-12T11:00
Hearing their Tongan mother’s powerful voice rise above the congregation in church, primed Vika and Linda for a life in song. Their distinctive har...
The girl from Kilkivan from 2020-06-11T11:00
In the midst of Lisa Millar's brilliant career as a journalist, she found herself in the grip of aviophobia, a crippling fear of flying (R)
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Opium everywhere — on the trail of the 'Milk of Paradise' from 2020-06-10T11:00
Historian Lucy Inglis on humankind's greatest painkiller and how its trade and cultivation are threaded through the story of civilisation, and the ...
The comic genius of Jennifer Saunders from 2020-06-09T11:00
The co-creator of Absolutely Fabulous says her success rests on a series of happy accidents and calls herself an extreme procrastinator (R)
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Conspiracy theories and me from 2020-06-08T11:00
When Danna Young's husband Mike received a terrible diagnosis, she found herself drawn to conspiracy theories in the search to find someone, or som...
Pasi Sahlberg — making school the happiest place to be from 2020-06-04T11:00
When Pasi was a boy he would sneak into his father's empty schoolroom in northern Finland and pretend to be a teacher. Now he's one of the world's ...
Talking magpies, grieving tawny frogmouths and canny galahs from 2020-06-03T11:00
Gisela Kaplan fell under the spell of birds when she hand-reared a magpie nestling. When it learned to speak, she was so intrigued she switched car...
Voicing velociraptors and capturing the dawn chorus — the soundscapes of Douglas Quin from 2020-06-02T11:00
Meet a sound designer and naturalist who makes field recordings all over the world. He then puts them to use in soundscapes for film and television...
From the Festivals — Tim Flannery on Europe's bizarre prehistory from 2020-05-29T11:00
Europe's startling deep past explained: pygmy dinosaurs, blue-eyed Neanderthals; and how an asteroid the size of Manhattan ruptured everything (R)<...
From the Festivals — Andrew Sean Greer from 2020-05-28T11:00
The Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less was working as an odd-jobs man for an Italian Baroness when a phone call upended his life (R)
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From the Festivals — Cheryl Strayed from 2020-05-27T11:00
Walking through grief and facing up to life on the Pacific Crest Trail, the true story of Wild (R)
From the Festivals — Lemn Sissay from 2020-05-26T11:00
Celebrated British poet Lemn Sissay grew up not knowing his given name or his Ethiopian parents. His life was shaped by being adopted, and then rai...
From the Festivals — James Rebanks the Herdwick shepherd from 2020-05-25T11:00
James explains the traditions, language and pleasures of shepherding in England's Lake District (R)
Chasing Robert Cutter from 2020-05-22T11:00
When Darleen Bungey set out to uncover her father's past she discovered a Hollywood heartthrob and a singer whose records outsold Bing Crosby's
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Maira Kalman: 'I fall in love so many times during the day' from 2020-05-21T11:00
Maira's daily life as a New York-based artist who likes to paint trees, dogs and hats, and why the contents of her mother's closet became famous
The pigment whisperer from 2020-05-20T11:00
One of the world's only master paint-makers, David Coles on how he found a life creating colours like Lapis Blue and Rose Madder (R)
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With a shark under each arm: Dr Fish Feelings from 2020-05-18T11:00
Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know when it's the weekend
...
Miranda Tapsell — Kakadu, Cannes and love stories that matter from 2020-05-15T11:00
Miranda's story from growing up in Kakadu National Park as a Larrakia Tiwi girl, to finding fame in The Sapphires, and co-creating Top End Wedding,...
Helen Garner — from Moonee Ponds to Paris from 2020-05-13T11:00
Helen recently published her diaries from the years 1978 to 1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, and the q...
A true Lord of the Flies story and what we got wrong about human nature from 2020-05-12T11:00
Rutger Bregman takes a new look at the accepted idea that humans are just one disaster away from bad behaviour. He says our species' survival has l...
Adrian Mole and the Shropshire postman from 2020-05-07T11:00
Young Robert Lukins modelled himself on the fictional character Adrian Mole, a prodigious reader and writer (R)
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Sandy Mackinnon's fantastic voyage through the canals of Europe from 2020-05-06T11:00
Sandy was teaching at a school in the English countryside when he set off in a Mirror dinghy, intending to sail as far as Gloucester (R)
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William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company from 2020-05-05T11:00
How a group of financiers from a poor and damp island on the outer rim of Europe created a private company which came to rule India (R)
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The speech collector from 2020-05-04T11:00
Tony Wilson was always drawn to the world's great speeches. Then, without warning, he was called on to make the most difficult speech of his life
Kindness and coincidence — Naomi Shihab Nye from 2020-05-01T11:00
Naomi is an American poet and author living in San Antonio, Texas. Her family story is marked by life-changing coincidences, and narrow escapes
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Not fourteen for ever from 2020-04-30T11:00
How Shannon Molloy survived the worst year of his life, as a gay teenager at an all boys' school on the coast of Central Queensland
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Magda Szubanski — my father, the assassin from 2020-04-29T11:00
A much-loved performer digs into the challenging truth of her father's past (R)
Disappointing Dickens — Charles Dickens' son in the Australian outback from 2020-04-27T13:00
Tom Keneally with the story of Edward 'Plorn' Dickens who was sent to live in Australia when he was sixteen in the hope he might redeem himself
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The life and death of boxer Davey Browne from 2020-04-24T13:00
In 2015, Sydney boxer Davey died of brain swelling after he was knocked out in the ring. When journalist and boxer Stephanie Convery reported on th...
A therapist peers inside her own mind from 2020-04-23T13:00
When therapist Lori Gottlieb found herself in therapy after a devastating breakup, she began to rethink her own life story
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John Prine — from Paradise to Nashville from 2020-04-22T13:00
A songwriter's songwriter, John turned his often bemused view of people and politics into songs for fifty years (R)
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Big Adventures — Alexander McCall Smith from 2020-04-16T13:00
How a lifetime exploring different landscapes inspires the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, who's also one of the world's most ...
Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 2 from 2020-04-15T13:00
Walking the Sahara, towards the fabled city of Timbuktu and into Niger (R)
Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 1 from 2020-04-14T13:00
A breathtaking Saharan adventure: camels, bandits and one fearless woman (R)
Min Jin Lee's good fortune from 2020-04-10T13:00
The author of bestselling novel, Pachinko, explores the lives of generations of Koreans in Japan (R)
Bonus: when Sarah's Dad's fruit shop map went viral from 2020-04-09T14:00
Thanks to her dad’s hand-drawn map, a shopping trip Sarah Kanowski made for her parents during the Covid-19 crisis gladdened hearts on social media...
Hugh Mackay on building community in a crisis from 2020-04-09T13:00
Social researcher Hugh Mackay on the many ways Australian society can pull together while we're meant to live apart
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Paul Kelly and the poetry from 2020-04-08T13:00
Australia's storyteller in song on poems he's loved since childhood, and how reading and learning great poetry has changed his song writing (R)
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Julia Baird on finding shards of light in dark times from 2020-04-06T12:00
After journalist Julia Baird survived a terrible bout of cancer, she began to think about what sustains us when the world goes dark
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Doll's prams and hand-knitted togs: a Hockney family portrait from 2020-04-03T13:00
John Hockney grew up in an unconventional family of five siblings in post-war Yorkshire. As a child, his brother David drew constantly on any paper...
A father and son odyssey from 2020-04-02T13:00
When Daniel Mendelsohn signed up for a Mediterranean cruise to Ithaca with his aging father, neither of them could have predicted what would happen...
Bill Bailey — seriously funny amateur naturalist from 2020-04-01T13:00
Bill Bailey's passion for twitching began as boy growing up in England's west country (R)
Tales from captivity from 2020-03-31T13:00
Stories of imagination, poetry and menace while living in captivity, from Kari Gislason and Candice Fox
Elizabeth Gilbert on love and letting go of normal from 2020-03-30T13:00
How a flash of insight about her life saw Liz upend almost everything in it
Bringing life-saving dialysis to Central Australia from 2020-03-27T12:00
Sarah Brown always wanted to be a remote area nurse. Then she began a medical revolution (R)
Saving tiny lives — the mission of a flying midwife from 2020-03-26T12:00
Jan Becker on saving the lives of newborn babies in the 'golden minute' after birth (R)
Graham Martin on going from doctor to patient from 2020-03-25T12:00
Psychiatrist Graham Martin learned a lot of new things about medicine when he unexpectedly and painfully became the patient (R)
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Nursing on Sydney's streets from 2020-03-24T12:00
When working with people experiencing homelessness, Erin Longbottom looks to their strengths to help them find their way to health, and a home (R)<...
The man who saved a million brains: Creswell Eastman's pioneering work with iodine deficiency disorder from 2020-03-23T12:00
Abolishing iodine deficiency throughout the world was this doctor's mission (R)
The Queen of Country — Joy McKean from 2020-03-20T12:00
Travelling Australia with her husband Slim Dusty brought challenges and rewards
Ten women — a series of murders in Depression-era Sydney from 2020-03-19T12:00
Tanya Bretherton tells the story of the victims whose killings were largely ignored by police, and whose fate haunted the streets of eastern Sydney...
The story of the Snowy from 2020-03-18T12:00
When Siobhan McHugh set out to write a history of Australia's Snowy Scheme, she unearthed stories of pugnacious unionists, drowned towns and a love...
The life of Angela Lansbury from 2020-03-17T12:00
The warm, funny and slightly terrifying Angela Lansbury opens up about her seven-decade long career on stage and screen (R)
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Life after Troll Hunting from 2020-03-16T12:00
After she was trolled online, Ginger Gorman turned to face her attackers, and developed a completely new understanding of why people abuse others o...
Building a school for the world’s poorest children — Gemma Sisia's story from 2020-03-13T12:00
A donation of land and $10 was all Australian-born Gemma needed to establish The School of St Jude in Tanzania
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Parenting our parents — Jean Kittson on looking after Mum and Dad from 2020-03-12T12:00
As Jean negotiated the maze of caring for her ageing parents, she began collecting the information she found useful, as well as asking herself and ...
Hannah Kent and the Good People of Ireland from 2020-03-11T12:00
The fairies of Ireland's folk culture were capricious twilight creatures who could bestow favour or grave misfortune (R)
The miracles and limits of modern medicine from 2020-03-10T12:00
Doctor Karen Hitchcock peers into the culture of modern medicine, from the flu season to female viagra, to dementia and the humble sick day
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Devices and democracy: will Big Tech control us? from 2020-03-09T12:00
Jamie Susskind on how digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics and virtual reality are transforming our political...
Changing how we talk about rape from 2020-03-06T12:00
Extraordinary survivor Sohaila Abdulali was seventeen when she was gang raped and forced to fight for her life (R)
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The songs of trees from 2020-03-03T12:00
Biologist David George Haskell on how he discovered the unique songs of trees, and the way they interconnect (R)
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Julia's forgetful heart from 2020-03-02T12:00
Julia Stevens was one of Australia's top triathletes when doctors told her they needed to implant a tiny defibrillator inside her chest wall to kee...
Matt Okine on growing up when everything is falling apart from 2020-02-28T12:00
Matt on his Brisbane childhood, losing his mum at the age of 12, and how a chance conversation with his university drama teacher altered the course...
Jackie French and the Valley from 2020-02-27T12:00
Jackie has lived in the Araluen Valley of NSW for 46 years, where powerful owls boom through the nights and lyrebirds scratch up the garden. In rec...
How a former ironman made the beach accessible to everyone from 2020-02-26T12:00
For a time, surf-loving athlete Nick Marshall was a professional Ironman. Then he created a new way for kids with special needs to be included at t...
A revolutionary idea to stop good food going to waste from 2020-02-25T12:00
Ronni Kahn saved 45,000 tonnes of food from landfill and changed how we think about food waste
Eric Idle's life on the bright side from 2020-02-24T12:00
Eric on life before and after Monty Python's Flying Circus (R)
Mike Hayes and the Holy Grail of winemaking from 2020-02-21T12:00
Mike was 15 when he left school to chip weeds in a Queensland vineyard. Forty years later he found himself in Portugal holding one of the world's o...
Thea Hayes the walkabout nurse from 2020-02-20T12:00
When Thea was hired as a nurse on one of the largest cattle runs in the world, the job expanded to include hostessing and saving cows with clover b...
Botox, castrations and beauty pageants: Inside the world of Australia's only camel vet from 2020-02-19T12:00
Margie Bale's car is loaded with ultrasounds, milk crates and angle grinders. All the things needed when you're tending to 7-foot tall camels in th...
Young Hitler from 2020-02-18T12:00
How WWI helped a homeless vagabond named Adolf Hitler become the dictator of the German Reich (R)
Lorenzo Montesini's Vietnam War love story, and life after Pitty Pat from 2020-02-13T12:00
In 1990 Lorenzo shocked Sydney society by leaving heiress Primrose Dunlop at the altar in Venice to run off with his best man. But behind the headl...
Benny and the pact with God from 2020-02-12T12:00
When doctors told Benny Agius her baby son had Down syndrome, she was full of anxiety about his future. Then Richard grew up to defy everyone's exp...
Taking the pulse of a dopesick nation from 2020-02-11T12:00
The opioid crisis is destroying hundreds of thousands of American lives and Beth Macy has been up close to it (R)
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Villainesses, Vulcans and a new sort of sexuality — the life of Judith Anderson from 2020-02-10T12:00
Judith was an Australian who found screen stardom in 1940s Hollywood, and has since became a lesbian icon. Biographer Desley Deacon tells her story...
Fish, frogs and a photographer from 2020-02-07T12:00
Nature photographer Gary Cranitch on his working life floating off the Great Barrier Reef to capture a split-second image of the 'biggest orgy on t...
Steve's life in the London squats from 2020-02-06T12:00
Steve Bevington talks about his years in the thick of an underground movement of London squatters, who would break into abandoned buildings, change...
When Robert met Maida from 2020-02-05T12:00
Former politician Robert Tickner grew up in country NSW, 'showered with love' by his adoptive parents. When he began the search for his biological ...
Life in 248 dimensions from 2020-02-04T12:00
Mathematician Geordie Williamson spent eight years cracking the code to find the weight of atoms in space (R)
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The truth about space junk from 2020-02-03T12:00
Space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman on the unexpected artefacts of the space age (R)
Higher ground — rebuilding a town after disaster from 2020-01-31T12:00
Jamie Simmonds on the successful relocation of Grantham, Queensland after it was destroyed by catastrophic flooding
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Grantham — the town that washed away from 2020-01-30T12:00
When an inland tsunami smashed into a rural Queensland town in January 2011, people were killed and the town destroyed. Jamie Simmonds became the r...
1956: Australia's pivotal year from 2020-01-29T12:00
Historian Nick Richardson on the year that changed Australia forever
Toad vs toad: outwitting the cane toad with ingenious biology from 2020-01-28T12:00
Rick Shine used one toad to defeat another, by a process of evolutionary conditioning, to save the snakes he was studying in Northern Australia (R)...
William McInnes on being a dad from 2020-01-27T12:00
William wanders through stories of fatherhood, from growing up in Queensland in the 1970s, to raising his own children as a single dad (R)
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