Episodes
Pasi Sahlberg — making school the happiest place to be
Jun 04 2020
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 leading voices in education, encouraging schools to help kids find their passion in life, and to follow it
Talking magpies, grieving tawny frogmouths and canny galahs
Jun 03 2020
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 careers to study avian behaviour. Her books on Australian native birds have been ground-breaking (R)
Voicing velociraptors and capturing the dawn chorus — the soundscapes of Douglas Quin
Jun 02 2020
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, galleries, museums and apps (R)
Uncle Jack Charles — not true blue, true blak
Jun 01 2020
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 know about, and promptly landed him in jail (R)
From the Festivals — Tim Flannery on Europe's bizarre prehistory
May 29 2020
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
May 28 2020
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)
From the Festivals — Cheryl Strayed
May 27 2020
Walking through grief and facing up to life on the Pacific Crest Trail, the true story of Wild (R)
From the Festivals — Lemn Sissay
May 26 2020
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 raised in state care (R)
From the Festivals — James Rebanks the Herdwick shepherd
May 25 2020
James explains the traditions, language and pleasures of shepherding in England's Lake District (R)
Chasing Robert Cutter
May 22 2020
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
Maira Kalman: 'I fall in love so many times during the day'
May 21 2020
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
May 20 2020
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)
This is your Captain speaking
May 19 2020
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)
With a shark under each arm: Dr Fish Feelings
May 18 2020
Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and Sting Rays know it's the weekend
Miranda Tapsell — Kakadu, Cannes and love stories that matter
May 15 2020
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, the first romantic comedy set in the Northern Territory
Moomins, motherhood and me — Sheila Heti
May 14 2020
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 become a mother
Helen Garner — from Moonee Ponds to Paris
May 13 2020
Helen recently published her diaries from the years 1978 to 1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, and the quest for the right pair of shoes (R)
A true Lord of the Flies story and what we got wrong about human nature
May 12 2020
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 long depended on the best aspects of our nature, such as kindness and the sharing of ideas
Hayley Katzen's unexpected life as a farmer's wife
May 11 2020
When Hayley moved to a cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, the rural idyll wasn't quite as she imagined
Marian Keyes on growing up
May 08 2020
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
Adrian Mole and the Shropshire postman
May 07 2020
Young Robert Lukins modelled himself on the fictional character Adrian Mole, a prodigious reader and writer (R)
Sandy Mackinnon's fantastic voyage through the canals of Europe
May 06 2020
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)
William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company
May 05 2020
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)
The speech collector
May 04 2020
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
May 01 2020
Naomi is an American poet and author living in San Antonio, Texas. Her family story is marked by life-changing coincidences, and narrow escapes
Not fourteen for ever
Apr 30 2020
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
Magda Szubanski — my father, the assassin
Apr 29 2020
A much-loved performer digs into the challenging truth of her father's past (R)
Christiaan Van Vuuren's fully sick life
Apr 28 2020
While confined to a hospital room for months with a rare form of tuberculosis, Christiaan found love and an entirely new path in life
Disappointing Dickens — Charles Dickens' son in the Australian outback
Apr 27 2020
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
The life and death of boxer Davey Browne
Apr 24 2020
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 the inquest, she found a sport in a collective state of denial
A therapist peers inside her own mind
Apr 23 2020
When therapist Lori Gottlieb found herself in therapy after a devastating breakup, she began to rethink her own life story
John Prine — from Paradise to Nashville
Apr 22 2020
A songwriter's songwriter, John turned his often bemused view of people and politics into songs for fifty years (R)
16 sunrises and sunsets in a day — life aboard the Space Shuttle
Apr 21 2020
Astronaut Jim Bagian on working, eating and sleeping in micro-gravity while orbiting the earth at 28 000 kilometres an hour
The healing power of dogs
Apr 20 2020
Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days
Big Adventures — aviator Charles Kingsford Smith
Apr 17 2020
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)
Big Adventures — Alexander McCall Smith
Apr 16 2020
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 prolific writers (R)
Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 2
Apr 15 2020
Walking the Sahara, towards the fabled city of Timbuktu and into Niger (R)
Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 1
Apr 14 2020
A breathtaking Saharan adventure: camels, bandits and one fearless woman (R)
Min Jin Lee's good fortune
Apr 10 2020
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
Apr 09 2020
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 around the world. In this father-daughter chat, meet Sarah’s dad, 89-year-old Peter Kanowski
Hugh Mackay on building community in a crisis
Apr 09 2020
Social researcher Hugh Mackay on the many ways Australian society can pull together while we're meant to live apart
Paul Kelly and the poetry
Apr 08 2020
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)
Ray Collins — life in the black, and the blue
Apr 07 2020
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 his life
Julia Baird on finding shards of light in dark times
Apr 06 2020
After journalist Julia Baird survived a terrible bout of cancer, she began to think about what sustains us when the world goes dark
Doll's prams and hand-knitted togs: a Hockney family portrait
Apr 03 2020
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 he could find. He grew up to become the world's most famous living artist
A father and son odyssey
Apr 02 2020
When Daniel Mendelsohn signed up for a Mediterranean cruise to Ithaca with his aging father, neither of them could have predicted what would happen next
Bill Bailey — seriously funny amateur naturalist
Apr 01 2020
Bill Bailey's passion for twitching began as boy growing up in England's west country (R)
Tales from captivity
Mar 31 2020
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
Mar 30 2020
How a flash of insight about her life saw Liz upend almost everything in it
Bringing life-saving dialysis to Central Australia
Mar 27 2020
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
Mar 26 2020
Jan Becker on saving the lives of newborn babies in the 'golden minute' after birth (R)
Graham Martin on going from doctor to patient
Mar 25 2020
Psychiatrist Graham Martin learned a lot of new things about medicine when he unexpectedly and painfully became the patient (R)
Nursing on Sydney's streets
Mar 24 2020
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
Mar 23 2020
Abolishing iodine deficiency throughout the world was this doctor's mission (R)
The Queen of Country — Joy McKean
Mar 20 2020
Travelling Australia with her husband Slim Dusty brought challenges and rewards
Ten women — a series of murders in Depression-era Sydney
Mar 19 2020
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
Mar 18 2020
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 story on a laundry floor (R)
The life of Angela Lansbury
Mar 17 2020
The warm, funny and slightly terrifying Angela Lansbury opens up about her seven-decade long career on stage and screen (R)
Life after Troll Hunting
Mar 16 2020
After she was trolled online, Ginger Gorman turned to face her attackers, and developed a completely new understanding of why people abuse others online
Building a school for the world’s poorest children — Gemma Sisia's story
Mar 13 2020
A donation of land and $10 was all Australian-born Gemma needed to establish The School of St Jude in Tanzania
Parenting our parents — Jean Kittson on looking after Mum and Dad
Mar 12 2020
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 others deeper questions about aged care
Hannah Kent and the Good People of Ireland
Mar 11 2020
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
Mar 10 2020
Doctor Karen Hitchcock peers into the culture of modern medicine, from the flu season to female viagra, to dementia and the humble sick day
Devices and democracy: will Big Tech control us?
Mar 09 2020
Jamie Susskind on how digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics and virtual reality are transforming our political systems
Changing how we talk about rape
Mar 06 2020
Extraordinary survivor Sohaila Abdulali was seventeen when she was gang raped and forced to fight for her life (R)
This anxious life: Dr Mark Cross
Mar 05 2020
Mark is an experienced consultant psychiatrist who also suffers from Australia's most common mental health condition, anxiety. His direct insight helps him understand how people with anxiety can thrive at work and in life
The secret life of the Grey Plover
Mar 04 2020
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 survival
The songs of trees
Mar 03 2020
Biologist David George Haskell on how he discovered the unique songs of trees, and the way they interconnect (R)
Julia's forgetful heart
Mar 02 2020
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 keep her alive
Matt Okine on growing up when everything is falling apart
Feb 28 2020
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 of his life
Jackie French and the Valley
Feb 27 2020
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 recent months hundreds of native animals have arrived, seeking shelter from Australia's worst-ever fires
How a former ironman made the beach accessible to everyone
Feb 26 2020
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 the beach
A revolutionary idea to stop good food going to waste
Feb 25 2020
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
Feb 24 2020
Eric on life before and after Monty Python's Flying Circus (R)
Mike Hayes and the Holy Grail of winemaking
Feb 21 2020
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 oldest grapevines trying to discover if grapes can survive global warming.
Thea Hayes the walkabout nurse
Feb 20 2020
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 bloat. In 1975 she was at Wave Hill Station when Gough Whitlam handed the Indigenous owners back their land
Botox, castrations and beauty pageants: Inside the world of Australia's only camel vet
Feb 19 2020
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 the middle of nowhere without a clinic in sight
Young Hitler
Feb 18 2020
How WWI helped a homeless vagabond named Adolf Hitler become the dictator of the German Reich (R)
The pavlova in the suitcase
Feb 17 2020
Michelle Garnaut on how she began one of the world's most famous restaurants in communist-era Shanghai (R)
The unusual life of Rima Hadchiti
Feb 14 2020
At 100cm tall, Rima is one of the smallest people in the world. But throughout her life, she's demanded to be heard
Lorenzo Montesini's Vietnam War love story, and life after Pitty Pat
Feb 13 2020
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 headlines was an epic love story which began in the Vietnam War
Benny and the pact with God
Feb 12 2020
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 expectations
Taking the pulse of a dopesick nation
Feb 11 2020
The opioid crisis is destroying hundreds of thousands of American lives and Beth Macy has been up close to it (R)
Villainesses, Vulcans and a new sort of sexuality — the life of Judith Anderson
Feb 10 2020
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
Feb 07 2020
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 the planet'
Steve's life in the London squats
Feb 06 2020
Steve Bevington talks about his years in the thick of an underground movement of London squatters, who would break into abandoned buildings, change the locks and claim them as their own
When Robert met Maida
Feb 05 2020
Former politician Robert Tickner grew up in country NSW, 'showered with love' by his adoptive parents. When he began the search for his biological mum Maida in his 40s, he discovered she'd been much closer than he ever knew
Life in 248 dimensions
Feb 04 2020
Mathematician Geordie Williamson spent eight years cracking the code to find the weight of atoms in space (R)
The truth about space junk
Feb 03 2020
Space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman on the unexpected artefacts of the space age (R)
Higher ground — rebuilding a town after disaster
Jan 31 2020
Jamie Simmonds on the successful relocation of Grantham, Queensland after it was destroyed by catastrophic flooding
Grantham — the town that washed away
Jan 30 2020
When an inland tsunami smashed into a rural Queensland town in January 2011, people were killed and the town destroyed. Jamie Simmonds became the right-hand-man of Mayor Steve Jones, and they led an audacious recovery project
1956: Australia's pivotal year
Jan 29 2020
Historian Nick Richardson on the year that changed Australia forever
Toad vs toad: outwitting the cane toad with ingenious biology
Jan 28 2020
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
Jan 27 2020
William wanders through stories of fatherhood, from growing up in Queensland in the 1970s, to raising his own children as a single dad (R)
After triple zero — a paramedic's tale
Jan 24 2020
Benjamin Gilmour describes the hectic work of saving lives, and what it's like to bring people back from the brink of suicide
Mary's three gurus
Jan 23 2020
How a young woman fell under the spell of spiritual cult leaders in the 1970s
How Sean Sweeney found his deaf heart
Jan 22 2020
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 figure during Australia's bushfire crisis
Claire G. Coleman's many lives
Jan 20 2020
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 Melbourne. After learning the truth of her family's story, Claire found her focus
Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
Jan 19 2020
Megan Phelps-Roper grew up inside the notorious Westboro Baptist Church family. In 2012 she left the church, and her family, to live in the world she once reviled
Best of 2019 — Bryan Brown
Dec 20 2019
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 ticket to the world (R)
Best of 2019 — Ron McCallum
Dec 19 2019
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)
Best of 2019 — Archie Roach
Dec 18 2019
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 with Ruby Hunter (R)
Best of 2019 — Pia Winberg
Dec 17 2019
Pia began her own seaweed farm after decades as a marine ecologist. One ordinary working day there was a terrible accident (R)
Best of 2019 — Vickie Roach
Dec 16 2019
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 prisoners (R)
Peter Helliar's gothic side
Dec 15 2019
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 happiest comedian'
Summer Holidays: a story collection
Dec 13 2019
Tales of the great Australian summer holiday from Mark Trevorrow, Alice Pung, Jack Hoysted and Steph Tisdell
Ben and the Big Issue
Dec 12 2019
Ben grew up in Drumchapel, a Glasgow housing estate. As a young man, he built a thriving career as a musician, went to University and married. But some years later, he was homeless
Helen Garner: from Paris to Moonee Ponds
Dec 11 2019
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 of shoes, and the pleasures of mowing the grass
The end of the Milky Way
Dec 10 2019
Astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith on how Andromeda is due to collide with our galaxy in five billion years time (R)
The true history of the Ark before Noah
Dec 09 2019
How Irving Finkel stumbled upon the true story of the Ark before Noah on a Babylonian clay tablet
British actor Timothy Spall digs deep
Dec 06 2019
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 cut short by a life-threatening illness
Dylan Moran and the white-knuckle ride of stand up comedy
Dec 05 2019
Irish comic Dylan Moran on his unusual childhood, the story behind Black Books, and why he's given up drinking for good
Craig Foster and the battle to save fellow footballer, Hakeem al-Araibi
Dec 04 2019
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 sporting institution to free him
The doctor known as 'The God of Sight'
Dec 03 2019
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)
Rescuing the boys from the cave — Richard Harris
Dec 02 2019
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
Paul Kelly and the poetry
Nov 29 2019
Australia's storyteller in song on poems he's loved since childhood, and how reading and learning great poetry has changed his song writing
Drones and forgiveness
Nov 28 2019
How a young computer scientist found his way out of a traumatic childhood
War crimes, bombings, secret lives — Tony Jones turns truth into thrillers
Nov 27 2019
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 fiction
How Christos found radical compassion
Nov 26 2019
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 St Paul and saw them in a different light
Inside the engine room of power
Nov 25 2019
How Samantha Power became one of world's most influential foreign policy thinkers
The honourable fight: 16 years as Director of Public Prosecutions NSW
Nov 22 2019
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 the media, but he was always motivated by the prospect of a fair trial
Watching the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope
Nov 21 2019
NASA astronomer Jennifer Wiseman on exploring the design of the universe (R)
Hidden histories of Chinese Australia
Nov 20 2019
Tim Watts MP has a deeply personal reason for wanting to resurface stories about Chinese migrants to Australia. From pre-Federation, to the Kelly gang, to the Melbourne Olympics, he tells how their influence weaves right through our culture
Capturing the souls of abandoned pets
Nov 19 2019
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, guinea pigs and chickens
Ray Bonner, Bolivia and the big risk
Nov 18 2019
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 the riskiest decisions of his life
Postcards from God — artist William Robinson
Nov 15 2019
William is considered one of Australia's greatest living artists. But it took years for his work to be recognised as brilliant
The ferocious power of Rebekah
Nov 14 2019
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 devoting much of her life to helping Georgie be herself. In the process, she changed history
Clare Bowditch and the breakthrough
Nov 13 2019
How Clare overcame grief she'd stored away since childhood, found a way to manage anxiety, and embraced a joyful, messy life
Inside the dictator's mind
Nov 12 2019
Frank Dikotter on the common personality traits of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao and other twentieth century dictators
Armistice: The Good Friends
Nov 11 2019
The story of two men who fought for different sides on the western front, and an unexpected friendship between their descendants (R)
Talking magpies, grieving tawny frogmouths and canny galahs
Nov 08 2019
Gisela Kaplan fell under the spell of birds when hand-rearing a magpie nestling. After it learned to speak, she was so intrigued she switched careers and began her research into avian behaviour. Her many books on Australian native birds have been ground-breaking
Finding new ways to grow old
Nov 07 2019
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 about aging
My second family is in Vanuatu
Nov 06 2019
Physiotherapist Sky Fosbrooke’s stint as a volunteer health worker led to a deep attachment to the people of a small South Santo village
David McAllister: a life in dance
Nov 05 2019
When David McAllister began ballet lessons in Perth in the 1970s, being a 'ballet boy' was a kind of social death. But his school bullies helped spur him on to become one of the world's best dancers
William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company
Nov 04 2019
The outrageous story of a group of financiers from a poor and damp island on the outer rim of Europe, who created a private company that became the biggest military and political power in all of India
Archie Roach: turning spirit into song
Nov 01 2019
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 with Ruby Hunter
Di Morrissey and the tragedy on Lovett Bay
Oct 31 2019
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 terrible accident on Lovett Bay changed everything
The writer and the Prince
Oct 30 2019
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 the first time, she was plunged into extreme loneliness
Murgon's shining star: Leah Purcell
Oct 29 2019
Leah was a teenager working in a small-town meatworks when she discovered her true path in life (R)
The force of Will
Oct 28 2019
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 body, and his skin needed to be almost entirely rebuilt (R)
In the shadowlands: McMafia author Misha Glenny on organised crime
Oct 25 2019
As a young man studying in Europe, Misha formed underground links that would propel his whole career. The former BBC correspondent interviews criminals all over the world to understand the all-pervasive webs of modern organised crime
Que Minh Luu doesn’t need a hug
Oct 24 2019
How hot young widows, perceptive friends and twitter kept television executive Que afloat after the death of her husband
Tara Westover's escape from ignorance
Oct 23 2019
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 taught herself in secret and made it to Cambridge and Harvard (R)
Life in the shadow of Long Bay
Oct 22 2019
Patrick Kennedy on growing up next door to some of Australia's most violent criminals (R)
Surviving kidnap in Sierra Leone
Oct 21 2019
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 released, but then she was still being hunted (R)
The chair with five legs
Oct 18 2019
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 to become one of Australia's most famous painters (R)
Child convicts, lost boys and the murder at Point Puer
Oct 17 2019
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 world built exclusively for children
Strange rescuers: my father's Holocaust
Oct 16 2019
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 the fate of his extended family
Kumi’s Japanese inheritance
Oct 15 2019
Australian journalist Kumi Taguchi grapples with divided loyalties after the death of her father
Story of a blood red rose
Oct 14 2019
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 French Revolution
Dear Dolly Doctor, Am I normal?
Oct 11 2019
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 sent by mail, that young people were too embarrassed to ask out loud
Dinosaur fields: finding fossils on the family farm
Oct 10 2019
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 sense of wonder at prehistoric geology
Chasing the dream that was Prague
Oct 09 2019
Author Favel Parrett’s grandmother escaped from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, but her sister stayed behind - suffering the twin nightmares of Nazism and Stalinism
Finding the right formula with Eddie Woo
Oct 08 2019
Waiting in line to enrol for a teaching degree in history and English, Eddie was persuaded to pursue maths instead. Despite never really liking maths at school, he signed up. The split-second decision changed his life, and the lives of many of his future students
The lucky accident of Sydney's Opera House
Oct 07 2019
Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of Australia's most loved building nearly didn't make it off the drawing board (R)
Discovering my father's secret life in France
Oct 04 2019
Growing up, Louisa Deasey knew very little about her late father's life. Then she found a bundle of his lost love letters (R)
The sex life of brains
Oct 03 2019
Neuropsychologist Dr Amee Baird on the mysterious connections between our brains and our desires
What's next for the Greens?
Oct 02 2019
From the party of protest to the balance of power, journalist Paddy Manning looks at the history of Australia's most successful third party
Bill Bryson and the wonders of the human body
Oct 01 2019
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? Take a journey through the wondrous complexity of the human body
Nursing on Sydney’s streets
Sep 30 2019
When working with people experiencing homelessness, Erin Longbottom looks to their strengths to help them find their way to health and a home
A friendship and a giant literary hoax
Sep 27 2019
Alison Hoddinott and Gwen Harwood were great friends with a shared love of English, family, and thumbing their noses at convention (R)
The evolution of Charlie Veron: the Great Barrier Reef's first scientist
Sep 26 2019
School was nearly the undoing of the intensely curious child who went on to discover nearly a quarter of the world's coral species, and be awarded the Darwin Medal (R)
A vibrant life - Kath Venn at 84
Sep 25 2019
The late Kath Venn was a powerhouse of community spirit. After serving in Tasmania's parliament, she was State President of the Housewives Association, a marriage celebrant and much else besides (R)
RAF pilot Frank Dell's story of survival in Nazi occupied Holland
Sep 24 2019
In October 1944 Frank's De Havilland Mosquito was shot out of the sky and he parachuted into Nazi territory (R)
Secret of the native hibiscus: western science meets Indigenous knowledge
Sep 23 2019
Botanist and Dharawal elder Fran Bodkin uses western science to explain up to 80,000 years of Australian Indigenous plant knowledge (R)
Why is so little known about women’s bodies?
Sep 20 2019
After attending a conference on endometriosis in 2015, journalist Gabrielle Jackson broke down in tears. She realised she knew nothing about the disease that had been wreaking havoc with her body
One hundred acres of bamboo
Sep 19 2019
Durnford Dart longed to return to life on the land, where he’d spent his best childhood years. He went on to pioneer bamboo farming in Australia
The tangled web of spirituality
Sep 18 2019
Seeking a connection with a higher power led Rob Donnelly into the Catholic priesthood, but the reality of a religious life was not what he expected
Ben Folds' dream about lightning bugs
Sep 17 2019
Ben on his musical career, the art of song writing and his brief stint as a one-man polka band in a German restaurant
The indestructible nature of Corey White
Sep 16 2019
A childhood of abuse and neglect led Corey to an unusual place - the stage. His wit and resilience make his stand-up comedy sharply observed and darkly humorous
Nat Young is still in search of the perfect wave
Sep 13 2019
For four-time world champion surfer Nat, surfing is about more than competition or exercise, it's a religion
Keeping Mum: love and dementia
Sep 12 2019
Daughter Nia tells how early-onset dementia has reshaped the powerful partnership of her parents, Moira and Leon Pericles
Why don’t more dads take parental leave?
Sep 11 2019
Annabel Crabb on the inequity between parents of different genders, prompted by the hullabaloo surrounding New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s baby, and the corresponding lack of concern about Australia’s Prime Minister having young children
Prepping for the apocalypse: bunkers, bullets and billionaires
Sep 10 2019
Bradley Garrett explores ‘doomsday prepping’, a multi-billion dollar industry driven by dread (R)
Akmal Saleh really doesn't like the jungle
Sep 09 2019
An impulse decision to buy a home in the rainforest launches a comedy of errors involving a python in the roof, a half-finished home, an unexpected tax bill and two reality TV shows
The greatest air race: twenty planes, London to Melbourne, 1934
Sep 06 2019
Early aviation's most dramatic event saw courage, tragedy and a miraculous rescue involving the whole town of Albury
Sex, death and the northern quoll
Sep 05 2019
Overcoming breast cancer in the first year of her daughter's life led scientist Amanda Niehaus to a deeper study of reproduction and death
The life of Antarctic icebreaker Aurora Australis
Sep 04 2019
When the ship starts to cut through the ice, marine biologist Sarah Laverick feels the vibrations rumble through her body like a thunderstorm
The art of precision engineering with Simon Winchester
Sep 03 2019
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?
The first foreign lawyer to practice in Afghanistan
Sep 02 2019
Lawyer Kimberley Motley took a nine-month assignment in Kabul, and never looked back, becoming the first foreign litigator to practice in Afghanistan's conservative and male-dominated courts
On the trail of Candidate Trump: Katy Tur
Aug 30 2019
Katy was described by Donald Trump as disgraceful, a liar, and 'third-rate' during her coverage of his successful Presidential campaign (R)
Bangarra's bold leader: Stephen Page
Aug 29 2019
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 exceptional career as a dancer, and at the helm of Bangarra Dance Theatre
Tim Fischer's 1000 days in the Eternal City
Aug 28 2019
We reprise the former Deputy Prime Minister's account of his time as Australia's representative to the Vatican (R)
The travails of travelling with a parent
Aug 27 2019
Comedian Adam Rozenbachs booked his father on the trip of a lifetime. But it turns out his Dad doesn't like museums or monuments, galleries or landmarks, or travelling much at all
The insatiable curiosity of Phillip Adams
Aug 26 2019
Broadcaster Phillip Adams is a filmmaker, former ad man and author - and he’s just celebrated his 80th birthday
Min Jin Lee's good fortune
Aug 23 2019
The author of bestselling novel, Pachinko, explores the lives of generations of Koreans in Japan
Unlocking the mystery of human remains
Aug 22 2019
Forensic anthropologist Lucina Hackman uses scientific evidence and rational deduction to identify the dead, and return the missing to their loved ones
Uncle Jack Charles: not true blue, true blak
Aug 21 2019
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 know about, and promptly landed him in jail
Fine Cotton Fiasco bonus episode
Aug 20 2019
One of the all time greatest and silliest stories in Australian history
Peter Hoysted: The Fine Cotton affair, a racing fraud fiasco
Aug 20 2019
The farcical events that unfolded when a group of conspirators hatched a plot to defraud bookmakers of millions of dollars (R)
Dr Anne Aly is comfortable being the outsider
Aug 19 2019
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, the teacher did nothing. The incident sparked Anne's ongoing passion for justice
Pygmy dinosaurs and blue-eyed Neanderthals: Europe's startling deep past
Aug 16 2019
Tim Flannery on the bizarre geography of prehistoric Europe, and how an asteroid the size of Manhattan ruptured everything
Discovering a partner’s secret: online child sexual exploitation material
Aug 15 2019
Natalie Walker supports the innocent partners and families of perpetrators of online child sex offences. She founded an organisation to provide peer support, and transform the stigma applied to secondary victims
The sculptor's son
Aug 14 2019
Hung Le and his family made a terrifying escape from Saigon in 1975. All they had with them was one suitcase, a box of biscuits and some seasick pills. As they left, they saw Saigon on fire. Later, Hung's father became the 'lost artist' of Vietnam
Jurors behaving badly
Aug 13 2019
Law Professor Jeremy Gans with stories of jurors using ouija boards in court, falling in love with advocates and snoozing through proceedings (R)
How brutal politics and righteous prayers toppled a Prime Minister
Aug 12 2019
Niki Savva on the bungled coup which ousted Malcolm Turnbull and installed his surprise successor, Scott Morrison
Bryan Brown’s ticket from Bankstown to Palm Beach
Aug 09 2019
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 ticket to the world
Tommy Caldwell: born to climb the Dawn Wall
Aug 08 2019
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 he and his partner Kevin Jorgeson became the first to free-climb the wall
A heartbreaking, Machiavellian drama: what went on inside the Banking Royal Commission
Aug 07 2019
Dan Ziffer had a front row seat for the testimony of victims, financial advisors and bankers offered up to Australia's Banking Royal Commission
Exposing the banks: the journalist who sparked a royal commission
Aug 06 2019
Adele Ferguson on the dishonest dealings of Australia's banks and financial institutions, and the damage done to customers and whistleblowers
Peter Bell and the singular quest of Kyung Ae
Aug 05 2019
Peter's Korean birth mother spent years searching for her son in America. Then she discovered an AFL star living in Perth (R)
The Lumiere brothers, Louise Brooks, and The Humorous Rollerskater
Aug 02 2019
Writer Dominic Smith on the glittering, perplexing history of the silent film era
When a strong man broke
Aug 01 2019
Grant Edwards won the title of The Strongest Man in Australia for four years in a row by pulling trains, planes, trucks and ships. At work, he fought child exploitation and human trafficking. But while protecting others, Grant forgot to look after himself
The man with five lives
Jul 31 2019
Roger Pulvers lived an adventurous life in the Soviet Union, Japan and Poland, before he chose a whole new identity in 1976
The determination of Dr Dinesh Palipana
Jul 30 2019
A severe spinal injury could not crush Dinesh Palipana's drive to become a doctor (R)
The arachnologist with a fear of spiders
Jul 29 2019
Robert Raven puts aside his long-held fear of spiders to collect them and uncover hundreds of new species. (R)
Candy Devine: from a cabaret in Cairns to Belfast's Downtown Radio
Jul 26 2019
Faye McLeod took on a stage name when she became a performer, and followed her star to the UK in the 1960s (R)
Against the death penalty: barrister Julian McMahon
Jul 25 2019
When Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by the Indonesian Government, their lawyer of 9 years was not far away. Theirs are among the deaths which continue to drive Julian’s efforts to have capital punishment abolished worldwide
The deep time dreaming of an ancient continent
Jul 24 2019
Historian Billy Griffiths on the complex history of Australia's indigenous archaeology
John Marsden's manifesto on teaching and raising children
Jul 23 2019
John on what he's learned in more than 30 years as an educator, parent, and founder and principal of Candlebark and Alice Miller schools
Micro-dosing, magic mushrooms, and Michael Pollan
Jul 22 2019
At 59, Michael became a 'reluctant psychonaut'. While on LSD he felt his sense of self disintegrate into a storm of Post-it notes
The silver medal that changed Laurie Lawrence
Jul 19 2019
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 in his family's backyard changed the course of his life
Nursing at altitude: the story of a Royal Flying Doctor flight nurse
Jul 18 2019
Louise Burton has worked with the Royal Flying Doctor Service Qld for twenty years
Why Australia should prepare to fight alone
Jul 17 2019
Hugh White on the conundrum of how Australia can defend itself in the Asian century
Helping hoarders let go
Jul 16 2019
Psychologist Jessica Grisham on working with people whose wellbeing is threatened by their attachment to 'stuff' (R)
Voicing velociraptors and capturing the dawn chorus
Jul 15 2019
Sound designer and naturalist Douglas Quin makes field recordings from everywhere on Earth and uses them to create soundscapes for film and tv, galleries and museums
A magical country childhood: Alison Lester
Jul 12 2019
From Antarctica to Arnhem Land, the pages of the books of this prolific author and illustrator are fuelled by adventure (R)
Backing the wild dreams of youth: Jan Owen
Jul 11 2019
Jan’s work as a champion of young people has its roots in her own story (R)
A Hong Kong childhood during WWII
Jul 10 2019
Barbara Laidlaw pieces together the mystery of what her parents endured as internees in Hong Kong (R)
Helping troubled kids find a way back: Bernie Shakeshaft
Jul 09 2019
Bernie was a wild teenager who became a jackeroo and a dingo trapper. Then he began helping kids in trouble (R)
Trent Dalton: the rise of a watchful boy
Jul 08 2019
As a child Trent was a quiet observer of the drama of his family and his neighbourhood. He grew up to become an award-winning writer (R)
International brickie
Jul 05 2019
Bricklaying takes him around the world as a teacher and expert, but Troy Everett still finds deep satisfaction in laying bricks
Falling for a fake
Jul 04 2019
Stephanie Wood was an acclaimed newspaper journalist when she fell for a romantic fraudster
The seaweed scientist who survived being scalped
Jul 03 2019
After decades as a marine ecologist, Pia Winberg began her own seaweed farm. One ordinary working day there was a terrible accident
Australia's Romani Gypsies
Jul 02 2019
Mandy Sayer has uncovered the history of a thriving Gypsy community (R)
Born blind at the right time: Ron McCallum
Jul 01 2019
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
A dirt bike and a secret: Heather Ellis
Jun 28 2019
When she rode her motorbike solo across the Silk Road, Heather thought she had nothing to lose. Her HIV positive diagnosis was far more serious in the 1990s than it is today
The murderer who wasn't there
Jun 27 2019
Zak Grieve was 19 when he was found guilty of murder, although the judge said he wasn't at the scene of the crime. Steven Schubert tells his story
A shipwrecked French cabin boy and his Australian Aboriginal family
Jun 26 2019
The astounding fate of Narcisse Pelletier, taken in by the people of Night Island after being abandoned on the coast of far north Queensland in 1858
A sizzle in the brain changed Lavinia Codd's life
Jun 25 2019
After a stroke at age 31, Lavinia Codd lost part of her memory, and half her vision. Then she became fascinated by her brain's ability to regenerate (R)
Inside the comic mind
Jun 24 2019
'Becardiganed polymath' Robin Ince on the fascinating brains of stand-up comics
Stories from Elmswood Farm
Jun 21 2019
Patrice Newell was a model and a TV host before she began again as a biodynamic farmer
Richard Tognetti: 'Je suis Wollongong'
Jun 20 2019
Richard Tognetti was a boy when he first showed a brilliant talent for playing the violin. But in the town where he grew up, his talent made him a target
Rozsy's terrible secret
Jun 19 2019
Angela Hamilton was raised by a tyrannical father, who terrorised his family. Decades later, she found out the truth about what he'd done during WWII
The evolution of Poh
Jun 18 2019
How a shy Mormon girl named Sharon became Poh Ling Yeow (R)
State secrets and marsupials
Jun 17 2019
Australia through the eyes of The New York Times Australia bureau chief, Damien Cave
Midnight Oil's Rob Hirst
Jun 14 2019
Chasing the back beat and adventures in wide open spaces, Rob remains essentially the same as the boy he was (R)
Not your average dentist
Jun 13 2019
After treating a patient named Anna, Sharonne Zaks saw the power relationship with her patients differently. She developed a new branch of dentistry to help care for survivors of sexual assault
Water, Water: a story collection
Jun 12 2019
Eight stories exploring the pleasures and perils of water
Barrie Cassidy and Private Bill
Jun 11 2019
Barrie unearths a family wartime secret after fifty years (R)
The rise of the land dragon
Jun 10 2019
Alex Landragin was born into a champagne-making family in the French village of Verzenay. When he was five, his family began a new life in Australia. Then a freak accident changed everything.
Esther Perel: finding the erotic in everyday life
Jun 07 2019
Esther is a therapist who spent years studying intimacy, monogamy and sexuality. She became the world's most well-known expert on modern love
A mother I never knew: the secret of Peter Papathanasiou
Jun 06 2019
The story of family bonds so strong that one couple gave their child to another, to be raised in a country far away
Liz Jones and the fire at La Mama
Jun 05 2019
The matriarch of La Mama on life in and out of Melbourne’s beloved theatre
The 'Angel of Death' of Sydney's underworld
Jun 04 2019
Dulcie Markham was one of the most notorious characters of Sydney in the 1930s, but many of her lovers met a grisly end
The memory whisperer
Jun 03 2019
Lynne Kelly became a senior memory champion after she began researching ancient ways of transforming landscapes, objects and the human body into 'memory palaces.'
PRESENTS — Shutup 01 — Talking about speaking
May 31 2019
As a bonus for our podcast subscribers, we're including five episodes of Sami Shah’s Shutup — A free Speech Investigation in the Conversations feed today. What is freedom of speech and how much of it do we have? Sami Shah goes in search of the origins and limits of our free and frank speech.
Shutup 02 — Going mad
May 31 2019
Sami Shah finds out what political correctness is and why it’s so darn mad. This is a bonus for our podcast subscribers. Five episodes of comedian and journalist Sami Shah’s Shutup — A free Speech Investigation.
Shutup 03 — Getting Yassmined
May 31 2019
A young woman posted on Facebook on Anzac Day and Australia went mad. Sami Shah investigates why every comedian of colour is afraid of being 'Yassmined'. This is a bonus for our podcast subscribers. Five episodes of comedian and journalist Sami Shah’s Shutup — A free Speech Investigation.