Saul Eslake

Saul Eslake is one of Australia's most well-known and respected economists.

Saul's career has been driven by curiosity, critical thinking and a willingness to go wherever the data leads him into the mysterious beast that is the global economy.

But over the last 20 years, Saul's used these same skills to unravel his own personal mystery.

In the early 2000s, Saul and his wife brought home their first adopted daughter, which was a moment of great joy for them.

But it was then that it really hit home for Saul Eslake that he'd never met any of his blood relatives because he too had been adopted at the age of one.

from a birth mother he knew nothing about, and circumstances that were also completely unknown to him.

So Saul did what Saul does.

He went where the data led him, to England, to a newspaper scandal, and then at last to the family story he never knew.

Hello, Saul.

Welcome back.

It's nice to be with you again, Richard.

Thank you for having me.

Now, we know you were born in England.

Do you have any memories of that life at all?

Any pictures in your head?

That's right.

What kind of background did they come from?

Were they able to tell you much at all about your biological mother and father as you were growing up?

So you knew you had been adopted at the age of one year or thereabouts, not one month, but one year.

What did you think about that?