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Episodes
How Elon Musk shapes politics
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few weeks, Elon Musk has posted thousands of times on his social media platform X about British politics, the far-right activist Tommy Rob...
Albanese v Dutton: The 'small target' v 'no target' election
12 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 2025 federal election campaign has already begun, even if unofficially. While most Australians are still enjoying their summer, Prime Minister Ant...
Daniel James on the children of the Intervention
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From afar, Alice Springs/Mparntwe is a whirlpool of myth and truth. It’s a town with competing interests and few solutions, marked by chaos and ...
James Bradley on confronting Australia’s largest garbage dump
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tucked away in a Sydney suburb is one of Australia’s largest landfill sites. Here lies a stark reminder of the millions of tonnes of waste that form...
Jacqui Baker on the rise of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Indonesia’s recently sworn in President Prabowo Subianto is many things. To millions of young Indonesians, he is a daggy dancer on TikTok. But to a ...
Sebastian Smee on the legacy of Alice Munro
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year, Andrea Robin Skinner, the daughter of the late Nobel Prize-winning Canadian author Alice Munro, revealed something about her mother that ha...
Marian Wilkinson on Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plants
05 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Dutton’s first major promise when he became opposition leader was to build nuclear power plants. It was a curious idea with no cost attached, ...
Read This: The Multiple Belongings of Elif Shafak
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into fifty-five languages. In this episode, from Schwartz Medi...
Read This: Evie Wyld Is Having More Fun Than You Think
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Winner of both the Miles Franklin Award and the Stella Prize, author Evie Wyld writes dark and often trauma-informed books, but she also has a remarka...
Read This: Leslie Jamison’s Search History
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Leslie Jamison is celebrated for her ability to link the personal to the cultural to the critical in ways that resonate and move and connect wi...
Read This: Rumaan Alam on Class, Desire, and Dread
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rumaan Alam is a best-selling author who made a splash in 2020 with his critically acclaimed novel Leave the World Behind. In this episode, from Schwa...
Read This: Nardi Simpson Is Breaking Her Own Rules
29 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Musician and writer Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay woman from freshwater country in north-west New South Wales. Her debut novel was 2020’s criticall...
The best movies of 2024
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every day this week, critics from The Saturday Paper and beyond are bringing you their top picks of the year. From the partying Russian oligarchs to ...
The best podcasts of 2024
25 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every day this week, critics from The Saturday Paper and beyond are bringing you their top picks of the year.From the adventure of a lifetime to a fam...
The best music of 2024
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every day this week, critics from The Saturday Paper and beyond are bringing you their top picks of the year. 2024 was a blockbuster year in music: B...
The best TV of 2024
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every day this week, critics from The Saturday Paper and beyond are bringing you their top picks of the year. From the saddest comedy on our screens ...
The best books of 2024
22 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every day this week, critics from The Saturday Paper and beyond are bringing you their top picks of the year. From a reimagining of a classic to the ...
Read This: We Went Back to Fitzroy Pool
21 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For Read This’s last episode of 2024, host Michael Williams heads to Fitzroy Pool to find out what people are reading as the weather warms up. Plus...
‘Insipid and weak’: What voters think of Anthony Albanese
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Albanese has finished the year with his lowest approval rating yet.The prime minister’s popularity has been crumbling ever since his party w...
Inside the drug factories that funded the Assad regime
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Like coming up for air after 50 years. That’s how one man described the current moment in Syria.Since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, thousan...
How to solve the youth crime crisis in Alice Springs
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alice Springs is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Violent crimes committed by young people, including a recent attack on a woman and her tw...
‘Ice-ravaged bikies’, rats and money grabs: Inside the clean up at the CFMEU
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been nearly four months since all branches of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union were forced into administration and hundr...
The truth about Dutton’s nuclear costings
15 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Liberal Party says it wants the next election to be a referendum on energy.After months of waiting, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton finally release...
Read This: The Only Difference Between Kanye and John Safran
14 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
John Safran has been a fixture in Australian media since his breakthrough in 1997 with ABC TV's Race Around the World. After several TV series of his ...
Why the Murdoch succession drama isn’t over
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After a scathing ruling from a Nevada probate commissioner, Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan’s attempt to amend a family trust may have bac...
The fall of Assad: What's next for Syria?
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, on the streets of Damascus, there were signs of an army in retreat – tanks abandoned and Syrian army uniforms scattered on the roads wher...
Sarah Hanson-Young on Murdoch’s gas ‘greenwashing’
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, News Corp tabloids ran front page stories in papers around the country, all saying a similar thing: Australia needs to “step on the gas”...
Dogs, disinformation and deepfakes: Inside Dutton's meme machine
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, Scott Morrison’s government managed to narrowly win a third term, despite polling placing them behind Labor for almost three years.At the h...
Kim Williams on the future of the ABC
08 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
ABC chair Kim Williams has been slammed for recent comments made about broadcasters like Joe Rogan, as the national broadcaster undergoes a wave of st...
Read This: Clare Wright Is Shutting Up and Listening
07 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Clare Wright is the author of five works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom,...
George Megalogenis on who will win the next election
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australian politics is changing in ways it seems the Labor party and the Coalition haven’t yet come to terms with.And as the electorate splinters, i...
How pro-wrestling shaped Trump
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2007, future United States president Donald Trump stepped into the wrestling ring for a showdown with Vince McMahon, then head of World Wrestling E...
This is what political retribution looks like
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you have a democratically elected leader who takes it upon themselves to prosecute their political opponents – as US President-ele...
Why Albanese killed a key environment bill
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Albanese was triumphant on Friday, as he talked up the government’s passing of dozens of bills through the parliament.But there was one key ...
The NRL’s influence on Albanese’s gambling reforms
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Anthony Albanese’s political universe, personal relationships are everything.High on the list for Albanese is his bond with Peter V'landys, the c...
Read This: Thank God for Rick Morton
30 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Robodobt scheme is considered by many to be one of the Australian government’s worst scandals. Senior reporter for The Saturday Paper and Walkle...
Australia is banning teenagers like Maggie from social media
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two years ago, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled 6 News, a streaming news channel founded by then 14-year-old Leonardo Puglisi, a “fantastic ...
The lives of asylum seekers on Nauru
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On Nauru, there are close to 100 asylum seekers who have been released from detention but are currently living hand-to-mouth.They are forbidden to wor...
How Trump pushed bitcoin to record highs
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Crypto is skyrocketing, ever since Donald Trump won the US election.Trump is set to lead the most pro-crypto administration ever, promising a crypto a...
How Gina Rinehart's friendship with Trump will change Australia
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The night Donald Trump claimed victory, he celebrated with his closest friends. Among them was Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart.Rinehart, ...
The last path forward to Treaty
24 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The call for Treaty in this country stems as far back as European settlement. Now, the Victorian government has started negotiations in what will be ...
Read This: Rachel Kushner Is Not Auditioning for Her Own Dream
23 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Kushner always seemed destined to become a writer. At just five years old, her unconventional parents had her working in a feminist bookstore. ...
How police try to shut down climate protests
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hundreds of climate activists, aboard rafts and kayaks, have paddled out into the Port of Newcastle for a so-called “protestival”, to disrupt the ...
How to talk about vaccine side effects
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a group of people who felt completely abandoned during our most recent public health crisis: those who suffered Covid-19 vaccine injuries. ...
Geraldine Brooks on Trump's America
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Just a few days after the US presidential election, Prospect Park, located in the middle of Brooklyn, burst into flames. For Pulitzer Prize-winning n...
The arrest of Alan Jones
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alan Jones was at his luxury Circular Quay apartment yesterday morning when Child Abuse Squad detectives arrived to arrest him.For nine months, police...
The Coalition minister and the corruption watchdog
17 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In deciding not to probe robodebt, the National Anti-Corruption Commission seemingly failed its first big test.But the NACC has been given a second ch...
Read This: Santilla Chingaipe is Rewriting History
16 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Santilla Chingaipe has always been a storyteller. The Zambian-born filmmaker, historian and author spent her career exploring settler colonialism, sla...
Is Donald Trump getting Kevin Rudd fired?
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the United States, does not appear to like Donald Trump – and the feeling is mutual.Speculation about Rudd's...
Trump’s plans for the Middle East
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When US President-elect Donald Trump claimed victory last week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the first to congratulate him.T...
‘A big red flag’: Labor accused of pork-barrelling
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Albanese government has been accused of pork-barrelling after an analysis of $1.35 billion in grants found almost 90 per cent of seats that Labor ...
Donald Trump and the future of climate action
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The re-election of Donald Trump is likely to have alarming consequences for the climate. He was, after all, elected on a promise to “drill, baby, dr...
'The mighty and powerful Joe Rogan'
10 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Donald Trump took the stage to claim victory in Palm Beach, Florida, he was joined by a football team sized contingent of family and friends, inc...
Read This: Tim Winton’s Got the Juice
09 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is more or less impossible to imagine Australian literature of the past half century without Tim Winton. From his debut, An Open Swimmer to his epi...
The ‘secret’ proposal that could fast-track fracking
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After the Country Liberal Party came into power in the Northern Territory, they scrapped a number of key portfolios.Among them was the climate change ...
Donald Trump is back
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the US election began to rapidly slip away from Kamala Harris, it became clear that the presidential candidate wasn’t going to speak at her elect...
If Trump loses, will Fox News admit it?
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the eve of the American election, polls say Harris and Trump are neck and neck. Of course, Donald Trump says that’s not true.It’s nothing new f...
The end of truth telling in Queensland
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the first things David Crisafulli did when he became premier of Queensland was order the state’s Truth-telling inquiry to stop immediately.Th...
Why the Qantas saga is ‘classic Albanese’
03 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The prime minister’s relationship with former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, and whether he likes a free upgrade, has been the talk of Canberra, prompted by...
Read This: Robbie Arnott’s Restless Mind
02 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In just three books Robbie Arnott has established himself as a writer to trust. Flames (2018), The Rain Heron (2022) and Limberlost (2022) were all ra...
Israel's war with Hezbollah inflames civil war tensions
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On a street in downtown Beirut there’s a five-storey building – a derelict hotel.It was empty for years, until recently, when hundreds of displace...
Anti-corruption boss accused of ‘officer misconduct’
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme handed down its findings, the commissioner in charge went to great lengths to refer six individuals...
The truth about Trump's “border chaos” claims
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, just over a week from the election, Donald Trump took to the stage with a vision for the first day of...
The secret deals between the tax office and Australia’s billionaires
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When West Australian mining billionaire Chris Ellison was accused of a decade of tax evasion, his lawyers responded by trying to cut a deal with the A...
Elon Musk's million dollar giveaways
27 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Elon Musk took the stage at a pro-Trump rally in Pennsylvania to announce he would start giving a million dollars a day to randomly chosen people...
Read This: Melanie Cheng, Superstitious Doctor
26 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melanie Cheng began her writing career as an author of short stories. Her first collection, Australia Day, was published in 2017 to much acclaim. Her ...
King Charles, Lidia Thorpe and the pursuit of justice
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
King Charles’ first visit to Australia as monarch laid bare a lot of unfinished business.Moments after the king sat down following an address to the...
How abortion became an election issue in Queensland
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The fight over abortion in Queensland had seemed settled. It was decriminalised in 2018 and has since attained wide public support.But with Katter’s...
The men who survived Kinchela Boys Home
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, a group of Stolen Generations survivors visited a site from their childhood that holds a lot of painful memories: the notorious Kinchela Ab...
The art of the deal: Malcolm Turnbull on Donald Trump
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Malcolm Turnbull was prime minister, he made a call that made the then president of the United States very, very angry.Donald Trump called it the...
What Yahya Sinwar’s death means for the war in the Middle East
20 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a pivotal moment in the war in the Middle East. Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 attacks, was top of I...
Read This: Uses for Ben Shewry
19 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are few people in this country as obsessed with understanding the cultural and social potential of Australian cuisine as New Zealand-born chef B...
Why Labor’s last ‘freedom fighters’ are all old men
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The government led by Anthony Albanese is a timid troupe of shivers looking for a spine to run up.That’s the assessment from the Labor wise men who ...
'Australia’s most hated man': Inside the Bruce Lehrmann appeal
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
According to Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows, he is “arguably Australia’s most hated man”.Burrows also told a federal court that her clie...
This is Alice Springs: Mparntwe
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alice Springs is littered with “For Sale” signs as those who can afford it are packing up and leaving. Punitive government curfews made daily life...
This is Alice Springs: The coppers
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Police are everywhere in Alice Springs. You see them driving pursuit vehicles and caged vans on the streets, or stationed outside the bottle shop chec...
This is Alice Springs: Children of the Intervention
13 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From afar, Alice Springs is a whirlpool of myth and truth. A town with competing interests and few solutions, marked by chaos and decades of governmen...
Read This: Malcolm Knox Finds Comedy in Toxic Friendships
12 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Malcolm Knox began his career as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, back in the 90s. His breakout was in 2004 when, as literary editor, he br...
The politics of Peter Dutton's position on Israel
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The war in the Middle East is dominating Australian politics.Opposition Leader Peter Dutton spent the week attacking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese –...
The almond room killings
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A five-minute drive from the cliff where Ben Roberts-Smith allegedly murdered Afghan farmer Ali Jan, there is a small mud-brick room used for storing ...
Drone warfare and poison pies: The frontline in the Russia-Ukraine war
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For two-and-a-half years, Ukraine has been fighting Russia with the goal of “total victory” – to not only beat President Vladimir Putin’s forc...
Why Plibersek’s "nature positive" plans won’t fix the environment
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Protecting Australia’s environment is a matter of urgency – or at least that’s the message the Albanese government campaigned on two and a half ...
How Israel will strike back against Iran
06 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One year on from the October 7 attacks against Israel, the region is bracing for more war. It seems almost certain Israel will launch a retaliatory a...
Read This: Charlotte Wood Thinks Restraint Is Underrated
05 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte Wood became a mainstay in Australia’s literary firmament in 2016 following the release of her award-winning novel, The Natural Way of Thin...
Exclusive: States abandon federal terrorism ‘clusterf--k’
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a greater than 50 per cent chance that there will be a terrorist attack – or a planned attack – in Australia in the next year.That’s t...
Midwest and masculinity: The Vance-Walz debate
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As much as they would hate to admit it, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris fit the definition of “coastal elite”. The United States presidential ...
Inside the Coles and Woolworths 'fake' discounts case
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are hundreds of angry posts on X, TikTok and Reddit from citizen journalists archiving Coles and Woolworths' published prices and noticing some ...
A report from the border of Lebanon and Syria
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in Beirut over the weekend, Michelle Jasmin Dimasi felt the blast from her apartment. Michell...
How the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader will reshape the Middle East
29 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The leader of Hezbollah has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.Hassan Nasrallah led the group for more than 30 years, building it into a po...
Read This: Michael Ondaatje Is Learning Everything Again
28 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sri Lankan-born Canadian essayist, poet, and Booker Prize-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje recently released a stunning collection of poems. Ondaatje...
Inside the Greens' interest rate demands
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Reserve Bank should lower interest rates, and if they don’t, the government should make them, according to the Greens.Their spokesperson for eco...
What 'tough on crime' means in Queensland
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Liberal National Party has been in the political wilderness in Queensland for most of the past three decades. But in a month’s time that’s lik...
‘Muzzling’ advocates: the Albanese government’s reliance on NDAs
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In more than 30 years of lobbying for gambling reforms, Tim Costello says no government has tried to silence him through the use of a legally binding ...
Easey Street and ‘the boy with the knife’
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you ask a Melbourne local, almost all of them would have heard of the 1977 Easey Street murders.In one of Victoria’s most brutal unsolved killing...
TikTok politics: Very demure, very Dutton
22 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Dutton is now on TikTok, and his first post was about as inspiring as you might imagine. It’s shot in an office, he’s wearing a suit, and he...
Read This: Friends, Mary Beard Fans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears
21 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Even if you’re not an obsessive Ancient Rome aficionado, you may have heard of Mary Beard. With more than 20 books to her name, including the wildly...
Fake artwork and discrimination: The MONA Ladies Lounge saga
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a court case earlier this year, an art installation at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art that was designed to playfully poke at the historic and...
‘They don’t want us here’: an asylum seeker’s shattered education dreams
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a child refugee in India, Harini dreamt of making it to Australia to study medicine and become a doctor.She arrived in Australia in 2013 when she w...
University bosses and their million-dollar salaries
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Bill Shorten finally gave up his hopes of ever becoming prime minister, one door closed and another, much more lucrative, door opened. In his ne...
Jim Chalmers, Angus Taylor and the future of the Reserve Bank
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Jim Chalmers said that interest rate hikes were “smashing the economy” he was either stating the obvious or starting a war, depending on who ...