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Episodes
Read This: David Marr vs Australia’s Old Lie
20 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For many Australians, facing the reality of this country is a task that has proved enduringly difficult, both at a public and a political level. For i...
Who knew the CFMEU's dirty secrets?
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, allegations of corruption, criminal infiltration, standover tactics and other nefarious activities within the ranks of the CFMEU have been ...
How to be a climate whistleblower
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the Pitjantjatjara communities of Anangu Country on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain, cancer rates are higher than elsewhere in Australia.This is th...
The surge in financial abuse against women
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Shenane Hogg spent nine months in a coma after suffering abuse at the hands of her partner.During her recovery, she discovered her abuser had amassed ...
Assassinations, insurrections and massacres: an American story
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump shocked America.Prominent public figures from all sides of the political spectrum have...
Peter Dutton’s big Queensland energy
14 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Queensland, one issue is already dominating the upcoming state election: youth crime.So when the Liberal National Party launched their campaign, Pe...
Read This: Leigh Sales Is a Professional Stickybeak
13 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Long before she was hosting 7:30 on the ABC, Leigh Sales dreamed of becoming a novelist. In this episode of our sister podcast, Read This, she joins M...
Artist and refugee Mostafa Azimitabar on painting from a hostile country
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Mostafa Azimitabar was imprisoned on Manus Island, he was overcome with a desire to paint.With no art supplies, he used a toothbrush – a techni...
Will the threat of jail time help fix Aged Care?
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, then prime minister Scott Morrison announced a royal commission into aged care, shedding light on the astonishing prevalence of abuse in resi...
The China think tank attacked by Wolverines
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's a shadow world beneath Canberra, fed by the defence, foreign affairs and security communities, and it is hugely influential in how the governm...
Inside Nine's journalism cuts: 'Quite a few people suspected retribution'
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you pick up a copy of The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald, you’ll see the tagline ‘Independent. Always.’ under the masthead.Now, as journali...
Project 2025: The Trump presidency wish list
07 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump’s lead in the polls for the 2024 presidential race has widened following a fumbling debate performance from Joe Biden, and concerns abo...
Read This: The Three Words That Made George Saunders a Writer
06 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
George Saunders is one of literary fiction's most acclaimed living writers. Along with his many collections of short stories, he also published the Bo...
The internet sleuths fighting fake research
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Smut Clyde spends several hours every day, scouring online science journals for suspicious-looking research.He’s part of a growing team of online ‘...
The power and legacy of 'militant' union boss John Setka
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When people think of the CFMEU, Australia’s powerful and fearsome construction union, they picture its top dog, John Setka.But as he prepares to ste...
The son of Hong Kong's jailed media tycoon
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sebastien Lai woke up one morning in 2020 to find dozens of missed phone calls – his father, the Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, had just been arr...
The Albanese government's $1 billion computer
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In high-security labs, from Silicon Valley to mainland China, researchers are racing to be the first to achieve what has been dubbed ‘Q-day’.On th...
Rishi Sunak's Australian communications 'magician'
30 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By the end of this week, the United Kingdom will almost certainly have a new prime minister and closure on 14 years of Tory leadership.One man in part...
Why would a university have a deal with Lockheed Martin?
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few months, there’s been a lot of focus on universities’ relationships with weapons manufacturers.Students set up encampments and oc...
Julian Assange is home: Gabriel Shipton on how his brother was freed
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julian Assange has finally landed in Australia, a free man.Today, his brother Gabriel Shipton on how the deal to release the long-incarcerated WikiLea...
The woman who spoke out against Google on AI
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Meredith Whittaker turned her back on Google after raising concerns about the mass surveillance fueling AI, but she didn’t leave tech entirely.The f...
Morrison and Rudd: The unlikely duo could be Australia's Trump whisperers
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2016, when Donald Trump was elected President, the Australian government was caught off guard. The then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called...
The spy base we’re not supposed to know about is getting bigger
23 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Once upon a time, Australians were told Pine Gap was a space base. Then we were told it was a weather station. But now, of course, we know the install...
The Weekend Read: Anna Stewart on being a captain of one of the biggest games of the year
22 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For 31 years, there has been a rivalry – drawing on a divide so inherent and base – that it pits mate against mate.We’re not talking about State...
Will Australia get behind Dutton's nuclear campaign?
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nuclear power has been politically toxic in this country for decades.It’s been 55 years since a leader went to a federal election promising to build...
Peter Greste on the latest blow against whistleblowers
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s been another strike against whistleblowing.Richard Boyle was a tax office employee when he raised concerns internally about a scheme to garn...
Making childcare universal: Will it be an election secret weapon?
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no nice way to put it: Australian childcare is broken, and not just for those with children.It’s prohibitively expensive, getting the days...
Peter Costello's decade at Nine: Is this the end of his public life?
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Costello’s legacy was set. He was the longest serving treasurer in Australian history and under the then prime minister John Howard, he transf...
How Home Affairs became a scandal factory
16 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Barely a week goes by when the Department of Home Affairs isn’t under the blowtorch of media or political scrutiny.In one way, the level of scrutiny...
Climate Wars II: Judgement Day
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two years ago, on the day after the Labor government was sworn into office, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen called a press conferen...
Is Joe Biden’s ceasefire plan already failing? (Update)
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US has a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, and this one seems to be gathering momentum.It’s not much different to the previous plans, except tha...
Disgraced consultancy given deal to run government ‘ethics' training
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you were a public service chief picking a firm to run ethics training, would one of the big four consulting firms be your first pick?They have face...
Xi Jinping’s right-hand man is coming to Australia
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia is about to receive a visit from the most senior Chinese leader we've had on our shores in almost a decade.But this visit by Chinese Premier...
Zero accountability: Rick Morton on the NACC dropping robodebt
09 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the robodebt royal commission’s final report landed, it was scathing. It condemned the entire scheme, the individuals who rolled it out and th...
The Weekend Read: Atticus Bastow on the mysteries of the universe at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft
08 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over 90 years ago, a Swiss astrophysicist theorised there was an unseen, unobservable force that sits behind the universe we know.He called it ‘dark...
How the new vape ban is splitting the Coalition
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s an issue exposing fault lines within our political parties and pitting their traditional supporters against each other, fracturing the elect...
Why the toxic culture at Parliament still isn’t fixed
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s been a slow but steady reckoning on sexual harassment and discrimination in workplaces across Australia.That reckoning should have already c...
Rick Morton on Bill Shorten’s NDIS overhaul
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are two things to know about the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The first is that it makes an immense difference to many lives across Aus...
Why are French troops cracking down on riots in the Pacific?
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Many Australians have an idea of New Caledonia. It’s just two hours away by plane and is sold to travellers with images of luxurious hotel complexes...
'You're all owned by China!': Rage at the Trump conviction
02 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump’s conviction in a New York courthouse has led to furious reactions from his supporters and allies.A presidential candidate has never be...
Direction 99: Peter Dutton's latest immigration obsession
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some non-Australian citizens facing deportation for convictions of serious crimes like domestic violence and child sexual abuse are managing to hang o...
Can these candidates convince women to vote Liberal again?
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nine years ago, the Liberal Party said it was aiming for gender parity by 2025. Since then, the number of Liberal women in parliaments across the coun...
Why the PNG landslide should be Australia's problem too
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As many as 2000 people have been buried under rubble and dirt after a landslide in Papua New Guinea’s remote highlands this week.Video released days...
Why did Albanese back banning under-16s from social media?
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are currently a number of running campaigns concerned about the effects of social media on young people. These effects include exposure to harmf...
The man who’s taking the fight to Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest
26 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s a question for you: can you place a value on lost cultural heritage, on separation from land and on families divided?It’s not only a moral ...
The Weekend Read: Martin McKenzie-Murray on the ugly side of football fandom ahead of Euro 2024
25 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 2024 Euros are just weeks away – with some of the best footballers in the world competing in an event that draws in hundreds of millions of view...
Arrest warrants for Hamas leaders and Netanyahu: What happens next?
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On Monday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan announced he would apply for arrest warrants for senior Hamas leaders as well...
Gas beyond 2050: A Labor revolt or sanctioned dissent?
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The members of this federal Labor government have been pretty disciplined on not publicly criticising party policy.So it raised a few eyebrows when MP...
Jennifer Robinson on UK courts giving Assange one last appeal
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julian Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, describes the long, meandering court process Assange has faced as “punishment by process”.Just this ...
Albanese abandons plans to bring home 'ISIS brides'
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When observing the Al Roj refugee camp in Northern Syria on Google Maps, you can see it’s only a few hundred metres away from an airport tarmac.But ...
Richard Flanagan on Labor's first extinction
19 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve bought salmon at the supermarket, there’s a strong chance it came from Tasmania.The island state is home to a billion-dollar salmon farm...
The Jim Chalmers Interview
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jim Chalmers delivered what could be the most politically significant budget of his career – with the future of a Labor government and th...
The pitches from budget critics: How do they stack up?
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a budget we’ll be talking about for a long time, as we head to the next election and try to escape the cost of living crisis. But even though...
A budget built to fight an election
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jim Chalmers delivered what could be the most important budget of his political career last night. But how much will it help with the cost of living a...
Skipping meals, dumpster diving and cereal for dinner
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s budget week, which means crunch time for the leaders tasked with tackling how expensive Australia is right now.And the thing we’re all talkin...
Australia, the ‘land of suck-it-up’
12 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, as the federal budget is handed down, we’re bringing you The Cost: Inside the living crisis.We’ll explore the impact this crisis is hav...
‘A viper’s nest’: How Karen Webb became top cop
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The tasering of a 95-year-old grandmother, the double-murder of a Surry Hills couple, the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial and now the spike in domesti...
Why big gas is putting money into MasterChef
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of Australia’s favourite shows has a contentious sponsor this year.MasterChef, a show that delivers fairytale stories of home cooks rising to na...
On the verge of an invasion of Rafah, is a ceasefire possible?
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Israeli airstrikes are targeting the southernmost city in Gaza and tanks have been seen entering the outskirts of the city.Rafah was once the last saf...
The lobbyists behind Peter Dutton’s nuclear promise
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a small mystery in Australian politics: Why was Peter Dutton’s first major policy as opposition leader a promise to build nuclear power plant...
David McBride as he faces sentencing
05 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, Australia has faced a reckoning over the actions of some of our special forces soldiers, who have gone from decorated heroes to murde...
The Weekend Read: Angela Savage on the moment a child leaves the home
04 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, writer Angela Savage with her piece from a recent edition of The Monthly. Parents often face the dilemma of helping their children become inde...
Payments and a porn passport: Albanese’s snap national cabinet
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Australia demanded answers to the domestic violence crisis, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese became a focal point in all the wrong ways when he got ...
The Australian journo on 'catch and kill' for Trump
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Donald Trump zeroed in on his successful 2016 run to the presidency, he began to engage in what is called “catch and kill” journalism.Trump and...
Jess Hill on why we need more than ‘awareness’ to end the killing of women
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It feels like hardly a week goes by where we don’t hear about a woman in Australia being killed by a man she knows.Intimate partner deaths increased...
How sales reps infiltrated operating theatres
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are strict rules around how drug company representatives can interact with doctors to ensure they aren’t influencing how medications are presc...
‘A race towards minority’: Inside Labor’s re-election strategy
28 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s an old adage in Canberra: every first-term government gets a second chance.But when voters head to the polls next year, could the current La...
Australia v Elon Musk: Can our politicians really take on the tech billionaire?
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Australia’s eSafety commissioner issued takedown orders to some of the world’s biggest tech companies at the beginning of this week, the comm...
'Outrageous and probably illegal': Offers to skip the queue at public hospitals
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The wait for elective surgery in our public hospitals is longer than ever, but it seems there’s a way to jump the queue.If you can afford to pay for...
The stabbing of a TikTok bishop
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An attack at a Western Sydney church last week was inextricably linked to social media.The bishop who was stabbed is a social media celebrity, the att...
Grace Tame is not a cat, she’s autistic
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Grace Tame knows how to advocate. Her campaigning for survivors of sexual assault and abuse helped to create real change and pushed powerful instituti...
Can Channel Seven survive the Lehrmann verdict?
21 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s now been a week since the Federal Court of Australia’s Justice Michael Lee ruled it was substantially true that Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittney...
The Weekend Read: Elizabeth Farrelly on the city of the future
20 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, columnist Elizabeth Farrelly will read her piece about our modern cities and how they relate to the history of how humanity has imagined the pe...
The Great Housing Disaster: The minister for housing
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the day, the people who decide what path Australia takes to solve the housing crisis are those in government. In this episode, we speak ...
The Great Housing Disaster: How to fix it
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A solution to the housing crisis is one of the most sought-after ideas in Australia.Political careers, fortunes and the fate of a generation will rest...
The Great Housing Disaster: Who gets a say?
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With federal, state and local governments promising to build more Australian homes, it’s fair to say that all levels of government want to fix the h...
The Great Housing Disaster: The renters' resistance
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With home ownership out of reach, more and more younger Australians have no choice but to rent for much longer than their parents ever did – maybe f...
The Great Housing Disaster: Who’s to blame?
14 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is the first episode of 7am’s new five-part special series on the housing crisis.What happened to housing in Australia over the past few decade...
Penny Wong’s plan to recognise Palestine
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Penny Wong took the lectern for the keynote speech at a conference on foreign affairs this week, she could have done what politicians usually do ...
Mark Zuckerberg is playing chicken with Australian news
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Three years ago, Australia became the first nation in the world to make Facebook pay for news. Now, those deals are about to expire, and Facebook isn...
Does the Immigration minister really believe in what he's doing?
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australian Border Force and Western Australian police spent the weekend searching for 15 men who had arrived in the country by boat.Eventually, all 15...
The Lehrmann interview (Taylor's version)
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Former Channel Seven producer Taylor Auerbach has given extraordinary evidence at Bruce Lehrmann’s trial against Channel Ten over defamation.Auerbac...
The fossil fuel approval that wasn’t published
07 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Albanese government was elected on a sense of optimism for the climate movement.But nearly two years later, there’s a growing sense of unease fr...
Sophie Cunningham on remembering Georgia Blain
06 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, author and editor Sophie Cunningham reads her piece from a recent edition of The Saturday Paper.Australian author Georgia Blain chronicled her ...
The killing of Zomi Frankcom
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Israel’s killing of seven aid workers in Gaza has been met with international outrage.The workers at World Central Kitchen, including an Australian ...
Can a gag order slow down Donald Trump?
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump is known for being the loudest, most controversial and outburst-prone politician of our time. Now, a judge has issued a gag order agains...
Why the churches lobby is still so powerful in Canberra
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some of Australia’s most powerful religious bodies have taken aim at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and also the Greens – accusing them of threa...
Australia is exporting right wing media to the UK
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With an election looming in the United Kingdom and chaos among the British Conservative Party, 2024 could see a new prime minister taking residence at...
Read This: Friends, Mary Beard Fans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears
31 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the long weekend, we're featuring episodes from the podcast Read This. Today, we have a treat for those who think about the Roman Empire more tha...
Read This: No Dogs Die in Briohny Doyle's New Novel
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the long weekend, we're featuring episodes from the podcast Read This.In this episode, host Michael Williams chats with author Briohny Doyle, who...
What to know about the biggest Covid wave since Omicron
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Many Australians could have been infected with Covid-19 for the second, third or even fourth time in the last couple of months.That’s because a new ...
Labor’s ‘shameful’ last-minute immigration bill
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday, Labor’s emergency legislation on immigration detention was slammed by crossbenchers and the Greens as a “race to the bottom” on the w...
Using psychotropic drugs to treat children
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If a child experiences a complex mental health condition like psychosis, everyone would agree that someone at such a young age needs careful and consi...
Anjali Sharma on lobbying parliament from her dorm room
24 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An Australian court once ruled that the federal government has a duty of care to young people, to protect them from harm the climate crisis will infli...
The Weekend Read: Elmo Keep on the insane spectacle of U2 at the Las Vegas sphere
23 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the Las Vegas strip, in a sea of casinos, sits an enormous dome that lights up the sky.It’s called The Sphere and it’s a performance venue wher...
Dutton and Albanese share a flight and talk God
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are laws in Australia that desperately need to be overhauled and amended for the modern era..But even with almost universal agreement that these...
The ‘beige’ man behind Australia’s nuclear plan
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Coalition is going all in on nuclear power. The opposition’s vision for Australia’s future puts the technology front and centre, despite exper...
The Korean doomsday church targeting Australians
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When starting out at university, it’s normal to want to meet new friends and establish a community. But for some young Australians, that formative ...
The women who fought to expose the gender pay gap
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The gender pay gap in Australia is well documented, with data on the difference between men’s and women’s wages more detailed and comprehensive th...
The truth behind Peter Dutton’s ‘strongman’ persona
17 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Dutton is a lot of things: a right-wing firebrand, a former Queensland cop and a champion of what he believes are simple Australian values. But ...