Conversations

Encore: How Jenny upended the Australian way of death

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jenny Briscoe-Hough on the uncomfortable truths which saw her set up Australia's first ever not-for-profit funeral home (R).After her mother died, Je...

Deciding on a big, bold life

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From wearing red stilettos on her first day of university and travelling solo into rural Egypt, to relocating to the United States with four kids in ...

Encore: Tony Birch — op shop fever and old Fitzroy

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Tony Birch with tales of his Fitzroy childhood including his grandmother Alma's 'op shop fever', his love for pine cones and blankets, and the...

The ordinary and extraordinary lives of women, artists and mothers

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Drusilla Modjeska has built a career exploring the extraordinary lives of pioneering women writers and artists, who have never stopped asking ...

Is America sliding into autocratic rule under Trump?

13 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

New York Times columnist and author M.Gessen on the slow strangulation of democracy, happening right now in Trump's America.M Gessen grew up in the S...

Encore: Colin Hay's wild ride to fame with Men at Work, and the heartbreak in the aftermath

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Colin's band, Men At Work, was one of the biggest acts of the 1980s. Their first album shot the band to international fame. Then quite quickly, every...

Loneliness, isolation and falling behind—What happens to kids when they can't go to school?

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When Megan Gilmour's son was 10 years old, he spent nearly two years in isolation at the Sydney Children’s Hospital. The months he missed at school...

Encore: Is there a cheating gene?

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It was a Sunday night in the garage of their family home when journalist and author Kate Legge found out her husband of 30 years had been cheating on...

How I use touch to tell stories — my work as an intimacy director

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa Petty began her dance career in 1980s New York, intoxicated by the grime and flamboyant life of the city. She witnessed countless friends lose t...

The decline of modern Britain — where did it all go so wrong?

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For the last decade or so we’ve looked on as the United States has radically changed itself, but the UK has been changing too as it continues to st...

Encore: climbing back into life after a schizophrenia diagnosis

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1990s, Glenn Jarvis was living in London working for a very powerful American corporation called Enron. He was under a huge amount of stress a...

John Howard's toy poodle epiphany

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The former Kings Cross street kid on his time in prison, recovering from an alcohol-induced brain injury, the puppy called Sunny who showed him what ...

Encore: The fearless Kate McClymont — weathering death threats and court cases for work

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Kate McClymont is chief investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, she has won 10 Walkley Awards for her work on some of the biggest crime...

Drought, depression and asking for help—how an Outback farmer found peace in the ocean

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For years, Brendan Cullen was known around Broken Hill as the happy man who ran thousands of ewes across tens of thousands of hectares with a smile. ...

Where do we go when we die? Looking for answers in psychedelics

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Filmmaker Lynette Wallworth on how nearly dying as a little girl set her on a lifelong path to interrogate out-of-body experiences, spirituality and ...

Encore: The spiked chair which began conductor Umberto Clerici's life in music

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, on the chair of spikes that accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't tone d...

How I went from being a new mum on food stamps to an worldwide, anonymous restaurant critic

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Besha Rodell started her career in hospitality waitressing in North Carolina. The act of care and service through food has been incredibly important ...

How I went from being a new mum on food stamps to an an anonymous restaurant critic, worldwide

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The act of care and service through food has been incredibly important to Besha Rodell throughout her life, from her first, euphoric experience of a ...

From child preacher to wicked defector — leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Naomi Mourra grew up as a door-knocking Jehovah's Witness but at 21, she realised Doomsday was not upon her, and left the religion for good.But as a ...

A boy called Little Chilli — how flavour and migration led to unexpected love

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Tony Tan’s parents pinned their hopes on him when they sent him from home in Malaysia to Melbourne to become a white collar professional in the 197...

A short history of the innovations that have shaped human progress

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We rarely stop to wonder who invented the wheel, the alphabet or the printing press but so much of what feels fundamental to daily life was once a bo...

Encore: the Nyamal woman from the Pilbara transforming how we think about trauma

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Psychologist Dr Tracey Westerman on her groundbreaking work transforming mental health outcomes for Aboriginal communities (R)Dr Tracy Westerman grew...

Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, an indestructible Nashville studio and the DNA of folk music

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The iconic folk duo met at an audition for the only country music band at a prestigious jazz school in Boston. They immediately clicked, and joined t...

Encore: the life and legacy of author John Marsden

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up, John Marsden found school incredibly difficult and, as a teenager, spent time in hospital after a breakdown. This difficult early life pr...

There is magic to be found when the world goes dark

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Being stuck overnight on the side of a Swiss mountain led writer and broadcaster, Dan Richards' into an investigation of the night-time. Since then h...

Losing three mothers in one lifetime—Layne Beachley's drive to win

13 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The legendary surfer has grieved the deaths of her adoptive mother, stepmother and birth mother. Only later in life did she realise her drive to win ...

Encore: A 'hopeless romantic' on divorce, dating apps, and curing a broken heart

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

After a painful divorce, Charlotte Ree began to piece her broken heart back together by cooking for her neighbours (R)Charlotte Ree grew up in a fami...

You're not alone or broken—the pursuit of happiness is making us miserable

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Philosopher and writer Eamon Evans on humanity's relentless and impossible pursuit of happiness through materialism, social media and self help, and ...

Encore: Judy Brewer on country love, deb balls and understanding autism

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Judy grew up on a farm in north-east Victoria.When she was seventeen, a family tragedy saw her thrust into life as a farmer for the first time.Being ...

A man, his gum trees, and a "second education"

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The world's leading eucalyptus expert, Professor Steve Hopper, on what science and culture say about these spectacular trees, and how Noongar elders ...

Zadie Smith on 'being on the side of life' at 50

06 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The UK writer Zadie Smith became a world-wide sensation with the publication of her first novel, White Teeth, when she was just 24, and now aged 50, ...

Encore: Jessica's life as a GODA - the grandchild of deaf adults

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Kirkness with the story of her grandparents, who both grew up profoundly deaf in a hearing world. (R)Jessica grew up in the outer suburbs wit...

'Come to orgy, wife wrote to friend' discovering the truth behind why I was adopted

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Saul Eskake grew up knowing he was adopted and for a long time felt content knowing nothing about his biological parents, but when Saul and his wife ...

Encore: My shark attack, and the aftermath

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Dave Pearson runs Bite Club, a support service for anyone who has survived a shark attack. Dave’s own brush with death came in 2011, when a three-m...

Loving and losing my adventurer husband across the Tasman Sea

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 2007, Vicki’s husband Andrew set off from Tasmania in a kayak, aiming to become the first person to paddle to New Zealand, but a month later aut...

How a boy named Yuri saved me from the trauma of a bomb blast

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Debra Richardson joined the police at age 18 in the 1980s, working undercover as a prostitute and surviving the Russell Street bombing. Years later, ...

Encore: Nikki Gemmell's vivid life of love, grief and reinvention

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From Wollongong to London, via Alice Springs, this is writer Nikki Gemmell on her deeply romantic life, and how she defied expectations to become a f...

How I went from young delinquent to running a university

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Professor George Williams was uninterested in school, instead spending his time melting down lead to sell to a nearby scrap yard. Then a special prim...

What leaving my family’s Baha’i faith taught me about love and life

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Brisbane teacher and author, Sita Walker on the strong, religious matriarchs who have helped her weather the storm of family tragedy, divorce and the...

Remembering Midnight Oil's Rob Hirst

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rob Hirst, the former drummer for the band Midnight Oil has died at age 70. In 2018 Sarah sat down with Rob for a wide-ranging conversation about mus...

Encore: Melissa Lucashenko and the story of Edenglassie

23 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Melissa Lucashenko grew up on the outskirts of Brisbane, where her Aboriginal mother grew plants and her Russian father built an improbable number of...

From drug smuggling and opium dens to marching in the first-ever Mardi Gras—Kate's coming out

22 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Rowe's life has been full of wild adventures and hard living. But when she found sobriety, Kate discovered something big about herself. CW: This...

I was a teenage Navy diver in the Iraq War. Then I had to make a new life for myself

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron Tait was 18 when he was deployed after September 11. His dad's guidance had set Aaron up with the grit he would need as an elite Navy diver, bu...

The secret life of a hostage negotiator

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Hostage negotiation isn't at all like what you see in Hollywood blockbusters. There is no lying, no promise-making, not even any names. Vince Hurley ...

Upside down in Bass Strait

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Navigator Will Oxley expected the 1998 Sydney to Hobart yacht race to be a challenging one. But when he and his crew met with 12-metre waves and 80km...

New Beginnings: How Rafael Bonachela let out his inner showgirl with Kylie Minogue

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rafael Bonachela was born in the dying years of Franco’s Spain, into a patriarchal culture that didn’t appreciate little boys who wanted to dance...

New Beginnings: Justin Heazlewood on swapping fame for his hometown

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Justin Heazlewood fled a complicated early life in Tasmania searching for fame as an artist on the mainland but then moved back to his home town of B...

New Beginnings: When a sea change collides with messy midlife

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For journalist Kate Halfpenny, moving to a beachside town during Melbourne's lockdowns seemed like the perfect way to unwind and escape her huge mort...

New Beginnings: Artist Loribelle Spirovski on finding family and love

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The artist Loribelle Spirovski on her unusual childhood in the Philippines, meeting her father for the first time at 7 years old, and making her way ...

New Beginnings: Felicia Djamirze, beauty queen and drug dealer

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Felicia Djamirze grew up in the criminal underworld, then became a beauty queen. But her life outside the pageant circuit was mired in the world of d...

Holiday listening: Anh Nguyen Austen's story of rescue and reinvention

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When Anh Nguyen Austen was a small girl, her family fled South Vietnam on a boat which met a once-in-a-century storm in the South China sea. When all...

Holiday listening: the secret world of the human ear

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For Professor Kelvin Kong, the ear is our most beautiful organ. Kelvin is a proud Worimi man and an ENT surgeon at the forefront of medical innovatio...

Holiday Listening: Birds, bees and intelligent machines

04 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When Professor Mandyam Srinivasan began studying bees almost 35 years ago, we was interested in learning how bees landed so elegantly, and avoided co...

Holiday Listening: Nerida's nudibranchs, sea dragons and siphonophores

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As a marine molecular biologist, Dr Nerida Wilson spends a lot of her time getting acquainted with the mysterious creatures lurking in the dark depth...

Holiday Listening: Lee Berger, the real-life Indiana Jones, and the Case of the Lost Hominids

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Lee Berger entered the field of palaeoanthropology there was a one in 10,000,000 chance he would discover anything 'worthwhile' digging around S...

Holiday Listening: Fishing for feelings -- the many ways fish are smarter than you think

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Culum Brown is a leading researcher in the field of fish cognition, his research has shown that even that smallest fish are capable of learning an...

Holiday Listening: The flying vet from Outback Queensland

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Campbell Costello's work as a vet has taken him out of his family's station in North Queensland to places as far flung as Kazakhstan, Mongolia and...

Holiday Listening: Slime moulds—the brainless blobs that can move and solve mazes

28 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Tanya Latty is an insect scientist with a quirky taste in pets, and a keen eye for detail, but it's the lessons from her brainless pet slime mould...

Holiday Listening: David Bindi Hudson on playing his didgeridoo at the Taj Mahal

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When his elders named him Bindi, David Hudson had no idea his future would involve performing with his didgeridoo at the Taj Mahal, or a role in a fi...

Holiday Listening: Learning from the mighty matriarchs of the animal kingdom

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Erna Walraven was one of the first female zookeepers to work at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in the 1980s. Despite practical jokes from her male colleagues, ...

Best of 2025: Mike Doleman on surving the Blythe Star

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At 18 years old, Mick Doleman miraculously survived when his ship capsized in the freezing Southern Ocean off Tasmania. But as he floated in a life r...

Best of 2025: How I became a brainwashed cult bride

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Liz Cameron was 18 years old when a stranger approached her in a book shop. It was the beginning of her induction into a cult, and it was an experien...

Best of 2025: The young boat builder who rowed across the Pacific

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Robinson was a 14-year-old living in the Brisbane suburbs when he made a promise to himself to become the youngest person ever to row across the ...

Best of 2025: Claire Keegan on bravery, writing and the single life

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The bestselling Irish author grew up on a farm set on “50 acres on the side of a hill”. Growing up, she witnessed a harsh, misogynistic country t...

Best of 2025: How Vincent Fantauzzo's life was saved by love and painting

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When artist Vincent Fantauzzo was a boy he was a street-fighting petty criminal with dyslexia and a blazing talent for drawing. He escaped jail time,...

Encore: the life of Norman Swan

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctorWhen Norman was 10 years old his dad decided to change th...

William McInnes' bittersweet summers — budgie smugglers, boardies and bumming around

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The author and actor thinks summer in Australia is done bigger, better and weirder than anywhere else. For three months of the year, life slows down ...

How living like a Stoic changed my life

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and author, Brigid Delaney looked into the ancient philosophy during an assignment from her editor. What she discovered led her to years o...

The Rajneeshees and me — why Martina thought she needed a guru to heal

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cult survivor and psychotherapist Dr Martina Zangger on her ten years devoted to an Indian mystic and how she learned to stand on her own two feet.Wh...

Encore: Helen Garner's love letter to her grandson, and football

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Helen Garner began following her grandson Amby's under-16s football team, it was a chance to spend more time with her youngest grandchild before...

The forgotten men who fought and died in the wild jungles of Borneo

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the very end of World War Two, Australian soldiers were sent to Borneo to dislodge the occupying Japanese Forces. The story of their brutal fighti...

Deciding to live—recovery from a decade long battle with anorexia

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While battling anorexia Lexi Crouch was admitted to hospital 25 times and placed in an induced coma twice, when doctors told her she would die she be...

Frosty the supercars legend and his race to the top of Mount Panorama

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Winterbottom grew up in outer Western Sydney, in a family with not much money to spend on expensive hobbies. But by an extraordinary twist of fa...

Encore: author Heather Rose on the grief lodged deep in her body

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Heather's brother and grandfather died in a tragic drowning accident when she was 12 and from that day, she began looking for a way to commune with ...

A former army psychologist on ketamine therapy, PTSD and her surrogate twins

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Louise O'Sullivan spent 10 years with the ADF, including deployments with the Special Forces in Afghanistan which eventually left her with PTSD, but ...

Dad, Bob Marley and me

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After the death of her father, a spiritual moment with the life-size wooden statue of Bob at Nine Mile convinced queer rapper, Jamaica Moana that eve...

How a pair of disobedient missionaries invented Australia's most iconic road trip

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of thousands of 'van lifers' and 'grey nomads' drive around Australia each year. But the iconic road trip has a surprising origin story involvin...

Encore: How Johnathan Thurston became one the greats

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being a stand-out young player, many NRL clubs initially rejected Johnathan Thurston because they thought he was too small and wiry but he we...

How Aunty Rhonda learnt to cry

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Artist, author and Stolen Generations survivor, Rhonda Collard-Spratt, on bush hugs, beehives, emu bumps, and finding peace.Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spra...

From democracy to dictatorship and back again—how freedom falls and tyranny takes hold

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr James Loxton on how modern democracies can crumble as authoritarian regimes take hold, but also how freedom and democracy can rise again, from the...

A bulldog on the ice -- Eric's journey from the South Pole to Outer Space

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Philips has always loved cold weather and from young age became fixated on the idea of polar exploration and following in the footsteps of the a...

Encore: Love, sex and the secret life of retirees

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Screenwriter Samantha Strauss on her grandmother's vibrant last years in a Gold Coast retirement home where love, sex and startlingly pragmatic conve...

Making peace and finding laughter in my family's dark past

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Reuben Kaye has always known he was going to be a performer and grew up a house that encouraged his love of the limelight.  But in the background wa...

Loving and losing three good men—the story of a ballerina called 'Blossom'

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Petal Ashmole Winstanley was just a teenager when she left Perth on her own to sail to London. There, in the swinging 1960s, she began her wild adven...

The conspiracy that brought down the Whitlam Government in the 1975 dismissal

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Editor-at-Large of The Australian, Paul Kelly looks back at the most profound crisis in Australia’s democracy, including the off-the-record informa...

Silverchair’s Ben Gillies on his life as a teenage rock god, and what happened next

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Ben Gillies was 15 he began touring around the world in his band called Silverchair. After the band broke up, Ben had to work through anxiety an...

Encore: Meet Ash Barty's mindset coach — Ben Crowe

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How does Ben Crowe get elite athletes to the top of their game? What he asks footballers, surfers and tennis players to do seems counter intuitive, a...

Uncovering the heart of my Nana’s saltwater stories

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bunurong/Boonwurrung actor and author, Tasma Walton was enjoying her big break on TV show Blue Heelers in the 1990s in Melbourne when a transformativ...

William Dalrymple's own curious history, from the Scottish coast to Mughal Delhi

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Historian William Dalrymple had a rarefied childhood on the windswept coast of Scotland. As an adult he fell in love with India, and later discovered...

The drama and the grit behind Michelle Payne's ride into Melbourne Cup history

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years ago, Michelle Payne became the first woman to win The Melbourne Cup but in the years since she's had to face many challenges, including a l...

Encore: The story of a wild, radical feminist socialist lesbian mum, and her son

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writer, Ianto Ware on growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide in a single-parent, single-child family, when such an experience was rare. (R)Ianto Ware ...

How Paris helped this aerospace engineer survive anorexia

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Reid inherited her love of Formula 1 from her dad. She put her heart and soul into qualifying for a job with the renowned racing team, Williams,...

The strange tale of the artist who stole 3000 butterflies

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Marsh with the surreal tale of Colin Wyatt, the ski champion, mountaineer, wartime camouflage expert, artist, and naturalist who committed one...

Why this humanitarian doctor swapped Byron Bay for a war zone and what happened next

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katie Treble grew up crying at about how all the king's horses and men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again. It was that compassion that made he...

Encore: Aaron Fa’Aoso on his mistakes, heartaches, and lucky breaks

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron was living on the tip of Cape York when he borrowed his uncle’s dinghy to make it to his first acting audition on nearby Thursday Island.He w...

‘Maximalist power queen’ Em Rusciano on the diagnoses that revealed her

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The singer, podcaster, writer and comedian on living big with neurodivergence, and owning her manic, creative energy.Growing up in Melbourne in the 1...

Telling the future and the past through the palm

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From fairground palmistry to the science of fingerprinting, historian Alison Bashford explores the secrets, history and psychology of the hand.Alison...

Cakes, Ottolenghi and the Fire Horse child

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Goh's life story began with a complicated childhood — and blossomed into one about culture, cake and the meaning of life.Helen was born in Ma...

Encore: Wendy Harmer on overcoming her fractured childhood

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Wendy Harmer has enjoyed huge success over four decades as a comedian, tv host and as a radio presenter.  A long way from her origins in country Vic...

Why these prisoners of war wished they never escaped 'from the bloody train'

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Historian and bookseller Edmund Goldrick on the hair-raising, forgotten tale of the escaped Australian prisoners of war who stumbled into another, hi...