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 s...
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...
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...
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 expe...
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 ...
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 Afg...
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 M...
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 iconi...
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 becaus...
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 ...
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 ...
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 e...
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 ho...
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...
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. Ther...
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’...
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...
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 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 Heel...
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 adul...
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 sinc...
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...
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 ...
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 camouflag...
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 t...
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 fi...
‘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...
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 ...
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,...
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 prese...
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 Austral...
QAnon, 15-minute cities and sovereign citizens: Plunging into the world of conspiracy theories
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Ariel Bogle takes us inside the rallies, homes, courtrooms, secret chat rooms and $2000 ...
The Hollywood insider and the murder that changed his famous family
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Griffin Dunne's acting career was just taking off when his sister was brutally attacked by an ex-bo...
Encore: Ben Lee, the chutzpah mystic, Bondi rock prodigy, Noise Addict
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Lee on life as a teen rock prodigy, Hollywood fame, living in an Ashram in India, and exploring...
How a heroine of Singapore survived jail and torture in WWII
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Tom Trumble tells the story of the cunning World War II Australian sabotage mission known...
The unlikely outback publican of the 'Taj Mahal of the Warrego’
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fran Harding was a stay-at-home mother of eight children when her pharmacist husband came home one ...
Journeying to the Hadal Zone in a two-man submarine
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Todd Bond is marine ecologist who goes where very few humans have ever been: the underworld, or ...
Remembering Dr Jane Goodall's science and her humanity
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Goodall, the renowned conservationist and pioneer of groundbreaking chimpanzee field research,...
Why you should empower your children to know their human rights
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lawyer Paula Gerber on the human rights of the most endangered group of people in any community - ...
The Wiggles, Red Nose Day and baby Bernadette
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Musician Paul Field on grieving the death of his baby girl, Bernadette, and how she inspired his fa...
When my parachute failed: How I survived a fall from 15,000 feet
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Brad Guy went skydiving in his early 20s, his whole family was there to watch. But when Brad...
Encore: Psychotherapist Philippa Perry says yes to feelings
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Phillipa Perry grew in England and as a teenager went to a finishing school in Switzerland where sh...
What caring for the dying taught Bronnie Ware about living
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bronnie Ware was recovering from burnout when she wrote a blog post reflecting on years working as ...
My father Bryce Courtenay: the charming, charismatic, compulsive liar
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To Australia he was a genius adman and best-selling author but behind closed doors Bryce Courtenay ...
How this journalist took on a war criminal and won
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2017, journalist Nick McKenzie heard rumours of executions and cover-ups inside Australia’s mo...
Encore: Paralympian Christie Dawes is super/normal
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christie took up wheelchair racing as a child as part of her rehab after a car crash left her with ...
How I went from being a pregnant, homeless teenager to running a BHP mining merger
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Claire Parkinson is the daughter of a long-distance lorry driver and her first job was cleaning the...
265 days alone at sea — the young boat builder who rowed across the Pacific
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Robinson was a 14-year-old living in the Brisbane suburbs when he made a promise to himself to ...
The secret lives of diplomats: surviving 'bomb season' in Jakarta
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Diplomat Grant Dooley was inside the Australian Embassy building in Indonesia when a bomb went off,...
Conversations Live podcast extra: Mel Buttle
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the now complete Conversations Live To...
Encore: Candice Fox—How to raise a crime writer
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, Candice Fox knew her family wasn't what most people would consider normal. Their Chri...
When Dr Tottman had to run towards her life
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Charlotte Tottman is a clinical psychologist who specialises in supporting cancer patients. Both...
Life after menopause, divorce and loss—How this mountaineer started all over again
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A few years ago, after a series of crisis after crisis after crisis, Allie Pepper thought she would...
Why Dr Ranjana Srivastava tells the whole truth about cancer
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Doctors often use euphemisms to dance around the 'C' word. But for oncologist Dr Ranjana Srivastava...
Encore: Danny Estrin's Eurovision glory and the bittersweet aftermath
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Voyager frontman Danny Estrin on his unconventional path from heavy metal to law and on to the Euro...
Kathleen Folbigg tells the story of her fight for freedom
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kathleen Folbigg was locked up in prison for decades, wrongly convicted of the deaths of her four c...
How Alan 'the shit magnet' Playford helped revolutionise Australia's ambulance services
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you call for an ambulance these days, chances are the officers inside will save a life. But 40...
Why I wrote a musical for my cheeky, charismatic, Persian mum
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, Sydney-based artist HOSSEI took a step back from the art world to care for his sick ...
20th Anniversary Collection: Alan Alda on bringing science to acting
30 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hollywood actor Alan Alda has devoted his life to science, by taking his acting and communication s...
20th Anniversary Collection: The male midwife working in Arnhem Land
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up south of Sydney as one of six boys, midwifery wasn't the occupation Christian Wright exp...
20th Anniversary Collection: Writing hit songs for Blondie, Tina Turner and Suzi Quatro
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Music was always in Mike Chapman’s blood. As a boy, he collected bottles at the Brisbane showgrou...
20th Anniversary Collection: Surviving PTSD as an Iraq War correspondent
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Ware witnessed some of the most violent battles in Baghdad; and was kidnapped three times.H...
20th Anniversary Collection: A Tanzanian love story
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a dream job as a nanny in Notting Hill, a young Donna Duggan was first lured to Africa by the...
20th Anniversary Collection: The barber who helps boys become good men
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Lomu's gentle and religious life in Tonga with his grandparents showed him the meaning of l...
20th Anniversary Collection: The seaweed scientist who survived being scalped
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Marine ecologist, Pia Winberg learned how useful seaweed could be for gut health and wound healing....
Conversations Live podcast extra: Mandy Nolan and Wesley Enoch
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Brisbane ...
20th Anniversary Collection: Mic's way out of the woods
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Deeply ashamed of something he had done, Mic Whitty retreated into the Welsh wilderness until an un...
20th Anniversary Collection: Tommy Caldwell — born to climb The Dawn Wall
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tommy Caldwell grew up exploring Yosemite, looking up at El Capitan's punishing 3000ft sheer rock f...
20th Anniversary Collection: Vickie Roach's turbulent life in and out of strife
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Vickie's police record began when she was just 2 years old, and followed her throughout her life. B...
20th Anniversary Collection: Born blind at the right time
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Law Professor Ron McCallum was a premature baby in the 1940s. He completed his studies by recording...
20th Anniversary Collection: Brolga the 'kangaroo mum'
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aged 17, Chris 'Brolga' Barns was meant to be the 'bird guy' at a new zoo in Broome. A cough in his...
20th Anniversary Collection: Stan Grant on what his father taught him
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The veteran Wiradjuri journalist spent his first year living in the wreck of a Model T Ford on a NS...
Conversations Live podcast extra: Bruce McAvaney
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Adelaide ...
Conversations Live podcast extra: Gill Hicks
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Adelaide ...
20th Anniversary Collection: Surviving my dad's arrest and learning to thrive
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Longtime TV casting agent, Kirsty de Vallance was 16 when Police searched the house and arrested he...
20th Anniversary Collection: The comic genius of Jennifer Saunders
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The co-creator of Absolutely Fabulous says her remarkable career as one of the world's funniest wom...
20th Anniversary Collection: Judy Sharp and the remarkable rise of Laser Beak Man
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Judy Sharp was told by doctors that her son would never communicate or learn to love, she refu...
20th Anniversary Collection: How power and fear play out in the dentist's chair
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sharonne Zaks is not your average dentist. After treating a patient named Anna, Sharonne saw the po...
20th Anniversary Collection: A lion named Christian, and the men who loved him
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the swinging '60s, Anthony 'Ace' Bourke and John Rendall bought a lion cub from a luxury departm...
20th Anniversary Collection: Bryan Brown’s ticket from Bankstown to Palm Beach
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan Brown has played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his ...
20th Anniversary Collection: the story of the unwitting woman behind cell research and 'immortality'
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Henrietta Lacks was the first human being that we know of to get close enough to 'immortality' to t...
Wild — Story Collection
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Adventurous spirits take us way out into the world's wild places — stories from across 20 years o...
Teachers — Story Collection
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Memories, motivation and life lessons from those at the front of the classroom - stories from acros...
Digging Up Mum and Dad — Story Compilation
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The secret lives of parents — stories from across 20 years of Conversations.Espionage, Hollywood...
A Feast of Cooks — Story Collection
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our chefs and cooks and the food that made them — stories from across 20 years of Conversations....
Maximum McInnes
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A collection of some of the best moments from actor and writer William McInnes — celebrating 20 y...
Shipwrecked and alone: surviving the Blythe Star
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At 18 years old, Mick Doleman miraculously survived when his ship capsized in the freezing Southern...
Crushing on Aladdin and Nigella Lawson — how Daniel learnt to love himself
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Writer and journalist Daniel Nour on the pressures of his vivacious Egyptian-Australian family, and...
The walking nun — Sister Clare Nolan on entering the convent and saving lives
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sister Clare Nolan was the head of nursing at St Vincent's Hospital when the HIV/AIDS epidemic reac...
Encore: What does a 'disaster specialist' actually do and how do they survive?
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When there's a plane crash, a bomb blast, a flood or a pandemic, Lucy Easthope's phone starts ringi...
Miss Australia, gangland girlfriend, counsellor and criminal: Felicia Djamirze's story
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Felicia Djamirze grew up in the criminal underworld, then became a beauty queen. But her life outsi...
A Dad's mission to save his daughter, and conquer cancer
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Dun left school at 17 to join the Australian navy as a submariner and later finished his high ...
Teaching Nina Simone how to love me: a daughter's story
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Singer Lisa Simone is the only person in the world who can call Nina Simone 'mommy'. Lisa was the b...
Encore: The secret world of servos after dark
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
David Goodwin spent years working the graveyard shift at his local service station in the outer sub...
Dr Rangan Chatterjee on health and healing in a hectic world
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a boy, Dr Rangan Chatterjee saw his dad work day and night as a doctor before succumbing to an a...
The hidden corners of Emma's Hong Kong — fishing villages, beaches and ancestral graveyards
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Novelist Emma Pei Yin ran away from Hong Kong as a teenager to start fresh in Australia. But she fo...
AFL star Zach Tuohy on his silent struggles as a young father and life after footy
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Zach was still a teen when he was scouted by the AFL in Ireland, beginning a great adventure in Aus...
Encore: Janty Blair is the BMW of standup comics
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a lifetime of nursing and midwifery, Janty Blair discovered her funny bone in her late 50s, f...
Leah Purcell's meteoric rise, from the Murgon meatworks to centre stage
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Leah Purcell grew up in a small town caring for her mum Florence. Her options after graduation were...
How a boy from Balmain made caring cool
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bundjalung man, Jack Manning Bancroft's scholarship to a prestigious Sydney University college show...