Conversations: Archive: 2015-2017

Hellen Nadolu's long road to independence

16 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Hellen grew up in a poor family in communist Romania and worked hard to get in to university.

Music Jamboree 2015: Robert Forster

15 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Robert was co-founder, with Grant McLennan, of great Australian band the Go-Betweens.

Magda Szubanski: my father, the assassin

14 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Magda is well known for her roles in Kath & Kim and Fast Forward; and gained international attention in the film, Babe.

Matt Condon on the fall of 'The Joke'

13 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Author and journalist Matt Condon returns to Conversations today, with the true story behind the infamous 'Joke'.

Stephen Knight: using characters from myth to better understand ourselves

12 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen is renowned for his expertise on Robin Hood, King Arthur and Merlin, and is a prolific writer and reviewer on subjects ranging from crime fic...

Mental Health Week: Jeff Kennett

09 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Jeff Kennett was Premier when his daughter asked him to look into the road deaths of two of her friends.

Mental Health Week: Jo Cook

08 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

At the age of 43, Jo Cook was enjoying a successful career in education.

Mental Health Week: Sandy McFarlane

07 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Sandy McFarlane's first contact with a community devastated by disaster was in 1983, after Victoria's Ash Wednesday fires.

Mental Health Week: Patrick McGorry

06 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Pat is a psychiatrist who has devoted his career to developing early intervention programs for young people suffering from mental illness.

Mental Health Week: Jayne Newling

05 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Jayne is a print journalist and mother of three sons.

Chris Sheedy: measuring the world's extremes

02 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Chris loves everything about the world records and what they stand for: the weird, the spectacular, the kooky and the genuinely awesome.

Lesley and Tammy Williams: reclaiming stolen Aboriginal wages

01 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The epic story of the Williams family's survival, from Cherbourg Aboriginal settlement to Neverland.

The making of Jane Caro

30 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Jane is a popular figure on Australian TV and radio, as well as a writer, and advertising consultant.

Richard Arculus: what lies beneath

29 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Richard has turned his fascination for rocks into an underwater mission to map the seafloor.

Stephen FitzGerald: Australia's vital relationship with China

28 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Stephen FitzGerald was a Gough Whitlam's China adviser before he was appointed as Ambassador in 1973.

Sussan Ley: Federal Minister for Health and Minister for Sport

25 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Sussan's father worked for British intelligence, and she spent her childhood in Africa and the Middle East.

Home is at the heart of French chef Stephane Reynaud's cuisine

24 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Stephane says he learned from his Grandpa you have to love animals to be a good butcher.

George Megalogenis asks: can Australia continue its winning streak?

23 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

George is one of the country's most respected political writers and analysts.

Sheila Fitzpatrick: the men behind Soviet dictator Josef Stalin

22 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Sheila was a student of Soviet history at Oxford University when she was sent to Moscow as a part of a student exchange program.

Antonia Hayes: confronting shaken baby syndrome

21 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Antonia became pregnant in her first year of university. Her boyfriend moved in and they had a baby boy.

Eva Cox: a formidable voice for outsiders

18 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Eva was born in pre-war Vienna and escaped with her mother, who took her to England, and then Australia.

Greg Fleet comes clean

17 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Greg has been one of Australia's most popular comedians for three decades.

Satyajit Das and the question of debt

16 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Former banker Satyajit warns that the problems underlying the economy, which surfaced in the crash of 2008, are still with us.

Steve Harris with the story of Tasmania's longest serving hangman

15 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Solomon was transported from England in 1837 for the crime of counterfeiting.

John Brewster Jones: inside The Angels

14 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

John was born into a classical music family in Adelaide, but he went on to become a founding member of one of Australia's greatest rock bands: the An...

Nick Bennett: face to face with violence on the Black Cat Track

11 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Nick's adventures began when he was very young and growing up in New Zealand's notorious 'Ford Block' public housing estate.

Cutler John Hounslow-Robinson: lessons from the forge

10 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

John makes his blades using Damascus steel, a wave-patterned material formed by fusing hundreds of layers of iron and carbon.

Joanne Cook on suffering and recovering from anorexia in mid-life

09 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

At the age of 43, Jo Cook was enjoying a successful career in education.

Iain McCalman: Great Barrier Reef stories

07 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Iain is an historian with extraordinary tales of human encounters with the Great Barrier Reef.

Leanne Togher: the art and science of speech pathology

04 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Leanne Togher is a communications disorder specialist at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Health Sciences.

Jon Ronson: public shaming in the digital age

03 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Welsh writer and documentary maker Jon Ronson is best known as the author of The Psychopath Test.

Danielle Clode on a rare partnership between man and killer whale

02 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Danielle is a zoologist and science writer at Flinders University.

Richard Glover survived a strange upbringing

01 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Glover likes to play a dinner party game called 'Who's Got the Weirdest Parents?'

Miroslav Volf: a good life in the aftermath of violence

31 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up as a Pentecostal Christian in communist Yugoslavia, Miroslav experienced deep marginalisation.

Philosopher and skeptic A C Grayling

28 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Anthony (AC) Grayling grew up in Africa among the expat British community.

Anthony Ryan: inspiring the corporate world to work with the poor

27 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Anthony Ryan regularly asks Australia's corporate and social leaders to 'go fishing' with him.

Stuart Kells with the true story of Penguin

26 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

An author and expert in antiquarian books, Stuart has long been interested in how the Penguin phenomenon came about.

Spotlight on Julia Zemiro

25 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Watching Julia, a French-born Australian performer, present SBS TV's RocKwiz has been a Saturday night staple for many over the past 11 years.

Dr Bryan Fry's venomous career

24 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Bryan was four years old when he announced his intention to study venomous snakes when he grew up.

Paul Grundy: leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses

21 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Paul was raised as a Jehovah's Witness in a loving family in Hobart.

Pioneering underwater filmmaker Valerie Taylor: making friends with sharks

20 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Valerie first went underwater in 1956.

Dr Munjed Al Muderis restores mobility with robotic limbs

19 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Munjed Al Muderis specialises in a form of surgery called 'osseointegration' - creating prostheses by melding bone and metal.

Helen Razer likes to contradict popular opinion

18 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Helen was the co-host of Triple J's Breakfast show for most of the nineties.

Reverend Bill Crews has put his unique stamp on the life of Sydney

17 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Bill was working as an electrical engineer in Sydney, when he was introduced to The Wayside Chapel.

Alastair Blanshard on the ancients of Rome and Greece

14 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Alastair Blanshard works to illuminate the lives of the ancients

Oncologist Ranjana Srivastava: telling the truth about life and death

13 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ranjana grew up in university towns around the world.

Paul Dyer, co-founder of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

12 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In 1989, Paul was a young enthusiastic Australian musician performing on concert stages around Europe, but after a visit home for his sister's weddin...

Carl Woerndle's business was ruined by a random cyber attack

11 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

At 5 o'clock one Friday afternoon, Carl received a phone call, alerting him to a breach in the company's network.

Historian Jane Connors on Royal visits to Australia

10 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Connors is fascinated with royal history, specifically royal tours of Australia.

Sandy Mackinnon's unlikely voyage through the canals of Europe

07 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Sandy was teaching at a school in the English countryside when he set off in a Mirror dinghy, intending to sail as far as Gloucester.

Mark MacLean: a personal inventory in five boxes

06 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Mark is a writer, editor and high school teacher from Newcastle, New South Wales.

Amanda McClelland: nursing communities to health after disaster

05 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

After early experience nursing in remote Aboriginal communities, Amanda shifted her focus to public and emergency health.

Dr Iona Heath: too much medicine is making us sick

04 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Around the world there is increasing evidence of the over-prescribing of antibiotics and other drugs.

How a prison photo led Eleanor Limprecht to a long-held family secret

03 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Eleanor takes her regular run past the razor wire and concrete of the Long Bay Correctional Centre.

Margaret Drabble: jigsaws, writing, love and other puzzles

31 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ellen Fanning is using her time looking after Conversations to present some of her favourites from the archives.

Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov reports from inside IS and Syria

30 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Martin was awarded the 2015 Orwell Prize for his exceptional reportage as The Guardian's Middle East correspondent.

Rick Searle: adventures of aviation hero Patrick Gordon Taylor

29 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick Gordon Taylor or 'Bill' as he was known, was a fighter pilot during World War One, and awarded the Military Cross.

Bruce White on 62 years as a beekeeper

28 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Bruce became fascinated with bees when he was in primary school, and his father got him his first hive when he was 13.

Historian Lynette Silver has uncovered notorious military fakes and frauds

27 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Military historian Lynette Silver is a member of an exclusive club, investigating a very particular type of crime.

Leah Cotterell and the pleasure of sad songs

24 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Leah has performed jazz, blues, 'white soul' and folk since the late 1980s.

Cinematographer Michael Dillon's adventures on the roof of the world

23 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Michael is a pioneering cinematographer whose film, Everest: Sea to Summit is the most internationally awarded adventure documentary ever made

Bruce Munday: if these (dry-stone) walls could talk

22 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In 19th Century South Australia, dry-stone walls were a practical way to establish property boundaries and clear one's land of 'paddock stone'.

Saeed Fassaie on revolution and war in Iran

21 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Saeed grew up in Iran, as one of seven children in a working class family.

Former inmate Brett Collins defends the rights of prisoners

20 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In his early twenties, Brett Collins was sentenced to 17 years in jail for robbing a bank.

Joe Geia: Aboriginal protest and the power of song

17 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Joe Geia is a singer, songwriter and didgeridoo player.

Senator Barry O'Sullivan's surprising path to politics

16 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Senator Barry O'Sullivan has been the LNP's Queensland representative since February 2014.

Larry Writer: Australia at the infamous 'Nazi' Olympics of 1936

15 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The 1936 Summer Olympics signalled Germany's return to the world community after WWI.

Tiger handler Giles Clark thinks he has the best job in the world

14 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Giles is Head of Tigers and Conservation Manager at Australia Zoo.

Jeremy Oxley and Mary Oxley Griffiths: love and the Sunnyboy

13 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Oxley fronted Sunnyboys, an exuberant, post-punk band who shone brightly in the early 1980s.

Shannon Logan's lucky life: from the tennis court to the record store

10 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Shannon runs Jet Black Cat Music in the inner-Brisbane suburb of West End.

Allan Behm on the art of the political Chief of Staff

09 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Allan was Chief of Staff to former Labor Cabinet Minister, Greg Combet.

Garth Callender: the Australian Army's first serious casualty of the Iraq war

08 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Garth suffered severe injuries when the armoured vehicle he was driving in Iraq was the target of a roadside bomb.

Writer Susan Johnson was living in Paris during the attack on French satirical magazine, 'Charlie Hebdo'

07 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Susan is an award-winning Australian writer who returned home a few years ago, after a decade living in London.

Kay Danes was held in a Lao jail for almost a year

06 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Fifteen years ago Kay and her husband, Kerry, were living in Laos with their young children.

Director Lindy Hume's life in music

03 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Lindy is the Artistic Director of Opera Queensland, and a former head of the Sydney Festival and the Perth International Arts Festival.

Baby Love author Robin Barker: families, fiction, feminism and the pleasures of the sea

02 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Robin worked in Bondi as a maternity health nurse in the 1980s, helping despairing new parents answer basic questions about their babies.

Maritime historian Chris Frame: how the ocean liner changed the world

01 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

From the golden age of transatlantic crossings, to the crucial role of these ships in wartime, Chris says ocean liners changed the world.

Jenni Brammall on opals, fossils and living in Lightning Ridge

30 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Jenni is the manager of the Australian Opal Centre at Lightning Ridge, in northern New South Wales.

Economics was an unlikely choice of career for Ross Gittins

29 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ross Gittins likes to stress he is not an economist; rather, he is a journalist who writes about economics.

Sam Cutler tour-managed some of rock's biggest names

26 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Sam is best known as a former tour manager with the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead.

Mike Lanza wants to give neighbourhoods back to children

25 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Mike wants us to give children the trust and freedom to roam far and wide.

Jerry Grayson: most decorated peacetime naval pilot

24 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

When Jerry Grayson joined the Royal Navy at 17, he became their youngest serving helicopter pilot.

Bryony Kimmings makes theatre about the things that make us uncomfortable

23 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Bryony grew up on a council estate outside London where she was terrible at school, but unlike many of her friends she did end up going to college.

Ramona Koval's seach for the truth in her family story

22 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ramona's parents emigrated to Melbourne from post-war Europe, having escaped certain death as Polish Jews.

Michael Edwards is the perfume expert's expert

19 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Michael describes perfume as "liquid emotion".

Simon Winchester: China through the eyes of eccentric genius Joseph Needham

18 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Simon won acclaim for his book The Surgeon of Crowthorne, the story of an eccentric genius who contributed to the first Oxford English Dictionary fro...

Kirsty de Vallance: prison's effect on family life

17 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty runs a successful casting agency with her husband and together they find contestants for TV shows including Masterchef and Project Runway.

Victor is one of the most successful figures in international drag racing

16 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

When he left school he studied at Agricultural College, while he worked on the family tomato farm.

Paul Keating talks modern political leadership

15 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The former Prime Minister and Treasurer of Australia is amused to have been singled out in Huntington's Clash of Civilizations.

Billy Bragg's songwriting roots - entwined in England's folk and punk movements

12 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

'The Bard from Barking', Billy Bragg, has been writing songs for more than three decades.

Sheila Given is passionate and outspoken about what makes older people tick

11 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Sheila and her family migrated to Tasmania in the late sixties, escaping the violence and entrenched hatreds of their home in Northern Ireland.

Eoin Cameron's journey through life

10 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Eoin Cameron is the guest in today's Conversations from the Archive series.

Alison survived a brutally vicious attack some years ago

09 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Alison spoke to Richard in 2009, and is part of our special Conversations from the Archive series.

Pyotr Patrushev's escape from the Soviet Union

08 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Russian translator and interpreter Pyotr Patrushev is the first guest in our special Conversations from the Archive series.

Crime writer Val McDermid on the possibility of an independent Scotland

05 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Val is the author behind the TV series Wire In the Blood and a prolific and successful writer of crime fiction.

Parasitologist Paul Prociv infected himself to further his research

04 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Paul trained as a physician and moved into research on parasitic infections, including the rat lung worm, which Paul says is "one of the most beautif...

The remarkable story of George Finch, mountaineer and brilliant chemist

03 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Wainwright tells of the boy from Orange who climbed Everest, via Zurich

Former National Party director Paul Davey on the 'Joh for PM' campaign

02 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Paul was the Federal Director of the National Party in the mid 1980's when the Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, launched the 'Joh for ...

Liz Byrski looks into the WW2's Guinea Pigs and the women who nursed them

01 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Liz Byrski's was an idyllic childhood, in a small Sussex village near the RAF's burns unit in East Grinstead.

Linda Jaivin's 35 year experience of China

29 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Linda first went to Beijing as a journalist in 1980: the streets were full of bikes, there was no pollution and most people wore Mao suits.