Conversations
Episodes
Neddy Smith's last stand
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Jack the Insider' returns with the story of Neddy Smith, the violent criminal and heroin dealer who became an enforcer for a cabal of corrupt police...
How a young Dutch woman discovered her savage self in the wild
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Miriam Lancewood on her life roaming the New Zealand bush, hunting possums and goats to survive (CW: Graphic descriptions) (R)
The brilliant Miriam Margolyes
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Miriam was conceived in an air raid during WWII and brought up in a nice Jewish home with a charismatic mother. She became the naughtiest girl at Oxf...
Colin Hay's real life
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How the 'Men at Work' front man managed the trip to mega-stardom and back again (R)
Behind the cake and the rain: the life of Jimmy Webb
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb on how growing up as the child of an Oklahoma preacher inspired his music (R)
Joan Jett's life in music
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Joan Marie Larkin was given a guitar at the age of 13, she was on the path to becoming the Godmother of Punk (R)
Jimmy Barnes — a broken homecoming
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jimmy Barnes grew up as a boy called James Swan in Glasgow, then in South Australia. In his late teens, he joined a band called Cold Chisel and becam...
A heart full of ancestors
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Museum curator Imelda Miller on the history and vibrancy of Australian South Sea Islanders
The mystery of the hole in the universe
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Physicist Paul Davies on the mysteries of our universe, including the puzzle of the 'super-void' inside the constellation of Eridanus
Psychics, mediums, astrologers and me
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Gary Nunn on what he learned about grief, comfort, and the influence of clairvoyants during his two year investigation of the supernatural...
The healing power of dogs
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days (R)
John Safran and the truth behind the push to 'unsmoke the world'
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tobacco giant Philip Morris was financing what looked like anti-smoking initiatives around the world, but what they were advertising wasn't safe
How Nicole Highet helps new mothers cope
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
She didn't know it at the time, but religiously eavesdropping on her mother's phone conversations and counselling her grandmother through a breakup m...
Canopy Meg: the Arbornaut
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Treetop scientist Meg Lowman on her working life among the leaves, birds and insects in the world's forest canopies, which she calls the '8th contine...
Life as a quadruple amputee and more – Mandy McCracken
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mandy's life changed completely in 2013 when she fell terribly ill with sepsis. Since then, with prosthetic replacements for all four limbs, she has ...
Stranded - what Claire learned from falling
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Claire Nelson was in the Joshua Tree National Park hiking alone when she strayed from the trail and slipped, shattering her pelvis. Her phone was out...
John Howard recounts being in Washington on September 11, 2001
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on witnessing the events of September 11th, 2001 from the window of a Washington hotel room (R)
From Croatia to the Canefields: a love story
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Debra Gavranich with the story of her mother Marija, who left her tiny Croatian island to make a life with a man she’d never met, in Far North Quee...
Deserter, archaeologist and spy – the extraordinary adventures of Charles Masson
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When the red-headed Englishman deserted the East India Company in 1827 to conduct his own archaeological digs in Afghanistan, he never imagined the C...
The boy with op shop fever
01 Sep 2021
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...
Hayley Katzen's unexpected life as a farmer's wife
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Hayley moved to a cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, the rural idyll wasn't quite as she imagined (R)
Eliminating fear and unlocking the mysteries in our brains
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Pankaj Sah has a special interest in researching the amygdala and the possibility of treating PTSD to remove the fear and anxiety that come...
Krystyna Duszniak and Poland's lost histories
27 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a young woman, Krystyna thought her father had taught her everything about Poland’s history, but she didn’t know that what he’d left out wou...
Judith Heumann - disability warrior
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most influential disability rights activists in history tells her story of her fight for the right to receive an education, have a job, an...
Bill Crews and the Calais epiphany
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Reverend Bill Crews on the moment which changed how he saw his own life story, and his ideas on how we can all cultivate compassion, tolerance, empat...
The art of precision engineering with Simon Winchester
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The modern world functions on precision - phones, computers, cameras that operate with exactness. But in the quest for perfection, have we lost the a...
The hunt for deep sea bioluminescence (and a giant squid)
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Marine biologist Dr Edith Widder was inside a submersible searching for bioluminescence in the ocean depths when she saw a giant squid as big as a tw...
Friends with a fox
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Biologist Catherine Raven was living off-grid in a remote valley in Montana when she unexpectedly became friends with a wild red fox
David McAllister: A life in dance
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When David McAllister began ballet lessons in Perth in the 1970s, being a 'ballet boy' was a kind of social death. But his school bullies helped spur...
Inside a rogue force
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Mark Willacy on his investigations into alleged war crimes by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan CW: Some listeners may find element...
Anna Sale talks about hard things
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anna hosts Death, Sex and Money a podcast about money, race, #MeToo, and what to say when someone dies
Linda Jaivin on the sprawling, messy history of China
16 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across...
Amani, Salwa and Layla
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2015, Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father (CW: Domestic...
Fascinating fungi - the intelligent kingdom
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Biologist Merlin Sheldrake's extreme experiments, many of which involve his physical body and varying forms of fungi, have led to equally remarkable ...
Modern slavery and the value of things — Molly Harriss Olson
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As current CEO of Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand, Molly wants to put an end to human exploitation by delivering transparent supply chains throug...
The man with five lives
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Roger Pulvers lived an adventurous life in the Soviet Union, Japan and Poland, before he chose a whole new identity in 1976 (R)
The Chloroformist — extraordinary Doctor Joseph Clover
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anaesthetist Christine Ball traces the world-changing work of the man who brought an end to surgery performed on conscious patients
The silver medal which changed Laurie Lawrence
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, the superstar swim coach lived with a chronic lung condition, and had part of a lung removed. In 1956, a huge event held right in his fam...
The life of Anna Meares
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anna's stellar cycling career saw her smash Australian Olympic records and become the World Champion 11 times. Then to the surprise of many, she wal...
The struggle and strife behind Steven Bradbury's win at Salt Lake City
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At the age of 20, speed skater Steven Bradbury nearly died on the ice. Then he won history's most unexpected gold medal (R)
Patrick Johnson's golden run
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How a boy who grew up on a fishing trawler became the first man in Australia to run 100 metres in under 10 seconds (R)
Paralympian Christie Dawes is super/normal
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Christie splits her time between training for road and track wheelchair races, holding down several jobs, and raising her family. The Tokyo Paralympi...
The life of Dr Norman Swan
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctor
Getting psychoactive — plant-derived drugs that change our minds
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From his daily coffee addiction to the 'war on drugs', science writer Michael Pollan's research into three psychoactive substances derived from plant...
Love, power, and my PNG family — Dame Carol Kidu
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brisbane-born Carol followed her heart to Papua New Guinea in the 1960s. Her husband, Buri Kidu, a young lawyer from a village near the capital with ...
Reconsidering morality
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Philosopher Tim Dean on why human morality needs an update for the modern world
Finding Mer-Neith-it-tes
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When archaeologist Dr Jamie Fraser opened an 'empty' Egyptian sarcophagus, he found a 2600 year old mummy of a temple Priestess inside (R)
Rebel doctor Caroline de Costa — smuggling condoms and scaring priests
23 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Being a single mother and student doctor in 1960s Ireland was merely the 'first act' in Caroline's gutsy adult life. She became a pioneering obstetri...
Taming the Black Dog, and burnout
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gordon Parker is the founder of the Black Dog Institute, which works to remove the stigma around depression, mental illness and bipolar disorder. For...
When I am dead I will love this
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From Scotland's Orkney Islands, stories of how a chance meeting in a pub led Andrew Greig to climb the Himalayas, how golfing helped him recover from...
40 years in journalism — Philip Williams and his brilliant career
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A former ABC chief foreign correspondent, Philip began at the ABC as a stagehand in 1975. He left the organisation 46 years later after reporting fro...
Dr Anne Aly's passion for justice
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Anne was ten, she walked onto the school playground and a girl spat in her face after calling her ‘a dirty, Arab Muslim’. To her shock, her ...
Ben and the birth of Miss Ellaneous
16 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Darwin's Ben Graetz on becoming one of Australia's best-known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Drag Queens
The former Ironman who invited everyone to the beach
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Surf-loving athlete Nick Marshall is a former professional ironman. Now a physiotherapist, he's created a new way for kids with special needs to b...
Megan Davis: the road to the Uluru Statement from the Heart
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Megan Davis was raised as a 'Queensland Rail kid', then in a book-loving household in a housing commission home. She grew up to become a lawyer at th...
Stories from the bones — Bronze age pigs and ancient dingoes
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Zooarchaeologist Dr Melanie Fillios uses the remains and fossils of animals, including dingoes, to understand more about ancient humans (R)
Australia after COVID-19
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
George Megalogenis looks at the Morrison government's response to the pandemic so far, and asks whether the 'exit strategy' fully comprehends the cha...
Basketball and belonging — Cheryl Kickett-Tucker
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cheryl is a Wadjuk traditional owner playing the long game in the Swan Valley community where she grew up (R)
Mick Gooda on working for a better day for all of us
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A Gangulu elder, Mick was Co-Commissioner of the high profile Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territor...
Quandamooka Country to Canberra — Dr Valerie Cooms
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Aunty Kath, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, was Valerie's godmother, and just one of many staunch political figures on both sides of her family. Val worked her w...
Vic Simms and Luke Peacock on bringing new life to 'The Loner'
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vic grew up on an Aboriginal mission in Sydney's La Perouse in the 1950s, becoming a singing star in his teens. He went on to write and record Austr...
Charlie King — my mother Ningardi's story
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gurindji man and ABC presenter Charlie knew a little about his mum's life as he grew up. But after her death, he began to reckon with what she'd live...
For the love of Niki Chawla
02 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tarang Chawla with his family's story of migration from India to Melbourne to make a new life, and how the murder of his sister Niki changed his own ...
Meet Ash Barty's mindset coach — Ben Crowe
01 Jul 2021
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...
Where the Music Began — a story collection
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vic Simms, Jen Cloher, Vika and Linda Bull, Rob Hirst, Elena Kats-Chernin, William Barton with stories from their formative years
Mapping two and a half million guitars
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Even the cheapest guitars are made in part from trees which are becoming increasingly rare. Chris Gibson's curiosity about these timbers led him on a...
Betty Queen of Donks
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Betty Klimenko grew up as an heiress to the Westfield fortune. Then she turned her back on it all to marry the man of her dreams (R)
A wild mother and her loving son
25 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ianto Ware with the story of growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide with his radical feminist lesbian mother Dimity
Ben and the Big Issue
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ben grew up in a Glasgow housing estate, then married, went to University and made a life for himself as a musician. But some years later, he was hom...
Kyle Mewburn — transwoman superhero
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kyle was a 55-year old children's author and husband when she began living her truth as a trans woman
On becoming a memory champion
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lynne Kelly became a senior memory champion after she began researching ancient ways of transforming landscapes, objects and the human body into 'm...
River, desert, island — Julie Janson's stories
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After years teaching in the remote Northern Territory, Julie began to trace her ancestry among the Darug people around the Hawkesbury River. Her most...
Jodi and the people with possibilities
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Love on the Spectrum' star Jodi Rodgers on her life as a sexologist and relationship counsellor for people with Autism, and her unexpected chapter i...
The Tsars, the lady-in-waiting and Potoroo Palace
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alexandra Seddon with the story of her aristocratic Russian family and their legacy, which helped her found a wildlife refuge for potoroos, koalas, s...
Steve Biddulph and the lightbulb moment
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Parenting educator and retired psychologist Steve Biddulph was in his 50s when a chance conversation over lunch shifted almost everything about how h...
My second family is in Vanuatu
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Physiotherapist Sky Fosbrooke’s stint as a volunteer health worker led to a deep attachment to the people of a small South Santo village (R)
Wakefield's Kristen Dunphy — turning pain into gold
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The screenwriter and showrunner on writing television drama, her struggles with mental health, and how her time in psychiatric hospitals inspired the...
British double agent ‘Celery’ — his daring and scandalous life
11 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By uncovering the complicated history of her grandfather, Carolinda Witt also gained a sizeable extended family (R)
Michelle versus the Atlantic Ocean
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From working in a bank and behind a bar, to rowing solo across an ocean, the story of Michelle Lee’s remarkable transformation and the voyage whic...
Judith Anderson and Bruce Munday
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Two separate stories today: bakery tales from Judith Anderson whose family history is intertwined with Warwick's bread trade. Then, Bruce Munday who ...
Cornish Pasties and Powerhouse boys — a love song to Moonta
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kristin Weidenbach on her father's early life in Moonta, a Methodist-run mining town in South Australia (R)
Bob Rogers — The Beatles, the radio, and me
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A broadcasting veteran, Bob spent 70 years on air, hosting TV shows as well as topping the radio ratings in Sydney. In 1964 he was sent to London to ...
What might a kindness revolution look like?
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hugh Mackay believes humans are ‘hardwired’ to behave kindly. He returns to the program to talk about how his early-pandemic prophecies on commun...
When the Library Burned
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Susan Orlean on the enduring mystery of who set fire to the Los Angeles Central Library (R)
The gay preacher
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Venn-Brown was a gay teenager when he gave his life to God. He tried to destroy his sexuality by exorcism and 'gay conversion' therapy before...
Growing up in old Broome
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Poelina, the daughter of a Timorese pearl diver and an Indigenous mother, has always been drawn back to her home town of Broome (R)
The five personalities of China
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jason Yat-sen Li on how his family story, marked by war, migration and knighthoods, and his own working life helped him embrace the complexities and ...
A work of the heart
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
High school English teacher, Brendan James Murray with funny, heartbreaking, inspirational and strange tales from his working life
Mama Simba — love and Tanzania
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Donna Duggan fell in love with a Tanzanian man and together they built a safari company, before an accident changed everything (R)
The turtle effect — their mysterious allure and surprising history
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Louise Pryke returns with a cultural history of turtles. With stories ranging from ancient times to modern day, and from turtle tears to Al Capone, L...
A magical life — escapologist and illusionist Arthur Coghlan
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur made his name escaping from a locked 44-gallon drum in a pool of pool of sharks. His death-defying escapes in the late 1970s earned him the ti...
Christiaan Van Vuuren's fully sick life
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While confined to hospital with a rare form of tuberculosis, Christiaan found love and an entirely new path (R)
The girl who ran away to sea — the making of Kathryn
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Working as a deckhand on a fishing trawler became the refuge Kathryn Heyman needed from the wreckage of her early life. Hitchhiking to Darwin, then w...
Let them ring — Paul Livingston on making a great big noise
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Paul is a musician, author and performer best known for his comedic alter-ego, Flacco. In recent years he's joined an eclectic band of people who rin...
Jessica Cottis — inside the colour of sound
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jessica is an orchestral conductor and also a synesthete who 'sees' colour in her mind's eye. As an organ virtuoso she performed in some of Europe's ...
The mystery of broken-hearted syndrome
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp reveals how emotional shock can be fatal (R)
Henry Reynolds and the truth
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One of the foremost historians of black and white Australia, Henry says now is the time to acknowledge how the country was founded. Frontier violence...
Henry Reynolds and the truth
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One of the foremost historians of black and white Australia, Henry says now is the time to acknowledge how the country was founded. Frontier violence...
How a doctor's suicide broke the silence
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gastroenterologist Andrew Bryant's active, social and positive exterior gave no hint of the depression he was suffering. Days after his tragic death ...
New York, Oenpelli, the Village People and me
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Allen Murphy was raised in New York and grew up to become a drummer for The Village People. When he arrived in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory ...