Conversations
Episodes
The ballad of Ally Colquitt
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When stripper and tattoo artist Ally Colquitt was arrested for drug dealing, it became a turning point. Inside her jail cell, she began reading, draw...
Searching for the Countess of Kirribilli
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Joyce Morgan with the story of Elizabeth Von Arnim, the Australian-born literary sensation who captivated Victorian London
The butterfly effect — collecting in the Torres Strait
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Entomologist Dr Trevor Lambkin says the main thing butterfly collectors need is a sense of adventure — something he has honed over 40 years of trav...
Steve Killelea and the measure of world peace
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After an early life spent surfing around the world, an Australian businessman got serious about his career and created a global tool for measuring pe...
Best of 2021 - Paul Livingston
17 Dec 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...
Best of 2021 - Christian Wright
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Midwife Christian Wright with tales of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Lan...
Best of 2021 - Mandy McCracken
15 Dec 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 ...
Best of 2021 - Sue-Ellen Kusher
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Sue-Ellen Kusher was growing up in Brisbane suburbia, behind closed doors her Dad was an ASIO spy, training his three children as foot soldie...
Best of 2021 - Charlie King
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gurindji man and ABC presenter Charlie knew a little about his mum's life story as he grew up. But after she died, he began to reckon with what she h...
The animal that walked into my life — story collection
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A cat, a hawk, a monkey, a crow and a lop-eared rabbit: animals who walked into the lives of five people leaving the humans to wonder, 'What am I to ...
A very William McInnes Christmas
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
William returns to reminisce about the Christmases of his childhood and his brief but brilliant stint as a department store Santa (R)William returns ...
Ann Patchett's three fathers, her writing and her secret power
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
American novelist Ann Patchett reflects on the men who made her, going a year without shopping and her power to make herself invisible
Podcast extra: If computers could speak
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, Jamie Teh wanted a computer of his own so badly, he used to pretend, using his dad's business calculator. As an adult, he used this obses...
NVDA founder Michael Curran: life-changing friendship and helping blind people navigate the online world
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Curran met his friend Jamie at a music camp for blind children. Within a few years they had invented a free software to give more than 100,00...
Adam Zwar's twelve summers of cricket
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Australian actor and writer measures the major events of his life against big moments in Australian cricket, including the nadir of his performin...
The unusual life of Rima Hadchiti
03 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At 100cm tall, Rima is one of the smallest people in the world. But throughout her life, she's demanded to be heard (R)
The case for constitutional monarchies
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dennis Altman is an avowed Australian republican, but he can see the use of constitutional monarchies in times of transition. The question is: do the...
Cradle Mountain's great love story
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Legge traces the lives of pioneering naturalists Kate Cowle and Gustav Weindorfer in Tasmania's sublime wilderness (R)
Jess Hill: a new kind of power
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jess Hill was a teenage magazine founder, a travel writer, a Middle East correspondent and a survivor of serious illness before she wrote her groundb...
John Grisham: lawyering, writing and innocence
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Novelist John Grisham with his life story; from his work as a trial lawyer, to writing, and how he became involved in a movement using DNA testing to...
Abbas Nazari: After the Tampa
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Abbas Nazari was a 7 year old refugee on a sinking fishing boat in the Indian Ocean when he was rescued by the MV Tampa, just as Australia closed its...
Roxanne McDonald's deadly life on stage
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Mandandanji, Darambal and Wangan woman's career in theatre has taken her from Roma, in outback Queensland, around the world, with a brief break a...
The country kid economist
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Ken Henry was starting out in his career, Australia was known as the 'miracle economy'. Economics got inside him and Ken eventually helped the c...
The story of English
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Linguist Kate Burridge with the story of how Old English began on a small, damp island on the periphery of the world
Harry and the monster croc
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Harry Bowman tells adventurous tales from his three decades driving tour boats in the crocodile-infested Adelaide River, including the day he saved t...
Lioness Liz and her surfer boys
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Osborne with tales of struggle, love and grief from raising her five kids as a single mum, and the moment she saw her youngest, World Champ...
The Beatles, Brian Epstein and me
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Joanne Petersen recalls working as a personal assistant to The Beatles' manager, the freedom of the Swinging Sixties in London and eloping to the Bah...
The brave lives of Charmian and Neen: Memoir writer Nadia Wheatley
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nadia Wheatley with the stories of two women ahead of their time: the writer Charmian Clift and her own mother Nina Watkin.Two decades ago, Nadia pu...
The voice of a child who can’t speak
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Samantha Wheeler’s daughter Charlotte has Rett Syndrome, a rare ‘locked-in’ disorder (R)
Kids TV host, author, trailblazer: Wendy Harmer
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Much-loved broadcaster and writer Wendy was born with a cleft lip and palate, into a struggling family. As a young journalist she saw an anarchic cab...
Growing kindness, humanising medicine
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Dr Catherine Crock saw her young leukemia patients suffering, she knew music would ease their pain, but she didn't know that years later she wou...
Surviving Currowan
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bronwyn Adcock with the story of one of the most terrifying episodes of Australia’s 2019 Black Summer: the Currowan fire
Dr Meryl, Death Detective
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Meryl Broughton with stories from her work conducting autopsies at a country mortuary (CW: Graphic descriptions)
From the ashes of a failed farm
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Pekin lost his family’s 4th-generation farm, and in despair, walked away from everything and into the wilderness. After much soul-searching ...
Confessions of a drama kid
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Actor and writer Brendan Cowell with tender and funny tales from his boyhood as a child actor and a budding playwright
David Stratton's reel life
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The critic on what he has learned from watching 25,000 films, and that time he peed on Federico Fellini
After Covid, the possibility of hope
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Wear on how Australia might change in the post-pandemic world
A rebel on the legal bench
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
David Heilpern with stories of drama, crime and heartache from his 21 years as a country magistrate (CW: references to drug use and sexual assault)Fo...
The hero of The Zebra
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah Kent with the true story of the Prussians who fled Europe for a new life in South Australia in 1838, then met a malevolent doctor on board the...
Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Megan Phelps-Roper grew up inside the notorious Westboro Baptist Church family. In 2012 she left the church, and her family, to live in the world she...
Jazz kings and wayward women
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Deirdre O'Connell with a tale of music, race and a secret militia set in Australia's Jazz Age (CW: discretion is advised when listening)
How music keeps Allison alive
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, ordinary sensations of clothes on her skin made Allison Davies feel as though her life was under threat. She recognised the life-changing...
A blind croc, a missing man and his dog
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kylie Stevenson delves into the story of Paddy Moriarty, who went missing from Larrimah, an outback Northern Territory town known for a weird pink pa...
Night of the midget subs — Sydney under attack
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1942 three midget submarines armed with torpedoes made their way into Sydney Harbour to launch an attack on Allied warships. They were sent by the...
How a fish with tiny fingers changed history
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Palaeontologist John Long found his first fossil in a Melbourne quarry as a 7 year old. He grew up to unearth new clues as to how we became human, an...
Stupid crooks, crooked cops, and honest John
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Former narcotics agent, John Shobbrook battled corruption when investigating an audacious plan to air-drop heroin into Far North Queensland in the 19...
Motorbikes, cheetahs, and the Maggie Island mail run
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Roland de Chazal is best known for being the 81-year-old motorbike postie on Magnetic Island, but his earlier life in Rhodesia had its moments too —...
Judy Brewer's Mudgegonga love song
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Judy on life with her late husband, the politician Tim Fischer, and how her son Harrison helped inspire a new beginning on her farm (R)
Rock and Dave Grohl
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stories from Dave Grohl about his life in music, including how he went from being "that guy from Nirvana” to a superstar rock star fronting the Foo...
Finding Stalin's wine cellar
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
John Baker on hunting down a cache of rare and impossibly valuable French wine hidden away by Josef Stalin, deep in the Republic of Georgia (R)
Ed Ayres' life in music
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Music was always a friend to Ed, but while he struggled to come to terms with being trans, he couldn't face his beloved instruments. Once he accepted...
The railway child: Monica from Clare
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Monica McInerney with tales from her childhood in a railway family in the South Australian town of Clare (R)
Costa Georgiadis: Heart and Soil
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's most famous landscape architect on learning from the garden, Greek school and his Yiayia
The Nazi Brigadeführer who got away
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Philippe Sands on how a cache of letters sent him on the trail of Nazi war criminal Otto Von Wachter, who escaped to Rome on the 'Ratline' (R)
Jenny Kee's incandescent life
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Designer Jenny Kee with the story of her wild and creative life, including how she and Linda Jackson began a movement which changed Australian fashio...
Paul Kennedy on finding his way
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The ABC Sports presenter describes his life at 17, a year dominated by football, girls, beer, and a serial killer stalking his neighbourhood
The Powerful Owls of Wombat Forest
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While they greet one another with soft "woohoos", carefully feed their fat, fluffy babies and bleat at sunset, field naturalist Tanya Loos keeps an e...
Surviving two volcanoes — Singer Ngaiire's story
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When an eruption began in 1994 in Papua New Guinea, the last thing singer-songwriter Ngaiire expected was a second volcano to begin spewing ash. Tuni...
The needle in the tofu
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Zen priest and writer Ruth Ozeki takes us into world brimming with the voices of people and household objects, and her own experience of hearing her ...
The rise and fall of the Rock Star
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
David Hepworth charts our fascination with that most earth-bound of gods, the rock star; and discusses some of music history's striking examples (R) ...
The Soldier and the mare
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After Isaac Adams returned from Afghanistan struggling with anger and hypervigilance, he found that working with traumatised racehorses was helping h...
A Rainbow's arc
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lynn Rainbow grew up in a castle in one of Australia’s most theatrical families. In the 1970s she became a famous actress, before she began a new l...
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...