Conversations
Episodes
Myth and Legend — Neil Gaiman on classic Norse mythology
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Neil explores some of the stories from Nordic mythology which have captivated him since childhood (R)
Myth and Legend — the monsters and morals of Sarah Perry
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah's life took a gothic turn as she crafted her version of Melmoth (R)
The world of the holocaust's 'hide-away' children
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Author Bart van Es with the story of the young Jewish girl Lien de Jong, hidden by Bart's Dutch grandparents during WWII when they joined the resista...
Bronze age pigs and ancient dingoes — stories from the bones
29 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How zooarchaeologist Melanie Fillios uses the remains and fossils of animals, including dingoes, to understand more about ancient humans
The sister who stayed behind
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Favel Parrett’s grandmother fled Prague as a teenager, but her sister stayed on, and then lived through both Nazism and Stalinism (R)
Stan Grant's life in storytelling
27 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stan Grant on his life as a journalist, author and filmmaker from the Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal First Nations of Australia
Swimming, the Sisters of Mercy, and the search for meaning
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
At 15, Rebecca McCabe was on track to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics for swimming. As swam, she would often ask herself big questions about...
Fascinating fungi — the intelligent kingdom
23 Jul 2020
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 ...
Rise and fall of the Rock Star
22 Jul 2020
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
Eddie Woo on finding the right formula
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Despite never really liking maths at school, Eddie made up his mind in the teaching sign-on queue, to become a maths teacher. This split-second decis...
Floating though the dolines
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cave diver Stefan Eberhard has spent decades exploring the vast underwater caves of the Nullarbor Plains, where the water teems with blind shrimp and...
From a mountain monastery
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Haller grew up Catholic in Belfast, and his pursuit of meaning has since taken him around the world. Now a Zen priest, Zen practice and teaching...
Lying on the job — the story of an undercover officer
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Keith Banks spent twenty years in his dream career with the Queensland Police. He was awarded for bravery several times, but left the job angry and d...
Bill Bryson and the wonders of the human body
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why is scratching an itch so pleasurable? How can someone leap from a burning plane in the sky and survive with a few bumps and scratches? A journey ...
Territory taxidermist — Jared Archibald
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jared spent his childhood behind the scenes at the Museum of the Northern Territory, up close to prehistoric kangaroo fossils, opulent trading pearls...
Nardi Simpson on Crocodile Country
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yuwaalaraay writer, storyteller and performer, Nardi Simpson of the Stiff Gins talks about her life, art and the meaning of country
A boy, his pony and the Sydney Harbour Bridge
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lennie Gwyther was 9 years old when he rode Ginger Mick from country Victoria to Sydney to be at the opening of the Bridge (R)
In Pico Iyer's Japan the air is thronged with ghosts
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pico was a journalist in New York when a 20-hour layover at Narita airport in Japan made him question everything. He decided to begin again as a monk...
The raptor whisperer
08 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Peggy McDonald has spent much of her life as wildlife carer who specialises in helping wedge-tail eagles, falcons, owls and other raptors recover the...
Magic mushrooms, micro-dosing and Michael Pollan
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How Michael Pollan 'shook the snowglobe' of his mind by investigating the therapeutic effects of psychedelic substancesIn 2006 writer Michael Pollan ...
The epic hunt for the deadly Taipan
03 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brendan James Murray on the elusive copper-coloured snake species which terrorised post WWII North Queensland (R)
Not your average dentist
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sharonne Zaks was working as a dentist when an encounter with a patient named Anna led her to develop a radical new branch of dentistry (R)
The life of 'Mr Eternity'
01 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Arthur Stace rose before dawn to write a one-word sermon in chalk on the footpaths of Sydney. Writer Roy Williams unear...
Leigh Sales and the days after the worst possible day
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Leigh went through an event in 2014 which changed her profoundly. She was left questioning how we cope when the unimaginable happens (R)
Tim Rogers' daydreams
29 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The frontman of You Am I on his life in music, his Kalgoorlie childhood, and his battles with anxiety (R)
Reframing identity through motherhood and marriage with Glennon Doyle
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Glennon made a big name for herself in the US as a ‘Christian mommy blogger’ with her candid and often hilarious writing when she fell wildly in ...
Deborah Feldman: rejecting my Hasidic roots
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Deborah Feldman grew up inside the claustrophobic world of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect in Brooklyn, and as a teenager she was married off to...
The daredevil of Monte Cristo
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lawrence Ryan grew up in a dilapidated Victorian-era homestead called Monte Cristo. From when he was young, he knew he'd grow up to become a professi...
Peter Norman and the day that shook the Olympic movement
23 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Norman's late uncle Peter won a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics, then was notoriously cast out of Australian sport (R)
The Nazi Brigadeführer who got away
22 Jun 2020
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'
The women of Steel City
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Robynne Murphy, film-maker and former steel worker, on the Wollongong women who took on BHP for the right to work alongside men at the steelworks
What Jack Reacher did next
18 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a Birmingham boy became best-selling thriller writer, Lee Child (R)
How Johnathan Thurston became one of the greats
17 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Johnathan was a boy he was written off as too skinny and too wild for rugby league (R)
Jesse Blackadder: when Lucie left
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The late writer with the story of a terrible accident in 1976 which completely changed her family (R)
Outposts — what Dan found at the ends of the Earth
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Richards follows his curiosity to some of the most remote habitable places in the world including an Icelandic cabin and a monastery high in the ...
Vika and Linda Bull — on song and in harmony
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hearing their Tongan mother’s powerful voice rise above the congregation in church, primed Vika and Linda for a life in song. Their distinctive har...
The girl from Kilkivan
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the midst of Lisa Millar's brilliant career as a journalist, she found herself in the grip of aviophobia, a crippling fear of flying (R)
Opium everywhere — on the trail of the 'Milk of Paradise'
10 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Lucy Inglis on humankind's greatest painkiller and how its trade and cultivation are threaded through the story of civilisation, and the li...
The comic genius of Jennifer Saunders
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The co-creator of Absolutely Fabulous says her success rests on a series of happy accidents and calls herself an extreme procrastinator (R)
Conspiracy theories and me
08 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Danna Young's husband Mike received a terrible diagnosis, she found herself drawn to conspiracy theories in the search to find someone, or somet...
Comedian Hannah Gadsby on trauma, critics and the point of no return
05 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Australian comedian on Nanette, her 'farewell' to stand up comedy; being diagnosed with high-functioning autism as an adult; and on Douglas, the show...
Pasi Sahlberg — making school the happiest place to be
04 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Pasi was a boy he would sneak into his father's empty schoolroom in northern Finland and pretend to be a teacher. Now he's one of the world's le...
Talking magpies, grieving tawny frogmouths and canny galahs
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gisela Kaplan fell under the spell of birds when she hand-reared a magpie nestling. When it learned to speak, she was so intrigued she switched caree...
Voicing velociraptors and capturing the dawn chorus — the soundscapes of Douglas Quin
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Meet a sound designer and naturalist who makes field recordings all over the world. He then puts them to use in soundscapes for film and television, ...
Uncle Jack Charles — not true blue, true blak
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Uncle Jack was forcibly removed from his mother as a baby and denied his Aboriginality. A one-off trip to Fitzroy connected him with a family he didn...
From the Festivals — Tim Flannery on Europe's bizarre prehistory
29 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Europe's startling deep past explained: pygmy dinosaurs, blue-eyed Neanderthals; and how an asteroid the size of Manhattan ruptured everything (R)
From the Festivals — Andrew Sean Greer
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less was working as an odd-jobs man for an Italian Baroness when a phone call upended his life (R)
From the Festivals — Cheryl Strayed
27 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Walking through grief and facing up to life on the Pacific Crest Trail, the true story of Wild (R)
From the Festivals — Lemn Sissay
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Celebrated British poet Lemn Sissay grew up not knowing his given name or his Ethiopian parents. His life was shaped by being adopted, and then raise...
From the Festivals — James Rebanks the Herdwick shepherd
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
James explains the traditions, language and pleasures of shepherding in England's Lake District (R)
Chasing Robert Cutter
22 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Darleen Bungey set out to uncover her father's past she discovered a Hollywood heartthrob and a singer whose records outsold Bing Crosby's
Maira Kalman: 'I fall in love so many times during the day'
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Maira's daily life as a New York-based artist who likes to paint trees, dogs and hats, and why the contents of her mother's closet became famous
The pigment whisperer
20 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the world's only master paint-makers, David Coles on how he found a life creating colours like Lapis Blue and Rose Madder (R)
This is your Captain speaking
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On 9/11 Captain Beverley Bass diverted her American Airlines jet to a tiny town in Newfoundland, along with thousands of other airspace refugees (R)
With a shark under each arm: Dr Fish Feelings
18 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know when it's the weekend
Miranda Tapsell — Kakadu, Cannes and love stories that matter
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Miranda's story from growing up in Kakadu National Park as a Larrakia Tiwi girl, to finding fame in The Sapphires, and co-creating Top End Wedding, t...
Moomins, motherhood and me — Sheila Heti
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sheila Heti on the life of Finnish writer Tove Jansson who created the Moomins, and some of her own reflections on her choice about whether or not to...
Helen Garner — from Moonee Ponds to Paris
13 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Helen recently published her diaries from the years 1978 to 1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, and the que...
A true Lord of the Flies story and what we got wrong about human nature
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rutger Bregman takes a new look at the accepted idea that humans are just one disaster away from bad behaviour. He says our species' survival has lon...
Hayley Katzen's unexpected life as a farmer's wife
11 May 2020
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
Marian Keyes on growing up
08 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A new conversation with the Irish novelist, on what it means to be a grown up, and standing her ground on Ireland’s moral questions
Adrian Mole and the Shropshire postman
07 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Young Robert Lukins modelled himself on the fictional character Adrian Mole, a prodigious reader and writer (R)
Sandy Mackinnon's fantastic voyage through the canals of Europe
06 May 2020
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 (R)
William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a group of financiers from a poor and damp island on the outer rim of Europe created a private company which came to rule India (R)
The speech collector
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Wilson was always drawn to the world's great speeches. Then, without warning, he was called on to make the most difficult speech of his life
Kindness and coincidence — Naomi Shihab Nye
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Naomi is an American poet and author living in San Antonio, Texas. Her family story is marked by life-changing coincidences, and narrow escapes
Not fourteen for ever
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How Shannon Molloy survived the worst year of his life, as a gay teenager at an all boys' school on the coast of Central Queensland
Magda Szubanski — my father, the assassin
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A much-loved performer digs into the challenging truth of her father's past (R)
Christiaan Van Vuuren's fully sick life
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
While confined to a hospital room for months with a rare form of tuberculosis, Christiaan found love and an entirely new path in life
Disappointing Dickens — Charles Dickens' son in the Australian outback
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Keneally with the story of Edward 'Plorn' Dickens who was sent to live in Australia when he was sixteen in the hope he might redeem himself
The life and death of boxer Davey Browne
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2015, Sydney boxer Davey died of brain swelling after he was knocked out in the ring. When journalist and boxer Stephanie Convery reported on the ...
A therapist peers inside her own mind
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When therapist Lori Gottlieb found herself in therapy after a devastating breakup, she began to rethink her own life story
John Prine — from Paradise to Nashville
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A songwriter's songwriter, John turned his often bemused view of people and politics into songs for fifty years (R)
16 sunrises and sunsets in a day — life aboard the Space Shuttle
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Astronaut Jim Bagian on working, eating and sleeping in micro-gravity while orbiting the earth at 28 000 kilometres an hour
The healing power of dogs
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days
Big Adventures — aviator Charles Kingsford Smith
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Biographer Ann Blainey with the tale of Smithy, king of the Milky Way, and his audacious flight across the Pacific in his plane the Southern Cross (R...
Big Adventures — Alexander McCall Smith
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a lifetime exploring different landscapes inspires the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, who's also one of the world's most...
Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 2
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Walking the Sahara, towards the fabled city of Timbuktu and into Niger (R)
Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 1
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A breathtaking Saharan adventure: camels, bandits and one fearless woman (R)
Etgar Keret's seven good years
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A writer recalls the precious stretch of time between the birth of his son, and the death of his father (R)
Min Jin Lee's good fortune
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The author of bestselling novel, Pachinko, explores the lives of generations of Koreans in Japan (R)
Bonus: when Sarah's Dad's fruit shop map went viral
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to her dad’s hand-drawn map, a shopping trip Sarah Kanowski made for her parents during the Covid-19 crisis gladdened hearts on social media...
Hugh Mackay on building community in a crisis
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Social researcher Hugh Mackay on the many ways Australian society can pull together while we're meant to live apart
Paul Kelly and the poetry
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's storyteller in song on poems he's loved since childhood, and how reading and learning great poetry has changed his song writing (R)
Ray Collins — life in the black, and the blue
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ray was a coal miner when an accident underground left him lying prone in a tunnel a kilometre beneath the earth. What he did next changed the course...
Julia Baird on finding shards of light in dark times
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After journalist Julia Baird survived a terrible bout of cancer, she began to think about what sustains us when the world goes dark
Doll's prams and hand-knitted togs: a Hockney family portrait
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
John Hockney grew up in an unconventional family of five siblings in post-war Yorkshire. As a child, his brother David drew constantly on any paper h...
A father and son odyssey
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Daniel Mendelsohn signed up for a Mediterranean cruise to Ithaca with his aging father, neither of them could have predicted what would happen n...
Bill Bailey — seriously funny amateur naturalist
01 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Bailey's passion for twitching began as boy growing up in England's west country (R)
Tales from captivity
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stories of imagination, poetry and menace while living in captivity, from Kari Gislason and Candice Fox
Elizabeth Gilbert on love and letting go of normal
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a flash of insight about her life saw Liz upend almost everything in it
Bringing life-saving dialysis to Central Australia
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Brown always wanted to be a remote area nurse. Then she began a medical revolution (R)
Saving tiny lives — the mission of a flying midwife
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jan Becker on saving the lives of newborn babies in the 'golden minute' after birth (R)
Graham Martin on going from doctor to patient
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Psychiatrist Graham Martin learned a lot of new things about medicine when he unexpectedly and painfully became the patient (R)
Nursing on Sydney's streets
24 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When working with people experiencing homelessness, Erin Longbottom looks to their strengths to help them find their way to health, and a home (R)
The man who saved a million brains: Creswell Eastman's pioneering work with iodine deficiency disorder
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Abolishing iodine deficiency throughout the world was this doctor's mission (R)
The Queen of Country — Joy McKean
20 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Travelling Australia with her husband Slim Dusty brought challenges and rewards
Ten women — a series of murders in Depression-era Sydney
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tanya Bretherton tells the story of the victims whose killings were largely ignored by police, and whose fate haunted the streets of eastern Sydney
The story of the Snowy
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Siobhan McHugh set out to write a history of Australia's Snowy Scheme, she unearthed stories of pugnacious unionists, drowned towns and a love s...
The life of Angela Lansbury
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The warm, funny and slightly terrifying Angela Lansbury opens up about her seven-decade long career on stage and screen (R)