Conversations
Episodes
Life after Troll Hunting
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After she was trolled online, Ginger Gorman turned to face her attackers, and developed a completely new understanding of why people abuse others onl...
Building a school for the world’s poorest children — Gemma Sisia's story
13 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A donation of land and $10 was all Australian-born Gemma needed to establish The School of St Jude in Tanzania
Parenting our parents — Jean Kittson on looking after Mum and Dad
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As Jean negotiated the maze of caring for her ageing parents, she began collecting the information she found useful, as well as asking herself and ot...
Hannah Kent and the Good People of Ireland
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The fairies of Ireland's folk culture were capricious twilight creatures who could bestow favour or grave misfortune (R)
The miracles and limits of modern medicine
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Doctor Karen Hitchcock peers into the culture of modern medicine, from the flu season to female viagra, to dementia and the humble sick day
Devices and democracy: will Big Tech control us?
09 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jamie Susskind on how digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics and virtual reality are transforming our political s...
Changing how we talk about rape
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Extraordinary survivor Sohaila Abdulali was seventeen when she was gang raped and forced to fight for her life (R)
This anxious life: Dr Mark Cross
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mark is an experienced consultant psychiatrist who also suffers from Australia's most common mental health condition, anxiety. His direct insight hel...
The secret life of the Grey Plover
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Darby flew around the world on the trail of a small, unassuming migratory shorebird called the Grey Plover. In the middle of his journey, with...
The songs of trees
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Biologist David George Haskell on how he discovered the unique songs of trees, and the way they interconnect (R)
Julia's forgetful heart
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Julia Stevens was one of Australia's top triathletes when doctors told her they needed to implant a tiny defibrillator inside her chest wall to keep ...
Matt Okine on growing up when everything is falling apart
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Matt on his Brisbane childhood, losing his mum at the age of 12, and how a chance conversation with his university drama teacher altered the course o...
Jackie French and the Valley
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jackie has lived in the Araluen Valley of NSW for 46 years, where powerful owls boom through the nights and lyrebirds scratch up the garden. In recen...
How a former ironman made the beach accessible to everyone
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For a time, surf-loving athlete Nick Marshall was a professional Ironman. Then he created a new way for kids with special needs to be included at the...
A revolutionary idea to stop good food going to waste
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ronni Kahn saved 45,000 tonnes of food from landfill and changed how we think about food waste
Eric Idle's life on the bright side
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Eric on life before and after Monty Python's Flying Circus (R)
Mike Hayes and the Holy Grail of winemaking
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mike was 15 when he left school to chip weeds in a Queensland vineyard. Forty years later he found himself in Portugal holding one of the world's old...
Thea Hayes the walkabout nurse
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Thea was hired as a nurse on one of the largest cattle runs in the world, the job expanded to include hostessing and saving cows with clover blo...
Botox, castrations and beauty pageants: Inside the world of Australia's only camel vet
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Margie Bale's car is loaded with ultrasounds, milk crates and angle grinders. All the things needed when you're tending to 7-foot tall camels in the ...
Young Hitler
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How WWI helped a homeless vagabond named Adolf Hitler become the dictator of the German Reich (R)
The pavlova in the suitcase
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michelle Garnaut on how she began one of the world's most famous restaurants in communist-era Shanghai (R)
The unusual life of Rima Hadchiti
14 Feb 2020
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
Lorenzo Montesini's Vietnam War love story, and life after Pitty Pat
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1990 Lorenzo shocked Sydney society by leaving heiress Primrose Dunlop at the altar in Venice to run off with his best man. But behind the headlin...
Benny and the pact with God
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When doctors told Benny Agius her baby son had Down syndrome, she was full of anxiety about his future. Then Richard grew up to defy everyone's expec...
Taking the pulse of a dopesick nation
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The opioid crisis is destroying hundreds of thousands of American lives and Beth Macy has been up close to it (R)
Villainesses, Vulcans and a new sort of sexuality — the life of Judith Anderson
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Judith was an Australian who found screen stardom in 1940s Hollywood, and has since became a lesbian icon. Biographer Desley Deacon tells her story
Fish, frogs and a photographer
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nature photographer Gary Cranitch on his working life floating off the Great Barrier Reef to capture a split-second image of the 'biggest orgy on the...
Steve's life in the London squats
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Bevington talks about his years in the thick of an underground movement of London squatters, who would break into abandoned buildings, change t...
When Robert met Maida
05 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Former politician Robert Tickner grew up in country NSW, 'showered with love' by his adoptive parents. When he began the search for his biological mu...
Life in 248 dimensions
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mathematician Geordie Williamson spent eight years cracking the code to find the weight of atoms in space (R)
The truth about space junk
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman on the unexpected artefacts of the space age (R)
Higher ground — rebuilding a town after disaster
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jamie Simmonds on the successful relocation of Grantham, Queensland after it was destroyed by catastrophic flooding
Grantham — the town that washed away
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When an inland tsunami smashed into a rural Queensland town in January 2011, people were killed and the town destroyed. Jamie Simmonds became the rig...
1956: Australia's pivotal year
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Nick Richardson on the year that changed Australia forever
Toad vs toad: outwitting the cane toad with ingenious biology
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rick Shine used one toad to defeat another, by a process of evolutionary conditioning, to save the snakes he was studying in Northern Australia (R)
William McInnes on being a dad
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
William wanders through stories of fatherhood, from growing up in Queensland in the 1970s, to raising his own children as a single dad (R)William is ...
After triple zero — a paramedic's tale
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Gilmour describes the hectic work of saving lives, and what it's like to bring people back from the brink of suicide
Mary's three gurus
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a young woman fell under the spell of spiritual cult leaders in the 1970s
How Sean Sweeney found his deaf heart
22 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sean was the first hearing baby to be born to his mother’s family in four generations. He became an Auslan interpreter, and an instantly recognisab...
Claire G. Coleman's many lives
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Claire grew up running wild in the Banksia forests of Southern Western Australia. As an adult she had a period of homelessness, living on the streets...
Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
19 Jan 2020
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...
Best of 2019 — Bryan Brown
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan’s played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have been h...
Best of 2019 — Ron McCallum
19 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Left totally blind by treatment he received as a premature baby, Ron credits technology, love, and good timing with his success in life and the law ...
Best of 2019 — Archie Roach
18 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Archie tells of writing Took the Children Away and playing it in public for the first time, of his belated reunion with his siblings, and his love st...
Best of 2019 — Pia Winberg
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Pia began her own seaweed farm after decades as a marine ecologist. One ordinary working day there was a terrible accident (R)
Best of 2019 — Vickie Roach
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Vickie's met with trouble all through her life, starting with a police record at the age of two. She went on to challenge a Federal law on the rights...
Peter Helliar's gothic side
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When comedian Peter Helliar was a child, he was fascinated by the idea of death, and wrote about it endlessly. Then he grew up to become the 'world's...
Summer Holidays: a story collection
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tales of the great Australian summer holiday from Mark Trevorrow, Alice Pung, Jack Hoysted and Steph Tisdell
Ben and the Big Issue
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ben grew up in Drumchapel, a Glasgow housing estate. As a young man, he built a thriving career as a musician, went to University and married. But so...
Writer and diarist Helen Garner: from Paris to Moonee Ponds
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Helen recently published her diaries from 1978-1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, the quest for the right ...
The end of the Milky Way
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith on how Andromeda is due to collide with our galaxy in five billion years time (R)
The true history of the Ark before Noah
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How Irving Finkel stumbled upon the true story of the Ark before Noah on a Babylonian clay tablet
British actor Timothy Spall digs deep
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Timothy’s stellar screen career, including roles in ‘Mr Turner’, ‘Secrets and Lies’, the Harry Potter films, and his latest, ‘Mrs Lowry &...
Dylan Moran and the white-knuckle ride of stand up comedy
05 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Irish comic Dylan Moran on his unusual childhood, the story behind Black Books, and why he's given up drinking for good
Craig Foster and the battle to save fellow footballer, Hakeem al-Araibi
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After Hakeem was imprisoned while on his honeymoon in Thailand, Craig fought the power of two monarchies, a military junta, and the world's largest s...
The doctor known as 'The God of Sight'
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nepalese surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit on his work in the villages of Nepal which has restored the sight of more than 150 000 people (R)
Rescuing the boys from the cave — Richard Harris
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
An anaesthetist and cave diver, Richard had the exact combination of skills needed to help save the lives of a Thai soccer team trapped deep underwat...
Paul Kelly and the poetry
29 Nov 2019
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
Drones and forgiveness
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How a young computer scientist found his way out of a traumatic childhood
War crimes, bombings, secret lives — Tony Jones turns truth into thrillers
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The retiring host of Q&A reflects on his time with the show, and how his years reporting from the former Yugoslavia have helped him craft best-se...
How Christos found radical compassion
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Christos Tsiolkas broke away from the Christian church as a teenager. As a grown man, in a moment of personal crisis, he rediscovered the lett...
Inside the engine room of power
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How Samantha Power became one of world's most influential foreign policy thinkers
The honourable fight: 16 years as Director of Public Prosecutions NSW
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas Cowdery oversaw some of Australia's most sensational cases during his 16 years in the role. His decisions often made him enemies in politics...
Watching the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
NASA astronomer Jennifer Wiseman on exploring the design of the universe (R)
Hidden histories of Chinese Australia
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Watts MP has a deeply personal reason for wanting to resurface stories about Chinese migrants to Australia. From pre-Federation, to the Kelly gan...
Capturing the souls of abandoned pets
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Peter Sharp's severe back pain forced him to give up work, he believed he was unemployable. Then began photographing lost and abandoned dogs, ca...
Ray Bonner, Bolivia and the big risk
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New York Times journalist Ray Bonner spent decades reporting from some of the world's most dangerous places. Then he moved to Australia, and made one...
Postcards from God — artist William Robinson
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
William is considered one of Australia's greatest living artists. But it took years for his work to be recognised as brilliant
The ferocious power of Rebekah
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the age of 2, Rebekah Robertson's son George calmly explained to his mum that he was a girl. After years of turmoil in the family, Rebekah began d...
Clare Bowditch and the breakthrough
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How Clare overcame grief she'd stored away since childhood, found a way to manage anxiety, and embraced a joyful, messy life
Inside the dictator's mind
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Frank Dikotter on the common personality traits of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao and other twentieth century dictators
Armistice: The Good Friends
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The story of two men who fought for different sides on the western front, and an unexpected friendship between their descendants (R)
Animal Behaviouralist: Talking magpies, grieving tawny frogmouths and canny galahs
08 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gisela Kaplan fell under the spell of birds when hand-rearing a magpie nestling. After it learned to speak, she was so intrigued she switched careers...
Finding new ways to grow old
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After both her parents died young, Charlotte Wood grew up believing she would never grow old. When she reached her 50s, she began to ask some big que...
My second family is in Vanuatu
06 Nov 2019
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
A life in dance after being told he wouldn't make it with David McAllister
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When David McAllister was a little boy growing up in Perth he would tuck tea towels into his undies and dance around in front of the TV.He watched hi...
William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The outrageous story of a group of financiers from a poor and damp island on the outer rim of Europe, who created a private company that became the b...
Archie Roach: turning spirit into song and connecting with family
01 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Archie tells of writing Took the Children Away and playing it in public for the first time, of his belated reunion with his siblings, and his love st...
Di Morrissey and the tragedy on Lovett Bay
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Di Morrissey grew up in a tiny village only accessible by rowboat, with film star Chips Rafferty and poet Dorothea Mackellar as her neighbours. In 19...
The writer and the Prince
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While fleeing the aftermath of a failed marriage, Hilary McPhee accepted a job in Jordan to write the autobiography of a Hashemite Prince. Living alo...
Murgon's shining star: Leah Purcell
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Leah was a teenager working in a small-town meatworks when she discovered her true path in life (R)
The force of Will
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Winemaker Will Rikard-Bell was working at Hunter Valley winery when a catastrophic explosion knocked him off his feet. He sustained burns to 70% of ...
In the shadowlands: McMafia author Misha Glenny on organised crime
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a young man studying in Europe, Misha formed underground links that would propel his whole career. The former BBC correspondent interviews crimin...
Que Minh Luu doesn’t need a hug
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How hot young widows, perceptive friends and twitter kept television executive Que afloat after the death of her husband
Tara Westover's escape from ignorance
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tara was raised by parents who were radical Mormon survivalists, preparing for the End of Days. Although they didn't believe in traditional schooling...
Life in the shadow of Long Bay
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick Kennedy on growing up next door to some of Australia's most violent criminals (R)
Surviving kidnap in Sierra Leone
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Aminata Conteh-Biger was kidnapped by rebel militia when they stormed her village and ransacked her family home. A strange series of events saw her r...
The chair with five legs
18 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a girl, Davida Allen was brought up to be a proper young lady. Instead, she covered her naked body in paint and rolled around to make art. She gre...
Child convicts, lost boys and the murder at Point Puer
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
British boys as young as nine were transported to Van Diemen's Land for petty crime. 3000 of them were incarcerated at Point Puer, the first prison i...
Strange rescuers: my father's Holocaust
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Juliet Rieden traces the story of her Czech father, who was taken as a child refugee to Britain a week before the Nazis arrived in Prague, and thus s...
Kumi’s Japanese inheritance
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Australian journalist Kumi Taguchi grapples with divided loyalties after the death of her father
Story of a blood red rose
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Forsyth tells the origin story of a fairy tale staple, the ever-flowering red rose. Her version has its roots in Imperial China, and arrives via...
Dear Dolly Doctor, Am I normal?
11 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Melissa Kang explained sex, puberty and periods to teen girls in her role as Dolly magazine's ‘Dolly Doctor’. She spent 23 years answering qu...
Dinosaur fields: finding fossils on the family farm
10 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The random find of a dinosaur bone on her Queensland property led Robyn Mackenzie to develop an outback museum of international importance, and a dee...
Chasing the dream that was Prague
09 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Author Favel Parrett’s grandmother escaped from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, but her sister stayed behind - suffering the twin nightmares of Nazis...
Finding the right formula with Eddie Woo
08 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Waiting in line to enrol for a teaching degree in history and English, Eddie was persuaded to pursue maths instead. Despite never really liking maths...
The lucky accident of Sydney's Opera House
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of Australia's most loved building nearly didn't make it off the drawing board (R)
Discovering my father's secret life in France
04 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up, Louisa Deasey knew very little about her late father's life. Then she found a bundle of his lost love letters (R)
The sex life of brains
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Neuropsychologist Dr Amee Baird on the mysterious connections between our brains and our desires
What's next for the Greens?
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From the party of protest to the balance of power, journalist Paddy Manning looks at the history of Australia's most successful third party