Conversations

The day that shook the Olympic movement

08 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Norman's late uncle Peter won a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics, but he was notoriously cast out of Australian sport

How Brolga Barns became a 'kangaroo mum'

05 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Saving the orphaned kangaroo joeys of Central Australia

Taking desert art to the world

04 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Cecilia Alfonso learned how to sell art when she was a child, and now brings millions of dollars a year to the Central Australian town of Yuendumu

Bringing life-saving dialysis to the bush

03 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Brown always wanted to be a remote area nurse. Then she began a medical revolution

Love and family and Asperger's: Tony Attwood

02 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tony works with couples in which one partner has Asperger's, helping them navigate relationships and parenting (R)

Leigh Sales: the day after the worst possible day

01 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, Leigh went through an event which changed her profoundly. She was left questioning how we cope when the unimaginable happens

Brylcreem, beehives, and Devils on Horseback: how the 1960s changed Australia

28 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Noeline Brown went from librarian to household name during the 60s, and here remembers some of the era's most distinct pop culture and political mome...

Rachael Maza's tale of three islands

27 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Palm Island, Mer Island, and Australia are the cornerstones of this hard-working actor and director's story

Toad vs toad: outwitting the cane toad with ingenious biology

26 Sep 2018

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

Inside The Family, the bizarre and brutal Australian cult

25 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Rosie Jones and Chris Johnston have unearthed the origins of the bizarre Australian cult known as The Family (R)

Laura Tingle on leadership, and political self-indulgence

24 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Laura Tingle asks if it's time to update our idea of what makes a great leader

Kristina Olsson spent years untangling the story of the brother she'd never known

21 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Kristina Olsson's brother Peter was stolen from their mother's arms as a baby (R)

Tim Minchin makes his own luck

20 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Minchin's bruising Hollywood experiences have helped bring him a new perspective on comedy

Gwynne Dyer on the future of the world

19 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Military historian Gwynne Dyer is surprisingly upbeat about the future of humanity

Murgon's shining star

18 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Leah Purcell was working in a small-town meatworks during her school holidays, when she discovered she had a rare talent

The bond between two alpine climbers which nearly killed them

17 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Simon McCartney was a young mountaineer when he met a fellow climber who altered his life

Beatrix Campbell has stayed fierce and funny about class in Britain

14 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Political commentator Bea Campbell grew up communist in northern England

Ordinary on the inside

13 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Wil Patterson was a suburban dad who wanted all the good things in life for his family. Then he made a decision which upended everything

Discovering a father's secret life in France

12 Sep 2018

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

Wendell Rosevear treats victims and perpetrators of sexual violence

11 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Wendell Rosevear's upbringing gave him an unexpected sense of mission

The man behind the Bee Gees

10 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen Dando Collins with the story of Robert Stigwood, the boy from Port Pirie who went on to become the entertainment industry's most powerful tyc...

Father Rod bucks the system

07 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How an ex-butcher in the midst of a career crisis began a social movement

Guerrilla film-making in Afghanistan

06 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When the Pakistani Secret Service denied Benjamin Gilmour permission to make a feature film he crossed the border to Afghanistan

The life changing power of honeybees

05 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When Helen Jukes was given a colony of bees it helped release her from the numbing grind of her working life

The science of the Dreamtime

04 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick Nunn on the real life stories of volcanic eruptions, meteor crashes and encounters with megafauna, recorded long before written language

The Australian veteran who revolutionised mental health treatment

03 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Greg de Moore tells the forgotten story of psychiatrist Dr John Cade

The great dogs of Australian history

31 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The 'dog whisperer' Guy Hull on the dogs that made Australia, from life-saving Kangaroo dogs to plane flying Alsatians

Inside the ad agency which changed Australia

30 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

John Bevins helped change Australians' minds about smoking and drink driving

The incredible tale of where we come from

29 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Fiona Katauskas wrote a funny, charming book for children about the facts of life. Then she discovered the book had a life of its own

Growing up in old Broome

28 Aug 2018

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

Falling in love with Jimmy Pike

27 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Pat Lowe was working as a prison psychologist in Broome when she met the artist Jimmy Pike, who was serving a life sentence

The art of being truthful with Artist Davida Allen

24 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Artist Davida Allen's true feelings about some of the trials of parenthood, bushwalking, and a raging attraction to actor Sam Neill have poured out t...

Irish novelist Marian Keyes

23 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Now a wildly popular author, for many years Marian doubted her ability to write (R)

The lucky accident of Sydney's Opera House

22 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of the Sydney Opera House nearly didn't get off the drawing board

Living the Prague Spring

21 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jaroslav Kovaricek was there for the violent crushing of the Prague Spring

The history of making colours

20 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Coles is known as the 'pigment-whisperer'

From the Shetlands to Vera: the adventures of crime writer Ann Cleeves

17 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The award-winning novelist lived many lives before her career as an author took off

The anxiety of modern life

16 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Haig's candour about his depression and anxiety has resonated around the world

The allure of silver barramundi

15 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jimmy Shu's childhood in Sri Lanka planted the seeds for his later life as a legendary restaurateur

Staring down the monster

14 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

At 19, Colleen Gwynne rescued her mum from a violent marriage. Then she joined the police and solved one of Australia's most complicated murder cases...

The terrible journey of the Ticonderoga

13 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Veitch's great-grandfather arrived in Australia on a ship dubbed 'the floating charnel house'

Jacqui Lambie: the unlikely senator

10 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

From painkiller addiction to parliament, Jacqui's life has been a rollercoaster

The Hunger Games on Wheels

09 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017 Rupert Guinness, a veteran cycling journalist, embarked on a 5000 km endurance ride that would permanently change his outlook on a sport he l...

How Lemn Sissay found his voice

08 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Lemn Sissay grew up in the UK as a child of the state. At 18 he was given a letter written in 1968 from his Ethiopian mother pleading for his return

Can football save politics?

07 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

George Megalogenis thinks that Australia's political leaders should learn from football

Universal Basic Income: the future?

06 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Rutger Bregman is calling for new thinking about the kind of world we want to live in

The life and landscapes of Alison Lester

03 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

From Antarctica to Arnhem Land, the pages of the books of this prolific author and illustrator are fuelled by adventure

The other Kokoda trail

02 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When the Japanese began bombing New Guinea, Peter Phelp's granddad was forced to trek through some of the most rugged terrain on earth, but he wasn't...

Growing up dirt poor

01 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Rick Morton was growing up on a cattle station when his parents split up. His mum was left to raise three children in poverty

William McInnes’ stories of fatherhood

31 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tales ranging from growing up in 70s Queensland, to raising children as a single dadWilliam is one of Australia's best-known storytellers and actors....

Unlocking the mystery of Motor Neurone Disease

30 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dominic Rowe is asking how common degenerative brain diseases begin

Losing a brother, finding himself

27 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Nic Newling believes sharing his story of living with mental illness will help others

A grief pilgrimage on Te Araroa Trail

26 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Bruce Hopkins set out to walk the length of New Zealand, with the ashes of his father and brother

Searching for Christoph

25 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1975, Ivonne Ranisch’s brother Christoph disappeared from an East German hospital. Her parents now believe he was stolen by the state

On being shot

24 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

At 17, Gail Bell was shot in the back. The shooter was never found

Questioning the line of duty

23 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Gwen Cherne has become an advocate for war widows after the death of her husband Pete

Bringing kids back from the edge

20 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Major Paul Moulds and his calling to ‘run a rescue shop within a yard of hell’

The daring mission to rescue survivors of the Titanic

19 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jay Ludowyke has traced the story of RMS Carpathia, from Titanic rescue mission to the bottom of the ocean

The secretive world of mercenaries and private armies

18 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Percy explains the history and motivations of unconventional combatants (R)

How religious zealots shaped a family

17 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Lech Blaine grew up in a large family of foster siblings. When he was ten years old, his childhood ended suddenly (R)

Surviving kidnap in Sierra Leone

16 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Aminata Conteh-Biger was kidnapped during the Sierra Leone Civil War, and endured months of terror at the hands of rebel soldiers.

Censorship, and an unexpected friendship

13 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sari Braithwaite is drawn to making films on things we don't like to talk about

Osamah Sami - not always the good Muslim boy

12 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Osamah Sami wrote and starred in the hit Australian comedy film Ali's Wedding.

The doctor known as 'the God of Sight'

11 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Nepalese surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit has restored the sight of more than 150 000 people during his career

Behind the sequins: the Tony Sheldon story

10 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tony Sheldon's mum was a major star when he was a child. At 17, he became an actor against her wishes

The girl from Mount Druitt who became a remarkable comedy voice

09 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Playwright Nakkiah Lui was given a crucial early piece of advice: when telling stories, always try to offend your mother (R)

A 'lucky' accident changed Sarah Brooker's life

06 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Brooker was studying to be a neuroscientist, when a freak accident forced her to rebuild her life from the ground up (R)

The world's sinking megacities

05 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Kimmelman on why the world's giant cities like Jakarta and Mexico City are slumping into the earth

Young Hitler

04 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

WWI helped a homeless vagabond named Adolf Hitler become the dictator of the German Reich

Jurors behaving badly

03 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Gans on the limitations of the jury system, and stories of extreme misbehaviour among jurors

Betty, Queen of Donks

02 Jul 2018

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

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

29 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sam worked behind the scenes for Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead (R)

Dr Budgerigar

28 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Bob Donely is one of Australia's only vets specialising in the health of budgerigars

The Kharkov experiment

27 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When Maria Tumarkin travelled back to her homeland with her daughter, she had high hopes for the journey

A question of remorse

26 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Anthropologist Kate Rossmanith asks how our legal system decides if a criminal is truly sorry

The force of Will

25 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Winemaker Will Rikard-Bell's skin needed to be almost entirely rebuilt after a 2008 explosion at a winery in the Hunter Valley

The mysteries of the Southern Ocean

22 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Joy McCann's early fascination with the vast Southern Ocean has become a lifelong passion

Seeing Bergen-Belsen through my father's camera

21 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Lewis' father Mike filmed the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp

Michael Mosley and the gut brain

20 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Michael Mosley swallowed a tiny camera to peer into his own gut and its microbiome

The island of the ancients

19 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Ben Hills travelled to Sardinia, where locals are three times as likely to live to 100 as anywhere else on earth (R)

The rise of a watchful boy

18 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As a child, Trent Dalton was a silent observer of the drama of his family and his neighbourhood. He grew up to become an award-winning writer

Jennifer Egan on the women of the Brooklyn Navy Yards

15 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer Egan time travels to the New York of WW2

John Marsden is an outlaw of education

14 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

John Marsden's years at a military high school inspired him to buy 850 acres of land to open a very different kind of school of his own

An erratic family saga

13 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Vicki Laveau-Harvie was estranged from her parents for decades, until she was summoned to their isolated ranch on the Canadian prairies

Inside the murderous mind

12 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Forensic psychiatrist Donald Grant has assessed the mental state of many people charged with murder

Searching for home via Shanghai burlesque

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dancer Jenevieve Chang's rebellion (R)

Miss Ex-Yugoslavia

08 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How living between two cultures shaped Sofija Stefanovic

A friendship - and a giant literary hoax

07 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Alison Hoddinott was one of the first Australian women to go to Oxford University. She then returned home to raise her family, and became great frien...

How Hitler used heroin and methamphetamines to fuel the Third Reich

06 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Norman Ohler has unearthed a little-known element of WWII history: the drugs which played a crucial role in the progress and failures of the Nazis (R...

Jill's big change

05 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jill Emberson worked for decades at the heart of social change, and never believed in marriage. But later this year her daughter will walk her down t...

An unexpected later in life love story, set in New York

04 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

At 48, Bill Hayes moved to New York. He took up photography, and fell in love with his neighbour, Dr Oliver Sacks (R)

Inside the Robbers Cave: testing tribal loyalties at a boys summer camp

01 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Gina Perry uncovers the strange story behind a controversial psychological experiment

The art of taking sperm from a rhino

31 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Tamara Keeley uses reproductive technology to help save rhinos, Tasmanian devils and koalas from extinction

How a young Dutch woman discovered her savage self in the wild

30 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Miriam Lancewood on her daily life roaming the New Zealand bush, hunting possums and goats to survive (R)

The murderous rise of Rodrigo Duterte

29 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Miller on President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs in the Philippines

The One-Child Policy: understanding China's radical social experiment

28 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Mei Fong explains how China's misguided population control scheme rendered it 'too old, too male, and too few' (R)

Eileen Myles: New York punks, and a dog named Rosie

25 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A freewheeling conversation with the celebrated poet and essayist

Jessie Cole's survival story

24 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

After two suicides changed her family forever, Jessie Cole returned to Northern NSW to begin again (CW: Suicide references)Jessie grew up in Northern...

No way to lose her: Sarah Ferguson on her mother

23 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the midst of her grief, Sarah became aware that hospital negligence led to her mother's death

Terrible treasure: 75 000 convict stories housed in a Hobart basement

22 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Hamish Maxwell Stewart from the University of Tasmania has spent his working life deep in the Tasmanian convict archive (R)