A family secret unearths connection to country
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Yvonne Orley grew up on Aboriginal missions in NSW as the child of the matron and manager. But it...
Encore: Love, jail, Jesus, and pubs — a tangled tale of four very different parents
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lech Blaine with the strange true story of his childhood, shaped by love, religious zealotry, and f...
When a sea change collides with messy midlife
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For journalist Kate Halfpenny, moving to a beachside town during Melbourne's lockdowns seemed like ...
Hannah vs Disney, Lizzo and Beyonce
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah Diviney made history in 2022 when she became the first person with a disability to film a se...
Purity, hypnosis and hiding — how a gay teen survived Opus Dei
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hollywood actor Tim Pocock was tricked by his dying, devout mother into undergoing gay conversion t...
Encore: my three fathers
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
American novelist Ann Patchett reflects on Frank, Mike and Darrell, the men who made her, going a y...
Inside the six-day siege of the Iranian Embassy in London
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In April 1980, a group of armed men invaded the Iranian Embassy in London, taking hostages, and iss...
Mass murder, cannibalism and insanity — inside Mao's cultural revolution
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
China's cultural revolution was murderously violent and culturally devastating; millions of people,...
How I became a brainwashed cult bride
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Liz Cameron was 18 years old when a stranger approached her in a book shop. It was the beginning of...
Encore: the charming Italian narcissist
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Kerstin Pilz found out that her charming husband Gianni had been cheating on her while he was ...
Mr. Finch — deathworker in the tapestry of life
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author Katia Ariel tells the story of Ephraim Finch, a man synonymous with death in the Melbourne J...
The mind f**k of pain — retraining your system to tackle chronic pain
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Lorimer Moseley is neuroscientist, who specialises in the complexities and mind-boggling ...
When Peter Greste became the story
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a decade since Australian journalist Peter Greste became a global news story, spending ...
Encore: When success, a big house and a loving family aren't enough
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when a man can't stop his drive and desire for more? Author Andrew O'Hagan dissects th...
Actor and Hollywood It Girl Ione Skye on surrendering her Rock 'n' Roll past and forgiving herself
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Gen X actor on making peace with her absent father, the ghosts of her Hollywood past and nursin...
Our post-American future — what will the new world order look like?
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Defence analyst Hugh White says Australian leaders are in denial about how dramatically the world h...
The pyromaniac kid who made barbecue his life
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, chef Graeme Stockdale was embarrassed by the smell of sauerkraut and pickles that would...
Encore: Hormones and mental health with Dr Jayashri Kulkarni
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Jayashri Kulkarni on her Indian-Australian upbringing and her groundbreaking research into women...
Part TWO: Locked up in China — Cheng Lei on cell mates, singing and survival
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cheng Lei's years in detention in China, on trumped-up espionage charges, go from cruel and isolati...
Part ONE: Locked up in China — Cheng Lei on state paranoia and staying sane in isolation
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When journalist Cheng Lei was detained by Chinese state security agents, she thought would be freed...
Depersonalisation — when Nathan lost his sense of self and nothing felt real
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2008 Nathan Dunne was night swimming in Hampstead Heath in the middle of winter when a psycholog...
Encore: A home filled with music — raising the Kanneh-Masons
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted cl...
Why Colm Toibin ran away with the circus — to Barcelona, Brooklyn and beyond
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Irish novelist has always been open to where life can unexpectedly take him, and the excitement...
Hilde Hinton's home for the temporarily defeated
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Hilde Hinton was on the cusp of adolescence, her mother died. For years she protected her youn...
The secret life of Scarlett, the octopus
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Alex Schnell was around 5 years old, playing in rock pools around Clovelly beach in Sydney, sh...
Encore: How Sean Sweeney found his deaf heart
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Sweeney on the complications and joys of growing up as a a hearing child in a deaf family, usi...
The miserable lives and golden guns of tyrants, dictators and despots
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Marcel Dirsus is fascinated by the treadmill of tyranny: how dictators gain power, how they stay th...
Claire Keegan on bravery, writing and the single life
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The bestselling Irish author grew up on a farm set on “50 acres on the side of a hill”. Growing...
Peter Godwin's complicated loves, great losses and occasional wars
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The writer had a complex relationship with his mother, whose professional reputation built a wall b...
Treating anorexia by nourishing the heart
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Psychiatrist Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding ...
Ghost stories and executions in Iceland — when Hannah Kent and Agnes Magnusdottir became entwined
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When writer Hannah Kent first visited Iceland in 2003, she came across a gothic true story about Ag...
Heroin addiction, Ivan Milat's dentist, and beginning again
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Claude Robinson developed a heroin habit as a young man, and spent years in jail. In 2006 he began ...
Situationships, risks and growing pains — Jemma Sbeg on surviving your 20s
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From relationships and loneliness, to indecision and burnout, Jemma Sbeg is your guide to navigatin...
Encore: Mt Druitt to Tonga, how Winnie embraced her cultural heritage
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Winnie Dunn was a teenager when the Chris Lilley character 'Jonah from Tonga' became a national jok...
Jamila Rizvi’s one in a million brain tumour
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jamila’s craniopharyngioma had been growing for years, unbeknownst to her. In hindsight, it was h...
Slapped by a whale's tail, and other animal adventures
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Whale and dolphin researcher, Barry McGovern’s love of sea creatures started in Clare, Ireland, w...
Adam Kay — the magic and misery of doctoring, comedy and fatherhood
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a caesarean section on his labour ward went catastrophically wrong, Adam Kay took a radical i...
Briana, Max and Freddy: love, trains and mouth music
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Briana Blackett was a journalist in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to h...
Encore: breaking the silence around men's mental health
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jonno Seidler with the story of his Dad Ray, a much-loved and successful doctor, who hid his priv...
Learning from the mighty matriarchs of the animal kingdom
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Erna Walraven was one of the first female zookeepers to work at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in the 1980s. ...
Mawunyo's life in love, journalism and hip hop
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mawunyo Gbogbo was raised as a church-going African Australian girl in the sleepy mining town of Mu...
Inside the mind of a dog, and a pig named Habib
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Luke Hura has an innate ability to understand and communicate with animals, and for decades he's be...
Encore: The case of the unknown sailor
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2007, Jeremy Austin was asked by the Royal Australian Navy to help them identify the remains of ...
Adam Liaw’s longing for food
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Masterchef graduate shares what he learned from his grandmother, who won the lottery in Malaysi...
Listening to a mountain to save workers trapped underground
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2023, Arnold Dix helped rescue 41 men trapped in a tunnel after it collapsed high in the Himalay...
The physics and feeling of floating — why Angelica learnt to swim
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis grew up in Sydney, famous for its coastline and beachside existence. Bu...
Encore: Grief, loss and the healing power of the natural world
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth lost their beloved farm in Wales, it was where they'd li...
The epic escape story of four ANZAC POWs — through the Italian Alps to freedom
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Writer and tour guide Simon Tancred on the little-known ANZAC story of how a group of POWs made a d...
Made in Burnie — Justin Heazlewood on swapping fame for his hometown
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Justin Heazlewood fled a complicated early life in Tasmania searching for fame as an artist on the ...
From Manila to Sydney to the Archibald Prize — Artist Loribelle on finding family and love
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The artist Loribelle Spirovski on her unusual childhood in the Philippines, meeting her father for ...
Encore: The poker-playing cardiologist
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, before she escaped communist Hungary, Bo Remenyi had no ambitions. But when she got to ...
Miles Franklin's secret life as a 'boy sober' undercover maid
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Kerrie Davies with the story of how novelist Miles Franklin went undercover as a maid fo...
The life-changing power of a choir - From Guyanese activist forming an Aboriginal Women’s choir
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Song propelled Morris Stuart from his early life shepherding sheep in British Guyana to an unlikely...
The wisdom of an ancient Pencil Pine
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nature writer Andrew Darby on what he learned from his rambles through the wilds of Tasmania, commu...
Encore: A daring escape from Vietnam to the halls of prestigious American universities
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anh Nguyen Austen's family fled Vietnam by sea in 1982, on a wooden boat bound for the Philippines....
From street fighting petty criminal to portrait artist - How Vincent Fantauzzo's life was saved by love and painting
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When artist Vincent Fantauzzo was a boy he was a street-fighting petty criminal with dyslexia and a...
'Mistakes were made' — a live storytelling experience
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rebecca Huntley, Rick Morton, Julia Zemiro and Sarah Kanowski bring you stories of human failure, m...
Two sisters, Dod and Brattle - the lesbian poet, and the evangelical Christian
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Josie McSkimming on growing up with her bohemian sister, the poet Dorothy Porter, and how their liv...
Encore: Doctor Koppe — PTSD and me
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hilton Koppe was a beloved country GP for 30 years before an unexpected health crisis of his own fo...
Shaking — escaping the grip of a lifelong tremor
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and author Sonya Voumard on the rare neurological condition that has stalked her since a...
Loneliness — it's not only you
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Loneliness is a universal experience, for each of us at some point in our lives. Journalist Ros Tho...
The fearless Kate McClymont — weathering death threats and court cases for work
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The chief investigative reporter on her work exposing criminals and corruption, including former po...
Encore: Krystyna Duszniak and Poland's lost histories
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a young woman, Krystyna thought her father had taught her everything about Poland’s history, b...
Life on the lam — how Peter escaped from under his fugitive father's shadow
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Norris's father was a notorious bank robber who lived life on the run, dragging his boy acros...
Martha, baby Michael and the police officer who cried
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Martha Jabour was a young mum when her baby son Michael died suddenly. In the thick of her grief, s...
Undercover hitmen, shady drug deals and covert surveillance — life as a top cop
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While working as an undercover cop, Nick Kaldas played a drug baron in the market for vast quantiti...
Encore: Andy Paschalidis on the death on the football pitch which changed everything
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Football tragic Andy Paschalidis was in his 50s when a dear friend and fellow player died during an...
Tim Winton on staying alive, in extremis
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australian writer Tim Winton on the stories which inspired his latest novel, 'Juice', a story of de...
Love, death and duels — Marie Curie's radioactive life
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Polish-French physicist and chemist is famous for discovering radium, but Marie Curie was more ...
Could you live forever? The neuroscience behind brain preservation, consciousness and death
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Would you want to live for longer? Forever? Have your mind preserved and uploaded into something no...
A life in the law, on the Glitter Strip
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gold Coast lawyer Chris Nyst on his 45 years in criminal law, defending career criminals, going hea...
Encore: A restaurant named Parwana — Afghan treasure in Adelaide
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Durkhanai Ayubi and her family keep alive the stories and flavours they carried to Australia from A...
How Geraldine Brooks learned how to live again through grief
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Geraldine Brooks on love, grief and letting go after her husband died in a shocking and unex...
Singing for her life: Camille O'Sullivan on Ireland and her dearly departed friends
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It took a catastrophic car accident for the singer and actress to leave a decorated career in archi...
Finding my dad, and myself — unravelling a family's secret
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lindsey Fidler’s quest to find her biological father started with jazz and an American Air Force ...
Encore: Let them ring — Paul Livingston on making a great big noise
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Paul is a musician, author and performer best known for his comedic alter-ego, Flacco. In recent ye...
Transforming trauma with Dr Gabor Maté
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The renowned physician discusses the role of trauma in our lives, showing up as addiction, chronic ...
My Moroccan matrescence
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Nadia Mahjouri travelled to Marrakech with her four-month-old baby to find her long lost fathe...
Gus Worland on the men who made him and Australia's male suicide epidemic
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two of the most important men to Gus Worland departed his life in shocking and unexpected ways. Gus...
Encore: Brigitte and the seven peaks
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brigitte Muir's dream to climb the seven highest mountains on each of the seven continents took muc...
David Whyte on writing poetry the world loves
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For poet David Whyte, the power of poetry lies in its unmatched ability to meditate and focus on wh...
Translating adolescence and speaking Teenage Girl
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Dannielle Miller became a teacher, she was given the classes no one else could handle. She was...
The Bark Petitions — how Yolngu tradition changed democracy
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Historian, Professor Clare Wright tells the story of a formative moment — before the Mabo decisio...
Encore: the life of songwriter Jimmy Webb
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb on how growing up as the child of an Oklahoma preacher opened up a doo...
Surviving bombs and starvation on a Mediterranean island paradise
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Linda Peek's mother Margaret died, Linda collected the scraps of handwritten notes strewn arou...
How tiny crystals reveal the secret history (and future) of volcanic eruptions
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Volcanologist Teresa Ubide opens volcanoes up from the outside, like a doll's house, searching for ...
Birtles, Brown and Bean: Warren's madcap world tour, in a vintage car
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Warren Brown drove through 80 countries in searing heat and pouring rain in a vintage Bean car to r...
Encore: The making of Nazeem Hussain
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nazeem Hussain honed his comedy in Melbourne's suburbs in the 1990s. After his father left the fami...
Drug bazaars, hitmen and hackers — why Eileen went deep into the dark web
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lawyer turned journalist Eileen Ormsby on her journey deeper and deeper into the internet's 'evil t...
The family secret that inspired 'The Teacher's Pet'
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Hedley Thomas grew up knowing that his grandmother Gladys had vanished in the sea off Sy...
Lucinda Light on MAFS, living with ADHD, and her search for love
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lucinda Light was running a speed dating company in Byron Bay when she auditioned for 'Married At F...
Encore: The Toilet Warrior's origin story
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Balla was on a business trip to India when he met two young men on a train. They invited him b...
The spy who kept secrets for the self-made man
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Belinda Probert knew her father as an English war hero named Bill. What she didn't know, was that h...
Dressing drag queens in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A chance find at age 14 at Flinders Street Station led Tim Chappel to a life of silver lamé, sequi...
Singing as 'sweet relief' — Meg Washington on stuttering, spirituality and song
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The musician reflects on the epic evolution of her singing from practical childhood speech therapy ...
Encore: From Yugoslavia to Australia — Jelena Dokic on tennis and the truth
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jelena Dokic on the trauma and violence which underscored her extraordinary life in tennis, and how...
How a teen father used the local skate park to change the world
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jayden Sheridan was just 17 years old when he found out he was going to be a father, and immediatel...
43 carolling magpies, CPR on a blue tongue lizard and Claire's animal ambulance
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The first sound Claire Smith heard when she landed in Australia from the UK was the carolling song ...
Bite Club: Surviving a shark attack, and the aftermath
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dave Pearson runs Bite Club, a support service for anyone who has survived a shark attack. Dave’s...
Voicing velociraptors and capturing the dawn chorus
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meet Doug Quin, sound designer and naturalist who makes field recordings all over the world. Hear w...