Conversations

Encore: the life of Norman Swan

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctorWhen Norman was 10 years old his dad decided to change th...

William McInnes' bittersweet summers — budgie smugglers, boardies and bumming around

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The author and actor thinks summer in Australia is done bigger, better and weirder than anywhere else. For three months of the year, life slows down ...

How living like a Stoic changed my life

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and author, Brigid Delaney looked into the ancient philosophy during an assignment from her editor. What she discovered led her to years o...

The Rajneeshees and me — why Martina thought she needed a guru to heal

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cult survivor and psychotherapist Dr Martina Zangger on her ten years devoted to an Indian mystic and how she learned to stand on her own two feet.Wh...

Encore: Helen Garner's love letter to her grandson, and football

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Helen Garner began following her grandson Amby's under-16s football team, it was a chance to spend more time with her youngest grandchild before...

The forgotten men who fought and died in the wild jungles of Borneo

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the very end of World War Two, Australian soldiers were sent to Borneo to dislodge the occupying Japanese Forces. The story of their brutal fighti...

Deciding to live—recovery from a decade long battle with anorexia

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While battling anorexia Lexi Crouch was admitted to hospital 25 times and placed in an induced coma twice, when doctors told her she would die she be...

Frosty the supercars legend and his race to the top of Mount Panorama

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Winterbottom grew up in outer Western Sydney, in a family with not much money to spend on expensive hobbies. But by an extraordinary twist of fa...

Encore: author Heather Rose on the grief lodged deep in her body

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Heather's brother and grandfather died in a tragic drowning accident when she was 12 and from that day, she began looking for a way to commune with ...

A former army psychologist on ketamine therapy, PTSD and her surrogate twins

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Louise O'Sullivan spent 10 years with the ADF, including deployments with the Special Forces in Afghanistan which eventually left her with PTSD, but ...

Dad, Bob Marley and me

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After the death of her father, a spiritual moment with the life-size wooden statue of Bob at Nine Mile convinced queer rapper, Jamaica Moana that eve...

How a pair of disobedient missionaries invented Australia's most iconic road trip

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of thousands of 'van lifers' and 'grey nomads' drive around Australia each year. But the iconic road trip has a surprising origin story involvin...

Encore: How Johnathan Thurston became one the greats

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being a stand-out young player, many NRL clubs initially rejected Johnathan Thurston because they thought he was too small and wiry but he we...

How Aunty Rhonda learnt to cry

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Artist, author and Stolen Generations survivor, Rhonda Collard-Spratt, on bush hugs, beehives, emu bumps, and finding peace.Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spra...

From democracy to dictatorship and back again—how freedom falls and tyranny takes hold

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr James Loxton on how modern democracies can crumble as authoritarian regimes take hold, but also how freedom and democracy can rise again, from the...

A bulldog on the ice -- Eric's journey from the South Pole to Outer Space

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Philips has always loved cold weather and from young age became fixated on the idea of polar exploration and following in the footsteps of the a...

Encore: Love, sex and the secret life of retirees

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Screenwriter Samantha Strauss on her grandmother's vibrant last years in a Gold Coast retirement home where love, sex and startlingly pragmatic conve...

Making peace and finding laughter in my family's dark past

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Reuben Kaye has always known he was going to be a performer and grew up a house that encouraged his love of the limelight.  But in the background wa...

Loving and losing three good men—the story of a ballerina called 'Blossom'

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Petal Ashmole Winstanley was just a teenager when she left Perth on her own to sail to London. There, in the swinging 1960s, she began her wild adven...

The conspiracy that brought down the Whitlam Government in the 1975 dismissal

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Editor-at-Large of The Australian, Paul Kelly looks back at the most profound crisis in Australia’s democracy, including the off-the-record informa...

Silverchair’s Ben Gillies on his life as a teenage rock god, and what happened next

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Ben Gillies was 15 he began touring around the world in his band called Silverchair. After the band broke up, Ben had to work through anxiety an...

Encore: Meet Ash Barty's mindset coach — Ben Crowe

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How does Ben Crowe get elite athletes to the top of their game? What he asks footballers, surfers and tennis players to do seems counter intuitive, a...

Uncovering the heart of my Nana’s saltwater stories

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bunurong/Boonwurrung actor and author, Tasma Walton was enjoying her big break on TV show Blue Heelers in the 1990s in Melbourne when a transformativ...

William Dalrymple's own curious history, from the Scottish coast to Mughal Delhi

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Historian William Dalrymple had a rarefied childhood on the windswept coast of Scotland. As an adult he fell in love with India, and later discovered...

The drama and the grit behind Michelle Payne's ride into Melbourne Cup history

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years ago, Michelle Payne became the first woman to win The Melbourne Cup but in the years since she's had to face many challenges, including a l...

Encore: The story of a wild, radical feminist socialist lesbian mum, and her son

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writer, Ianto Ware on growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide in a single-parent, single-child family, when such an experience was rare. (R)Ianto Ware ...

How Paris helped this aerospace engineer survive anorexia

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Reid inherited her love of Formula 1 from her dad. She put her heart and soul into qualifying for a job with the renowned racing team, Williams,...

The strange tale of the artist who stole 3000 butterflies

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Marsh with the surreal tale of Colin Wyatt, the ski champion, mountaineer, wartime camouflage expert, artist, and naturalist who committed one...

Why this humanitarian doctor swapped Byron Bay for a war zone and what happened next

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katie Treble grew up crying at about how all the king's horses and men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again. It was that compassion that made he...

Encore: Aaron Fa’Aoso on his mistakes, heartaches, and lucky breaks

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron was living on the tip of Cape York when he borrowed his uncle’s dinghy to make it to his first acting audition on nearby Thursday Island.He w...

‘Maximalist power queen’ Em Rusciano on the diagnoses that revealed her

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The singer, podcaster, writer and comedian on living big with neurodivergence, and owning her manic, creative energy.Growing up in Melbourne in the 1...

Telling the future and the past through the palm

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From fairground palmistry to the science of fingerprinting, historian Alison Bashford explores the secrets, history and psychology of the hand.Alison...

Cakes, Ottolenghi and the Fire Horse child

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Goh's life story began with a complicated childhood — and blossomed into one about culture, cake and the meaning of life.Helen was born in Ma...

Encore: Wendy Harmer on overcoming her fractured childhood

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Wendy Harmer has enjoyed huge success over four decades as a comedian, tv host and as a radio presenter.  A long way from her origins in country Vic...

Why these prisoners of war wished they never escaped 'from the bloody train'

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Historian and bookseller Edmund Goldrick on the hair-raising, forgotten tale of the escaped Australian prisoners of war who stumbled into another, hi...

QAnon, 15-minute cities and sovereign citizens: Plunging into the world of conspiracy theories

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Ariel Bogle takes us inside the rallies, homes, courtrooms, secret chat rooms and $2000 Byron Bay luxury retreats where Australia’s cons...

The Hollywood insider and the murder that changed his famous family

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Griffin Dunne's acting career was just taking off when his sister was brutally attacked by an ex-boyfriend, and the outcome of the infamous murder tr...

Encore: Ben Lee, the chutzpah mystic, Bondi rock prodigy, Noise Addict

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Lee on life as a teen rock prodigy, Hollywood fame, living in an Ashram in India, and exploring his subconscious through ayahuasca, a hallucinoge...

How a heroine of Singapore survived jail and torture in WWII

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Tom Trumble tells the story of the cunning World War II Australian sabotage mission known as Operation Jaywick, and how two survivors outsm...

The unlikely outback publican of the 'Taj Mahal of the Warrego’

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fran Harding was a stay-at-home mother of eight children when her pharmacist husband came home one night with the news that the family were moving to...

Journeying to the Hadal Zone in a two-man submarine

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Todd Bond is marine ecologist who goes where very few humans have ever been: the underworld, or the deep ocean. There, he studies the strange, sca...

Remembering Dr Jane Goodall's science and her humanity

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Goodall, the renowned conservationist and pioneer of groundbreaking chimpanzee field research, has died of natural causes at the age of 91.Jane ...

Why you should empower your children to know their human rights

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lawyer Paula Gerber on the human rights of the most endangered group of people in any community - its children. They are open to the most predatory ...

The Wiggles, Red Nose Day and baby Bernadette

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Musician Paul Field on grieving the death of his baby girl, Bernadette, and how she inspired his family band, The Wiggles, to bring joy into the live...

When my parachute failed: How I survived a fall from 15,000 feet

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Brad Guy went skydiving in his early 20s, his whole family was there to watch.  But when Brad jumped out of the plane strapped to his instructo...

Encore: Psychotherapist Philippa Perry says yes to feelings

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Phillipa Perry grew in England and as a teenager went to a finishing school in Switzerland where she learnt to ski and speak in a posh accent.  But ...

What caring for the dying taught Bronnie Ware about living

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bronnie Ware was recovering from burnout when she wrote a blog post reflecting on years working as a palliative carer and the epiphanies patients sha...

My father Bryce Courtenay: the charming, charismatic, compulsive liar

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

To Australia he was a genius adman and best-selling author but behind closed doors Bryce Courtenay was a deeply flawed husband and father. His son, A...

How this journalist took on a war criminal and won

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, journalist Nick McKenzie heard rumours of executions and cover-ups inside Australia’s most elite military unit. For the next eight years, ...

Encore: Paralympian Christie Dawes is super/normal

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Christie took up wheelchair racing as a child as part of her rehab after a car crash left her with paraplegia.  Sometimes dangerous and always thril...

How I went from being a pregnant, homeless teenager to running a BHP mining merger

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Parkinson is the daughter of a long-distance lorry driver and her first job was cleaning the urinals at her local Suffolk factory. A stint as ...

265 days alone at sea — the young boat builder who rowed across the Pacific

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Robinson was a 14-year-old living in the Brisbane suburbs when he made a promise to himself to become the youngest person ever to row across the ...

The secret lives of diplomats: surviving 'bomb season' in Jakarta

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Diplomat Grant Dooley was inside the Australian Embassy building in Indonesia when a bomb went off, killing several people. This was just the beginni...

Conversations Live podcast extra: Mel Buttle

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the now complete Conversations Live Tour, Brisbane edition.Comedian, Mel Buttle was one ...

Encore: Candice Fox—How to raise a crime writer

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a child, Candice Fox knew her family wasn't what most people would consider normal.  Their Christmas included lunch at Long Bay jail, where her f...

When Dr Tottman had to run towards her life

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Charlotte Tottman is a clinical psychologist who specialises in supporting cancer patients. Both her parents had died young from different cancers...

Life after menopause, divorce and loss—How this mountaineer started all over again

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A few years ago, after a series of crisis after crisis after crisis, Allie Pepper thought she would have to give up high-altitude mountain climbing. ...

Why Dr Ranjana Srivastava tells the whole truth about cancer

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Doctors often use euphemisms to dance around the 'C' word. But for oncologist Dr Ranjana Srivastava, how you talk to someone with cancer goes beyond ...

Encore: Danny Estrin's Eurovision glory and the bittersweet aftermath

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Voyager frontman Danny Estrin on his unconventional path from heavy metal to law and on to the Eurovision grand final (R).Danny Estrin is one of the ...

Kathleen Folbigg tells the story of her fight for freedom

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kathleen Folbigg was locked up in prison for decades, wrongly convicted of the deaths of her four children. For years, her childhood friend Tracy was...

How Alan 'the shit magnet' Playford helped revolutionise Australia's ambulance services

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When you call for an ambulance these days, chances are the officers inside will save a life. But 40 years ago, 80 per cent of Alan Playford's passeng...

Why I wrote a musical for my cheeky, charismatic, Persian mum

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years ago, Sydney-based artist HOSSEI took a step back from the art world to care for his sick mother. The more time they spent together, the mor...

20th Anniversary Collection: Alan Alda on bringing science to acting

30 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hollywood actor Alan Alda has devoted his life to science, by taking his acting and communication skills off the screen and into the laboratory. Alan...

20th Anniversary Collection: The male midwife working in Arnhem Land

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up south of Sydney as one of six boys, midwifery wasn't the occupation Christian Wright expected for himself. At the age of nine, he experien...

20th Anniversary Collection: Writing hit songs for Blondie, Tina Turner and Suzi Quatro

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Music was always in Mike Chapman’s blood. As a boy, he collected bottles at the Brisbane showgrounds and traded them for money, which he saved to b...

20th Anniversary Collection: Surviving PTSD as an Iraq War correspondent

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Ware witnessed some of the most violent battles in Baghdad; and was kidnapped three times.He was one of the few Western journalists to live f...

20th Anniversary Collection: A Tanzanian love story

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After a dream job as a nanny in Notting Hill, a young Donna Duggan was first lured to Africa by the charms of Zanzibar. She soon fell deeply in love ...

20th Anniversary Collection: The barber who helps boys become good men

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Lomu's gentle and religious life in Tonga with his grandparents showed him the meaning of love. He was on track to being a young, in-demand R...

20th Anniversary Collection: The seaweed scientist who survived being scalped

24 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Marine ecologist, Pia Winberg learned how useful seaweed could be for gut health and wound healing. One day she was conducting research by herself in...

Conversations Live podcast extra: Mandy Nolan and Wesley Enoch

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Brisbane edition.Writer and comedian, Mandy Nolan and Chair...

20th Anniversary Collection: Mic's way out of the woods

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Deeply ashamed of something he had done, Mic Whitty retreated into the Welsh wilderness until an unexpected goal pulled him out of homelessness and b...

20th Anniversary Collection: Tommy Caldwell — born to climb The Dawn Wall

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tommy Caldwell grew up exploring Yosemite, looking up at El Capitan's punishing 3000ft sheer rock face. After years of training, he was ready to clim...

20th Anniversary Collection: Vickie Roach's turbulent life in and out of strife

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vickie's police record began when she was just 2 years old, and followed her throughout her life. But as an adult she pushed back, challenging a fede...

20th Anniversary Collection: Born blind at the right time

17 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Law Professor Ron McCallum was a premature baby in the 1940s. He completed his studies by recording people reading his textbooks aloud onto cassettes...

20th Anniversary Collection: Brolga the 'kangaroo mum'

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Aged 17, Chris 'Brolga' Barns was meant to be the 'bird guy' at a new zoo in Broome. A cough in his keeper's house alerted him to a kangaroo joey cal...

20th Anniversary Collection: Stan Grant on what his father taught him

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The veteran Wiradjuri journalist spent his first year living in the wreck of a Model T Ford on a NSW mission. He has reported from China and North Ko...

Conversations Live podcast extra: Bruce McAvaney

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Adelaide edition.Legendary sports broadcaster, Bruce McAvan...

Conversations Live podcast extra: Gill Hicks

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Adelaide edition.London Bombing survivor, Gill Hicks was on...

20th Anniversary Collection: Surviving my dad's arrest and learning to thrive

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Longtime TV casting agent, Kirsty de Vallance was 16 when Police searched the house and arrested her father on serious drugs charges. Throughout her ...

20th Anniversary Collection: The comic genius of Jennifer Saunders

10 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The co-creator of Absolutely Fabulous says her remarkable career as one of the world's funniest women is all down to a series of happy accidents. Wh...

20th Anniversary Collection: Judy Sharp and the remarkable rise of Laser Beak Man

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Judy Sharp was told by doctors that her son would never communicate or learn to love, she refused to believe it and set about to secure a brilli...

20th Anniversary Collection: How power and fear play out in the dentist's chair

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sharonne Zaks is not your average dentist. After treating a patient named Anna, Sharonne saw the power relationship with her patients differently. Sh...

20th Anniversary Collection: A lion named Christian, and the men who loved him

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the swinging '60s, Anthony 'Ace' Bourke and John Rendall bought a lion cub from a luxury department store. They eventually released him to his nat...

20th Anniversary Collection: Bryan Brown’s ticket from Bankstown to Palm Beach

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bryan Brown has played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have ...

20th Anniversary Collection: the story of the unwitting woman behind cell research and 'immortality'

03 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Henrietta Lacks was the first human being that we know of to get close enough to 'immortality' to touch it. She died more than 50 years ago but her c...

Wild — Story Collection

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Adventurous spirits take us way out into the world's wild places — stories from across 20 years of Conversations. Travel high in the mountains wit...

Teachers — Story Collection

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Memories, motivation and life lessons from those at the front of the classroom - stories from across 20 years of Conversations.Teachers share storie...

Digging Up Mum and Dad — Story Compilation

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The secret lives of parents — stories from across 20 years of Conversations.Espionage, Hollywood scandal, a second family, daring wartime missions...

A Feast of Cooks — Story Collection

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our chefs and cooks and the food that made them — stories from across 20 years of Conversations.Unforgettable sensory moments from childhood are b...

Maximum McInnes

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A collection of some of the best moments from actor and writer William McInnes — celebrating 20 years of Conversations. The voice of actor William...

Shipwrecked and alone: surviving the Blythe Star

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At 18 years old, Mick Doleman miraculously survived when his ship capsized in the freezing Southern Ocean off Tasmania. But as he floated in a life r...

Crushing on Aladdin and Nigella Lawson — how Daniel learnt to love himself

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and journalist Daniel Nour on the pressures of his vivacious Egyptian-Australian family, and 'inviting people in' instead of 'coming out'.Dani...

The walking nun — Sister Clare Nolan on entering the convent and saving lives

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sister Clare Nolan was the head of nursing at St Vincent's Hospital when the HIV/AIDS epidemic reached Australia. She met with politicians, brothel w...

Encore: What does a 'disaster specialist' actually do and how do they survive?

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When there's a plane crash, a bomb blast, a flood or a pandemic, Lucy Easthope's phone starts ringing. This is how she stays cheerful and trusts her ...

Miss Australia, gangland girlfriend, counsellor and criminal: Felicia Djamirze's story

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Felicia Djamirze grew up in the criminal underworld, then became a beauty queen. But her life outside the pageant circuit was mired in the world of d...

A Dad's mission to save his daughter, and conquer cancer

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Dun left school at 17 to join the Australian navy as a submariner and later finished his high school certificate as an adult attending TAFE at n...

Teaching Nina Simone how to love me: a daughter's story

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Singer Lisa Simone is the only person in the world who can call Nina Simone 'mommy'. Lisa was the beneficiary of Nina's incredible talent and her aff...

Encore: The secret world of servos after dark

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David Goodwin spent years working the graveyard shift at his local service station in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. The grungy work quickly took ov...

Dr Rangan Chatterjee on health and healing in a hectic world

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a boy, Dr Rangan Chatterjee saw his dad work day and night as a doctor before succumbing to an auto-immune disease. After his father's death in 20...

The hidden corners of Emma's Hong Kong — fishing villages, beaches and ancestral graveyards

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Novelist Emma Pei Yin ran away from Hong Kong as a teenager to start fresh in Australia. But she found herself repeatedly drawn back home whenever sh...