Conversations
Episodes
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)
The life of Space Gandalf
21 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Amateur astronomer Greg Quicke was working in Northern Australia, sleeping under the stars in a swag when he bought a second-hand telescope
Janis Joplin, Quentin Crisp and my Maltese grandmother: Paul Capsis
18 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How three cultures shaped one of our great performing artists
How the state of your nation begins in your street
17 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Social researcher Hugh Mackay has some ideas for a more compassionate and socially cohesive Australia
Hillary Rodham Clinton and the impossible defeat
16 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Reflections on a failed campaign to become America’s first female President
Stephen Davis: life as an international peace negotiator
15 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, Stephen Davis went on a rescue mission to northern Nigeria to save the Chibok girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram (R)
Shaking up the power structure: Jeremy Heimans
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Heimans was one of the founders of GetUp in 2005. Since then he's been at the forefront of the online movement for social change
Yes, Senator: behind the scenes of the Australian Senate
11 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Rosemary Laing was Clerk of the Senate for seven years
On the trail of Candidate Trump: journalist Katy Tur
10 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Katy was described by Donald Trump as disgraceful, a liar, and 'third-rate' during her coverage of his successful Presidential campaign
The search for the turquoise-blooded frog
09 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Biologist Jodi Rowley has identified 26 new species of frogs in South-East Asia and Australia
The evolution of Poh Ling Yeow from Painter to Masterchef
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How a shy Mormon girl named Sharon became Poh Ling Yeow. Sharon Ling Yeow grew up in Malaysia, and moved to Adelaide with her parents at the age of 9...
Growing up in the shadow of Long Bay
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up next door to some of Australia's most notorious criminals shaped Patrick Kennedy's family
Richard Lloyd Parry: encounters with Japan's ghosts
04 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the 2011 earthquake that triggered multiple disasters in Japan, and took many thousands of lives
The weed forager's cure
03 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Annie Raser-Rowland's adventurous life as a weed forager and free thinker
Tara Westover's escape from ignorance
02 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Raised in rural Idaho in an extremist Mormon family who forbade her to attend school, Tara studied in secret, and made her way to university
The life of Masha Gessen
01 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Masha Gessen on growing up Jewish in the Soviet Union, and her two remarkable grandmothers
How haemophilia shaped a family
30 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Eddy became an expert on rare bleeding diseases after his son Lachie was born with haemophilia
Liz Ellis on infertility, netball, and other love stories
27 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Liz's life before and after netball; and what she had to unlearn to have a baby boy after facing secondary infertility
Robert Fisk: life as a war correspondent
26 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Fisk has spent his career reporting from war zones, and he's one of the few Western journalists who met Osama Bin Laden in person (R)
The rise of Kerry Tucker
24 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kerry Tucker rewrote her life story from inside maximum security
Fishing in Eden
23 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Historian and angler Anna Clark on the story of fishing in Australia (R)
How to fly a hovercraft
20 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Venn's imagination was captured by the simple physics of the hovercraft. He turned flying them into a business, but the unusual vehicles still ...
The strange honeycomb houses of Çatalhöyük
19 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Archaeologist Serena Love on climbing into history in one of the first villages on earth, where the locals lived with de-skulled bodies buried in the...
What Clare did next: a survivor's story
18 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Stockbroker Clare Keenan has worked in places ranging from a New Zealand prison, to a covert Jordanian broadcaster. She trusts her fierce survival in...
How Australia's first female detective took on Sydney's razor gangs
17 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Leigh Straw tells the story of Lillian Armfield, arch enemy of serial criminals Tilly Devine, Kate Leigh et al
The mission of a flying midwife
16 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jan Becker on her work saving the lives of newborn babies in Sub-Saharan Africa, in 'the golden minute' after birth (R)
Midnight Oil's Rob Hirst
13 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Chasing the back beat and adventures in wide open spaces, Rob remains essentially the same as the boy he was
Pleasures and pain: tales from the piano
12 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Virginia Lloyd's talent for the piano shaped her early life
The delicate and deadly world of jellyfish: from Bazinga to Shiraz
11 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Lisa-Ann Gershwin is among the world's foremost jellyfish biologists (R)
The poetry of the trenches
10 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Neil James on the Australian soldiers sent to WWI with spurs, a clasp knife and two books of verse
Vasily Sukhomlinsky: educating the heart, head and hands
09 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Alan Cockerill explains the revolutionary philosophy of educator Vasily Sukhomlinsky (R)
Adrian Mole and the Shropshire postman
06 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Young Robert Lukins modelled himself on the fictional character Adrian Mole, a prodigious reader and writer
What the whales know: how humpbacks thrive in Australian waters
05 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Marine biologist Micheline Jenner has lived at sea, researching humpbacks, for thirty years
Lessons from the end of a marriage
04 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When James Jeffrey's parents split up, his life took on a seismic instability
Revealing the scars: the life of Kate Mulvany
03 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Mulvany has used tragic events in her own life as creative fuel to write more than 25 plays
Danielle Clode and Marian Rankine
29 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Zoologist Danielle Clode and the story of Australian naturalist, Edith Coleman.Marion Rankine on the history of umbrellas.
The murder of Mollie Dean
28 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon Haigh returns with the story of a shocking crime from bohemian 1930s Melbourne
Geoffrey Robertson's fear of the dull
27 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Geoffrey's sense of social justice saw him become a barrister at the Old Bailey, then a champion for human rights
Kitty Flanagan's unlikely path to comedy
26 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kitty Flanagan has woven together a series of true stories from her life including being locked in a crayfish freezer for talking too much
Urzila Carlson: a life without regrets
23 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A group of work colleagues cajoled Urzila into performing live on stage for the first time, and kickstarted her unexpected career in comedy
Watching the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope
22 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
NASA astronomer Jennifer Wiseman on exploring the design of the universe
The story of Sydney's ferries
21 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After a boyhood spent riding the ferries, John Darroch devoted his life to recording their stories
Untangling the physics of String Theory
20 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Green explains how the universe is made of strings, vibrating in 11 dimensions (R)
The crime-soaked history of Melbourne's Dockyards
19 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jack the Insider tells how a union became an elaborate front for murders, standover rackets, drug syndicates and armed robbery
Alexander McCall Smith: before and after The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
16 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A wide-ranging conversation about the landscapes, physical and imaginary, which inspire one of the world's most prolific authors
Nags, glad rags and the hoi polloi
15 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Craig Sherborne's childhood was shaped by the social aspirations of his parents
Jordan Peterson's rules for life
14 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2016, psychologist Jordan Peterson unexpectedly became one of the world's most influential thinkers
Surviving a plane crash in Burma
13 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Circumstances around the plane crash Anna Bartsch and her partner survived in 2012 have become increasingly suspicious
An Australian firefighter's 9/11 story
12 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Wallace flew from Western Australia to New York city, to help the exhausted firefighters of Ladder 24 in mid-town Manhattan
Hunting the deadly coastal taipan
09 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Brendan James Murray on the elusive copper-coloured snake species which terrorised post WWII North Queensland
An extreme treatment for depression
08 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Elliot was working as a psychologist when she became so ill she was held in a locked psychiatric ward
On love: Mandy Len Catron
07 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can 36 questions lead you to fall in love with a stranger?
Father Lockwood's rebel daughter
06 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Patricia Lockwood's grew up as the daughter of one of America's few married Catholic priests
Cornish pasties and powerhouse boys: a love song to Moonta
05 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kristin Weidenbach on her father's early life in a Methodist-run mining town in South Australia
Nigeria to New York: travelling with Teju Cole
02 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The photographer, author and art critic on his work and life across cultures
God, war and weapons of peace
01 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the midst of training to become a priest, Sarah Sentilles gave up God
Vasilisa the Wise and the witch Baba Yaga
28 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Forsyth explores a classic Russian folk tale and delves into the romantic life of the Brothers Grimm
The mystery of broken-hearted syndrome
27 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp reveals how emotional shock can be fatal
The singular quest of Kyung Ae
26 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Bell's Korean birth mother spent years searching for her son in America. Then she discovered an AFL star living in Perth
Dave Graney and the art of the bludge
23 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A hard working musician explains how he's stayed on the road
After the tsunami: using DNA to return names to the missing
22 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Forensic biologist Kirsty Wright spent five months in Phuket, Thailand, leading a DNA team to identify victims of the Boxing Day Tsunami
How the First Fleet piano was lost and found
21 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's first piano disappeared for more than a century. Then pianist and conductor Geoffrey Lancaster launched his own rescue mission
Showman Fred Brophy's life inside the boxing tent
20 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Raised by a side-show operator and a trapeze artist, Fred is now the last boxing tent showman in the world (R)
Tales from the 'backies' of Dundee
19 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, Gary Todd testified against his father in court to save his mother's life
The daring and scandalous life of British double agent ‘Celery’
16 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
By uncovering the complicated history of her grandfather, Carolinda Witt also gained a sizeable extended family
Christine Milne: a quiet revolutionary
15 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Christine Milne was a teacher in north-west Tasmania when she joined a campaign against a pulp mill in the town of Wesley Vale. The campaign changed ...
Bringing the dead back home
14 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jenny Briscoe-Hough is helping Port Kembla locals take back control at the end of life
Family jail sentence: the ripple effect of losing a parent to prison
13 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dennis Van Someren draws on his own story to help others rise above the grief of a parent being jailed
Lale Sokolov, the tattooist of Auschwitz
12 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Author Heather Morris on the Slovakian Jew who became the tattooist for Auschwitz-Birkenau
Royal Navy Helicopter rescue pilot Jerry Grayson
09 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jerry recounts some of the many rescues which led to him becoming the Royal Navy's most decorated peacetime pilot (R)
The story of the Devil
08 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Almond explains the origins of the Devil and unravels the influence of the concept on Western society
A sizzle in the brain changed Lavinia Codd's life
07 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After a stroke at age 31, Lavinia Codd lost part of her memory, and half her vision. She then became fascinated by her brain’s ability to regenerat...
Prepping for the apocalypse: bunkers, bullets and billionaires
06 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bradley Garrett explores ‘doomsday prepping’, a multi-billion dollar industry driven by dread
Bill Bailey: seriously funny amateur naturalist
05 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Bailey's passion for twitching began as boy growing up in England's west country
The unlikely star of the Sydney Harbour Bridge opening ceremony
02 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Lalor tells the story of 9 year old Lennie Gwyther's 1000km horseback ride to see the grand opening
Colin Hay's real life
01 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Men At Work frontman and solo artist reflects on his life in music
The cancer moonshot: unlocking genetic weapons to defeat cancer
31 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Miles Prince explains how science and technology are joining forces with the human immune system to beat cancer
Facebook and the last days of reality: futurist Mark Pesce
30 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Is our increasing immersion in the online world affecting our ability to distinguish between what's real and what's not?
The secret history of the native hibiscus
29 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Botanist and D'harawal elder Fran Bodkin uses western science to explain up to 80,000 years of Indigenous plant knowledge
Best of 2017: Candice Fox
15 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How to raise a bestselling crime writer (R)
Best of 2017: David George Haskell
14 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Listening to trees, nature's magnificent networkers (R)
Best of 2017: Michael Adams
13 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Learning to freedive helped one man explore life and death (R)
Best of 2017: Mary-Rose MacColl
12 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mary-Rose MacColl on betrayal, motherhood and letting go of secrets (R)
Best of 2017: Daniel Kish
11 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Kish uses a self-initiated sonar, called echolocation, to navigate the world as a blind person (R)
Best of 2017: Jimmy Webb
08 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Being raised as the son of an Oklahoma preacher inspired the American Songbook of this prolific singer-songwriter (R)
Graham Long and the 'quantum of compassion'
07 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Wild funerals, and staff who jump the counter: a day in the life of Graham Long and the Wayside Chapel
Turning to Beijing: Australia's future in the new Asia
06 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Hugh White says Australia faces a choice between the power keeping us safe, and the one making us rich
Wild and full of longing: Australia's definitive pop anthems
05 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From Johnny O'Keefe to Sia, via AC/DC — Andrew P. Street counts down Australia's greatest pop songs
The struggle and the strife behind Steven Bradbury's race to Salt Lake City
04 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's best-known Olympic skater nearly died on the ice when he was 20. Eight years later, he won history's most unexpected gold medal
Horses: a story collection
01 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Colin Friels, Zelie Bullen, Pip Courtney, and drover Bruce Simpson on their deep love of horses (R)
Love and family and Asperger's: Tony Attwood
30 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Tony draws on decades of clinical experience to help couples and individuals navigate dating and love with Asperger's
For better and for worse: becoming my wife’s carer
29 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How Bob and Jo’s married life changed course when Jo needed full-time care
The man behind the legend of 'Eternity'
28 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Roy Williams tells the story of Arthur Stace, who for decades rose before dawn to write a one-word sermon, in chalk on the footpaths of Sydney.
The morality of robots: Genevieve Bell's predictions for the future of AI
27 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Genevieve had never imagined a life in technology, until a chance meeting in a bar in Palo Alto
Reinventing Susan: a study in survival
24 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How high-flyer Susan Duncan completely remade her life after a series of losses (R)
Helen Garner at 75: still asking, what powers the human heart?
23 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A master storyteller reflects on stories she’s witnessed and crafted for the page
Nelson Mandela's archivist and the failings of South Africa
22 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Verne Harris on post-Apartheid South Africa, and life lessons from Madiba
Fabulous Ada Delroy: serpentine dancer and vaudevillian
21 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Cartoonist and author Kaz Cooke traces the dramatic life of a singular woman
Kevin Sheedy's fifty years in AFL
20 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A true champion of the game reflects on opening up the AFL, and his dream to sell it to the world
Bernard Fanning's Brisbane
17 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A suburban Brisbane childhood, a particularly determined nun and the Beatles all shaped Bernard Fanning's music