Conversations

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 over-35s soccer game. The tragedy inspired him to...

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 determination, survival, and the limits of the human...

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 than her accomplishments. From 'the flying univers...

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 non-human? And is it even possible? Neuroscientist D...

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 head to head with corrupt police, heroin addicts and ...

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 Afghanistan, in the dining room of their 'accidenta...

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 unexpected way.In 2019, Australian writer Geraldine Br...

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 architecture and focus on her artistic ambitions, inclu...

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 Base. It ended with a trip to the U.S. through a d...

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 years he's joined an eclectic band of people who rin...

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 disease and mental illness — and how recognising...

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 father, she also underwent the process of matrescence ...

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' grief led him to dig deeper into what it means t...

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 much longer and cost her more than she expected, but ...

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 what's right in front of us -- whether it's a mounta...

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 given a whistle on her first day, to call for hel...

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 decision — in Australia’s democracy that you may not ...

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 door to music, and inspired his songwriting (R)Jimmy ...

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 around the home and put together Margaret's remarkable...

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 tiny crystal balls to help her predict when the ne...

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 recreate the 1927 world tour of Australian motorist...

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 family, his fearless mother taught Nazeem how to use h...

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 twin', where, under the cloak of anonymity, people ...

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 Sydney in the 1950s when she was just 35 years old. ...

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 First Sight'. While on the show, she became a huge ...

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 back to see their home, one of the world's biggest ...

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 he was born Roy and that his spying did not end whe...

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, sequins, girdles, and an Oscar. Costume designer, Tim ...

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 to sacred musical fluency.Meg Washington was born ...

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 she worked to change her own story(CW: discussion...

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 immediately he knew he needed to give his son better opportu...

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 of a nearby magpie. That was enough to make her fa...

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 own brush with death came in 2011, when a three-m...

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 what Doug heard when he got up close to emperor pen...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Shanelle Dawson

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. In 2018, Shanelle Dawson's fam...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Tony Bull

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. Tony spent three decades in an...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Sue Ellen Kusher

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. Sue Ellen Kusher’s father wa...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — John Prine

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. A songwriter's songwriter, Joh...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Peter Lalor

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. Peter Lalor tells the story of...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Ken Faulkner

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. People travel from all over th...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Gisela Kaplan

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. Gisela Kaplan fell under the s...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Robyn Davidson

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. Robyn Davidson on her adventur...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Archie Roach

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. Archie tells of writing Took t...

Sarah's Most Memorable Guests — Brendan James Murray

05 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Sarah's most memorable guests through out the years. Brendan James Murray tells the...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Peter Hoysted

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. This time it's Peter Hoysted....

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Gill Hicks

01 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. Gill Hicks lost both her leg...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Ross Gittins

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. Ross Gittins is one of Austr...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Gregory Smith

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. After a cruel and abusive ch...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Uncle Jack Charles

29 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. Uncle Jack was forcibly remo...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Sandy MacKinnon

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. When Sandy Mackinnon set of ...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Elizabeth Chong

25 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years.Elizabeth Chong has spent the ...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — William McInnes

24 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years.William McInnes is a much-love...

Richard's Most Memorable Guests — Shaun Christie David

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years.Shaun Christie David grew up e...

Richard's Most Memorable Conversations — Magda Szubanski

22 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat - a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. This time it's Magda Szubanski....

Best of 2024 — Bhawani O'Brien

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.The child of doctors, Bhawani followed h...

Best of 2024 — Ruth Shaw

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Ruth Shaw runs a collection of three tin...

Best of 2024 — Ken Wyatt

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Ken Wyatt was the first Indigenous minis...

Best of 2024 — Kasey Chambers

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Kasey Chambers grew up surrounded by cou...

Best of 2024 — Candice Fox

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Candice Fox is one of the world's most s...

Best of 2024 — Gideon Haigh

15 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gideon Haigh is a prolific author, but it took him decades to write down the story closest to his heart — the life and tragic death of his brother,...

Best of 2024 — Pauline McGrath

14 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Pauline McGrath's life changed forever w...

Best of 2024 — Rafael Bonachela

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.At the make or break moment of his chore...

Best of 2024 — Anita Heiss

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Anita Heiss is a Wiradjuri woman and a p...

Best of 2024 — Jack Beaumont

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Jack Beaumont (not his real name) grew u...

Best of 2024 — Rebecca Huntley

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Rebecca Huntley spent 50 years trying to...

Best of 2024 — Troy Cassar-Daley

08 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.Troy Cassar-Daley is one of Australia's ...

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

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When writer Helen Garner began following her grandson’s under-16s football team, she gained a new appreciation for 'the ordinary beauty of human so...

Cyclone Tracy 50 years on — the epic survival stories of a cub reporter and a woman in the navy

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Finance journalist Alan Kohler and Patricia Collins, who had just joined the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service, recall their vivid memories from...

Love, jail, Jesus, and pubs — a tangled tale of four very different parents

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lech Blaine with the strange true story of his childhood, shaped by love, religious zealotry, and four wildly different parents. CW: descriptions of ...

Professor Richard Scolyer — Melanoma expert turned brain cancer patient

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Richard's team developed pioneering treatment for melanoma, he didn't expect he would become the first person in the world to use this experimen...

Antarctica, Kiribati and outback Australia — the adventures of a GP doctor

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Dr Gillian Deakin became a GP, she knew she didn’t want to work behind a desk. Instead, she travelled overseas to make a difference. More rece...

Jonathan Haidt on 'attention fracking' and how to stop tech companies from stealing your child's focus

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt says it is time to reinstate the play-based childhood to bring our kids back from life online and into the real wo...

The secrets in the stars — what we can learn about habitable planets, alien life and ourselves

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Laura Driessen takes you 26,000 light-years away, into the centre of our galaxy and beyond in the search for radio stars, supermassive black holes...

Alice Zaslavsky's hunger for life

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Masterchef graduate and cookbook author grew up in Georgia as the Soviet Union was crumbling, gorging on plums in her grandfather's garden. Durin...

Pip Williams — from dyslexia to the Dictionary of Lost Words

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pip Williams was diagnosed with dyslexia as a teenager. She grew up to write a novel inspired by the history of the Oxford Dictionary, which soon bec...

Jon Ronson on psychopaths, sociopaths and how to spot them

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The journalist delves into the history of experimental psychopathy treatment in Canada, which included mass, nude LSD trips.Years ago,  journalist J...

Heroin, Ivan Milat, rehab and redemption — the incredible life of Claude Robinson

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For years Claude Robinson was doing crime to fund his heroin addiction. He was eventually locked up with murderers in Goulburn Prison, where he share...

Darren Hayes on the bruising truth behind his Savage Garden stardom

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During the height of his fame as one half of Savage Garden, Darren Hayes struggled to reconcile what he'd lived through as a child growing up in Loga...

Alice Roberts on the skeletons' secrets

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Alice Roberts examines the bones of those who died between five and ten centuries ago, solving the mysteries of how they lived and died.Pro...

Cows on a plane — an epic journey from Tullamarine to Chennai

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Paul McVerry is an experienced cattleman and a stud breeder, who had a wild vision to fly a gift of cattle to India with the help of winemaker Dan Mu...

From Jaipur with love — building a romantic life in Australia

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Screenwriter, Mithila Gupta thought her life would mimic her beloved Bollywood films — full of swooning and drama. But something was stuck, and she...

The magic of metallurgy — inside the ancient trade of blacksmithing

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Mewburn, one of Australia's last blacksmiths, takes you inside the "iron cathedral", where blacksmithing is still very much alive.Matt didn't gr...

'It was meant to be me' — the teenage TV star who feels 'lucky to be paraplegic'

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Louise Philip had just scored her breakout role on Australian television, in Bellbird, when a horrific car crash threatened to derail the life she wa...

Exploring death and grief with heart and healing

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a forensic counsellor and then a grief counsellor, Wendy Liu has spent many years right up close to death. Her work with people who are processing...

How a macabre country childhood spawned a best-selling dressmaker’s tale

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Author Rosalie Ham grew up in a country town three blocks long and three blocks wide. She paid close attention to the characters there, like the woma...

The epic mystery of a female pope and the birth that was her undoing

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Emily Maguire on losing her own faith, but finding awe and inspiration in a controversial myth about a female pontiff who some people believe ...

From Yugoslavia to Australia — Jelena Dokic on tennis and the truth

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jelena Dokic overcame adversity, poverty and violence to rise to the top of the tennis world. Years later, her revelations about her father's abuse s...

Journey inside Africa's cave of Great Apes to upend your understanding of the human origin story

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lee Berger, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and real-life Indiana Jones with tales of his hominid discoveries, many of which have rewritten...

Why Andrew sets the table under the stars in the Australian Outback

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As Andrew Dwyer ventured further into the desert, he fell in love with the people and the landscape. He battled sandstorms, floods and isolation to s...

Byron Bay, reality TV and Shane Warne's bowel movements — why Akmal Saleh hates the jungle

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An impulse decision to buy a home in the rainforest results in a comedy of errors involving a python in the roof, an unexpected tax bill, two reality...

From the Commonwealth Games to Everest and the Channel swim — Gerrard doesn’t need to see to believe

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Athlete Gerrard Gosens didn't realise he was blind until his first day at primary school. His adventurous spirit led him to become a three time Paral...

What Jack Reacher did next — Lee Child on our favourite lone wolf

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How a Birmingham boy became best-selling thriller writer, Lee Child, and the creator of one of the literary world's most popular loners. (R)James Gra...

The Indigenous psychologist doing things differently - From the Pilbara to Perth and beyond

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Tracy Westerman grew up in the Pilbara, where suicide and mental health issues have deeply scarred Indigenous communities. So this Nyamal woman de...

How a famous, broken bible changed the story of a family

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Visontay with the true tale of how fragments of a rare Gutenberg Bible were sold off, leaf by leaf, in New York in the 1920s, and how the sal...

From Bankstown to the Barossa: the story of Maggie Beer

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Legendary cook, author, food producer and educator Maggie Beer had a circuitous path to the food world, which began when she left school at 14. (R)Le...

Panic attacks, pride, the navy, and Nate Byrne

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2024 Nate Byrne went from presenting the weather to making the news when he acknowledged live on air that he was experiencing a panic attack. Keep...

A life-changing quince, backyard butchery, and ethical food obsession

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Chef Ben Shewry grew up on a farm in New Zealand where his family grew or hunted most of their own food.Ben was 10 when he started working in restaur...

Lee Miller: surrealist photographer, war correspondent, and gourmet chef

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Antony Penrose grew up knowing little about his remarkable mother Lee Miller, who had studied with Man Ray in Paris, and become a model, a photograph...

Helping people die on their own terms — why Bhawani became a VAD practitioner

22 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bhawani O'Brien's first name means "giver of life" in Tamil, which is ironic she says, because one of the greatest privileges of her life has been he...

Kanye and me — why John Safran squatted in Ye's Hollyweird mansion

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Australian Gonzo author and documentary filmmaker John Safran has made a career out of getting into places he probably shouldn't be. He put his sanit...