Conversations

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 Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman hanged in Iceland...

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 to turn his life around for good. (CW: description...

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 navigating your 20s, and looking back on that decade with a...

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 joke and as a Tongan Australian the stereotype made h...

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 her son who gave the first clue, when he stopped br...

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, when as a child he met the county’s solitary, fri...

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 inventory of his entire life. CW: traumatic childbi...

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 his name. When Max and his little brother Freddy we...

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 private struggles from the world.Behind closed doors, ...

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. Despite practical jokes from her male colleagues, ...

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 Muswellbrook, before she grew up to become a hip-hop...

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 been training them for film, television and the stag...

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 an unknown sailor from World War II. Using the be...

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 Malaysia when she was a 25-year-old widow with three chil...

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 Himalayas. As an engineer and tunnel expert, he was uniqu...

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. But for reasons beyond her control, she didn't learn...

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 lived for 20 years and raised their children.In the ...

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 daring escape on foot to neutral Switzerland.Simon ...

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 mainland. Recently he moved back to his home town ...

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 the first time at 7 years old, and making her way ...

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 Australia all of that changed. She's gone from cru...

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 for a year, in Sydney and Melbourne's wealthy houses...

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 love story in London. In his retirement, he found...

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, communing with the world’s oldest surviving trees. In...

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. When a once-in-a-century storm struck in the Sout...

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 blazing talent for drawing. He escaped jail time,...

'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, misadventure and outright fiasco in a live storytel...

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 lives took off on wildly diverging paths as they grew...

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 forced him to reassess everything (R)Hilton Koppe gr...

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 family tragedy during her childhood.Sonya Voumard...

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 Thomas travelled the world to investigate, and find t...

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 politician, Eddie Obeid and financial fraudster, Mel...

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, but she didn’t know that what he’d left out wou...

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 across the country with him, until Peter refused to go ...

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, she worried for the devastated young police officer...

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 quantities of hemp oil, tracked a fugitive with a penchant...

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...