Conversations

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...

Changing prisoners' minds with Vedic meditation at Rikers Island

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Joh Jarvis was a high-flying boss when grief from a terrible loss began to overwhelm her. She tried therapy, exercise and healthy eating. Then she fo...

A wild Bollywood adventure — from Sydney to Mumbai and back again

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Indian-Australian actor and playwright, Nicholas Brown on being cast as a villain, and what made him end his time in Mumbai for a different life back...

Aunty Ruth Hegarty’s life of defiance, faith and finding her voice

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The hardship, cruelty and loneliness of the mission system during the Great Depression didn't crush Aunty Ruth Hegarty's spirit. She found her voice,...

Arnhem Land to Everest — surviving worst case scenarios in the wilderness

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the unforgiving tropics of the Kokoda track to Mt Everest, wilderness guide Steve Ellis has made a career teaching bushcraft and survival skills...

I was a political prisoner in Myanmar — and I could never hate the Burmese

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Following the coup of 2021, Australian economist Sean Turnell received an email from a "secret friend", warning him he was being watched by Myanmar's...

Raising kids diffently and being generous with love: Writer Nikki Gemmell

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From Wollongong to London, via Alice Springs, this is writer Nikki Gemmell on her deeply romantic life, and how she defied expectations to become a f...

A Sri Lankan hotel, a Harlem nightclub and orgasm-induced amnesia — Dasha Ross' epic adventures

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dasha Ross' most epic adventures were chartered with her larger-than-life husband John Pinder, including the time they managed a beachside hotel in S...

Prostate cancer, testosterone and Tim Baker's masculinity

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When surf writer Tim Baker was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer, he had no idea how the hormones which saved his life would fundamentally chang...

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and how Penny loosened its anxiety-inducing grip

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Penny Moodie grew up consumed by catastrophic thoughts and developed habits to try to ward off impending doom. It turned out she had been living with...

Melbourne's seedy underbelly and the gangsters who run the joint

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

They're violent and scary, some of them are madmen and others are convicted killers, but the gangsters who control organised crime syndicates in Melb...

Play School's Noni Hazlehurst — Australia's TV mum

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Beloved Australian actor, Noni Hazlehurst looks back on her life on stage and screen.Noni Hazlehurst has been on Australian TV screens and theatres f...

How not to be a d***head with country music singer Kasey Chambers

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The country music star remembers a childhood spent roaming the Nullarbor Plain, and the number one lesson she learned from her father.Kasey Chambers ...

Embracing wilderness and wildness with Gina Chick

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gina Chick, the winner of Alone Australia on her life as a creative, outrageous, nature-loving misfit who grew up to live through great depths of lo...

Shakespeare's stories aren't boring — we are teaching them wrong way

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Irish journalist and author, Fintan O'Toole on how the Victorians changed the meaning of Shakespeare's plays, and how we can bring them back to life....

How Tolstoy and Chekhov schooled George Saunders on life's great lessons

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Writer George Saunders on how famous short stories by writers like Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Gogol are like miniature models of the world and ho...

The unexpected plot twist: how a solo hiker stayed alive after shattering her pelvis in Joshua Tree National Park

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Nelson hadn't told anyone where she was going, and her phone lost signal shortly into her hike. As an experienced bushwalker, she never dreame...

The unexpected plot twist: the story of how suicide survivor Oceane, who became a beloved midwife

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the age of 18, Oceane Campbell tried to take her own life. She survived and fought her way back into life, becoming a midwife and a mother of thre...

The unexpected plot twist: The story of Toni Jordan's lucky life

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Toni Jordan grew up working in a T.A.B. with her cyclonic mother, and going to the greyhound races. Then she grew up to become a best-selling noveli...

The unexpected plot twist: The tech nerd who changed course to help the homeless

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jon Owen's mum enrolled him in a computer science degree at University - expecting him to build a flourishing career; which he did. It just wasn't th...

The unexpected plot twist: From the David Jones food hall to Opera Australia

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a stint being homeless and living in his car, Stephen Smith was working at David Jones Food Hall when one of his colleagues noticed his remarka...

An odyssey across Australia — how 11,000 sheep were walked from Victoria into the outback

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1882, thousands of sheep set off from a property in Western Victoria. Their destination was a huge station in the Northern Territory, land which a...

Antibiotic resistant superbugs and how to fight them

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Ian Henderson has spent his career searching for new treatments in the fight against antibiotic resistance superbugs

A life spent making — ‘Mr Millimetre’s’ memories with master maker Jeffrey Broadfield

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jeffrey Broadfield has made building his life. It has taken him around the world, and given him a place to belong.Jeffrey Broadfield is a master make...

Fish sperm sausages, and eyeball icecream: the Josh Niland story

17 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From using fish eyes in ice cream, and not wasting the liver, to creating recipes with fish sperm, chef Josh Niland on his mission to revolutionise h...

The architects of ancient Arabia – speaking to the sky

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The deserts of Saudi Arabia are still holding on to many ancient secrets, hidden inside burial tombs and mysterious monumental structures called must...

The epic highs and lows of Ji's life on the trampoline

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ji Wallace was at the top of his career as a gymnast and acrobat when a terrible injury and surprising diagnosis brought him back down to earth, temp...

Treating dementia — a new way of caring for the elderly

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Psychiatrist Duncan McKellar wrote the report that triggered the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. He has seen how care changes whe...

The man with the magnificent voice James Earl Jones, and his legacy including Star Wars and the Lion King

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The late James Earl Jones grew up with a stutter and hardly said a word for years. After an English teacher intervened, he grew up to become one of t...

Epic sharks — the ancient origins of the monsters of the sea

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From sharks with wheels of teeth, to gargantuan sharks like the megalodon, palaeontologist John Long has traced the long and storied history of these...