Conversations

Carly-Jay on dying, living, and learning to breathe

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carly-Jay Metcalfe lives with cystic fibrosis, and has faced a double lung transplant, a rare cancer and other huge medical challenges. But through i...

A portrait of Peter Dutton

17 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Lech Blaine on Peter Dutton, the former policeman who became the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia

The secret life of slime mould

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Scientist Tanya Latty on how a single-cell organism, slime mould, can solve complex problems in some remarkable ways (R)

Bettany Hughes takes you to the hottest sightseeing spots of the ancient world

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What was on the "must-see" lists for tourists in 200 BCE? From the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the Great Pyramids at Giza, historian Bettany Hughes...

Finding a new version of family

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Marina Kamenev on the changing story of our families in the 21st century (CW: discusses donor conception)

Louise Milligan on justice, family and Ireland

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The investigative reporter reflects on her beloved Ringsend relatives and what drives her work holding powerful organisations to account (CW: discuss...

Tom Gleeson: the hard man of Australian comedy

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Gleeson discovered and honed his distinctively caustic, laconic style of humour in some unlikely places (R)

Jellyfish, sharks, grease and goggles: the life of a marathon swimmer

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dean Summers became a long-distance swimmer in midlife. Now he swims with sharks, jellyfish and bioluminescence in wild oceans around the world

The strange origins of our immense oceans

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For writer James Bradley, the ocean is the connective tissue that holds all of life on Earth together. But how did it get here in the first place?

When the family circus comes to town

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the rodeo to the dining room table, this is a collection of strange, funny and sombre stories from real families

Glennon Doyle's untamed life

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Glennon was the world's most famous Christian mummy blogger when she fell wildly in love with U.S Women's Soccer star Abby Wambach (R)

Ayesha is not an escape artist

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ayesha Jehangir left her rural village to get a better education; she left Pakistan to explore Afghanistan; and she left an abusive marriage to find ...

How Bri Lee became an incendiary

02 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bri Lee on the brutal series of events which began her life as a writer tackling injustice in our courts, the beauty industry, and in our schools (CW...

Family folklore: spies, secrets and suffering

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Phil Kafcaloudes grew up hearing stories about his legendary grandmother Olga, who became a spy for the British in WWII. When he grew up, he went in...

Jane Fonda - writing her own script

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Fonda's big life has included Barbarella, activism, three husbands, workout videos and hair epiphanies. Now in her 80s, she's devoting her energ...

Oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros' love for Egyptian movies

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The oud virtuoso reflects on his path to the instrument, via a stamp collection and an Egyptian movie starWhen Joseph was 10, his dad swapped an iron...

Crime scenes, lost wallabies, and coal-covered possums

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Best-selling crime writer Candice Fox has written 17 books. But she also has a second life hurtling around Sydney rescuing stranded wallabies, cockat...

The secret world of servos after dark

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Va — the sacred space between us

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Australia's first Pasifika university Professor, Jioji Ravulo was just a boy with the flu when a trip to his father's homeland turned him into a chie...

Anton Clifford-Motopi on finding his full name

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anton Clifford-Motopi didn't see a face that looked like his until he became a father. And it would take several more years before he learned who he ...

On birds, fathers and fairy possums

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ecologist David Lindenmayer first went into the Mountain Ash forests of Victoria in search of the tiny Leadbeater Possum, and he discovered an amazin...

The death on the pitch which changed Andy's life

20 Mar 2024

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 altered the cou...

Jarvis Cocker and the Pulp master plan

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The former frontman uncovered boxes from his adolescence in his attic, and he was amazed at his early, detailed plans to take over the music industry...

Sex, law, and life on Mars

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What would a human settlement on Mars look like? How would humans procreate in space? And what on earth is a 'snuggle tube'? These are all questions ...

From Yale to psychiatric prison: the undoing of a brilliant friend

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Jonathan Rosen was a child he had a neighbourhood friend called Michael Laudor. Their very similar pathways in life dramatically, and darkly, di...

Zoya Patel on horses and homecoming

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Zoya Patel became besotted with horses as a child, she could never have imagined how they would help shape her life and relationships

Shaun's giving heart and thousands of free meals

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Shaun Christie-David's parents came to Australia fleeing civil war in Sri Lanka. By age 13, he knew he wanted to be a banker. But life inside the wor...

Rescuing the forgotten animals of war

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Marcus Fillinger has taken his military experience and wildlife rescue charity to Ukraine, where, as a civilian, he evacuates abandoned lions, wolves...

How Ross Gittins found his calling

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a dispiriting stint as a Chartered Accountant, Ross found his perfect job: explaining the Australian economy, in plain English, to millions of ...

Jodi Rodgers on loving our neurodiversity

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a teenager, Jodi Rodgers got a job as a disability support worker and met a 6-year-old girl who would change her life

Death, with love and dignity

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Pauline McGrath's husband David was diagnosed with a brain tumour, she supported him as he chose a different path to death (CW: discussion of de...

Mary Beard's Roman Empire

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the wildest stories about Roman emperors involve playing the violin while watching the city burn, and appointing a horse as consul. Classicis...

Mic's way out of the woods

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Deeply ashamed of what he had done, Mic Whitty retreated into the Welsh wilderness for almost a year. Eventually an unexpected goal pulled him out of...

Satu Vanksa on faith, love and music

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Satu Vanska grew up in Japan as the child of Lutheran Missionaries. When the family moved back to Finland, she felt isolated and alien. But Satu knew...

Guilty feminist Deborah Frances-White

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The podcaster and comedian on her early life in Queensland, where she yearned to wear a coat; lessons from improv comedy; and how eyebrows were the k...

Trent Dalton on life before Boy Swallows Universe

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a child Trent was a quiet observer of the drama of his family and his neighbourhood. He became an award-winning writer (R)

Brigitte and the seven peaks

23 Feb 2024

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 ...

Our hormones and our minds: Jayashri Kulkarni

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Jayashri Kulkarni on her Indian-Australian upbringing and her groundbreaking research into women's hormones and mental healthTo binge even more ...

From ploughs to cash cows: a short history of economics

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Federal MP Andrew Leigh is a former professor of economics who is fascinated by how economics can create magic

A matter of trust

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How Jeanne Ryckmans fell for a dashing Irish Professor who was far from what he appeared to be

The magnificent history of the Huxleys

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Alison Bashford with the story of the Huxley family, who founded one of the great dynasties of the world

The bookbinder's luck

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dominic Riley on how a chance encounter with a bookbinding monk named Brother Bede changed the course of his life (R)

Paul Kelly and the poetry

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Australia's storyteller in song on the poems he's loved since childhood, and how reading and learning great poetry has changed his songwriting (R)

The calligraphy of the outback: the art and life of David Rankin

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Artist David Rankin on his turbulent early life as a the son of a bootmaker, his unexpected path into painting, and his passionate love story with wr...

Crossing Australia with a camel named Delilah

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sophie Matterson spent five years preparing to cross the Australian continent with five camels she caught and trained herself (R)

Nick's land of lizards

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nick Clemann is one of Australia's leading lizard experts, but took an unconventional path into research. After working for years as a tradie, Nick p...

A party girl gets sober

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Victoria Vanstone was just 13 years old when she had her first drink, and the booze quickly consumed her. It wasn't until she was in her 30s that Vic...

Sue's special classroom

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sue Lowry originally trained as an opera singer, but while living in London she fell in love with teaching children with special needs

Richard E. Grant and his pocketful of happiness

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The actor on the late love of his life, his wife Joan Washington, and the final message she left him (R)

Kira and the real King Kong

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Kira Westaway has been on a ten-year mission to solve the mystery of how, why and when a giant ape called Gigantopithecus Blacki became extinct, a...

The making of Nazeem Hussain

05 Feb 2024

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...

The toilet warrior

02 Feb 2024

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 ...

She farms, she flies, she castrates bulls

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Ameliah Scott pilots herself around remote NSW to take care of animals and have a cuppa with their owners.

Trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling) and me

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a teenager Adele Dumont started pulling out her hair from the root.Eventually she created a bald spot the size of a 20-cent piece at the crown of ...

Jackie goes to Space Camp

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After feeling burnt out, Jackie Carpenter spontaneously applied for NASA's Space Camp. She was the first Australian accepted, and it was the most tra...

Julia Baird's search for grace

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Julia Baird has been sustained through hard times by acts of "moral beauty". In a world marked by division, these gestures have the power to restore ...

Robert Waldinger's good life

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Robert Waldinger on what it takes to live a happy life 

Aunty Ruth Hegarty’s life of defiance

25 Jan 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,...

Roger Rogerson: crimes and punishment

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a life of controversy, crime and corruption, disgraced former police detective Roger Rogerson died last week, aged 83. Peter Hoysted met with ...

Slaying monsters, immortality and sex: the wild ride of Gilgamesh

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Louise Pryke is one of few people in the world who can read the ancient language in which The Epic of Gilgamesh is written. The mammoth, wild tale ...

Deviating demographics with Liz Allen

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Liz Allen is a demographer fascinated by Australia's demographic trends. But her own story is a remarkable case study in deviating from the norm ...

Nancy's muster dog, Mate

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nancy Withers has been breeding and training kelpies for 50 years, but one dog stands out from the rest, and he changed her life forever

The nudist, the vegetarian vicar and Karl Marx's daughter

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

These are just some of the remarkable and quirky people who helped write the Oxford English Dictionary

Jane Perlez's view from Beijing

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At 19 years old Jane Perlez visited China in the middle of the Cultural Revolution. She would return there as a journalist decades later to cover the...

Off-road in the roaring twenties

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1927 Francis Birtles set off on a grand adventure from London to Melbourne, through murderous mountain ranges and blustering blizzards, in a Bean ...

Chess master Irina Berezina’s gambit

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

International Chess Master and champion Irina Berezina credits her incredible chess-trained mind with helping her survive multiple international disa...

Costa Georgiadis — Heart and Soil

24 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Costa is the friendly face of Gardening Australia, a devotee of composting, keeping chickens and developing insect hotels (R).

Best of 2023 - Dean Laws

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dean Laws was in his 50s when doctors told him he had Parkinson's disease. For a time, he was devastated. Then he formed a running crew with his frie...

Best of 2023 - Karin Bäumler

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Some years ago, Karin Bäumler found herself in a fight for her life after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In the thick of it all, making musi...

Best of 2023 - Amar Singh

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Amar Singh's sense of belonging to Australia has only grown since he leant into his Sikh faith, growing out his beard and his hair, wearing a turban...

Best of 2023 - Danny Estrin

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Voyager frontman Danny Estrin on his unconventional path from heavy metal to law and the Eurovision grand final 

Best of 2023 - Deb Wallace

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former top Detective Deb Wallace with ingenious and surprising stories from her working life smashing criminal gangs in Sydney

Sandy Mackinnon's never-ending adventures aboard Jack de Crow

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For 25 years Sandy wondered what became of the little yellow dinghy he left in Romania, after a months-long voyage from the UK. Could it still be wa...

Melissa Lucashenko and the story of Edenglassie

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Melissa Lucashenko was a motorcycle detailer, a house painter, a prison advocate, and a game show contestant before finding her way as a writer

William McInnes and his favourite Australianisms

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The actor and author thinks that nowhere in the world is the English language more poetic, colourful and persuasive than here in AustraliaWilliam McI...

Piecrust promises and broken hearts

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alecia Simmonds with tales from a time in Australia's legal history when the jilted and broken-hearted could sue for redress in the courts 

The truth about Pax Romana

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Holland on the glories, bloodshed and barbarianism of the golden days of the Roman Empire

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

24 Nov 2023

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...

Lucy's button shop

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lucy Godoroja deals in the business of buttons, and the stories each button carries with it from Bohemia, or Milan to her shop in Sydney, and then in...

Hayley's morbid curiosity

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

British-Australian journalist Hayley Campbell uncovers the secret society of the western world's death industry, run by people who have made death th...

Pentridge Prison, Australia's bluestone hell

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and journalist James Phelps takes you inside the bluestone walls and medieval-looking turrets of Australia's most infamous jail

Jon Owen's radical love

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jon Owen on how he chose a life of 'intentional downward mobility' to help addicts, sex workers, and the homeless, from Calcutta to Mount Druitt to t...

Catherine Martin: making Elvis and loving Baz

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How a fashion-loving misfit from Sydney took over Hollywood with husband Baz Luhrmann, winning more Oscars than any other Australian (R)

The ladder out of depression with psychiatrist Ian Hickie

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Ian Hickie has spent decades trying to understand clinical depression. Where does it come from? What role do genes play? And most importan...

Prepared for anything

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brendan Watson took his Scouts promise very seriously as a young boy. He's leaned in to his pledge in some very unexpected ways, from Moscow to Mong...

The rise of the Super Bilby

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ecologist Katherine Moseby is helping Australia's bilbies, quolls, and stick-nest rats evolve to become tougher, faster and stronger, so they can sur...

Mick and Juana: a love story

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mick O'Regan met his feisty, brilliant wife Jo for the first time on a work brigade in Nicaragua. They fell in love and had a beautiful baby boy. Th...

Wily cockatoos, bin chickens and spangled drongos

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Darryl Jones on the dramatic lives of Australia's city-dwelling native birds 

How David got his sea legs

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When David Hannan was a young man, he fled university and took a detour to the wild coral coast of WA where he became a lobster fisherman, before ea...

Kylie Moore-Gilbert's freedom fight

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kylie Moore-Gilbert spent two years inside the Iranian prison system, secretly communicating with fellow women prisoners while she waited for news f...

Richard Flanagan's chain of events

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Flanagan was forever changed as a young man, when he was trapped for hours and almost drowned in an isolated stretch of river on Tasmania's ...

Ariadne and the Minotaur

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Kate Forsyth on how revisiting the story of a mythic Minotaur lurking in a labyrinth in Crete helped her realise that we all need monsters (...

Running from the FBI: life in The Weather Underground

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zayd Dohrn’s parents were militant left-wing revolutionaries, and he was born while they were living underground, fugitives from the FBI (R)

Killer sponges of the vasty deep

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Merrick Ekins is Australia's leading expert in carnivorous sea sponges. Some sponges are secret killers, others are made up of glass and imprison...

Bruce Englefield's devilish charm

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On a whim, Bruce Englefield bought a wildlife park in Tasmania and moved from across the other side of the world to make life better for Tasmanian De...

Sandi Toksvig and the school of life

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Danish-British author and comedian on her father's laissez faire attitude to school, and how this opened her mind and brought her to NASA's missi...

How Stephen sang himself to life

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From homeless teen to operatic stardom: how a job at the David Jones food hall changed the trajectory of Stephen Smith's life

Shanelle Dawson: the daughter's story

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2018, Shanelle Dawson's family were the subject of a hit true crime podcast which helped convict her father Chris Dawson of her mother's murder. N...

Pip Williams: from dyslexia to the Dictionary of Lost Words

26 Oct 2023

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...

Penny Moodie's compulsive and compelling life

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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