Conversations

From Boudicca to the Night Witches: a history of women at war

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Percy with a new history of the world's frontline women soldiers

Marcia Hines the American Queen of Australian Pop

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marcia Hines arrived in Australia just 16 years old, and unknowingly pregnant. She planned to stay for six months, but 50 years later, she still cal...

The Bookbinder's Luck

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

The power and determination of Nas Campanella

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nas Campanella grew up in a big Italian-Australian family, and she was six months old when she lost her sight. Nas then grew up to become one of Au...

Frank’s years of living dangerously

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Frank Palmos arrived in Indonesia as a green journalist looking to make his mark. He walked straight into a pivotal moment in the nation's history, w...

Jessica's life in two worlds

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Kirkness on her luminous childhood with her grandparents Melvyn and Phyllis, who were both profoundly deaf

Stories from Gudanji Country

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Debra Dank walks and talks differently when she's at home on Gudanji country, because she comes with this place (R) 

The tin hut that's still standing

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr John Paterson grew up in a tin hut in rural Darwin. He helped hold it down during Cyclone Tracy and has taken care of it so it still stands today....

Nova Peris shines bright

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nova is a woman of many firsts — an Olympic gold medallist and Northern Territory Senator. She continues to strive for excellence while showing up...

Leanne's passion for justice

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Leanne Liddle was just 18 years old when she became a policewoman, but after a brutal attack during a routine traffic stop left her unable to serve, ...

Jimmy Little's daughter tells her dad's story

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Frances Peters-Little speaks about writing the story of her dad Jimmy's extraordinary career in music, and how he never lost his connection to his co...

Mama Piku

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For more than a decade now, Yolarnie Amepou has been navigating tribal conflicts along the Kikori River to help protect her beloved pig-nosed turtle...

Sorcery and salvation in Papua New Guinea

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ruth Kissam was absent-mindedly perusing a noticeboard at a hospital in Papua New Guinea when she came across a flyer from the local morgue. That no...

The mythical legends of Dravuni Island

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Kaliopate Tavola retired from Fijian politics, he turned his attention to recording the fantastic stories of creation from his home island of D...

The whistling frogs of Fiji's forests

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nunia Thomas-Moko grew up afraid of the reptilian creatures that lurked in Fiji's stunning forests. Ironically, she has become the country's leading...

Meet the Queen of Vude

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Laisa Vulakoro was six years old she learnt the English words "famous" and "star". She would point to the night's sky on her tiny island, and ...

Michael Trant on writing a farmer’s way

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Author Michael Trant combines his love of the land with his passion for storytelling — writing his books while ploughing the paddock in a tractor

The broken-hearted cure

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After a devastating divorce, Charlotte Ree began cooking her way out of heartbreak

Sarah Davis: Paddling the Nile and beyond

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Davis on her journey from corporate risk management to the paddle-powered adventures in shark-infested waters

Fergus, prison visitor

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fergus Hynes found his true calling in retirement: listening to prisoners and helping them with their problems 

Doctor Sonia, Outback GP

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Sonia Henry signed up to work as a GP in a remote mining town in the Pilbara, the experience changed almost everything she believed about Austra...

Shirley's secret and a silver angel: the story of Heather Mitchell

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Actor Heather Mitchell on the family secrets and the fortune teller's prophecy which shaped her life (CW: mentions suicide and cancer)

An unexpected life in Murderball

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cameron Carr was a rising star in Rugby League when a shocking accident changed everything. A few years later he found a new path, in a sport known...

Finding a dad, zoology and a life-threatening illness

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Bravery tells the story of his childhood in Logan, Queensland, how he went from a career at KFC to studying male satin bowerbirds and why being a...

A Fat Girl Dancing: Kris Kneen

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How Kris Kneen learned to look unblinkingly at their fat body, and find a new courage to be in the world

Muzafar Ali: from Afghanistan to Adelaide

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Muzafar Ali is a football-loving photographer from Afghanistan, now living in Australia. When he discovered the long history of Afghan cameleers in ...

Life as a prison philosopher

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Andy West on how his family story led him a life teaching philosophy inside some of Britain's toughest jails

Charmian, the violin and the zipper man

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Australian violinist Charmian Gadd was a wild musical prodigy from the Central Coast when a zipper-inventing musician changed the course of her life ...

William Sitwell: a history of the restaurant

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Food critic William Sitwell with stories of eating out in history, from the wine taverns of ancient Pompeii to today's  molecular gastronomy

Sean Fong dominating life on the jiu-jitsu mat

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sean Fong is a para world champion in jiu-jitsu. The 'gentle' martial art has allowed Sean to shatter any illusions that society might have about...

Asma Khan and the Darjeeling Express

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chef Asma Khan uses cooking to connect with her family. After moving from Kolkata to England, she longed to return home to learn her mother's recip...

Mandy Nolan: embracing the 'weird freaky girl'

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mandy Nolan didn't fit in as a child, in the country town where she grew up. But later in life, her differences became her superpower (CW: discusse...

How Deb Wallace became the gangbuster

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former Detective Deb Wallace with stories from her working life in the NSW Police, where she was tasked with breaking up criminal gangs

David Rankin: Outback teaching, Gymea, Art and Lily

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Artist David Rankin grew up as the son of a bootmaker in suburban Sydney. He became an outback teacher, then  a a painter, before meeting the great...

Scientist Tany Letty's lessons from slime mould - a brainless blob

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tanya Latty is an insect scientist with a quirky taste in pets, and a keen eye for detail. But it's the lessons from her brainless pet slime mould th...

Don Walker: the quiet bloke in Cold Chisel

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Don Walker has written some of Australia's greatest songs, and they keep coming. But rock and roll's resident 'quiet bloke' could have led a very dif...

Letting the tiger out of the cage

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Adventurers and extreme athletes, who jump off bridges and walk across deserts, have a reputation for being fearless daredevils who take unnecessary...

Lessons from the Kingdom of Sargon

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Peter Frankopan on how the earth's climate has shaped human history

Bo Seo on good arguments

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two-time World Debating champion Bo Seo on how love and listening can improve how we disagree 

The wild ride of Di's life

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The bull rider and horsewoman has lived a life full of danger and drama, at the rodeo and outside it. Di's incredible experiences have taught her to ...

The curious history of sweating it out

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the naked athletes of Ancient Greece to the Jane Fonda revolution of the last century, sport and exercise have had a surprising hold on humans

Hijacks, heists, and a sinking boat

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As a young woman craving adventure, Marele Day hitchhiked on a catamaran sailing across the Indian Ocean. After befriending the French skipper, Marel...

Being Sharon Stone's stunt double

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ky Furneaux spent 16 years in Hollywood as a professional stunt performer, falling, fighting and breaking glass on cue. She has managed to make her n...

Love and Loss, in Watsonia

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

 Damian Callinan with the grand love story of his parents Adrian and Kathleen, who met in 1946 at a football match. They were together for 62 years...

The art of English, according to Benjamin Dreyer

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Dreyer has strong ideas about the English language, and how to transform books into the best possible versions of themselves. But he's not a...

Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama on surviving conversion therapy and becoming a peace negotiator

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pádraig Ó Tuama survived conversion therapy and exorcism as a young gay man in a church in Ireland, then became a leading peace negotiator and a p...

Cows on a plane

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Jenny Graves — the curious case of sex cells

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For Jenny Graves, the genetic history of Australia's unique wildlife holds a key to the future of human evolution.

Benjamin's epic flight

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin is an adventure paraglider and documentary maker. One day, while paragliding in central Mexico, he was forced to make a sudden landing in a...

Raising the Kanneh-Masons

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians (R)

Paul Kennedy on finding his way

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The ABC Sports presenter describes his life at 17, a year dominated by football, girls, beer, and a serial killer stalking his neighbourhood (R)

Toni Jordan's lucky life

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Toni Jordan grew up working in a TAB and going to the greyhound races. Then she grew up to become a best-selling novelist

Crossing the continent

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sophie Matterson fell in love with camels at first sniff. After working with them for years, she hatched a plan to walk across the vast Australian co...

Dean Laws: running for his life

02 May 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...

Remembering Barry Humphries

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Barry Humphries was a legend of the screen and stage, but throughout his career, he remained astonished at the success of Dame Edna and her enduring...

My father, Karratha, and me

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Annette Trevitt with a tale of real estate, family and complicated grief set in the Pilbara mining town of Karratha

Teddy Tahu Rhodes and the letter that changed his life

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

He's one of the world's most acclaimed opera stars, but Teddy Tahu Rhodes did everything he could, for a very long time, to avoid his destiny on stag...

Om's journey home

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Om Dhungel grew up in Bhutan, where his people became the target of a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign. Overnight Om became a refugee, eventually re...

Jackie Huggins: my father Jack

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jackie Huggins with the story of her father Jack, who was a surf lifesaver, a rugby league player, a soldier taken prisoner in the Fall of Singapore,...

Surviving Sandakan

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Only six men, out of thousands, survived the horrors of the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Bill Sticpewich was one of them

A sister's love

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Bronwen Edward's big brother Mark took his own life, she decided to channel her grief into something much bigger than herself

On the wing

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zoologist Milly Formby serendipitously became passionate about shorebirds while working as a tapestry weaver. She decided to learn how to fly, build...

A work of the heart

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

High school English teacher, Brendan James Murray with funny, heartbreaking, inspirational and strange tales from his working life (R)

Danijel's life between borders

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Danijel Malbasa grew up in an ethnically-mixed family in the former Yugoslavia. When the country was on the precipice of war, the Malbasa family wa...

The secrets and generosity of the dead

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Jackie Dent explores the the world of anatomists and dissectors, the people who open up human cadavers to uncover their secrets

Maggie Dent - Raising Strong Girls

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Parenting expert Maggie Dent on on how parents can raise confident and well-adjusted girls

To Kythera, with my mother

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Susan Johnson was in her 60s when she decided to make a new life on the Greek Island of Kythera, with her 85-year old mother Barbara along f...

Matt Hall's life at supersonic speed

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Hall made his first solo flight at 15 years old and has been addicted to life in the air ever since. He became a top gun fighter pilot and after...

Family folklore: spies, secrets and suffering

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Phil Kafcaloudes grew up hearing stories about his legendary grandmother, who became a spy for the British in World War Two. It was even said she ki...

Kate Forsyth on the intrepid and curious Charlotte Waring Atkinson

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Charlotte was Australia's first children's author. She came to the colony of NSW from London in 1826, and now her trailblazing, tragic and dramatic l...

What the world can learn from Charlie Brown

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From Charlie Brown to Franz Kafka, psychoanalyst Josh Cohen explores why being a loser can be a good thing

Billy Bragg — the boy from Barking

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Billy Bragg grew up in working-class Barking, east of London. The expected path was to go from school to the local car factory, but Billy his sights ...

Gillian Bell — life and cake

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gillian has the best job in the world — travelling overseas to bake sumptuous and heartfelt wedding cakes, using foraged and fresh produce to tell ...

George Williams – the whacky world of micronations

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Micronations are home to fascinating, often eccentric characters who construct their self-declared countries in their own image, with pomp, pageantr...

Growing up in a country pub

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Max Beck had a wild, lively and at times devastating childhood, growing up in Bendigo's old Crown Hotel

Becoming a cowboy

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roland Breckwoldt fell in love with the idea of being a cowboy as a child, so at 15 he railed against his strict German father's wishes, left home a...

How memory works

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over her many decades as a practising psychiatrist, Veronica O'Keane developed a fascination for our memory, how it functions in the brain, and the ...

The alluring aliens of our forests

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fungi have given us many gifts, from penicillin to food, but they can also be quite scary. Dr Alison Pouliot spends her time trying to explain these ...

Keenan's courage

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Justice advocate Keenan Mundine broke the cycle of crime and incarceration in his own life after a chance meeting at a birthday party (CW: mentions s...

Saul Griffith's electrifying mission

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Saul Griffith believes that the key to solving the climate crisis is to electrify everything, starting with our homes. The inventor, engineer and e...

A daughter's unswerving love — Sarah Holland-Batt and her father

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Holland-Batt's dad Tony was a loving father, her intellectual mentor and her friend. At 18, she became one of his carers. Later she battled an ...

Lee Berger & the Cave of Lost Hominids

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lee Berger, the National Geographic Explorer in Residence and real-life Indiana Jones, has found remarkable things underground. His discoveries are r...

Rockstar animals and the Orthodox Church

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Simons is fascinated by the lives of animals which have become stars. From a famous hippo at London Zoo, to a wombat owned by a Pre-Raphaelite p...

Briana, Max and Freddy: love, trains and mouth music

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Briana Blackett was a journalist working in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to his name. When Max was diagnosed with autis...

The Vietnam vet and the Arnhem Land community

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Neville White was trying to heal from the trauma of the Vietnam War when he travelled out to a remote community in Arnhem Land called Donydji. Thei...

The Great Fire of Salonika

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gail Jones grew up in an old quarantine station, wondering about the soldiers who stayed there on their way home from WWI. Her new novel imagines l...

Alex and the tree-climbing lions

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Braczkowski is a big cat exert and National Geographic explorer. For years he's been following a rare group of tree-climbing lions, including th...

Louise Kennedy on Belfast, bombs and a disastrous pav

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Louise Kennedy spent her early childhood just outside of Belfast. It was the height of The Troubles and violence was ever-present. After that ...

Peter Garrett: rock and roll changemaker

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett on his life in music, environmental action, and politics, and the end of The Oils. 

Amar Singh's love for faith, family and country

13 Mar 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...

Judith Heumann - disability warrior

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most influential disability rights activists in history tells her story of her fight for the right to receive an education, have a job, an...

Putting lipstick on a great white shark

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rodney Fox was torn apart by a great white shark and it took 462 stitches to put him back together again. He was then instrumental in filming Jaws, t...

Esther Freud's unconventional family

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Esther Freud has many famous men in her family, including psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. But it is her mother's story which has left the greatest mark...

Fintan O'Toole: the evolution of modern Ireland

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fintan O’Toole grew up in an Ireland undergoing great change but before the country could move forward, it would have to deal with its sometimes d...

Is there a cheating gene?

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Once journalist and author Kate Legge recovered from the news her husband of 30 years was cheating on her, she uncovered four generations of infidel...

The fastest woman in the sky

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jess Johnston found skydiving after a tough few years, and while it might sound like a contradiction, plummeting towards the earth at 400 km/h saved ...

Richie Ramone and the record shop

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

No, he's not 'that' Richie Ramone, but this Richie Ramone's passion for punk is just as fierce (R)

The 700-room nightmare

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For a thousand years, Colditz Castle has existed in some form, perched on the edge of a cliff in eastern Germany. From a royal hunting lodge, to a ma...

The poker-playing cardiologist

28 Feb 2023

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...

The forgotten children of the Empire

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Margaret Humphreys received a letter from Australia, she had no idea it would unearth a huge, heartless scheme that forcibly removed children fr...