Conversations

The hunt for deep sea bioluminescence (and a giant squid)

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marine biologist Dr Edith Widder was inside a submersible searching for bioluminescence in the ocean depths when she saw a giant squid as big as a tw...

The speech collector

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tony Wilson was always drawn to the world's great speeches. Then, without warning, he was called on to make the most difficult speech of his life (R)...

Champion surfer Jodie Cooper on the breaks that made her

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How Jodie went from skateboarding in her home town of Albany to become a world surfing champion, frothing all the way.When Jodie Cooper was growing...

Penny's odyssey to Greece and family

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An unexpected DNA test result sent Penny Mackieson on a mission across the other side of the world, to find her real natural mother, and discover her...

The caving time lord

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Kira Westaway is a geochronologist who places modern and ancient humans in context by dating things found in caves. For Kira, how we understand ou...

The lucky accident of Sydney's Opera House

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of the Sydney Opera House nearly didn't get off the drawing board

Lovemore's left hook

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A chance encounter led Lovemore Ndou into his local boxing gym, and a lucky left hook became his ticket out of apartheid South Africa

Silverchair's drummer grows up

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Gillies was a 15 year old drummer when Silverchair became a global sensation. After almost two decades of being a rock star, the band broke up, a...

The psychopaths among us

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lawyer and author David Gillespie has been on a mission to understanding psychopaths after realising he might have worked with one

The chef who changed the world: Josh Niland

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Josh Niland on his mission to cook fish eyes, fish liver, and fish sperm to help revolutionise how we cook and eat fishChef Josh Niland is devoted t...

David Marr's reckoning with his family's brutal past

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David Marr with the story of his great-great-grandfather Reg Uhr, who led murderous expeditions with the Native Police during Queensland’s front...

Ancestors like aliens: clues from the Cambrian explosion

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Diego Garcia-Bellido is a palaeontologist who specialises in soft-bodied fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago. These perfectly preserved ey...

Robyn Davidson, wandering spirit

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Robyn Davidson on her adventures high in the Himalayas, her love affair with an Indian prince, and her late in life reckoning with her own story (CW...

Jessica Cottis — inside the colour of sound

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica is an orchestral conductor, organ virtuoso and also a synesthete who 'sees' colour in her mind's eye (R)

Silk, sex, secrets and spiders

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

James O'Hanlon digs deep into the secret world of spiders; complex and tiny lives most of us are either unaware or afraid of

From Antioch to Syracuse and Tyre

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Katherine Pangonis with stories from five cities of the ancient world, from their splendour in antiquity to their comparatively modest twil...

Confessions of a drama kid

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Actor and writer Brendan Cowell with tender and funny tales from his boyhood as a child actor and a budding playwright (R)

Suzie Miller: finder of ways

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Suzie Miller with stories from her free range St Kilda childhood, her drama-filled life as a lawyer, and the inspiration behind her play Prima Fac...

Meaghan's connections to family, town and country

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Meaghan Katrak Harris with stories from her life as a teenage mother and raising a multicultural family, and her working life as a social worker and...

Xanthe Mallett on skeletons, forensics, crime and body farms

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Forensic scientist Dr Xanthe Mallett on her work analysing skeletal remains, investigating cases of wrongful conviction and studying the decompositio...

Seeing the world through a dog's eyes

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dog behaviourist Laura Vissaritis uses science and psychology to better understand what our dogs really are telling us

Dynasties and dynamism

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nicholas Jose was living in China in 1989, when the military was sent in to violently quell pro-democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square. He left Beiji...

Sam Neill's menagerie

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sam Neill is a winemaker, a cancer survivor and a father. He's also an actor, who's made more than 100 films

Smuggled to Antarctica

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rachael Mead with the true story of Nel Law, who stowed away on a Danish ship in 1961 to become the first Australian woman to set foot on Antarctica ...

The echidna argument

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Strategic analyst Sam Roggeveen says Australia needs to think more like an echidna when it comes to defence 

Living to 120 and beyond

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr David Sinclair is a longevity expert who believes ageing is a treatable disease (R) 

What happens to us while we're under anaesthesia?

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Cole-Adams has discovered what happens to us while we dwell in the chemical oblivion of general anaesthetic (R)

Chadden's planet Earth

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chadden Hunter was in his twenties when he found himself sitting around a campfire in the Ethiopian highlands, talking about his PhD thesis with Sir ...

Bronwyn's books

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Bronwyn Sheehan's daughter befriended a little girl in year four, her eyes were opened up to the realities of life for children in care, and th...

George Megalogenis on the stats that tell the Australian story

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the 1944 wartime referendum, to the 1999 vote on whether to become a republic, referenda always tell us things about Australia that aren't revea...

Peter's long goodbye

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Broadcaster Peter Goers was in his twenties when his parents died suddenly, in a plane crash outside New Orleans. Decades later, he's beginning to m...

Stories of starting over: Susan Johnson

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Susan Johnson began an unexpected adventure when she moved to the Greek island of Kythera with her 85-year old mother Barbara (R)

Stories of starting over: Kim Crotty

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Kim Crotty was locked up in Dartmoor prison for growing marijuana, his two young sons were bereft. After he began writing bedtime stories for ...

Stories of starting over: Anne Howell

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After a serious brain operation, Anne Howell woke up in hospital with retrograde amnesia, thinking she was nine years old. With no real understanding...

Stories of starting over: Charles Lomu

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Tongan-Australian man on being privileged to see love in action in his grandparents, how a spiral into grief and anger led him to periodic detent...

Stories of starting over: DJ Hookie

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Nash was 19 when his limbs were amputated due to meningococcal septicaemia. After he began to navigate life with hooks for arms, he built a new ...

Maggie Mackellar on farming, motherhood, and catching sheep

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Maggie Mackellar with stories from her life on a Merino wool farm on the east coast of Tasmania, and all of life and death that surrounds her throug...

The Big Pineapple, The Big Merino, The Big Gumboot: how big things captured Australia

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Amy Clarke on the history of Big Things and our enduring fondness for kitsch and curious creations

Crispian Chan on Perth's forgotten terror

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Crispian Chan grew up in the shadow of a campaign of terror in Perth that engulfed his family restaurant and haunted him for years 

Geraldine Brooks and the world in words

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The historical novelist has seen enough action to last a lifetime from her days as a Middle East correspondent, and it was her mother's imaginative i...

Craig Hamilton's three lives

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Coalminer turned broadcaster Craig Hamilton was in his 30s when he had a psychotic episode on Broadmeadows train station. In the aftermath, his life...

Lessons from the world's longest study on happiness: Dr Robert Waldinger

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Robert Waldinger on what it takes to live a happy life. Robert Waldinger has spent most of his working life trying to understand the secret to hum...

Bertie Blackman's bohemian childhood

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bertie Blackman on her unconventional childhood with her father the artist Charles Blackman

How Julie became Matilda #1

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1979, Julie Dolan was named as the inaugural captain of the Matildas. Ever since, she's helped build the juggernaut from the ground up

Kim and the Constitution

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kim Rubenstein on the inner workings and history of the Australian constitution

John Gaden's golden run

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Gaden on turning his back on law and landing on the stage

Remembering Michael Parkinson

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Broadcaster Michael Parkinson with the life story of his late father John William - Yorkshireman, miner, humourist and fast bowler (R)

Maddy, the shipwreck mermaid

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Maddy McAllister's job as a marine archaeologist involves diving into the deep to uncover the artefacts and human stories sunk in shipwrecks (R)

The invisible Mrs Orwell

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Funder on unearthing the story of the talented and determined Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell's first wife

From the meatworks to mending men's souls

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After arriving in Australia from Yugoslavia as a boy, Peter Stojanovic began working at a Melbourne meatworks. Decades on, he's now a counsellor hel...

Jana Pittman's turning point

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jana Pittman became one of Australia's most famous athletes as a young woman. Then at age 30, she found herself at a painful crossroads

David the Seahorse saviour

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David Harasti with the story of how he opened a chain of underwater seahorse hotels to save an endangered species

A Heart in Two Places

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Donnelley on her life working at Wilcannia Central School, on Barkandji Country 950 kilometres west of Sydney (R) 

Dr Freakman, hippie psychiatrist

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Psychiatrist Dr Harry Freeman on the memorable patients, LSD, and medical epiphanies from his 50 years in psychiatry 

The sculptor's son

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hung Le and his family made a terrifying escape from Saigon in 1975, carrying one suitcase, a box of biscuits and some seasick pills. Decades after...

How Brendan Watkins claimed his birthright

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brendan Watkins on his search to find the truth about his birth parents and the failings of the Catholic church his discoveries unveiled

Mark Brandi on compassion, chance and reinvention

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Author Mark Brandi is a keen observer of people, a skill he honed growing up in a pub in country Victoria, where the family’s Italian heritage was...

Danny Estrin's Eurovision glory

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Oliver Twist, the storyteller

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rwandan-born comedian and playwright Oliver Twist on his years as a refugee and how his life as a storyteller began

The leadership and gentleness of Alex Blackwell

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The former captain of the Australian Women's cricket team shares what she's learned along the way, and how cricket has helped her in genetic counsel...

On the trail of the mega-shark

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Tim Flannery was a boy he found a palm-sized fossilised tooth of a prehistoric shark.The find changed the course of his life

Toby Walsh: the power and perils of Chat GPT

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Toby Walsh on the rise of generative AI chatbots and their potential to overtake human intelligence

John's wild dogs

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

They have strange coats that look like they're painted on, and while their big Mickey Mouse ears are cute, their domestic dog-like looks aren't parti...

Martin Flanagan on exchanging shame for grace

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1966, Martin was 10 years old when he was sent to a Catholic Boarding school in North-West Tasmania. Decades later, he began his own reckoning wi...

Healing the grieving heart

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wendy Liu has spent many years right up close to death. As a forensic counsellor she worked with families who had lost someone to an accident or viol...

Maggie Beer: from Bankstown to the Barossa

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Maggie Beer started her working life at the age of 14 in a chenille bedspread factory. Two decades later, in a pheasant farm in the Barossa Valley, s...

How Ben's brain changed

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An unexpected stroke temporarily robbed Ben Mckelvey of his ability to speak, write and understand words. Eventually, Ben re-learnt the art of lang...

The army town, the lodger, and a succulent Chinese meal

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Mark Dapin’s childhood was disrupted at the age of 10, when his mum fell in love with the lodger. He was then raised in an army town called ...

Anna McGahan and God

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anna McGahan was playing a sex worker on Australia's biggest television show when she found God, renounced nudity on screen and tried to become the ...

The story of the human voice

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Colapinto was singing a Beatles song in front of Bette Midler when he injured his vocal cords. The experience set him on the path to studying t...

The wild boy who became a parenting expert

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Mark Dadds has helped hundreds of troubled kids from his clinic at the University of Sydney. He feels an extra connection to them, as he wa...

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