Conversations

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...

Ben and the birth of Miss Ellaneous

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Darwin's Ben Graetz on becoming one of Australia's best-known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Drag Queens (R)

My mother, South Africa and me

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Franceska Jordan with the story of her remarkable mother Isabella — a South African trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist who inspired her da...

Judy's fight for Victoria's first safe injecting facility

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up in Wangaratta, Judy Ryan learned we all have a responsibility to look after each other. When she moved to inner-city Melbourne that meant ...

Mark and the rainbow connection

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Trevorrow on how the music of composers Anthony Newley and Paul Williams influenced the course of his life and began the evolution of his alter ...

Mammal mania

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kris Helgen loves mammals and he's ventured to some dangerous, isolated places to find them. In fact, Kris has helped name and discover more than ...

Vivacious conductor and musician Umberto Clerici

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The new chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, on the chair of spikes that accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't to...

Love and music

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Run-away memories: Anne's story of retrograde amnesia

15 Feb 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...

The case of the unknown sailor

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

DNA expert Dr Jeremy Austin on his 14-year quest to help solve one of Australia's enduring military mysteries: the identity of the 'unknown sailor' (...

The mystery of the travelling Taranaki panels

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Taranaki descendent Rachel Buchanan with the story of priceless Maori artwork and their role in the ransom of a child, kidnapped by Italian gangste...

Nance, Ruby & Nell: the women who changed Australian cricket

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How women cricket players saved the "gentleman's" game and repaired diplomatic relations between England and Australia

Teen mum Melissa Redsell proved everyone wrong

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Melissa Redsell was 16 and in her last year of school when she found out she was pregnant. Although many people told her she'd 'ruined her life' she ...

Bronnie and the jaws of life

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Firie Bronnie Mackintosh is built from tough stuff - she attends emergencies to cut people out of crushed cars and rescue them from burning buildings...

The boy with op shop fever

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Tony Birch with tales of his Fitzroy childhood including his grandmother Alma's 'op shop fever', his love for pine cones and blankets, and the...

How Australia speaks to the world (and spies)

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Listened to around the world by locals, spies and military officials, Radio Australia has long been rated by its hundreds of thousands of global list...

Dr Koppe's new life and understanding of PTSD

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hilton Koppe on how his life as a soccer-obsessed country GP changed forever when he became a patient himselfHilton Koppe grew up knowing his paren...

Deborah's fight for her wings

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Deborah Lawrie had her first flying lesson at 16, then became a flying instructor herself. But when she applied for a job as a pilot, she found herse...

Where the Music Began — a story collection

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Vic Simms, Jen Cloher, Vika and Linda Bull, Rob Hirst, Elena Kats-Chernin, William Barton with stories from their formative years

John Grisham: lawyering, writing and innocence

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Novelist John Grisham with his life story; from his work as a trial lawyer, to writing, and how he became involved in a movement using DNA testing to...

Danielle, Jimmy the pig, and the inferno

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Academic Danielle Celemajer on how the Black Summer bushfires brought she and her rescue pig Jimmy into a terrible proximity with the inferno, changi...

How Aunty Val became the 'Afar Angel'

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Valerie Browning moved to the northern deserts of Ethiopia as a naive young nurse in 1973. A chance meeting on the streets of neighbouring Djibouti c...

From Croatia to the Canefields: a love story

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Debra Gavranich with the story of her mother Marija, who left her tiny Croatian island to make a life with a man she’d never met, in Far North Quee...

The ghosts of Babylonia

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Irving Finkel on the ghosts who joined the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians in their day to day lives (R)

Tim Ferguson: breaking barriers and taking names

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Ferguson was in the midst of a high-flying comedy career when he started experiencing 'whacky symptoms'. In his early 30s, doctors told him he ...

A song connection: Genevieve and the Tiwi strong women

22 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Dr Genevieve Campbell heard the intoxicating music of Tiwi song women, it made her hair stand on end. Immediately she knew she needed to meet t...

Dave Gleeson needs a damn good lie down

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dave Gleeson is known for his blistering performances in The Screaming Jets and The Angels, but he grew up singing at Mass in Cardiff, with a mum ...

The last keeper of Boston Light

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of America's oldest lighthouses was built in 1716 and survived the Revolutionary War. Its first two keepers met dismal ends, but Sally Snowman wa...

Cynthia's Swans

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Cynthia Banham survived the unthinkable, she had to reinvent herself, with the support of her family, and the kindness of the Sydney Swans AFL t...

Edita’s 600 days of longing

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Edita Mujkic fled the Bosnian War in Sarajevo with her two children, 50 American dollars in her pocket and no real plan. It took her almost two years...