If You're Listening
Episodes
Matt's producers present the weirdest tales from the basement
04 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
From engineers with god complexes to elite athletes prone to being struck by lightning, Matt’s producers Pat and Adair bring the strangest stories ...
The unexpected loser of the Iran war
29 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For decades now, the tiny gas-rich nation of Qatar has been surviving off the back of its international diplomacy. But now old alliances are fallin...
How not to cover a radioactive incident
27 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 2003, fire trucks, ambulances and hazmat crews descend on Merewether High School in Newcastle after reports of a radioactive incident. No one is s...
Will the US and Iran make a deal (again)?
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the midst of bluffs, empty threats and broken promises, Trump has struggled to find any leverage over the Iranian regime he has declared war on, s...
When will Australia run out of fuel?
20 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Until now, Australia has been relying on oil that passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war began. But the last tankers to leave the Persian...
How the Iran war exposed Australia's energy mistakes
15 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When the Strait of Hormuz closed, global gas prices doubled seemingly overnight. As one of the world’s biggest gas exporters, the spike should have...
Trump’s on-again, off-again negotiations with Iran
13 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt spent a week camping entirely out of internet reception, so Kara does her best to get him up to speed on all the latest of the US-Iran war negot...
The brutal scam compounds of Myanmar
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few years, industrial scam compounds have surged throughout Myanmar, buoyed by the resources of powerful criminal networks, and hidden ...
Growing up fighting apartheid
06 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Sisonke Msimang from the new ABC podcast Boycott! joins Matt to share her father’s journey as a revolutionary in the fight against apartheid. Foll...
What happened last time we ran out of oil
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Turn on the tv and you’ll see no shortage of concerned journalists standing at fuel bowsers, shaking their heads at the rising prices. For plenty o...
When Iraq accidentally bombed a U.S. warship
30 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1987 the USS Stark became the first U.S. ship sunk by missile fire since World War II. The missiles were fired by Iraq, America’s ally at the ti...
We were warned about the Strait of Hormuz
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
While governments scramble to find a way around the Strait of Hormuz, a pipeline sits half-finished in the desert that would have solved the problem....
Why Iran is building their own internet
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As we’ve been looking into Iran over this month, we’ve had a lot of trouble finding out what is really happening on the ground. That’s due to ...
Iran is running out of water
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Water is the lifeblood of all civilisations. In Iran, the water is drying up. That disappearance is becoming impossible to ignore, and after decades ...
Life inside the Iranian Revolution
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Author Saeed Fassaie shares his story of witnessing the Iranian revolutionary first-hand, from being a political fugitive, to a soldier, to building ...
Who is Trump really fighting in Iran?
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a persistent fantasy in Washington that regimes are like light bulbs: smash the fixture, screw in a new one, problem solved. The reality in...
Kylie Moore-Gilbert says Trump might be stuck in Iran
09 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert spent over 800 days in an Iranian prison interrogated by the Revolutionary Guard, and got into plenty of argu...
Trump thinks he can switch off the Iran War
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump once warned against endless wars. Now, he’s launched a strike killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many Iranian leadership figures, so w...
Making sense of Trump’s attack on Iran
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Kara answer your questions about the the unfolding situation in the Middle East.Who are the contenders for new leadership, how will this att...
Where did Epstein’s money come from?
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Where did Jeffrey Epstein get his vast fortune from? Of all the questions surrounding this labyrinthine saga, the source of Epstein’s millions has ...
The Epstein Q&A our lawyers approved
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Kara try to answer your questions about the Epstein files without being sued... with only limited redactions.They get into the consequences ...
Epstein’s ghost is haunting the UK
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A dark Epstein storm cloud is settling in over Europe — and it’s drifting straight across Westminster. As the newly released Epstein files reach ...
The time an astronaut said they weren't coming back
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Space travel is a serious physical and mental challenge by all accounts. But what happens when an astronaut goes rogue mid-flight?Matt is joined by F...
How Epstein and QAnon blew up the justice system
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When news first broke of a billionaire sex offender with a private island… the story didn’t erupt through traditional media — instead it circul...
There Will Be Mud (again)
09 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
That's right, we're talking soil again. Is there a field of Ukranian chernozem soil sitting in rural New South Wales? Producer Pat joins Matt to fina...
Stephen Miller: Edgelord in Chief
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For a long time, no matter which party was in power - the US government has operated within pretty defined guardrails… that is, until Donald Trump ...
Pod Save America on the endless escalation of Trump
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Lovett has been following the daily minutia of U.S. politics for a decade on his podcast Pod Save America. Ahead of their Australian tour, Jon jo...
Steven Pinker thinks we're too worried about the future
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt is joined by psychologist and science writer Steven Pinker to discuss doomsday predictions, climate anxiety, and how best to split the balance b...
Steven Pinker thinks we’re worried about the wrong things
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt is joined by psychologist and science writer Steven Pinker to discuss doomsday predictions, climate anxiety, and how best to split the balance b...
04 Black Swans | Countdown to Doomsday
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the midst of the Cold War, it was a very real fear that a nuclear winter would obliterate life as we know it. Now, fortunately, that never happene...
Did a 1981 book correctly predict the future?
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Kara discuss the book that inspired the Black Swan series… but didn’t make it into the final cut! Can experts, soothsayers, and psychics...
Did a 1981 book correctly predict the future?
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Kara discuss the book that inspired the Black Swan series… but didn’t make it into the final cut! Can experts, soothsayers, and psychics...
03 Black Swans | Burning Hill
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1959 a flight to London took days and cost half a year’s average salary. But things were changing rapidly. The invention of the Concorde meant...
The city that ten beers built
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt and Kara delve deeper into the story of town planner Alex Ramsay, and the bizarre deal he struck to purchase the land that would become Elizabet...
02 Black Swans | The Australian Dream
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1950s three quarters of Australians were homeowners, most lived on a quarter-acre block, with a mortgage that could be covered with one inc...
01 Black Swans | The Population Bomb
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Until recently people were scared our planet would be outstripped by the weight of a colossal population. Experts feared that by 2026, there would be...
Matt got lost on his way to the costume department
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We made a TV show! Kara and Matt take you behind the scenes of putting the series together, and how hard it is to find a iron when you need one.The B...
Trump’s playbook for Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In a post on Truth Social, US President Trump announced that he had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, and that the pair...
NEOM: The world's dumbest megaproject
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The massive infrastructure project NEOM sits in the Saudi Arabian desert, and the jewel in its crown is The Line, a futuristic city which looks insan...
What's the deal with fluoride?
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Putting fluoride in drinking water has often been called one of the most successful public health measures in human history. But since the very begin...
How good are Australia’s gun laws really?
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australians are very proud of our gun laws, and we have good reason to be. The laws are world famous and frequently referenced in the wake of almost ...
24 hours after the Bondi shooting
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Sunday the 14th of December, two men; a father and son, used a range of firearms to attack a large Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach playground....
Why is Venezuela falling apart?
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During a 15 minute phone call, US President Donald Trump offered the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro safe passage for him and his family to the c...
This robot will shoot you and steal your wife
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We have always been obsessed with stories about killer robots. But where do stories about malevolent machines with a mind of their own originate? Mat...
Where’s my robot butler?
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tech bros are racing to develop the first mass-produced humanoid. But despite billions of dollars in investment, these robots require a great deal of...
Is internet piracy making a comeback, me hearties?
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You wouldn't steal a podcast!After meeting the founder of Sweden's Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge, we decided to take a closer look at the world of pir...
Is China’s plan to invade Taiwan inevitable?
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Currently, as many as 5000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan. Many of Taiwan’s allies are concerned that these spies, along with the increasing...
The time Andrew Denton tried to hire a bounty hunter
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 90s, Australia’s most wanted fugitive was Christopher Skase. He was hiding on the Spanish island of Mallorca, to avoid the corporate c...
The truth about China’s social credit scores
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the last decade or so, there’s been a lot of talk about how the Chinese government uses technology to issue social credit scores to its citizen...
maTt and kaRa address yoUr conspiracy THeory
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Get ready as Matt and Kara address a whole lot more listener questions. All things from Elon Musk’s impending trillionaire status to the mystery of...
So you’ve robbed the Louvre… now what?
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the 19th of October at 9:30am, two thieves parked a truck at the Louvre. They carved a hole in the window, climbed into the gallery, smashed two d...
Was the CIA involved in Whitlam's dismissal?
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On 11 November 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was sacked by Governor-General Sir John Kerr. For the past 50 years, people have speculated about t...
Can we afford to power AI?
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the last decade, the number of data centres worldwide has doubled. As the tech bros spend big to render AI an irreplaceable part of our everyday ...
This town ain't big enough for two dog puppets
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is about a lawsuit between two puppet dogs. What more do you need?This past week we’ve been waist-deep in the dot com boom of the 90s,...
Is the AI bubble too big to burst?
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There are no salary caps when it comes to securing the future brains of AI researchers. Mark Zuckerberg recently paid a 24 year old $250 million to c...
The people have spoken and they love mud
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today Matt and Kara are answering your questions, mostly about Trump and mud. They talk about whether Trump could serve a third term, if the rest of ...
Sizing up the Gaza rebuild
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On October 8, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement and signed the first phase of the deal. The ceasefir...
The balloon that started the US Air Force
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
So, Matt has found a shiny new rabbit hole to get lost in and this time it's balloons. More specifically spy balloons. This is a story about a man wi...
What happens if Trump takes over the Federal Reserve?
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump has set his sights on the Federal Reserve, his unprecedented threat to fire the Fed Chair Jerome Powell and replace him wit...
The time the US Navy teamed up with the Mafia
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Yes you read that right. It's a wild story from the latest series of No One Saw it Coming, a show about people, objects, and accidents that changed t...
Weighing up Ozempic
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode originally aired in September 2023.For a century, society has bullied and shamed people into trying to lose weight, without much result....
The Montana Mountain King and a conspiracy to clone
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, environment reporter Peter de Kruijff stumbled on the case of 81-year-old rancher Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, who was sentenced to six mo...
How dodgy data sent China's economy off course
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode originally aired in August 2023.How do you plan for a country when you don’t even know how many people live there? That’s the proble...
Florida Man Invades Venezuela
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While working on last Thursday’s episode, Matt had the very sad but familiar experience of cutting one of his favourite parts out of the script.It’...
Why Trump is blowing up boats off Venezuela
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. military has now attacked three boats off the coast of Venezuela in as many weeks. On the surface, it’s hard to see exactly what the admin...
This can't be good for our brains
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been almost two weeks since we woke up to the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. If you were online that morning, you probably saw rollin...
Charlie Kirk’s murder sparks calls for revenge
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the days since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the internet has been awash with conflicting information about the assassin’s ideological moti...
The Kurdish Fox and the Strawberry
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While researching our last episode on the bizarre wave of Iran-banked anti-semitic attacks in Australia and around the world, Matt ended up somewhere...
Iran’s global network of goons
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There has been a spike in antisemitic attacks around the world, but there was something off about the ones happening here in Australia. The graffiti ...
Matt has been stuck in the mud for seven years
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a story Matt’s been trying to tell on If You’re Listening almost since day one. It’s about the agriculture, soil and water of Ukraine...
Is Putin a master manipulator or a very smart guy?
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump once said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day. Well, it’s now been over 200 days and he’s finally admitted th...
Who is the cigar-toting, moustachioed-American named Gunslinger?
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1999, a young American called Robert Bogucki dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert in remote northern Australia. In 2022, ...
The Art of the Peace Deal
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s no secret that Donald Trump has his sights set on a Nobel Peace Prize. He already claims to have brokered peace in a number of conflicts aroun...
Does the Chinese Embassy look tacky?
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Palestinian statehood is recognised at the UN General Assembly in September, a small office tucked away in a residential street in Canberra will...
The blueprint for Palestine
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australia, the UK, France and Canada intend to recognise Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly in September. But what does that actually me...
Kara drags Matt back down the rabbit hole
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After an entire week looking into the Oslo Accords, we still had a residual urge to find out more about Mona Juul and Terje Rod Larsen, the Norwegian...
How Middle East peace plans were hatched in the Norwegian woods
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Even the most seasoned negotiators can’t agree on how to bring peace to the Middle East. Everyone agrees that - on a personal level - it’s a prob...
The nurse on death row in Yemen
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Getting accused of murder is never a good thing. But, hypothetically if you are going to get accused of murder, it’s generally for the best that it...
Are the MAGA podcasters right about Epstein?
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The internet is flooded with hour-long podcasts about what really happened to Jeffrey Epstein. Until recently, two of the most high profile Epstein c...
Australia's most dangerous home-grown conspiracy theory
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
So Jeffery Epstein probably wasn’t a Mossad spy. But online conspiracies like this pop up closer to home too. Could Israeli intelligence have been ...
Was Jeffrey Epstein a Mossad agent?
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole has opened into a cavernous rabbit abyss and it seems no one is safe. Conspiracy theorists and right-wing podcasters ...
How to avoid abduction by a Mossad honeypot
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Forty years ago, a man named Mordecai Vanunu came very close to exposing Israel’s secret nuclear enrichment facility in a bible group in the heart ...
Israel’s not-so-secret nuclear weapons
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s widely accepted that Israel has nuclear weapons. How many? Well, it’s impossible to know because to this day the Israeli government has nev...
How Ayatollah Khomeini changed Iran
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With Iran still in the news, we thought we would revisit the man who created the regime that so many in the Israeli and American political establishm...
How a cancer diagnosis ended the US-Iran relationship
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before Iran was the Islamic theocracy it is today, it was a monarchy for two and a half thousand years. The last Shah or king of Iran was overthrown ...
Has the US busted Iran’s nuclear bomb plans?
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The chaotic 12 days of the Israel-Iran war ended with the United States dropping bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities, then quickly brokering a cease...
Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert on the bombing of Iran’s Evin prison
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Israel recently bombed Iran’s notorious Evin prison, a place that Dr Kylie Moore Gilbert came to know all too well. The political scientist and aut...
Why Israel's drones have changed the future of war
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the last century, since the rise of mechanised and then nuclear warfare, defence budgets are designed to stop big existential attacks. Ships, pla...
Can the US Air Force bust Matt’s studio bunker?
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The United States has dropped some very large bombs on Iran, inserting itself into what we are currently calling the Israel-Iran War, despite Donald ...
Have ICE protests cracked Trump?
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There is violence on the streets of America as anti-ICE protesters push back hard against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. In the ...
Will any Prime Minister “Love Actually” Donald Trump?
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a manic week in global politics. Trump and Musk have officially broken up, Americans have taken to the streets to protest ICE deportation...
Trump and Elon's honeymoon is over
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In news that will surprise no one, the big beautiful bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has finally come to an end. Over the last week, the...
Skunk oil and the butcher girl
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While investigating the history of fluoride, Matt Bevan stumbled upon a regional newspaper insert from the 1940s called Modern Weekly News Magazine. ...
RFK Jr v Fluoride
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Putting fluoride in drinking water has often been called one of the most successful public health measures in human history. But since the very begin...
How a world leader kept a secret from 1.4 billion people
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A little trivia question for you... is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi married?He’s gotta be, right? World leaders do tend to be married, and s...
Why Pakistan fights India
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
India and Pakistan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire, but tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations are still running high. There are faction...
Why India fights Pakistan
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After a brief moment where two nuclear powers looked to be on the verge of war, India and Pakistan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire. But Indian P...
Howard Lutnick and The Gates of Hell
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers on September 11 2001 Howard Lutnick lost 658 of his colleagues. It was a tragedy of unthin...
The man betting big on Trump's tariffs
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The man behind Trump’s trade war is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his backstory is extraordinary. He’s been a hero, he’s been a villain...
Australia vs the Internet: Conservative kill screen
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Just a few months ago Elon Musk was heralded as a political kingmaker when he had a hand in helping Donald Trump win the US election. Musk has since ...