If You're Listening
Episodes
Australia vs the Internet: Misinformation overload
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To scroll through social media during an election campaign in 2025 is to experience some of the worst misinformation. But an online soup of bots spou...
Australia vs the Internet: RIP your newsfeed
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When US President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, the world’s three wealthiest people stood right behind him, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg ...
The secret weapon that changed war forever
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the middle of the 1800s, the Confederate army built a stealth vessel that could travel undetected underwater to give them the military edge over t...
Australia vs the Internet
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You’re not losing your mind, the internet is different now. The 2025 Australian federal election will be the first in a decade where news isn’t ...
How Japan dodged a global housing crisis
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Australia’s housing market is in the midst of a crisis that feels like it will never be solved and now housing is one of the major battlefields of ...
Can Tesla survive Trump and Elon's bromance?
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It has not been a good year so far for Elon Musk’s car company Tesla. Stocks are plummeting and sales are falling even faster as people around the ...
Why is Trump suddenly obsessed with rare earths?
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump is talking about rare earth elements like they are magic rings with the power to unlock world domination. The US President is on the br...
Why France isn’t counting on Trump
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump’s sudden shift on Ukraine has come as a massive shock to most countries in America’s orbit. European leaders who have long banked th...
Russia, Trump is listening
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since he took office, Donald Trump has made a lot of decisions that fly in the face of traditional US foreign policy. He’s left Ukraine high and dr...
Who will say no to President Trump this time?
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the United States, there are laws constraining the President’s power. The Attorney General and everyone who works at the Department of Justice a...
How Trump is sending the FBI back to the 1960s
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign he declared that the Justice Department and the FBI were weaponised against him. Now that he’s US President, ...
What Elon’s DOGE cuts are really about
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Billionaire Elon Musk is at the helm of US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, established to slash massive amounts of go...
Where Trump’s plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza came from
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When US President Donald Trump announced his plan for America to take over the Gaza Strip, everyone was stunned. That includes the man standing next ...
Can Trump bully Panama into giving back its canal?
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump started his presidency by picking a fight with Colombia. The US threatened its Central American neighbour with massive tariffs if it did...
Will Trump's tariffs make America expensive again?
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump has liked the idea of tariffs for a long time, since before his first term as president. Now that he’s back in office he’s using the...
Putin or the EU? Georgia's big fight
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The people of Georgia are in the streets of Tbilisi, protesting the ruling party’s recent election win. At the heart of the fight is whether the co...
The serious ramifications of Hunter Biden’s pardon
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We want to know what you think of the show so we can make it better in 2025! Give us your feedback here: https://forms.office.com/r/w0hT5fzuxgHunter ...
Will Netanyahu ever face court for alleged war crimes?
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We want to know what you think of the show so we can make it better in 2025! Give us your feedback here: https://forms.office.com/r/w0hT5fzuxgThe Int...
Could Russia turn off the whole internet?
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Chinese-owned cargo ship called the Yi Peng 3 is sitting idle in Danish waters, after undersea internet cables were cut in the Baltic Sea. European...
America's Last Election 6: How Trump’s banishment led to his comeback
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After January 6, many who had stuck by Donald Trump through his presidency condemned his denial of the election, and his failure to stop the attack o...
America’s Last Election 5: Trump demands loyalty
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last four episodes we’ve told the story of Donald Trump’s denial of the 2020 election result. It’s a period of time many thought would...
Hello America: Chess at the White House
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s Matt Bevan’s last 24 hours in Washington DC, and he’s leaving a very different place to the one he arrived in. Donald Trump is going to be...
US Results: Coffee with extra Trump
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this update from Washington DC, Matt Bevan is filling in as host for ABC News Daily to bring you an early morning update on all the events from ov...
Hello America: Trump’s path back to the presidency
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the night goes on, and key states in the US presidential election are called for Donald Trump, it's becoming harder to see a way that Kamala Harri...
Hello America: Queuing for Kamala Harris
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's election day in America! But in the dying hours of Monday night (and the campaigns), Matt Bevan took a train to Pennsylvania to stand in queue f...
Hello America: Two trains and seven swing states
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's election eve in America, and Matt Bevan is in Washington DC. How did he get there? By train, from Detroit, where he took in the fall foliage fro...
America’s Last Election 4: Pardon the riot
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Eight months before January 6, a very similar mob stormed a different government building. Armed men, furious about an extension of COVID lockdowns, ...
Hello America: Watching Trump from the bleachers
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With only days until the election both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are zigzagging across the United States holding rallies to shore up support. At...
Hello America: Trump or Treat
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s Halloween in America, and with the countdown on to election day, things are getting spooky. In downtown Detroit, Matt Bevan meets early voters...
America’s Last Election 3: Trump's plan to reject results
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the United States, presidential elections rely on thousands of actual people coming together to scrutinise and then certify the results. That’s ...
Hello America: Lost in Lansing
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the road in Michigan, Matt Bevan heads to the state's political capital of Lansing. There, he meets a swing voter named David who is all in on Tru...
Hello America: Motorcade in Michigan
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Bevan is on the ground in Michigan, Detroit, a key swing state in next week’s US presidential election. There are some things you just don’t...
America’s Last Election 2: The fake elector plot
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After the 2020 election, Donald Trump searched desperately for any theory that would allow him to retain control of the White House. On Christmas Eve...
America’s Last Election 1: The big lie
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump did not win the 2020 presidential election. But if you watched his speech on election night, you wouldn’t come away with that understa...
How close did President Trump get to nuclear war?
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Within months of becoming US president in 2017, Donald Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury”. Soon afterwards, he would tear up a nuc...
Is AI a threat to humans?
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The world's most famous artificial intelligence company, OpenAI — the creator of ChatGPT — was set up to create a superintelligent AI, while at t...
Can India and China bury the hatchet?
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After years of tension, diplomatic cold shoulders, and mountain skirmishes, both India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinp...
How US YouTubers were paid to spread Putin’s propaganda
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, the US Justice Department unsealed an indictment of two Russian state media employees. It alleges that they were funnelling millions of d...
The sci-fi Saudi city that might be a scam
11 Sep 2024
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...
How Ukraine called Putin’s nuclear bluff
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Russia defends its enormous borders with the threat of nuclear war. It’s this threat that has long stopped Ukraine and its allies from attacking Ru...
Why Hezbollah is attacking Israel in the Golan Heights
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a dangerous moment for the Middle East. Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire over the weekend, including attacks on a pretty unique pocke...
Could calling Trump 'weird' lead the Democrats to victory?
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A shift is on display at the Democratic National Convention—from fear of Donald Trump to mocking him. After years of arguing Trump is dangerous, th...
How Israel changed the way it assassinates enemies
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the early hours of July 31 this year, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran. It's presumed Israel was behind ...
The truth about Kamala Harris’s time as ‘border czar’
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since Kamala Harris became his opponent in the race for US president, Donald Trump has argued that she is responsible for a migrant crisis. He says P...
How Kamala went from unelectable to unopposed
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kamala Harris is the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for President of the United States. But four years ago, she didn’t even make it to th...
Will Biden leaving send the Democrats into chaos?
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After weeks of speculation and acrimony, President Joe Biden has abandoned his bid for re-election, and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris to ...
How America was primed for Trump shooting conspiracies
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at former-President Donald Trump on July 13, the American public was ready with conspiracy theories expla...
Who Broke Britain: What took Labour so long?
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, the UK Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory.In the past four episodes we've detailed the chaos, ineptitude and hub...
Who Broke Britain 4: Stop the boats
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The UK election is being held today and polls indicate the Conservative Party will lose in a landslide.One of the key policies the government is runn...
Who Broke Britain 3: The NHS in crisis
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Britain's National Health Service was in crisis when COVID arrived in the UK.After years of increasing demand and flatlining funding, the NHS was dee...
Who Broke Britain 2: The Brexit gamble
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
British Prime Minister David Cameron took a colossal gamble when he called for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union.Instea...
Who Broke Britain 1 A promise to cut everything
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When the UK Conservative Party won the election in 2010, they took a butcher's knife to the budget.David Cameron's money-man George Osborne — the y...
Not Stupid: Trump's guilty. What does that mean?
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're still on a break from our regularly scheduled programming but don't worry, we're hard at work.Next week we'll be launching a four-part series l...
Why is China so obsessed with Taiwan?
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The island of Taiwan, just off the coast of China, is shaping up as the most likely spark for the next global conflict.China's president Xi Jinping w...
The brutal and bloody career of Iranian President Raisi
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this week the President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in bad weather.Raisi was a phenomenally important figure in Middle E...
Should we treat domestic violence like we treat terrorism?
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia's first domestic violence shelter Elsie opened in the 1970s, and researchers have been analysing the problem ever since.In the last three d...
The man who destroyed his life to try to put Trump in jail
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Cohen is the star witness in the Trump 'hush-money' trial.He was once Trump's personal attorney and said he would "take a bullet" for his bos...
Is Brisbane repeating the Olympic mistakes of the past
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Plans for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are not going well.It's a political quagmire, with plans for billion-dollar stadium upgrades or massive new venu...
Could Benjamin Netanyahu go to jail?
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.He is doing everything he can to stay in office, be...
Looking for Modi 07 | One billion voters
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Narenda Modi loves to promote India's status as the largest democracy in the world, and experts agree that the country's elections are free and fair ...
Iran, Israel and the calculus of revenge
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Iran and Israel are caught in a cycle of revenge.On April Fools' Day, there was a huge escalation in the conflict when an Israeli air strike killed 1...
Looking for Modi 06 | Modi and the money
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lifting Indians out of poverty lies at the core of Narendra Modi's wildly popular political strategy. And it's worked: during his Prime Ministership,...
Why do people hate wind farms? — Live
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People don't like wind farms. They say they're bad for wildlife, they affect property values and they create pollution.But are any of these claims tr...
Looking for Modi 05 | The riots
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2002, Narendra Modi's carefully crafted political story was rocked by a series of deadly attacks in his home state of Gujarat, where he was the hi...
Duterte vs Marcos: The feud that might tear the Philippines apart
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Duterte and Marcos families are the Montagues and Capulets of the Philippines.They are, depending on who you ask, the country's most famous state...
Looking for Modi 04 | When holy politics turn violent
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2024, Narendra Modi travelled to the northern Indian town of Ayodhya to attend the consecration of a Hindu temple with a very contested hi...
How Japan opted out of a global housing crisis
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia’s housing market is, like many places in the Western world, in the midst of a crisis that feels like it will never be solved. Owning a pr...
Looking for Modi 03 | Modi and the Swami
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Narendra Modi left home, it wasn't to begin a career in politics. He wanted to be a monk. Modi's teenaged pilgrimage would take him across India...
Kate Middleton and the 100-year history of fake photos
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Princess of Wales has barely been seen since Christmas and everyone is asking, where is Kate?The Royal Family released a photo meant to squash th...
Looking for Modi 02 | The abandoned wife
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For most politicians, the image of a stable marriage and a happy family is a crucial part of their pitch to voters. But in India, being single is a s...
Why does Putin bother holding elections?
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Russia is in the midst of an election, but we already know Vladimir Putin will win. He always wins.So why does Russia bother holding elections? What’...
Looking For Modi 01 | Humble beginnings
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every Tuesday for the next seven weeks, we'll be dropping an extra episode from a new ABC podcast into the If You're Listening feed. Looking for Modi...
How China hires hackers
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The police arrested and interrogated Andrew after he was set up by hackers.Now we know how Chinese spies pull it off.An unprecedented leak of data fr...
Is Donald Trump running out of money?
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump was ordered to pay a $463.9 million fine for lying to banks about how rich he is.He's also facing at least five other cases that could c...
The Ayatollah who dreamed of an Iranian caliphate
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was a revolutionary leader with a revolutionary idea.In just 10 years as Supreme Leader, Iran became a global pariah; vir...
How the Shah's cancer led to Iran's rift with the US
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1974, the Shah of Iran was diagnosed with cancer.It led to a Shakespearean tragedy that brought about the end of the Iranian monarchy and shaped t...
How Houthi rebels are embarrassing the world's biggest navy
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Red Sea is the most trafficked trade route in the world, and now the US Navy and a group of militant Houthi rebels are going to war over it.The H...
Can Zelenskyy get the world to care about Ukraine again?
13 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a new problem. As well as fighting Russia, he also has to fight Israel and Hamas for the world's attentio...
What is China's "panda diplomacy"?
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China's pandas are not just pandas. They're diplomats.You're friendly to China? You get a panda. You criticise China? You get no pandas.In recent yea...
Can OpenAI save us from a robot apocalypse?
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The world's most famous artificial intelligence company, OpenAI — the creator of ChatGPT — was set up to create a superintelligent AI, while at t...
China's play to win the heart of the Pacific
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China is using cash to try and shore up support in the Pacific.In Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital, they just built most of the venues in the Pac...
How North Korea makes a fortune stealing crypto
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As international sanctions have cut into North Korea's ability to import and export things, they've become desperate for cash.They've been running cr...
Can Israel rescue the hostages?
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Israeli hostages Hamas took back on October 7th still have not been rescued.The 1976 Entebbe rescue mission is legendary and gave Israel a reput...
Who is Hezbollah, the group backing Hamas?
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While Israel tries to defeat Hamas, they also have to worry about a much more dangerous paramilitary group on their northern border: Hezbollah.The ex...
How did Hamas catch Israel by surprise?
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Israeli Government has one of the most well-resourced intelligence communities in the world, specifically tasked with preventing attacks from Ha...
How a quadriplegic charity worker became the founder of Hamas
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, Hamas burst out of the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, killing at least 1,400 people, the vast majority of them Israeli civilians.But Ham...
The ridiculous assassination plot that sent Haiti into chaos
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, a doctor from Florida met with a group of men to plan the overthrow of the Haitian President.The plot triggered a series of events which led...
Should Elon Musk have stopped Ukraine attacking Russia?
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In September last year, Elon Musk refused to let the Ukrainian military use his Starlink satellites to attack Russia.Musk jumped on Twitter and poste...
The assassination that broke the bond between Canada and India
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in Vancouver in June.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has just come out saying the Indian Government assass...
Why Modi picked a fight over India's true name
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When world leaders received their invitations to the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi, everyone got a bit of a surprise. It referred to Narendra Modi as ...
The race to build a petrol station on the moon
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US, Russia, China and India are all sending missions to the moon — and all to its totally unexplored south pole.Why? Well, in order to make the...
Is the century-long search for a weight loss drug over?
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For a century society has bullied and shamed people into trying to lose weight, without much result.Now, a seemingly accidental discovery by Danish p...
China cooked its population data. Now its economy is in crisis
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China's economy is struggling. Similar things are happening across Asia but in China it's happening extremely fast.And a big part of the reason why i...
Why is Russia meddling in West Africa?
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While everyone has their eyes on the war in Ukraine, West Africa is threatening to break out into war.There's been a seemingly unstoppable wave of co...
How microchip-maker TSMC became the world's most important company
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Microchips are in your car, your microwave — there might even be one in your kettle. They run everything.And the best microchips are made by TSMC, ...
The decision that saved Australia from Argentina's 100 per cent inflation nightmare
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Inflation in Argentina is at 100 per cent. The government is printing money fast and locals are spending in US dollars because the peso is so unrelia...
How a bunch of boxes might land Trump in prison
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump has been charged with trying and failing to delete CCTV evidence of farcical, and allegedly criminal behaviour.It's just the latest char...
How "General Armageddon" and a bromance almost brought down Vladimir Putin
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A bromance is a powerful thing. Lennon and McCartney. Holmes and Watson. Gilbert and Sullivan. Han and Chewy. But occasionally a bromance can nearly ...
INTRODUCING | If You're Listening
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If You're Listening is back, and better than ever. Same espionage, same corruptions, same scandals, but more often.Not only will we be in your feed e...
RUSSIA | S07 E6 - How will the war against Ukraine end?
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After ten months of war, a few likely outcomes of the war in Ukraine are emerging.A win for Vladimir Putin. A win for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A bitter f...