Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Ian Dunt's UK: Labour's trade plans for the EU, Starmer says no to Hormuz blockade, and Orban's loss a blow to the European far right

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Keir Starmer is proposing legislation that would let the UK quickly adopt certain future EU rules using secondary legislation, meaning less parliamen...

Hormuz as a chokepoint of power: the narrow seas that shaped global wars

14 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Control of maritime chokepoints helped decide conflicts like the Gallipoli Campaign and the Suez Crisis; now, renewed tensions and shipping disruptio...

US 'may stop by Cuba' after Iran, says Trump

14 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump has continued to threaten an American invasion of Cuba, telling reporters that US forces 'may stop by Cuba' after they deal...

Magnificent heritage sites damaged in Iran

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, US and Israel bombing of Iran caused significant damage to cultural heritage sites - the most serious confirmed damage has been to Tehran...

The gay conservatives out, loud and proud to vote Trump

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Log Cabin Republicans is a group of LGBTQ+ conservatives in the United States who support Republican policies while also advocating for LGBTQ+ in...

Australia's fuel import dependency exposed

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Albanese government is seeking to reassure Australians of the nation's fuel security, with multiple supply missions to Asia, and a new $20m ad ca...

The making of poet A.D. Hope, Australian literary giant

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Alec Derwent Hope (1907–2000) was one of Australia's most acclaimed poets. His first collection was not published until he was 48 years old, but it...

Daniel Defoe, writer and spy

08 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Defoe, the writer of 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Moll Flanders', was a spy in Scotland in the early 1700s, sending information to England, to help ...

Arts under attack in Trump's America

08 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Not much has remained untouched in Trump’s second term: the East Wing of the White House torn down, the Kennedy Center board stripped back—the li...

The art of Peter Marralwanga - Old Master and ritual leader

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Marralwanga was a leading figure in traditional  bark paintings from Western Arnhem Land which depicted important ceremonies and creation stor...

The antibiotic explosion in India

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

India is the world's biggest exporter of, and consumer of, antibiotics. Their overuse and misuse is on the brink of triggering systemic failures acro...

Bruce Shapiro's USA: Will Trump follow through on his latest Iran threat?

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump has published an expletive-laden post on social media in which he threatened to destroy Iran's power plants and bridges if ...

Henry Reynolds turns Australian history upside down

06 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The writing of Australian history has tended to focus on the south-eastern corner of the continent, but the story of colonisation north of the Tropic...

A decade after the leak: The lasting impact of the Panama Papers

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been ten years since the Panama Papers exposed a global network of hidden offshore accounts used by politicians, celebrities, and corporations...

Robert Reich on how the Democrats lost the working class

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In October 1994 then US Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote his old friend and now boss, Bill Clinton, a letter with an urgent warning. “We’re in ...

The Shahs and the Ayatollahs - Iran's extreme leaders

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The division and deep discontent in Iran gave Israel and the US a public rationale for attacking its brutal leadership. How did this nation become so...

Ian Dunt's UK: Starmer's plan to address the fuel crisis

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Just one hour after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the nation about oil supply issues, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave a pr...

Mapping the wilderness

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An environmental scientist and his colleagues have just finished mapping Australia's remaining wilderness areas - the first time it has been done in ...

Israel to use death penalty for West Bank Palestinians

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Israel's parliament has passed a law that makes the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who have been fo...

Why should WA get so much of the GST?

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This year Western Australia will once again be the big winner in the GST carve-up, with $6.6 billion from taxpayers heading its way as part of a swee...

Daylight savings forever? Why B.C, Canada has ditched clock changes

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The province of British Columbia, Canada has officially ditched its biannual seasonal clock changes, embracing daylight savings time forever - rename...

Ash Sarker's message to the Left - get a grip

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In her book, Minority Rule, Ash Sarkar argues that parts of the modern left have drifted away from focusing on material issues like wages, housing, a...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: fuel tax halved, as global energy crisis deepens

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Albanese government will halve the fuel excise for three months at a cost of $2.5b, to provide some petrol and diesel price relief to consumers. ...

How the National Library digitises millions of archives, with Dr Marie-Louise Ayres

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The longstanding Director-General of the National Library of Australia Dr Marie-Louise Ayres has just retired after a long career, overseeing the dig...

How the Strait of Hormuz closure is threatening aid and food security

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The wars on Iran, Gaza and Lebanon have seen millions left without shelter or food. People are fleeing into neighbouring Syria, Turkiye and Iraq and ...

The museum that celebrates famous flops and failures

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Museum of Failure, founded by psychologist Dr. Samuel West, is a celebration of innovation gone wrong. It showcases a wide range of failed produc...

Skyscrapers to sand dunes: Trump’s business ventures in the Gulf

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump’s private business footprint in the Gulf spans luxury real estate, golf courses, and high-profile partnerships. The Trump administrati...

Bruce Shapiro's America: Is Trump really negotiating with Iran?

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump told the press his Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner conducted talks with Iran on Sunday. The US ...

The dark side of floristry

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pretty flowers often carry a dark side. Pesticides that harm the florists who handle them. Thousands of travel miles for the many imported flowers. A...

Remembering Rhoda Roberts AO

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Trailblazing Arts executive and Widjabul Wieybal woman of the Bundjalung Nation Rhoda Roberts AO has died, aged 66. Alongside her vast accomplishment...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: what the SA election result means for the nation

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why One Nation appealed to South Australians, plus the looming fuel shortage - is Australia moving fast enough to prepare for it?Guest: Anna Henderso...

Research that claimed Roundup herbicide is safe, retracted by US journal

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, a lawsuit uncovered internal emails from chemical giant Monsanto that suggested its employees helped ghostwrite an influential paper that cl...

Evangelical Christians are manufacturing the guns used in mass shootings

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the USA today the Americans who own the most guns are not military veterans or hunters. They are white evangelical Christians, and there are 60 mi...

Please explain: Niki Savva, Paul Kelly and Antony Green on the resurgence of Pauline Hanson

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pauline Hanson rose from Ipswich City Council in 1994, to win the federal seat of Oxley in 1996, as a disendorsed Liberal turned independent. Her mai...

How presidential pardons are being used as a political tool

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the day of his inauguration, US President Donald Trump issued a mass pardon covering the over a thousand people charged or convicted in connection...

Not satisfactory at all: Geoffrey Watson on the NACC'S Robodebt findings

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"I don't feel like it's satisfactory at all." Geoffrey Watson SC, has compared the sealed section of the Holmes Royal Commission into Robodebt with t...

Ian Dunt's UK: Trump pressures Starmer on Iran war

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of the UK government over its response to the Iran conflict, after Prime Minister Keir Starmer sa...

Why pensioners are still protesting in their seventies

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Adelaide writer Margaret Merilees has spent her life protesting: from Pine Gap in the 1980 through to the Rising Tide protests against coal exports, ...

Will Saudi Arabia be the winners in the war on Iran?

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Saudi Arabia has long sought to be the dominant power in the Middle East and there is speculation Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself urge...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: Matt Canavan and his Nationals' front bench

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The new Nationals' leader has announced his front bench. Our weekly correspondent analyses what the reshaped Nationals will offer, and how they will ...

Porn, AI, and the internet: social media's new frontier

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In January, AI-generated pornography flooded the social media site X, owned by Elon Musk. X's AI chatbot turned anybody into pornography, and brought...

Mystic, manipulator, catalyst: Rasputin and Russia’s Last Tsar

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Grigory Rasputin rose from a humble Siberian peasant to become one of the most influential figures at the court of Tsar Nicholas II. A mystic and sel...

Psst: the Irish love a conspiracy theory

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Irish have high trust in government, and, also, a surprisingly widespread belief in conspiracy theories. What explains the Irish appetite for con...

Why is it so hard to make Australian TV?

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The amount of money going towards subsidising Australian film and TV has gone way up over the last two decades. The number of hours being made has go...

Lost Vanuatu numbering system

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 2000s, esteemed Australian archaeologist Matthew Spriggs made a promise to the community of Aneityum, an island of Vanuatu: he would try...

Armageddon briefings: US Troops told Iran war is 'God’s plan'

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

US military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troop...

Bruce Shapiro's USA: Noem, no more

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Will the war in Iran be long or short? According to Donald Trump: both, depending on what day you ask him. Plus, new and scandalous allegations from ...

Power, crime, and money: the rise of the global mafia

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Mafia: A Global History, Ryan Gingeras draws on more than a decade of research to uncover this suppressed underworld history. Crossing centuries a...

Why France is backing Lebanon in the Middle East War

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“For Lebanon we must act,” said French President Emmanuel Macron last week. “Everything must be done to prevent this country, so close to Franc...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: Albanese's call for de-escalation in Middle East

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Australia's military capabilities are in focus as the government decides how it can assist Gulf states facing an Iranian retaliatory strike, amid the...

Australia's oldest continuously used library turns 200

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The State Library of NSW has had to adapt its collections and philosophy over the years, becoming both a foundation of, and mirror to, broader societ...

Yanis Varoufakis on the Iran war, drug charges & cancelling Adelaide Writers' Week

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Yanis Varoufakis sits down with David Marr to reflect on the war on Iran, the failures of the Democracy in Europe Movement, cancelling his appearance...

In conversation with the UK's Ian Dunt

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For the first time, Late Night Live UK political commentator Ian Dunt, meets David Marr in person. In this special hour-long conversation, Dunt explo...

Australia's first desert people

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes described as a 'phantom population', because so little is known about them, the first settlers across the arid interior of Australia are co...

Batteries, and the power they have over us

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The green energy future depends on batteries. But batteries are not exactly a low-footprint technology; a massive mining and industrial operation wil...

Gideon Levy on Israel's objectives in Iran, Lebanon, and the broader Middle East

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US bombing of Iran had to happen because they had intelligence that Israel was about to take action. H...

Behind the bestseller: feuds, failures, and publishing mishaps

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Behind every great book lies a story — and sometimes, it’s a disaster. In When Books Go Bad, Alexander Johnson uncovers the scandalous mishaps th...

Trump attacks Iran: the view from inside America

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

President Trump has put the United States, and the world, into an unpredictable situation: a war without a clear rationale, and without a clear end. ...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: Australia and the Iran war

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Our regular Canberra correspondent dissects the careful language being used by the Australian Government, in the wake of the US and Israel's surprise...

Bob Carr on suddenly losing his wife Helena

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Former NSW Premier and former Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Bob Carr and his wife Helena were almost inseparable. When she suddenly died, whil...

High Court rules the Catholic Church is liable for a priest's abuse

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A NSW man who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest in the late 1960’s when he was 13, has won his High Court battle over liability, but h...

Water in 2026: will Australia learn from our mistakes?

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Australia's last big drought was from 2017 to 2019; a relatively short drought, but a vicious one. Water storage levels in Sydney dropped by 50% in j...

Bruce Shapiro's USA: the State of the Union address

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump has just given his State of the Union address, saying America is winning so much they don't know what do. But who believes ...

What do Mawson's diaries reveal about the Flinders Ranges in South Australia?

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As well as his Antarctic work, the explorer Sir Douglas Mawson had a deep interest in the Flinders Ranges. A team has been working for years to decip...

A new treaty for the High Seas

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ocean advocates call it 'the most exciting thing that's happened this century'. The lawless High Seas have a new international Treaty - the UN's High...

What can and can't the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion decide?

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion gets underway, legal writer Richard Ackland discusses what the Commission can and can't c...

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark: The UN has a woman problem

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A new report from the group GWL voices (Global.Women.Leaders) has highlighted the scarcity of women at the top of international organisations, across...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: ISIS women and Australian values

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As the debate continues over what to do about the Australian ISIS women and children in Syria, Anna Henderson discusses the current political obsessi...

The end of the gay rights revolution?

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The LGBTQI rights movement in the West has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams,  but gay author Ronan McRea argues this success seems suddenly fragi...

The end of the gay rights revolution?

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The LGBTQI rights movement in the West has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams,  but gay author Ronan McRea argues this success seems suddenly fragi...

Immigrant labour from the Pacific: are we getting it right?

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

With political rhetoric around immigration firing up again, we look at the great potential, but very real problems, of a temporary migration policy, ...

Deflect, distract, deny: how politicians avoid direct answers

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The  best political communicators don’t just speak, they position. They don’t just answer, they frame. They don’t just promise, they hedge. A...

The return of Germany as a military power

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a Zeitenwende, a “watershed moment”, in the words of Germany’s chancellor at the time. Germany shook itself ...

Ian Dunt's UK: is Keir Starmer's leadership is risk?

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's has spruiked Britain's necessity to be closer to Europe, both in defence and economic terms, at the Munich Security ...

How green are green burials?

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Knowing that your body is contributing to the growth of a tree or the richness of soil is increasingly attractive. But the healthier climate claims m...

Washington tightens grip as Cuba faces mounting crisis

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Whether former President Donald Trump will strike a deal with Cuba remains an open question, as pressure on Havana intensifies. Trump has signalled t...

Democracy for sale: gambling’s grip on politics

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

While Australians lose over $31 billion to gambling each year, industry donations to major political parties continue. Over the past decade, million...

The music of the stars, with the "founding mother" of asteroseismology

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Conny Aerts had a hunch, that stars had internal rotation and measuring those rotations could give us rich information about the universe. She was ri...

Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong's voice of freedom, will die in prison

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai will die in prison, after being sentenced to 20 years. Lai is one of the island's most prominent pro-democracy advo...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: what to expect from the new Coalition leadership

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The new Opposition leader Angus Taylor and deputy leader Jane Hume are hinting their crisis plan will involve lowering taxes and immigration, possibl...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: what to expect from the new Liberal leadership

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The new Opposition leader Angus Taylor and deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume are flagging their crisis plan will involve lowering taxes and immigration...

Steven Pinker on common knowledge... and common delusion

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, Steven Pinker asks us to look at how group knowledge works. Pinker argues that what drives society is knowing that what we know is w...

The memes are the politics: Charlie Warzel on Trump's Extremely Online administration

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The White House is publishing AI slop images; ICE conducts raids and turns the video into film-style trailers; right-wing influencers are sitting in ...

Gaza is a nightmare, but once it was a dream

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Gaza is today in ruins, with over seventy thousand dead and buildings everywhere rendered rubble by the onslaught from Israel since the Hamas attack ...

An old book, a hidden drawing: how Sydney held the answer to an Italian Renaissance mystery

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When librarians from the University of Sydney found a sketch and an inscription in the back of a 1497 copy of Dante's Divine Comedy, they called in R...

How journalists are tackling three million Epstein files - and what they're finding

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Epstein files are so immense that if printed out they would equal two Eiffel towers of paper. So how, exactly, are journalists making sense of th...

"A moment of reckoning" - NSW police response to Sydney Herzog protest under spotlight

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The actions of NSW police are being questioned after videos emerge showing violent scenes at the Sydney protest against Israel's President, Isaac Her...

Toads most feral: what can Australia do?

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Cane toads (Rhinella marina) are an invasive species introduced to Australia in 1935 to control agricultural pests. The species spread rapidly and no...

Indonesia and Australia sign a security pact: what are we worried about?

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We're now even closer with Indonesia. On 6 February Anthony Albanese signed a security pact with Indonesia's president, Prabowo Subianto, agreeing to...

Bernard Keane's Canberra: A Coalition reunification, even as the Liberals contemplate "non-existence"

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Parliament returns for the second half of the sitting fortnight, with the Liberal Party and The Nationals reunited, again. But all is not calm. Liber...

Winnie-the-Pooh: how the gentle bear left a complicated legacy

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Winnie-the-Pooh, the Bear of Very Little Brain, has been entertaining children for a century this year, but for Pooh's creator, A. A. Milne, the char...

Tucker Carlson, the influential broadcaster admired by President Trump

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The US commentator Tucker Carlson began his working life as a respected and brilliant writer on a small conservative magazine. He moved to television...

White fur, black market: the illegal trade in polar bear skins

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Australian filmmaker Abraham Joffe pulls back the curtain on a reality most people don’t realise: Polar Bears are still legally hunted and sold aro...

Why is everyone rushing to do trade deals with India?

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

After twenty years of negotiations, the European Union has suddenly managed to cut a trade deal with India. Not to be out-done, US President Donald T...

Ian Dunt's UK: Anger over Mandelson's Epstein links and a new candidate for Reform

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Former UK Labour powerbroker Peter Mandelson is retiring from the House of Lords amid intense scrutiny over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffr...

Peter Drew, the 'AUSSIE' poster artist who wants to engage with young right wing men

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Drew's 'Aussie' posters, seen around our cities, have now been copied in Melbourne by someone using a picture of the younger of the two Bondi s...

Iran expert says war is likely with the US if Trump gets bored with negotiations

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Iran’s president has signalled a potential diplomatic shift, saying he has directed diplomats to seek negotiations with the United States as fears ...

Bruce Shapiro's America - are the Epstein files another distraction?

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The US Dept. of Justice published over three million additional pages from the Epstein files containing over a thousand references to Donald Trump, a...

Australia's secret indigenous circus royalty

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When the Colleano circus family came to town, it was a big deal. Their acrobatic skills took them from Lightning Ridge, to New York and London in the...

The Rafah crossing reopens, and Isaac Herzog visits Australia

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Israel reopens the Gaza-Egypt crossing at Rafah, under strict conditions. Plus: on February 8 the Israeli president Isaac Herzog will be arriving in ...