Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Anguilla's .ai domain name is an internet jackpot

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every time someone buys a web domain ending in .ai, the tiny island nation of Anguilla gets a fee. In the same way that .au is for Australia and .uk ...

UN report finds Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, according to a report by a United Nations Commision of Inquiry. The Commission, established by the UN Human Ri...

Ian Dunt's UK: Mandelson gone, far right protests and Donald Trump's UK visit

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Keir Starmer has sacked Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US over his association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the far right takes t...

Why do we use the QWERTY keyboard?

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The QWERTY keyboard wasn't designed to be fast or logical. It was created in the 1870s to stop typewriter keys from jamming - and to suit telegraph o...

Bruce Shapiro on the fall-out from the Charlie Kirk assassination

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US correspondent Bruce Shapiro looks at the fall-out from the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, including ...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: climate targets, and tackling Islamophobia

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As Australia's first climate risk report is released, Anna Henderson looks at the challenge in uniting the Coalition around net zero targets, as Libe...

The woman who solved crimes with birds

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Author Chris Sweeney tells the remarkable story of Roxie Laybourne, the Smithsonian ornithologist who became the nation's leading expert in feather f...

What's behind Germany's Gaza protest crackdowns?

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a new documentary for Al Jazeera, Jewish-Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein return to his ancestral home, Germany, to investigate how the co...

The power of collective memory

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Collective memory is storytelling on a massive scale. Every nation, every community, has a master narrative—the ‘official’ story about who they...

The rise of the Chinese far-right in America

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The San Gabriel Valley on the outskirts of LA is the largest 'ethnoburb' of the Chinese diaspora in the United States. Long beset by poverty, issues ...

What does the end of Meanjin say about Australian culture?

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After 85 years, Melbounre University Publishing has shut down Meanjin on "purely financial grounds". The decision sees the end of the platform and pu...

Papua New Guinea, 50 years after gaining independence from Australia

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Papua New Guinea was an Australian territory until 16 September 1975, when the country gained independence. Few Australians even know that we were th...

Bruce Shapiro's USA: Trump's "Department of War" takes on drugs, Harvard's court win, and grand jury dissent

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After Trump sent federal forces into Washington, DC, those troops and police began to charge individuals with federal crimes. But an extraordinary so...

Gaelic was a dead language in early Australia; why?

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since Europeans first landed in Australia, the country has been a net importer of languages. Not all of those languages make it, and Gaelic was one o...

Modi's move: why India is the key to China’s global leadership ambitions

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time on Chinese soil in seven years at the recent Shanghai Coo...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and the non apology, ISIS brides and the jetsetting Albanese

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's comments on migration continue to cause headaches for the Coalition. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is in damage control, an...

Abolishing terra nullius: the legacy of Chief Justice Gerard Brennan

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Gerard Brennan served as the 10th Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest judicial position in the country. He was involved in ...

Oxford's librarian on Donald Trump's war against knowledge

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump is fighting a war against knowledge. In his second term, he has fired the Librarian of Congress and the Archivist of the United States, ...

'Australia is safer now': Behrouz Boochani on listing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last week PM Albanese announced Australia plans to list Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation after ASIO revealed link...

Metal, money, myth: why does gold still fascinate?

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gold means power, and has since the beginning of time. But why? What is it about the shiny yellow metal that so fascinates us humans? And why are gol...

Gaza: The deadliest warzone on earth for journalists

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

International law, under the Geneva Conventions, clearly mandates the protection of journalists as civilians in conflict zones. However, in the ongoi...

Ian Dunt's UK: Nigel Farage and populism in Britain

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ian Dunt looks at the political forces that have shaped Reform leader, Nigel Farage and his recent scare campaign on migration in the UK GUEST: Ian ...

Was the flamboyant dandy a working-class rebel?

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dandyism is often associated with flamboyantly-dressed 19th Century figures like Oscar Wilde, Baudelaire and Lord Byron - artistic types who reproach...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: Liberal party division over the March for Australia and secretive new Nauru deal

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Divisions within the Liberal party as Country Liberal Senator and frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price supported the weekends' anti-immigration pr...

Conservative US think tank describes Harbour Bridge march as a 'pro Hamas type rally'

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The conservative US think tank Heritage Foundation describes its 'Project Esther' initiative as a campaign to combat antisemitism in the United State...

Liberal Party lost: can the party of Menzies recover?

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 2025 federal election marked the most significant electoral defeat in the history of the Liberal–National Coalition, with the party reduced to ...

Why does Silicon Valley love this old French philosopher?

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the most powerful figures in America – from Silicon Valley to the White House - are enamoured with a dead French philosopher by the name of...

Robyn Williams on 50 years hosting the Science Show

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robyn Williams has been the voice of ABC Radio National's Science Show for fifty years and along the way he’s written ten books, survived at least ...

Snapped! The history of street photography

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Before the days of Instagram, personal cameras, and privacy laws, street photographers set themselves up around Sydney. The industry peaked between t...

Mahmoud Abbas and the future of Palestinian politics

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The current leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is nearly 90, and deeply unpopular. As more countries — including Australia — agr...

Bruce Shapiro's USA: an FBI raid, and 20 years after Hurricane Katrina

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The unfortunate face of Trump's deportations is is Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, who is now facing a threatened deportation to Uganda. Former Trump...

Where is our poet laureate?

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

August marks Poetry Month in Australia - a series of talks and events celebrating the country's flourishing scene, including a countdown of the best ...

Sudan is in a death spiral

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While all eyes have been on the starving people of Gaza, over in Sudan the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster is unfolding.  25 million people ...

Anna Henderson's Canberra: the push to repeal net zero targets

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As pressure mounts for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to formally ditch their net zero target, the Nationals' Barnaby Joyce introduced a bill to repeal...

Fleeced: a story of wool and warfare

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For millennia, wool has been more than just a textile fibre for cold climates—it has played a strategic role in warfare, both supporting armies wit...

Palestinian psychiatrist Dr Samah Jabr on dealing with trauma in Gaza

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Samah Jabr is a world-renowned psychiatrist who has spent over twenty years practising in the West Bank and Gaza. In a powerful interview, she des...

John Menadue critiques Australia's media and our relationship with the United States

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Menadue has been at the heart of Australian public life for over fifty years, working for the Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke governments. He oversaw ...

Are architectural replicas bad taste?

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From Dresden to Notre Dame, rebuilding or replicating in architecture, is never a neutral act. The art of the rebuild is about politics, national ide...

Two years behind bars, Imran Khan remains defiant

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has spent two years behind bars, sentenced to 14 years on corruption charges. Khan says he's the victim ...

Ian Dunt's UK - Keir Starmer at the White House and will Putin come to the table over Ukraine?

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and European leaders to discuss pathways to pea...

History's most unfortunate surnames

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The tradition of inheriting your parents' surname is not that old, particularly in the English-speaking world. Surnames only started appearing in Eng...

Most of Tuvalu applied for a new Australian visa; why?

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, around 80% of Tuvalu's population balloted for a new Australian visa. The 'Falepili Mobility Pathway' is a response to the erosion of Tuv...

Laura Tingle on the Trump-Putin-Zelenskyy negotiations

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Laura Tingle assesses the meeting in Alaska between Presidents Trump and Putin, where Ukraine President Zelenskyy fits in the negotiations, why Europ...

Last letters of French resistance fighters, and what they tell us about living

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The last letters of WWII French resistance fighters, before their executions, became important for French morale-boosting and Allied propaganda. The ...

The huge rise of evangelism in Brazil - seeded by American preachers

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A new Netflix documentary investigates the evangelical forces behind Jair Bolsanaro in Brazil, and how the seeds of the movement were planted in the ...

Journalists Hanna Rosin and Lauren Ober on seeking truth in Trump's America

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Acclaimed US journalists and podcast collaborators with The Atlantic Hanna Rosin and Lauren Ober join David Marr in-studio to discuss the MAGA women ...

Australia's struggle with surging feral deer numbers

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia's wild deer population is on the rise, but the management of this introduced species remains a vexed issue. In Tasmania and Victoria, deer ...

Why isn't Egypt doing more to help the Palestinians?

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is coming under increasing pressure to take a stronger stance on the atrocities unfolding in Gaza. It has tak...

Bruce Shapiro's USA: Trump's DC takeover, and an electoral map fight in Texas

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump is taking over the police force of Washington, DC — why?  Plus, the battle over electoral distributions in Texas.Guest: Bruce Shapiro, Contr...

Australia recognises Palestinian statehood

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, joining the UK, France and Canada. The Australian Prime Ministe...

The first Tasmanians: what emerging evidence tell us about the peoples of long ago

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A groundbreaking book collates all that is known about Tasmania's first inhabitants, back to 40,000 years ago, by surveying contemporary scientific e...

One hundred years on Mein Kampf is having a worrying revival

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

100 years ago Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in prison. It would become compulsory reading in Germany, and millions of copies sold around the world. O...

Satyajit Das on the looming US debt crisis

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The national debt in the United States now sits at over $USD36 trillion, with a debt-to-GDP ratio around 124 percent – it’s what some economists ...

Politics and pomposity: inside London's exclusive clubs

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

London’s exclusive clubs date back hundreds of years and many a secret has been shared in them, from exclusive business deals to plots destined to ...

80 years since Hiroshima the nuclear threat is on the rise

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Japan has marked 80 years since the Americans dropped “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima which killed 80,000 and changed global power dynamics...

Beef and biosecurity fears: revisiting the mad cow crisis

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia recently lifted biosecurity import controls placed on US beef that have been in place since a 'mad cow' disease outbreak in the US in 2003....

Thailand and Cambodia's endless border dispute

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A fragile ceasefire is holding after the most violent border clashes in more than a decade between Thailand and Cambodia. What is the source of these...

Ian Dunt's UK: Starmer moves on Palestine, but is it enough?

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ian Dunt looks at the backlash to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's intention to recognise Palestine if it meets certain conditions, with President Do...

Trump's envoy heads to Russia while the EU blocks Ukraine funding over corruption concerns

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff heads to Russia next week for talks with Putin ahead of Trump’s new ceasefire deadline. Meanwhile Ukraine’s govern...

Annabel Crabb's Canberra: lessons from the bridge walk

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Politicians seem to be changing their tune after more than 90,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest Israel's treatment of Pa...

Late Night Live has a new theme!

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After nearly ten years, Late Night Live has changed its theme music. Composer Elena Kats-Chernin, responsible for previous Late Night Live themes Rus...

The forgotten Chinese passengers on the Titanic

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It is little known that when the Titanic, the biggest ocean liner on the seas, sank in 1912, there were eight Chinese passengers on board. Six of the...

Cheap and deadly: the future of drone warfare is already here

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Drone warfare and AI are outsmarting traditional large scale military systems. Ukraine and Israel are deploying the new technologies to the greatest ...

Zane Grey's shark-hunting adventures in 1930s Australia

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Zane Grey was an American western writer, celebrity and big game-fisherman.  In so many ways, his life was larger than most.  But it was in Austr...

Why Pompeii keeps revealing new secrets

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The largest excavation in a lifetime is underway at the famous archaeological site of Pompeii - the Roman city buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erup...

The Garden of Eden was in Iraq's marshes – now it’s being destroyed by climate change

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Iraq's stunning marshlands are believed to be the location of the biblical Garden of Eden, in ancient Mesopotamia. They were destroyed by Saddam Huss...

What's happened to the Left in Israel?

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Israeli Left, once a dominant political and cultural force, has seen its influence wane dramatically over the past two decades. Leading peace eff...

Bruce Shapiro's USA: Trump vs MAGA in Epstein showdown

29 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There is speculation US President Donald Trump may offer Ghislaine Maxwell a pardon as the Dept of Justice meets with her in private negotiations. Pl...

Fintan O'Toole on Donald Trump's first seven months and Netanyahu's end game

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Veteran Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole looks back on the first 7 months of Donald Trump's presidency and examines whether the US Constitution is hol...

Annabel Crabb's Canberra: the Coalition continues to defend Israel's actions in Gaza

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As the world reacts to the powerful images of people being starved in Gaza, the Coalition has held fast to the view that Hamas is to blame and Labor ...

John Hewson says we should sack the NACC

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Former Liberal leader John Hewson says after two years the National Anti-Corruption Commission has failed in its mission to properly investigate alle...

When President Roosevelt's sons went hunting for the mystical panda

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not ex...

Putin's sledgehammer: the rise and fall of the Wagner group

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023, the disgraced chief of the mercenary Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin, took off in his private jet from Moscow airport. The flight did not las...

China's renewable energy domination

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In China, more wind turbines and solar panels were installed last year than in the rest of the world combined.  Chinese companies are building elect...

The children of Gaza are being starved

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Everything around people at the moment is death, whether it’s bombs or strikes, children wasting away in front of their eyes from malnourishment...

The US plans to deport Afghan refugees, saying it's safe there now

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The United States has terminated the temporary protected status for Afghanistan, stripping protection from deportation from 11,700 Afghans already in...

Ian Dunt's UK: pro-Palestine activists banned, and the push to lower the voting age

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It started in 2020 as a small activist group, and is now banned under UK terrorism laws. Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, is challenging...

Should we mourn the death of the chequebook?

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia will phase out cheque payments and processing by 2030, but most banks and consumers moved on long ago. Cheques have been used for cashless ...

Is Japan really running out of rice?

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The price of rice in Japan has doubled in the past year, and the nation's emergency stockpile is dwindling. A poor harvest in 2023 is partly to blame...

Annabel Crabb's Canberra: a record-breaking new parliament

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As parliament returns for the first time since the federal election, Annabel Crabb looks at how Labor will use its huge majority.Guest: Annabel Crabb...

Saudi Arabia's alarming increase in drug executions

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A new report by Amnesty International shows a startling surge in drug-related executions in Saudi Arabia since they abandoned their moratorium on cap...

The decline of history teaching threatens our future leaders

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

History Professor Chris Wallace is worried about the decline in both enrolments in, and the offering of, history and other humanities subjects at Aus...

'Prohibition never works': abortion from Ancient Greece to Roe v Wade

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout history, women have found ways to end unwanted and dangerous pregnancies, even in the midst of legal crackdowns and moral panics. From Anc...

The Alaskan tourist who survived 43 days in WA's Great Sandy Desert

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1999, a 33-year old Alaskan tourist named Robert Bogucki dumped his bicycle on the side of a remote desert track in Western Australia, and wa...

Can legal action save the planet? Wins and losses in climate litigation

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Torres Strait Islanders' case against the Federal Government has been lost,  with the Australian Federal Court finding the Government does not o...

The world's richest shipwreck - and the fight over its future

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New archaeological discoveries continue to be made at the site of the San Jose shipwreck, 600 metres under the sea off the coast of Colombia. Describ...

Trump cuts HIV/AIDS funding

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As Australia marks 40 years since the introduction of HIV/AIDS testing, global health leaders are sounding the alarm over sweeping HIV funding cuts a...

Bruce Shapiro's America: a war on education

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A hundred years on from a landmark Supreme Court case about teaching evolution in American schools, the court paves the way for the Trump administrat...

The genius of feathers - can engineers replicate their design?

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Despite ambitious attempts, scientists have never been able to fully replicate the evolutionary wonder of the feather. However, avian inspired de...

Who will build Gaza's "humanitarian city"?

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Given a lack of regional cooperation and some members of the IDF refusing to forcibly re-locate Palestinians, how would Trump and Netanyahu realise t...

Annabel Crabb's Canberra: What lobsters can tell us about trade relations

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese is leading a trade delegation ahead of a meeting with President Xi Jinping. The focus will be on de-carbonising st...

Deep history: an Indigenous way of seeing the past

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This nation’s past can be understood a whole lot better if indigenous perspectives on history are listened to. It means considering rock art and ot...

Trump vs Science: Funding cuts and misinformation

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Science in the United States is in crisis. The National Science Foundation, a key research funding agency, has suffered devastating funding cuts unde...

How will the Universe end?

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are plenty of theories about how the universe began. But what about the question of how it will all end? Humanity's final moments could be due ...

Baltic future: why these clever countries are vulnerable, and what that means for the rest of Europe

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Baltic countries are stunningly successful, and also right on the frontline of any possible attack from Russia. In fact all Europeans are vulnera...

The traditional owners tracking a disappearing moth

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Not long ago, bogong moths were abundant in the caves of the Australian alps during summer, and in towns and cities like Canberra during their Spring...

Filtered urine and sauna suits: the strange world of biohacking

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Emboldened by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's libertarian "Make America Healthy Again" agenda, the pseudoscience of 'biohacking' is having ...

Ian Dunt's UK: a year of Keir and Labour revolts over welfare cuts

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

UK Labour is facing an internal revolt after attempts to cut the welfare budget by more than £5 billion. And, a year on from Keir Starmer's resoundi...

Are progressive elites hypocrites?

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

American sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, argues that progressive elites perform their activism with symbolic gestures that don't make a real difference t...

The Yoorrook Justice Commission finds genocide occurred in Victoria

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

ABC's Bridget Brennan has been following the work of Victoria's Yoorrook Justice Commission for several years. She surveys the processes that lead to...