Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Getting deep: the fascinating infrastructure of subsea cables

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Roughly 98% of all global internet traffic travels not via phone towers or even satellites, but underwater, along a vast network of fiber optic cabl...

Nepal elects rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah has been elected Nepal's new Prime Minister. The 35 year-old was the mayor of Kathmandu before he ran against for...

The Pahlavi Shahs of Iran

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, is pitching himself as a democratic future leader of Iran, claiming to have broad support in Iran. Wh...

The underestimated power of the chokepoint

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz highlights how vulnerable global trade routes can be to disruption — and how easily strategic choke points...

Iran's Supreme Leader is dead... what happens next?

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Trump has confirmed the death of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from an attack launched by Israel and the United States. Julian speaks...

The Year that Made Me: Bob Brown, 1976

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Bob Brown is a giant of the environmental movement and Australian politics.A former doctor, Bob is the co-founder of the Australian Greens, served a...

The People's Guide to the Australian Constitution

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As Constitutions go, America’s is the most famous and revered document. By contrast, the Australian constitution doesn’t inspire as much interest...

The award winning documentary about an Italian fascist poet

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Fiume o Morte! Has been praised as “the funniest and most unorthodox history lesson of the year”. In January, it was awarded Best Documentary at ...

Preserving LGBTQIA+ history at the State Library of NSW

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

100 word including guest & book

Why Václav Havel's 1978 essay is "eerily relevant today"

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney gave his rousing speech on middle powers at Davos, he quoted Václav Havel - the Czech dissident, and later ...

Forty years on from the fall of Ferdinand Marcos

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Forty years ago this week, events in the Philippines were underway that would lead to the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who had served as Pr...

Israel seeks to revive the death penalty

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In November 2025 a bill was introduced to Israel's Knesset by the Jewish Power Party that would re-establish the use of capital punishment in the cou...

An ex-Pentagon official on US and Israel's strikes on Iran

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The world is coming to grips with the joint American and Israeli strikes across Iran, and Iran retaliatory missile and drone strikes in Israel and in...

Australian journalist Murray Hunter is a free man again

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Last October, we covered the story of Australian writer and resident of Thailand Murray Hunter, who was arrested in Thailand for articles he had writ...

Why Myanmar removed it's representative from Timor-Leste

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Last week we spoke with Christopher Gunness from the Myanmar Accountability Project about the universal jurisdiction legal case that Timor-Leste has ...

The Year that Made Me: Julie Inman Grant, 1995

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on growing up in a single parent household, her connection to Ted Bundy, rejecting an offer from the CIA ...

Cooking the first mushrooms sent to space

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In August 2024, astrophysicists from Swinburne University sent vials full of the mycelium of edible mushrooms to the International Space Station. Th...

How one DMT trip could treat depression

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A fascinating new study observing the effects of the psychedelic drug DMT - or dimethyltryptamine - on people who have already tried two other forms ...

Hillary McPhee on other people’s words - again

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The legendary publisher and one half of McPhee Gribble has re-published her memoir Other People's Words with a new afterword.

The UK chemical research facility that identified Navalny poison

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The testing that identified the poison that killed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was carried out at Porton Down, a British government chemical def...

Ian Bremmer's Puppet Regime

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Geopolitical analyst and president of the Eurasia group, Ian Bremmer has a new avenue for explaining the big news in international politics: Muppets-...

Winston Peters proposes referendum on Maori seats

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A political debate has erupted in New Zealand over whether or not to retain special Maori electorates in the New Zealand parliament. 

From foreign correspondent to Uber driver

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Scherer has written about his unexpected journey from career high to just trying to make ends meet and provide for his family in a touching es...

Tweet of the week, 15 February 2026

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This week's tweeter has a soft, high-pitched call, and can be found around dense undergrowth in forest, scrub, heath and along creeklines. It's the ...

The Year that Made Me: Marianne Jauncey, 1998

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Marianne Jauncey works with people many in society dismiss as “lost causes” — drug users in Kings Cross, in inner-city Sydney. But far from ...

Rivers Flow: Reflections on the songs of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program contains names of people who have died.“It seems certain som...

The return of The Muppet Show!

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In what is perhaps the biggest news in TV comedy of the year - maybe in forty years - earlier this month, a brand new episode of The Muppet Show was ...

Household Names: Breville

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Household Names we delve into the history of Breville, a company that many of us are familiar with because of their iconic jaffle ...

The dilemma of de-extinction

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A scientific breakthrough by Colossal Bioscience has seen the 'resurrection' of the dire wolf, a megafauna-hunting wolf species that died out around ...

The cybersecurity expert taking Services Australia to court

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Queensland software developer Fraser Tweedale made a Freedom of Information request for the MyGov Code Generator app's code so he could review it, bu...

Timor Leste takes on Myanmar crimes against humanity

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Timor Leste has appointed prosecutors to investigate crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military junta against members of the Chin ethn...

The missing edition of OZ Magazine

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s independent magazine OZ became a cause célèbre when its editors were charged, in the UK and Australia, with obscenity.Edition 4 of OZ ...

The Year that Made Me: Abraham Kuol, 2010

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Abraham Kuol spent the first seven years of his life in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. His family came to Australia as refugees, and this year he is V...

The Aussie Magna Carta

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Magna Carta is one of the world's most famous documents, and Australia has it's own copy from 1297. Libby Melzer recently completed a 10 year pro...

The uncanny rituals of Opera for the Dead

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Straight from Sydney Festival to Melbourne's Art House, Opera for the Dead is a striking contemporary Chinese cyber-opera that blurs ritual, music an...

Household names: Mary Penfold

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Penfold was the driving force behind Penfolds wines, which grew from a small vineyard outside Adelaide in the 1850s to the wine-producing powerh...

Ulanbaatar, another capital on the move

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The number of countries planning to relocate their capital cities now also includes Mongolia, where building works are underway on a new capital.

Does 'good character' still belong in sentencing?

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

'Good character' as a mitigating factor of sentencing is poised to be abolished in NSW courts. The proposed new bill in NSW parliament relies on the ...

Bangladesh's first post-Hasina election

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

17 months after the revolution that ended the 15 year rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League, Bangladesh goes to a general electio...

How water cremations work

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever heard of water cremation? It sounds like a misnomer but it is an increasingly popular way of cremating the dead, which its proponents c...

Tweet of the week, 1 February 2026

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This week's mystery caller is a common, aerobatic predator of small insects – the Welcome Swallow.

The Year that Made Me: John Birmingham, 1989

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

John Birmingham is perhaps best known for his documentation of the "horror and madness" of Australian share-house living in his 1994 book He Died Wit...

Searching for the real da Vinci code: Leonardo's DNA

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A group of researchers have been (gently) scouring works of art and objects connected to the great Renaissance painter and inventor Leonardo da Vinci...

Stolen Man on Stolen Land

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Tyree Barnette arrived in Australia in 2012 with rose-coloured glasses for the laid-back, multicultural, egalitarian nation. But he soon found that b...

Mr Bunning, the man behind Australia’s hardware heavyweight

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

You know the jingle but do you know the story of the family behind Australia's iconic hardware retailer and sausage sizzle fundraiser?

Will reformist secure victory in Thailand's election

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Thailand will be heading into a snap general election on February 8. Will the reformist party leading the polls make it first across the finish line...

The minefield of choosing Iraq's new Prime Minister

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Amid escalating tension between the US and Iran, how does Iraq navigate the election of a new Prime Minister that will satisfy both sides?Guest: Dr M...

Tech giants on trial for social media addiction

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The trial is likely to see CEOs including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg take the witness stand to testify about what they knew of the potential dangers of t...

A very stinky search for rare flies

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Summer is the season for flies, and while some species may be an annoyance, flies also perform an import role in natural ecosystems. 

Tweet of the week, 25 January 2026

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This week's mystery caller is common, widespread and definitely not a Magpie! – it's the Magpie-Lark.

The Year that Made Me: L-FRESH The Lion, 2006

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

L-FRESH The Lion is one of the luminaries of the vibrant cultural scene of Sydney’s western suburbs. Hip-hop artist, music producer, and creative d...

How to understand big numbers

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When we think about the universe, how to we conceptualise numbers so large they are beyond our imagination? Mathematician Ian Le shares the mysteries...

Nedd Brockmann: The mulleted ultramarathon runner for charity

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

One of the people in the running - literally and figuratively - for this year's Young Australian of the Year award is Nedd Brockmann. In 2022, Nedd ...

A global Address to the Haggis: 225 years of the Burns Supper

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Each 25th of January marks the night of the Burns Supper, celebrated in Scotland and across the globe to honour the birthday, life and legacy of Scot...

Doctors, lawyers, journalists and the duty to warn

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 2022, investigative journalist Charlotte Grieve was sued for defamation by renowned surgeon Dr Munjed al Muderis, a celebrity doctor from Iraq who...

How Australia Mourns

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As Australians continue to reel from the grief of the Bondi Massacre an important questions emerge:When do begin to memorialise the site?Who gets a s...

What do you get if you cross a polar bear and a grizzly?

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Yes, polar and grizzly bears can breed, and their offspring are called pizzly or grolar bears. But what does science have to say about these odd hyb...

Sunday Extra 18 January 2026

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Meet North Korean Seongmin Lee who defected to the West and he now smuggles USB sticks containing Korean soap operas into North Korea. Intrepid inves...

Sunday Extra 11 January 2026

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Author and broadcaster Tim Ross reveals some of the Australian designs you have never heard of. Sally Gould take us behind the scenes of life as a ne...

Sunday Extra 4 January 2026

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Ann Curthoys takes us on Paul Robeson's tour of Australia back in 1960. What happened to the platypus called Winston Churchill that was sen...

Sunday Extra 28 December 2025

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bagpipes have a long history that doesn't all take place in Scotland. How much truth is there in the CIA's use of George Orwell's book Animal Farm. A...

Sunday Extra 21 December 2025

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

2005 was a big year for Marcus Zusak and Gill Hicks. For Markus Zusak his best seller The Book Thief was published. For Gill Hicks, 2005 was the year...

Crowdsourcing the flight of Monarch Butterfliles

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Project Monarch is a crowd-sourcing initiative that uses Bluetooth tracking technology to help scientists and butterfly enthusiasts monitor individua...

The Year that Made Me: Pauline Harley, 2011

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Toowoomba's pink-haired, motorbike-riding priest has overcome huge challenges on the road to becoming Reverend Harley.

The Excel World Championships

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew "The Annihilator" Ngai  is an actuary by day, but he has just returned from Las Vegas where he was competing in the Microsoft Excel World Cha...

Supernovas and microchips: the future of computer errors

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When an Airbus A320 made a dramatic altitude drop recently, Airbus grounded more than 6,000 planes to fix a software error that made aircraft compute...

Tweet of the week - 14 December 2025

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week's tweeter is the Sahul Sunbird - and we also accepted its former name of Olive-backed Sunbird.It's the only Sunbird found in Australia - pa...

Christmas for Australia's Ukrainian refugees

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Thousands of Ukrainian refugees came to Australia in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Many of them are now facing their fourth Christmas in Australi...

Robodebt is just one of our social service scandals

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

100 word including guest & book

Shell Game Season 2: The one-human company

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Evan Ratcliff's podcast Shell Game has returned for a second season that rivals the first for it's unsettling but comic exploration of AI. This time ...

UN mission in Iraq to end after 22 years

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On August 14th 2003, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1500, establishing the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq, at the request of t...

Can you mobilise compassion?

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It feels like compassion is dwindling in the current political climate. Can compassion be mobilised again? Or is the age of humanitarianism over? Mic...

The Year that Made Me: Katrina Watts, 1990

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katrina Watts left for Japan with the intention of staying two years. 25 years later she was still embedded in Japan, not only in language and cultur...

Tweet of the week 7 December, 2025

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week's mystery caller is Australia's only cuckoo that builds its own nest – the Pheasant Coucal.

Could robodogs replace sheep dogs?

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The sheep dog is part of Australia's farming identity. But as good dogs become more expensive and pressure mounts on farmers, could they be replaced ...

MTV - the end of an era

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

MTV was a groundbreaking media experiment when it first launched in the US in 1981.  The first channel to show 24-hour a day music videos, it was ex...

The answer to Kryptos is not the solution

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A coded puzzle embedded in a sculpture outside the CIA headquarters has been stumping cryptologists for more than 30 years until, in the lead-up to t...

Nearing Day Zero: Will Tehran run out of water?

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The citizens of Iran’s capital Tehran are facing a dire situation: the government is warning that people may soon be forced to evacuate the city be...

Do we need Castle Law in Australia?

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Victoria has followed Queensland in legislating tough new "adult crime, adult time" laws. In Victoria the new laws mean that a fourteen year old can ...

The Year that Made Me: Stelarc, 1970

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australian performance artist Stelarc has pushed the boundaries of the human body for the last 50 years, suspending himself by hooks, wiring his musc...

How the National Assistance Card helps people with invisible disabilities

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The National Assistance Card is a tool that is increasingly being used by people with invisible disabilities to communicate their needs, particularly...

Is the African Grey Parrot too clever for its own good?

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The African Grey is a very clever parrot whose capacity to mimic has made them stars on social media. But has the increased demand for them threatene...

The Science of Frankenstein

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yet another adaption of Frankenstein emerges from Netflix this month, the latest in over 100 years of screen adaptations. But in 1818, when Mary Shel...

The Science of Frankenstein

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yet another adaption of Frankenstein emerges from Netflix this month, the latest in over 100 years of screen adaptations. But in 1818, when Mary Shel...

What happens to patients when neurotechnology is abandoned?

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As interest in the possibilities of neurotechnology accelerates, there are growing concerns that some of the downsides are being overlooked. Particul...

The state of HIV prevention in 2025

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 1st December is World AIDS Day and 2025 has proven to be a very challenging year globally for those working in HIV prevention and treatment. When...

Venezuelan opposition backs US on regime change

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 2025 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, has aligned herself closely with the Trump administratio...

Londinium to Roma: an online map of the Roman Empire's roads

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A new online map has come online and while it can not give you directions for driving your car from Rome to Paris, it can tell you how long it will t...

The Year that Made Me: Anna Iltnere, 2016

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Iltnere felt the pull of the sea when she moved from Riga - the capital of Lativia - to her new home looking out on the Baltic Sea. She started ...

Tweet of the week November 23, 2025

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week's mystery caller is plainly coloured but sings with an easily recognised voice – the Pallid Cuckoo.

Robin Hood Maths - Taking back algorithms from the rich

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Big business, tech and even universities are using maths to enrich their own pockets. Maths Professor Noah Giansiracusa shows us how we can take back...

Are peanut allergies still on the rise?

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The 1990s saw huge increases in the numbers of children with peanut and other food allergies. Almost 10 years ago the guidelines were changed and par...

Quillette turns ten

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Lehmann is the founder and proprietor of the online magazine Quillette which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. What is the secret to the su...

Architecture to rival the Pyramids

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Róisín  Heneghan and her firm, Heneghan Peng Architects entered a competition to design a new museum just 2kms from the Pyramids of Giza, the...

A death sentence for former PM of Bangladesh

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia for her role in the deaths of more than 1400 people dur...

Prising open the coin laundry: how crypto is used in money laundering

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A new investigation from the consortium behind the Panama Papers reveals how some cryptocurrency exchanges profit from money laundering, scams, theft...

Tweet of the week - 16 November 2025

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week's mystery caller spreads south down the east coast in the warmer months – the Australian Rufous Fantail.

YouTube stars Dr Matt and Dr Mike present The Body A-Z

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It is the most important thing we all possess, yet many of our body’s parts and processes are a mystery: why does blood have types? How do hormones...

Future Nostalgia: Saving the Floppy Disk

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Future Nostalgia is a project from the University of Cambridge Library, taking on the archiving of Britain's floppy disks, from the lectures of Steph...

The original Australian Nazi hunters

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1986 an explosive Radio National investigation revealed that hundreds of Nazi collaborators and war criminals had settled in Australia after the S...