The Briefing
Episodes
Is Boeing an airplane manufacturer in crisis?
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's been a lot of attention on Boeing recently, after a spate of inflight incidents. In January, a Boeing 737 Max on a flight from Portland to O...
Harmony Day's racist roots
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today is Harmony Day when Australia celebrates its multiculturism and diversity, but did you know we’re the only country who does? It’s because Au...
Monique Ryan wants you to pay less on your HECS debt
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, over half a million Australians saw their HECS debt grow faster than it was being repaid. Teal Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan says it’s...
Why are families with twins, triplets and quadruplets overlooked in Australia?
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, a report found that Australia offers the least amount of parental leave support to parents of multiples in the OECD. In fact, extra payment...
Who is Banksy? After decades of anonymity, we might be about to find out
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Banksy is the artist behind the most famous, subversive and satirical street art on the planet. Yet despite their notoriety over the last two decades,...
If the US bans TikTok, will Australia follow suit?
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US is moving to ban TikTok after a bill passed through its House of Representatives last week. It’s given TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about...
Behind Putin's rigged, but significant, Russian election
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vladimir Putin has been re-elected as Russia’s president for the fifth time over the weekend. Before the polls even opened all serious challengers h...
Why won’t Egypt let Palestinians cross the border?
17 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The war between Israel and Hamas has been raging for five months, more than 30,000 people have been killed, and it’s spawned a massive refugee crisi...
Patrick deWitt on creativity and age
16 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick deWitt is an award winning author, and screenwriter. In this chat with Tom Tilley, Patrick talks about his latest novel The Librarianist, and ...
Veronica B on comedy and Crohn's disease
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sydney-based content creator Veronica B is many things, but she’s perhaps best known for her hilarious comedy skits where she plays Aunty Salma, a c...
How Salad Fingers pioneered the weird part of the internet
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The first ever academic study has finally been written about Salad Fingers, a video series created in 2004 that later went viral on YouTube. Salad Fin...
The deepfake voice scam that you need to be prepared for
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a new phone-scam that’s being reported around the world, and it’s petrifying. It uses an AI generated cloned version of a loved one, who...
What's behind the chaos in Haiti?
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Haiti has been all over international headlines this week, and it’s culminated in the Caribbean country’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry being forced ...
Cheek Media shares its game plan in Meta's media war
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook and Instagram could soon be wiped of news content. It’s after their parent company Meta, announced it will stop paying for news content in ...
Should the world’s first female hijacker be allowed into Australia?
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1969, Leila Khaled became the world's first female aeroplane hijacker when she took control of a flight from Rome to Tel Aviv. Now, at almost 80, s...
Real Estate Royal Commission - The Policymaker
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia’s housing market has been in crisis for years and it only seems to be getting worse. Interest rate hikes last year have pushed many famili...
Why we need to cut through Australia's Tall Poppy Syndrome
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia’s love of an underdog is really special and unique – we're always cheering on the Aussie battler. It goes hand in hand with our beli...
Real Estate Royal Commission - The Renter
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia’s housing market has been in crisis for years and it only seems to be getting worse. Interest rate hikes last year have pushed many famili...
A Royal photo has shown our unhealthy relationship with conspiracies
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The first official photo of the Princess of Wales since her abdominal surgery has been released. It shows Kate smiling while surrounded by her three ...
Real Estate Royal Commission - The Agent
10 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The housing crisis in Australia is well documented and much debated. All sides of politics have their own ideas to tackle rising rents, supply issues ...
Wendell Sailor on racism in footy
09 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wendell Sailor represented Australia in both rugby league and rugby union at the highest level in the 90s and 2000s. Now, he spends his afternoons on ...
Life after reality TV with Clare Verrall
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Clare Verrall was a contestant on season two of Married At First Sight - and by her description, she was “hurled into the lion’s den”. In this c...
Alabama's debate on IVF - is a frozen embryo an unborn child?
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alabama has been in a state of turmoil after a legal case had unexpected consequences by implying that frozen embryos could be interpreted as having t...
This IWD, is Australia doing all it can on reproductive rights?
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve seen two major decisions affect the reproductive rights of women in the lead up to International Women’s Day: the decision of the Alabama Su...
Mark Butler explains why the government is cracking down on vapes
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The importation of all non-therapeutic vapes is now illegal in Australia. This means anyone wanting to import a vape into the country needs a licence ...
This farmer has beef with PFAS - and that's a serious problem
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
PFAS are known as forever chemicals, and they're really bad for the environment - they never break down, and can spread into waterways, land, animals....
Why today was always going to be Donald Trump's Super Tuesday
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's Super Tuesday in the US presidential election, but the biggest day in America's primary season won't be like any other we've seen in recent histo...
Meet the Aussies going to Rome for the World Cup of gay rugby
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know there is a World Cup of Gay Rugby? Technically called The Bingham Cup, it's an international tournament for gay and inclusive rugby teams...
How screens rob kids' brains of words
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are you concerned by seeing young children glued to iPads or screens out in public? Or are you a parent of one of those children, wondering how much s...
Where you can find the fees for every GP in Australia
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For many, going to the doctor can be a financially painful experience. It can be difficult to find out how the prices of GPs compare in your area, nev...
Why nangs are no laughing matter
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You’ve probably heard of 'nangs', the canisters full of nitrous oxide. The laughing gas can help whip your cream - but used incorrectly, it can also...
Why are our casinos so dodgy?
03 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Australian casino industry has been in strife for years, and the latest iteration is another enquiry into Sydney’s Star. The second Bell review ...
Aussie pop-guitar duo Royel Otis on surprise success and rock star tours
02 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic make up the Aussie pop-guitar duo Royel Otis. The pair are living the rock star life on tour, currently being in the m...
Rowi Singh on beauty, influence and representation
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rowi Singh is a Sydney-based artist and beauty influencer. She’s a proud Indian-Australian woman, and melds Indian and Western culture in many of th...
Is social media becoming a bit shit?
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Do you remember the early days of Facebook and Instagram? When your feed was filled with content you actually wanted like your friends’ updates and ...
Will the vaping ban create a new generation of ciggie smokers?
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The crackdown on vaping goes into its next stage today, with the government making it illegal to import any non-therapeutic vapes, that includes recha...
Meet the "A-Team", the spies who tried to steal Australia's secrets
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An elite foreign spy group called 'A-Team' has been targeting Australian students, academics, law enforcement officials, a former politician and even ...
The NRL is launching in Las Vegas. Can it win over the US?
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The NRL will create history this month and launch season 2024 in Las Vegas, USA. Two games will be played in prime time: Sea Eagles v Rabbitohs & ...
'I’d never heard of ovarian cancer - until Mum got it'
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Ovarian cancer wasn't even on my radar." February is ovarian cancer awareness month in Australia. It's a cruel disease, with 70% of patients discov...
Why this silent cancer flies under the radar
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ovarian cancer is a silent scourge in Australia. Most people know little about it, there aren’t any tests you can do to detect it early, and that me...
Is Taylor Swift bad for the environment?
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Swift has finished her run of sold-out concerts here in Australia, playing in front of over 600,000 fans throughout the tour. Yet with events o...
Why are we heading to the moon again?
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
American firm Intuitive Machines made history last Friday when its lunar lander touched down on the Moon. It’s the first private company to land on ...
How friends of Jesse Baird want him to be remembered
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Police have charged a New South Wales police officer, Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, with the murder of former Network Ten presenter, Jesse Baird, and...
How two years of war in Ukraine has changed the world
25 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been two years since the start of the war in Ukraine, and both Russia and Ukraine appear to be at a stalemate. Russia has been making tiny terr...
Kumi Taguchi on the importance of sharing our stories
24 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kumi Taguchi is an Australian journalist, broadcaster and presenter living in Sydney. She’s currently the host of Insight on SBS, which many would c...
Josh Szeps on why we need to have uncomfortable conversations
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Szeps wants us all think about having more uncomfortable conversations. The Australian media personality and podcast host, who recently departed ...
AI is changing the way we teach kids in Australia
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This year, the Australian government have rolled out a national framework guiding the use of AI, including Chat GPT, to be used within school classroo...
Are Millennial parents everything that's right with Generation Alpha?
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are we raising a generation of soft kids? Millennial parents are getting blamed for everything that seems to be wrong with Generation Alpha: that they...
A young woman speaks out from inside Rafah, Gaza's violent last refuge
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
March 10th is the deadline Israel has given Hamas to release the remaining hostages before Israel launches a massive, troops-on-the-ground invasion of...
Could rentvesting be your secret to beating the housing crisis?
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More and more Australians are choosing rentvesting as their way into the property market. It’s basically buying in a high rent areas as an investmen...
Will the Woolies CEO retiring change anything for you at the checkout?
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At 8:30am today, Woolworths announced its CEO Brad Banducci is retiring after eight years in the top job. Woolworths announced to the stock market t...
Should pharmacists be given more power to issue prescriptions?
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pharmacists are being given more power to give and refill prescriptions. It comes as more and more GPs opt out of bulk billing and a doctor shortage i...
Is Sydney's asbestos mulch crisis about to spread across the country?
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sydney is currently dealing with a widespread asbestos-contaminated mulch investigation, with 45 locations - including potentially six schools - conta...
Who are the 41,000 victims of our growing human trafficking market?
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The number of people charged with human trafficking in Australian Federal Police is growing year on year. We’re talking about forced marriage, sexua...
The stunning bravery and suspicious death of Alexei Navalny
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The man many considered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most powerful critic, Alexie Navalny, is dead. His death comes after a highly publicise...
Dementia: The growing challenge to Australians as they age
18 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are 450,000 Australians living with Dementia. Our parents or grandparents drift away from us as the disease takes hold. So are we doing enough t...
Tony Armstrong on why hard work doesn’t always pay off
17 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Armstrong is a proud Gamilaroi man and former AFL player, turned TV presenter, podcaster and two time Logie winner. With his moustache and cheeky...
Azure Antoinette and her friendship with Antoinette Lattouf
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Azure Antoinette is a Grammy nominated poet, a corporate crisis fixer, a public speaker and a global ambassador for living with multiple sclerosis. Az...
Are we too Swift in criticising obsessed popstar fans?
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Swift is the talk of the town, with the icon shortly kicking off her leg of the Australian Eras Tour show tonight in Melbourne. The hype is rea...
Australia eliminated measles. Here's why it's making a comeback
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Measles is making a comeback. Here’s what you need to know. Australia was declared Measles-free ten years ago, but a resurgence in cases, largely fr...
Tasmania is heading to an early election. Here's why you should care
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tasmania, currently the last Liberal government in the country, will head to an election more than a year earlier than planned. Yesterday, Premier Jer...
The growing divide between Gen Z, Millennials and everyone else
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gen Z or a Millennial? You’ve probably been told you’re more likely to vote toward the left of the political spectrum, only to drift further right...
We need to talk about flowers, chocolate, and consent this Valentine's Day
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Valentine’s Day for most usually means overpriced chocolates, flowers, presents (and maybe even sex). But Chanel Contos says it's also a particularl...
The big green gimmick - does your climate action make a difference?
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re all recycling, buying electric cars, taking paper and recycled bags to the supermarket, but do our climate change actions really move the need...
Like the Olympics, but on steroids. Meet the Enhanced Games
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong to Russia systematically doping its Olympic athletes, there has been no shortage of drug cheating scandals in t...
What the climate catastrophe in Antarctica means for Australia
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change is having an incredible impact on the continent of Antarctica. Historic drops in sea ice are accelerating the melt of ice sheets and th...
Barnaby Joyce was filmed while laying on the ground. Does it matter?
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Did you see the video and memes over the weekend of Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce lying down next to a planter box on a ...
What happened to the Aussie apprentice?
11 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Australia has a dire shortage of apprentices. Some say it’s because of low pay and physically demanding work. Others argue Generation Z is simply to...
Josh Thomas and his gloriously messy homecoming
10 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Thomas became a house hold name after his series Please Like Me was nominated for an Emmy, hitting the global stage. The Aussie comedian has spen...
Ellie Cole found true happiness once she stopped swimming
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ellie Cole is Australia's most decorated female Paralympian, but that’s not what bought her happiness. When Ellie claimed her seventeenth Paralympic...
Should the Supreme Court kick Donald Trump out of the US election?
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US Supreme Court has a massive decision to make – whether to kick Donald Trump off the ballot in the 2024 election. It follows a decision of...
Is it right to medicate our dogs so they can live longer?
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The dog-loving world went into meltdown recently, with the announcement of a brand new drug to help increase the life expectancy of large-breed dogs. ...
#legginglegs is banned on TikTok. Here's why it wasn't a good fit
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have you seen the #legginglegs hashtag that was circulating on TikTok and Instagram? The trend saw female influencers posting videos of themselves wea...
You need to calm down - Taylor Swift and the MAGA conspiracy
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Swift is a global superstar. She’s sold over 200 million records and is the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time. And now she’...
Should we get the 'right to disconnect' from work?
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How often do you work outside of your paid hours? Are you checking emails, or Teams messages, or taking phone calls when you could be spending that ti...
How much money you'll get back under the stage 3 tax cuts
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Albanese government’s tax plan will see Australian women taxpayers, on average, receive a tax cut of $1,649 from 1 July. Childcare workers, dis...
Why Australia will be in limbo if King Charles gets too sick to rule
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
News broke this morning that King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer, with an official release from Buckingham Palace stating that while he "remai...
Why 16,000 livestock are stuck at sea with nowhere to go
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
16,000 sheep and cattle have been stranded on a ship off the coast of WA for just over a month. The livestock were being exported to the Middle East b...
Do police belong at a pride march?
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of people marched down the streets of St Kilda, south of Melbourne, yesterday for the annual Victorian LGBTQIA+ pride march at Midsumma fest...
Could the collapse of China's biggest property developer lead to another GFC?
04 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Evergrande used to be a market giant, and now it's become the poster child of the bust. It received a liquidation order from a Hong Kong court on Mond...
How Caleb Finn became one of the most influential Aussies on social media
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Caleb Finn was named the 2nd most influential Australian on social media in 2022, known for his avant-garde, dress-ups, and short horror stories. He h...
After 40 years, is Medicare living up to its promise?
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Medicare is 40 years old this month, and the little green card is now a ubiquitous presence in our wallets and on our phones. It has become a point of...
New Year’s resolution already failed? Here’s why
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Up to 80 percent of new years resolutions fail by the end of January. So what is our obsession with starting fresh in the new year? Dr Gordon Spence f...
The spicy legal battle over who really invented butter chicken
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For many Australians, Indian food equals butter chicken. It’s delicious and creamy and it’s incredibly popular here and across the world. But it...
Inside the hunt for the spy who betrayed Australia
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The latest series in the Secrets We Keep podcast is called “Nest of Traitors” and follows LiSTNR journalist Joey Watson’s three-year journey to ...
Is recycling in Australia just rubbish?
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us try to do the right thing with recycling. We sort our rubbish into plastics, cardboard and paper, and our landfill waste, in the hope we’...
How Australia's 'Stop the boats' policy got exported to the UK
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to pass a bill that would allow the UK to deport refugees, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants to Rwanda. Th...
How worried should you be about neo-Nazism in Australia?
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While a neo-Nazi demonstration was shut down in Sydney over the Australia Day long weekend, this isn't the only time that white supremacist groups hav...
Christian Hull on the nine-month cruise blowing up TikTok
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A ship called The Serenade of the Seas has embarked on a nine-month cruise, visiting more than 60 countries across all seven continents. It's being ha...
AI can now predict future events in human lives
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The potential for artificial intelligence is indisputable. Though it has just been over a year since Chat GPT launched, now over 100 million people us...
Is a private school education worth the money?
28 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With annual fees pushing $50,000 at Australia's costliest elite private schools in 2024, it's time to look at what the data says on student performanc...
Our first female Muslim boxer, Tina Rahimi, is going to the Olympics
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tina Rahimi is one of the 12 boxers who have been selected to represent Australia at the Paris Olympics this year. She’s already made history withou...
Three powerful stories that show us what Australia Day means in 2024
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What does January 26 really mean to ordinary Australians in 2024? Yevheniia Cherkasova found safety in Melbourne after she fled the war in Ukraine w...
How the Voice referendum impacts our attitude to Australia Day
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This year’s Australia Day comes after the defeat of the indigenous Voice to parliament last year - and the decision by a number of big retailers to ...
Luke and Sassy Scott on becoming a parent through overseas surrogacy
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There are many ways in Australia to have children if you can’t physically procreate. You can foster or look into adoption - or you can find a surrog...
Forget Margot Robbie. Meet the Aussie who is nominated for an Oscar
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our chat with Nicky Bentham, an Australian movie producer living and working in London. Nicky’s been nominated for an Academy Award for her work p...
Crypto had a big year in 2023. What's in store in 2024?
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We stare into the crystal ball to see what's in cryptocurrency's future in 2024. Last year saw the notorious high-profile crypto court cases involving...
Why the biggest election year in world history threatens democracy
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 will be the largest single election year in human history, with voters representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s population going to th...
Google it: How 'doing your own research' can make you believe anything
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you've been online at all in the last decade, you would've seen the phrase 'do your own research' in likely hundreds of comments sections. It turns...
Scott Morrison has officially announced that he'll retire from politics
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scomo is finally calling it – the former PM announced today he will be stepping down from federal parliament. It closes a wild chapter in Australia...