T he first official report from eSafety on how the government’s under-16 social media ban is going has been released. And the early picture is grim. Kids are getting around the ban, and eSafety says it has seen no drop in cyberbullying or abuse reports involving children on those platforms. So is this just a messy start, with the government right to ask for more patience? Or is it proving that you can’t fix platforms built to hook young people simply by trying to lock them out? Today, associate ...
Apr 06, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1872
Under one of the most remarkable landscapes in Australia is one of the world’s largest undeveloped reservoirs of onshore gas – and a Texas oil man wants to get it out. Project Valhalla would drill an initial 20 fracking wells across an area twice the size of Victoria in the Kimberley. And after the WA EPA recommended it for approval, the proposal is now one step closer to going ahead. The Kimberley is also the largest and most intact tropical savanna in the world – a place of living songlines, d...
Apr 05, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1871
In 2007, future United States president Donald Trump stepped into the wrestling ring for a showdown with Vince McMahon, then head of World Wrestling Entertainment and Trump’s close friend. Trump played the villain perfectly. For decades now, Trump has been shaped by a love affair with professional wrestling. It taught him how to control and manipulate a crowd, how to speak, and how to respond to criticism. It also shaped his cabinet, with Trump appointing Linda McMahon, Vince’s ex-wife, to the p...
Apr 04, 2026•15 min•Ep. 1870
For months, Jim Chalmers has been trying to write a budget about the future – productivity, reform, repair. But events have a way of dragging budgets back into the present. And right now, the present looks expensive. People are still under pressure. The economy’s been hit by another oil shock. And the Treasurer is trying to make the case for restraint without looking like he’s asking Australians to wear even more pain. So will Jim Chalmer's upcoming budget be one of reform - or crisis management...
Apr 03, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1869
Readers and writers have been left reeling after a horror novel became the first book to be cancelled over AI claims. The New York Times has reported that an AI detection program indicated that ‘Shy Girl’ was 71 percent AI generated. The news has shocked the publishing industry, with the novel discontinued in the UK and pulled from publication in America. So what are the implications for writers, for readers and for the publishing industry as AI seeps into new and frightening corners of our crea...
Apr 02, 2026•12 min•Ep. 1868
Donald Trump says Cuba's next. For decades, the United States has tried to isolate the country, but now the language is getting stronger, and a tightening of the oil blockade has brought the island to its knees. President Trump has said taking the country would be an "honour", and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says Cuba cannot fix its economy without changing its government. In Havana, officials are now preparing for the possibility of a U.S. attack. Today, Havana-based journalist Ruaridh...
Apr 01, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1867
Jeffrey Hoffman grew up on Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. He was still a boy when the space age began – Sputnik, the first American astronauts, then Apollo. From early on, he knew he wanted to be part of it. He was. Hoffman went on to fly five Space Shuttle missions, logging more than 1,200 hours in space. And today, he’ll be watching as NASA sends astronauts back around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. While Artemis II won't land on the moon – it's the next step in a plan to re...
Mar 31, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1866
It’s now one month since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran – and it looks like it may be entering a more dangerous phase. Washington is sending thousands more troops into the Middle East – with President Trump saying he wants Iran’s oil and may seize the country’s Kharg island, adding he could take it “easily”. Meanwhile, the diplomacy is confused, with Trump claiming negotiations are underway and Tehran stating there are no direct talks, while dismissing a potential U.S. proposal a...
Mar 30, 2026•18 min•Ep. 1865
Louis Theroux has spent years making television out of the people polite society prefers not to think about. In his new documentary on the Manosphere, he turns that gaze on a world of male grievance, online swagger and old misogyny dressed up in the language of self-help. In Australia, researchers and educators say that boys, women and girls are bearing the consequences of actions and attitudes turning up far beyond the screen – into classrooms, into harassment and intimidation, and in the growi...
Mar 29, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1864
In late 2023, Australia signed a landmark treaty with Tuvalu – a low-lying Pacific nation threatened by climate change – promising a special visa pathway, disaster support and closer security ties. The deal is now in force. The first climate refugees have begun arriving in Australia, and this year, Tuvalu will help host key Pacific climate talks ahead of COP. But the questions at the heart of this agreement have not gone away. As rising seas threaten the future of one of our smallest neighbours,...
Mar 28, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1863
Last weekend’s South Australian election wasn’t just a wipeout for the Liberals and triumph for Labor, it was a sign that political discontent is beginning to find a new home in an old brand: One Nation. Pauline Hanson’s party showed just how much room there is for anger on the right in a traditionally progressive state. But the rise in One Nation’s popularity isn’t just contained to SA. Nationally and in states like Victoria discontent is growing and the far right is capitalising. And with the ...
Mar 27, 2026•19 min•Ep. 1862
When Pete Hegseth faced the Senate to become Donald Trump’s defense secretary, he was grilled on everything from his lack of experience and his drinking to past controversial remarks – including that women should not serve in combat roles. But the hearing also made something else clear: Hegseth wasn’t just being chosen to run the Pentagon in the ordinary sense. He was being chosen to wage a cultural and ideological battle inside it – to bring what he called “warrior culture” back to an instituti...
Mar 26, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1861
It’s been a rollercoaster ride on the global oil market, with wild swings in petrol prices at the bowser. The war against Iran has caused panic buying in Australia and around the world. Meanwhile, our government has been criticised for not having greater reserves of petrol, diesel and jet fuel. And for not imposing higher taxes on giant gas companies, which are now raking in a fortune thanks to the war. Today, Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen on how prepared Australia is for the worst energy ...
Mar 25, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1860
Australia’s tobacco wars are fuelling violence, with fire bombings and arson attacks spanning across the east coast. Now the federal government wants to treat these organised crime syndicates like ‘drug lords’ by going after them with wire tapping and seizing their assets. And the tobacconists are in trouble too, with calls to ban tobacco stores and only sell cigarettes in supermarkets. Today, Criminologist Dr James Martin, from Deakin University on how to reign in the multi billion dollar black...
Mar 24, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1859
John Blackburn spent four decades in the Air Force, rising to Deputy Chief. For more than decade he’s been warning that Australia is too reliant on imported fuel, too light on reserves, and too exposed if a global crisis – just like this one – disrupts supply. Now, as more than hundred servos around the country run dry and a Trump ultimatum looms, threatening to make the fuel crisis worse, Australia is paying the price for our lack of preparedness. Today, Chair of the Institute of Economic Resea...
Mar 23, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1858
Like so many stories about misinformation, this one starts with a social media post. “Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed. Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM.” Not long after that, Donald Trump backtracked and set the record straight. “He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.” But in those few short hours before clari...
Mar 22, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1857
It’s been one year since dead fish began washing up on South Australian beaches, as the largest algal bloom in Australia’s history spread along the coast. Marine ecologist Dr Scott Bennett was part of the team that first surveyed the bloom – coming face to face with the algae’s devastating impact. Twelve months on, the bloom is still there, the damage has spread, and many of the warnings scientists made in those early days have proved well founded – particularly the damage to marine life. Today,...
Mar 21, 2026•14 min•Ep. 1856
South Australia does not usually wake up on election day at the centre of the national mood. But this morning, a contest that looks settled on paper is carrying a much stranger energy. Peter Malinauskas is expected to win comfortably. The real movement is happening elsewhere; in the noise around One Nation, the protest vote in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis gathering around the once marginal party, and the possibility that a state election could end up telling us something bigger about wh...
Mar 20, 2026•15 min•Ep. 1855
While the world focuses on the war underway in Iran, Israel and the Gulf, there is another war front developing – Lebanon. Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Shia group, Hezbollah dragged the country into the war, attacking Israel after a joint US-Israeli airstrike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel then hit back, bombing Beirut and amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border. Meanwhile, more than a million Lebanese people are now displaced, forced to flee their homes as t...
Mar 19, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1854
Brett Hosking is a fifth-generation grain and livestock farmer, and has seen his fair share of heartache and hard times. But this time, it’s not a natural disaster or a foreign war that’s threatening to tip farmers over the edge, but a decision from the Victorian government. The state has passed new compulsory acquisition laws which make it easier for energy companies to acquire farmers’ land and build transmission lines and renewable energy projects on it. Today, Victorian Farmers Federation Pr...
Mar 18, 2026•14 min•Ep. 1853
Australians are in for a world of pain, with mortgages and rents set to rise after our second interest rate hike in as many months. It was a line-ball decision from the Reserve Bank – with five members voting for a quarter of a percent jump and four against – putting our official cash rate at 4.1 per cent. RBA Governor Michelle Bullock says high inflation left them with no choice, but others have slammed the call. Today, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute, Greg Jericho, on why he thinks ...
Mar 17, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1852
The war in the Middle East has sent Australia’s fuel prices soaring. And people are worried that if the battle between the US-Israel and Iran continues for another month – Australia may have to begin rationing fuel. Already, drivers are panic buying, stockpiling and some country petrol stations are running dry. Global oil supplies are under threat as Iran attacks tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Today, Tim Buckley, the Director of Climate Energy Finance, and the question: as the oil shock hits h...
Mar 16, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1851
This month, one of the biggest shows in Australian radio was suddenly pulled off air. For years, Kyle and Jackie O have been treated as untouchable – a breakfast radio juggernaut that could pull huge audiences, generate endless headlines, and weather scandal after scandal. So much so that the Australian Radio Network handed the pair a $200 million deal – one of the biggest contracts Australian media has ever seen – betting Sydney's most popular breakfast show could go national. But that bet turn...
Mar 15, 2026•17 min•Ep. 1850
For some time now, an alarming number of Australian boys have been engaging with, and looking up to, the misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate. This week, the conversation about misogyny and the “manosphere” has resurfaced. Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek has accused Married At First Sight of platforming coercive control and misogyny, Netflix has released Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere , and fresh research suggests roughly 40% of teenage boys surveyed agreed that women lie about do...
Mar 14, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1849
In Canberra, accountability is often promised in moments of crisis. Much harder is what comes after. Matt Canavan has taken over the Nationals leadership, sharpening his party’s ability to confront One Nation. Former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson has walked away from the government’s antisemitism royal commission, raising fresh questions about a process already under pressure. And years after Robodebt devastated thousands of lives, a final report has landed with a reminder of just how hard real ac...
Mar 13, 2026•15 min•Ep. 1848
John Bolton has spent years arguing that bombing Iran isn’t just justified but necessary. For decades he has argued that American military force can solve the problem of hostile regimes in the Middle East. He backed the Invasion of Iraq, championed some of the most disastrous American interventions of the modern era, and despite that, he is still arguing more force, more intervention and more regime change will bring stability to the Middle East. Now, as the US escalates again, Bolton’s worldvie...
Mar 12, 2026•18 min•Ep. 1847
This week Iran announced a new Supreme Leader. Mojtaba Khamenei is the son of the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But who’s really running the country now? We look into the heavily armed elite forces pulling the strings – the Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. Today, Iranian journalist and author Arash Azizi on what direction Iran’s elite armed forces could take the country. If you enjoy 7am , the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support . Social...
Mar 11, 2026•14 min•Ep. 1846
On Sunday night, after Iran’s final game of the Women’s Asian Cup on the Gold Coast, protesters surrounded the team bus, banging on the windows and shouting “let them go”. Later, five members of the Iranian squad broke away from their minders. By Tuesday, the federal government had confirmed they had been granted humanitarian visas. The move followed days of concern about what the players might face if they returned to Iran, after several were denounced on Iranian state television for refusing t...
Mar 10, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1845
Independent MP Monique Ryan can remember a time in Australian politics when small breaches could cost a career. Now she says we’ve been gradually conditioned to tolerate corruption and the loss of transparency in parliament. Over recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of lobbyists with access to Parliament House. Literally thousands move through the building, meeting politicians and staffers; often leaving little public trace of who they’ve spoken to and why. Today, Indepen...
Mar 09, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1844
Who should hold the power to decide how AI is used on our battlefields? That’s the question being debated after a face-off between the Pentagon and one of the world’s biggest AI companies. Anthropic ultimately lost its contract with the US military after refusing to let its Claude program be used for mass surveillance of American citizens, or for fully automated weapons capable of killing with no human oversight. But now that its rival, OpenAI, has stepped into the ring and cut its own deal with...
Mar 08, 2026•16 min•Ep. 1843
