Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians (R). Kadiatu is a former English academic and the mother of seven extraordinary children. All of them are gifted classical musicians. Her eldest daughter, Isata wrote and performed her first piano concerto at the age of eleven. Her son Sheku mastered the cello and performed at the royal wedding of Harry and Megan Markle. Every day the seven Kanneh-Masons, who range from early teens t...
May 30, 2025•49 min
The Irish novelist has always been open to where life can unexpectedly take him, and the excitement that comes with that kind of freedom. Colm Toibin's first big move was from rural Ireland to Dublin after his father died when he was young. Then, it was off to experience the wild hedonism and sexual liberation of post-Franco Spain, a pleasant shock after needing a prescription to buy condoms in Ireland. Since then, he's journeyed to Sudan, Los Angeles, New York and beyond. Wherever Colm goes, he...
May 29, 2025•53 min
When Hilde Hinton was on the cusp of adolescence, her mother died. For years she protected her younger siblings from the truth about their mum. Despite the great grief of her mother's shocking death when Hilde was just 12 years old, there was also a sense of relief for Hilde. She shielded her younger siblings, Samuel and Connie Johnson, from the truth of how and why their mother died. But when Connie also died, decades later of cancer, Hilde was propelled into writing her first novel, in between...
May 28, 2025•51 min
When Alex Schnell was around 5 years old, playing in rock pools around Clovelly beach in Sydney, she had an alien encounter. The creature in the shallow water in front of her was a little octopus and unlike anything Alex had seen before, and instead of darting off in fear like a fish might, to Alex it felt like the octopus was genuinely curious in her. Alex has now spent many hours observing them in the ocean, and has discovered extraordinary things about octopus intelligence, personalities, fea...
May 27, 2025•52 min
When Alex Schnell was around 5 years old, playing in rock pools around Clovelly beach in Sydney, she had an alien encounter. The creature in the shallow water in front of her was a little octopus and unlike anything Alex had seen before, and instead of darting off in fear like a fish might, to Alex it felt like the octopus was genuinely curious in her. Alex has now spent many hours observing them in the ocean, and has discovered extraordinary things about octopus intelligence, personalities, fea...
May 27, 2025•52 min
Sean Sweeney on the complications and joys of growing up as a a hearing child in a deaf family, using Auslan, a distinctively Australian sign language. In his twenties, Sean rebelled against the deaf world, and began to look for a new life in the hearing one. But after eighteen years, he returned. He found work as an interpreter at TAFE, and he met his future wife. In 2019, Sean became well known for interpreting from English to Auslan for Australia's Rural Fire Service during Australia's Bushfi...
May 23, 2025•51 min
Marcel Dirsus is fascinated by the treadmill of tyranny: how dictators gain power, how they stay there and how they fall. This is his blueprint for bringing an end to authoritarianism. With democracies seemingly faltering worldwide, political scientist and writer Marcel Dirsus is putting tyrants under the microscope to better understand how they rise and how they fall. Years ago, Marcel took a break from his university studies and travelled to central Africa, where he took a job in a brewery. On...
May 22, 2025•52 min
The bestselling Irish author grew up on a farm set on “50 acres on the side of a hill”. Growing up, she witnessed a harsh, misogynistic country that convinced her she would never marry. Claire shares what she has learned about writing from a litter of newborn piglets. Her works Small Things Like These and Foster have both been made into movies. Claire's stories often take place in the landscape where she grew up — the farms and small towns of Wexford in Southeast Ireland. Claire was the youngest...
May 21, 2025•53 min
The writer had a complex relationship with his mother, whose professional reputation built a wall between them, but also saved his life more than once while working as a war correspondent. Peter Godwin was born in Zimbabwe when the country was still under colonial rule. His English mother was the only doctor for thousands of kilometres and early on, Peter realised that he came second to her patients. When Peter was little, civil war broke out at home and so he was sent away to boarding school, a...
May 20, 2025•54 min
When Rosalie Ham was a child, her mum received a devastating diagnosis, and started an affair as a way to find herself before it was too late. This story found its way into Rosalie's best-selling book which became the hit film 'The Dressmaker' (R)
May 19, 2025•52 min
Psychiatrist Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding the mystery of human nature has driven him since he was a young doctor. Warren Ward's patients are often critically ill with diseases like anorexia. Warren says asking someone with anorexia to eat is like asking an arachnophobe to put their hand in a jar full of spiders. As a psychiatrist, Warren uses psychotherapy to help his patients. He encourages those with an eating disorder to approach their ...
May 16, 2025•52 min
When writer Hannah Kent first visited Iceland in 2003, she came across a gothic true story about Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman hanged in Iceland. That story would change her life. Hannah's arrival to the Nordic island as an exchange student in 2003 was a difficult one. On her first night in the country, she found herself stranded late at night at Keflavik Airport and desperately homesick. But within weeks, Iceland had begun to change young Hannah — its dramatic landscapes, extraordinary lig...
May 15, 2025•51 min
Claude Robinson developed a heroin habit as a young man, and spent years in jail. In 2006 he began to turn his life around for good. (CW: descriptions of drug use, addiction, and crime) (R) Claude Robinson is the manager of Rainbow Lodge, a home in inner Sydney for men just out of prison. Claude knows the place well because nearly 20 years ago he was sent there himself. Claude was a heroin addict who had taken to crime to pay for his habit and wound up in a minimum security jail. But after he as...
May 14, 2025•52 min
From relationships and loneliness, to indecision and burnout, Jemma Sbeg is your guide to navigating your 20s, and looking back on that decade with a new perspective. When Jemma Sbeg started recording a podcast in the back of her Subaru about her quarter life crisis, she had no idea just how many people she would reach. But other people her age were desperate for guidance through their 20s - a decade a lot of us romanticise before we get there, and after we leave. It's a decade of massive growth...
May 13, 2025•52 min
Jeffrey Broadfield has made building his life. It has taken him around the world, and given him a place to belong.
May 12, 2025•51 min
Winnie Dunn was a teenager when the Chris Lilley character 'Jonah from Tonga' became a national joke and as a Tongan Australian the stereotype made her feel uncomfortable. Despite being born into a big Tongan family in Western Sydney, Winnie felt conflicted about her heritage growing up. But over time her understanding of what it means to be Tongan evolved, and at the age of 28, Winnie became the first Tongan Australian to have a novel published. Conversations Live is coming to the stage! Join S...
May 09, 2025•51 min
Jamila’s craniopharyngioma had been growing for years, unbeknownst to her. In hindsight, it was her son who gave the first clue, when he stopped breastfeeding overnight at 11 months old. Today Jamila is an author, a broadcaster and the deputy managing director of Future Women, dedicated to achieving gender equity in Australian workplaces. A few years back, her life was on a powerful trajectory — she had been the chief of staff for a federal MP, written best-selling books and was a regular guest ...
May 08, 2025•53 min
Whale and dolphin researcher, Barry McGovern’s love of sea creatures started in Clare, Ireland, when as a child he met the county’s solitary, friendly dolphin, named for the singer Dusty Springfield. Barry grew up in a tiny surfing village where he knew all the bird calls off by heart. His interest in animal science led him to Edinburgh Zoo, where he fed cassowaries and regularly, accidentally spooked a flock of Chilean flamingos. He assisted on a mammal research trip in Namibia, where he learne...
May 07, 2025•51 min
After a caesarean section on his labour ward went catastrophically wrong, Adam Kay took a radical inventory of his entire life. CW: traumatic childbirth, eating disorders. Adam was not far off qualifying as an obstetric consultant in the United Kingdom, when he decided he couldn't be a doctor any longer. He couldn't face ever again experiencing the tragedy of death during childbirth, nor could he understand the blunt response from his boss in the aftermath, and so he quit doctoring altogether. A...
May 06, 2025•47 min
Briana Blackett was a journalist in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to his name. When Max and his little brother Freddy were both diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Briana left Doha to begin an entirely different life (R)
May 05, 2025•53 min
Jonno Seidler with the story of his Dad Ray, a much-loved and successful doctor, who hid his private struggles from the world. Behind closed doors, Ray Seidler was locked in a herculean fight with his own mental health. His frequent bouts of depression caused him to regularly 'run away' from his own home and family, and eventually led to his suicide. His son, Jonno Seidler, has written about his father's life, and Jonno's own mental health diagnosis, which he's been determined not to keep secret...
May 02, 2025•53 min
Erna Walraven was one of the first female zookeepers to work at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in the 1980s. Despite practical jokes from her male colleagues, like animal dung in her gumboots, Erna kept her nerve. She was born in The Netherlands, to parents who were involved in the Dutch resistance during World War II. Erna's love of languages took her to Spain, where she lived for many years with her widowed sister and young nephew. It was there she met a penniless Australian backpacker and fell in love,...
May 01, 2025•52 min
Mawunyo Gbogbo was raised as a church-going African Australian girl in the sleepy mining town of Muswellbrook, before she grew up to become a hip-hop journalist and a writer (R) Mawunyo's parents had met in Ghana, migrating to Australia when she was a baby. At high school, Mawunyo fell hard for a charismatic boy, and for the first time, she was introduced to hip hop music. When she was offered a chance to further her budding media career in New York City at the Bible of hip hop, The Source magaz...
Apr 30, 2025•52 min
Luke Hura has an innate ability to understand and communicate with animals, and for decades he's been training them for film, television and the stage. You’ve probably seen one of Luke's dogs in action — he trained Bouncer, the labrador from Neighbours, the kelpie from the film Red Dog, and the maremma who starred in Oddball. Luke has trained cats, chickens and even earned the trust of a big, black pig with tusks, whom he says was a dream to work with. Training takes patience, discipline, and en...
Apr 29, 2025•46 min
In 2007, Jeremy Austin was asked by the Royal Australian Navy to help them identify the remains of an unknown sailor from World War II. Using the best forensic DNA technology, he embarked on a quest to figure out who this man was and to track down his surviving descendants. This episode of Conversations explores DNA science, world war 2, Australian navy, history, technology, family history, HMAS Sydney, genealogy, unidentified remains
Apr 25, 2025•47 min
The Masterchef graduate shares what he learned from his grandmother, who won the lottery in Malaysia when she was a 25-year-old widow with three children to care for. After Adam's parents met and married, the family emigrated to Australia when Adam was three-years-old. He and his brother sped through school in Adelaide and Adam went on to become a lawyer. In 2010, he won the second season of Masterchef with Peter Gilmore's delicate Snow Egg, and he has been travelling the world ever since, sprea...
Apr 24, 2025•48 min
In 2023, Arnold Dix helped rescue 41 men trapped in a tunnel after it collapsed high in the Himalayas. As an engineer and tunnel expert, he was uniquely placed to assist, but Arnold also used another skill in the high risk operation: he listened to the mountain.The successful rescue made Arnold a hero to millions of people across India and it was in news all over the world, including back home in country Victoria, where the story surprised the community who knew him as a part-time truck driver a...
Apr 23, 2025•50 min
Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis grew up in Sydney, famous for its coastline and beachside existence. But for reasons beyond her control, she didn't learn to swim until she took the plunge as an adult. Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis has achieved a lot in her young life. She is a social researcher at Western Sydney University, she has represented Australia at the United Nations, she advices groups like UNESCO and a couple of years ago she was awarded the NSW Premier's Youth Medal. But for her family, Ang...
Apr 22, 2025•43 min
In 2013, Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth lost their beloved farm in Wales, it was where they'd lived for 20 years and raised their children. In the same week, Moth was diagnosed with a rare degenerative brain disease and doctors gave him just two years to live. Homeless and with their future together rapidly shrinking, Raynor and Moth decided to walk the South West Coast path. They camped wild in all weathers and often didn't have enough money for food. But amazingly, Moth's health began to im...
Apr 18, 2025•50 min
Writer and tour guide Simon Tancred on the little-known ANZAC story of how a group of POWs made a daring escape on foot to neutral Switzerland. Simon Tancred fell in love with Italy as a young man, and set up a job for himself leading hikes and tours across the country, and into the Alps. So Simon was familiar with the old trails and passes that crisscross the mountains, and which have been used for hundreds of years by shepherds, traders and travellers. But one day, someone approached him with ...
Apr 17, 2025•50 min
