Conversations

Conversations draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met. Journey into their world, joining them on epic adventures to unfamiliar places, back in time to wild moments of history, and into their deepest memories, to be moved by personal stories of resilience and redemption. Hosted by Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, Conversations is the ABC's most popular long-form interview program. Every day we explore the vast tapestry of human experience, weaving together narratives from history, science, art, and personal storytelling. Conversations Live is coming to the stage! Join Sarah Kanowski and Richard Fidler for an unmissable night of unforgettable stories, behind-the-scenes secrets, and surprise guests. Australia’s most-loved podcast — live, up close, and in the moment. Find out more at the Conversations website.

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Episodes

Sophie, the ballerina and the red balloon - Chasing the impossible dream and sacrificing ambition for love

Mary Li was a star ballerina when she fell in love with Li Cunxin, her dance partner at the Houston Ballet. When their daughter Sophie was born profoundly deaf, Mary walked away from dance for many years Mary Li says she was the least likely girl to grow up to be a ballerina. She grew up in a family of eight kids in the rough and tumble of the Queensland country town of Rockhampton. But in a little timber hall, with cattle trains rolling by outside, Mary discovered a talent for dance. That talen...

Nov 06, 2020•51 min

Born to climb the Dawn Wall — Tommy Caldwell

Yosemite’s most punishing climb is the 3000ft sheer face of El Capitan mountain called the Dawn Wall. Tommy grew up exploring Yosemite and in 2015 he and his partner Kevin Jorgeson became the first to free-climb the wall (R)

Nov 05, 2020•53 min

Cheat!

The most audacious sports cheats aren't always elite athletes. Titus O'Reily takes a look at the ignoble art of winning by breaking, or bending, the rules

Nov 04, 2020•53 min

How Richard Glover survived a strange upbringing

Richard's family story is hard to beat in a game of who has the strangest parents. The Sydney broadcaster began to understand more about his eccentric mother when he met a clutch of relatives he didn't know he had (R)

Nov 03, 2020•49 min

Comedian Fiona O’Loughlin on living in the light

Fiona’s alcoholism took her a long time to acknowledge and cost her a great deal. In recent years she’s been reckoning with all that’s happened since she joined the comedy circuit and its culture of heavy drinking, as well as how she wants to live now

Nov 02, 2020•53 min

Losing baby Miles

When Annabel Bower’s fourth child Miles was stillborn, she decided to begin to break the silence around stillbirth and miscarriage

Oct 30, 2020•51 min

From the meatworks to mending men's souls

Peter Stojanovic was working in a Melbourne meatworks when a spiritual epiphany led him to a new life, working with violent men to help change their thinking Peter Stojanovic's family fled their tiny town in the former Yugoslavia because of religious persecution. Under the community regime, life was a struggle and after Peter's father became a Christian it became dangerous. Borders were closed to the outside world, but the family hatched a daring plan to escape. After they came to Australia, Pet...

Oct 29, 2020•53 min

Introducing — Days Like These

During Australia's worst bushfires Cate Tregellas and her family were forced to evacuate their home in Mallacoota and retreat to the local wharf as fire closed in. That long, terrifying night was a New Year's Eve they'll never forget. This is an episode of Days Like These, a new ABC podcast

Oct 28, 2020•29 min

How to catch a wild bull

Lach McClymont mustered hundreds of wild cattle, untouched for decades, from a remote area of the Northern Territory (R)

Oct 28, 2020•47 min

When Cathy went to Canberra

Cathy McGowan never imagined a future for herself as a politician. So when she became Federal Member for Indi she began doing politics very differently

Oct 27, 2020•51 min

Ajay Rane and the gift of the earthenware pot

Ajay is an obstetrician and urogynecologist who grew up in rural India. His father, born to one of India’s lowest classes, was also a surgeon — an improbable career that was the brainchild of Ajay’s grandmother, and funded by a whole village

Oct 23, 2020•50 min

Lamorna and the sea

When Lamorna Ash began to explore her Cornish ancestry she started work on a rusty yellow fishing trawler called the Filadelfia, scaling fish, gutting them and hauling in the nets

Oct 22, 2020•53 min

Finding Stalin's wine cellar

John Baker on hunting down a cache of rare and impossibly valuable French wine which had been hidden away by Josef Stalin, deep in the Republic of Georgia

Oct 21, 2020•50 min

Jacqui Lambie — the unlikely Senator

From painkiller addiction to parliament, Jacqui's life has been a rollercoaster (R)

Oct 20, 2020•53 min

Mary-Louise and her fourth pandemic

Epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws on life during COVID-19, the virus she classifies as both vulnerable and ruthless

Oct 19, 2020•52 min

Robert Dessaix — just as I please

Robert built a whole life out of things which sparked his curiosity, whether they were languages, people or places. But when he met his birth mother in middle age, she didn't approve of his choices

Oct 15, 2020•48 min

Psychotherapy on the couch

Demystifying the art of talk therapy and the complex relationship between therapist and patient (R)

Oct 14, 2020•52 min

Harry and the monster croc

Harry Bowman tells adventurous tales from his three decades driving tour boats in the crocodile-infested Adelaide River, including the day he saved the life of a croc named Brutus

Oct 13, 2020•48 min

Robin Ince — inside the comic mind

Becardiganed polymath Robin Ince on the fascinating brains of stand-up comics (R)

Oct 12, 2020•51 min

Jimmy Barnes — a broken homecoming

Jimmy Barnes grew up as a boy called James Swan in Glasgow, then in South Australia. In his late teens, he joined a band called Cold Chisel and became a huge star. But on and off stage Jimmy was battling the demons of his troubled childhood

Oct 09, 2020•49 min

Hetty McKinnon — lessons from my mother's kitchen

Cookbook author Hetty McKinnon was raised by a mum who was a passionate and creative cook. But Hetty was never particularly interested in cooking herself, until something happened as she grew up which changed everything

Oct 08, 2020•53 min

David Astle's brain on puzzles

How one of the world's most influential crossword setters became increasingly interested in the science behind them (R)

Oct 07, 2020•51 min

Richard and the island

Richard Flanagan on writing his apocalyptic novel on a remote island, as bushfires burned through Tasmania's forests

Oct 06, 2020•50 min

Kumi's Japanese inheritance

Television presenter Kumi Taguchi's story of searching for her Japanese heritage began with searching for her grandparent's house in Tokyo, which none of her relatives had visited for decades (R)

Oct 05, 2020•51 min

The railway child - Monica from Clare

Monica McInerney grew up in a family of railway children, as her Dad was the stationmaster in the tiny South Australian town of Clare. At 16, she left home to work as Humphrey B. Bear's wardrobe designer. Years later, she made a new life in Ireland and became a best-selling writer

Oct 02, 2020•52 min

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