Mama Simba — love and Tanzania
Donna Duggan fell in love with a Tanzanian man and together they built a safari company, before an accident changed everything (R)
May 27, 2021•53 min
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
The turtle effect — their mysterious allure and surprising history
Louise Pryke returns with a cultural history of turtles. With stories ranging from ancient times to modern day, and from turtle tears to Al Capone, Lou attempts to understand why they are such a widely-loved creature
May 26, 2021•48 min
A magical life — escapologist and illusionist Arthur Coghlan
Arthur made his name escaping from a locked 44-gallon drum in a pool of pool of sharks. His death-defying escapes in the late 1970s earned him the title of 'Australia's Houdini', and he was magician in residence at the Magic Castle on the Gold Coast. At 89 years of age he is still performing
May 25, 2021•50 min
Christiaan Van Vuuren's fully sick life
While confined to hospital with a rare form of tuberculosis, Christiaan found love and an entirely new path (R)
May 24, 2021•51 min
The girl who ran away to sea — the making of Kathryn
Working as a deckhand on a fishing trawler became the refuge Kathryn Heyman needed from the wreckage of her early life. Hitchhiking to Darwin, then working in the Timor Sea, far from her old life, helped her remake herself (CW: Sexual assault)
May 21, 2021•52 min
Let them ring — Paul Livingston on making a great big noise
Paul is a musician, author and performer best known for his comedic alter-ego, Flacco. In recent years he's joined an eclectic band of people who ring the bells at his local church tower in inner Sydney. He's also been working as a volunteer, listening to and writing down the stories of people at the end of their lives
May 20, 2021•51 min
Jessica Cottis — inside the colour of sound
Jessica is an orchestral conductor and also a synesthete who 'sees' colour in her mind's eye. As an organ virtuoso she performed in some of Europe's great cathedrals. When forced to retire, Jessica re-trained as a conductor, making her debut at the BBC Proms. Australian born, she returns often, to work with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra
May 19, 2021•53 min
The mystery of broken-hearted syndrome
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp reveals how emotional shock can be fatal (R)
May 18, 2021•48 min
Henry Reynolds and the truth
One of the foremost historians of black and white Australia, Henry says now is the time to acknowledge how the country was founded. Frontier violence, the myth of peaceful settlement, and the failure of the British to make treaties with the First Nations have led to consequences we still live with today (CW: material might be distressing to ATSI listeners)
May 17, 2021•52 min
Henry Reynolds and the truth
One of the foremost historians of black and white Australia, Henry says now is the time to acknowledge how the country was founded. Frontier violence, the myth of peaceful settlement, and the failure of the British to make treaties with the First Nations have led to consequences we still live with today (CW: material might be distressing to ATSI listeners) When Henry moved to Townsville to teach history in 1965, there were almost no mentions of Aboriginal people in the core Australian history te...
May 17, 2021•52 min
How a doctor's suicide broke the silence
Gastroenterologist Andrew Bryant's active, social and positive exterior gave no hint of the depression he was suffering. Days after his tragic death his wife Susan wrote an email making it clear she and her adult children were not ashamed of the way he died. It went viral (CW: suicide)
May 14, 2021•52 min
New York, Oenpelli, the Village People and me
Allen Murphy was raised in New York and grew up to become a drummer for The Village People. When he arrived in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory he fell in love with Indigenous culture and music, and knew he'd found home (CW: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this episode includes the name of a person who has died.)
May 13, 2021•47 min
A Renaissance scholar on love, power, Florence and folly
Dale Kent is a Professor of Italian history who grew up in Australia. Rejecting her Christian Science upbringing, Dale forged an unapologetic life of her own design. She lived and worked in Europe and then in the US where she taught at the University of California for 25 years
May 12, 2021•52 min
The family and the jail sentence — the ripple effect of losing a parent to prison
Dennis Van Someren works as a transport volunteer with young people going to visit a parent in the prison system. Dennis does the work because he's been in their shoes (R)
May 11, 2021•44 min
Knuckles, ruffles, flesh-bags and fences: the story of Australia's first dictionary
Kel Richards with the story of the gentleman thief James Hardy Vaux, who wrote Australia's first dictionary of convict slang
May 10, 2021•51 min
Inside the world of Australian camel vet Margie Bale
Margie's car is loaded with ultrasounds, milk crates and angle grinders: all things needed when tending to seven ft camels in the middle of nowhere (R)
May 07, 2021•52 min
Love and letting go — Sarah, Eric, and Coco
When Sarah Sentilles became a foster parent she gave herself wholeheartedly to caring for baby Coco. A year later her understanding of love, motherhood and herself were utterly transformed (CW: Adoption)
May 06, 2021•52 min
Enron, schizophrenia, the Bowls Club and me - the life of Glenn Jarvis
Glenn was working at Enron in London when his mental health began to unravel. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and lost nearly everything. Then a Bowls Club in Queanbeyan helped him begin again
May 05, 2021•46 min
Kitty Flanagan's unlikely path to comedy
Kitty has woven together a series of true stories from her life including being locked in a crayfish freezer for talking too much (R)
May 04, 2021•52 min
Confronting my grandmother the Baba Yaga
Krissy Kneen grew up under the strict control of her grandmother, Lotty, who was the eccentric and sometimes cruel matriarch of her small family. Krissy was forbidden to investigate Lotty's past or ask why she'd come to Australia from Slovenia via Egypt. The extraordinary truth of Lotty's life could only be told after Lotty's death
May 03, 2021•55 min
Sarah Dingle — finding my donor dad
Sarah was twenty-seven when she discovered she had been conceived using a sperm donor. When she set out to find her biological father, she found out the truth about the global fertility business
Apr 30, 2021•51 min
Hope, hype and exploitation — the wild history of stem cell science
Physician scientist Professor John Rasko on some of the charlatans and shining lights from the problematic and often tragic field of regenerative medicine. Long regarded as a coming salvation, the full potential of stem cells is yet to be realised. John de-mystifies our understanding of the science and explains why there's reason for hope
Apr 29, 2021•52 min
The blue budgie in Berlin — Gisela Kaplan's story
Animal behaviourist Gisela Kaplan grew up in devastated post-WWII Berlin, forced to eat soap and wild nettles to survive. A brilliant student who loved music, she trained as an opera singer and an academic. Decades later, after adopting a magpie nestling, she began a new chapter as one of the world's leading authorities on the lives of Australia’s native birds
Apr 28, 2021•52 min
The green suitcase and the secret family
Betty O'Neill's father disappeared when she was a baby. Decades later, inside a tiny apartment in the Polish city of Lublin she opened a green suitcase to find a huge clue to his secret life Betty O'Neill grew up in country New South Wales with her mum Nora. Nora worked in hotels in Kyogle and Coffs Harbour, and because she wasn't able to live at the hotels with her mum, Betty was often fostered out to families in the local area. Nora was what was known in the 1950s as a 'deserted wife'. Her hus...
Apr 27, 2021•53 min
The bloody futility of WWI's Battle of Passchendaele
Historian Paul Ham and the story of the terrible 'wearing down war' that took place in Ypres (R)
Apr 26, 2021•52 min
Meeting Japan's ghosts
The story of the 2011 earthquake that triggered multiple disasters in Japan, and took many thousands of lives, as told by Richard Lloyd Parry (CW: descriptions may be distressing) (R)
Apr 23, 2021•51 min
Veronica Gorrie stands up
Ronnie looks back on the ten years she worked as a police officer; the childhood which shaped her, and pays tribute to the guiding strength of her proud Aboriginal father (CW: family violence)
Apr 22, 2021•51 min
Helen Zaltzman is the Allusionist
Lacking the patience required to work on a dictionary, Helen turned her abiding interest in language into the subject of a highly successful podcast. Her search for curious and revealing stories about language has taken her around the world (R)
Apr 21, 2021•52 min
Territory taxidermist — Jared Archibald
Jared spent his childhood behind the scenes at the Museum of the Northern Territory, up close to prehistoric kangaroo fossils, opulent trading pearls, and sacred crocodiles flown in from Arnhem Land. Then he became the museum's taxidermist (R)
Apr 20, 2021•48 min
Lily Brett — love and Shelter Island
New York-based Australian writer Lily Brett moved her family to Shelter Island during the pandemic. There she's found a different speed of life and been adjusting to the absence of her late father. Now in her 70s, Lily's also been thinking about what it means to be old
Apr 19, 2021•48 min
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