When David McAllister began ballet lessons in Perth in the 1970s, being a 'ballet boy' was a kind of social death. But his school bullies helped spur him on to become one of the world's best dancers (R)
Aug 19, 2021•51 min
Journalist Mark Willacy on his investigations into alleged war crimes by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan CW: Some listeners may find elements of this conversation upsetting
Aug 18, 2021•54 min
Anna hosts Death, Sex and Money a podcast about money, race, #MeToo, and what to say when someone dies
Aug 17, 2021•52 min
From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Linda Jaivin has written a new account of China which pulls together its sprawling history
Aug 16, 2021•51 min
In 2015, Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father (CW: Domestic violence)
Aug 13, 2021•52 min
Biologist Merlin Sheldrake's extreme experiments, many of which involve his physical body and varying forms of fungi, have led to equally remarkable discoveries (R)
Aug 12, 2021•53 min
As current CEO of Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand, Molly wants to put an end to human exploitation by delivering transparent supply chains throughout the world. But whether working in the White House, or from a tiny village outside Canberra, Molly's work fulfills the purpose she discovered as a college student raised in a Quaker family
Aug 11, 2021•51 min
Roger Pulvers lived an adventurous life in the Soviet Union, Japan and Poland, before he chose a whole new identity in 1976 (R)
Aug 10, 2021•52 min
Anaesthetist Christine Ball traces the world-changing work of the man who brought an end to surgery performed on conscious patients
Aug 09, 2021•51 min
As a child, the superstar swim coach lived with a chronic lung condition, and had part of a lung removed. In 1956, a huge event held right in his family's backyard changed the course of his life (R)
Aug 06, 2021•52 min
Anna's stellar cycling career saw her smash Australian Olympic records and become the World Champion 11 times. Then to the surprise of many, she walked away (R)
Aug 05, 2021•53 min
At the age of 20, speed skater Steven Bradbury nearly died on the ice. Then he won history's most unexpected gold medal (R)
Aug 04, 2021•53 min
How a boy who grew up on a fishing trawler became the first man in Australia to run 100 metres in under 10 seconds (R)
Aug 03, 2021•51 min
Christie splits her time between training for road and track wheelchair races, holding down several jobs, and raising her family. The Tokyo Paralympics will be her seventh as a competitor, but Christie almost gave up marathons after the 2013 Boston Marathon, and the most frightening experience of her life (CW: mention of suicide)
Aug 02, 2021•55 min
How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctor
Jul 30, 2021•53 min
From his daily coffee addiction to the 'war on drugs', science writer Michael Pollan's research into three psychoactive substances derived from plants was broad in scope. In this episode he talks about how caffeine, opium and mescaline affect our brains, change us as people, and make a profound impact on societies that use them (CW: Drug references)
Jul 29, 2021•52 min
Brisbane-born Carol followed her heart to Papua New Guinea in the 1960s. Her husband, Buri Kidu, a young lawyer from a village near the capital with a deep sense of duty went on to became the nation's first Indigenous Chief Justice. After Sir Buri's premature death, Carol entered politics, blazing a trail for women in a intensely patriarchal political system
Jul 28, 2021•51 min
Philosopher Tim Dean on why human morality needs an update for the modern world
Jul 27, 2021•52 min
When archaeologist Dr Jamie Fraser opened an 'empty' Egyptian sarcophagus, he found a 2600 year old mummy of a temple Priestess inside (R)
Jul 26, 2021•51 min
Being a single mother and student doctor in 1960s Ireland was merely the 'first act' in Caroline's gutsy adult life. She became a pioneering obstetrician, delivering sometimes contraband contraception, and babies, for fifty years
Jul 23, 2021•53 min
Gordon Parker is the founder of the Black Dog Institute, which works to remove the stigma around depression, mental illness and bipolar disorder. For the past few years he's been looking closely at the phenomenon of burnout at home and at work
Jul 22, 2021•54 min
From Scotland's Orkney Islands, stories of how a chance meeting in a pub led Andrew Greig to climb the Himalayas, how golfing helped him recover from a near death experience, and his quest for the Loch of the Green Corrie
Jul 21, 2021•52 min
A former ABC chief foreign correspondent, Philip began at the ABC as a stagehand in 1975. He left the organisation 46 years later after reporting from Japan, Washington, the Middle East, Nyngan and the Ukraine
Jul 20, 2021•54 min
When Anne was ten, she walked onto the school playground and a girl spat in her face after calling her ‘a dirty, Arab Muslim’. To her shock, her teacher did nothing. The incident changed how she saw the world, and helped set her on the path to becoming the first Australian Muslim woman elected to parliament (R)
Jul 19, 2021•53 min
Darwin's Ben Graetz on becoming one of Australia's best-known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Drag Queens
Jul 16, 2021•51 min
Surf-loving athlete Nick Marshall is a former professional ironman. Now a physiotherapist, he's created a new way for kids with special needs to be included at the beach (R)
Jul 15, 2021•53 min
Megan Davis was raised as a 'Queensland Rail kid', then in a book-loving household in a housing commission home. She grew up to become a lawyer at the UN, then began a history-making process of helping Australia's First Nations people speak the truth to power
Jul 14, 2021•51 min
Zooarchaeologist Dr Melanie Fillios uses the remains and fossils of animals, including dingoes, to understand more about ancient humans (R)
Jul 13, 2021•54 min
George Megalogenis looks at the Morrison government's response to the pandemic so far, and asks whether the 'exit strategy' fully comprehends the changed landscape of the post-COVID world
Jul 12, 2021•53 min
Cheryl is a Wadjuk traditional owner playing the long game in the Swan Valley community where she grew up (R)
Jul 09, 2021•50 min
