Conversations - podcast cover

Conversations

ABC Australia•www.abc.net.au
Society & Culture
Relationships
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

Falling for a fake

Stephanie Wood was a successful, confident journalist when she fell for a romantic fraudster (R)

Aug 12, 2020•52 min

The apartment on Memorial Drive

Natasha Trethewey was 19 when her mother Gwendolyn was brutally murdered. During this great rupture in her life Natasha began to garner acclaim for her poetry. In 2012 she was named America's Poet Laureate

Aug 11, 2020•51 min

The Weabonga lessons

Peter O'Brien was a new minted teacher in 1960 when he took a job at a one-room bush school in Weabonga, NSW. The living was hard, but the job was incredibly sweet

Aug 10, 2020•50 min

Myth and Legend — the creation of Wonder Woman

Historian Jill Lepore untangles the secret history of one of the 20th Century's most striking superheroes. She explains the myths, politics and eccentric genius behind behind the Wonder Woman story

Aug 05, 2020•49 min

The sister who stayed behind

Writer Favel Parrett’s grandmother fled Prague as a teenager, but her sister stayed on, and then lived through both Nazism and Stalinism (R)

Jul 28, 2020•48 min

Stan Grant's life in storytelling

Stan Grant on his life as a journalist, author and filmmaker from the Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal First Nations of Australia

Jul 27, 2020•53 min

Swimming, the Sisters of Mercy, and the search for meaning

At 15, Rebecca McCabe was on track to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics for swimming. As swam, she would often ask herself big questions about the meaning of life. When her life in the pool ended abruptly, she decided to take a huge leap of faith

Jul 24, 2020•50 min

Fascinating fungi — the intelligent kingdom

Biologist Merlin Sheldrake's extreme experiments, many of which involve his physical body and varying forms of fungi, have led to equally remarkable discoveries English biologist Merlin Sheldrake, son of Rupert Sheldrake, became fascinated by fungi when he was a boy. He grew mushrooms in his cupboard and brewed bog myrtle beer under his bed. He went on to study fungi at Cambridge University, and his research explores the interconnection between fungi and plants in what’s known as ‘the Wood Wide ...

Jul 23, 2020•50 min

Rise and fall of the Rock Star

David Hepworth charts our fascination with that most earth-bound of gods, the rock star; and discusses some of music history's striking examples

Jul 22, 2020•43 min

Eddie Woo on finding the right formula

Despite never really liking maths at school, Eddie made up his mind in the teaching sign-on queue, to become a maths teacher. This split-second decision changed his life, and the lives of many of his future students (R)

Jul 21, 2020•52 min

Floating though the dolines

Cave diver Stefan Eberhard has spent decades exploring the vast underwater caves of the Nullarbor Plains, where the water teems with blind shrimp and colourless fish, and curtains of bacterial slime hang glistening from the ceiling

Jul 20, 2020•48 min

From a mountain monastery

Paul Haller grew up Catholic in Belfast, and his pursuit of meaning has since taken him around the world. Now a Zen priest, Zen practice and teaching became Paul's calling: from retreating to a cave in Thailand; to teaching meditation, to the incarcerated, and the dying, in San Francisco

Jul 17, 2020•49 min

Lying on the job — the story of an undercover officer

Keith Banks spent twenty years in his dream career with the Queensland Police. He was awarded for bravery several times, but left the job angry and disillusioned. He now reflects on what the job and police culture were like in the 1980s and the cost of lying for a living

Jul 16, 2020•52 min

Bill Bryson and the wonders of the human body

Why is scratching an itch so pleasurable? How can someone leap from a burning plane in the sky and survive with a few bumps and scratches? A journey through the wondrous complexity of the human body (R)

Jul 15, 2020•55 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

Jul 14, 2020•47 min

Nardi Simpson on Crocodile Country

Yuwaalaraay writer, storyteller and performer, Nardi Simpson of the Stiff Gins talks about her life, art and the meaning of country

Jul 13, 2020•52 min

In Pico Iyer's Japan the air is thronged with ghosts

Pico was a journalist in New York when a 20-hour layover at Narita airport in Japan made him question everything. He decided to begin again as a monk at a Zen temple in Kyoto. But things didn't go entirely to plan

Jul 09, 2020•53 min

The raptor whisperer

Peggy McDonald has spent much of her life as wildlife carer who specialises in helping wedge-tail eagles, falcons, owls and other raptors recover their ability to fly

Jul 08, 2020•48 min

Magic mushrooms, micro-dosing and Michael Pollan

How Michael Pollan 'shook the snowglobe' of his mind by investigating the therapeutic effects of psychedelic substances In 2006 writer Michael Pollan became aware of new research into the therapeutic effects of psychedelics. He found that drugs such as LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) can help to alleviate depression, anxiety and addiction. Then he met terminally ill patients who administered large doses of these substances, and who then found themselves to be happy ...

Jul 07, 2020•52 min

Not your average dentist

Sharonne Zaks was working as a dentist when an encounter with a patient named Anna led her to develop a radical new branch of dentistry (R)

Jul 02, 2020•53 min

The life of 'Mr Eternity'

Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Arthur Stace rose before dawn to write a one-word sermon in chalk on the footpaths of Sydney. Writer Roy Williams unearthed the truth about Arthur Stace's life story with the help of those who knew him personally (R)

Jul 01, 2020•52 min
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