When stripper and tattoo artist Ally Colquitt was arrested for drug dealing, it became a turning point. Inside her jail cell, she began reading, drawing, and embarked on the painstaking process of rebuilding her life from its ashes (CW: mentions suicide, grief and loss, drug use)
Joyce Morgan with the story of Elizabeth Von Arnim, the Australian-born literary sensation who captivated Victorian London
Entomologist Dr Trevor Lambkin says the main thing butterfly collectors need is a sense of adventure — something he has honed over 40 years of travel to the Torres Strait
After an early life spent surfing around the world, an Australian businessman got serious about his career and created a global tool for measuring peace in every country, and has since been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize
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 (R)
Midwife Christian Wright with tales of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land, helping Yolŋu women birth their babies (R)
Mandy's life changed completely in 2013 when she fell terribly ill with sepsis. Since then, with prosthetic replacements for all four limbs, she has learned to walk and drive again, and she doesn't want applause for living her life like everyone else (CW: mention of suicide) (R)
When Sue-Ellen Kusher was growing up in Brisbane suburbia, behind closed doors her Dad was an ASIO spy, training his three children as foot soldiers in the Cold War (R)
Gurindji man and ABC presenter Charlie knew a little about his mum's life story as he grew up. But after she died, he began to reckon with what she had lived through as a child (CW: contains mention of ATSI people who have died; mentions of sexual violence) (R)
A cat, a hawk, a monkey, a crow and a lop-eared rabbit: animals who walked into the lives of five people leaving the humans to wonder, 'What am I to this creature?' (R)
William returns to reminisce about the Christmases of his childhood and his brief but brilliant stint as a department store Santa (R) William returns with stories and reminiscences of the Christmases of his childhood. Under the tree would be K-Tel gadgets and pop albums, bottles of cheap aftershave and perfume, and a Christmas stocking stuffed with small toys, an orange and a jar of pickled onions. William also recounts his brief but brilliant career as a department store Santa, and a stint as t...
American novelist Ann Patchett reflects on the men who made her, going a year without shopping and her power to make herself invisible
As a child, Jamie Teh wanted a computer of his own so badly, he used to pretend, using his dad's business calculator. As an adult, he used this obsession to give online access to more than 100,000 blind computer users around the world, for free
Michael Curran met his friend Jamie at a music camp for blind children. Within a few years they had invented a free software to give more than 100,000 blind people around the world the power to use the internet Michael Curran lives on a property north of Brisbane with his wife and their two kids and their menagerie of animals. A few years ago he set up a ground-breaking software company with his childhood friend Jamie. Michael and Jamie are both blind, and the software they developed helps blind...
The Australian actor and writer measures the major events of his life against big moments in Australian cricket, including the nadir of his performing life when he was cast as an angry chicken
At 100cm tall, Rima is one of the smallest people in the world. But throughout her life, she's demanded to be heard (R)
Dennis Altman is an avowed Australian republican, but he can see the use of constitutional monarchies in times of transition. The question is: do they have the ability to withstand pressure from autocrats?
Kate Legge traces the lives of pioneering naturalists Kate Cowle and Gustav Weindorfer in Tasmania's sublime wilderness (R)
Jess Hill was a teenage magazine founder, a travel writer, a Middle East correspondent and a survivor of serious illness before she wrote her groundbreaking book on domestic violence
Novelist John Grisham with his life story; from his work as a trial lawyer, to writing, and how he became involved in a movement using DNA testing to exonerate the innocent
Abbas Nazari was a 7 year old refugee on a sinking fishing boat in the Indian Ocean when he was rescued by the MV Tampa, just as Australia closed its doors to asylum seekers. After being given a home in New Zealand, Abbas grew up to become a Fulbright scholar
The Mandandanji, Darambal and Wangan woman's career in theatre has taken her from Roma, in outback Queensland, around the world, with a brief break as a guard at a children's hospital
When Ken Henry was starting out in his career, Australia was known as the 'miracle economy'. Economics got inside him and Ken eventually helped the country sail through the 2008 global financial crisis
Linguist Kate Burridge with the story of how Old English began on a small, damp island on the periphery of the world
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 (R)
Elizabeth Osborne with tales of struggle, love and grief from raising her five kids as a single mum, and the moment she saw her youngest, World Champion surfer Mick Fanning survive a shark attack on live TV
Joanne Petersen recalls working as a personal assistant to The Beatles' manager, the freedom of the Swinging Sixties in London and eloping to the Bahamas with a Bee Gee
Nadia Wheatley with the stories of two women ahead of their time: the writer Charmian Clift and her own mother Nina Watkin.Two decades ago, Nadia published her acclaimed biography of the late Australian writer Charmian Clift. Charmian is best known for her memoirs Peel Me A Lotus and Mermaid Singing about her family's poverty-stricken but wildly romantic life on the Greek Islands in the early 50s and 60s. While her husband George Johnston worked on his novel My Brother Jack, Charmian also tried ...
Samantha Wheeler’s daughter Charlotte has Rett Syndrome, a rare ‘locked-in’ disorder (R)
Much-loved broadcaster and writer Wendy was born with a cleft lip and palate, into a struggling family. As a young journalist she saw an anarchic cabaret show which changed the course of her life Wendy has enjoyed huge success over four decades as a comedian, tv host, a radio presenter and the author of many books for children and adults. She’s come a very long way from her origins in country Victoria, where she was born with a double cleft lip and palate. Her family moved from town to town, and...
