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

From Antioch to Syracuse and Tyre

Historian Katherine Pangonis with stories from five cities of the ancient world, from their splendour in antiquity to their comparatively modest twilight

Oct 03, 2023•53 min

Confessions of a drama kid

Actor and writer Brendan Cowell with tender and funny tales from his boyhood as a child actor and a budding playwright (R)

Oct 02, 2023•48 min

Suzie Miller: finder of ways

Suzie Miller with stories from her free range St Kilda childhood, her drama-filled life as a lawyer, and the inspiration behind her play Prima Facie

Sep 29, 2023•53 min

Meaghan's connections to family, town and country

Meaghan Katrak Harris with stories from her life as a teenage mother and raising a multicultural family, and her working life as a social worker and an academic

Sep 28, 2023•26 min

Xanthe Mallett on skeletons, forensics, crime and body farms

Forensic scientist Dr Xanthe Mallett on her work analysing skeletal remains, investigating cases of wrongful conviction and studying the decomposition of the human body (CW: contains references to death and crime) Xanthe is a forensic anthropologist, criminologist and author who works with police to analyse skeletal remains. Xanthe worked for years at Scotland's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification in Dundee, and presented her research in facial identification to the FBI in Quantico. She ...

Sep 27, 2023•51 min

Seeing the world through a dog's eyes

Dog behaviourist Laura Vissaritis uses science and psychology to better understand what our dogs really are telling us

Sep 26, 2023•52 min

Dynasties and dynamism

Nicholas Jose was living in China in 1989, when the military was sent in to violently quell pro-democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square. He left Beijing the next day and returned to a changed city

Sep 25, 2023•52 min

Sam Neill's menagerie

Sam Neill is a winemaker, a cancer survivor and a father. He's also an actor, who's made more than 100 films

Sep 22, 2023•50 min

Smuggled to Antarctica

Rachael Mead with the true story of Nel Law, who stowed away on a Danish ship in 1961 to become the first Australian woman to set foot on Antarctica

Sep 21, 2023•48 min

The echidna argument

Strategic analyst Sam Roggeveen says Australia needs to think more like an echidna when it comes to defence

Sep 20, 2023•51 min

Living to 120 and beyond

Dr David Sinclair is a longevity expert who believes ageing is a treatable disease (R)

Sep 19, 2023•51 min

What happens to us while we're under anaesthesia?

Kate Cole-Adams has discovered what happens to us while we dwell in the chemical oblivion of general anaesthetic (R)

Sep 18, 2023•50 min

Chadden's planet Earth

Chadden Hunter was in his twenties when he found himself sitting around a campfire in the Ethiopian highlands, talking about his PhD thesis with Sir David Attenborough. The meeting changed his life

Sep 14, 2023•53 min

Bronwyn's books

When Bronwyn Sheehan's daughter befriended a little girl in year four, her eyes were opened up to the realities of life for children in care, and their carers

Sep 13, 2023•45 min

George Megalogenis on the stats that tell the Australian story

From the 1944 wartime referendum, to the 1999 vote on whether to become a republic, referenda always tell us things about Australia that aren't revealed in a normal federal election

Sep 12, 2023•52 min

Peter's long goodbye

Broadcaster Peter Goers was in his twenties when his parents died suddenly, in a plane crash outside New Orleans. Decades later, he's beginning to make sense of the loss

Sep 11, 2023•50 min

Stories of starting over: Susan Johnson

Writer Susan Johnson began an unexpected adventure when she moved to the Greek island of Kythera with her 85-year old mother Barbara (R)

Sep 08, 2023•51 min

Stories of starting over: Kim Crotty

When Kim Crotty was locked up in Dartmoor prison for growing marijuana, his two young sons were bereft. After he began writing bedtime stories for his boys from his cell, a new chapter opened up for him after he was released from jail (R)

Sep 07, 2023•50 min

Stories of starting over: Anne Howell

After a serious brain operation, Anne Howell woke up in hospital with retrograde amnesia, thinking she was nine years old. With no real understanding of who she was or who she could trust, she set about rediscovering her identity (R)

Sep 06, 2023•50 min

Stories of starting over: Charles Lomu

The Tongan-Australian man on being privileged to see love in action in his grandparents, how a spiral into grief and anger led him to periodic detention, and how cutting hair today helps him steer young men away from a dark path (R)

Sep 05, 2023•52 min

Stories of starting over: DJ Hookie

Tom Nash was 19 when his limbs were amputated due to meningococcal septicaemia. After he began to navigate life with hooks for arms, he built a new life as a DJ (R)

Sep 04, 2023•46 min

Maggie Mackellar on farming, motherhood, and catching sheep

Maggie Mackellar with stories from her life on a Merino wool farm on the east coast of Tasmania, and all of life and death that surrounds her through the cycle of lambing seasons

Sep 01, 2023•52 min

The Big Pineapple, The Big Merino, The Big Gumboot: how big things captured Australia

Dr Amy Clarke on the history of Big Things and our enduring fondness for kitsch and curious creations

Aug 31, 2023•52 min

Crispian Chan on Perth's forgotten terror

Crispian Chan grew up in the shadow of a campaign of terror in Perth that engulfed his family restaurant and haunted him for years

Aug 30, 2023•51 min

Geraldine Brooks and the world in words

The historical novelist has seen enough action to last a lifetime from her days as a Middle East correspondent, and it was her mother's imaginative influence that led her to turn her fascination with history into new interpretations (R)

Aug 29, 2023•48 min

Craig Hamilton's three lives

Coalminer turned broadcaster Craig Hamilton was in his 30s when he had a psychotic episode on Broadmeadows train station. In the aftermath, his life was completely changed (CW: mentions suicide) Craig Hamilton began his working life as a coal miner in Newcastle north of Sydney. He worked deep underground, knocking down walls and digging through tunnels through the inky blackness. One day after many years in the mines, Craig got a chance to be on the radio for 5 minutes talking about cricket. He ...

Aug 28, 2023•52 min

Lessons from the world's longest study on happiness: Dr Robert Waldinger

Dr Robert Waldinger on what it takes to live a happy life. Robert Waldinger has spent most of his working life trying to understand the secret to human happiness. He’s Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. The project has been tracking what makes for a joyful life for more than eight decades and points to meaningful relationships as the key to human fulfilment. Bob tries to apply the insights from the study to his own life, ...

Aug 25, 2023•54 min

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