Nick Bryant's America: polarised forever
Journalist Nick Bryant has had three years away from his beloved America, completely reassessing his ideas about the superpower and the wild, great American experiment
Jun 05, 2024•50 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
Psyche, the curious and brave goddess of the soul
Kate Forsyth on the otherworldly myth of Eros and Psyche, a story at the root of many fairy tales from Beauty and the Beast to Cinderella
Jun 04, 2024•50 min
The secret psychosis of a first-time mother
When psychologist Ariane Beeston started having delusions after the birth of her son, and hallucinating that he was a dragon, she had to learn how to become the patient. Ariane Beeston thought that when her son was born, she would feel that immediate rush of love that everyone told her to expect, and that motherhood would come naturally to her. But that's not what happened. Instead, Ariane started having delusions about her own death, she became paranoid that social services would take her child...
Jun 03, 2024•51 min
Japanese gangsters: the secrets of the Yakuza
Jake Adelstein's dogged reporting on Japan's organised crime earned him a nemesis in Tadamasa Goto, one of the most powerful Yakuza bosses in the country. When Jake's life was on the line, he found protection in surprising places
May 31, 2024•50 min
Writer Bonnie Garmus on rejection, writing and success in your 60s
When Bonnie Garmus tried to sell her first novel, it was rejected 98 times. Then at 66, she wrote a novel called Lessons in Chemistry, which sold four million copies around the world. Bonnie Garmus had wanted to be a novelist since she was five years old. Decades later, she was a copywriter, an open-water swimmer and a rower when she tried to sell her first novel. After many rejections, she realised it would never be published. One day Bonnie was at work when a male colleague took credit for one...
May 30, 2024•52 min
David Wengrow: everything we know about the human story is wrong
Archaeologist David Wengrow has discovered an entirely new way to think about the history of humanity, from the origins of farming, cities, democracy and slavery to civilisation itself. What sort of world could we create if we stopped believing that inequality is the price of progress? More than a decade ago, archaeologist David Wengrow started exploring this question with his friend the late David Graeber, an anthropologist. Together they unearthed a new picture of humanity's past and our share...
May 29, 2024•49 min
Matt Hall's life at supersonic speed
Matt Hall made his first solo flight at 15 years old and has been addicted to life in the air ever since. He became a top gun fighter pilot and after serving for more than 20 years, he still hasn't come down to earth (R)
May 28, 2024•50 min
The forgotten treasures of desert dwellers
Archaeologist Julien Cooper digs up the remote deserts of Sudan and Egypt, finding forgotten artefacts, which tell the uninterrupted, thousands-year-old story of the nomadic peoples of Northeast Africa
May 27, 2024•51 min
Billy Bragg — the boy from Barking
Billy Bragg grew up in working-class Barking, east of London. The expected path was to go from school to the local car factory, but Billy his sights set further, and even a brief stint in the army couldn’t keep him away from a life in music (R)
May 24, 2024•49 min
How Rafael Bonachela let his inner showgirl out with Kylie Minogue
Rafael Bonachela was born in the dying years of Franco’s Spain, into a patriarchal culture that didn’t appreciate little boys who wanted to dance. At the make or break moment of his choreography career, the last person Rafael expected to hear from was Australia’s pop princess — Kylie Minogue As the eldest of four brothers, his father expected him to be an example of academic achievement and bravado. This hardline approach slowly drove his father away from the family, though when it came time to ...
May 23, 2024•53 min
The power of the extra dad
When Dugald Jellie was growing up in country Victoria, it was dads — his own and his friends' — who opened the world up for him, and as a father himself, today he is paying it forward
May 22, 2024•44 min
Bronnie and the jaws of life
Firie Bronnie Mackintosh attends emergencies to cut people out of crushed cars and rescue them from burning buildings (R)
May 21, 2024•50 min
Riding for a fall - a portrait of male drive
What happens when a man can't stop his drive and desire for more? Author Andrew O'Hagan dissects the pitfalls of more money, more success and more applause in his latest novel Andrew O’Hagan is the author of several highly acclaimed novels. His new book is a sweeping portrait of modern-day London, a city ‘levitating on a sea of dirty Russian money’. The main character, Campbell Flynn, is much like Andrew himself: a public intellectual who escaped from the Scottish council estate he grew up in an...
May 20, 2024•52 min
The velveteen rabbit at the end of the world
In the decades before Ruth Shaw became a bookseller in New Zealand's Fiordland, she lived the incredible stories of adventure, love and tragedy that now line the shelves in her shops
May 17, 2024•53 min
A Latvian Fairytale
Artist Brigita Ozolins grew up hearing about the magic of her mother's home country, Latvia. It wasn't until she was in her 50s that Brigita understood why her mother fled that paradise, full of flowers and polite children
May 16, 2024•53 min
Naomi and the smudge of luminous stars
Astrophysicist Naomi McClure-Griffiths was making an atlas of our galaxy when she discovered an entirely new spiral arm of the Milky Way
May 15, 2024•48 min
Sean Fong dominating life on the jiu-jitsu mat
Sean Fong is a para world champion in jiu-jitsu. The 'gentle' martial art has allowed Sean to shatter any illusions that society might have about people with physical differences (R)
May 14, 2024•51 min
The highs and lows of the ALP
From its surprising successes to its dismal failures, historian Frank Bongiorno takes you through the wild 130-year history of the Australian Labor Party
May 13, 2024•51 min
Troy Cassar-Daley: the boy from Halfway Creek
Troy Cassar-Daley grew up walking a tightrope between two worlds after his mum and dad broke up when he was small. As a grown man, a trip on a country music cruise began to change his story (CW: discussion of suicidal ideation and suicide)
May 10, 2024•53 min
Troy Cassar-Daley: the boy from Halfway Creek
Troy Cassar-Daley grew up walking a tightrope between two worlds after his mum and dad broke up when he was small. As a grown man, a trip on a country music cruise began to change his story (CW: discussion of suicidal ideation and suicide)
May 10, 2024•53 min
When Bonnie just kept paddling
When Bonnie Hancock stumbled on a book in her local library, she got a gut feeling that refused to go away. And so she set off on a gruelling 12,700km journey around Australia on her surf ski
May 09, 2024•54 min
Uncovering Tasmania's gruesome past
Cassandra Pybus exposes the secret trade of the skeletal remains of the first people of Tasmania. CW: This episode contains upsetting discussion about grave desecration and the trading of human remains
May 08, 2024•49 min
Fantastic and fascinating fungi
Fungi have given us many gifts, from penicillin to food, but they can also be quite scary. Dr Alison Pouliot spends her time trying to explain these strange alien-like things, which do their most interesting work underground (R)
May 07, 2024•53 min
Chris Haywood's life in character
The Australian actor looks back at his riotous life on camera, from Newsfront to Muriel's Wedding
May 06, 2024•51 min
The soup bar saving lives
Hana Assafiri was a child bride in her teens when she fought her way free of her violent husband. Then she built a new life helping other marginalised women (CW: the conversation discusses physical and sexual violence against women)
May 03, 2024•54 min
How our brains use autocorrect
Dr Margaret Moore is fascinated by our most mysterious organ - the brain. By looking at stroke survivors, she is trying to understand how brains work, how they don't, and how they predict the world around them
May 02, 2024•52 min
Nick Cave's broken-hearted optimism
Nick Cave has lived through addiction, love and unthinkable loss. His experiences have changed how he understands hope, heartbreak and optimism (R)
May 01, 2024•48 min
Terry's long goodbye
Keri Kitay with the story of her devoted, outgoing mum Terry, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease at 54 years old
Apr 30, 2024•52 min
Learning to read with Manisha Gazula
How headmistress Manisha Gazula radically (and controversially) transformed the literacy, and life, outcomes for her students at Marsden Road Public School
Apr 29, 2024•52 min
Mother Courage
Writer Colum McCann with the story of Diane Foley, whose son James was murdered by the Islamic State (CW: this episode contains descriptions of violent acts and terrorism)
Apr 26, 2024•51 min
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