Did you know passports can be ranked, and can be different even within nations? Patrick Bixby examines the history of passports. Plus what Harry Houdini got up to when he visited Australia.
Author Henry Savery is credited with being Australia's first novelist, for his work 'Quintus Servinton', but in his new book author and historian Sean Doyle says in fact the first Autralian-born novelist was John Lang. Plus the challenge to save the world's islands and their inhabitants from the triple threat threat of invasive species, sea level rises and global heating.
Insights into some of the hundreds of Australian indigenous languages, which continue to evolve. And what can be learnt from spending a lot of time with a small herd of cows.
UK poet laureate Simon Armitage reflects on his Yorkshire upbringing, writing great royal deaths and coronations, and his fear and love for nature. Plus, ornithologist Penny Olsen celebrates the historic detection of a population of rare night parrots, in WA's Great Sandy Desert.
War historian Joan Beaumont makes a pilgrimage to the Indonesian island of Ambon, where hundreds of Australian soldiers died in WWll, and ponders the meaning of connection to past war traumas. Plus, remembering Tadeusz Kosciuszko - who was he, and why was he so revered?
Art critic Sebastian Smee on why 1870 was an "annus horribilis" for Paris, but one which produced breathtaking art. Plus, love them or hate them, the humble anchovy has an important place in cuisine around the world. But we're fishing them right out of the seas.
In the early years of AIDS, nurses were stigmatised along with their patients. Now, their story has been told. Plus the great Australian poetry hoax, eighty years on.
Writer Sonia Purnell reveals the astonishing life of Pamela Churchill Harriman, one of the most significant women in 20th century politics. Plus why are Balkan countries fighting over the origins of their national dishes?
In Guatemala private adoption agencies sent huge numbers of babies overseas - with many of them indigenous. And on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait, restoration work on the Aboriginal settlement Wybalenna has stalled. It is a significant cultural site where many Tasmanian Aboriginal people were sent in 1831. Only 47 survived.
What is the soul? Is it a substance, your conscience or simply a creation of the mind? Most societies and religions have some concept of the soul. Historian Paul Ham has looked at how the idea has changed through history and across cultures. Guest: Paul Ham, author of The Soul: A History of the Human Mind (Penguin Random House) Originally broadcast on 1 August 2024
Des Ball had a long and complicated relationship with Pine Gap, which is explored in a new documentary, we ask whether academic publishing should be making big bucks - for the publishers and the contribution of the notebook to the work of some of our literary and scientific geniuses.
Brody Mullins investigates how lobbyists have changed politics and society in America and Hamilton Sides tells the story of how and why James Cook's last voyage ended up in violence - from the Hawaiian perspective.
For more than 1000 years, India was a trading powerhouse across the globe - not only of spices, wild animals and gemstones but also of language, philosophy, religion, mathematics and astronomy. But why is this part of India's history not so well known, and why did its dominance wane about 1200 AD? Guest: William Dalrymple, historian, podcaster and author of The Golden Road How Ancient India Transformed the World (Bloomsbury) Originally broadcast on 3 September 2024...
Chas Licciardello, Sashi Perera and First Dog on the Moon - aka Andrew Marlton - join David Marr to survey the profound and the ridiculous from the year we've just had.
A history of Cyprus that's equal parts epic and personal. Plus, Susan Casey on the life that thrives thousands of metres below the surface of the ocean.
Bruce Shapiro's take on a remarkable year in American politics - and what to expect in the year to come. What's next for Syria after the stunning fall of the Assad regime? Plus humanity's ancient fascination with the red planet.
Laura Tingle and Niki Savva bring their incisive analysis on the year in politics, why the world is looking at a compensation case playing out in Belgium over their actions in the Congo and then to Bulgaria where research is being done on how nature is overtaking the many abandoned villages. Is it good news for the environment?
Robert Manne is one of Australia’s foremost public intellectuals. His new memoir traces his intellectual roots, and his own political shifts over 40 years. And Oxford historian Diarmaid MacCulloch challenges what we know about sex and Christian morality.
The life of James Fairfax, philanthropist, art collector and heir to the Fairfax media dynasty, told through eleven objects, plus what Australia's ancient trees can tell us about our history.
Ian Dunt's final UK report for 2024 looks at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's pre-Christmas political re-set and the Irish election results. Historian Shannon Smith reveals the secret role Bob Hawke played in securing an inquiry into the deaths of the Balibo Five. And how Carlos Acutis went from gamer to saint. Guest: Ian Dunt, columnist with the 'i' news.
Laura Tingle casts her eye over the last week in Parliament, and the Prime Minister's relationship with his Environment Minister. Why is North Korea sending troops to fight in Ukraine? And what is the current place of poetry in Australian popular culture.
Historian Philipp Blom deciphers why humans continue to believe they can subjugate the Earth, tracing ancient stories of dominion back to the Bronze Age. Plus, Australian writer Helen Garner on ageing, being a grandparent and her love of football.
Can an essay change a nation? Meanjin editor Esther Anatolitis believes that some of the essays published over the journal's long history have - including one from Michael Mohammed Ahmed. We also bust a few Christmas myths with Professor of Religion, Carole Cusack.
Bruce Shapiro on the dismissal of President-elect Donald Trump's federal cases. We revisit Andrew Fowler's study of Australia's "nuked" submarine deal, recently named the Walkley Book Award winner for 2024. And why Americans are adopting British and Australian vernacular.
Laura Tingle gives her analysis of Labor's plans for the last sitting week of 2024, while George Megalogenis looks forward to 2025, and what the parliament may look like after the next Federal election - and why.
Former federal MPs John Brumby and Cheryl Kernot discuss how Australia can make policy progress and find bipartisanship in a world of growing political division. And Lech Blaine shares the extraordinary story of his childhood, growing up in a Queensland pub, stalked by a pair of Christian fanatics.
Marcia Langton on the dashed hopes for truth telling in Australia and Sidney Nolan's paintings of Africa tell a deeper story about his concerns for the future of humanity, nature and its wildlife.
Ian Dunt on what the US election result means for security in the UK and Europe. Journalist Jamie Tahsin investigates the online "manosphere" and Trump's courtship of the "bro vote" with the help of son Barron. And the mysteries of the greenland shark, which lives for hundreds of years.
The Australian Greens have dropped their demand for a climate trigger in the Government's proposed environmental reforms. And British/American journalist and cultural commentator on the new power of conspiracy theorists, under Donald Trump.
Acclaimed historian Peter Stanley on how Australia writes its war histories, and our complicated relationship with memorialisation. And a new exhibition at the British library illuminates the lives of medieval women, in their own words.
