What happens when child soldiers grow up and have children of their own? A new inter-generational study looks at the former child soldiers of Sierra Leone. Plus when a glamorous life is revealed to be a lie.
While anti-Semitic attacks in Australia and America appear to be on the rise, Jewish journalism professor and author Peter Beinart argues that Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank have made Jews around the world a target. Plus how Coca-Cola infiltrated academia, and meddled with the science of obesity to protect their profits in America, China and beyond.
Regular US commentator Bruce Shapiro in an extended segment to talk inauguration and more. And journalist Dima Khatib was on the first commercial flight back into her home city of Damascus, after the fall of the Assad regime.
Laura Tingle looks at how the major parties spent their summer as the shadow election campaign takes off. A landmark agreement for workers on Pacific fishing boats. Plus the role of eucalyptus trees in the LA fires, and how they've become an invasive species around the world.
Stephen Fry reflects on the power of story-telling, how to counter impostor syndrome and the things he absolutely can’t do. Guest: Stephen Fry Originally broadcast: 28 October 2024
Since the 1980s, lawyers have used copyright law to protect Indigenous Art, but is it fit for purpose? When India gained its independence, a huge part of the country was ruled by many local princes or Maharajas. How were they convinced to give up their power to join the new Independent India?
Antonia Murphy recounts her stranger-than-fiction experience, running an ethical escort agency in New Zealand. And historian Alexis Peris uncovers a bundle of letters exchanged between women in the US and the Soviet Union, across the Iron Curtain.
The deep connections between banks and the conservative Catholic order, Opus Dei. Plus how Australia's birds had songs millions of years before they reached Europe, Asia, Africa or the Americas.
Alfred Dreyfus was an officer in the French Army when he was arrested 130 years ago for treason, convicted and sent to Devils Island for 5 years in solitary confinement. His battle for justice divided the population of France and fascinated people across the globe.
Santilla Chingaipe tells the stories of the 15 convicts of African descent that came with the first fleet, and the hundreds that followed. How does their story fit in the story of the global slave trade? And what truth is there to the mystical powers of absinthe both in the past and its current form? Is it more myth than magic? Evan Rail investigates.
Australian-born writer and honorary madrileño Luke Stegemann celebrates the remarkable and under-appreciated Spanish capital of Madrid. And a new exhibition brings medieval women back to life.
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.
