Laura Tingle on the variation in poll results ahead of the election being called, the big money media-training the conservative young faces of the far-right. Plus was Western Australia's first government geologist a genius... or a charlatan?
Indigenous Australian theatre and arts director Rhoda Roberts says the backlash against Welcome to Country ceremonies is a return to assimilation. Plus in 2024, the planet was hit by 58 weather disasters with damages of more than a billion dollars and numerous insurance companies are either folding or limiting what they will insure. So who pays for the damage?
A growing number of Catholic Church leaders have criticised US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Bishop Mark Seitz from El Paso, Texas, says immigrants deserve mercy, not persecution. And happy fiftieth birthday to McPhee Gribble, the small enterprise that changed Australian publishing forever.
Members of the US Congress are wondering whether President Donal Trump will simply ignore the courts and and precipitate a constitutional crisis. How does Vanuatu recover from the double shock of earthquakes and cyclones? And major publishing house Simon and Schuster has banned book blurbs, claiming the practice is part of an "incestuous" system that rewards an author's connections.
Laura Tingle looks at what role the independents could play in a minority Coalition government. And a look back at the shipwreck that devastated early Darwin in 1875 - the sinking of the SS Gothenburg.
A declaration of martial law in South Korea, lasting six hours, has created the country’s biggest constitutional crisis since the late 1980s, and the life of forgotten Australian poet, Francis Webb.
The small town of Predappio is Italy’s premier neo-fascist tourist site, with hundreds of thousands of fascist sympathisers descending on the town annually. So how do the locals feel about living in the shadow of Mussolini’s grave? Plus the strange connection between the wellness industry and white nationalism.
Calls to "stop the boats" have returned to UK Parliament. What is the degrowth movement, and can it really challenge the global economic order? Plus how relevant are the Oscars as they near their centenary?
Outrage in parliament as the Opposition shuts down Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus during Holocaust speech. Why some US cities are decriminalising jaywalkers, and some remarkable finds of Roman mosaics.
The late Australian poet Dorothy Porter is best known for her verse novel The Monkey's Mask. But her work ranged across many ouvres. Her early life at home, with violence and bullying at the hands of her well-known barrister father, Chester Porter, is laid bare in a memoir written by Dorothy's sister Josie McSkimming
ABC Global Affairs Editor John Lyons digests US President Donald Trump's extraordinary declaration that the United States will 'take over' the Gaza Strip. Why is Brazil taking on the tech titans and demanding "digital sovereignty"? And with 125,000 visitors last year, has 'overtourism' reached Antarctica?
Bruce Shapiro on Trump's tariff backtrack. How Belarus is weaponising migrants to destabilise the EU. And moral panic over cycling women in Victorian England.
Peter Dutton's political point-scoring on national security and antisemitism. Will Benjamin Netanyahu get what he wants from the second phase of the ceasefire deal. And cinema indoors and out - Australia has a longstanding cinema tradition.
US President Donald Trump’s threatened deportation of up to twenty million immigrants brings back tough memories for Japanese Americans who were deported in World War Two. Plus the New Yorker's head fact checker, Fergus McIntosh.
Vancouver decriminalised possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use in 2023. Then drug deaths sky-rocketed. So did the experiment fail, or were there other factors at play? Plus Tibet is one of the most linguistically diverse regions on the planet, but Mandarin is encroaching and the old languages are disappearing.
Ian Dunt on the fall-out between Nigel Farage and Elon Musk. Plus what Greenlanders think of Trump's push to the buy the icy island.
As the Australia Day weekend comes to a close, leading social researchers Rebecca Huntley and Anthea Hancocks break down what the latest data says about who we are as a nation in 2025. Plus, Anna Clark muses on the history of the Australian beach shack.
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.
