7.30 Political editor, Laura Tingle, asks whether Anthony Albanese ever had any chance of escaping Trump's tariffs. Economist and writer Satyajit Das, on how Australia should navigate this economic uncertainty. And a history of trolling before the internet.
Mar 17, 2025•54 min
The Danes, alongside other Scandinavian nations, are the most trusting people on Earth - trusting of their neighbours, fellow citizens and public institutions. Why then, has trust in the Danish media collapsed? Plus, biographer Stephen Maher on the rise and fall of Justin Trudeau, the prince of Canadian politics.
Mar 13, 2025•54 min
As alliances wobble, wars rage and world leaders talk of rearmament, are we on the precipice of a new nuclear age? Security expert Ankit Panda says our coexistence with the bomb is becoming more complicated and perilous. Plus, why are Caribbean nations lining up to leave the British monarchy?
Mar 12, 2025•54 min
Bruce Shapiro is back as measles spreads in Texas, and Columbia University faces drastic defunding from the Trump administration. Criminologist Yvonne Jewkes on the myths and benefits of prisoner rehabilitation through building design. And playwright Katy Forde celebrates the life of Dr Lilian Cooper - Brisbane's first female doctor - with an award-winning musical.
Mar 11, 2025•54 min
Political Editor Laura Tingle on the potential federal implications of WA's state election result. What are the origins of the DEI initiatives (diversity, equity and inclusion) in the United States, that President Trump so reviles? And who really discovered gold in Australia in the mid-19th Century?
Mar 10, 2025•54 min
Alan Rusbridger, the former editor in chief of The Guardian UK on Trump's push to silence dissenting voices in the media and writer Robert Dessaix has a new memoir, Chameleon, in which he reflects on his many identities and how his changing understandings of life.
Mar 06, 2025•54 min
Has the rise of leaders like Orbán, Trump and Netanyahu finally put paid to the liberal fantasy that fascism, ultra-nationalism and xenophobia were symptoms of a political malaise consigned to the 19th century? Authors Wesley Lowery and John Crace join David Marr in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers' Week.
Mar 05, 2025•54 min
Despite the promise that we were “all in it together”, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a flight from sociability. While that escape may have been a relief for some, has it intensified a culture of excessive individualism, narcissism, and disconnection from one another? Julia Baird, Geraldine Brooks and Rachel Kushner join David Marr in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers Week
Mar 04, 2025•54 min
Despite the promise that we were “all in it together”, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a flight from sociability. While that escape may have been a relief for some, has it intensified a culture of excessive individualism, narcissism, and disconnection from one another? Julia Baird, Geraldine Brooks and Rachel Kushner join David Marr in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers' Week.
Mar 04, 2025•54 min
Has the myth of the Australian fair-go finally been broken? Are social divides deepening and widening? And in a time of great uncertainty, how does Australia see itself in the world? Bob Carr, Rick Morton and Rebecca Huntley join David Marr in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers' Week.
Mar 03, 2025•53 min
Trans poet and comedian Alok Vaid-Menon on how they use humour to flip the narrative about transgender people, and how to tackle Donald Trump's transgender ban - by focusing on compassion for the people who want to oppress them.
Feb 27, 2025•54 min
Three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, renowned historian Orlando Figes, delves into President Vladimir Putin's rationale for war. And we go back to 1970s Australia and America, when the Whitlam Government paid a record sum for an abstract expressionist painting - Blue Poles. There was an outcry, and the government would pay a political price as well.
Feb 26, 2025•54 min
Ian Dunt on how the UK is reacting to Trump abandoning Ukraine. What happens to NT Indigenous communities when mining royalties dry up? And how to rescue a hummingbird.
Feb 25, 2025•54 min
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?
Feb 24, 2025•54 min
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?
Feb 20, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 19, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 18, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 17, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 13, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 12, 2025•54 min
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?
Feb 11, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 10, 2025•54 min
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
Feb 06, 2025•54 min
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?
Feb 05, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 04, 2025•54 min
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.
Feb 03, 2025•54 min
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.
Jan 30, 2025•54 min
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.
Jan 29, 2025•54 min
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.
Jan 28, 2025•54 min
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.
Jan 27, 2025•54 min