Biljana Plavšić became the only woman convicted for mass atrocities in the Bosnian War. Still alive, in her 90s, a Bosnian-Australian law professor meets her face to face. And cultural historian, Dr. Fay Bound-Alberti explores the ways humans have interpreted faces and how they have shaped our ideas of morality, social hierarchy and psychology. Guests Olivera Simic, Professor in Law, Griffith University and the author of, Madam War Criminal Biljana Plavšić, Serbia’s Iron Lady Dr. Fay Bound-Alber...
Jun 11, 2026•55 min
When a proposed mine threatens Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, the Sepik people resist the mine on their own terms, but will they succeed? And fifty years since the Soweto uprising, how South Africa has reckoned with its past. Guests: Emmanuel Peni, director of the PNG NGO Project Sepik , and co-Producer of the film. Theonila Roka Matbob, former PNG MP from Bougainville and winner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize . Professor Noor Nieftagodien, Head of the History Workshop at the Universit...
Jun 10, 2026•55 min
Ian Dunt on the continued fallout over the death of 18 year old Southampton University student Henry Nowak. In the US, a radical movement known as ‘masculinism’ wants to repel the advances of feminism. And this weekend (June 14), Switzerland will vote on a referendum proposal to cap its population at 10 million. But it remains unclear how such a “cap” would work, particularly in a nation with large companies that rely on skilled migrant labour. Guests: Ian Dunt, iNews columnist and regular LNL c...
Jun 09, 2026•54 min
Against the odds, the exterior of Antoni Gaudi's extraordinary Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona is finished, and Pope Leo will bless the newly completed final tower on the centenary of the famous architect's death. Plus, why Spam is considered a luxury good in Korea and is a beloved staple across Asia and the Pacific. The answer lies with the US military. Guests: Professor Mark Burry, Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology's School of Design and Architecture, and Senior Fac...
Jun 08, 2026•55 min
Teenage vaping, pill testing, injecting rooms, medicinal cannabis and the opioid crisis: a look at Australia's efforts to manage illicit drug use. And the little boat of East Timorese asylum seekers that strained Australia's relationship with Indonesia. Guests Professor Des Manderson., Director of the Centre for Law, Arts and Humanities at the ANU. Author of 'High time: how Australia changed its mind about illegal drug use' (Black Inc Books) Associate Professor Vannessa Hearman, historian, Curti...
Jun 04, 2026•54 min
Elon Musk looks set to become the world's first trillionaire when his company SpaceX goes public on the stock exchange. A new book asks if we're living in an age of 'Muskism'. Plus, the story of Dr Ian Stevenson, the distinguished 1950s psychiatrist who become a leading figure in the controversial field of 'parapsychology'' where he tried to prove the existence of consciousness after death. Guests: Ben Tarnoff, writer and technologist, co-author of Muskism: A guide for the perplexed Jesse Bering...
Jun 03, 2026•55 min
Bruce Shapiro looks at the Republican backlash to Donald Trump's so-called IRS slush fund. How Ethiopian runners win over performance enhanced athletes and a protest in Glasgow took over Kenmure Street, and stopped immigration officers in their van. Guests: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with the Nation, Executive Director at the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma Felipe Bustos Sierra, Director Everybody to Kenmure st plus Tabassum Niamat, Executive Director, Bowling Green Together Comm...
Jun 02, 2026•54 min
A new poll published in the Australian Financial Review has Pauline Hanson's One Nation ahead of Labor and the Coalition on primary vote, and Mark Kenny says political parties can't agree on how to respond. Meanwhile the government is bogged down in budget backlash. Millions of Syrians forced to flee the brutal Assad regime are now returning home, but with much of Syria destroyed what’s left to return to? Plus insect life on Lord Howe Island has significantly increased since the eradication of i...
Jun 01, 2026•55 min
Historian and author John Ghazvinian argues that the past fifty years of hostility between the U.S. and Iran are an exception in a much longer relationship marked by fascination, cooperation, and mutual admiration. And an American journalist embeds with a group of young Republican conservationists, to try to pin down what they really value. Guests John Ghazvinian, historian, former journalist and author of America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present Gaby del Valle, journalist, article in Ha...
May 28, 2026•55 min
Veteran war correspondent Janine di Giovanni has set up a project that trains journalists and researchers to gather evidence that can be used to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Syria. And the women who played a critical role behind the scenes at the Nuremberg trials. Guests: Janine di Giovanni, war correspondent, CEO and co-founder of The Reckoning Project Natalie Livingstone, author, The Nuremberg Women, At the trial that brought the Nazis to justice...
May 27, 2026•54 min
Ian Dunt surveys the unfathomable political turmoil in the United Kingdom, as a monumental by-election looms for Andy Burnham, the key Labour rival of embattled Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Journalist Maria Ramirez examines the left-wing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. a defiant political voice on the world stage. Plus, it's been 100 years since Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova first toured Australia, captivating audiences across the country. Guests: Ian Dunt, columnist for i-news, cohos...
May 26, 2026•55 min
Anna Henderson looks at how likely it is that independents like the Teals could form a new centrist party. Does the success of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani herald a new era of popular Leftist politics in America? US socialist Bhaskar Sunkara surveys the future. And far from being worthless trivia, the gossip of Ancient Romans revealed a lot about the society and politics of the time. Guests: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS World News Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of J...
May 25, 2026•55 min
Global financial analyst Satyajit Das looks at how the double whammy of Trump's economic warfare and the war on Iran is playing out here and around the world. Writer Tareq Baconi reflects on life growing up as Palestinian refugee in Jordan, coming to terms with being gay. Guests: Satyajit Das, global financial analyst Tareq Baconi, Hamas expert and author of Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir...
May 21, 2026•55 min
Roddy Doyle reflects on a lifetime telling the stories of working-class people in Dublin, with themes of domestic violence, unplanned pregnancy and life in the IRA. Guest: Roddy Doyle, author of The women behind the door , published by Penguin Random House. Roddy is in Australia for Sydney Writers' Festival Producer: Catherine Zengerer...
May 20, 2026•55 min
Bruce Shapiro looks at the Republicans' shaping of South Carolina's congressional districts, in an effort to win the November mid-terms. John Safran's new documentary for SBS explores the notion of offence, and what can and cannot be said in Australia today. A new book says he may have been an aristocratic Aussie trooper. Guests: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for The Nation, executive director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma John Safran, satirist, documentary maker, journalis...
May 19, 2026•55 min
Anna Henderson looks at why the government remains unpopular despite popular support for changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in the budget.Dr. Guy Shalev, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, on why the IDF continues to hold fourteen Palestinian doctors in detention, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. And Daniel Hahn discusses the art and the magic of translating Shakespeare into other languages, and the difficulties of getting those puns to land. Guests: Anna Henderson, SBS Wo...
May 18, 2026•55 min
There have been 141 royal commissions in Australia since Federation, but not all of them have brought about meaningful policy change. Plus, a new book tells the stories of people who have struggled to protect their food culture in the face of war, genocide, and violence. Guests: Michael Mintrom, Professor of public policy at Monash University Michael Shaikh, author of The Last Sweet Bite: when war changes the menu
May 14, 2026•54 min
Ian Dunt on the political demise of Keir Starmer: even if he hasn't yet resigned, Ian says, he's already dead. How Antoinette Lattouf found inspiration in the stories of other Australian women who challenged power structures when she was fighting her own case against the ABC. And Australia is celebrating fifty years at the Cannes film festival, so why are there no Aussie films in competition this year? Guests: Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcast Antoinette Lattou...
May 13, 2026•54 min
Journalist Debbie Whitmont revisits the 1994 murder of John Newman MP - a crime billed as Australia's first political assassination - and the man still behind bars, Vietnamese refugee and political aspirant Phuong Ngo. Plus, a new biography of Hideki Tojo challenges assumptions about Japan's ruthless wartime leader. Guests: Debbie Whitmont, journalist and author of The Man Who Couldn't Wait: The true story of Australia's first political assassination Dr Peter Mauch, historian and author of Tojo:...
May 12, 2026•55 min
Anna Henderson looks at One Nation's victory in the Farrer by-election. What does the result say about the growing frustration with the major parties? The British nuclear submarine that's spent a record-breaking six months submerged and a look at the ethics of reporting in a crisis zone. Guests: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club Director Josh Glancy, associate editor of The Sunday Times Cathy Otten, journalist and a visiting assistant professor of...
May 11, 2026•55 min
Acclaimed journalist and author, Fintan O'Toole argues Trump’s political power lies in projecting the “right amount of crazy”. Plus how to help an Afghan woman and her five daughters escape the Taliban. Guests: Fintan O'Toole, regular contributor to the Irish Times and advising editor to the New York Review of Books. Mij Tanith, playwright, teacher, refugee advocate and author of Laila’s Story (Spinifex Press, March 2026)...
May 07, 2026•54 min
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may come up against a rightwing-centrist super coalition in elections later this year, after two of his biggest political rivals - former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid - combined forces to form a new party. Plus, the Australian writer Nadia Wheatley's new book sheds light on the ordeals experienced by prisoners liberated from the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945. Guests: Irris Makler, veteran Middle East corresp...
May 06, 2026•55 min
Our regular US commentator looks at recent political attempts to use defamation law to silence American media. 2SER, a Sydney community radio station with a long history of training professional broadcasters, is under threat. And descendants of the Bounty mutineers, who lived on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific, crowdfunded to get an important document returned to them from London. Guests: Bruce Shapiro, Contributing Editor at the Nation, Executive Director of the Global Centre for Journalism and ...
May 05, 2026•54 min
Anna Henderson on the Japanese PM's visit and the tragedy of Kumanjayi Little Baby's death in Alice Springs. Plus 2020 wasn’t a good year for North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un - there were reports he was seriously ill, and speculation ran wild about his future. But nearly six years later, Kim has defied the doubters, exploiting global instability, drawing closer to both Putin and Xi, and testing the limits with South Korea. Also, were ancient marble statues actually painted? Guests: Anna ...
May 04, 2026•55 min
David Malouf, who died last week at 92, was a hugely influential figure in Australian culture. A novelist, poet, teacher, arts advisor and board member, ' Boyer lecturer, and enormously generous mentor to many other writers. His friends and peers pay tribute. Guests: Peter Goldsworthy, Adelaide-based poet Nicholas Jose, Adelaide-based novelist Kate Grenville, Melbourne-based novelist Omar Sakr, western Sydney-based poet The one David Malouf book our guests would recommend reading Kate Grenville:...
Apr 30, 2026•55 min
Ian Dunt looks at King Charles' address to US Congress and the subtle anti-Trump messages within it. Plus, a new biography details the life of Richard 'Dick' Meagher - a talented young Australian solicitor with political ambitions in Federation-era Australia, who was embroiled in scandal for his handling of a high-profile murder trial. For the rest of his life, Meagher worked to scrub this stain from his reputation. Guests: Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcast Pat...
Apr 29, 2026•55 min
