Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has wrapped up his three-day visit to the UK, including an appearance at the UK Labour Party conference. He's told the British party faithful that he has an "absolute resolve to stand together and defend democracy itself". The ANU's Mark Kenny wraps up the visit. And what is Stablecoin, the cryptocurrency that financial regulator ASIC has licensed? Plus author Dorothy Armstrong uncovers the remarkable relationship between carpets and power.
Sep 29, 2025•55 min
It's been 70 years since 29 nations of Africa and Asia gathered in Bandung Indonesia in 1955 to forge a path beyond Empire, and lay the foundations for the non-aligned movement during the Cold War. Plus, the life of the pioneering South Australian policewoman Kate Cocks - a formidable figure, with a complex legacy.
Sep 25, 2025•55 min
Many assumptions are made about the politics and voting habits of young Australians, but what does the data actually say about generational political shifts? Plus, why have NGOs (non-government organisations) lost so much power and influence since their heyday in the 1990s?
Sep 24, 2025•55 min
The fallout of the Charlie Kirk assassination continues, with dozens of academics fired for their comments and Jimmy Kimmel returning to the air. Kirk was memorialised in a huge public event, in which Trump declared "hate" for his political opponents. In Nepal, the country is rebuilding its politics after a flash "Gen Z revolution" toppled the government and caused its aged leader to flee. Will Nepal be ready for elections by March? Here at home, the cost of suing for defamation can be prohibiti...
Sep 23, 2025•55 min
The ANU's Mark Kenny on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's performance at the UN General Assembly, how US President Donald Trump is going easy on white collar criminals, and the world's first collection of Muslim-Australian poetry.
Sep 22, 2025•55 min
The Australian War Memorial has overruled a decision to award a military history literary prize to Chris Masters’ book, Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes about the alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith. According to the memorial chair, the rules prevent established authors from being considered. And the troubled history of the CIA since 9/11.
Sep 18, 2025•55 min
Australian anthropologist Hassan Gage makes the case that humiliation and its counterpart, dignity, are overlooked motivators of politics, both locally and globally. Plus why billionaire founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, gave his fortune away to save the planet.
Sep 17, 2025•55 min
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, according to a report by a United Nations Commision of Inquiry. One of the key authors of that report, Australian human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti, joins Late Night Live just hours after its release. Meanwhile, the United Kindgom is preparing for a visit from Donald Trump. But America has already affected UK politics, with the sacking of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US over his connections with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Last, to Anguilla...
Sep 16, 2025•55 min
Anna Henderson on why both Labor and the Coalition are still grappling with climate targets when our first risk assessment shows urgent action is needed. Bruce Shapiro looks at the fall-out from the Charlie Kirk killing and why we keep the QWERTY keyboard, when other layouts are so much more efficient.
Sep 15, 2025•55 min
A new film investigates how Germany's desire to never to repeat the horrendous anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust has resulted in the suppression of any criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza. Plus how an ornithologist helped solve murders and hate crimes, with her expert knowledge of feathers.
Sep 11, 2025•55 min
The growing appeal of Donald Trump to the right wing Chinese community in the US, and the hidden war for collective memory - how narratives about nationhood shape politics.
Sep 10, 2025•55 min
Trump's soon-to-be-renamed "Department of War" killed 11 people on a boat, saying they were Venezuelan drug smugglers. As Bruce Shapiro says, the killings were a brazenly extrajudicial act. Closer to home, Papua New Guinea will celebrate 50 years as an independent nation next week, a status it achieved when it separated from the ruling colonial power — Australia. We revisit the history of Papua New Guinea, and why so many Australians forgot (or never learned) that it was once our territory. Then...
Sep 09, 2025•55 min
Anna Henderson discusses the fall-out from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's comments on Indian migration, India's PM Narendra Modi wants a closer relationship, with China, but what does China want from India? And how the Gaelic language lived and died in Australia.
Sep 08, 2025•54 min
Sir Gerard Brennan served as the 10th Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest judicial position in the country. He was involved in several landmark cases, including the famous Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) decision. This case overturned the concept of "terra nullius" (land belonging to no one) and recognised the native title rights of Indigenous Australians for the first time under Australian law. His son Frank Brennan has collected his father's speeches in Gerard Brennan’s A...
Sep 04, 2025•54 min
Behrouz Boochani was locked in Naura for more than half a decade after fleeing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC). Now, that group will be designated a terrorist organisation by the Australian government. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Trump administration is sacking librarians and deleting public archives. Oxford librarian Richard Ovenden, is the author of "Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack".
Sep 03, 2025•55 min
Ian Dunt looks at Nigel Farage's scare campaign on migration in the UK, Al Jazeera plus' Managing Director, Dima Khatib, speaks out about the huge number of journalists Israel has killed in Gaza, and, as the price of gold hits new heights, LNL traces its history and its continuing allure.
Sep 02, 2025•54 min
Liberal leader Sussan Ley condemned the weekend's anti immigration protests, but CLP Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price supported them. Meanwhile the government has signed a $400million deportation deal with Nauru. Plus what is Project Esther and why do they think Hamas has infiltrated Australia? And a new history argues that the dandy was often a working-class irritant, subverting class structures through their sartorial splendour.
Sep 01, 2025•54 min
The 2025 federal election marked the most significant electoral defeat in the history of the Liberal–National Coalition, with the party reduced to just 43 seats. The result was widely attributed to strategic missteps, internal divisions, and a failure to connect with a changing electorate. Almost four months on, where does the future lie for the Liberal Party? GUESTS: Judith Brett, Emeritus Professor of politics at La Trobe University Frank Bongiorno, Professor of history at the Australian Natio...
Aug 28, 2025•55 min
Robyn Williams looks back at fifty years of broadcasting The Science Show on ABC Radio National. Plus, why the tech tycoons of Silicon Valley love the philosophy of French literary scholar Rene Girard.
Aug 27, 2025•55 min
From the USA, Bruce Shapiro on the latest deportation attempts against Kilmar Ábrego García, the FBI raid on John Bolton, and the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Then to Palestine, where the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is 89 and deeply unpopular. As Australia and other Western states move towards a recognition of a Palestinian state, what could that future Palestinian state look like? And: before the days of Instagram, personal cameras, and privacy laws, stree...
Aug 26, 2025•55 min
Anna Henderson from SBS World News looks at the Nationals' attempt to repeal their net zero emissions target and what that means for the Coalition's energy and environment policy credibility. Sudan is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 25 million people hungry and the largest number of displaced people as their civil war has no end in sight. And, three years since the federal government announced its plans to name an Australian poet laureate in 2025, it has yet to do so, and...
Aug 25, 2025•55 min
Drawing on her expertise in mental health and trauma studies, Palestinian psychiatrist, Doctor Samah Jabr, explores how the trauma of displacement and conflict continues to shape Palestinian lives. And why wool became one of the most important commodities for militaries across the globe.
Aug 21, 2025•55 min
John Menadue has been at the heart of Australian public life for over fifty years, working for the Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke governments. He oversaw the effective end to Australia's White Australia Policy, was CEO of Qantas and set up the Centre for Policy Development. In the media he ran The Australian for Rupert Murdoch, launched the online weekly New Matilda and founded the influential public policy platform, Pearls and Irritations. Now aged ninety, John reflects on Australia's media, in part...
Aug 20, 2025•55 min
Columnist Ian Dunt on the UK & European scramble to support Zelenskyy and Ukraine at the White House, after Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska. After two years behind bars, the former PM of Pakistan Imran Khan remains defiant, but at what cost? Plus, should lost buildings be rebuilt, replicated, or left in ruins?
Aug 19, 2025•55 min
Laura Tingle assesses the meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin and where President Zelenskyy fits in the negotiations. A world-first bilateral climate mobility program, will see Tuvalu citizens have the right to apply for Australian visas. Plus the curious and often hilarious origins of British surnames.
Aug 18, 2025•55 min
A new documentary looks at how the evangelical movement began in the US, spread to South America, paved the way for the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro and now poses the threat of a national theocracy. And the last letters of French Resistance fighters before they were executed by the Nazis in World War Two
Aug 14, 2025•55 min
Acclaimed US journalists and podcast collaborators with The Atlantic Hanna Rosin and Lauren Ober join David Marr in-studio to discuss the MAGA women who love Trump, the state of the media in post-insurrection America, and the importance of complex human storytelling in journalism. Guests: Hanna Rosin and Lauren Ober, co-hosts of the podcast We Live Here Now . Hanna is also Senior Editor at the Atlantic and host of Radio Atlantic Producer: Catherine Zengerer...
Aug 13, 2025•55 min
Bruce Shapiro looks at the man behind Donald Trump's immigration policy, Stephen Miller. The increasing pressure on Egypt to take action on Gaza. Plus how deer went feral.
Aug 12, 2025•55 min
Australia has announced its recognition of Palestinian statehood, joining a growing number of countries supporting a two-state solution. And historian Shayne Breen, traces the 40,000 years of Aboriginal exploration, land settlement and hunting practices in Tasmania
Aug 11, 2025•55 min
US debt is now at a level that some economists call "the death zone". Donald Trump is hoping his tariffs will help, but Satyajit Das thinks disaster is looming. Plus a century since Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in prison, John Kampfner looks at its impact in Germany and beyond.
Aug 07, 2025•55 min
