RN Presents - podcast cover

RN Presents

ABC listen•www.abc.net.au
Society & Culture
Documentary
From stories of disease outbreaks to myths of war and understanding how power actually works — RN Presents is the home of great storytelling that helps you better understand what’s going on in the world.
Follow on
Metacast
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube
RSS

Episodes

01 | Patient Zero: Something In The Water

Disease is spreading in the wake of a natural disaster on the Caribbean nation of Haiti — and everyone thinks they know where it's coming from… (Spoiler: They don't).

Aug 13, 2020•41 min•Season 9Ep. 1

06 | Section 71 — The Race Power

An extra episode in the series about High Court cases which have changed Australia. Series producer Jane Lee unpicks the origins and uses of Section 51(26) of the Australian Constitution, which gives the Federal Parliament the power to make special laws for a particular race of people.

Jul 10, 2020•12 min•Season 8Ep. 6

04 | Hot Mess — Hope

Despite all the gridlock on Australia's climate policy, there are moves towards a decarbonised economy. The exit from coal is gathering pace in the finance and insurance sectors. On the technology front, cheaper renewables are driving new green hydrogen projects that could make Australia an energy super power. And there's the kids - the Climate Strike generation will soon be voting and they want action. Perhaps there's a chance we can really change.

May 23, 2020•39 min•Season 7Ep. 4

03 | Hot Mess — Party lines

There's more to our climate politics than the circus of losing a succession of Prime Ministers. Export earnings, donations, access, revolving doors between politics and industry mean that both sides of politics are close to the fossil fuel sector. In our tight Parliament, mining regions have become crucially important. And actions like the recent Stop Adani Convoy have only deepened climate change divisions.

May 16, 2020•39 min•Season 7Ep. 3

02 | Hot Mess — Spin Cycle

The fossil fuel industries ignored their own research as far back as the 1960s and then denied climate change was going on. We hear how a small group of think tanks and a compliant media pushed our buttons, undermined the science, and turned it into a controversy.

May 09, 2020•40 min•Season 7Ep. 2

01 | Hot Mess — Human frailties

What it is about us, all of us, that makes climate change hard to get our heads around and even harder to do something about? We talk to people who understand that climate change is a real danger and people who don’t. And we hear from researchers looking at why we are the way we are.

May 02, 2020•37 min•Season 7Ep. 1

INTRODUCING — Hot Mess: Why haven’t we fixed climate change?

It’s been over three decades since most of us first heard about global warming. Meanwhile, the 20 hottest years on record have all occurred in the last quarter century. We’re had heatwaves, storms, drought and bushfires on an unprecedented scale. Why has it been so hard to agree and take action on climate change? How can we rise to meet the challenge?

Apr 25, 2020•5 min

02 | Shifting Cultures: Survival and revival in the Torres Strait

The island of Poruma is a shrinking tropical paradise — battered by king tides and eaten by coastal erosion. Meet the locals fighting for survival, in more ways than one. Climate change is lapping at the shores of Poruma, a tropical island in Australia’s Torres Strait. It’s a dot in the Pacific Ocean — just two kilometres long and 300 metres wide — that sits halfway between the northern tip of Australia and the south of Papua New Guinea. This tiny landmass, also known as Coconut Island, is becom...

Feb 08, 2020•29 min•Season 6Ep. 3

08 | Myths of War — Vietnam: the war's forgotten supporters

If everyone was against the Vietnam War, how come Australian forces spent 10 years fighting in Southeast Asia? Why have the supporters of the Vietnam commitment been forgotten? And why do we believe returned men were abused? Perhaps we should ask Rambo. Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin.

Jan 20, 2020•25 min•Season 5Ep. 8

07 | Myths of War: Gay servicemen in Vietnam

Anyone could be discharged from the Australian armed forces for gay sexual behaviour in Vietnam. And since nobody wanted to fight the Vietnam War – and gay men were excused national service — there must have been no gay people on Australian military bases in Vietnam, right? Wrong. Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin.

Jan 13, 2020•25 min•Season 5Ep. 7

06| Myths of War — The Thai-Burma railway and the myth of the river Kwai

Did mateship really sustain Australian POWs of the Japanese any more than it helped — for example — the Dutch to endure the horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway? And why is there a bridge on the River Kwai today when there was no bridge in the Second World War? Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin.

Jan 06, 2020•25 min•Season 5Ep. 6

05| Myths Of War — Was there a battle for Australia?

Why do we commemorate an event that probably didn’t happen? Did the Japanese really plan to invade Australia in 1942? What does it mean that we have come to commemorate a battle that many historians argue never actually happened? And whatever happened to the Rats of Tobruk? Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin

Dec 30, 2019•25 min•Season 5Ep. 5

04 | Myths of War — Changi and the POWs behind the wire

Why some prisoners of war were happiest in Singapore. Was Changi a POW heaven or a death-camp hell? The camp’s reputation has worsened in the years since the Second World War, but the truth lies somewhere in between. Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin.

Dec 23, 2019•25 min•Season 5Ep. 4

03 | Myths of War — General Sir John Monash: a flattering self portrait

A great general — but was he really the greatest? General Monash, the only Jew to command an army in the First World War, has been described in Australia as an outsider who won the war. But how much of an outsider was Monash, and how much of the war did Australia win? And did Monash write his own story? Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin.

Dec 16, 2019•25 min•Season 5Ep. 3

02 | Myths of War— Gallipoli: ANZAC misremembered

Ataturk never said his famous words and Bert Facey wasn’t there for the landing. Gallipoli stripped bare. One of the most famous and best-loved Australian accounts of the Gallipoli landing is a fabrication. The most quoted quote was never actually said. What else do we believe about Gallipoli that is untrue? Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin.

Dec 09, 2019•25 min•Season 5Ep. 2

01 | Myths Of War — The white feather women and their unwelcome gifts

Did young women really hand out white feathers to young men who didn’t enlist in the services during the First World War? It sounds like a myth, but there are lost limbs and lost lives to attest that the white feathers were real. A relative of a prominent Australian historian joined up when he received a white feather and returned from the front with only one leg. Written and presented by Dr Mark Dapin.

Dec 01, 2019•25 min•Season 5Ep. 1

04 | Why the Cold War still matters — The year no-one saw coming

In January 1989, East German leader Erich Honecker declared that the Berlin Wall would still be standing in 50 or even 100 years. By November that same year the Wall was down and the Cold War was over. 1989 was a year that no-one saw coming. Head back to 1989 and learn about the luck that led to the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Nov 09, 2019•36 min•Season 4Ep. 4

03 | Why the Cold War still matters — The fall of an empire

How did a committed communist become an accidentally revolutionary Soviet leader? Take a closer look at the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev and discover how his approach to economic and political reform opened up a Pandora's box of free speech and criticism. Find out how Gorbachev earned himself a seat at the negotiating table with the West and learn why he was no longer willing to hold on to empire by force

Nov 02, 2019•39 min•Season 4Ep. 3

02 | Why the Cold War still matters — Repression and dissent

The Cold War is often referred to as the 'War of Words'. Meet the people who tore down the Iron Curtain from within the Soviet Union through protest and dissent. Hear the stories of a Romanian radio repairman and his buried typewriter and the Polish scientist who swam for freedom.

Oct 26, 2019•38 min•Season 4Ep. 2

01 | Why the Cold War still matters — The superpower standoff

The most familiar story of the Cold War is that of the superpower rivalry between the US and the USSR—two armed camps, teetering on the precipice of nuclear war. Find out how the standoff played out, whether America really won the Cold War and why personalities matter in politics.

Oct 19, 2019•35 min•Season 4Ep. 1
← PrevNext →
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android
Open in Metacast