An undercover sting on the Spanish party island of Ibiza involving a far-right political leader, a fake Russian oligarch, cocaine and corruption. This is the inside story of the Ibiza Affair, and how private investigator Julian Hessenthaler made the secret recordings that brought down a government. Credits: Host/Producer: Joey Watson Supervising Producer: Claudianna Blanco Sound Design: Matt Nikolic Fact Check: Holly Mitchell Listen to Secrets we Keep: Lone Actor - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/...
Nov 17, 2025•30 min•Season 9Ep. 6
When Lorraine Long began logging complaints from patients who claimed to be mistreated by doctors, she uncovered one of Australia’s most shocking medical scandals. Her warnings were ignored, her reputation attacked, but her persistence exposed “the Butcher of Bega,” disgraced gynaecologist and obstetrician Graeme Reeves, who was accused of mutilating and assaulting patients. In this episode, Lorraine reflects on how she blew the whistle, the personal cost of speaking out, and what her story reve...
Nov 10, 2025•32 min•Season 9Ep. 5
What happens when a world-famous prankster journalist decides to put all the TikToks, podcasts, and online masterclasses promising overnight riches to the test? British filmmaker Oobah Butler spills the methods behind his latest documentary, “How I Made £1 Million In 90 Days”, a wild ride through the art of turning hype and hot air into cash, faking his way to wealth to expose the reality behind “hustle culture”. Host: Joey Watson Producer: Claudianna Blanco Sound Design: Matt Nikolic See omnyst...
Nov 03, 2025•24 min•Season 9Ep. 4
When it became known that a shadowy facial recognition company called Clearview AI had created a massive database, capable of identifying almost anyone, anywhere, reporters around the globe picked up the trail — working to uncover how this start-up could reshape privacy and policing internationally. Here in Australia, tech reporter Cam Wilson dug into the Australian Federal Police’s documents for years — revealing disturbing details. Read Cam Wilson's Investigations here: ‘World’s most controver...
Oct 27, 2025•31 min•Season 9Ep. 3
Go inside the courtroom as the Special Investigations Unit fights to deliver justice to three alleged Nazi collaborators living in Australia — men accused of participating in atrocities during World War II. Prosecutor Graham Blewitt takes us behind the scenes of the long, complex battle for accountability, marked by High Court challenges, fading memories, and the failing health of the accused This is Part 2 of Hunting Australia’s Nazi War Criminals . You can listen to Part 1 here . Lifeline: 13 ...
Oct 20, 2025•37 min•Season 9Ep. 2
In the mid 1980s, Australia had to reckon with an uncomfortable truth: that hundreds of suspected Nazi war criminals had made this country their home. They had slipped in after World War II and had been living quietly in the suburbs. Leading the effort to expose them was the Special Investigations Unit. Prosecutor Graham Blewitt was part of the team whose task was to find the men who thought they’d escaped justice. This is Part 1 of Hunting Australia’s Nazi War Criminals . Part 2 out next Tuesda...
Oct 13, 2025•26 min•Season 9Ep. 1
From next week, join Joey Watson as he takes you inside some of the most important investigations of our time. Each week, you'll hear stories powerful people hoped would stay buried, by speaking directly to those who lived and breathed them. Subscribe and follow Secrets We Keep, to be the first to hear Uncovered on October 14. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 08, 2025•2 min
Tim Elliott has done what few could - persuading one of Australia's most elusive prison escapees to break his silence. The journalist and author has always been drawn to the hidden corners of people's lives, shaped in part by his own story of privilege and pain, shadowed by hardship and the loss of his father. In Secrets We Keep: Jailbreak, Tim enters the mind of Darko (aka ‘Dougie') Desic, a wildly successful weed grower who staged a bold prison escape and remained on the run for decades. In th...
Oct 06, 2025•25 min•Season 8Ep. 7
Darko is free but trapped in the life of a fugitive. He falls in love but can’t reveal his true identity and breaks it off. Life is hard: Darko’s living outside the system now. With no ID or healthcare, he can’t openly travel or seek medical attention. He depends on local support and cash jobs. Once COVID hits, Darko becomes homeless, and decides to hand himself in. Behind bars once again, locals rally for clemency. Will he be set free? As his fate hangs in the balance, he examines his choices a...
Sep 29, 2025•37 min•Season 8Ep. 6
Brought to you by LiSTNR’s team of award-winning journalists, Secrets We Keep: Uncovered takes you inside some of the most important investigations of our time, with our expanding network of journalists and sources from around Australia and beyond. Every week, we pull back the curtain on the stories powerful people hoped would stay buried, by speaking directly to those who lived and breathed them. The whistleblower who risked everything. The victim who refused to stay silent. The journalist who ...
Sep 25, 2025•54 sec
Darko methodically prepares an escape plan, taking months to prepare. As Darko readies himself physically, mentally and logistically, he collects the tools he needs to breakout: bolt cutters, a hack saw blade and new running shoes. After his daring escape, the cops give chase, but Darko miraculously evades them at every turn. Darko returns to Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where he assumes a new identity: “Dougie”, the easy-going handyman. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Sep 22, 2025•34 min•Season 8Ep. 5
Darko’s sent to some of Australia’s most notorious prisons, where he acquaints himself with several underworld figures. Darko’s making the most of his time behind bars when he’s told that once his sentence is complete, he will be deported back to Yugoslavia, then in the midst of a brutal civil war. Going back would’ve meant having to fight in the conflict, so Darko decides to escape and starts to devise a plan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Sep 15, 2025•32 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Darko’s killing it. He uses the proceeds of a successful marijuana crop to buy a new bike, gold, opals and blue-chip shares. A single, fateful mistake gets him discovered by the police, but Darko manages a near escape. Now a fugitive, Darko picks up work on a banana plantation in Coffs Harbour, where his workmates realise there’s more to Darko than meets the eye. After a few months undetected, Darko’s luck runs out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Sep 08, 2025•34 min•Season 8Ep. 3
After visiting Australia in the 1980s, Darko returns home to Yugoslavia but senses trouble coming. He sees the rise of nationalism and early signs of conflict looming. Darko heads back to the safety of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Enamoured by the laid-back lifestyle, Darko learns to grow and sell weed. He plans to buy his dream house in Palm Beach but gets greedy. This fit, young, former communist commissar, with a taste for Russian literature decides to stay in Australia any way he can. See omny...
Sep 01, 2025•29 min•Season 8Ep. 2
It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon in 2021, when Darko Desic arrives, unannounced, at a police station, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. He claims to have escaped from prison 30 years before and now wants to hand himself in. The police are confused. There’s no record of him on their files. The officers eventually arrest him. When news emerges of Darko’s 30 years on the run, the world is amazed, and baffled. How did he escape? How did he evade capture for so long, living under the noses of the police? And...
Sep 01, 2025•30 min•Season 8Ep. 1
At just 13 years old, Thomas Carrick was placed under covert surveillance by the Australian Federal Police. Believing he was speaking to ISIS operatives online, Thomas was in fact engaging with undercover officers, conversations that would eventually see him charged with terrorism offences. The AFP knew Thomas lived with autism and an intellectual disability. Still, they pursued him in a way a judge later described as ‘grooming’ him for terrorism. So, was Thomas ever a real threat? Or just a vul...
Aug 29, 2025•55 min
In Jailbreak , we hear the extraordinary story of a fugitive who lived for 30 years on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. The reclusive Darko Desic (prolific weed grower, prison escapee and martial arts expert) tells his story for the first time; a story of resilience and discipline. In following Darko’s remarkable journey, Jailbreak explores eternal truths about free will and fate, crime and punishment, and the search for meaning. Jailbreak is an original podcast from LiSTNR. See omnyst...
Aug 25, 2025•4 min
Why did Joey decide to use the terrorist's name? Where are far-right extremist communities gathering now? In this bonus Q&A episode, Joey answers your questions about making the Lone Actor podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Aug 20, 2025•27 min
Journalist and host of the Weekend Briefing Antointette Lattouf sits down with Joey Watson to go beyond the investigation. Find out how Joey came to the story, and how his family history influences his work. Have a question for Joey? Email secretswekeep@sca.com.au. You can hear more from Antointette every Saturday on the Weekend Briefing . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Aug 13, 2025•27 min
Having spent years tracing the terrorist, Joey is still left with unanswered questions. Parts of the manifesto don’t match the online worlds Joey has investigated — references to revolution, societal collapse, and a call for chaos. Joey’s search leads to a shadowy neo-Nazi terror network that emerged in the years before the attack. Could this be the missing link in the terrorist’s radicalisation to violence? If you have a question for Joey, email secretswekeep@sca.com.au See omnystudio.com/liste...
Aug 06, 2025•39 min•Season 7Ep. 6
After the attack, authorities in Austria learnt that the terrorist had been linked to a high-profile extremist in their country – Martin Sellner. The terrorist had given Sellner a sizeable donation, and had visited Austria four months before the attack. So, the question was asked – did Sellner and the terrorist have contact? However, the Austrian investigation into the links between the pair was compromised. Joey travels to Vienna to find out what happened. See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...
Jul 30, 2025•33 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Two trips to the Balkans, in South-Eastern Europe might hold the key to the terrorist's mindset in the years before the attack. This is a region steeped in nationalist history and revered by the far-right, and the details of his time here are murky. Joey follows the terrorist to the other side of the world, searching for more clues about his radicalisation, trying to find out if anyone in Europe knew what was coming. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jul 23, 2025•39 min•Season 7Ep. 4
On the afternoon of the attack, a member of a private Facebook group for Australian extremists comments that the terrorist had been “in the scene for a while”. Digging through an archive of Facebook posts, Joey Watson uncovers just how deep those connections ran. Joey finds the terrorist had been in contact with Australian extremists for years – including signalling the violence that he would go on to commit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jul 16, 2025•36 min•Season 7Ep. 3
The terrorist posted a manifesto and a live stream link on an obscure image board just minutes before the attack, urging users to “do their part by spreading my message.” Journalist Joey Watson investigates the online community of 4chan, and finds how a once-creative part of the internet was taken over by far-right extremists, desensitizing each other towards violence. Joey sifts through newly unearthed posts made anonymously by the terrorist, finding a crucial shift in his radicalisation journe...
Jul 09, 2025•37 min•Season 7Ep. 2
In 2019, a 28-year-old Australian terrorist live-streamed himself murdering 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand, sending shockwaves around the world. It was the deadliest act of right-wing extremist violence committed by an Australian. As journalist Joey Watson speaks with survivors and researchers, he begins to uncover a more complex story. What, or who, led the terrorist to violence? In Secrets We Keep: Lone Actor , Joey sets out to retrace the terrorist's trajectory in the ye...
Jul 09, 2025•30 min•Season 7Ep. 1
On March 15 2019 a gunman opened fire on two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people. Officially, he acted alone. But what if that wasn’t the full story? In Secrets We Keep: Lone Actor , journalist Joey Watson digs into the digital underworld that shaped Brenton Tarrant — a 28-year-old Australian radicalised online and armed with a global ideology. Joey retraces the steps of the terrorist and asks: Was he really acting alone? The series journeys from the darkest corners of the internet to the...
Jun 29, 2025•3 min
How is international commercial surrogacy being sold to foreign intended parents? Amelia sends Senior Producer Claudianna Blanco to Colombia to find out. Claudianna talks to experts, industry insiders and surrogates to uncover the international daisy chain of brokers and middlemen. All episodes of By Any Means are available exclusively on the LiSTNR app. If you want to get in touch, email secretswekeep@sca.com.au See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Surrogacy is the pointy end of the fertility industry – the last resort for conceiving babies that are genetically linked to their parents. In Australia, the only legal option for surrogacy is via someone offering to carry a baby altruistically. Who are these women who are happy to carry a baby for a stranger? Amelia sends Senior Producer Claudianna Blanco to Tasmania for the Surrogacy Sisterhood retreat – a first for any Australian journalist. Then, we meet a couple risking it all to undertake ...
Jun 17, 2025•51 min•Season 6Ep. 5
You’ve heard the mistakes the fertility industry has made – so it’s no surprise some people are offering another option. In this episode, Amelia Oberhardt dives into the ‘known donor’ movement, of men offering their sperm on Facebook. Is it better than using sperm sourced through a fertility clinic? And is an unregulated environment of sperm donation really the best solution? If you can't wait to listen to the next episode, you can find all episodes of By Any Means for free on the LiSTNR app. Li...
Jun 10, 2025•42 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Systemic secrecy and loose record-keeping in the early days of IVF is coming to light, and it's clear that some sperm donors were abusing the system. In this episode, Amelia hears from adult donor-conceived people whose lives have been altered because of secrecy and negligence. From people finding out they have an unknown large number of siblings, to inherited health conditions, and the anguish of not knowing your medical history. If you don't want to wait for the next episode, all episodes of B...
Jun 03, 2025•44 min•Season 6Ep. 3
