Michael Smith is a passionate pilot and movie enthusiast who runs a number of cinemas and owns a tiny flying boat. Both helped him to fulfil his lifelong dream to fly the old Rose Bay to London route operated by Qantas in the 1930s and ’40s. He embarked on a several-month-long journey in his “flying bathtub” and extended his trip to eventually take him around the world. Michael did all this without any sponsors and out of pure passion for adventure, which ultimately won him the Australian Geogra...
Oct 30, 2020•39 min
Author Paddy Manning has worked as a journalist for more than 15 years and in his new book “Body count: How climate change is killing us” he is investigating the true scale of climate change related deaths. From heat stroke victims to devastating mental health issues related with climate anxiety, Manning shows that climate deaths didn’t start in 2019 during one of the worst fire seasons Australia has ever experienced. For his book Manning has spoken to survivors and the families of victims to ma...
Oct 21, 2020•30 min
Lyndall Ryan´s interest in the history of Australia has grown since her early days as a scholar researching the history of Tasmania and the consequences of the "Black War” for the local Aboriginal population. Through her work, the historian became heavily invested in the survival stories of Indigenous Australians and the frontier wars, which included acknowledgment of massacres committed by European settlers in the early days of the nation. Her research and expertise in the field got her involve...
Oct 16, 2020•35 min
Brigitte Muir’s life has been all about pushing the limits. She discovered her passion for adventure in high school while exploring the caves near her home in Belgium. This escalated to scaling the world’s highest peaks, becoming the first woman to scale the world's seven highest summits on each continent, including Mt Everest. In recent years, she has committed herself to affecting positive change for women and communities in her beloved eastern Nepal. This Episode of Talking Australia is hoste...
Oct 08, 2020•32 min
Brigitte Muir’s life has been all about pushing the limits. She discovered her passion for adventure in high school while exploring the caves near her home in Belgium. This escalated to scaling the world’s highest peaks, becoming the first woman to scale the world's seven highest summits on each continent, including Mt Everest. In recent years, she has committed herself to affecting positive change for women and communities in her beloved eastern Nepal. This Episode of Talking Australia is hoste...
Sep 30, 2020•25 min
Robert McLean is an unlikely conservationist. Throughout the week he drives a meat truck and is a bloke who enjoys a steak and a beer. But most weekends he's out in the Dryandra Woodland conservation area, 170km south-east of Perth, trying to save one of Australia’s most endangered species - the numbat - from extinction. There are less than 1000 mature individuals remaining. Together with three other unlikely conservationists - airline worker Sean Van Alphen, power-company employee Matthew Wille...
Sep 17, 2020•21 min
Lisa Blair is the first woman to sail solo and unassisted around Antarctica. The dangerous journey took her 184 days to finish and almost killed her when her mast broke in the middle of nowhere in giant seas. The courageous sailor survived the incident to fulfil her dream and tell her incredible story. It made her not only grow as a sailor but as a person. Since then she’s added another record to her belt: the first woman to circumnavigate Australia on her own. And as if all this isn’t enough, p...
Sep 11, 2020•49 min
In his book “Honeysuckle Creek - The story of Tom Reid, a little dish and Neil Armstrong’s first step” author Andrew Tink sets the story straight about Australia´s role in the Apollo 11 moon landing mission in 1969. In this episode he talks about Tom Reid, the mind behind the operation of the famous “Dish” near Canberra and how Tom and his team saved the world wide live broadcast of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon and his very personal connection to the man that made it all happen in th...
Sep 03, 2020•40 min
Tim Faulkner is known for his deep passion for Australia´s wildlife and his conservational work with the Australian Reptile park. He’s also a highly energetic and beloved TV personality that tries to save the Tasmanian devil from extinction with the parks “Devil´s Arch” protection programs. The devils are getting wiped out by an aggressive and infectious cancer. Trying to protect a few of them in an enclosed territory might be the only hope for their survival. Tim talkes about his fascinating li...
Aug 27, 2020•42 min
Michelle Lee is a record-holding solo rower known for her crossing of the mighty Atlantic Ocean during the Talisker Atlantic Challenge, an annual ocean-rowing race. The sports’ fanatic loves a challenge and lives by the motto: “Dare to say yes!”, which is why she launched herself headfirst into tackling the 5000km long journey - solo and unassisted. But before that she had to learn how to row. She did that by taking on a world record - to become the fastest woman to row 1 million metres, on a Co...
Aug 19, 2020•26 min
Michelle Lee is a record-holding solo rower known for her crossing of the mighty Atlantic Ocean during the Talisker Atlantic Challenge, an annual ocean-rowing race. The sports’ fanatic loves a challenge and lives by the motto: “Dare to say yes!”, which is why she launched herself headfirst into tackling the 5000km long journey - solo and unassisted. But before that she had to learn how to row. She did that by taking on a world record - to become the fastest woman to row 1 million metres, on a Co...
Aug 14, 2020•26 min
In 2019, Claire published her study which found that a single cat had wiped out an entire breeding colony in the town of Mandurah. The study went viral and highlighted the impact of both feral and pet cats on Australian wildlife. This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com). You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic. Listen to the podcast on Apple here . Related...
Aug 06, 2020•34 min
Tyson Yunkaporta belongs to the Apalech Clan from Western Cape York and is the author of the award winning book “Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World”. He is also a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges, a published poet and exhibited artist. On this episode Tyson talks about his book and the great value of indigenous knowledge that goes way beyond environmental and conservational topics and is often overlooked when it comes to finding solutions to complex issues such as hist...
Jul 30, 2020•44 min
Joe Bonington is the founder of Joe’s Basecamp, a highly specialised training gym on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. The master adventure fitness trainer and son of legendary British mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington has been helping people to achieve amazing goals for almost 20 years. His gift is to help ordinary people to unlock their full potential to achieve things they never thought possible. On this episode Joe talks about his training philosophy, the right mindset and how juggling and doing hand...
Jul 23, 2020•57 min
Di Westaway is the leader of her so called “tribe” of 40,000 Australian women who found a way to be active, enjoy nature and the outdoors even after becoming working or full-time mums caught up with every day life struggles. Di wanted to escape that hamster wheel and founded Wild Women on Top, an organisation that helps women to achieve their goals, whether that’s a long hike with like-minded friends or conquering a high-altitude summit in some remote parts of the world. Strength lies in numbers...
Jul 17, 2020•35 min
At age 7 Australian rock climbing sensation Angie Scarth-Johnson was already climbing grades that other rock climbers spend years and years to figure out. Now the 16 year old rock climbing sensation is already in a league of her own and eying to represent Australia in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. On this episode Angie shares her path to discovering her passion and her latest endeavours including the launch of her film ‘Pacific lines’ that was two years in the making and follows her on an adventu...
Jul 09, 2020•25 min
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Jul 01, 2020•35 min
Ian Morris is a zoologist, educator, conservationist and author that has worked with the traditional owners of Arnhem Land for decades and speaks Djambarrpuyŋu, Warramirri & Gupapuyŋu – all local Indigenous languages. Today, he works as an environmental consultant and teaches children the importance of indigenous science and knowledge. He believes: “If you have the right attitude when you are out in the bush, you are not afraid of what might happen to you but you are fascinated by what’s aro...
Jun 24, 2020•31 min
Ian Morris is a zoologist, educator, conservationist and author that has worked with the traditional owners of Arnhem Land for decades and speaks Djambarrpuyŋu, Warramirri & Gupapuyŋu – all local Indigenous languages. Today, he works as an environmental consultant and teaches children the importance of indigenous science and knowledge. He believes: “If you have the right attitude when you are out in the bush, you are not afraid of what might happen to you but you are fascinated by what’s aro...
Jun 18, 2020•33 min
While 12 people have walked on the moon only three have ever been to the bottom of the ocean. That’s the scale of the life-changing challenge that undersea explorer Victor Vescovo had taken on: Successfully diving the five deeps of the world. After the private equity investor and retired naval officer decided to fund this ground breaking project all by himself, Victor and his team had to overcome many technical challenges by trying to achieve something that has never been done before. The result...
Jun 10, 2020•34 min
Listen to the podcast on apple here . Blake takes the fear, which has been supported through film and media for decades, and tries to help us understand sharks better, so we can improve our relationship with these beautiful creatures. This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jun 04, 2020•34 min
Each winter, thousands of spider crabs rise up from the depths of Bass Strait to gather for one of the world’s most extraordinary natural spectacles. For many years these mass aggregations went on relatively unknown to the wider public until in recent years films, such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2, shed light on to the wildlife spectacle. Nature photographer Justin Gilligan jumped into the cold waters in Port Phillip bay to capture the event during which the crabs moult their tough exos...
May 28, 2020•25 min
Jon Shaw is an award-winning water cinematographer, known for his documentaries on the lives of Australia’s incredible marine life. From working with David Attenborough to going facing off with an orca, Jon has lived out his dream career. But with this insight into the ocean comes a lot of responsibility. In recent years, he has been focusing more of his work on revealing the challenges facing the marine world. This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at ...
May 22, 2020•24 min
Valerie Taylor is the Grand Madame of Australian nature filming and to this day a passionate diver and wildlife advocate. Together with her husband Ron Taylor she produced some of the most iconic nature films about sharks and other marine wildlife. From their days as professional spearfishing champions the couple became wanted experts in their field of filming and swimming with sharks. This led to Hollywood knocking on their door in the mid 70s and asking for their help in making Steven Spielber...
May 13, 2020•38 min
Engineer and professional adventurer Chris Bray turned his passion for nature photography into a thriving business - teaching people how to photograph animals around the globe. His adventurous life started early on a boat with his parents and sister as they sailed around the world. On this episode of Talking Australia Chris chats about his upbringing and how he discovered his passion for photography, and about a hair-raising, high-risk sailing trip through the North West Passage on an old wooden...
May 06, 2020•45 min
Professor Veena Sahajwalla is also known as “the waste queen” and the inventor of the world’s first e-waste micro factory. Her mission in life is to find new ways to deal with our massive waste problems. Her ideas of reviving waste gained huge popularity through the successful tv-program “war on waste”. In this episode she shares her story from her childhood in India to becoming a recycling guru and professor at the University of NSW. Here you can find out more about Veena´s work: www.newsroom.u...
Apr 29, 2020•34 min
Dr. Glenn Singleman has achieved so many things in his life that one might ask whether his day has more than 24 hours. He is an emergency doctor, a mountaineer, a skydiver, a record-breaking high-altitude BASE jumper and wingsuit pilot, a motivational speaker, a husband, a father and submarine medical doctor who joined both world-famous director James Cameron and businessman and explorer Victor Vescovo on their journeys to the bottom of the ocean. He also goes trail running every morning, is a p...
Apr 22, 2020•37 min
Dr. Glenn Singleman has achieved so many things in his life that one might ask whether his day has more than 24 hours. He is an emergency doctor, a mountaineer, a skydiver, a record-breaking high-altitude BASE jumper and wingsuit pilot, a motivational speaker, a husband, a father and submarine medical doctor who joined both world-famous director James Cameron and businessman and explorer Victor Vescovo on their journeys to the bottom of the ocean. He also goes trail running every morning, is a p...
Apr 22, 2020•28 min
Tim Jarvis has endured a great deal of physical privation as a world-leading polar adventurer. In order to authentically recreate two epic journeys by Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton, from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, Tim willingly stripped himself of all modern equipment and undertook these expeditions with the same clothes and gear that his predecessors used in the early 1900s. On this episode of Talking Australia Tim talks about his adventures and how he since then ha...
Apr 15, 2020•39 min
Professor Tim Flannery has devoted his life to fighting climate change. His best-seller “The Weather Makers” remains the second highest-selling book on climate change of all time. This ultimately made him the Australian voice of the debate. In this episode, he shares his views about the recent grassroots movement of the younger generation demanding change. He also gives insights into his life and what the personal costs are of challenging international players and companies. Here you can find ou...
Apr 10, 2020•22 min
