Banksy is the artist behind the most famous, subversive and satirical street art on the planet. Yet despite their notoriety over the last two decades, Banksy has impressively managed to maintain their anonymity. But that could all change, due to a current court case between two art collectors and Banksy's authentication company, which could see the artist forced to reveal their identity. In this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert speaks with LiSTNR Investigations Editor, Clair Weaver about...
Mar 19, 2024•9 min•Season 5Ep. 127
The US is moving to ban TikTok after a bill passed through its House of Representatives last week. It’s given TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest before 150 million users face not being able to access the platform. In this episode of The Briefing Bension Siebert speaks with Crikey’s Cam Wilson about the ban, what it says about data ownership and what the implications could be for us here in Australia. Headlines: Greens to introduce bill that would break up Coles and Wooli...
Mar 18, 2024•20 min•Season 5Ep. 126
Vladimir Putin has been re-elected as Russia’s president for the fifth time over the weekend. Before the polls even opened all serious challengers had been wiped out, with Putin’s only real opposition, Alexei Navalny dying in mysterious circumstances weeks before. In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt sits down with Politico’s Zoya Sheftalovich to find out why Russia holds elections when the outcome has already been decided, and how Putin came to power in the first place. See omnys...
Mar 18, 2024•12 min•Season 5Ep. 125
The war between Israel and Hamas has been raging for five months, more than 30,000 people have been killed, and it’s spawned a massive refugee crisis. Currently 1.4 million Palestinians who have fled to the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt are hemmed in. So are any of Palestine’s neighbouring countries willing to accept them? And if not, why not? In this episode of The Briefing Sacha Barbour Gatt speaks with Anas Iqtait from the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at ANU about Ara...
Mar 17, 2024•21 min•Season 5Ep. 124
Patrick deWitt is an award winning author, and screenwriter. In this chat with Tom Tilley, Patrick talks about his latest novel The Librarianist, and why he hopes it provides readers with an escape from the “ugly” world we live in. Patrick also reflects on his decision to leave high school to pursue his dream of becoming a writer, and explains his take on why literature and art should focus less on young people. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Mar 16, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 123
Sydney-based content creator Veronica B is many things, but she’s perhaps best known for her hilarious comedy skits where she plays Aunty Salma, a character she says represents “every ethnic mum”. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Veronica takes us back to the moment she invented Aunty Salma, opens up about her decade-long journey in content creation before having her breakout moment on TikTok during the pandemic- and tells us why she wishes she could be a sellout. She also chats about using...
Mar 15, 2024•32 min•Season 5Ep. 122
The first ever academic study has finally been written about Salad Fingers, a video series created in 2004 that later went viral on YouTube. Salad Fingers featured a sickly green figure with lettuce leaves for hands who liked to stroke rusty spoons. The study argues Salad Fingers was a trailblazer of “weird youtube” and is still influencing internet culture today. In this episode of The Briefing, Eleanor Harrison-Dengate speaks with Jessica Balanzategui, a Senior Lecturer in Media at RMIT Univer...
Mar 15, 2024•13 min•Season 5Ep. 121
There’s a new phone-scam that’s being reported around the world, and it’s petrifying. It uses an AI generated cloned version of a loved one, who calls, claiming that there’s an emergency (often that they’ve been kidnapped and a ransom needs to be paid). They’re emotive, they’re high-quality replications, and they’re expected to hit Australians soon. So how does the scam work, and what do you need to know to ensure that you or your loved ones don’t fall victim to it? In today’s episode of The Bri...
Mar 14, 2024•21 min•Season 5Ep. 120
Haiti has been all over international headlines this week, and it’s culminated in the Caribbean country’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry being forced to step down. His resignation follows weeks of mounting pressure and increasing violence. Henry is currently stranded in Puerto Rico after being prevented by armed gangs from returning home. Now the Caribbean country is looking towards creating a transitional government for the foreseeable future. In this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert sits d...
Mar 14, 2024•13 min•Season 5Ep. 119
Facebook and Instagram could soon be wiped of news content. It’s after their parent company Meta, announced it will stop paying for news content in Australia when the current deals it has expire. In the future, Meta will encourage news publishers to buy extra services to increase their own traffic, flipping the flow of funds from Meta to news publishers, rather than the other way around. The move brings into question the issue of the sustainability of news journalism in Australia. The Albanese g...
Mar 13, 2024•23 min•Season 5Ep. 118
In 1969, Leila Khaled became the world's first female aeroplane hijacker when she took control of a flight from Rome to Tel Aviv. Now, at almost 80, she remains on the national committee for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and is set to appear as a speaker at Green Left’s Ecosocialism 2024 conference in WA in June. But with her past history and her more recent activism, would she be allowed entry into Australia? Or would her name be added to the long list of other controversia...
Mar 13, 2024•10 min•Season 5Ep. 117
Australia’s housing market has been in crisis for years and it only seems to be getting worse. Interest rate hikes last year have pushed many families’ budgets to the brink while renters are finding more and more of their pay cheque disappearing each month. All sides of politics have their own ideas to tackle rising rents, supply issues and soaring house prices, from assisting first home buyers to increasing the number of new builds. So is it time for a royal commission into the real estate indu...
Mar 12, 2024•23 min•Season 5Ep. 116
Australia’s love of an underdog is really special and unique – we're always cheering on the Aussie battler. It goes hand in hand with our belief that everyone deserves a fair go, but we’re also pretty renowned for being the first to cut down someone who might stand out. It’s called Tall Poppy Syndrome and has become synonymous with Australian culture. But why? And is it time to rethink our approach to success and standing out? On today’s episode, The Briefing host Sacha Barbour-Gatt talks to Dr ...
Mar 12, 2024•11 min•Season 5Ep. 115
Australia’s housing market has been in crisis for years and it only seems to be getting worse. Interest rate hikes last year have pushed many families’ budgets to the brink while renters are finding more and more of their pay cheque disappearing each month. All sides of politics have their own ideas to tackle rising rents, supply issues and soaring house prices, from assisting first home buyers to increasing the number of new builds. So is it time for a royal commission into the real estate indu...
Mar 11, 2024•21 min•Season 5Ep. 114
The first official photo of the Princess of Wales since her abdominal surgery has been released. It shows Kate smiling while surrounded by her three children, alongside a message from the royal thanking well-wishers for their support. Within hours of its release, several global news agencies announced they were pulling the image because it had been doctored. To what extent, we’re not sure, but if the recent conspiracy theories about Kate’s wellbeing are anything to go by, this latest development...
Mar 11, 2024•13 min•Season 5Ep. 113
The housing crisis in Australia is well documented and much debated. All sides of politics have their own ideas to tackle rising rents, supply issues and soaring house prices, from assisting first home buyers to increasing the number of new builds. But on the ground the feeling is that it’s all just kicking the can down the road, and a lot of the solutions fail to address the sometimes dodgy and underhanded tactics used by our country’s real estate agencies. So is it time for a royal commission ...
Mar 10, 2024•21 min•Season 5Ep. 112
Wendell Sailor represented Australia in both rugby league and rugby union at the highest level in the 90s and 2000s. Now, he spends his afternoons on the airwaves with Triple M’s Sydney drive show The Rush Hour with Gus Worland and Jude Bolton . In this chat with Tom Tilley, Wendell weighs in on the latest racism scandal in the NRL, and opens up about his own experiences with racism growing up. He also reveals what it was like finding out he’d been adopted, and explores why a two-year ban for co...
Mar 09, 2024•33 min•Season 5Ep. 111
Clare Verrall was a contestant on season two of Married At First Sight - and by her description, she was “hurled into the lion’s den”. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, she shares how her experience impacted her mental health, and why she wants others to think twice before applying for reality television shows. The pair also explore her journey being diagnosed with ADHD and autism as an adult, her massive love for fostering dogs, and the Taylor Swift tattoo typo she’ll never forget. See omny...
Mar 08, 2024•37 min•Season 5Ep. 110
Alabama has been in a state of turmoil after a legal case had unexpected consequences by implying that frozen embryos could be interpreted as having the same rights as children. After the judgment, several IVF clinics around the state suspended services due to the fear of legal ramifications, leaving prospective parents undergoing procedures in the dark. On Thursday, legislation was passed to protect IVF providers, but has this opened the door to further debate over reproductive rights in the US...
Mar 08, 2024•12 min•Season 5Ep. 109
We’ve seen two major decisions affect the reproductive rights of women in the lead up to International Women’s Day: the decision of the Alabama Supreme Court to declare embryos created through IVF as children, and France’s move to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution. They present the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the issue of women’s health, so where does Australia stand? On today’s episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt speaks with the Chair of the Australian Wome...
Mar 07, 2024•23 min•Season 5Ep. 108
The importation of all non-therapeutic vapes is now illegal in Australia. This means anyone wanting to import a vape into the country needs a licence to do so, and anyone wanting to buy a vape will need a prescription from their doctor. With vaping rates continuing to soar across the country, will this next step in the government's crackdown on vaping make a noticeable difference? And will the latest legislative changes push those who can't access a vape onto smoking cigarettes instead? Federal ...
Mar 07, 2024•13 min•Season 5Ep. 107
PFAS are known as forever chemicals, and they're really bad for the environment - they never break down, and can spread into waterways, land, animals...and us. Research has also shown that they can be really bad for us, with high exposure also been linked to a various range of health conditions, and a higher risk of some cancers. Larry Acton has been farming cattle for over 50 years, but when he bought his property in 2021, he had no idea it was contaminated with PFAS. He's now seriously worried...
Mar 06, 2024•23 min•Season 5Ep. 106
It's Super Tuesday in the US presidential election, but the biggest day in America's primary season won't be like any other we've seen in recent history. In today's episode, Bension Siebert sits down with Planet America's Chas Licciardello to explain what Super Tuesday is, why Donald Trump looks set to wipe the floor with his closest rival, and why Americans are stuck with two unpopular old men running for President. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Mar 06, 2024•10 min•Season 5Ep. 105
Did you know there is a World Cup of Gay Rugby? Technically called The Bingham Cup, it's an international tournament for gay and inclusive rugby teams from around the world - and the next one will be in Rome this coming May. The Cup has been around for 20 years, and Australian teams are some of the most successful. The Sydney Convicts have won the competition five times! In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt speaks with Ken Averre, Sydney Convicts club president to find out all abo...
Mar 05, 2024•21 min•Season 5Ep. 104
Are you concerned by seeing young children glued to iPads or screens out in public? Or are you a parent of one of those children, wondering how much screen time is actually okay for your child's brain? A new study of Australian families has found that the average toddler is missing out on more than 1000 words spoken by an adult each day because they or their parents are watching screens. Senior research officer at the Telethon Kids Institute, Dr Mary Brushe led the research, and on this episode ...
Mar 05, 2024•11 min•Season 5Ep. 103
For many, going to the doctor can be a financially painful experience. It can be difficult to find out how the prices of GPs compare in your area, never mind trying to find a bulk billing practice. Thankfully, James Gillespie is trying to solve these problems, by creating a publicly searchable database, called Cleanbill , that lists medical centres by location, fees, bulk-billing and whether they’re taking new patients. Today on The Briefing, Bension Siebert speaks with James about his database,...
Mar 04, 2024•23 min•Season 5Ep. 102
You’ve probably heard of 'nangs', the canisters full of nitrous oxide. The laughing gas can help whip your cream - but used incorrectly, it can also make you high. The substance can be more dangerous than it seems - nangs have contributed to the deaths of 20 people in the last 20 years in Australia, with more potentially not recorded as coronial lab equipment isn’t always up to the task. In this episode of The Briefing, Bension Siebert sits down with LiSTNR reporter Archie Milligan to discover h...
Mar 04, 2024•9 min•Season 5Ep. 101
The Australian casino industry has been in strife for years, and the latest iteration is another enquiry into Sydney’s Star. The second Bell review is currently underway and set to finish up in May looking at whether the Star’s license should be revoked. This comes after the Star was fined $100m 18 months ago; was found unsuitable to run a casino; and an external manager was appointed. In this episode of The Briefing Katrina Blowers sits down with Helen Bird from Swinburne University to find out...
Mar 03, 2024•22 min•Season 5Ep. 100
Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic make up the Aussie pop-guitar duo Royel Otis. The pair are living the rock star life on tour, currently being in the middle of a sold-out national tour before they head to North America for a month of shows. In this chat with Tom Tilley, Royel and Otis talk about the process behind their debut album Pratts and Pain, why they initially didn’t want to do live performances, and why the duo were so unsure about covering Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 hit Murder on the Dan...
Mar 02, 2024•30 min•Season 5Ep. 99
Rowi Singh is a Sydney-based artist and beauty influencer. She’s a proud Indian-Australian woman, and melds Indian and Western culture in many of the mesmerizing makeup looks she showcases on TikTok and Instagram. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Rowi admits she always wanted to be “some sort of famous”, explains the choice to ditch her nine-to-five job for influencing - and tells us why representation in the beauty industry matters. Weekend List: World of Secrets Season Two, The Disciples ...
Mar 01, 2024•31 min•Season 5Ep. 98
