Three years ago the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan. From his new home in Adelaide, Australia, Hazara human rights activist and photographer Muzafar Ali watched warlords returning to the places he had loved but had been forced to leave. He saw Western journalists describing a place they didn’t know and didn’t really understand. So last month, Muzafar returned to Afghanistan at great personal cost to document what life is like there. He found a network of underground schools where girls a...
Aug 13, 2024•16 min•Ep 1318•Transcript available on Metacast Neale Radley was in his early 40s when he dived off a houseboat and hit a sandbar, becoming a high-needs quadriplegic. With no family members able to look after him, he was faced with limited options and ended up in aged-care. Now, a clause in the government’s New Aged Care Act could mean that more younger people will end up in aged-care, potentially unwinding decades of work to prevent this from happening. Today, Neale Radley on the reality of living in aged-care as a younger person and The Sat...
Aug 12, 2024•16 min•Ep 1317•Transcript available on Metacast This year’s Olympics has been phenomenal for women in sport. Paris 2024 also set a milestone as the first Olympics to achieve full gender parity on the field of play. But these achievements have been overshadowed by the abuse levelled at two female boxers who both clinched their first olympic medals over unfounded speculation about their sex. One of the boxers, Imane Khelif, has spoken out several times in the face of it all. The saga is fuelled by a current moral panic about ‘fairness’ in women...
Aug 11, 2024•17 min•Ep 1316•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of our sister podcast, Read This , host Michael Williams speaks with journalist, editor and media proprietor Eric Beecher about his new book The Men Who Killed the News . Eric has worked for some of the most well-respected newspapers in the world, including the Sydney Morning Herald and the Wall Street Journal. He’s currently the head of Private Media, which runs the website, Crikey . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Aug 10, 2024•31 min•Ep 1315•Transcript available on Metacast It’s been called a forever war: the fight over how to teach children to read. For decades, an outdated method has lingered in Australian classrooms as states protect schools’ right to teach how they wish. Following a recent report from the Grattan Institute that found a third of Australian children couldn’t read well, state governments are finally picking a side and mandating the best way to teach reading. Today, associate editor of The Saturday Paper Martin McKenzie-Murray on why “vibes-based l...
Aug 08, 2024•14 min•Ep 1314•Transcript available on Metacast In the weeks since he was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate, some of JD Vance’s past remarks have resurfaced. He is now at the centre of a number of bizarre rumours and jokes. They’ve been picked up by some Democrats, who are labelling the two men on the republican ticket as ‘weird’. Kamala Harris has chosen the man who started the ‘weird’ line of attack, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as her running mate – 17 days after Harris herself became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president...
Aug 07, 2024•19 min•Ep 1313•Transcript available on Metacast Hardly any foreign journalists have been into Gaza since Israel’s bombings began. The Economist ’s editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes is one of the few who has. On a recent trip, Zanny visited the streets of Jerusalem, the Knesset, Gaza and the West Bank, and spoke to dozens of people about what will happen to Gaza when, or if, the fighting stops. Now, an end to conflict in the Middle East seems further away than ever. Iran’s supreme leader has vowed to retaliate against Israel after the head ...
Aug 06, 2024•21 min•Ep 1312•Transcript available on Metacast They’re hard to miss: the number of gambling ads flooding our screens and devices everyday. They’ve become such an inescapable part of sport that a parliamentary inquiry was formed, which looked at the impacts the ads have on the community. In the final months of her life, Labor MP Peta Murphy was the chair of that inquiry – and after hearing from the gambling industry, dependent sporting codes and families impacted by gambling addiction – her position was unequivocal: all ads for online gamblin...
Aug 05, 2024•15 min•Ep 1311•Transcript available on Metacast It was supposed to be a routine call out when four police officers attended a property in regional Queensland just before Christmas in 2022. The young officers approached the house, looking to do a routine welfare check, when they were fired on. After a siege that lasted hours, six people were killed, including two constables. In the weeks that followed, media reporting focused on the strangeness of the town, and the strangeness of the Train family: two brothers and the woman that had been both ...
Aug 04, 2024•17 min•Ep 1310•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of our sister podcast, Read This , host Michael Williams speaks with the winner of the 2024 Miles Franklin Award, Alexis Wright. Her epic novel Praiseworthy , also won the Stella Prize and has been described as “an astonishing feat of storytelling and sovereign imagination. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Aug 03, 2024•33 min•Ep 1309•Transcript available on Metacast At Sydney Airport on a muggy night in November 2022, a group of volunteers from Sydney’s northern beaches crowd inside arrivals waiting to greet a family they had never met. Known as the ‘Manlygees’, they’re there to welcome a Kurdish family originally from Syria who had spent the past decade in a refugee camp in Iraq. They’re part of an ambitious pilot program introduced in 2022, called the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot, or CRISP, in which a sponsoring community acts as the...
Aug 01, 2024•20 min•Ep 1308•Transcript available on Metacast It wasn’t so long ago that renewables pundits glowingly described hydrogen as the “Swiss Army knife” of renewable technologies, able to be turned to almost any purpose. But more recently, the gas has become an expensive and painful point of political debate, with many experts tempering their praise. Now, one of hydrogen’s biggest backers, mining magnate Andrew Forrest, has announced he is scaling back his green hydrogen projects. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccombe...
Jul 31, 2024•16 min•Ep 1307•Transcript available on Metacast When Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to twenty years jail for sex trafficking crimes, journalist and writer Lucia Osborne-Crowley was there in the courtroom. She watched on as Ghislaine Maxwell – a British socialite, and close associate of Jeffrey Epstein – waited to hear her fate. And she listened as her victims testified to the harm inflicted by Maxwell’s predatory actions. But the more Osborne-Crowley learned, the more she came to understand the trial as a sham. Many other unnamed, powerful a...
Jul 30, 2024•14 min•Ep 1306•Transcript available on Metacast It was one of the biggest corporate scandals the country has ever seen when it was revealed that PwC had used confidential government information to enrich itself and its corporate clients. Since then there have been two parliamentary inquiries, an AFP investigation, nine investigations by the tax practitioners board, one internal review and an investigation by the international arm of the company. Yet important questions remain unanswered. Today, special correspondent Jason Koutsoukis on the ke...
Jul 29, 2024•14 min•Ep 1305•Transcript available on Metacast The historic teal wave at the last election delivered the two major parties their worst electoral results ever. So, perhaps it’s no surprise that the government looks set to introduce new laws that could make it harder for newcomers to compete. The minister responsible says he wants to address the “growing threat of big money in politics.” The rules could include a requirement that all donations over $1000 be disclosed and made public in real time, with caps on the amount that can be donated. A ...
Jul 28, 2024•15 min•Ep 1304•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of our sister podcast, host Michael Williams speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks. She shares her life sentence and reflects on how her upbringing provided the essential building blocks for a career as a writer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 27, 2024•28 min•Ep 1303•Transcript available on Metacast Climate activist Katta O’Donnell sued the Australian government for failing to disclose how much climate change would impact the value of government bonds. It was a world-first case, she was a law student at the time and she won. But the experience left her feeling more disillusioned than ever and determined to find another way to make change. Today, Katta O’Donnell on why she believes direct action is the way forward on climate. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Twitter and Instagram Guest: Kat...
Jul 25, 2024•16 min•Ep 1302•Transcript available on Metacast Recently, Mike Seccombe has been looking into the divide between Australia’s richest and poorest schools – to find out why this gap keeps widening. And what he found was a broken system. Rich parents are able to get huge tax breaks by donating to opulent building projects at their kids’ private schools. It’s a practice that goes way back – and many argue – is outdated. Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper and a proud state school boy, Mike Seccombe, on why we need an overhaul of ...
Jul 24, 2024•15 min•Ep 1301•Transcript available on Metacast On a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, there are two towns. One is home to a thriving economy. It has a golf course, cinema and tennis courts. It’s the richest postcode in the Northern Territory. Most of the people who live there are white. The other is home to the Anindilyakwa people - the Traditional Owners. The locals live just a few hundred metres from the world’s largest manganese mine. Here, life outcomes are worse than anywhere else in the country. This jarring contrast raises que...
Jul 23, 2024•15 min•Ep 1300•Transcript available on Metacast With just over a hundred days to go until the US election, Joe Biden has announced he’s dropping out of the presidential race. In a letter posted to X, he said “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term”. His decision comes after weeks of pressure from donors and colleagues to drop out. The question now is whether the Democrats will unite behind Vice President Kamala Har...
Jul 22, 2024•15 min•Ep 1299•Transcript available on Metacast News stories about violence against women have been coming hard and fast these past few weeks. These stories of the women — and sometimes children — killed, usually by a man they knew and often in a terribly violent way, are hard to read. Yet years of education campaigns and talk of respect for women seem to have made no difference, and every few days, another woman dies. Today, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody on why men kill women, and why Australia’s domestic violence ...
Jul 21, 2024•15 min•Ep 1298•Transcript available on Metacast For many Australians, facing the reality of this country is a task that has proved enduringly difficult, both at a public and a political level. For investigative journalist David Marr, finding the right way to tell the stories that allow us to see the truth of our history is a personal quest and one that has led to his latest book. In this episode of our sister podcast, Read This , Michael talks with David about shame – both personal and national – and why his family agreed that he had to write...
Jul 20, 2024•28 min•Ep 1297•Transcript available on Metacast This week, allegations of corruption, criminal infiltration, standover tactics and other nefarious activities within the ranks of the CFMEU have been all over the media. The reports have shocked, but not surprised, many in the community. Stories of underworld figures trading their leather for high viz, motorcycle helmets for hardhats – all in order, it is alleged, to get a slice of taxpayer-funded projects. Now there are questions over who knew what, when, and what it means for some of Australia...
Jul 18, 2024•17 min•Ep 1296•Transcript available on Metacast In the Pitjantjatjara communities of Anangu Country on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain, cancer rates are higher than elsewhere in Australia. This is the legacy of nuclear testing by the British government, which staged seven atomic explosions between 1956 and 1963, contaminating the land. Thanks to nuclear engineer and whistleblower Alan Parkinson, we know that the cleanup, in his words, was more of a “cover up”, with cost-cutting measures putting communities at further risk. As Australia stares...
Jul 17, 2024•16 min•Ep 1295•Transcript available on Metacast Shenane Hogg spent nine months in a coma after suffering abuse at the hands of her partner. During her recovery, she discovered her abuser had amassed $56,000 of debt in her name. Shenane’s story is just one of many that was heard at a parliamentary inquiry into how the financial system can be used to abuse women. The inquiry has heard chilling evidence of a sharp rise in financial abuse that can manifest as offensive and threatening messages in streams of bank transfers, raiding of a partner’s ...
Jul 16, 2024•16 min•Ep 1294•Transcript available on Metacast The attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump shocked America. Prominent public figures from all sides of the political spectrum have spoken out and condemned the use of violence, with President Joe Biden saying “it’s not who we are as a nation”. But is that true? And does this response downplay just how pervasive political violence has been in US history? Today, journalist and author of The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself Nick Bryant on America’s long and ...
Jul 15, 2024•16 min•Ep 1293•Transcript available on Metacast In Queensland, one issue is already dominating the upcoming state election: youth crime. So when the Liberal National Party launched their campaign, Peter Dutton was the perfect man to help sell their pitch. The federal opposition leader and former Queensland cop has been stressing his closeness to his home state. Already Peter Dutton has promised to crack down on crime, slow immigration, break up supermarket monopolies, and shift the green energy focus to nuclear. So will the Queensland electio...
Jul 14, 2024•15 min•Ep 1292•Transcript available on Metacast Long before she was hosting 7:30 on the ABC, Leigh Sales dreamed of becoming a novelist. In this episode of our sister podcast, Read This , she joins Michael to discuss her secret desire to write fiction, the art of crafting a good story, and how being a journalist allowed her to become a professional stickybeak. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 13, 2024•29 min•Ep 1291•Transcript available on Metacast When Mostafa Azimitabar was imprisoned on Manus Island, he was overcome with a desire to paint. With no art supplies, he used a toothbrush – a technique he continues with to this day. Mostafa survived the brutality of Australia’s asylum seeker detention system for more than eight years. Freed in 2021, he now lives in Sydney. His art has been shortlisted for the Archibald prize twice. But he paints from the edges of a country whose systems remain hostile towards him, as he navigates temporary vis...
Jul 11, 2024•19 min•Ep 1290•Transcript available on Metacast In 2018, then prime minister Scott Morrison announced a royal commission into aged care, shedding light on the astonishing prevalence of abuse in residential facilities. It’s been three years since its final report was handed down and advocates say very little has improved. The commission highlighted just how difficult accountability and justice can be to achieve after someone in care is harmed. Especially when the abuse is at the hands of those in charge of the nursing homes and home care servi...
Jul 10, 2024•18 min•Ep 1289•Transcript available on Metacast 
