Since Kamala Harris became his opponent in the race for US president, Donald Trump has argued that she is responsible for a migrant crisis. He says President Joe Biden named her the ‘border czar’, in charge of dealing with the unprecedented number of people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border. It’s a policy area that the Trump campaign hopes will win him the election in November. So what’s real, and what’s fake, when it comes to Kamala Harris and the US border? Subscribe to If You're Listen...
Aug 07, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kamala Harris is the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for President of the United States. But four years ago, she didn’t even make it to the first primary vote. They needed to pick someone who would beat Donald Trump, and Harris just wasn’t ‘electable’ enough. Whatever that means. So if she wasn’t electable then, is she electable now? Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our series on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zaDnCZHrE_g?si=Gb5TMhlaP5VNSnw2...
Jul 31, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast After weeks of speculation and acrimony, President Joe Biden has abandoned his bid for re-election, and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris to be his successor. This scenario has happened once before - late in the election cycle, a President bailed out and tried to hand over power to their Vice President. The subsequent chaos at the 1968 Democratic convention is legendary, and is something the party will be desperate to avoid in 2024.
Jul 22, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast When 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at former-President Donald Trump on July 13, the American public was ready with conspiracy theories explaining how and why he did it. And that shouldn’t come as a shock. Most Americans think President John F Kennedy was assassinated as part of a conspiracy, either by the US Government, Cubans, or the Mafia. They’re primed to believe their government is keeping secrets from them—because it is. Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Che...
Jul 17, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, the UK Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory. In the past four episodes we've detailed the chaos, ineptitude and hubris of the Conservative Party during their time in office. So you might be thinking, what took the Labour Party so long to get elected? On the final episode of our Who Broke Britain series, how Labour went to war with itself — over policy, factions, personalities, Brexit, and anti-Semitism. Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . C...
Jul 10, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast The UK election is being held today and polls indicate the Conservative Party will lose in a landslide. One of the key policies the government is running on is a version of Australia's offshore immigration detention policy, which was launched by prime minister John Howard in the lead-up to the 2001 election. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's two year fight over this policy has not only been a colossal failure, it will likely drag the Tories down with it. So as the UK decides on their next Prime Minis...
Jul 03, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Britain's National Health Service was in crisis when COVID arrived in the UK. After years of increasing demand and flatlining funding, the NHS was deeply broken. One Chancellor called the NHS "the closest thing the English people have to a religion", so how was it left to fall into disrepair, on the edge of collapse, right as a catastrophic pandemic hit? This is part 3 of our series, Who Broke Britain. Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our Who Broke Britain serie...
Jun 26, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast British Prime Minister David Cameron took a colossal gamble when he called for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union. Instead, he brought about Brexit and sent the country into three years of chaos. Cameron was certain his side — Remain — would win. How did he get it so wrong? Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Watch Who broke Britain, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW2NSrzcrIQ Check out our entire series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.co...
Jun 19, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast When the UK Conservative Party won the election in 2010, they took a butcher's knife to the budget. David Cameron's money-man George Osborne — the young heir to a wallpaper fortune — had a big plan called "austerity," but it put the country on a journey to total chaos. This is the first episode in a four-part series called Who Broke Britain. It's about the past 14 years of Conservative Party leadership, all the way up to the general election that's happening next month. London was once the large...
Jun 12, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're still on a break from our regularly scheduled programming but don't worry, we're hard at work. Next week we'll be launching a four-part series leading up to the UK election called Who Broke Britain? The country that was once the centre of the world's greatest empire now seems a lot smaller, and in many ways — broken. So — who broke it? Until then, check out the latest ABC podcast Not Stupid, from our colleagues in ABC News. It's hosted by Jeremy Fernandez and Julia Baird, and this week the...
Jun 05, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The island of Taiwan, just off the coast of China, is shaping up as the most likely spark for the next global conflict. China's president Xi Jinping wants to claim all the territory he thinks belongs to China, without triggering a nuclear war. It's a century-old civil war, which has been frozen in place for decades. It's an almost unimaginably dangerous situation, and one mistake could lead to catastrophe. This is a repeat episode. It was first broadcast on the 6th July, 2021 as part of the Chin...
May 29, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Earlier this week the President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in bad weather. Raisi was a phenomenally important figure in Middle Eastern politics — not just Iran's President, but the likely next Supreme Leader of Iran. He got there through acts of extreme brutality, showing his willingness to do anything to defend the Iranian status quo. How did Ebrahim Raisi become the heir-apparent to the Iranian Supreme Leadership, and what could happen now he's gone? Listen to our other e...
May 22, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Australia's first domestic violence shelter Elsie opened in the 1970s, and researchers have been analysing the problem ever since. In the last three decades more than 1,500 women have been killed by intimate partners in Australia and we're still no closer to finding out why. Campaigner Rosie Batty has compared domestic violence to terrorism, and called for similar levels of funding. Is that comparison extreme, or is it the best way to get us closer to fixing the problem? *EDITOR'S NOTE: This epi...
May 15, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Cohen is the star witness in the Trump 'hush-money' trial. He was once Trump's personal attorney and said he would "take a bullet" for his boss, but then everything changed. He has served years in prison for lying, tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. But he thinks everything he's gone through will be worth it if he can take Trump down. Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPubAjtbc4...
May 08, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Plans for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are not going well. It's a political quagmire, with plans for billion-dollar stadium upgrades or massive new venues being thrown around like confetti. There are concerns that Brisbane is going to blow its budget. Fifty years ago, the 1976 Montreal Olympics suffered a financial disaster so massive it nearly heralded the end of the Olympic Games. Is Brisbane repeating the mistakes of the past? Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out o...
May 01, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He is doing everything he can to stay in office, because if he holds office, he can't be thrown in jail. Sound familiar? It's a bit like Donald Trump's situation in the United States. But Netanyahu's case has an old-school flavour. It's a fierce battle between media tycoons, and it even involves Australian media nepo baby James Packer. It's a rollicking tale. But with a military campaign against Ga...
Apr 24, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Narenda Modi loves to promote India's status as the largest democracy in the world, and experts agree that the country's elections are free and fair for all. Modi is now an unbackable favourite to win a third term as Prime Minister in the weeks ahead, with polls suggesting he is heading for another victory. So why is he so sensitive to criticism, and aggressive in pursuing his detractors? In this final episode, Avani learns of the consequences of her own reporting on Modi after so many months se...
Apr 22, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Iran and Israel are caught in a cycle of revenge. On April Fools' Day, there was a huge escalation in the conflict when an Israeli air strike killed 16 people, including two Iranian Generals. Two weeks later, the skies over Israel lit up with a counterattack. It might seem like in this conflict, anything goes, but each response and retaliation is a calculated move. Israel knew the attack was coming and almost every drone and missile was intercepted. So, when the game of chess begins, how does it...
Apr 17, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lifting Indians out of poverty lies at the core of Narendra Modi's wildly popular political strategy. And it's worked: during his Prime Ministership, India has risen from the tenth largest economy in the world to the fifth. But this rising tide has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor in India, and has raised questions about Modi's ties to business leaders who have turned the nation's rise to their own advantage.
Apr 15, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast People don't like wind farms. They say they're bad for wildlife, they affect property values and they create pollution. But are any of these claims true? Today, the wind farm debate and how it nearly tore the small Australian community of King Island apart. This episode of If You're Listening is a live recording from the Newcastle Writers Festival. Subscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-9hfWk8TI...
Apr 10, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2002, Narendra Modi's carefully crafted political story was rocked by a series of deadly attacks in his home state of Gujarat, where he was the highly popular Chief Minister. Thousands were killed in a wave of riots that lasted for three days and became a major national scandal. Modi's role in the violence has been heavily contested in the decades since, but he has never been able to shake the association in the minds of some Indians. How did he manage to survive such a high-profile catastrop...
Apr 08, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Duterte and Marcos families are the Montagues and Capulets of the Philippines. They are, depending on who you ask, the country's most famous statesmen, thieves, murderers or heroes. They have tussled for power for nearly 60 years, and now there are talks of secession splitting the country in two. Could this family feud literally tear the Philippines apart? Want to watch Matt present If You're Listening live from the Newcastle Writers Festival this Sunday, April 7? A stream will be posted to ...
Apr 03, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast In January 2024, Narendra Modi travelled to the northern Indian town of Ayodhya to attend the consecration of a Hindu temple with a very contested history. The site had previously been occupied by a 500-year-old mosque, and had become a focal point of broader disputes between India's Hindu and Muslim communities. That fight over one hill in Ayodhya resulted in a demolition, mass protests and deadly retaliations across India. It also gave Modi a cause he could champion throughout his rapid politi...
Apr 01, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Australia’s housing market is, like many places in the Western world, in the midst of a crisis that feels like it will never be solved. Owning a property in an Australian city has only drifted further out of reach for most Australians in the last decade, and there are very few practical solutions on offer. Is it possible to actually unpick this situation? Japan offers a useful example. Thirty years ago, property in Tokyo was the most expensive in the world. Today, home ownership in that same cit...
Mar 27, 2024•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Narendra Modi left home, it wasn't to begin a career in politics. He wanted to be a monk. Modi's teenaged pilgrimage would take him across India, following the trail of his country's most influential religious leader. It was a journey that would ultimately steer him towards politics, and lay the foundation for some of his most popular and controversial philosophies.
Mar 25, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Princess of Wales has barely been seen since Christmas and everyone is asking, where is Kate? The Royal Family released a photo meant to squash the rumours, but when it became obvious it had been photoshopped, the speculation just got worse. Fake photos are everywhere, and there's a long history of people doctoring them, from photocopying to photoshopping, to straight up AI. But is there a time coming where we won't be able to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake? Subscrib...
Mar 20, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast For most politicians, the image of a stable marriage and a happy family is a crucial part of their pitch to voters. But in India, being single is a selling point: leaders want to show that they are dedicated only to their country. Narendra Modi's carefully crafted image of a bachelor was up-ended when it emerged that he had a wife who had been kept secret for decades. Since this scandal broke, Modi's estranged wife has barely been seen or spoken to the media. In this episode, we're going to find...
Mar 18, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Russia is in the midst of an election, but we already know Vladimir Putin will win. He always wins. So why does Russia bother holding elections? What’s the point? Putin learned a lesson many years ago about the illusion of democracy, and it’s one he has never forgotten.
Mar 13, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every Tuesday for the next seven weeks, we'll be dropping an extra episode from a new ABC podcast into the If You're Listening feed. Looking for Modi, hosted by the ABC's South Asia correspondent Avani Dias, examines the life and political career of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. It's a fascinating show that we think you might enjoy. Matt will be back with another episode on Thursday. Narendra Modi's rise from poverty-stricken childhood has been a major appeal throughout his political care...
Mar 11, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The police arrested and interrogated Andrew after he was set up by hackers. Now we know how Chinese spies pull it off. An unprecedented leak of data from Chinese company i-Soon has cracked open the black box, revealing the secrets of China's cyber espionage operations. Correction: When Andrew Phelan was taken in for questioning by Victoria Police, he was never chargedSubscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c58XyP6B...
Mar 06, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
