Podcast Episodes

From drug smuggling and opium dens to marching in the first-ever Mardi Gras—Kate's coming out

Kate Rowe's life has been full of wild adventures and hard living. But when she found sobriety, Kate discovered something big about herself. CW: This…

6 months, 2 weeks ago

I was a teenage Navy diver in the Iraq War. Then I had to make a new life for myself

Aaron Tait was 18 when he was deployed after September 11. His dad's guidance had set Aaron up with the grit he would need as an elite Navy diver, bu…

6 months, 2 weeks ago

The secret life of a hostage negotiator

Hostage negotiation isn't at all like what you see in Hollywood blockbusters. There is no lying, no promise-making, not even any names. Vince Hurley …

6 months, 2 weeks ago

Upside down in Bass Strait

Navigator Will Oxley expected the 1998 Sydney to Hobart yacht race to be a challenging one. But when he and his crew met with 12-metre waves and 80km…

6 months, 2 weeks ago

New Beginnings: How Rafael Bonachela let out his inner showgirl with Kylie Minogue

Rafael Bonachela was born in the dying years of Franco’s Spain, into a patriarchal culture that didn’t appreciate little boys who wanted to dance. 

As…

6 months, 2 weeks ago

New Beginnings: Justin Heazlewood on swapping fame for his hometown

Justin Heazlewood fled a complicated early life in Tasmania searching for fame as an artist on the mainland but then moved back to his home town of B…

6 months, 3 weeks ago

New Beginnings: When a sea change collides with messy midlife

For journalist Kate Halfpenny, moving to a beachside town during Melbourne's lockdowns seemed like the perfect way to unwind and escape her huge mort…

6 months, 3 weeks ago

New Beginnings: Artist Loribelle Spirovski on finding family and love

The artist Loribelle Spirovski on her unusual childhood in the Philippines, meeting her father for the first time at 7 years old, and making her way …

6 months, 3 weeks ago

New Beginnings: Felicia Djamirze, beauty queen and drug dealer

Felicia Djamirze grew up in the criminal underworld, then became a beauty queen. But her life outside the pageant circuit was mired in the world of d…

6 months, 3 weeks ago

Holiday listening: Anh Nguyen Austen's story of rescue and reinvention

When Anh Nguyen Austen was a small girl, her family fled South Vietnam on a boat which met a once-in-a-century storm in the South China sea. When all…

6 months, 4 weeks ago