Podcast Episodes

Encore: A home filled with music — raising the Kanneh-Masons

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians (R).

Kadiatu is a former English aca…

7 months, 2 weeks ago

Why Colm Toibin ran away with the circus — to Barcelona, Brooklyn and beyond

The Irish novelist has always been open to where life can unexpectedly take him, and the excitement that comes with that kind of freedom.

Colm Toibin'…

7 months, 2 weeks ago

Hilde Hinton's home for the temporarily defeated

When Hilde Hinton was on the cusp of adolescence, her mother died. For years she protected her younger siblings from the truth about their mum.

Despit…

7 months, 2 weeks ago

The secret life of Scarlett, the octopus

When Alex Schnell was around 5 years old, playing in rock pools around Clovelly beach in Sydney, she had an alien encounter. 

The creature in the shal…

7 months, 2 weeks ago

Encore: How Sean Sweeney found his deaf heart

Sean Sweeney on the complications and joys of growing up as a a hearing child in a deaf family, using Auslan, a distinctively Australian sign languag…

7 months, 3 weeks ago

The miserable lives and golden guns of tyrants, dictators and despots

Marcel Dirsus is fascinated by the treadmill of tyranny: how dictators gain power, how they stay there and how they fall. This is his blueprint for b…

7 months, 3 weeks ago

Claire Keegan on bravery, writing and the single life

The bestselling Irish author grew up on a farm set on “50 acres on the side of a hill”. Growing up, she witnessed a harsh, misogynistic country that …

7 months, 3 weeks ago

Peter Godwin's complicated loves, great losses and occasional wars

The writer had a complex relationship with his mother, whose professional reputation built a wall between them, but also saved his life more than onc…

7 months, 3 weeks ago

The gothic country childhood and the spirited mother

When Rosalie Ham was a child, her mum received a devastating diagnosis, and started an affair as a way to find herself before it was too late. This s…

7 months, 3 weeks ago

Treating anorexia by nourishing the heart

Psychiatrist Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding the mystery of human nature has driven him since h…

7 months, 4 weeks ago