Podcast Episodes

How a pair of disobedient missionaries invented Australia's most iconic road trip

Tens of thousands of 'van lifers' and 'grey nomads' drive around Australia each year. But the iconic road trip has a surprising origin story involvin…

10 months, 1 week ago

Encore: How Johnathan Thurston became one the greats

Despite being a stand-out young player, many NRL clubs initially rejected Johnathan Thurston because they thought he was too small and wiry but he we…

10 months, 2 weeks ago

How Aunty Rhonda learnt to cry

Artist, author and Stolen Generations survivor, Rhonda Collard-Spratt, on bush hugs, beehives, emu bumps, and finding peace.

Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spra…

10 months, 2 weeks ago

Why the pendulum swings between democracy and dictatorship worldwide

Dr James Loxton on how modern democracies can crumble as tyrannical leaders take hold, but also how freedom and democracy can rise again, from the Am…

10 months, 2 weeks ago

A bulldog on the ice -- Eric's journey from the South Pole to Outer Space

Eric Philips has always loved cold weather and from young age became fixated on the idea of polar exploration and following in the footsteps of the a…

10 months, 2 weeks ago

Encore: Love, sex and the secret life of retirees

Screenwriter Samantha Strauss on her grandmother's vibrant last years in a Gold Coast retirement home where love, sex and startlingly pragmatic conve…

10 months, 3 weeks ago

Making peace and finding laughter in my family's dark past

Reuben Kaye has always known he was going to be a performer and grew up a house that encouraged his love of the limelight.  But in the background was…

10 months, 3 weeks ago

Loving and losing three good men—the story of a ballerina called 'Blossom'

Petal Ashmole Winstanley was just a teenager when she left Perth on her own to sail to London. There, in the swinging 1960s, she began her wild adven…

10 months, 3 weeks ago

The conspiracy that brought down the Whitlam Government in the 1975 dismissal

Editor-at-large of The Australian, Paul Kelly looks back at the most profound crisis in Australia’s democracy, including the off-the-record informati…

10 months, 3 weeks ago

Silverchair’s Ben Gillies on his life as a teenage rock god, and what happened next

When Ben Gillies was 15 he began touring around the world in his band called Silverchair. After the band broke up, Ben had to work through anxiety an…

10 months, 3 weeks ago