Conversations
af ABC Australia
Seneste episode
Rebecca Solnit on why things are much better than we think
Rebecca Solnit on why things are much better than we think
Om denne podcast
Conversations draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met. Journey into their world, joining them on epic adventures to unfamiliar places, back in time to wild moments of history, and into their deepest memories, to be moved by personal stories of resilience and redemption.
Hosted by Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, Conversations is the ABC's most popular long-form interview program. Every day we explore the vast tapestry of human experience, weaving together narratives from history, science, art, and personal storytelling.
Conversations Live is coming to the stage! Join Sarah Kanowski and Richard Fidler for an unmissable night of unforgettable stories, behind-the-scenes secrets, and surprise guests. Australia’s most-loved podcast — live, up close, and in the moment. Find out more at the Conversations website.
Episoder
De nyeste 50 af 2.000 episoder
- Rebecca Solnit on why things are much better than we think · 49 min.The American writer discusses the historic US midterm elections, the decline of Trump and how you can find hope by looking to the past. It’s easy to feel like everything is…
- Encore: The child bride who escaped her violent husband to begin an extraordinary new life · 52 min.Hana Assafiri was married off at 15 to a controlling and abusive man. Within four years she'd escaped, to begin her remarkable reinvention. Hana was born in Melbourne and lived…
- Fighting for Country, not King: the real story of Australia's first Indigenous army officer · 52 min.Captain Reg Saunders was the first Indigenous Australian to become a commissioned officer in the Australian Army. He was following a warrior tradition stretching generations…
- Encore: The detective who led the hunt for Ivan Milat · 50 min.The late Clive Small on how he led the NSW Police task force which helped to put one of Australia’s worst serial killers behind bars. In the 1990s, a series of young people’s…
- Rocker, doctor, flight surgeon – the many lives of Radio Birdman's Deniz Tek · 54 min.Deniz has squeezed more than most into his life. From pioneering punk rock in Australia, to performing improvised neurosurgery aboard a naval ship, to retirement growing…
- How Usman Khawaja changed Australian cricket · 53 min.As the first brown immigrant and the first Muslim to enter the very white world of Australian cricket, Usman Khawaja overcame many setbacks while forging his extraordinary career…
- Encore: Bryce Courtenay's son on his father's many secrets · 50 min.Growing up with brilliant writer as a father, Adam Courtenay slowly became aware of many gaps and untruths in his dad's life story. So he decided to set the record straight, once…
- Hags, bears and magic — what fairytales can teach us about modern life · 52 min.Instructions on how to forge a path through a darkening world, according to former neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, Dr Sharon Blackie. Sharon grew up in what she calls the edge…
- Encore: An accidental midwife and the business of everyday miracles · 46 min.Lisa Peberdy has been delivering babies for over 40 years, in hospitals and homes, in cities and remote locations and she still cries with joy at every birth. During Lisa's…
- Waleed Aly: Finding real meaning, in the midst of global collapse · 53 min.As we're bombarded with the drumbeat of news that veers from the shocking to the unfathomable, Waleed Aly wants to know, how do we come to grips with this chaos? For years, that…
- Jon Ronson investigates the men looking for purpose in strange, dark places · 52 min.When journalist Jon Ronson visited castle owned by a digital tycoon, it became a portal into a world of disaffected men, grasping for purpose online in a world where traditional…
- Encore: The teacher who turned non-readers into literacy superstars · 52 min.When school principal Manisha Gazula changed how her students were learning to read, she began an entirely new system which made her an icon of literacy learning. Manisha Gazula…
- Why is it so difficult to love each other? · 51 min.Psychologist Kerrie Lumbewe on trying to unpack what has happened inside ordinary people that has made loving one another so difficult. (CW: this conversation mentions suicide…
- Encore: Bonnie Garmus on the spark of anger which began a whole new life, in her 60s · 52 min.When author Bonnie Garmus tried to sell her first novel, it was rejected 98 times, but then at 66, she wrote a novel called Lessons in Chemistry, which sold four million copies…
- Zoe Terakes and the mythic tales of gods, sex and magical transformations · 53 min.Zoe Terakes is a writer and actor with deep family connections to the island of Crete, where their great-grandparents migrated to Australia from. This island is the site of…
- Why Anthony LaPaglia is unapologetically irritable · 47 min.Anthony talks about his turbulent childhood in the Adelaide suburb of Beefacres, escaping to a cocaine-fuelled New York in the 1980s to begin life as an actor, and how writing…
- Encore: The incandescent life of fashion visionary Jenny Kee · 44 min.Fashion designer Jenny Kee co-created a whole new era in Australian fashion in the 1970s. But nothing could have prepared her for her own next chapter. Jenny was born in Bondi…
- Learning my family connection to the brutal history of Australia's pearling industry · 51 min.When Edith Wright discovered the turbulent history of her great-grandfathers, who were some of the founders of the pearling industry in the waters off Broome, she knew she had to…
- Encore: My orgasm induced amnesia and other epic adventures · 52 min.Dasha Ross tells the story of her bizarre brush with memory loss and what happened when she and her husband decided to takeover a rundown beachside hotel in Sri Lanka. Dasha has…
- Anthony Scaramucci on Trump, getting fired and owning his mistakes · 45 min.Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci on his childhood, becoming a success on Wall Street and why backing Trump was a colossal error. Anthony grew up on Long Island, part of a large…
- How to keep living when life falls apart · 51 min.When Robin Bailey’s husband and father of their three boys died by suicide, she had to figure out the best way to help her children work through their grief while also managing…
- Encore: Inside the minds of the fish who sleep, have friends, and know it's the weekend · 50 min.Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know it's the weekend. Dr Culum Brown is a leading researcher in…
- How I decentred men and fell in love with my friends instead of another f*ckboy · 53 min.Broadcaster and author Dee Salmin on how her parents' epic love story and dramatic relationship shaped her understanding of love and men; and how she eventually found healthy…
- A little girl with a life split in three — how Mimi made it [PART II] · 50 min.Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophrenia…
- A little girl with a life split in three — how Mimi made it [PART I] · 49 min.Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophrenia…
- Mick Fanning on surfing, punching a great white shark, and losing three brothers · 52 min.Mick won three world surfing titles, and famously fought off a great white shark in South Africa. But his life out of the water has been threaded through with devastating loss…
- Encore: A family story of growing up poor in Outback Queensland · 52 min.Journalist Rick Morton on how his mum raised three children in poverty and the class disparities in Australia. Rick's family come from the vast country of Outback Queensland…
- My poo transplant, ayahuasca trip and other wellness quests · 49 min.Judith Lucy is one of Australia's most loved comedians. Recently after years of tummy troubles, burnout, and a complicated relationship with alcohol, she began her mission to…
- Encore: Why I became a teacher at the school where I was bullied · 51 min.A portrait of one teacher and his class as they journey through the ups and downs of a school year. Brendan James Murrary has been a high school teacher for more than ten years…
- Richard Glover on the strange, hilarious and heartbreaking rules of Australian parenting · 52 min.The instructions found in endorsed baby books over the last century could be, with hindsight, bizarre or cruel. And were most often given by “experts” with no children of their…
- Monica McInerney's five year rollercoaster ride · 52 min.The author on the diagnosis that floored her and the gifts that got her through harrowing treatment — including a cat named Nicholas. The Australian-Irish author was last on the…
- Encore: The pilot shot down by enemy fire and how he survived · 52 min.RAF pilot Frank Dell parachuted into Nazi occupied Holland after his plane was hit by cannon fire and with the aid of courageous Dutch families and resistance fighters he got out…
- Magda's mum, the tragic secret, and the moment of grace · 53 min.When Magda Szubanski discovered what had happened to her mum as a child, she began to see her in an entirely new light (CW: discussion of sexual abuse, please take care when…
- Encore: The Olympic swim coach who spat on a silver medal, and how it changed him · 52 min.Laurie Lawrence's obsession with winning Gold started when he was a small boy growing up above the Tobruk Pool in Townsville. When he became a coach, he had an epiphany about the…
- Caring for my fiercely strong-willed father · 52 min.Kim Huynh on his family's remarkable journey from Vietnam to Australia. And taking on the role of carer for his fiercely strong-willed father, Thiet. Kim grew up in Canberra…
- Stories from our elders: how Jane Fonda changed her life in her third act · 44 min.The legendary actress Jane Fonda on her activism, her hair epiphanies and why older women are often fearless. Jane has lived her entire life in the public eye, as the daughter…
- Remembering Angry Anderson: rock n' roll animal and incurable romantic · 47 min.Iconic Australian musician, actor, youth advocate and charity ambassador Angry Anderson has died at the age of 79. Angry spent 50 years in the music industry with his legendary…
- Stories from our Elders: My passionate friendship with a rebel poet · 51 min.Alison Hoddinot was one of the first Australian women to study at Oxford University, but one of her lecturers, J.R.R Tolkein, refused to take on a woman PhD student. Alison was…
- Stories from our Elders: the chef who taught 37,000 Australians how to cook · 52 min.Elizabeth Chong didn't cook her first meal until she was a newlywed. Six decades later, the owner of a cooking school specialising in Chinese cuisine, she had taught more than…
- Stories from our Elders: Bryan Brown's road from Bankstown to Hollywood · 49 min.Bryan Brown has played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have been his ticket to the world…
- The radical history of personal computing—looms, coding, beige boxes and AI · 53 min.Mel Huang Buntine on how computers started entering our homes, and the beige box of a machine that changed her own life. Personal computers are so ubiquitous now, it's hard to…
- Encore: Vickie's turbulent life in and out of prison, and how she reclaimed her power · 51 min.Prisoner advocate Vickie Roach spent decades in and out of jail but after studying for her masters degree, she helped change the story for thousands of other prisoners. When…
- My dad Jim Henson, the creative genius behind 'The Muppets' · 51 min.Growing up Lisa Henson and her siblings spent a lot of time in their father's workshop and studio, watching puppets get drawn, sculpted and brought to life. Jim Henson first…
- Encore: What happened when I tried MDMA therapy · 52 min.Author Rebecca Huntley used supervised MDMA therapy to help her with complex PTSD and the legacy of childhood trauma. Rebecca's public life as a broadcaster, an author and a…
- Healing intergenerational trauma and epigenetics—the children of the Third Reich · 49 min.Catrine Clay with the story of the children of Nazi perpetrators and Holocaust survivors came together under extraordinary circumstances to come to terms with their dark past…
- Comedian Urzila Carlson regrets nothing · 52 min.Urzila Carlson grew up in South Africa. Her father threatened the family with a gun when she was 6, and he walked out on the family soon afterwards. Urzila's mum, who she…
- Encore: Meg Washington on the magic of music · 49 min.The singer-songwriter on her early introduction to musicals in Port Moresby, how singing became a form of speech therapy for her stutter and also a path into her life’s work…
- Louise Adler on why she questions everything · 48 min.Louise Adler has been one of the biggest and most controversial names in Australian publishing for decades. This is the story of how she fell in love with the world of books. …
- Encore: The beautiful questions your intellectual mind can't answer · 51 min.Acclaimed poet and philosopher David Whyte has come to believe a single line of poetry is enough to change your life. David grew up amongst the moors and fields of West…
- Black ops and human shields—the secrets on board Flight 149 · 52 min.Why were 400 civilians allowed to fly into a war zone as Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait? What really happened to them when they were held as hostages? And why has the British…
