If You're Listening

In the middle of the 1800s, the Confederate army built a stealth vessel that could travel undetected underwater to give them the military edge over the Union...so did it work and how has it impacted military innovation since? 

In this special episode of If You’re Listening, Matt Bevan sits down with Marc Fennell to talk about his new ABC RN show, “No One Saw It Coming”. 

Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen ...

You’re not losing your mind, the internet is different now. 

The 2025 Australian federal election will be the first in a decade where news isn’t readily available on social media, and there’s no effort to fact check or moderate what is there. The billionaires behind the major tech platforms aren’t just background characters in politics anymore; they’re centre stage, making decisions around misinformation, bankrolli...

Australia’s housing market is in the midst of a crisis that feels like it will never be solved and now housing is one of the major battlefields of the upcoming federal election. 

In this episode of If You’re Listening originally published last year we head to Japan, where 30 years ago, houses were the most expensive in the world. 

Today home ownership in Tokyo is comparatively affordable with plenty of housing stock...

It has not been a good year so far for Elon Musk’s car company Tesla. Stocks are plummeting and sales are falling even faster as people around the world who are opposed to his involvement in the Trump Administration boycott the company. 

That’s been accompanied by arson and vandalism at Tesla dealerships around the world. But this isn’t the first time that a company has come under sustained attack for its connectio...

Donald Trump is talking about rare earth elements like they are magic rings with the power to unlock world domination. 

The US President is on the brink of signing a multi-billion dollar deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that would give the US access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals in exchange for financial security and continued military support in the war with Russia. Rare earths are critical fo...

Donald Trump’s sudden shift on Ukraine has come as a massive shock to most countries in America’s orbit. European leaders who have long banked their national security on US military protection are beginning to lose confidence in their most powerful ally. But there is one American ally that has been planning for this potential eventuality for decades. 

France has long been sceptical of how much America can be truste...

Since he took office, Donald Trump has made a lot of decisions that fly in the face of traditional US foreign policy. He’s left Ukraine high and dry, he’s abandoning Europe, he’s slapped tariffs on America’s allies, and he’s floated the idea of seizing new territory in Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal. 

And the big one: President Trump seems to have a great deal of time and respect for Russian President Vladi...

In the United States, there are laws constraining the President’s power. The Attorney General and everyone who works at the Department of Justice aren’t meant to just do whatever the President tells them; they’re in charge of enforcing the law, whatever it is. 

So what will they do when enforcing the law doesn’t align with Donald Trump’s policies? 

In Trump’s first term, the Attorneys General and Justice Department ...

Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign he declared that the Justice Department and the FBI were weaponised against him. 

Now that he’s US President, he’s making huge changes to both, putting loyal supporters in charge. 

Over two episodes, If You’re Listening looks at the massive transformation underway in the US federal criminal justice system, starting with the appointment of Kash Patel as Director of the FBI. 

For almo...

Billionaire Elon Musk is at the helm of US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, established to slash massive amounts of government spending as fast as possible. 

In just weeks they’ve dismantled agencies, cancelled programs and attempted to lay off tens of thousands of government workers. 

Everyone agrees that the US government is a mess, that it’s spending more than it earns and something s...

When US President Donald Trump announced his plan for America to take over the Gaza Strip, everyone was stunned. That includes the man standing next to him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

President Trump says everyone he’s spoken to loves the idea. But who has he spoken to? In his first term as president, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner led efforts to broker peace in the region, and his approach makes...

Donald Trump started his presidency by picking a fight with Colombia. The US threatened its Central American neighbour with massive tariffs if it didn't accept planes full of handcuffed deportees. 

Colombia backed down — and that has serious implications for the rest of the region. President Trump is gearing up for negotiations over deportations and his new favourite issue, ownership of the Panama Canal. 

This week ...

Donald Trump has liked the idea of tariffs for a long time, since before his first term as president. Now that he’s back in office he’s using them to do all sorts of things — threaten other countries, crack down on drug importation and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. 

He’s starting with a 25 per cent tax on imports from Canada and Mexico, a move that would have huge implications for America’s ec...

The people of Georgia are in the streets of Tbilisi, protesting the ruling party’s recent election win. At the heart of the fight is whether the country should appease Vladimir Putin, or oppose him. 

For years Georgia was moving closer to the European Union, but the war in Ukraine changed everything. Now, billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgia Dream party are betting on a relationship with Putin, ...

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Hunter Biden has been a main character in far-right conspiracy theories for years, and Donald Trump’s associates have spent significant effort searching for proof that could lead to his prosecution. In the end, Hunter reportedly provided the only evidence that has mattered: ...

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The International Criminal Court in The Hague wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested for alleged war crimes in Gaza. 

But international justice works differently to other forms of justice — it relies on everyone opting in. More than 20 years into its existen...

A Chinese-owned cargo ship called the Yi Peng 3 is sitting idle in Danish waters, after undersea internet cables were cut in the Baltic Sea. European officials have cried sabotage. 

It’s not the first time something like this has happened; similar events have seen cables cut in other parts of the ocean. There’s serious concern that China and Russia are planning more of these attacks, and the way the internet is set...

After January 6, many who had stuck by Donald Trump through his presidency condemned his denial of the election, and his failure to stop the attack on the Capitol. 

Banished to Mar-a-Lago the former president was banned from major social media platforms, driving his messages and MAGA community underground, into a parallel online world. 

That response by big tech to the violence of January 6 was designed to stop it h...

Over the last four episodes we’ve told the story of Donald Trump’s denial of the 2020 election result. It’s a period of time many thought would disqualify him from another run for US president. 

Now, exactly four years later Trump is preparing to head back to the White House after a significant election win against Kamala Harris, and the way his last presidency ended has shaped his campaign. 

January 6th and the eve...