Conversations

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 bringing an end to authoritarianism.

With democracies seemingly faltering worldwide, political scientist and writer Marcel Dirsus is putting tyrants under the microscope to better understand how they rise and how they fall.

Years ago, Marcel took a break from his univers...

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 convinced her she would never marry. Claire shares what she has learned about writing from a litter of newborn piglets.

Her works Small Things Like These and Foster have both been made into movies.

Claire's stories often take place in the landscape where she grew up — t...

The writer had a complex relationship with his mother, whose professional reputation built a wall between them, but also saved his life more than once while working as a war correspondent.

Peter Godwin was born in Zimbabwe when the country was still under colonial rule.

His English mother was the only doctor for thousands of kilometres and early on, Peter realised that he came second to her patients.

When Peter was l...

Psychiatrist Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding the mystery of human nature has driven him since he was a young doctor.

Warren Ward's patients are often critically ill with diseases like anorexia.

Warren says asking someone with anorexia to eat is like asking an arachnophobe to put their hand in a jar full of spiders.

As a psychiatrist, Warren uses psychotherapy to h...

When writer Hannah Kent first visited Iceland in 2003, she came across a gothic true story about Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman hanged in Iceland. That story would change her life.

Hannah's arrival to the Nordic island as an exchange student in 2003 was a difficult one.

On her first night in the country, she found herself stranded late at night at Keflavik Airport and desperately homesick.

But within weeks, Icela...

Claude Robinson developed a heroin habit as a young man, and spent years in jail. In 2006 he began to turn his life around for good. (CW: descriptions of drug use, addiction, and crime) (R)

Claude Robinson is the manager of Rainbow Lodge, a home in inner Sydney for men just out of prison. Claude knows the place well because nearly 20 years ago he was sent there himself.

Claude was a heroin addict who had taken to cr...

From relationships and loneliness, to indecision and burnout, Jemma Sbeg is your guide to navigating your 20s, and looking back on that decade with a new perspective.

When Jemma Sbeg started recording a podcast in the back of her Subaru about her quarter life crisis, she had no idea just how many people she would reach.

But other people her age were desperate for guidance through their 20s - a decade a lot of us rom...

Winnie Dunn was a teenager when the Chris Lilley character 'Jonah from Tonga' became a national joke and as a Tongan Australian the stereotype made her feel uncomfortable.

Despite being born into a big Tongan family in Western Sydney, Winnie felt conflicted about her heritage growing up.

But over time her understanding of what it means to be Tongan evolved, and at the age of 28, Winnie became the first Tongan Austra...

Jamila’s craniopharyngioma had been growing for years, unbeknownst to her. In hindsight, it was her son who gave the first clue, when he stopped breastfeeding overnight at 11 months old.

Today Jamila is an author, a broadcaster and the deputy managing director of Future Women, dedicated to achieving gender equity in Australian workplaces.

A few years back, her life was on a powerful trajectory — she had been the chi...

Whale and dolphin researcher, Barry McGovern’s love of sea creatures started in Clare, Ireland, when as a child he met the county’s solitary, friendly dolphin, named for the singer Dusty Springfield.

Barry grew up in a tiny surfing village where he knew all the bird calls off by heart.

His interest in animal science led him to Edinburgh Zoo, where he fed cassowaries and regularly, accidentally spooked a flock of Chi...

After a caesarean section on his labour ward went catastrophically wrong, Adam Kay took a radical inventory of his entire life. CW: traumatic childbirth, eating disorders.

Adam was not far off qualifying as an obstetric consultant in the United Kingdom, when he decided he couldn't be a doctor any longer.

He couldn't face ever again experiencing the tragedy of death during childbirth, nor could he understand the blun...

Jonno Seidler with the story of his Dad Ray,  a much-loved and successful doctor, who hid his private struggles from the world.

Behind closed doors, Ray Seidler was locked in a herculean fight with his own mental health. His frequent bouts of depression caused him to regularly 'run away' from his own home and family, and eventually led to his suicide. 

His son, Jonno Seidler, has written about his father's life, and...

Erna Walraven was one of the first female zookeepers to work at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in the 1980s. Despite practical jokes from her male colleagues, like animal dung in her gumboots, Erna kept her nerve.

She was born in The Netherlands, to parents who were involved in the Dutch resistance during World War II.

Erna's love of languages took her to Spain, where she lived for many years with her widowed sister and young...

Mawunyo Gbogbo was raised as a church-going African Australian girl in the sleepy mining town of Muswellbrook, before she grew up to become a hip-hop journalist and a writer (R)

Mawunyo's parents had met in Ghana, migrating to Australia when she was a baby.

At high school, Mawunyo fell hard for a charismatic boy, and for the first time, she was introduced to hip hop music.

When she was offered a chance to further her...

Luke Hura has an innate ability to understand and communicate with animals, and for decades he's been training them for film, television and the stage.

You’ve probably seen one of Luke's dogs in action — he trained Bouncer, the labrador from Neighbours, the kelpie from the film Red Dog, and the maremma who starred in Oddball.

Luke has trained cats, chickens and even earned the trust of a big, black pig with tusks, w...

In 2007, Jeremy Austin was asked by the Royal Australian Navy to help them identify the remains of an unknown sailor from World War II. Using the best forensic DNA technology, he embarked on a quest to figure out who this man was and to track down his surviving descendants.

This episode of Conversations explores DNA science, world war 2, Australian navy, history, technology, family history, HMAS Sydney, genealogy, ...

The Masterchef graduate shares what he learned from his grandmother, who won the lottery in Malaysia when she was a 25-year-old widow with three children to care for.

After Adam's parents met and married, the family emigrated to Australia when Adam was three-years-old.

He and his brother sped through school in Adelaide and Adam went on to become a lawyer.

In 2010, he won the second season of Masterchef with Peter Gil...

In 2023, Arnold Dix helped rescue 41 men trapped in a tunnel after it collapsed high in the Himalayas. As an engineer and tunnel expert, he was uniquely placed to assist, but Arnold also used another skill in the high risk operation: he listened to the mountain.The successful rescue made Arnold a hero to millions of people across India and it was in news all over the world, including back home in country Victoria,...