Conversations

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 her own sadness and anger. (CW: this episode discusses suicide, please take care when listening)Robin is one of Brisbane’s best-known breakfast radio hosts, and she’s been in the business for decades.

When she was 11, Robin’s father di...

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 the field of fish cognition. He's based at Macquarie University where he runs the Fish Lab — the Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory.

His fascination for fish stems from growing up in parts of south-east Asia, where he would spend every...

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 romance in life.

When Dee was growing up in Perth, her father, a great Russian ballet dancer, was ‘the man of the house’.

Life at home, and every choice that Dee, her siblings, and her mum made revolved around his whims and his moods.

Dee worshipped h...

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, and Mimi's glamorous other life in the intoxicating hubbub of Hong Kong.

Mimi presented the news on ABC and Channel Nine, and worked in the newsroom for more than 20 years. 

Today she has four children with her loving husband, John.

This is all ...

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, and Mimi's glamorous other life in the intoxicating hubbub of Hong Kong. (CW: Discussion of mental illness and suicide attempt)

Mimi presented the news on ABC and Channel Nine, and worked in the newsroom for more than 20 years. 

Today she has f...

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, after the death of his three older brothers. (CW: loss and grief)

Mick Fanning grew up on the Gold Coast in a raucous, loving family of five kids, raised by his mum Elizabeth, a nurse who worked night shift. 

He and his brother Sean were talented young gr...

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, near the Birdsville Track.

His grandfather, George Morton, was a wealthy landholder and he ruled over his family like a tyrant.

When Rick was little, a terrible accident was followed by the break-up of his family and Rick, his mum, and his two siblings were drive...

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 work on her health, in earnest. 

As well as being a beloved comic, Judith is also the author of four books and the presenter of several television series.

For decades Judith has been busying herself with project after project after project, to distract hers...

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 and although his own experiences at school weren't great, he ended up taking a job back at the school where he was a bullied and unhappy student.

During his time as a teacher he's seen hundreds of kids move through the same hallways and classrooms - boisterous...

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 own. 

Journalist and broadcaster, Richard Glover tackles the changing landscape of parenting advice.

He looks back at his own experience of being parented, which included having his ears sticky-taped while growing up in Papua New Guinea, and d...

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 program in 2020.

She reflected on her childhood by the railway tracks in the Clare Valley, South Australia, where she grew up with her band of brothers and sisters.

After she recorded that interview, Monica received a cancer diagnosis.

International borde...

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 alive.As a teenager, Frank saw the Battle of Britain played out in the skies above his village in the south of England.

He joined the RAF and piloted a De Havilland Mosquito on bombing raids into Germany.

In October 1944 Frank's plane was shot out of the sky...

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 listening)

Magda released her first memoir a few years ago, to widespread acclaim.

It was the story of how Magda unearthed the life story of her Polish-born father and his role as an assassin during WWII.

Magda's now written her second memoir which hinges on the l...

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 nature of victory.

When Laurie was a child, he had a chronic lung condition that meant he had to sleep sitting in a chair.

Doctors advised his parents that an operation was necessary, and part of one of his lungs was removed.

After the operation, Laurie's fat...

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, arriving in Australia with his family as refugees from Vietnam.

Like many migrant children, Kim is a very driven person and has taken on a lot of responsibilities in life.

He is an academic, an ABC broadcaster, an author and a father.

And when his 80-year-old fath...

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 of acting aristocracy.

Her father Henry Fonda was a Hollywood legend by the time she was born.

Jane grew up to study acting with Lee Strasberg, and Marilyn Monroe was a classmate.

But behind the public adoration, Jane was battling some big personal demons, includ...

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 rock band, Rose Tattoo, and the band was due to return to the stage this month for another Australian tour.

But Angry was much more than a raging rock n' roll animal.

He was an incurable romantic, despite his violent childhood in Melbourne. 

He was a loyal,...

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 born in Tasmania in 1931.

As a young woman she won a scholarship to study at Oxford University.

But when she arrived, none of the male professors including J.R.R Tolkien, would take on a woman PhD student.

Back in Tasmania Alison became great friends with ...

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 37,000 people how to cook.

Chef, author and teacher Elizabeth Chong was born in China's Guangdong Province in 1931.

When her heavily pregnant mother was expelled from Victoria under the White Australia Policy in the 1920s, the whole family returned to China.

Yea...