Conversations

In this two-part series, historian Paul Ham traces how our definition and understanding of the human soul has transformed over thousands of years. Humans have been probing their own invisible inner voice since the Stone Age. But where did the concept of the soul even come from? And is it really what separates the living from the dead?

People travel from all over the world to learn about horses from Ken Faulkner. But after a life-threatening riding accident on his favourite horse, Smoke, Ken had to learn to walk and ride again, rediscovering himself in the process

In 2014, Ailsa Piper's husband's unexpected death cast her adrift in a sea of grief. Then bit by bit, life called her back. Ailsa Piper is a writer and a walker.She has used walking throughout her life as a meditative salve and a way to reflect on her life.In 2014 Ailsa's beloved husband Peter died suddenly, while she was interstate for work.His death cast her adrift in a sea of grief, but bit by bit life called her back.A few years ago Ailsa had her own life-threatening health scare, and now she sees herself as a lucky woman.Further informationFor Life is published by Allen & Unwin.Ailsa's first book, the bestselling memoir Sinning Across Spain is published by MUP.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

On Carol Perry’s communal farm there’s ‘no loneliness, and no mortgages’. It’s a long way from the life her parents expected her to lead, and she got there after an overseas motorbike tour and teaching in a war zone

Kim McKay is the Director and CEO of The Australian Museum, responsible for 22 million objects that tell the history of the world (Content warning: this episode discusses human remains held in museums and the repatriation process. Indigenous, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific Islander peoples, please listen with care.)

Like tracing the cultural history of breathing or love, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when, how or why humans started making music. But composer and broadcaster Andrew Ford has uncovered the story of music, from pre-historic times to now

As a child, the superstar swim coach lived with a chronic lung condition, and had part of a lung removed. In 1956, a huge event held in his family's backyard changed the course of his life (R)

Jana Pittman became one of Australia's most famous athletes as a young woman. Then at age 30, she found herself at a painful crossroads (R)

The Tokyo Paralympics were Christie's seventh as a wheelchair racing competitor, but Christie almost gave up marathons after the 2013 Boston Marathon, and the most frightening experience of her life (CW: mention of suicide) (R)

Anna's stellar cycling career saw her smash Australian Olympic records and become the World Champion 11 times. Then to the surprise of many, she walked away from cycling for good, returning to the world stage as Australia's Chef de Mission for Paris 2024 (R)

Swimmer and entrepreneur Lisa Curry's life has been full of highs and lows both in and out of the pool. But it was the death of her daughter, Jaimi, that completely changed her. This is how Lisa fought to get her old self back after her unimaginable loss (R)

How a boy who grew up on a fishing trawler became the first man in Australia to run 100 metres in under 10 seconds (R)

Bruce McAvaney is the voice of Australian sport, with a commentating style built on his relentless work ethic and genuine passion. But if he hadn't chucked a sickie one day while working as a public servant, the past 50 years of Australian sport might have sounded very different

Writer Louise Kennedy grew up at the height of The Troubles, just outside of Belfast, where violence was ever-present. When her family's pub was bombed, they decided to move south, where Louise trained as a chef. But after decades of working in the kitchen, a chance invitation to a writer's group lead to an unexpected new career (R)

Tony Armstrong felt like a failure when his AFL career ended. But he found his feet again, falling upwards into a different life, calling footy matches, hosting live television, and now writing a children's book. This is why Tony isn't scared of failing anymore

Forced to flee West Papua, Lele's family wandered for years before coming to Australia. When they eventually received Australian citizenship and passports, the family was finally able to travel to West Papua. But Lele's homecoming journey was bittersweet, after tragedy struck

When writer Lily Brett went to visit Auschwitz, the death camp both her parents had survived, she couldn't help but start tidying up the place where so many of her family had been murdered, and touching the ashes of what was left

I Was Actually There is a new ABC podcast featuring gripping stories told by people who witnessed history first-hand. Hear what it was like to be a police sniper tasked with handling the gunman at the Port Arthur massacre; how it felt to be a teenager seeing The Beatles during their record-breaking 1964 Adelaide visit; and how one man survived being trapped 1km underground for 14 days, after the Beaconsfield mine collapse.Follow the I Was Actually There podcast on ABC listen.In this episode, Rebekah Giles and her boyfriend were enjoying a last-minute Christmas holiday in Thailand when the deadliest tsunami in recorded history struck. Rebekah recounts her remarkable survival, from the moment a torrent of water blew apart her beachfront hut on Phi Phi Island.

Monte Punshon was 103 years old when she was crowned the world's oldest lesbian, but that wasn't how she summed up her extraordinary life. Historian Tessa Morris-Suzuki charts Monte's adventures through underground bars and secret clubsAt 103 years old, Ethel May Punshon, who was variously known as Miss Montague, Mickey and Monte, was crowned the 'world's oldest lesbian'.However, that wasn't how she summed up her extraordinary life.Historian Tessa Morris-Suzuki has researched Monte's long, mysterious and adventurous life.Monte worked in children's theatre at the turn of last century, frequented underground drag parties in the 1930s, and made trailblazing trips to Japan.Throughout her life, Monte was driven by her unrelenting curiosity and a simple motto: don't be afraid.Further informationA Secretive Century: Monte Punshon's Australia is published by MUPTo binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Winnie Dunn is the General Manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement. Here she tells the story of how family and writing brought her home to Tonga, and gave Winnie the power to launch herself into the world on her own terms.Winnie grew up between her father and stepmother's house and the home of her grandmother — a brick home in Mount Druitt called the house of fe'ofa'aki, meaning “to love one another”.For years, Winnie's Tongan identity made her uneasy and instead of being a homecoming, her first trip to Tonga as a teenager was a disaster.Over time her understanding of what it means to be Pacific Islander evolved, and at the age of 28, she became the first Tongan-Australian to have a novel published.Further informationDirt Poor Islanders is published by HachetteTo binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Nas Campanella was six months old when she lost her sight. She fell in love with the radio and audio books as a child, growing up to become one of Australia's most well-known TV and radio journalists (R)

Dr Aaron Camens studies the fossilised skeletons, footprints and soft tissue left behind by strange, alien-like behemoths, to work out how they lived, and what, or who, killed them

Artist Michael Kelly's younger sister was born with intellectual disabilities in the 1950s, and went into care. The family lost touch with her until Michael decided it was time to find her again.Michael Kelly has been an artist all his life. When he was a young boy living in Brisbane, his younger sister was born with intellectual disabilities. She was institutionalised and the family eventually lost contact with her.That severed connection was a wound for the whole family, and followed Michael where he went.Over the years he’s lived in family squats, stayed in a decommissioned mental asylum, and in a van.Eventually he made his way to art school, where everything fell into place.All this time, he’s kept meticulous sketchbooks as a way to keep track of his artwork, dreams, ideas and sketches of a changing world. And his path back to his sister.Further informationMichael Kelly has an retrospective exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery in Double Bay, running from 7 August to 25 August.You can also see a selection of Michael's sketchbooks in the State Library's Amaze Gallery, until 1 December 2024. Learn more about that exhibition here.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Janty Blair is a Butchulla, Mununjhali and Woppaburra woman who, after a lifetime of nursing and midwifery, discovered her funny bone in her late 50s, after a serendipitous Bumble date

Dr John Paterson grew up in a tin hut in rural Darwin. He helped hold it down during Cyclone Tracy and has taken care of it so it still stands today. John learnt many lessons in that tin hut, which have followed him through life

When his elders named him Bindi, David Hudson had no idea his future would involve performing with his didgeridoo at the Taj Mahal, or a role in a film starring Marlin Brando (Content warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners: this episode contains the name of someone who has died.)Western Yalanji and Ewamian man David Bindi Hudson is a performing artist and musician.His parents were born on Mona Mona mission, near Cairns.David's mother didn't like being told what to do, and so in 1956 she walked off the mission with her three children, and made it 18km away to look for work at a local pub.Her ingenuity led the family to Spring Creek Station, where David’s elders taught him traditional dance and named him Bindi, which means "always looking forward".Since then, David has toured the world with his didgeridoo, playing to huge audiences in the Acropolis, the Taj Mahal and China's Forbidden City.He also played a part in a disastrous Hollywood movie, which gave him the chance to bring Marlon Brando home to have dinner with his Mum.Further informationRead more about David's autobiographical stage show, From Campfire to Stage Light.Content warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners: this episode contains the name of someone who has died.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Yuwaalaraay writer, storyteller and performer, Nardi Simpson of the Stiff Gins talks about her life, art and the meaning of country (R)

Ken Wyatt was born at Roelands Mission in outback WA, where his mother had been taken as a small girl, after she was stolen from her family. More than 60 years later, he became Australia's first Indigenous Minister for Indigenous AustraliansKen Wyatt was born at Roelands Mission in outback WA, where his mother had been taken as a small girl, after she was stolen from her family. More than 60 years later, he became Australia's first Indigenous Minister for Indigenous AustraliansKen Wyatt has Yamatji, Wongi and Noongar ancestry. He came into the world as a premature baby on a mission south of Perth called Roelands Farm, run by the Protestant Church. From 1938 to 1973, Roelands housed more than 500 forcibly removed Aboriginal children from all over Western Australia. One of those children was Ken's mother Mona, who was separated from family at just 4 years old.Mona married Don and they built a life for themselves away from Roelands, in Nannine, a railway fettler’s camp in remote WA. That's where Ken grew up, as one of 10 children. Ken went on to enjoy a fulfilling life as a teacher, and he was in his fifties when he decided to have a tilt at politics.He joined the Liberal Party, and in 2010 he was elected as the first Aboriginal member of the House of Representatives. Wearing a kangaroo skin cloak given to him by Noongar elders in Perth, Ken made his first speech in Federal Parliament, about his extraordinary journey from Roelands to Canberra.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Paula Quintela was seven years old when she witnessed Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’etat in Chile. She broke up the darkness by becoming her country's champion ocean swimmer and an artist

Playwright Alana Valentine on the story of the radical minister, Ted Noffs, who married thousands of couples who weren’t accepted anywhere else, including Alana’s own mum

Since she was a child, Michelle Johnston has tried to satisfy her insatiable curiosity about the world and the people in it. Most recently, her questions took her to a mysterious part of Russia called Dagestan, where mountains claw at the sky and time stands still

Mark Pitts needed to find peace after a hard life in the rugby and boxing worlds. So he went back to the airstrip that his aviator grandfather made famous when he flew home from England for love, breaking a world record in the process

For more than 20 years, Dominic Gordon cycled through the same self-destructive behaviours - stealing, risky sexual encounters, vandalism and drug-use -until he took the biggest risk of all to get his life back

When there's a plane crash, a bomb blast, a flood or a pandemic, Lucy Easthope's phone starts ringing. This is how she stays cheerful and trusts her gut in the face of never-ending disasters

Ben Lee was a teen rock prodigy by the time he was 14. He then began decades of making music, Hollywood fame, and a journey into alternative spirituality, including the world of ayahuascaBen Lee grew up in Bondi in the 1980s when it was a place of bikie gangs, Yiddish-speaking grandmas and tribes of kids living next to one of the world's most beautiful beaches. He was educated at a local Jewish school where he confounded his Rabbi by asking some surprising questions about Moses.Ben was always a seeker, and even as a boy, he also possessed a whole lot of chutzpah.At the age of 14 he saw Nirvana play at the Big Day Out. The next day he started his own band and two years later Ben was flying to America to support Sonic Youth.This began a wild few decades of making music, Hollywood fame, and a lengthy exploration of alternative spirituality, including a time in an ashram in India, and many ceremonies with ayahuasca, a hallucinogen found in a vine in the Amazon.After many years, Ben emerged with a crucial realisation about his life story. He is now living back in Australia with his wife Ione and their teenage daughter.Further informationFind out where to see Ben on his Australian tourBen and Ione Skye Lee have a podcast, Weirder TogetherTo binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

After Richard Gosling's young daughter survived horrific injuries and open heart surgery, he became a funeral director, leaning into the emotional intensity of that space between life and death

John Lyons, the ABC's Global Affairs Editor, reflects on the Israel-Gaza war, drawing on his background as former Middle East correspondent for The Australian

A change of heart and a great romance drove Dr Paul Hardisty to walk away from the oil industry and the influence of his brilliant but violent father, and into the world of water

Tim Jarvis takes you on his adventures, following in the footsteps of explorer Ernest Shackleton, who tried valiantly to cross Antarctica from sea to sea, from 1914-17 (R)

Leila Jeffreys was a young photographer when she built a tiny studio specifically for birds. She then began taking heart-stopping images of budgies, owls, eagles and cockatoos

Avani Dias was working as the South Asia Correspondent for the ABC when she was forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government

Neurosurgeon Brindha Shivalingam says it is a privilege to go into someone’s brain and repair the body's most vital organ. She didn’t expect to become the patient in 2019

Michael Theo found unexpected fame on 'Love on the Spectrum'. Now he's realised a childhood dream: to become an actor

Phil Roope with a true crime saga from 1930s Sydney involving a tiger shark, a severed arm, a Gladstone bag, smuggled cocaine, and a wronged man (CW: graphic descriptions)On Anzac Day in 1935, a tiger shark vomited up a tattooed human arm inside a Sydney aquarium.When Phil Roope looked into the cold case he found an astounding true tale of Sydney's fascination and horror around sharks in the 1930s, a severed arm emblazed with boxing tattoos, a homicide, police corruption, a Gladstone Bag, and a thriving smuggling racket for drugs, stockings and lead paint.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.Further informationShark Arm is published by Allen and Unwin

Juliana Nkrumah survived ill treatment at the hands of her stepmother, growing up in Ghana, and got away with a warning from the Mugabe regime when she was teaching in Zimbabwe in the 1980s. And she is still the same girl who was too shy to look her husband in the eyes the first time they met

Why do we all feel "funny" about zoos? And should we? Dr Jenny Gray is the CEO of Zoos Victoria, and an ethicist fascinated by concepts like liberty and free will in the animal kingdom

The late Michael Mosley on his investigations into the complicated and fascinating world of our gut health and the human microbiome (R)

For a thousand years, Colditz Castle has sat on the edge of a cliff in eastern Germany. It has been a royal hunting lodge, a madhouse, and most famously an inescapable prisoner of war camp (R)

Thriller writer Louise Doughty on spycraft, trench coats and her Romany roots

When Kerstin Pilz discovered that her charming husband Gianni had been cheating on her while he was dying, she had to decide what to do nextWhen Kerstin Pilz was in her 40s, she fell madly in love with a charismatic Italian man named Gianni.The two married and began travelling the world together.Then Gianni suddenly fell ill.As he was in the hospital undergoing surgery for life-threatening cancer, Kerstin discovered her husband was not the man she thought he was.Further informationLoving my Lying, Dying, Cheating Husband is published by Affirm PressTo binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.