Conversations

In 2018, Shanelle Dawson's family were the subject of a hit true crime podcast which helped convict her father Chris Dawson of her mother's murder. Now she's reclaiming her own story and the story of her mother Lynette

Pip Williams was diagnosed with dyslexia as a teenager. She grew up to write a novel inspired by the history of the Oxford Dictionary, which soon became an international bestseller

Penny grew up consumed by catastrophic thoughts and developed habits to try to ward off impending doom. It turned out she had been living with obsessive compulsive disorder for 30 yearsPenny Moodie grew up consumed by catastrophic thoughts and ideas - that her parents would die in a car crash, that her mother was not really her mother, or that she had somehow contracted HIV aids.It's not unusual for children to worry about their parents and their own safety, but for Penny these anxieties went much further.She thought she could ward off catastrophes by doing specific things, by developing compulsive behaviours and routines.It turns out, Penny had been living obsessive compulsive disorder for more than 30 years before she was diagnosed.Only recently has Penny been able to understand what she's truly afraid of, to discard her constant state of anxiety and to finally take joy in the simple pleasures of life.Further informationThe Joy Thief: How OCD steals your happiness and how to get it back is published by Allen & UnwinTo 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.

Marine biologist Dr Edith Widder was inside a submersible searching for bioluminescence in the ocean depths when she saw a giant squid as big as a two story house (R)

Tony Wilson was always drawn to the world's great speeches. Then, without warning, he was called on to make the most difficult speech of his life (R)

How Jodie went from skateboarding in her home town of Albany to become a world surfing champion, frothing all the way.When Jodie Cooper was growing up the kids in her hometown of Albany in Western Australia raised money to build one of the world's first-ever skate parks. They named it the Snake Run, and a talented young Jodie shone on the track.Once she discovered surfing at the age of 16, she was hooked. By 19, she had turned Pro, and joined a host of remarkable women on the World Tour including Pam Burridge and Wendy Botha.The women were relegated the poorest waves during events and minimised even as they accumulated medals and world titles. Despite the administrators at the time, Jodie went on to win 12 World Championship tour career titles in her decade on the tour.In 1997 Jodie made the decision to come out publicly about her sexuality, saying at the time, “I think it's important to be true to yourself and stand up for yourself."In 2018 the World Surf League committed to equal prize money for men and women in their major events, and in 2020, Jodie was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame. Further informationGirls Can't Surf is available to watch on StanTo 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.

An unexpected DNA test result sent Penny Mackieson on a mission across the other side of the world, to find her real natural mother, and discover her identity

Dr Kira Westaway is a geochronologist who places modern and ancient humans in context by dating things found in caves. For Kira, how we understand ourselves now is tied up in the past (R)

Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of the Sydney Opera House nearly didn't get off the drawing board

A chance encounter led Lovemore Ndou into his local boxing gym, and a lucky left hook became his ticket out of apartheid South Africa

Ben Gillies was a 15 year old drummer when Silverchair became a global sensation. After almost two decades of being a rock star, the band broke up, and Ben began to face his own demons

Lawyer and author David Gillespie has been on a mission to understanding psychopaths after realising he might have worked with one

Josh Niland on his mission to cook fish eyes, fish liver, and fish sperm to help revolutionise how we cook and eat fishChef Josh Niland is devoted to changing ideas about how we cook and eat fish in the western world.He believes that rather than eating just the fillet, we should aim to eat the whole fish, as we do nose-to-tail with animals. At his restaurants he cooks with fish eyeballs, fish livers, fish heads, and milt (fish sperm).A big part of Josh's philosophy is about making fishing more sustainable. He says fishers risk their lives every, so we're duty bound to use as much of the catch as we can.Josh's approach is winning him acclaim around the world. At 30, he won an award which is considered the Oscars of food writing, the James Beard Award, for his first book, The Whole Fish Cookbook.His passion has its roots in his childhood. At eight years old, Josh fell terribly ill, and during a long convalescence, realised exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up.Today Josh has five restaurants of his own, including one in Singapore.Further informationFish Butchery is published by Hardie GrantTo 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.

David Marr with the story of his great-great-grandfather Reg Uhr, who led murderous expeditions with the Native Police during Queensland’s frontier wars CW: mentions the names of Aboriginal people who have died

Diego Garcia-Bellido is a palaeontologist who specialises in soft-bodied fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago. These perfectly preserved eyes, guts and nervous systems provide a window into the beginning of our own family tree, and into life on Mars.

Robyn Davidson on her adventures high in the Himalayas, her love affair with an Indian prince, and her late in life reckoning with her own story (CW: mentions suicide)

Jessica is an orchestral conductor, organ virtuoso and also a synesthete who 'sees' colour in her mind's eye (R)

James O'Hanlon digs deep into the secret world of spiders; complex and tiny lives most of us are either unaware or afraid of

Historian Katherine Pangonis with stories from five cities of the ancient world, from their splendour in antiquity to their comparatively modest twilight

Actor and writer Brendan Cowell with tender and funny tales from his boyhood as a child actor and a budding playwright (R)

Suzie Miller with stories from her free range St Kilda childhood, her drama-filled life as a lawyer, and the inspiration behind her play Prima Facie

Meaghan Katrak Harris with stories from her life as a teenage mother and raising a multicultural family, and her working life as a social worker and an academic

Forensic scientist Dr Xanthe Mallett on her work analysing skeletal remains, investigating cases of wrongful conviction and studying the decomposition of the human body (CW: contains references to death and crime) Xanthe is a forensic anthropologist, criminologist and author who works with police to analyse skeletal remains.Xanthe worked for years at Scotland's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification in Dundee, and presented her research in facial identification to the FBI in Quantico.She also looks at cases of wrongful conviction, including mothers falsely accused of killing their children, with specific reference to the wrongful convictions of Lindy Chamberlain and Kathleen Folbigg.Currently Xanthe spends some of her working life at a taphonomy facility outside Sydney studying the details of human bodily decomposition.Further informationLearn more about the Forensic Taphonomy facility run by UTSTo 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.

Dog behaviourist Laura Vissaritis uses science and psychology to better understand what our dogs really are telling us

Nicholas Jose was living in China in 1989, when the military was sent in to violently quell pro-democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square. He left Beijing the next day and returned to a changed city

Sam Neill is a winemaker, a cancer survivor and a father. He's also an actor, who's made more than 100 films

Rachael Mead with the true story of Nel Law, who stowed away on a Danish ship in 1961 to become the first Australian woman to set foot on Antarctica

Strategic analyst Sam Roggeveen says Australia needs to think more like an echidna when it comes to defence

Dr David Sinclair is a longevity expert who believes ageing is a treatable disease (R)

Kate Cole-Adams has discovered what happens to us while we dwell in the chemical oblivion of general anaesthetic (R)

Chadden Hunter was in his twenties when he found himself sitting around a campfire in the Ethiopian highlands, talking about his PhD thesis with Sir David Attenborough. The meeting changed his life

When Bronwyn Sheehan's daughter befriended a little girl in year four, her eyes were opened up to the realities of life for children in care, and their carers

From the 1944 wartime referendum, to the 1999 vote on whether to become a republic, referenda always tell us things about Australia that aren't revealed in a normal federal election

Broadcaster Peter Goers was in his twenties when his parents died suddenly, in a plane crash outside New Orleans. Decades later, he's beginning to make sense of the loss

Writer Susan Johnson began an unexpected adventure when she moved to the Greek island of Kythera with her 85-year old mother Barbara (R)

When Kim Crotty was locked up in Dartmoor prison for growing marijuana, his two young sons were bereft. After he began writing bedtime stories for his boys from his cell, a new chapter opened up for him after he was released from jail (R)

After a serious brain operation, Anne Howell woke up in hospital with retrograde amnesia, thinking she was nine years old. With no real understanding of who she was or who she could trust, she set about rediscovering her identity (R)

The Tongan-Australian man on being privileged to see love in action in his grandparents, how a spiral into grief and anger led him to periodic detention, and how cutting hair today helps him steer young men away from a dark path (R)

Tom Nash was 19 when his limbs were amputated due to meningococcal septicaemia. After he began to navigate life with hooks for arms, he built a new life as a DJ (R)

Maggie Mackellar with stories from her life on a Merino wool farm on the east coast of Tasmania, and all of life and death that surrounds her through the cycle of lambing seasons

Dr Amy Clarke on the history of Big Things and our enduring fondness for kitsch and curious creations

Crispian Chan grew up in the shadow of a campaign of terror in Perth that engulfed his family restaurant and haunted him for years

The historical novelist has seen enough action to last a lifetime from her days as a Middle East correspondent, and it was her mother's imaginative influence that led her to turn her fascination with history into new interpretations (R)

Coalminer turned broadcaster Craig Hamilton was in his 30s when he had a psychotic episode on Broadmeadows train station. In the aftermath, his life was completely changed (CW: mentions suicide)Craig Hamilton began his working life as a coal miner in Newcastle north of Sydney. He worked deep underground, knocking down walls and digging through tunnels through the inky blackness. One day after many years in the mines, Craig got a chance to be on the radio for 5 minutes talking about cricket. He found he was a natural - and it began an entirely new chapter in his life. He was talented scouted by the ABC, and after working part-time in various broadcasting jobs while he also worked underground, Craig won a full-time job. It was a huge moment in his life, as for many years he'd believed he didn't have a way out of the mining industry. His career as a sports broadcaster took off quickly, and he was chosen to be commentary team for the Sydney Olympics.As he was travelling to the Olympic stadium one day, Craig was on Broadmeadows train station when he had a psychotic episode. He was handcuffed and taken by the police to a locked ward in Newcastle Hospital.After he was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Craig knew he had to be part of the solution in mental health. He began to give public talks about his own story. Help and support is always availableYou can call Lifeline 24 hours a day on 13 11 14Phone and online counselling is available through MenslineFurther informationWatch the trailer for the documentary The PromiseLearn about Craig's work as a public speaker and mental health advocateTo 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.

Dr Robert Waldinger on what it takes to live a happy life. Robert Waldinger has spent most of his working life trying to understand the secret to human happiness. He’s Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. The project has been tracking what makes for a joyful life for more than eight decades and points to meaningful relationships as the key to human fulfilment. Bob tries to apply the insights from the study to his own life, where beyond his research, he’s also a Zen priest.Further informationThe Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Study on Happiness is published by Penguin 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.

Bertie Blackman on her unconventional childhood with her father the artist Charles Blackman

In 1979, Julie Dolan was named as the inaugural captain of the Matildas. Ever since, she's helped build the juggernaut from the ground up

Kim Rubenstein on the inner workings and history of the Australian constitution

John Gaden on turning his back on law and landing on the stage

Broadcaster Michael Parkinson with the life story of his late father John William - Yorkshireman, miner, humourist and fast bowler (R)