Conversations

For 25 years Sandy wondered what became of the little yellow dinghy he left in Romania, after a months-long voyage from the UK. Could it still be waiting for him the marshes of the Danube Delta, ready for another adventure?

Melissa Lucashenko was a motorcycle detailer, a house painter, a prison advocate, and a game show contestant before finding her way as a writer

The actor and author thinks that nowhere in the world is the English language more poetic, colourful and persuasive than here in AustraliaWilliam McInnes is a much-loved Australian actor and an author, whose books often recall his childhood in Queensland.It was there, in Redcliffe, that William became fluent in the peculiar, funny and colourful words and phrases unique to Australian English.Over the years, he's continued to collect them to celebrate how much they say about who we really are.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 informationYeah Nah: A celebration of life and the words that make us who we are is published by Hatchette

Alecia Simmonds with tales from a time in Australia's legal history when the jilted and broken-hearted could sue for redress in the courts

Tom Holland on the glories, bloodshed and barbarianism of the golden days of the Roman Empire

Antony Penrose grew up knowing little about his remarkable mother Lee Miller, who had studied with Man Ray in Paris, and become a model, a photographer, and a war correspondent. But then an unexpected find in the family attic changed everything

Lucy Godoroja deals in the business of buttons, and the stories each button carries with it from Bohemia, or Milan to her shop in Sydney, and then into the hands of passers-by

British-Australian journalist Hayley Campbell uncovers the secret society of the western world's death industry, run by people who have made death their life's work. CW: contains discussions of death and descriptions of dead bodies

Writer and journalist James Phelps takes you inside the bluestone walls and medieval-looking turrets of Australia's most infamous jail

Jon Owen on how he chose a life of 'intentional downward mobility' to help addicts, sex workers, and the homeless, from Calcutta to Mount Druitt to the Wayside Chapel

How a fashion-loving misfit from Sydney took over Hollywood with husband Baz Luhrmann, winning more Oscars than any other Australian (R)

Professor Ian Hickie has spent decades trying to understand clinical depression. Where does it come from? What role do genes play? And most importantly – what works to release its chokehold?Ian Hickie has spent his career trying to help people at their darkest times. He's a psychiatrist who is particularly passionate about taming the black dog of depression.Depression is not a simple puzzle to solve. Ian has seen how the right medical treatment can lift someone out of even the worst depression; but he has also tried to answer some of the most important questions about clinical depression.Is it genetic? Is it caused by trauma? What role do the seasons play? Why is long COVID a risk factor in developing depression? And most importantly – what works to release its hold on someone?Further informationThe Devil You Knew is published by Penguin Random HouseTo 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.

Brendan Watson took his Scouts promise very seriously as a young boy. He's leaned in to his pledge in some very unexpected ways, from Moscow to Mongolia and through temporary blindness back home again

Ecologist Katherine Moseby is helping Australia's bilbies, quolls, and stick-nest rats evolve to become tougher, faster and stronger, so they can survive the looming threat of more than 2 million feral cats (R)

Mick O'Regan met his feisty and brilliant wife Jo for the first time on a work brigade in Nicaragua. They fell in love and had a beautiful baby boy. Then quite unexpectedly, when Jo was in her 50s, Mick became her carer

Darryl Jones on the dramatic lives of Australia's city-dwelling native birds

When David Hannan was a young man, he fled university and took a detour to the wild coral coast of WA where he became a lobster fisherman, before earning an Emmy for his underwater cinematography

Kylie Moore-Gilbert spent two years inside the Iranian prison system, secretly communicating with fellow women prisoners while she waited for news from Australia

Richard Flanagan was forever changed as a young man, when he was trapped for hours and almost drowned in an isolated stretch of river on Tasmania's wild west coast

Writer Kate Forsyth on how revisiting the story of a mythic Minotaur lurking in a labyrinth in Crete helped her realise that we all need monsters (R)

Zayd Dohrn’s parents were militant left-wing revolutionaries, and he was born while they were living underground, fugitives from the FBI (R)

Dr Merrick Ekins is Australia's leading expert in carnivorous sea sponges. Some sponges are secret killers, others are made up of glass and imprison tiny shrimp-like lovers for eternity, and others make love to themselves to reproduce

On a whim, Bruce Englefield bought a wildlife park in Tasmania and moved from across the other side of the world to make life better for Tasmanian Devils

The Danish-British author and comedian on her father's laissez faire attitude to school, and how this opened her mind and brought her to NASA's mission control room for the moon landing of 1969

From homeless teen to operatic stardom: how a job at the David Jones food hall changed the trajectory of Stephen Smith's life

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