Conversations

Nick Cave on how living through addiction, love and unthinkable loss has changed his inner life

Michael's professional rugby career came to a brutal end after dozens of concussions took their toll on his brain

When acrobat and circus performer Anna Yen decided to become a playwright, in the process of finding out her family stories she unearthed a new facet of Australia’s Chinese history

Sarah Parry first saw a tall ship sailing into Sydney Harbour in 1965. Two decades later, in an abandoned Hobart warehouse, she began building her own full-sized Square Rigger from scratch. In the process, she realised it was time to change her own life

Hannah Kent with the true story of the Prussians who fled Europe for a new life in South Australia (R)

After the loss of his mum Carol, James Crawley tried to push down his own grief. Then he watched 35 hours of raw and turbulent footage of his Dad Richard grieving in real time (CW: loss, grief and drug use)

David Heilpern with stories of drama, crime and heartache from his 21 years as a country magistrate (CW: references to drug use and sexual assault) (R)

Heather Rose on her decades-long quest to make peace with life and loss after a tragedy befell her family when she was a girl (CW: grief and loss)

Paulie Stewart made a name for himself as the frontman of legendary Melbourne punk band Painters and Dockers, but he's also spent much of his life campaigning on behalf of the people of East Timor

The singer-songwriter shares memories of her mother's sacred, ancestral mountain, surviving childhood cancer and being rescued via a message on AM radio after a double volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea (R) (CW: Some listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening)

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

Diana Nguyen's mother would walk out of her performances at interval in protest of her career, but Diana forged on and in the process healed this mother-daughter relationship

Almost half of Australian adults struggle with some level of literacy — writing a shopping list, or reading a text message in private. Jo helps her students turn their lives around

The French horn is made up of metres and metres of brass coiled around and around until it opens into a big bell. Let Peter Luff lead you through the maze of this mysterious instrument

Peter FitzSimons has written many books on Australian military history, but pulling out the remarkable stories from the Battle of Long Tan was a long process, despite the fact that many of the participants in this great defining moment are still alive

Animal communication specialist, Justin Gregg on killer whales' grief behaviour, the Piping Plover's broken wing strategy, and what would happen if humans toned down the need to be 'why specialists'

When Lamorna Ash began to explore her Cornish ancestry she started work on a rusty yellow fishing trawler called the Filadelfia, scaling fish, gutting them and hauling in the nets (R)

When Carol, an Australian, and Buri Kidu, a young Papua New Guinea man, fell in love in the 1960s, their partnership defied convention (R)

Ray Seidler was a brilliant doctor and a family man, whose secret struggle with depression ultimately claimed his life. Now his son Jonathan is helping to change the story when it comes to his own mental illness (CW: mentions suicide, drug use) When Ray Seidler would walk through the streets of Kings Cross, everyone wanted to stop and have a chat - from homeless people, to sex workers, film actors and lawyers. Ray was one of Sydney's most loved doctors, and a man of great compassion and charm. He had set up his his practice in the late 1970s and stayed committed to the neighbourhood for the next 35 years.To outsiders, it may have looked as if Ray had a lucky life.He lived in a wealthy area of the city with his beautiful wife and four children and he was the nephew of the famous architect Harry Seidler.But behind closed doors Ray was locked in a herculean struggle with his own mental health. His regular bouts of depression caused him to regularly 'run away' from his own home and family, and eventually led to his suicide. Ray's son Jonno has written about his father's life, and his own mental health diagnosis, which he's been determined not to keep secret.Further informationIt's a Shame about Ray is published by Allen and UnwinPresenter: Sarah KanowskiProducer: Nicola HarrisonExecutive producer: Carmel RooneyTo 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.

Costa is the friendly face of Gardening Australia, a devotee of composting, keeping chickens and developing insect hotels (R)

Mat Rogers on football, family, stepping out of his Dad's shadow, and stealing the Queen's spoons (CW: mentions suicide)

Who was the legendary chair maker? An emancipated convict? An Irish refugee? A First Nations man? All we know is that he lived in a tree

Brisbane choir director, Astrid Jorgensen shares how she thinks in sound, and why it's not about you, darl, when you come to sing in a group

Aaron Fa’Aoso on the mistakes, heartaches, and lucky breaks on his path to success as an actor and producer

Dale Kent is an esteemed scholar of the Italian Renaissance who grew up in Australia. Rejecting her Christian Science upbringing, she forged an unapologetic life of her own design (R)

Crime writer, Peter Doyle delves into the notes and photographs kept by his uncle, Detective Sergeant Brian Doyle on the Kingsgrove Slasher and other cases that he helped crack

From Scotland's Orkney Islands, stories of how a chance meeting in a pub led Andrew Greig to climb the Himalayas, how golfing helped him recover from a near-death experience (R)

From walking alone across Antarctica, to crossing the Simpson Desert using wind, Geoff Wilson has led a life full of adventure. Content Warning: Graphic discussion of natural disaster death toll

Chris Pepin-Neff grew up as an identical twin in a small town in Connecticut. When he was four years old, his family suffered a terrible loss. Then Chris grew up to help change history (CW: loss and grief)

Recorded in 2013, celebrate the seven-decade long stage and screen career of the remarkable actor (R)The late Angela Lansbury has taken on a wildly diverse range of roles since she began working as an actor more than 70 years ago.She played the conniving cockney maid in Gaslight, and a terrifying spy in The Manchurian Candidate.She was the voice of the singing teapot in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.For many years Angela played a detective novelist in TV series Murder She Wrote.When she was in Australia to perform the lead in a stage production of Driving Miss Daisy in 2013, Angela opened up to Richard about her childhood in pre-war London, coming to America, and her starring roles in Broadway musicals.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 informationAngela Lansbury died in October 2022, aged 96Originally broadcast in February 2013Presenter: Richard FidlerProducer: Michelle Ransom-HughesExecutive Producer: Carmel Rooney

Dai Le tells the story of her family fleeing Saigon and travelling across 2 oceans to make it to Australia, and how a sense of fairness drew her into public life

Dr Christina Zdenek wants to change our minds about Australia’s deadly snakes, not just because their venom holds healing secrets

When cooking teacher Anna Kharzeeva began a quest to cook her way through an iconic Soviet-era book of recipes, her grandmother Lena became her guide

Joanne Petersen recalls working as a personal assistant to The Beatles' manager, the freedom of the Swinging Sixties in London and eloping to the Bahamas with a Bee Gee

The conservationist is on a quest to see all 2600 species native to Australia, before time runs out

David Read was one of the first doctors on the ground in Bali, 20 years ago and what he saw there turned him into a leading figure in disaster response

Kyra Maya Phillips on her family's search for home, from Morocco's Atlas Mountains, to Israel, then to Venezuela and beyond

The stage and screen actor looks back at his mother's magical influence on his childhood imagination, and his life in character

Palaeontologist John Long found his first fossil in a Melbourne quarry as a 7 year old. He grew up to unearth new clues as to how we became human (R)

The former captain of the Australian Women's cricket team shares what she's learned along the way, and how cricket has helped her in genetic counselling, her next career

How a bush kid from Magnetic Island graduated to an ashram in India and came to harvest cacao with an ancient, Indigenous tribe on the Amazon River

After Nova Weetman's partner died, the children's author started writing from and about grief

True crime journalist Jack Hoysted tells the story of the life and times of the man known as the 'Mr Big' of organised crime

Rachel Perkins' is one of the country's great storytellers, and now she's turned the lens on the bloody conflicts that broke out across the continent after the arrival of the British colonists

Reverend Bill Crews on the moment which changed how he saw his own life story, and his ideas on how we can all cultivate compassion, tolerance, empathy and love in difficult times.

Mike's evolution came as a shock, when he was fired from Columbia University and started working in a deli

The story of an Austin-driving Australian maverick who died in mysterious circumstances (R)Alice was a quintessential, mould-breaking young woman of the roaring twenties.Raised in country Victoria, she was capable and confident, and not interested in what was considered proper.Alice opened a motor touring company in Melbourne during the first world war.The business grew and by the 1920s Miss Anderson's Motor Service included a mechanic's shop, staffed entirely by young women known as 'garage girls'.Loretta Smith has spent a decade researching the story of Alice's life and tragic early death.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 informationA Spanner in the Works: the extraordinary story of Alice Anderson and Australia's first all-girl garage is published by HachetteYou can visit the recreation of Alice Anderson's garage at the National Motor Museum in South Australia

The former frontman recently uncovered boxes from his adolescence in his attic, and he was amazed at his early, detailed plans to take over the music industry

The author describes his early life during the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war and how arthouse films and illegal street photography provided him with an escape

Uncle Jack was forcibly removed from his mother as a baby and denied his Aboriginality. A one-off trip to Fitzroy connected him with a family he didn’t know about, and promptly landed him in jail (R) (CW: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners please be aware — this interview contains the voice of someone who has died)