Conversations

Surfing writer Tim Baker on how the hormones which saved his life after a cancer diagnosis fundamentally changed his experience of being a man

The Australian author on the bedtime story she wrote for her young sons, to try to explain the grief and uncertainty of their father's leukaemia diagnosis

Christie splits her time between training for road and track wheelchair races, holding down several jobs, and raising her family. The Tokyo Paralympics will be her seventh as a 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)

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians.Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason is a former English academic and the mother of seven extraordinary children.All of them are gifted classical musicians.Her eldest daughter, Isata wrote and performed her first piano concerto at the age of eleven.Her son Sheku mastered the cello and performed at the royal wedding of Harry and Megan Markle.Every day the seven Kanneh-Masons, who range from early teens to the mid-twenties, fill the family home with glorious music.Further informationHouse of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons is published by OneworldTo 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.

Academic Will Visconti on the true history of the most famous cancan dancer in Paris at the turn of the century, and her later work taming lions

Tony Hoang was a teenage heroin dealer in Cabramatta at 13, grappling with addiction at 21, then cried out to God for a sign. What came next was more literal than he could have imagined

It was love at first sight, when Jack Ashby first set eyes upon a platypus specimen as a young university student

Historian Meredith Lake with the Bible's Australian history, from the convict era, to the Mabo land rights campaign, and the modern-day Pentecostal churches (R)

Documentary filmmaker Sharon Connolly has unearthed her family history of female whistling comedians, and how they changed ideas about how women should behave

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

Gold Coast lawyer Chris Nyst on his 45 years in criminal law, defending career criminals, corrupt police, heroin addicts and a postcard bandit

Archie tells of writing Took the Children Away and playing it in public for the first time, of his belated reunion with his siblings, and his love story with Ruby Hunter (R) CW: For our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners, this program features the voice of someone who has died. Please take care when listening.

Australian violinist Charmian Gadd reflects on her 80 years, from her origins in the bush at Ourimbah on the NSW Central Coast, to her love affair with her teacher, the extraordinary Richard Goldner, who invented a zipper for the war effort

Tom Nash was 19 years old when he fell terribly ill with meningococcal septicemia, and all his limbs were amputated. After he learned to walk again on prosthetic legs and began to navigate life with hooks for arms, he built a new life as a nightclub DJ

Writer Susan Varga sees her life as full of hard joys - including her Hungarian Jewish family’s surviving WWII, her recovery from the stroke which destroyed her ability to write and speak, and finding the great love of her life in middle age

Sisonke Msimang fought hard to find a home. She was born in exile, the daughter of a freedom fighter who had fled South Africa during apartheid.

Even the cheapest guitars are made in part from trees which are becoming increasingly rare. Chris Gibson's curiosity about these timbers led him on a worldwide journey to understand the guitar's past and future (R)

Dr Campbell Costello (aka Dr Cozy) has probably the largest, and most exciting, consult room in the world

Maggie Beer started her working life at the age of 14 in a chenille bedspread factory. Two decades later, in a pheasant farm in the Barossa Valley, she found her dream jobLegendary cook, author food producer and educator Maggie Beer grew up in Lakemba in South-West Sydney, and got her first job when she was 14.Maggie had to leave school early to go out to work to help support her family after her father's business went bankrupt.Although she had a varied working life over the next two decades, it wasn't until her mid-thirties that Maggie found her purpose.She and her husband Colin began a pheasant farm in South Australia's Barossa Valley, then added a farm gate shop and a restaurant.In the process, Maggie discovered that she loved to cook for people. For the first ten years they struggled to make the restaurant work financially, until a big award catapulted the business to fame.Eventually the hours and the demands became too much, and Maggie's husband Colin issued an ultimatum - it was him or the restaurant.Maggie chose her husband, and eventually began her media career writing newspaper columns, and then became a TV star on The Cook and the Chef and Masterchef.In 2010 Maggie was named the Senior Australian of the Year. More recently she has been campaigning to improve the quality of food in aged care.Further informationLearn more about the Maggie Beer FoundationTo 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.

Former narcotics agent, John Shobbrook battled corruption when investigating an audacious plan to air-drop heroin into Far North Queensland in the 1970s (R)

When Sally Warriner left behind the life she had built in the bush, it took her years to define herself as more than 'just the general manager's wife'

The podcaster and comedian on her early life in Queensland — reading Enid Blyton and yearning to wear a coat; what improv comedy taught her about human nature, and how eyebrows were the key in finding her biological family (CW: Discussion of adoption. Please take care when listening)

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

Dr Nerida Wilson spends a lot of her time getting acquainted with the mysterious creatures lurking in the dark depths of the sea

Debra Dank walks and talks differently when she's at home on Gudanji country, because she comes with this place. (Content warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners please take care when listening. Some elements of this program may be distressing)

Oceane was 18 when she attempted to take her own life. After a painstaking climb back into life, 20 years later she is a midwife, a writer and a mother of three (CW: mentions suicide and sexual assault)

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

Scientists continue to discover the rarer and rarer objects which make up our universe. Why are we so obsessed with the particles around us?

Kate Forsyth on how revisiting the story of a bloodthirsty Minotaur lurking in a labyrinth in Crete made her realise how we all need monsters

Nova is a woman of many firsts — an Olympic gold medallist and Northern Territory Senator. She continues to strive for excellence while showing up for mob and standing with her people

Aunty Kath, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, was Valerie's godmother, and just one of many staunch political figures on both sides of her family. Val worked her way to becoming a powerful advocate for Aboriginal people and her family CW: ATSI listeners please use discretion when listening as the program references people who have died (R)

Torres Strait Islander man Thomas Mayor was working as a wharfie in Darwin when he became a union delegate, then an author, and a tireless advocate for Uluru Statement from the Heart

After years teaching in the remote Northern Territory, Julie began to trace her ancestry among the Darug people around the Hawkesbury River. Her most recent novel was written in response to Kate Grenville's The Secret River (R)

Gary is a Larrakia man from Darwin, whose dancing career has taken him from the early, bright lights of Glebe in Sydney, around the world, to the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. It all began with his mother in her wedding dress, dancing around the dining table. A warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners: this conversation references people who have died

Dr Edmund Richardson tells the story of the East India Company deserter who went in search of one of Alexander the Great's lost cities, in Afghanistan (R)

Gordon Parker is the founder of the Black Dog Institute, which works to remove the stigma around mental illness. His latest focus is the phenomenon of burnout at home and at work (R)

Ben Bravery tells the story of his childhood in Logan, Queensland, how he went from a career at KFC to studying male satin bowerbirds and why being a patient led him to study medicine

Author Victoria Mackinlay with the story of how her grandfather, Francis came to have a pet lion, as a gift from an Indian Maharaja

Dr Tamara Keeley uses reproductive technology to help save rhinos, Tasmanian devils and koalas from extinction

No, he's not 'that' Richie Ramone, but this Richie Ramone's passion for punk is just as fierce.

Swimmer and entrepreneur Lisa on her life in and out of the pool, and how the loss of her daughter Jaimi has changed her

Zen priest and writer Ruth Ozeki takes us into world brimming with the voices of people and household objects, and her own experience of hearing her late father's voice in her ear (R)

Christine Ball is an anaesthetist at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne who chanced upon an old casebook of a doctor named Joseph Clover (R)

Anh Nguyen Austen's family fled Vietnam by sea in 1982, on a wooden boat bound for the Philippines. When a once-in-a-century storm struck in South China Sea, they thought all hope was lost. Anh is an academic and community volunteer. She grew up in Vietnam in a Catholic family.Anh's childhood was idyllic, with a big extended family and a close friendship with her cousin named Joe.But life for the adults was complicated after the end of the war. In the early 1980s, her parents planned a daring escape.Under the noses of the regime, they secretly constructed a boat which they hoped would take them to the Philippines.They intended to bring 40 people with them, but on the day of departure 101 people crowded on board, before the boat sailed into a once-in-a-century storm on the South China Sea.Years later, Anh found film footage of their rescue, at a moment when almost all hope was lost.After their rescue, her family made it to a refugee camp in the Philippines, then to America, where Anh grew up to attend some of the world's most prestigious universities before she became an academic herself.Further informationThe rescue of 101 Boat was filmed for Medecins du MondeTo 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.

The Booker prize winning English novelist on disappointing his parents, the time before he was a writer, and his gift for unhappiness

When country woman Shanna Whan hit rock bottom in 2014 after a lifelong battle with alcohol addiction, she began a grassroots movement to tackle how we talk about booze in the bush

Frank Dell survived being shot down over Nazi Germany, with the aid of courageous Dutch families and resistance fighters (R)

Louise Pryke returns with a cultural history of turtles, from ancient times to modern day, and from turtle tears to Al Capone, Lou attempts to understand why they are such a widely-loved creature (R)

Historian Antony Beevor depicts the conflict through the eyes of ordinary Russian workers to officers on the battlefield, to crystalise one of the most influential and devastating wars of the modern era

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