Conversations

Di Morrissey grew up in a tiny village on the water, only accessible by rowboat, with film star Chips Rafferty and poet Dorothea Mackellar as her neighbours. When she was a young woman, a tragedy on the bay altered her life (R)

Dr Maddy McAllister's job as a marine archaeologist involves diving into the deep to uncover the artefacts and human stories sunk in shipwrecks

How a former ballerina revolutionised Australia's dance landscape (R)

When he was a child in South Africa, Professor Mark Solms watched his older brother sustain a terrible brain injury. He then began his own path, to understand how a person's brain shapes them. CW: description of a medical procedure (R)

When journalist Jason Om turned his skills towards his own family story he began to understand the real story of his perfectionist Buddhist Cambodian father and his Catholic Eurasian mother, who was stricken with an inexplicable sadnessJason is a journalist with ABC TV.A few years ago he turned his journalistic skills to his own family story.Jason wanted to find out what had happened to his mother in Malaysia, and whether that could explain the melancholy she struggled with as he was growing up.His questioning and searching for the truth also saw his father change in a way Jason never believed possible.Further informationAll Mixed Up is published by HarperCollinsJason Om will be a guest at the 2022 Sydney Writers FestivalTo 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.

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

Sara El Sayed on growing up Arab in South-East Queensland, while juggling conflicting expectations from her father to be a good Muslim girl, and from her grandmother who encouraged her to write, and not marry

Clinical pain neuroscientist Dr Tasha Stanton explains her studies into the power of the mind when it comes to coping with injury and illness.Clinical pain neuroscientist, Dr Tasha Stanton works with people who experience chronic and crushing pain at the University of South Australia.Typically, her patients suffer from osteo-arthritis and back pain.Tasha says that far from being only the result of injury or illness, pain is influenced by many different factors in our lives — emotional turbulence, stressful jobs, or a lack of previous movement.She wants to change the story around pain, and give people back their mobility and their zest for life.She aims to do this by challenging the messages in the brain related to pain and movement.Tasha does this in different ways, one of which involves showing people elongated images of their fingers and knees.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.

The bestselling author explores animal behaviour and grief — the loss we feel when a beloved pet dies, and how other species understand death (R)

After her younger sister died suddenly, broadcaster Indira Naidoo's world was shattered. Then she turned to her urban landscape for solace (CW: mentions suicide)

Novelist Kate Grenville on the story of love, grief and mental illness she unearthed when she revisited the letters of colonial gentlewoman Elizabeth Macarthur

Laurie Bateman went on an intense, lonely 18-month journey to become a Guinness World Record-holding sheep shearer, but it's not the accomplishment the Kamilaroi man is most proud of

The Australian comedian on Nanette, her 'farewell' to stand up comedy; being diagnosed with autism as an adult; and on Douglas, the show and the dog (R)

Sian Prior with the story of the years of longing and loss which marked her quest to become a mother, and what happened when she found herself childless at the age of 50For many years Sian Prior desperately wanted to have a baby.Her longing to be a mother played havoc with her relationships and her body.It never happened, and Sian had to decide what to do with the freedom that was hers.Further informationChildless is published by TextTo 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.

English author Patrick Gale finds inspiration in the endless sunset beyond his Cornish farm, old family letters and a pair of bearskin gloves from his childhood dress-up box

Arthur made his name escaping from a locked 44-gallon drum in a pool of sharks, and his death-defying escapes from the 1970s soon earned him the title of 'Australia's Houdini' (R)

J.C Faulk gives out over a million kilos of food each year to the hungry in his Baltimore food program. He tells how his own life story has guided him to the work

Big wave surfer Kerby Brown's obsessive quest to find 'slab waves' to ride, far off the Australian coast has almost cost him his life

Author Patrik Svensson was just a boy when his dad introduced him to the wonders of this enigmatic fish — their birthplace in the Sargasso Sea, their powers of navigation, and the ongoing secret of their reproduction

As a child, before she escaped communist Hungary, Bo Remenyi had no ambitions. But when she got to Australia all of that changed. She's gone from cruising the casino floor as a high-stakes professional poker player, to saving the lives of children in remote Australia.

War crimes investigator Brendan Rook on the case that was 'more frozen than cold', and his years with the International Criminal Court, scrutinising Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi

Thriller writer Helen Fitzgerald on her life as a social worker inside some of Scotland's toughest prisons (R)

As a Chinese-Australian girl growing up in the era of the White Australia Policy, artist Lindy Lee always felt that she didn't belong. When she began studying Zen Buddhism, some big shifts began to happen in her life, and her art

Northern Territory historian Derek Pugh recalls the 36,000 poles, undersea cable and sheer ingenuity that went into the greatest feat of engineering in 19th century Australia — the Overland Telegraph Line

Serafina Tane was born into a religious cult on New Zealand's South Island. The cult leader was a charismatic but abusive man named Douglas Metcalfe, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ (R)

Dr Duane Hamacher on his study of Indigenous Astronomy, which covers 65,000 years of observation, deduction, and experimentation

Mark Trevorrow on how the music of composers Anthony Newley and Paul Williams influenced the course of his life and began the evolution of his alter ego, Bob Downe

The young naturalist shares his deep connection to the wild landscapes and creatures of Northern Ireland. Dara's first book has been highly awarded, and is all the more exceptional for his being just seventeen years of age (R)

When Kim Crotty was locked up in Dartmoor prison for growing marijuana, his two young sons were bereft. He began writing bedtime stories for them from his cell, as a way to reach them

The Mexican-American Mixed Martial artist and bare knuckle boxer on being smuggled into the US as a child in a pickup truck, and how almost losing his eye turned him toward the art of the city of his birth

At 90, Elizabeth Chong recalls the familiar abundance of the Queen Victoria Market of the 1930s, how her father popularised the dim sim in Australia and the 37,000 people she has taught to cook

Musician Eliza Hull has a condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth which affects her mobility, and for many years she tried to hide it. But after she had a daughter, she became proud of her disability

One of America's oldest lighthouses was built in 1716 and survived the Revolutionary War. Its first two keepers met dismal ends, but Sally Snowman was always enamoured by it. She is the first woman to care for the lighthouse, and now she will be the last

'Love on the Spectrum' star Jodi Rodgers on her life as a sexologist and relationship counsellor for people with Autism, and her unexpected chapter in reality TV (R)

Ben Macintyre with the true tale of 'Agent Sonya'; a housewife with 3 children and a Soviet super-spy. Sonya trained Communist rebels in Manchuria in the 1930s, arranged a plot to kill Hitler, and smuggled the plans for the atomic bomb to the Soviets

In 1973, Tana Douglas found her calling. She became the world's first woman roadie in rock and roll, touring with AC/DC, Iggy Pop and Elton John *CW: discussion of drugs and drug use (R)

In 1973, Tana Douglas found her calling. She became the world's first woman roadie in rock and roll, touring with AC/DC, Iggy Pop and Elton John *CW: discussion of drugs and drug use (R)

Biologist David Sinclair believes aging is a disease, and we can find a cure for it

Claudia Chan Shaw’s life has been both bizarre and exquisite, moving from chronicling a man who collected his own belly button fluff, to unearthing her family's deep connection to fashion, told in three acts

Psychiatrist Dr Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding the mystery of human nature has driven him since he was a young doctor, and has led him down a strange path into examining the love lives of philosophers

Naomi Mourra grew up as a door-knocking Jehovah's Witness and closeted lesbian. At 21, she realised Doomsday was not upon her, and left the religion for good

Durkhanai Ayubi and her family keep alive the stories and flavours they carried to Australia from Afghanistan, in the dining room of their 'accidental' and thriving restaurant (R)

Iain McCalman on the life of adventurer Delia Akeley, and her profound connection with a vervet monkey she named 'J.T'

Freediver Amber Bourke on the serene, otherworldly experience of floating down through crystal-clear water, with no oxygen tanks or fins, 70 metres below the surface of the sea

Stephen Walker with the thrilling, surreal story of the loyal communist and father of two who became the first person to journey into space, in a capsule perched on top of a modified Soviet R-7 missile

Dog trainer Neil McDonald and cattle wrangler Joni Hall on their loyal, emotionally intelligent charges: outback working dogs

Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett on his life in music, environmental action, and politics, and his life now on The Oils final tour

DNA expert Dr Jeremy Austin on his 14-year quest to help solve one of Australia's enduring military mysteries: the identity of the 'unknown sailor'

Gavin Pretor-Pinney loved gazing at clouds as a child. As an adult, his fascination with clouds drew him from England to Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria to see the Morning Glory, the world's most spectacular cloud formation (R)

Charlotte was Australia's first children's author. She came to the colony of NSW from London in 1826, and now her trailblazing, tragic and dramatic life story has been written by her descendants, Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell (R)