Conversations

When Dr Catherine Crock saw her young leukemia patients suffering, she knew music would ease their pain, but she didn't know that years later she would be on the receiving end of the healing power of melody

Bronwyn Adcock with the story of one of the most terrifying episodes of Australia’s 2019 Black Summer: the Currowan fire

Meryl Broughton with stories from her work conducting autopsies at a country mortuary (CW: Graphic descriptions)

Robert Pekin lost his family’s 4th-generation farm, and in despair, walked away from everything and into the wilderness. After much soul-searching and trial and error, he developed a new way to link food producers more directly with those who eat the produce (R) CW: mentions suicide

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

The critic on what he has learned from watching 25,000 films, and that time he peed on Federico Fellini

Andrew Wear on how Australia might change in the post-pandemic world

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)For 21 years David Heilpern was a country magistrate in towns including Dubbo, Brewarrina and Lismore.This meant he was the Coroner, the Children's Court Judge, and the person handling all the domestic violence, assault, robbery, drug and driving offences.The workload was intense, and life on the bench could be lonely. On Monday morning, he might have 90 people lined up outside his courtroom waiting for him to administer justice.During his time in the job David endured death threats, people trashing the courtroom after being refused bail, and some who addressed him as 'Your Majesty'.David was a magistrate well known for his compassion. He would often challenge the police, or stand up for victims of domestic violence.In Dubbo in 1999 he dismissed a charge against a man who allegedly told a policeman holding the handlebars of his bike: 'get your f--king hands off' it.More recently he took a stand over tough drug driving laws in NSW, which see many people lose their licence.David also spoke out during his time on the bench about the vicarious trauma he experienced in having to examine some of society's most terrible crimes.Further informationHelp and support is always available.Lifeline is available for 24 hour crisis support at 13 11 14If this conversation has been difficult to hear you can also contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36 or chat to them via their websiteTo 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.

Hannah Kent with the true story of the Prussians who fled Europe for a new life in South Australia in 1838, then met a malevolent doctor on board their ship

Megan Phelps-Roper grew up inside the notorious Westboro Baptist Church family. In 2012 she left the church, and her family, to live in the world she once reviled (R)

Deirdre O'Connell with a tale of music, race and a secret militia set in Australia's Jazz Age (CW: discretion is advised when listening)

As a child, ordinary sensations of clothes on her skin made Allison Davies feel as though her life was under threat. She recognised the life-changing power of sound when she became a music therapist — both for herself and others

Kylie Stevenson delves into the story of Paddy Moriarty, who went missing from Larrimah, an outback Northern Territory town known for a weird pink panther in a gyrocopter.

In 1942 three midget submarines armed with torpedoes made their way into Sydney Harbour to launch an attack on Allied warships. They were sent by the Imperial Japanese Navy (R)

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, and to the origins of sex

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

Roland de Chazal is best known for being the 81-year-old motorbike postie on Magnetic Island, but his earlier life in Rhodesia had its moments too — it was there he met the Queen Mother and kept his pet cheetah, Jackals

Judy on life with her late husband, the politician Tim Fischer, and how her son Harrison helped inspire a new beginning on her farm (R)

Stories from Dave Grohl about his life in music, including how he went from being "that guy from Nirvana” to a superstar rock star fronting the Foo Fighters

John Baker on hunting down a cache of rare and impossibly valuable French wine hidden away by Josef Stalin, deep in the Republic of Georgia (R)

Music was always a friend to Ed, but while he struggled to come to terms with being trans, he couldn't face his beloved instruments. Once he accepted himself, his relationship with sound flourished

Monica McInerney with tales from her childhood in a railway family in the South Australian town of Clare (R)

Australia's most famous landscape architect on learning from the garden, Greek school and his Yiayia

Philippe Sands on how a cache of letters sent him on the trail of Nazi war criminal Otto Von Wachter, who escaped to Rome on the 'Ratline' (R)

Designer Jenny Kee with the story of her wild and creative life, including how she and Linda Jackson began a movement which changed Australian fashion (CW: discretion required. Drug references, suicide and content that might be upsetting)

The ABC Sports presenter describes his life at 17, a year dominated by football, girls, beer, and a serial killer stalking his neighbourhood

While they greet one another with soft "woohoos", carefully feed their fat, fluffy babies and bleat at sunset, field naturalist Tanya Loos keeps an eye on the beautiful and ferocious population in her backyard

When an eruption began in 1994 in Papua New Guinea, the last thing singer-songwriter Ngaiire expected was a second volcano to begin spewing ash. Tuning in to the mystery and majesty of PNG has become a lifelong project (CW: Some listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening)Throughout her childhood, singing was something Ngaiire did at church, somewhat begrudgingly, because her dad told her to.The singer-songwriter grew up between Palmerston North in New Zealand and her father's home in Rabaul, a volcanic hot spot on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea.As a child, she and her family survived a double volcanic eruption in 1994, and the chain of events that followed pulled Ngaiire to Wenamo, her mother's ancestral home in the Highlands.Amongst the mountains, Ngaiire leaned into quiet spirituality and connected with her ancestors, both living and deceased.Music is a delight and a necessity for Ngaiire, but in the past she tried to separate her Papua New Guinean heritage from her music career in Australia.That changed in 2017 when she made a pilgrimage to her mother's mountain.Further informationSome listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening.The following songs have been edited for the podcast:ShiverHim 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.

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 father's voice in her ear after he'd died

David Hepworth charts our fascination with that most earth-bound of gods, the rock star; and discusses some of music history's striking examples (R)

After Isaac Adams returned from Afghanistan struggling with anger and hypervigilance, he found that working with traumatised racehorses was helping him heal

Lynn Rainbow grew up in a castle in one of Australia’s most theatrical families. In the 1970s she became a famous actress, before she began a new life as a philanthropist

'Jack the Insider' returns with the story of Neddy Smith, the violent criminal and heroin dealer who became an enforcer for a cabal of corrupt police detectives in the 1980s (CW: discussion of violent acts)

Miriam Lancewood on her life roaming the New Zealand bush, hunting possums and goats to survive (CW: Graphic descriptions) (R)

Miriam was conceived in an air raid during WWII and brought up in a nice Jewish home with a charismatic mother. She became the naughtiest girl at Oxford High School and then grew up to be one of the world's best known actors

How the 'Men at Work' front man managed the trip to mega-stardom and back again (R)

Singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb on how growing up as the child of an Oklahoma preacher inspired his music (R)

When Joan Marie Larkin was given a guitar at the age of 13, she was on the path to becoming the Godmother of Punk (R)

Jimmy Barnes grew up as a boy called James Swan in Glasgow, then in South Australia. In his late teens, he joined a band called Cold Chisel and became a huge star. But on and off stage Jimmy was battling the demons of his troubled childhood (R)

Museum curator Imelda Miller on the history and vibrancy of Australian South Sea Islanders

Physicist Paul Davies on the mysteries of our universe, including the puzzle of the 'super-void' inside the constellation of Eridanus

Journalist Gary Nunn on what he learned about grief, comfort, and the influence of clairvoyants during his two year investigation of the supernatural industry

Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days (R)

Tobacco giant Philip Morris was financing what looked like anti-smoking initiatives around the world, but what they were advertising wasn't safe

She didn't know it at the time, but religiously eavesdropping on her mother's phone conversations and counselling her grandmother through a breakup made her the psychologist she is today

Treetop scientist Meg Lowman on her working life among the leaves, birds and insects in the world's forest canopies, which she calls the '8th continent'

Mandy's life changed completely in 2013 when she fell terribly ill with sepsis. Since then, with prosthetic replacements for all four limbs, she has learned to walk and drive again, and she doesn't want applause for living her life like everyone else (CW: mention of suicide)

Claire Nelson was in the Joshua Tree National Park hiking alone when she strayed from the trail and slipped, shattering her pelvis. Her phone was out of range, and she knew she had to stay alive long enough for someone to realise she was missing (R)

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on witnessing the events of September 11th, 2001 from the window of a Washington hotel room (R)

Debra Gavranich with the story of her mother Marija, who left her tiny Croatian island to make a life with a man she’d never met, in Far North Queensland's Cassowary Valley