Conversations

Pixar was $50M in the red when Lawrence was hired (R)

David's is the first mind in the world to be tested on an MRI machine while solving cryptic clues

Melissa Fagan reveals the scandals entwined in the McWhirters department store story

Maggie Dent’s ideas on growing up good men stem from her professional work, and having brought up four sons

Robyn Mundy has adventured in some of the world's wildest places (R)

While reflecting on his life's work, Mike uncovered his parents' controversial love affair

Matt Norman's late uncle Peter won a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics, but he was notoriously cast out of Australian sport

Saving the orphaned kangaroo joeys of Central Australia

Cecilia Alfonso learned how to sell art when she was a child, and now brings millions of dollars a year to the Central Australian town of Yuendumu

Sarah Brown always wanted to be a remote area nurse. Then she began a medical revolution

Tony works with couples in which one partner has Asperger's, helping them navigate relationships and parenting (R)

In 2014, Leigh went through an event which changed her profoundly. She was left questioning how we cope when the unimaginable happens

Noeline Brown went from librarian to household name during the 60s, and here remembers some of the era's most distinct pop culture and political moments (R)

Palm Island, Mer Island, and Australia are the cornerstones of this hard-working actor and director's story

Rick Shine used one toad to defeat another, by a process of evolutionary conditioning, to save the snakes he was studying in Northern Australia

Rosie Jones and Chris Johnston have unearthed the origins of the bizarre Australian cult known as The Family (R)

Journalist Laura Tingle asks if it's time to update our idea of what makes a great leader

Kristina Olsson's brother Peter was stolen from their mother's arms as a baby (R)

Tim Minchin's bruising Hollywood experiences have helped bring him a new perspective on comedy

Military historian Gwynne Dyer is surprisingly upbeat about the future of humanity

Leah Purcell was working in a small-town meatworks during her school holidays, when she discovered she had a rare talent

Simon McCartney was a young mountaineer when he met a fellow climber who altered his life

Political commentator Bea Campbell grew up communist in northern England

Wil Patterson was a suburban dad who wanted all the good things in life for his family. Then he made a decision which upended everything

Growing up, Louisa Deasey knew very little about her late father's life. Then she found a bundle of his lost love letters

Dr Wendell Rosevear's upbringing gave him an unexpected sense of mission

Stephen Dando Collins with the story of Robert Stigwood, the boy from Port Pirie who went on to become the entertainment industry's most powerful tycoon

How an ex-butcher in the midst of a career crisis began a social movement

When the Pakistani Secret Service denied Benjamin Gilmour permission to make a feature film he crossed the border to Afghanistan

When Helen Jukes was given a colony of bees it helped release her from the numbing grind of her working life

Patrick Nunn on the real life stories of volcanic eruptions, meteor crashes and encounters with megafauna, recorded long before written language

Greg de Moore tells the forgotten story of psychiatrist Dr John Cade

The 'dog whisperer' Guy Hull on the dogs that made Australia, from life-saving Kangaroo dogs to plane flying Alsatians

John Bevins helped change Australians' minds about smoking and drink driving

Fiona Katauskas wrote a funny, charming book for children about the facts of life. Then she discovered the book had a life of its own

Anne Poelina, the daughter of a Timorese pearl diver and an Indigenous mother, has always been drawn back to her home town of Broome

Pat Lowe was working as a prison psychologist in Broome when she met the artist Jimmy Pike, who was serving a life sentence

Artist Davida Allen's true feelings about some of the trials of parenthood, bushwalking, and a raging attraction to actor Sam Neill have poured out through her paintbrushWhen Davida Allen was in her 30s and stuck at home looking after her four young children, she'd reward herself on a Sunday night by watching the TV series Reilly, Ace of Spies, starring Sam Neill.Davida is a painter, and around this time she made a series of works featuring Sam Neill as the object of her erotic fantasies, which culminated in the short film Feeling Sexy.The Australian press went into a frenzy, calling Davida a 'Sex Mad Housewife'.The reality is that she has rarely behaved the way that the world expected her to, in her art or in her life.Davida won the Archibald Prize in 1986.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.

Now a wildly popular author, for many years Marian doubted her ability to write (R)

Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of the Sydney Opera House nearly didn't get off the drawing board

Jaroslav Kovaricek was there for the violent crushing of the Prague Spring

David Coles is known as the 'pigment-whisperer'

The award-winning novelist lived many lives before her career as an author took off

Matt Haig's candour about his depression and anxiety has resonated around the world

Jimmy Shu's childhood in Sri Lanka planted the seeds for his later life as a legendary restaurateur

At 19, Colleen Gwynne rescued her mum from a violent marriage. Then she joined the police and solved one of Australia's most complicated murder cases

Michael Veitch's great-grandfather arrived in Australia on a ship dubbed 'the floating charnel house'

From painkiller addiction to parliament, Jacqui's life has been a rollercoaster

In 2017 Rupert Guinness, a veteran cycling journalist, embarked on a 5000 km endurance ride that would permanently change his outlook on a sport he loved

Lemn Sissay grew up in the UK as a child of the state. At 18 he was given a letter written in 1968 from his Ethiopian mother pleading for his return