Earshot

In the early noughties the Australian band Rocket Science was being touted as the ‘next big thing’. But that all changed when the band's lead singer Roman Tucker had a serious accident, and lost his memory. This is Roman's music-fuelled journey to try and remember himself.

Memory can be a trickster, a balm, or sharp claws scratching at your heart. In this next season of Earshot we're telling tales of remembering and forgetting.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban Samira and Fahim were in grave danger, they went into hiding and could see no way out of Afghanistan. Then a text from a stranger in Australia asking for their help changed everything. Vanessa sent them on a dangerous mission and in exchange she guided them across a perilous border to safety.

When Claire Ashman followed her husband into a gated community on the NSW South Coast, she never imagined she would spend the next decade hoarding food and covering her windows to prepare for the apocalypse.

Erin follows her partner and Deathmatch wrestler Callen Butcher to ringside. While he battles his opponents in choreographed displays of gory competition, she is fighting to feel alive, as a disabled person living with chronic illness. Can they find harmony in their minds and bodies, together?

The only thing that would quell Clare’s anxiety about her disintegrating marriage was a drink. It started with just one or two a night, it took the edge off. And so she kept following that feeling, the numbness, until she was drinking herself into oblivion.

Sarah and Miles took a strict approach to internet use with their 13 year old daughter Ruby. And when Miles suspected she was being groomed on Pinterest, they cracked down harder. But Ruby pushed back – she hacked the controls, secretly spent nights and class time on socials. Their relationship with Ruby took a hit and she shut down.When Sarah realised she was losing her daughter she decided to find a new way to keep Ruby safe, sane and connected.

It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever. When he was sitting around a campfire on a remote island in Far North Queensland, Warren Macdonald made a life-changing decision.He’d sparked up a conversation with a Dutch hiker named Geert van Keulen, and he decided to follow Geert up a mountain the following morning.It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change both their futures forever.

Introducing our next season, Follow Me. Seven confessional stories of following.

An exploration into language, accents, love and life, featuring the Eurythmics.

William Cuffay, transported from London in 1848 for allegedly planning an uprising, became the unlikely face of Australia's trade unionists.

Eight years ago, residents of the Sydney beach-side suburb of Coogee were spellbound by a vision of the Virgin Mary that appeared in a shadow cast by the sun upon a fence post. But what was it really?

Meet the Greenocks. They fostered their first child seven years ago oblivious to the joy, the grief, the chaos, the worry and the love it would bring to their home.

Margaret Clement was a wealthy Victorian heiress whose life fell into ruin. She finished her days living alone in a swamp in Gippsland in her decaying mansion Tullaree surrounded by waist-deep water. Margaret Clement became known to locals as "the lady of the swamp", then in 1952 she disappeared without trace

A young man is trapped in a dead end job in a meat factory and the monotony of process line slaughter is unbearable. Music keeps him going, specifically those songs that get stuck in your head, which he calls ear worms. This program was originally broadcast on RTE in Ireland.

If a friend sent you a farewell text, saying she was planning to end her life, what would you do? Jennie’s response was to go and sing with Nia and promise to tell her story.Nia has scleroderma, her skin and lungs have hardened over the last 20 years, the pain and discomfort has now become unbearable. But thanks to the Voluntary Assisted Dying laws that Nia helped establish she will have the death she hopes for.

Charlotte was a deeply religious teenager - she prayed, served, and saved herself for marriage. Marriage, she was promised, would bring fireworks, fulfilment. After 5 years of dating, Charlotte married Casey. But as she got older, Charlotte began to question those promises made to her about marriage and happy-ever-after.

Full of hope, botox and impossible dreams, beauty queens are judged on their beauty, sincerity and smarts. They promise world peace in exchange for fame, fortune and adoration. That’s the pact contestants make with the faceless owners of glittering pageants.

Oscar Berry is 24 and has a rare genetic disorder, speech disability, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. He might have a “dodgy chromosome” as his mum Kim says, but he’s gregarious, lives for the gym and his weekend activities, and is dying to move in with his mates. But when Oscar got his new NDIS plan in April, those dreams blew apart.

Imagine facing death with no next of kin and no funds to pay for your funeral. In Victoria you’ll end up in the care of Alan Barr at the Old Ballan Cemetery. He’s made a promise to people like this, who often become State Trustees, to provide a dignified end to their lives.When Miyuki Jokiranta finally finds her friend, Monika, a State Trustee who died during the pandemic, she meets Alan, the keeper of the forgotten souls

Promise me you won’t walk out of our restaurant, quit on our kids, run from our poverty, ignore our autism, ADHD or alopecia, or be defeated by our pandemic-induced loss of home and income.If author Naomi Hart had known the marriage vows that had tripped off her tongue so easily 14 years ago would come to mean all this, would she ever have said them in the first place?You will laugh, cringe and cry as Naomi and her husband Gregory share the story of their marriage.

Susan Lester inadvertently entered a world of political and corporate corruption when she was made the promise of a lifetime by one of Tasmania’s most powerful businessmen. When she signed a contract with Edmund Rouse to paint 200 watercolours of birds she had no idea it would be a decision that would overwhelm her and her artistic career.

Jess made a promise to a woman she would never meet, the mother of her daughter Noelle.Baby Noelle was found in the arms of her dead birth mother on the streets of Kinshasa in The Congo, she lived in an orphanage until she was four. Now, she’s 16 and living in Melbourne with Jess and her sisters, but she’s never known another Congolese person.Will a trip to Shepparton to meet the Congolese community take away that emptiness that she feels inside? Will it fulfil the promise that Jess made all those years ago?

Earshot is back doing what we do best – telling intimate, personal stories…and we're going seasonal. Our first season is called Promise Me.How easy is it to make a promise? What happens when you don't deliver?In Earshot's new eight-part series, promises are made, broken, kept and stretched. From a vow to love, honour and obey to a pledge to save the world, from the intimate to the highly public, from funny to devastating.Join us for a rollercoaster of trust, hope, betrayal, love and loss. Promise me?Podcast drop: Wednesday 5 October 2022

Take a stroll up Elizabeth Street from the colonial era docks, past the Empire Hotel with its notorious bullet holes to beyond “the flannelette curtain”. Local artist Kate Kelly is our guide to the hidden histories of Hobart and tales of the original Palawa custodians, gentrification and the art that ate Hobart.

Our guide to Yirrkala is Siena Stubbs who grew up between the two worlds of her mother’s Yolngu culture and her father’s Balander or white world. Siena explains how every person, creature or place belongs to one of two balancing moieties - Yirritja or Dhuwa. She also explores the town’s history of missionaries and Yolngu resistance, along with her own connection to family and country.

Aunty Doreen has a soft satirical spot for her home town of Nambour. Join her on a tour back in time when sugar cane ash used to rain down on the town, Miss Sugartown reigned supreme and Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan were in short pants at Nambour High, dreaming of going to Canberra.

Out on the arid edge of Adelaide, ghosts of Holden cars and electric guitars haunt streets with names like Bogan Road. Join Glenn Shorrock and other locals as they tell a tale of migrants who powered Australian manufacturing success and our music industry.

Earshot is working on something new! We're busy putting together a special season of shows: see you in your podcast feed again soon.

Ahmed spent six years in immigration detention before winning a landmark legal case, he was finally free. But when the government appealed that decision in the High Court Ahmed and his partner Danice faced a difficult choice.

Danice and Ahmed fell hard for each other, even though he was behind bars and she had four children. When he was released they started building a life together until Ahmed's visa was cancelled, he was thrown into immigration detention and Danice was left fighting for his release.

When the daughter of a trailblazing feminist moves to small town NSW, the only women’s organisation she can join is the Country Women’s Association. How will she fit in?

Stand up comedian David Rose is deaf in one ear. His own experience of living with hearing loss gets him curious about the rise and rise of headphone wearing, and what this may be doing to one of our key senses: hearing.

Listless in the Melbourne lockdowns two through six, Lisa Divissi became obsessed with the mystery of her adopted cat’s past life - and what it means to live with the unknown

We follow two people in Afghanistan whose lives have been transformed since the Taliban takeover. Surveillance and poverty have become part of everyday life for Ahmad, whose home has been searched by The Taliban. When Bayan lost her job as a manager in the media simply because she was a woman she had no reason to stay.

Two stories from the beating heart of small town country Australia: how a fence is helping to hold one community together and the tale of local legend Charlie Woollett

As he helped his mother Sushila pack up her home to move into residential aged care, writer Sunil Badami uncovered something even more valuable than his grandmother’s century-old wedding sari: the stories of some of the most important saris — and moments — in Sushila’s long and trailblazing life. And in sorting out what to hold onto and what to let go of, Sunil discovered what might have always been the most precious thing of all.And another portrait of a special family member, producer Catherine Merchant's Uncle, Bruce. He loves music, fairs, and keeping things tidy. His generosity and zest for life made him the best babysitter and friend a child could possibly have.

Four sisters plan to take on their family’s huge beef cattle property in southwest Queensland. Despite the spectre of drought, the Penfold daughters are determined to keep feeding Australia well into the 21st century.

Australia is famous for its unique wildlife and landscapes but we also have the highest mammal extinction rate in the world, and there are big declines in frogs, reptiles, and birds caused by introduced predators and land clearing. Could paying farmers and indigenous landowners to return parts of their properties to nature help solve our biodiversity crisis?

In regions worst-hit by Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, a rebirth is happening. Not just the green shoots bursting from the blackened trees, but the reawakening of ancient knowledge. On sacred land of the Yuin people, cultural fire is being reintroduced to protect endangered koalas, and bring the land back to life.

The ocean is central to the Esperance community’s lifestyle and identity. But three fatal shark attacks in three years have had a profound impact on this remote Western Australian coastal town. As this community grieves the loss of life, they are also navigating their relationship to the ocean and the apex predator that swims within it.

As more people use anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers to alter their appearance, the way we see ourselves and what we think we should look like is changing. What does that mean for the future of our faces?

Welcome to Werribee South. A wedge of verdant farming land 30km south-west of Melbourne that's under threat from the ever-growing city.

For most of us the experience of deportation is unimaginable. In this story we meet 3 people who've been deported under Australia's controversial 501 clause in the Migration Act, who've failed the character test or are considered to pose a threat to safety

Between 2015 and 2019, Michael* was a leader in the Australian alt-right movement. He was instrumental in building the presence of extreme rightwing groups, online and in the real world, before a series of shattering events forced him to pull away. For the first time, he tells his story in full.In part 2 of 2, Michael travels the country helping to steer warring facist groups towards a united project, before an unexpected visit, and a traumatic family event, forces a personal reckoning.*Name changed to protect his identity

Between 2015 and 2019, Michael* was a leader in the Australian alt-right movement. He was instrumental in building the presence of extreme rightwing groups, online and in the real world, before a series of shattering events forced him to pull away. For the first time, he tells his story in full.In part 1 of 2, islamophobia in politics and the media inspires Michael to look for answers online. In his late teens, he is groomed into a fast-growing fascist movement, with tentacles reaching right into the heart of Australian politics.*Name changed to protect his identity

How important is diversity in seeds and what kinds of diversity will we eat in the future?

What’s it like to live under a military coup? Across the past year, after the military seized power in Myanmar on February 1st, 2021, young Burmese journalist, Mi Zar has been keeping a diary of daily life in her country under the junta.

Danny Stuart was a teenager when he witnessed what he says was a stitch-up by corrupt Queensland Police of his Uncle John Stuart for the firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub. Veteran journalist Frank Robson tells the tale of Danny’s obsession with clearing his Uncle’s name, an obsession that took him to the brink of madness. But it’s also a story of a brother and sister whose love and support for each other helped them survive an unspeakable childhood.

Behind the tragic firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Brisbane 1973, where 15 people lost their lives, lies another tale of two young children surviving the violence of their abusive father. Queensland journalist Frank Robson tells the story of Danny and Maggie Stuart and their Uncle John Stuart, one of the few people ever to show them respect and kindness, before he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the firebombing. A crime he said he never committed and a conviction aided and abetted by the false testimony of his own brother – Danny’s father.