Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Our regular Canberra correspondent dissects the careful language being used by the Australian Government, in the wake of the US and Israel's surprise attack on Iran. Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent with SBS

Former NSW Premier and former Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Bob Carr and his wife Helena were almost inseparable. When she suddenly died, while they were in Vienna on an opera and galleries tour of Europe, Bob was bereft. Back in Sydney, he took to walking the streets late at night.His memoir 'Bring back yesterday' pays tribute to Helena, born to Chinese and Tamil parents in Taiping. Bob Carr reflects on their life together, and on the work and politics that they both, and separately, have been involved in.Guest: Bob CarrProducers: David Marr/Ann Arnold

A NSW man who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest in the late 1960’s when he was 13, has won his High Court battle over liability, but had his compensation nearly halved. His lawyers argued the church had a responsibility for the actions of the priest and the High Court agreed. So what could this mean for other compensation cases? Guest: Judy Courtin, Principal and Advocate, Judy Courtin LegalWarning: This story contains details that may be distressing

US President Donald Trump has just given his State of the Union address, saying America is winning so much they don't know what do. But who believes him? Bruce Shapiro dissects the claims, and the realities of Trump's America so far.Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with the Nation, Executive Director at the Global Centre for Journalism and TraumaProducer: Catherine Zengerer

Australia's last big drought was from 2017 to 2019; a relatively short drought, but a vicious one. Water storage levels in Sydney dropped by 50% in just two-and-a-half years. In the aftermath of a drought there's always a focus on water policy and preparedness, but it's a focus which tends to evaporate over time. Here on Late Night Live we don't like nasty surprises, so we're checking in on Australian cities' water supplies. Are we ready for the next big drought?Guest: Stuart Khan, Professor and Head of School of Civil Engineering at the University of SydneyProducer: Alex Tighe

As well as his Antarctic work, the explorer Sir Douglas Mawson had a deep interest in the Flinders Ranges. A team has been working for years to decipher his poorly written diaries, to understand more about the other aspects of Mawson's work and life.Guest: Mark Pharaoh, Manager of the South Australian Museum’s Australian Polar CollectionProducer: Ann Arnold

Ocean advocates call it 'the most exciting thing that's happened this century'. The lawless High Seas have a new international Treaty - the UN's High Seas Biodiversity Treaty. It came into force in January, and is the first international agreement to protect the marine environment. Guest: Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, an international not-for-profit organisation which provides governments with expert advice on the treaty. Producer: Ann Arnold

As the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion gets underway, legal writer Richard Ackland discusses what the Commission can and can't cover, and the challenges of making determinations around social cohesion. Guest: Richard Ackland, publisher of Justinian and Spilled Ink

A new report from the group GWL voices (Global.Women.Leaders) has highlighted the scarcity of women at the top of international organisations, across the world. Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark says it's about time the UN had a female Secretary General.

As the debate continues over what to do about the Australian ISIS women and children in Syria, Anna Henderson discusses the current political obsession with 'Australian values'.Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS

The LGBTQI rights movement in the West has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams, but gay author Ronan McRea argues this success seems suddenly fragile. He says forces favourable to gay rights, such as the wider cultural shift towards greater sexual freedom, are weakening while political developments, cultural changes, and migration patterns mean that sources of opposition are gaining strength. Guest: Ronan McCrea, professor of Constitutional and European law at University College London and author of “The end of the gay rights revolution: how hubris and overreach threaten gay freedom,” published by PolityProducer: Catherine Zengerer

With political rhetoric around immigration firing up again, we look at the great potential, but very real problems, of a temporary migration policy, PALM - The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme. Guest: Peter Mares, author of a report on PALM for the not-for-profit Scanlon Foundation Research Institute Adjunct senior research fellow, Monash University. Author of several books on immigration Producer: Ann Arnold

The best political communicators don’t just speak, they position. They don’t just answer, they frame. They don’t just promise, they hedge. A look at the daily battle between politicians and journalists in the twenty four hour news cycle. Guest: Toby Ralph, marketer, strategist and Liberal Party campaign veteranProducer: Ali Benton

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a Zeitenwende, a “watershed moment”, in the words of Germany’s chancellor at the time. Germany shook itself out of its long, post-World War Two pacifism and began to rearm. Now, stuck between an expansionist Russia and an economically aggressive China, what does a militarised Germany look like?Guest: Michaela Kuefner, Chief Political Editor of Deutsche Welle and co-host of the Berlin Briefing podcastProducers: Alex Tighe and Catherine Zengerer

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's has spruiked Britain's necessity to be closer to Europe, both in defence and economic terms, at the Munich Security Conference, telling the audience "we are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore." But at home his own security as leader is still under a cloud, with calls for him to resign over the Jeffrey Epstein/Peter Mandelson scandal. GUEST: Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcastPRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer

Knowing that your body is contributing to the growth of a tree or the richness of soil is increasingly attractive. But the healthier climate claims made by some companies offering new technologies, or green alternatives, are largely unverified. Guest: Hannah Gould, Senior lecturer in Buddhist Studies at the the University of Melbourne, where she also works with the Death Tech Research Team and author of an article in the online magazine AEON, about greenwashing burial, titled ‘How to become a tree’. Producer: Ann Arnold

Whether former President Donald Trump will strike a deal with Cuba remains an open question, as pressure on Havana intensifies. Trump has signalled that worsening fuel shortages and economic strain could create leverage for negotiations, but Cuban officials will reject any arrangement they view as compromising sovereignty.Guest: Dr. Luis Martínez-Fernández, Pegasus Professor at the University of Central Florida and expert in Latino/Hispanic politicsProducer: Ali Benton

While Australians lose over $31 billion to gambling each year, industry donations to major political parties continue. Over the past decade, millions have flowed legally to both sides. While the federal government has committed to new rules for faster disclosure of political donations, a new report form the Australian Democracy Network says the federal lobbying framework is amongst the weakest in the country, leading to a lack of transparency over who gets access to our political leaders. They says it's not just donations laws that need an overhaul, lobbying rules need to tightened too. Guest: Christian Slattery, Senior Campaigner at the Australian Democracy NetworkProducers: Ali Benton, Catherine Zengerer

Conny Aerts had a hunch, that stars had internal rotation and measuring those rotations could give us rich information about the universe. She was right, and became the "founding mother" of the new field of asteroseismology. And because the vibrations of the stars are waves, they can be rendered as music: what does a red giant star sound like, anyway?Guest: Professor Conny Aerts, Institute of Astronomy at the University of LeuvenProducer: Alex Tighe

The Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai will die in prison, after being sentenced to 20 years. Lai is one of the island's most prominent pro-democracy advocates, and his newspaper Apple Daily was founded to be a voice for press freedom on the island that is increasingly under China's thumb.Guest: Antony Dapiran, a writer, lawyer, and photographer who was based in Hong Kong from 1999 to 2025. His latest book is City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong.Producer: Alex Tighe

The new Opposition leader Angus Taylor and deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume are flagging their crisis plan will involve lowering taxes and immigration, changing our immigration policy, and focusing on home ownership and the cost of living. Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent with SBS Producers: David Marr, Catherine Zengerer

In his new book, Steven Pinker asks us to look at how group knowledge works. Pinker argues that what drives society is knowing that what we know is widely know — in his term, "common knowledge". But what if our beliefs about everyone else's inner thoughts turn out to be wrong?Guest: Steven Pinker, experimental psychologist and the author of many popular books on the human mind. His latest is When Everyone Knows that Everyone Knows...: Common Knowledge and the Science of Harmony, Hypocrisy and OutrageProducer: Catherine Zengerer and Alex Tighe

The White House is publishing AI slop images; ICE conducts raids and turns the video into film-style trailers; right-wing influencers are sitting in the White House press briefings, in chairs that used to hold journalists. Social media has become the new location of politics in the US, which substantive policy changes beginning as memes. Where does it end?Guest: Charlie Warzel is a technology and culture writer for The Atlantic and the host of the new podcast, Galaxy BrainProducer: Alex Tighe

Gaza is today in ruins, with over seventy thousand dead and buildings everywhere rendered rubble by the onslaught from Israel since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. Many argue the war on Gaza began at this point, but historian Julie Norman has traced the history of both the land, its people and the terrible wars that have plagued what was once a beautiful and prosperous place for a century and destroyed the dreams of the Palestinian people. Guest: Julie M. Norman, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at University College London, and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. Author of Gaza: The Dream and the Nightmare, co-authored with Maia Carter Hallward, Director of the PhD Program in International Conflict Management and Professor of Middle East Politics at Kennesaw State UniversityProducer: Catherine Zengerer

When librarians from the University of Sydney found a sketch and an inscription in the back of a 1497 copy of Dante's Divine Comedy, they called in Renaissance expert Professor Jaynie Anderson. Soon the discovery was confirmed: the sketch was by the hand of master painter Giorgione, and the inscription solved the mystery of Giorgione's life and death. A book of scholarship on that remarkable discovery has just been published by Melbourne University Press.Guest: Jaynie Anderson, Emeritus Professor and Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Stella d'ItaliaProducer: Alex Tighe

The Epstein files are so immense that if printed out they would equal two Eiffel towers of paper. So how, exactly, are journalists making sense of the 3 million Epstein documents that were recently published by the US Department of Justice? And what are they really telling us about the scale of abuse of power by those in Epstein's orbit? Guest: Stephen Fowler, data journalist and political reporter with NPR’s Washington DeskProducer: Catherine Zengerer and Alex Tighe

The actions of NSW police are being questioned after videos emerge showing violent scenes at the Sydney protest against Israel's President, Isaac Herzog. Video footage depicts police beating protesters and forcibly removing Muslims praying at the event. Crikey's reporter Daanyal Saeed was there, and describes being hemmed in by police at both ends of the protest. He tells David Marr, "It feels like Muslims are fair game. There are no other religious groups who would be treated like this." Guest: Daanyal Saeed, Crikey’s media reporterProducers: Catherine Zengerer and David Marr

Cane toads (Rhinella marina) are an invasive species introduced to Australia in 1935 to control agricultural pests. The species spread rapidly and now poses a significant ecological threat due to its toxic defences, which harm native predators. Their presence has led to widespread disruption of ecosystems across northern Australia.Guest: Professor Rick Shine, School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University and author of Cane Toad Wars, published by University of California Press.Producer: Ali Benton

We're now even closer with Indonesia. On 6 February Anthony Albanese signed a security pact with Indonesia's president, Prabowo Subianto, agreeing to consider joint responses to any threats. Albanese called the agreement a "watershed moment" that created a "new era" with Indonesia. The new pact is Albanese's latest move to build friends in the Indo-Pacific... is the strategy working?Guest: Susannah Patton, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia ProgramProducer: Catherine Zengerer

Parliament returns for the second half of the sitting fortnight, with the Liberal Party and The Nationals reunited, again. But all is not calm. Liberal senator Jane Hume warned that her party risked "non-existence" if it doesn't adjust. And: what exactly is social cohesion?Guest: Bernard Keane, politics editor of Crikey

Winnie-the-Pooh, the Bear of Very Little Brain, has been entertaining children for a century this year, but for Pooh's creator, A. A. Milne, the character brought a complicated joy. Milne's real-life son, Christopher Robin, became estranged from his father partly because of the burden of Pooh's fame, and Milne also came to resent how his children's literature obscured the rest of his professional writing. Guest: Gyles Brandreth, broadcaster, former politician, and author of Somewhere, A Boy And A Bear: A Biography of A. A. Milne and Winnie-The-PoohProducer: Alex Tighe

The US commentator Tucker Carlson began his working life as a respected and brilliant writer on a small conservative magazine. He moved to television commentary, then cable television, and now spreads his controversial views far and wide on streaming services. Biographer Jason Zengerle says one of Carlson's great skills is taking the messaging of far right extremists and making it seem more palatable to a wider audience.Guest: Jason Zengerle, writer with the New Yorker. Author of 'Hated by all the right people: Tucker Carlson and the unravelling of the conservative mind' (Scribe) Producer: Ann Arnold

Australian filmmaker Abraham Joffe pulls back the curtain on a reality most people don’t realise: Polar Bears are still legally hunted and sold around the world. The documentary "Trade Secret" goes undercover to show chilling scenes of warehouses and showrooms filled to the brim with polar bear skins.Guest: Abraham Joffe, Director, Producer, Trade Secret at the Antenna Documentary Film FestivalProducer: Ali Benton

After twenty years of negotiations, the European Union has suddenly managed to cut a trade deal with India. Not to be out-done, US President Donald Trump quickly followed suit, with he and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi having seemingly patched up their differences and declared their deeply held friendship for each other. “Prime Minister Modi and I are two people that GET THINGS DONE, something that cannot be said for most,” declared Trump on Truth Social. So what’s the rush to get India across the line? And is a new deal with Australia on the cards?Guest: Ravinder Kaur, Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen.Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Former UK Labour powerbroker Peter Mandelson is retiring from the House of Lords amid intense scrutiny over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move follows the release of documents suggesting Mandelson exchanged emails with Epstein and, at times, shared sensitive political information with him. British police have launched a criminal investigation into whether Mandelson may have committed misconduct in public office connected to those communications. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Mandelson’s actions as “disgraceful” and pushed for political reforms to allow peers to be removed more easily. And the by-election that's going to squeeze UK Labour from the left and the right.Guest: Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcast Producer: Ali Benton

Peter Drew's 'Aussie' posters, seen around our cities, have now been copied in Melbourne by someone using a picture of the younger of the two Bondi shooters. Meanwhile Peter has issued a social media callout for young right wingers, and those who fear immigration, to engage with him.Guest: Peter Drew, Adelaide-based artist.Producer: Ann Arnold

Iran’s president has signalled a potential diplomatic shift, saying he has directed diplomats to seek negotiations with the United States as fears of a military confrontation appear to subside. President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media on Tuesday that he had instructed the foreign minister to pursue “fair and equitable negotiations” with Washington. What does this mean for the future of the Islamic Republic?Guest Ali Ansari, Professor of Iranian History, and director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews, UKProducer Ali Benton

The US Dept. of Justice published over three million additional pages from the Epstein files containing over a thousand references to Donald Trump, as well as photos and references to other high profile people such as Elon Musk and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, but Bruce Shapiro thinks the Trump information is a distraction from the backlash against ICE's killing of nurse Alex Pretti. Meanwhile journalism is under attack in the States, with the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, using a law designed to protect people from anti-abortion protesters, and a Democrat has had a surprise win in Texas.Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine and Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma. Producer: Catherine Zengerer

When the Colleano circus family came to town, it was a big deal. Their acrobatic skills took them from Lightning Ridge, to New York and London in the 1920s and 30s. Circus life, kept the Colleano’s relatively safe. The family outmanoeuvred punitive and racist Australian laws to travel the world, concealing their Indigenous heritage. Part creativity, part survival. Pauline Clague calls herself the " Black Nancy Drew". She's made a documentary about the family, called The Colleano Heart.Guest: Director and filmmaker, Pauline ClagueProducer: Ali Benton Check out SBS on Demand or the Antenna Documentary Film Festival to watch The Colleano Heart

Israel reopens the Gaza-Egypt crossing at Rafah, under strict conditions. Plus: on February 8 the Israeli president Isaac Herzog will be arriving in Australia, beginning a five-day trip to honour the victims of the Bondi terror attack. But Herzog's visit has become a focal point for those protesting Israel's war in Gaza.Guest: Irris Makler, veteran Jerusalem correspondent for ABC, SBSProducer: Catherine Zengerer

What is going on with the conservative side of politics? A motion to spill the leadership of the Nationals failed on Monday afternoon, and by the end of the day David Littleproud had met with Sussan Ley to discuss a possible reunification of the Coalition. The infighting comes as a Redbridge poll puts One Nation's primary vote at a whopping 26 per cent.

"Our politics is dumb and completely short-sighted and personally obsessed." At 93 Barry Jones, former ALP National President, writer and public intellectual, has a thing or two to say about politics and society. He sits down with David Marr for a long discussion on the nature of parliament, his frustrations about climate inaction, his relationship with Bob Hawke, his view on AUKUS and the numinous experience of hearing the music you love, performed exquisitely. Guest: Barry Jones, former ALP politician, writer and social activist.Producers: David Marr and Catherine Zengerer Barry's music list: Maria João Pires playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 4 with Herbert Blomstedt conducting the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Barry says: “It's like one of the great experiences. Your heart beat changes, your breathing changes, everything changes. It's such a wonderful work.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_juGZePAxpQPires playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 with Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Barry says: “A stunning recording.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR95EK9fEKo&list=RDhR95EK9fEKo&start_radio=1Alfred Della singing Esurientes implevit bonis from Bach’s Magnificat in D major with the Kalmar Orchestra conducted by Pierre Colombo. Barry says: “Esurientes is just extraordinary.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Amko575QCEBach’s Fuge à la Gigue BWV 577. Tom Koopman on the organ of the Walloon Church of AmsterdamBarry says: “A sort of hustling thing. Get out, get out, get out, get out and do things.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHb4d8TwIE

Thomas Willing was a merchant trader, America’s first bank president, and its first central banker. Willing bankrolled – and in the process helped save – the American Revolution and then fundamentally shaped the financial architecture of the young Republic. Yet at a decisive moment in Willing's life he voted against independence, as a clash between Pennsylvania's moneyed elite and the emergent lower and middle classes embroiled the politics of 1776 in bitter class conflict. Guest: Richard Vague, author of “The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy, 1731-1821”, published by PolityProducer: Catherine Zengerer

With the National Party leaving the Coalition, and a Nats leadership spill pending, we look at the disproportionate power the Nats have wielded in the Coalition.

Springtails are pretty much everywhere, and all over the world. They are important nutrient recyclers, but not many people know about them.Guest: Mark Stevens, Senior research scientist at the South Australian Museum. Affiliate associate professor at Adelaide University’s School of Biological Sciences. Co-author, with Cyrille D’Haese of Sorbonne University, of an article on springtails for The Conversation Producer: Ann Arnold

When Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney stepped onto the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos , no-one expected him to set the world on fire. His speech went viral, as he talked of the rupture to the rules-based order and called on middle powers to step up. “If we’re not at the table, we're on the menu,” he said. He never mentioned Donald Trump’s name, but his message was clear. He was there to garner support from countries equally alarmed by a United States gone rogue. His speech came fresh off the back of a visit to Xi Jinping in China and he was keen to sell Canada’s virtues to the Davos crowd as well. So what is he up to? Guest: Ian Austen, The New York Times Canada CorrespondentProducer: Catherine Zengerer

On January 24, nurse Alex Pretti was protesting the presence of immigration officers in Minnesota when he was detained and surrounded by Border Patrol guards. Two guards shot Pretti in the back, killing him on the street. Pretti was 37, and Trump officials initially blamed him for his own death. Bystander video contradicted the official accounts, and now Trump has begun to distance himself from the killing. Will Pretti's killing force Trump to alter his aggressive tactics? Will there be more violence?Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine and Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma

If you looked at Australian history through the lens of a single day — January 26 — what kind of nation would you be looking at? In his new book Matt Murphy has collected an event from each of the 237 Straya Days we've had since 1788. Some days shaped the nation, some days were terrible, and some were plain weird.Guest: Matt Murphy, part-time historian and author of Straya Day: The unofficial history of Australia's national dayProducer: Alex Tighe

Last year saw the biggest expansion yet of Indigenous Protected Areas. Advocates say IPAs are the ideal approach for managing ecologically important land, while reconnecting First Nations people with their country, and providing employment. Guest: Associate Professor BHIAMIE WILLIAMSON, from Monash University. Chair of Country Needs People, a not for profit organisation that supports indigenous land and sea management. A Euahlayi man from north-west New South Wales. Producer: Ann Arnold

On this Australia Day, we look at the political weaponising of multicultural Australia, and immigration, and we ask how this is playing out in voters' minds.Guest: Kos Samaras, pollster, and director of strategy and campaigns with the Redbridge Group, which analyses community perceptions. Former Labor Party strategist. Producer: Ann Arnold