Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

It’s 125 years since the death of Oscar Wilde. The famous playwright and author died alone in a French hotel in 1900. Since that time, so much has been written about his wit, prose and character. Some of it fact, some of it rumour, much of it, speculation. In his new book called After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal, Oscar Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland, sets the record straight. The book is thirty years in the making and is an exploration of Wilde’s posthumous reputation and how his imprisonment for homosexuality affected Wilde's family, friends and literary legacy.Guest: Merlin Holland, Oscar Wilde's grandson and author, Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal,Producer: Ali Benton

Stephen Miller, often described as the architect of Donald Trump’s immigration policy, has been a defining force behind some of the administration’s most hardline measures. Known for his uncompromising stance on border security and deportations, Miller has shaped policy from the inside, translating Trump’s instincts into concrete executive actions. At just 40, he wields disproportionate influence in the White House, crafting rules that have reshaped asylum procedures, tightened visa restrictions, and fueled the administration’s “zero tolerance” approachGuest: Ashley Parker, staff writer for The AtlanticProducer: Ali Benton

Ian Dunt talks about his decision to withdraw from Adelaide Writer's Week and examines the fraying trans-Atlantic relationship between the US and UK, as US President Donald Trump attacks the Chagos Islands deal. Plus why more Tory MPs are defecting to join Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform party. Guest: Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcast Producer: Ali Benton

King Charles is worth more than $3 billion — although it's hard to put an exact figure on his fortune, because royal records aren't published and paying tax is optional. Gifts to the royal family are flexible, too: does that £300,000 Bentley from the King of Bahrian belong to the state, or to Charles personally? Before he gets locked in the Tower, our guest blows the whistle on the palatial wealth of the Windsor family.Guest: Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat who served as a member of the UK parliament from 1997 to 2015, and the author of Royal Mint, National Debt: The Shocking Truth About The Royals’ FinancesProducer: Alex Tighe

One year since US President Donald Trump's inauguration and the global order has been completely shifted, while the United States is now a country where people live in constant fear of ICE raids and deportation. Bruce Shapiro looks back at Trump's achievements in year one and how the world is responding to his plans for a "Board of Peace" - with a membership cost of $US 1 billion. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine and Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma. Producer: Catherine Zengerer

As the Albanese government drops key provisions from its hate speech legislation, Late Night Live takes a deep dive into what's left of the laws, and why even those who support tighter regulation think there are major problems with how to define hate, the level of Ministerial powers and the rushed attempt to get the laws through. Guests:Greg Barns SC, barrister at Higgins Chambers, human rights law specialist, director of the Information Rights ProjectProfessor Katharine Gelber, Professor of Politics and Public Policy and leading hate speech expert at the University of QueenslandProducers: Catherine Zengerer, David Marr

Crikey's political editor traces the path to the hate speech legislation being debated in Parliament this week, and looks at why One Nation is outpolling the Coalition for the first time. Guest: Bernard Keane, political editor, CrikeyProducers: Catherine Zengerer, David Marr

Tim Minchin turned fifty this year and just ran a marathon for the first time. He's returned home to Australia, with his new album Time Machine, and his tour 'Songs the World Will Never Hear'. In this special one-hour conversation, David speaks to Tim about the joys of running, quitting social media and worrying less.GUEST: Tim MinchinPRODUCER: Ali BentonOriginally broadcast October 16, 2025

In the winter of 1900, Wiradjuri man Jimmy Governor and his brother Joe murdered nine people across New South Wales, in a rampage that caused panic in the colony on the cusp of nationhood. Apparently triggered by a racist incident, they killed men, women and children, evading a vast manhunt for months until they were finally captured. The story of the Governor brothers later inspired the popular book and later film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Professor Katherine Biber re-animates this true crime story, using extensive archival research as well as conversations with Governor descendants. Guest: Professor Katherine Biber, author of The Last Outlaws: The Crimes of Jimmy & Joe Governor and the Birth of Modern Australia, Simon & SchusterOriginally broadcast on 26 June, 2025

Some of the same countries that are in conflict right now are sitting in United Nations meetings together to discuss the future of outer space. Steven Freeland is charged with helping these nations find a common sense of purpose.Guest: Steven Freeland, Australian international lawyer, Emeritus Professor, Western Sydney University, and Professorial Fellow, Bond UniversityProducer: Ann ArnoldOriginally broadcast on 26 June, 2025

Zane Grey was an American western writer, celebrity and big game-fisherman. In so many ways, his life was larger than most. But it was in Australia, in the 1930s, that he sought to make his life even larger — pursuing big game fishing, a secret love affair, and what he hoped would be a movie that would rescue his precarious financial situation. Guest: Vicki Hastrich, author of The last days of Zane Grey: the untold story of a Hollywood legend in Australia and his hunt for the great white shark (Allen & Unwin)Producer: Ann ArnoldOriginally broadcast on 30 July, 2025

The largest excavation in a lifetime is underway at the famous archaeological site of Pompeii — the Roman city buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Remarkable new discoveries continue to be unearthed. Guest: Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of Pompeii Archaeological Park, author of The Buried City: Unearthing the Real PompeiiProducer: Jack SchmidtOriginally broadcast on 30 July, 2025

John Menadue has been at the heart of Australian public life for over fifty years, working for the Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke governments. He oversaw the effective end to Australia's White Australia Policy, was CEO of Qantas and set up the Centre for Policy Development. In the media he ran The Australian for Rupert Murdoch, launched the online weekly New Matilda and founded the influential public policy platform, Pearls and Irritations. Now aged ninety, John reflects on Australia's media, in particular its coverage of the war in Gaza, our attitudes to race relations, AUKUS, our relationship with the United States and how Australia is navigating its place in the world during a global power shift. Guest: John Menadue, Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations Producer: Catherine Zengerer*This show originally aired on 20 August 2025

In 1998, the former Chilean head of state Augusto Pinochet was arrested on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. Philippe Sands was called to advise Pinochet on his claim to immunity, but would instead represent a human rights organisation against him.Guest: Philippe Sands, author of 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in PatagoniaOriginally broadcast on 17 April, 2025

At the turn of the 20th century, one American became obsessed with the idea of life on Mars. He carried his obsessions into a public movement that may have sparked actual space exploration and scientific advancement.Guest: David Baron, author, journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who writes about astronomy and other sciences. His latest book is 'The Martians: A True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America'Producer: Alex TigheOriginally broadcast on 1 October, 2025

In the last decade, courts around the globe have granted legal personhood or explicit rights to rivers, largely driven by environmental activism. In his new book, 'Is a River Alive?', renowned nature writer Dr. Robert Macfarlane tracks the progress of that movement, in addition to visiting some of the world’s most pristine (and not so pristine) environments.Guest: Dr Robert Macfarlane, Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities at Cambridge UniversityProducer: Ali BentonOriginally broadcast on 14 May, 2025

For millennia, wool has been more than just a textile fibre for cold climates—it has played a strategic role in warfare, both supporting armies with essential clothing and fuelling conflicts through control and manipulation of its supply.GUEST: Trish Fitzsimmons, co-author of Fleeced, Unravelling the History of Wool and War published by BloomsburyPRODUCER: Ali Benton *This story originally aired on 21 August 2025

Dr Samah Jabr is a world-renowned psychiatrist who has spent over twenty years practising in the West Bank and Gaza. In a powerful interview, she describes the psychological impact the war in Gaza is having on Palestinian children and their families. Dr Jabr says in a place where there are few resources and constant bombardment, collective approaches grounded in the community are the most useful ways to help a traumatised people. She also says maintaining a belief in the fundamental goodness of people is what gives Palestinians a sense of hope and resilience. Guest: Dr Samah Jabr, psychiatrist, former Director of Mental Health Services at the Palestinian Ministry of Health and author of Radiance in Pain and Resilience - The global reverberation of Palestinian historical trauma, published by Wakefield PressProducer: Catherine Zengerer*This story originally aired on 21 August 2025

On a warming planet, heatwaves are proving increasingly deadly. But in the cities where most of us live shade can be hard to come by. In ancient times, shade was prioritised for urban comfort, but in the age of the air-conditioner its value is often overlooked. Guest: Sam Bloch, journalist and author of Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural ResourceProducer: Jack SchmidtOriginally broadcast on 9 October, 2025

This nation’s past can be understood a whole lot better if Indigenous perspectives on history are listened to. It means considering rock art and other forms of storytelling, and the experiences that First Nations people have when they walk on country. Guests: Jackie Huggins, historian, author, Bidjara Elder of the Carnarvon Gorge area of Central QLD, and director of Indigenous Research at the University of QLD; and Ann McGrath, WK Hancock Chair of History at the ANU, where she also leads the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Program on Deep History. Ann and Jackie are the co-editors of ‘Deep history: country and sovereignty’ (UNSW Press)Producer: Ann ArnoldOriginally broadcast on 10 July, 2025

Emily Kam Kngwarray, from the Utopia community in the Northern Territory, picked up a paintbrush in her 70s for the first time, and now her work will be exhibited at the Tate in London. A new film has been made about Emily, and will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival – called Emily: I Am Kam.Guests: Screenwriter and Producer Danielle Maclean, and Producer Anna GrieveProducer: Ali BentonOriginally broadcast on 12 June, 2025

Author Chris Sweeney tells the remarkable story of Roxie Laybourne, the Smithsonian ornithologist who became the nation's leading expert in feather forensics. Laybourne investigated thousands of aeroplane bird-strikes, but was also called as an expert witness at trials for murder, poaching and even a Ku Klux Klan hate crime. Guest: Chris Sweeney, author of The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem and the Magnificent Life of Roxie LaybourneProducer: Jack SchmidtOriginally broadcast on 11 September, 2025

The QWERTY keyboard wasn't designed to be fast or logical. It was created in the 1870s to stop typewriter keys from jamming - and to suit telegraph operators working in morse code. Since then, more efficient layouts like Dvorak have been invented, but none have stuck. So how did QWERTY become "locked in" to our machines, our workplaces, and even our muscle memory?Guest: Gianfranco Di Giovanni, Content Director for ABC Radio Perth and consumer technology journalistProducer: Rebecca Metcalf*This show originally aired on 15 September 2025

In recent years, a number of states and cities in the US have decriminalised 'jaywalking', relaxing laws that campaigners argue have been disproportionately enforced on black and Latino residents. Jaywalking first emerged as a traffic offence in the US a century ago, when radical new ordinances gave priority to high-speed vehicles on the roads. Australia followed suit. A campaign of public ridicule shamed pedestrians into following the rules, but are (jay)walkers now reclaiming the streets? Guest: Peter Norton, Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia, author of Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street*This show originally aired on 10 February 2025

Should prison architecture be used for punishment, or could it be used to create hope, instead. Criminologist Yvonne Jewkes has helped design prisons in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. And visited others in Norway, Spain and Japan.Guest: Professor Yvonne Jewkes, Bath University. Author of ‘An architecture of hope: reimagining the prison, restoring a house, rebuilding myself’ (Scribe) *This show originally aired on 11 March 2025

Sir Gerard Brennan served as the 10th Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest judicial position in the country. He was involved in several landmark cases, including the famous Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) decision. This case overturned the concept of "terra nullius" (land belonging to no one) and recognised the native title rights of Indigenous Australians for the first time under Australian law. His son Frank Brennan has collected his father's speeches in Gerard Brennan’s Articles and Speeches, Vol 2: Law in Accord with Justice Guest: Father Frank Brennan, SJ

Australia has a surprisingly long history of cinema enjoyment. It takes many forms, and pops up in a wide range of settings. Guest: Ruari Elkington, Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries, QUT*This show originally aired on 03 February 2025

After 30 years of appearances on Late Night Live - spanning nine Australian Prime Ministers - Laura Tingle bade farewell to LNL as its political correspondent in Canberra, before commencing her ABC Global Affairs role. In a sprawling conversation, Laura recounts her early beginnings in journalism, the ebbs and flows of Canberra politics through the decades, and what she's come to admire in our representatives.Guest: Laura Tingle, ABC Global Affairs Editor *This show originally aired on 26 May 2025

Actor Dame Harriet Walter — known for her recent roles in TV hits like Succession and Killing Eve — has been performing Shakespeare on-stage for half a century. Her latest book She Speaks! imagines what thirty of Shakespeare's female characters might have said if they'd been given more voice in the Bard's beloved plays. Guest: Dame Harriet Walter, actor and author of She Speaks!: What Shakespeare's Women Might Have Said, HachetteOriginally broadcast on 19 May, 2025

One hundred and twenty five thousand people visited Antarctica last year. Can the region cope with an ever growing tourism industry?Guest: Anne Hardy, Professor of Tourism & Society at the University of TasmaniaOriginally broadcast on 5 February, 2025

AI, we’re told, has the potential to free us from mundane tasks, revolutionise industries, and solve global problems. Linguistics Professor Emily Bender, warns that the big tech companies who promote AI, with an almost spiritual zeal, may be off the mark. The warning? Don’t believe the hype.GUEST: Dr Emily M. Bender, Professor of Linguistics, University of Washington and co-author of “The AI Con. How To Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We WantPRODUCER: Ali BentonOriginally broadcast July 2025

During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. But they ultimately introduced the panda to the West. Guest: Nathalia Holt, author of ‘The beast in the clouds: the Roosevelt brothers’ deadly quest to find the mythical giant panda’ (Simon & Schuster) Producer: Ann ArnoldOriginally broadcast July 24, 2025

20 years on from her famous novel The Secret River, writer Kate Grenville retraces the footsteps of her settler ancestors, and asks what it means to be on land taken from other people.Guest: Kate Grenville, author of Unsettled, published by Black Inc

Leni Riefenstahl has been hailed as one of the greatest directors of all time, even though her most famous films were works of propaganda for Hitler's Reich. Her film about the 1934 Nuremberg rallies broke new ground in cinematic techniques and had a huge influence on filmmakers for years to come. Riefenstahl always claimed she was just an artist, unaware of Nazi atrocities, but a new documentary reveals secrets from her extensive archives.GUEST: Andres Veiel, Director, 'Riefenstahl', showing at the German Film Festival PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer*This show originally aired on 01 May 2025

Along the coast of Australia are hundreds of humble shacks, often with interesting stories to tell. Basic shelters for no-frills fishing, or homes for people who were forced to the margins. The stigma attached to coastal shacks has been replaced by nostalgia and a passion for these once-derided items of coastal real estate.Guest: Anna Clark, Professor at the Australian Centre for Public History, University of Technology Sydney. Anna wrote an article about beach shacks for The Conversation website. She is researching the history of the beach in Australia for a forthcoming book. Originally broadcast on 27 January, 2025

In the early seventies two Melbourne feminists hatched an idea to set up their own publishing house. Diana Gribble was a socialite working in advertising and Hilary McPhee a novice editor. McPhee Gribble Publishing was born. Soon authors like Tim Winton, Dorothy Hewett and Helen Garner were knocking at their door. But in 1989 it all came to an end when they were swallowed up by Penguin.Guest: Hilary McPhee, founder and former Publisher at McPhee Gribble and Chair of the Australia Council from 1993–96.Producer: Catherine ZengererOriginally broadcast on 19 February, 2005

Despite the promise that we were “all in it together”, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a flight from sociability. While that escape may have been a relief for some, has it intensified a culture of excessive individualism, narcissism, and disconnection from one another? Julia Baird, Geraldine Brooks and Rachel Kushner join David Marr in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers' Week.

Writer Robert Dessaix, now based in Hobart, was named Thomas Robert Jones by his adoptive parents. His name change to Dessaix, to reflect his French family heritage, is just one of many shifts Robert has made through his long life, around sexuality, friendships, appreciating art and travel, and facing the end of life. Guest: Robert Dessaix, author of 'Chameleon' (Text)Previous books include: 'A mother's disgrace', 'Corfu' and 'Arabesques'Producers: Ann Arnold/David MarrOriginally broadcast March 6, 2025

Veteran British journalist and editor Alan Rusbridger discusses Donald Trump’s attacks on the US press, Jeff Bezos’s editorial about-face at the Washington Post, the threats to the media in the West and how the industry should respond. GUEST: Alan Rusbridger, Editor, Prospect MagazinePRODUCER: Catherine ZengererOriginally broadcast March 6, 2025. Editor's note: The barring of Associate Press from the White House Press Room in March was subsequently overturned.

We're living in unusual times, with political history being made every week and the seemingly imminent collapse of a certain global super power on the horizon. "Once you pull on the thread of collapse, the entire tapestry of history begins to unravel," writes Luke Kemp. What can we learn from looking at the collapse of past societies?Guest: Luke Kemp, research affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge. His first book is 'Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse'.Originally broadcast on 21 May, 2025

A new history of the union movement in Australia says marginalised groups like migrants, women, Indigenous Australians and LGBTQIA+ people were often left to run their own grassroots campaigns, and were only embraced by the broader union movement once their campaigns had gained momentum. But the approach of unions reflected the broader attitudes of the Australia of the day. GUEST: Dr Liam Byrne, author of ‘No Power Greater - A History of Union Action in Australia’ published by Melbourne University Press. Originally broadcast on 21 May, 2025

Before the 1967 war, radio ruled the Middle East—TV was a rare luxury. For the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Israel, the airwaves buzzed with news, and more often than not, propaganda. Alongside the giants like the BBC, hundreds of smaller stations across the region churned out their own political messages.GUEST: Margaret Peacock, Professor of History, University of Alabama and author of Frequencies of Deceit: How Global Propaganda Wars Shaped the Middle EastPRODUCER: Ali BentonOriginally broadcast on March 19, 2025

'One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.' That tweet, by Omar El Akkad, in October 2023, three weeks after Israel invaded Gaza, has been viewed over ten million times. Its author, Omar El Akkad, has now written a book of searing essays, asking, among other things, what it is that 'polite liberal progressives' actually stand for.Guest: Omar El Akkad, US-based journalist, novelist, author of ‘One day, everyone will have always been against this’ (Text) Producer: Ann ArnoldOriginally broadcast March 27, 2025

The thickness, colour and texture of facial and head hair showed character traits about men and women, it was believed in 19th century America. The assessments were imbued with judgements about race and gender. Guest: Sarah Gold McBride, author of 'Whiskerology: the culture of hair in 19th century America’ (Harvard University Press, due out in June 2025). Sarah is an historian, and lecturer in the Program in American Studies, University of California, Berkely Producer: Ann ArnoldOriginally broadcast April 24, 2025

In 1973, the Australian government acquired the painting Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock for $1.3 million AUD. It created huge division in Australia, and arguably contributed to the downfall of the Whitlam Government. A new book revisits this important intersection of art and politics. Guest: Tom McIlroy, political editor at Guardian Australia, Author of 'Blue Poles: Jackson Pollock, Gough Whitlam and the Painting that Changed a Nation’ (Hachette)Producer: Ann ArnoldOriginally broadcast February 26, 2025

David Marr is joined by Laura Tingle, Hannah Ferguson and Craig Reucassel to review the monumental year of 2025 - including its weirdest moments - and ask where Australia finds itself as another year looms. Guests:Laura Tingle, Global Affairs Editor, ABC (formerly Political Editor, 7.30)Hannah Ferguson, founder of Cheek Media, co host of Big Small TalkCraig Reucassel, presenter of ABC Radio Sydney 702 BreakfastProducer: Catherine Zengerer

A new exhibition at the University of Melbourne's Medical History Museum, Cultural Medicine: The Art of Indigenous Healing celebrates 65,000 years of First Nations medical knowledge and practice from across the continent. It reveals fascinating stories of medical practice, including when Indigenous knowledge of the corkwood plant was used to develop a seasickness pill for the Allied D-Day invasion. Guest: Jacqueline Healy, Curator and Director of Museums, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health SciencesProducer: Jack Schmidt

Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson KC says the killing of two people who survived a US strike on a speed boat off the coast of Venezuela on 2nd September 2025, constitutes a war crime, as does the initial strike on the boat. In his new book, Robertson says we need a clearer definition of war crimes and genocide to inform military rules of engagement and to give journalists and diplomats the confidence to describe crimes. He also argues the UN Security Council is ineffective and we need a new global method to effectively prevent and prosecute perpetrators. Guest: Geoffrey Robertson KC, Founder of Doughty St Chambers and author of World of War Crimes, published by Penguin.Producer: Catherine Zengerer

This year in British politics was defined by constant upheaval: leaders under pressure, parties fractured over strategy, major policies overturned or delayed, and a public increasingly frustrated by the gap between promises and delivery. Every month brought a new confrontation, a new resignation threat, or a new crisis to manage—leaving the political system looking exposed, tired, and in urgent need of clarity. Ian Dunt examines the political landscape of 2025, and sets out what next year looks like in UK politics.Guest: Ian Dunt: iNews columnist and regular LNL commentatorProducer: Ali Benton

Late Night Live regular Bruce Shapiro looks back at a remarkable, often febrile year in US politics, under President Donald Trump's second administration. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor at The Nation and Executive Director of the Global Centre for Journalism and TraumaProducer: Jack Schmidt