Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Conversations

RAF pilot Frank Dell parachuted into Nazi occupied Holland after his plane was hit by cannon fire and with the aid of courageous Dutch families and resistance fighters he got out alive.As a teenager, Frank saw the Battle of Britain played out in the skies above his village in the south of England.

He joined the RAF and piloted a De Havilland Mosquito on bombing raids into Germany.

In October 1944 Frank's plane was shot out of the sky and he parachuted into Nazi territory.

Frank witnessed extraordinary scenes as he walked his way through the countryside into occupied Holland.

It was there he joined the Dutch Resistance, and his war shifted to the fields, hay sheds and village lanes of the Netherlands.

This episode was first broadcast in 2014.

Further information

Frank Dell passed away peacefully in 2022 at the age of 98.

His family say that Frank had fond memories of meeting Richard and the chance to tell his story on Conversations.  A photo of Richard and Frank was included in a memorial sideshow at his funeral.

Mosquito Down (by Frank Dell with Brett Piper) is published by Fighting High

This episode of Conversations was produced By Michelle Ransom-Hughes and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

It explores WWII, RAF, Nazi occupied Holland, Dutch resistance, the Battle of Britain, cannon fire, parachute emergency, support, survival, undercover, Nazi Germany, rescue, history, memoir, bombing raids, De Havilland Mosquito, 1944

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

When Magda Szubanski discovered what had happened to her mum two years after she died, it helped her see her in an entirely new light (CW: discussion of sexual abuse, please take care when listening)

Magda released her first memoir a few years ago, to widespread acclaim.

It was the story of how Magda unearthed the life story of her Polish-born father and his role as an assassin during WWII.

Magda's now written her second memoir which hinges on the life story of her charming and funny Scottish-born mother, Margaret.

Magda had a complicated and deeply loving relationship with her mum, who sometimes lashed out at her daughter in devastating ways.

Two years after Margaret died, Magda found out a tragic secret about her life.

The revelation explained so much, and Magda later realised she had also suffered a similar trauma in her own childhood.

Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse.

I Can't Tell You But I Will is published by Text Publishing.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Elizabeth Kulas. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores Australian actors, Australian comedians, Australian television, Australian cinema, Kath and Kim, mothers and daughters, childhood abuse, child on child abuse, sexuality, queerness, queer actors, gay marriage referendum, intergenerational trauma, coming out, famous lesbians, Sharon Strzelecki, Gina Riley, Jane Turner, Babe, Babe: Pig in the City, Happy Feet, Heath Ledger, youngest children, cancer diagnosis, Mantle Cell Lymphoma, Maggie Smith, memoir, writing, books, Australian literature, family origin stories, nervous system, fight, flight, freeze, fawn, Catholic school, George Orwell, mental health, university, shame, pray the gay away, suicidal thoughts, LGBT rights, same-sex marriage, George Miller, domestic violence, violence against women, group think, free bleeding, activism, Madrid, Spain, grief, Catholicism.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Laurie Lawrence's obsession with winning Gold started when he was a small boy growing up above the Tobruk Pool in Townsville. When he became a coach, he had an epiphany about the nature of victory.

When Laurie was a child, he had a chronic lung condition that meant he had to sleep sitting in a chair.

Doctors advised his parents that an operation was necessary, and part of one of his lungs was removed.

After the operation, Laurie's father took over the management of Townsville's Tobruk Pool, and the family lived in an apartment overlooking the lanes. 

In 1956 the Australian Olympic team came to the pool to train there.

A short time later, Laurie's mother fled the marriage and took her children to live in Brisbane where she ran a boarding house 'full of inebriates'.

Laurie grew up to become a teacher, and won a place on the Australian Rugby Team. 

Then he moved back to Townsville to start a new career as a swimming coach.

In 1970, a 13-year-old girl Laurie was coaching named Helen Gray won a silver medal at the Queensland Championships.

When she presented him with it, Laurie spat on the medal and threw it over the pool fence. 

What he did that day eventually saw him ask himself big questions about the meaning of victory in the pool.

Learn more about Laurie Lawrence at his website.

Read about Laurie resources and programs to keep kids safe in the water: Kids Alive is supported by the Federal Government; World Wide Swim School is for teachers, parents, coaches and swim schools.

Laurie has also released a new online interactive baby swimming resource.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison. Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores sports, sporting life of Australia, being competitive, Australian Olympic team, drownings in Australia, why everyone learns to swim in Australia, equitable access to water, winning at all costs, learning to swim, when should my child learn to swim, Australian icons. Rugby Union, Wallabies, Australian sporting icons, water safety, water education, pool gates.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Kim Huynh on his family's remarkable journey from Vietnam to Australia. And taking on the role of carer for his fiercely strong-willed father, Thiet.

Kim grew up in Canberra, arriving in Australia with his family as refugees from Vietnam.

Like many migrant children, Kim is a very driven person and has taken on a lot of responsibilities in life.

He is an academic, an ABC broadcaster, an author and a father.

And when his 80-year-old father had a serious stroke, Kim also took on the role of carer.

He had to find a way to help look after his dad, with whom he was living, continue working, bringing in an income, and help raise his own son.

As he continued to care for his father, Kim had to come to terms with the conflict between his dad's increasingly frail body and his still-fierce willpower; the same willpower that got his family to safety some 45 years earlier.

As a carer and a father, Kim has also had to navigate the complexities of giving his whole self to the people he loves, while still feeling like he wasn't doing enough for anyone.

My Old Man and Me is published by HarperCollins.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores family history, family origin stories, carers, stroke, Vietnamese refugees, Vietnamese in Australia, Vietnamese boat people, refugee crisis, migration, political asylum, fall of Saigon, Vietnam War, re-education camps, Indochina refugee crisis, Hoa people, fatherhood, intergenerational trauma, the body keeps the score, epigenetics, books, writing, memoir, taking care of your parents, fathers and sons.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

The legendary actress Jane Fonda on her activism, her hair epiphanies and why older women are often fearless.

Jane has lived her entire life in the public eye, as the daughter of acting aristocracy.

Her father Henry Fonda was a Hollywood legend by the time she was born.

Jane grew up to study acting with Lee Strasberg, and Marilyn Monroe was a classmate.

But behind the public adoration, Jane was battling some big personal demons, including bulimia and the legacy of a shocking family tragedy.

In her 30s she began re-assessing her life and work, and became a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement, earning her the nickname of Hanoi Jane from the American Press.

After the Vietnam War ended, she remained committed to political activism, so she released a series of work-out videos to help fund change in America.

After two more marriages, Jane had an epiphany about her 'third act' of life.

She decided to devote it to helping change the world, and now at 88 years old, she is still spending much of her time raising awareness about climate change and other social issues.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison. Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores Hollywood, Hollyweird, celebrity culture, activism, climate change, the climate crisis, women's rights, women's empowerment, second wave feminism, intersectional feminism, Dolly Parton, 9 to 5, Gracie and Frankie, tech bros, oligarchs and billionaires, life lessons, old school Hollywood, Hollywood royalty, motherhood, parenting, Donald Trump, blacklist.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Iconic Australian musician, actor, youth advocate and charity ambassador Angry Anderson has died at the age of 79.

Angry spent 50 years in the music industry with his legendary rock band, Rose Tattoo, and the band was due to return to the stage this month for another Australian tour.

But Angry was much more than a raging rock n' roll animal.

He was an incurable romantic, despite his violent childhood in Melbourne. 

He was a loyal, devoted father of four, and Angry was always a friend to the little guy.

You can read more about Angry Anderson's remarkable life at the ABC News website.

Originally broadcast in January 2007.

Angry's youngest son, Liam Anderson, died in 2018.

This episode of Conversations explores Australian music, celebrity deaths, cardiac arrest, Obituaries, fatherhood, childhood abuse, pub rock, Countdown, musical controversies, Sharpies, modern fatherhood, substance abuse, television, Australian television, Kylie Minogue, Neighbours, Ray Martin, politics, Australian icons, Australian legends, Australian kitsch, RIP Angry Anderson.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Alison Hoddinot was one of the first Australian women to study at Oxford University, but one of her lecturers, J.R.R Tolkein, refused to take on a woman PhD student. 

Alison was born in Tasmania in 1931.

As a young woman she won a scholarship to study at Oxford University.

But when she arrived, none of the male professors including J.R.R Tolkien, would take on a woman PhD student.

Back in Tasmania Alison became great friends with the poet Gwen Harwood.

The two shared recipes, letters, and the challenges of combining work and motherhood.

During their friendship Gwen shocked the nation when she used acrostic sonnets to pull a wild hoax on The Bulletin magazine in 1961.

First broadcast in 2018

Further information

In 2022 Alison Hoddinot passed away after a short illness

Women, Oxford and Novels of Crime and Gwen Harwood: Idle Talk - Letters 1960-1964 are published by Brandl and Schlesinger

Read more about Gwen and Alison's friendship and their letters

Elizabeth Chong didn't cook her first meal until she was a newlywed. Six decades later, the owner of a cooking school specialising in Chinese cuisine, she had taught more than 37,000 people how to cook.

Chef, author and teacher Elizabeth Chong was born in China's Guangdong Province in 1931.

When her heavily pregnant mother was expelled from Victoria under the White Australia Policy in the 1920s, the whole family returned to China.

Years later her family returned and a young Elizabeth was free to roam the closed Queen Victoria Market on Sundays with her siblings.

With fresh, fragrant and plentiful Chinese food at home, Elizabeth didn’t cook her first meal until she was married.

Since then, she's made it her mission to raise the profile of Chinese cuisine, something she's done by teaching more than 37,000 people how to cook.

In 2024, Elizabeth retired from teaching people how to cook, in her early 90s.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan. Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores refugees, refugee Australians, multiculturalism, monoculture, migration, immigration, Chinese history in Australia, Chinese cooking, Chinese food, families, dim sim, recipes, family recipes, Australian Chinese food, life advice, life advice from our elders, family dynamics, family separation, marriage, divorce, Masterchef, Australian cooks, famous Australian chefs, Australian cuisine.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Bryan Brown has played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have been his ticket to the world.

In our week of stories from our elders, we begin with the life of Bryan Brown.

Now aged 79, Bryan has had more film and television acting roles than he’s had birthdays, and is an instantly recognisable figure on screens around the world.

From Breaker Morant and Newsfront to Two Hands and Sweet Country, a huge number of classic Australian films feature Bryan, a testament to his talent, popularity and work ethic. 

Bryan also spent years in Hollywood, starring most notably in Cocktail and Gorillas In The Mist, before ultimately choosing Sydney over a life in America.

In the 1980s, working on the American-made series The Thorn Birds utterly changed Bryan’s life. He and British co-star Rachel Ward fell in love and married soon after, forming a romantic and creative partnership that has endured ever since.

More recently, Brian has found a new career writing crime novels, including The Drowning and The Hidden.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Michelle Ransom-Hughes. Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores acting, Australian cinema, classic movies, Australiana, Australian kitsch, film history, fatherhood, love, rags to riches, Hollywood, anxiety, mental health, amateur theatre, theatre, Red Dog, men's mental health, love, farming.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Mel Huang Buntine on how computers started entering our homes, and the beige box of a machine that changed her own life.

Personal computers are so ubiquitous now, it's hard to imagine a time when computers were inaccessible to everyday people.

For decades, computers were the size of rooms, and they were used for specialist tasks like processing large data sets for researchers, or sending men to the moon.

But by the 1980s computers had become smaller and more affordable, and people started bringing them into their homes.

From this point on, how everyday people interacted with technology changed forever.

Mel Huang Buntine is a designer and technologist who was gifted her first computer as a tween in 1990s Melbourne.

Mel lived in a multigenerational home with her mother, her grandparents and her great-grandmother, all of whom had escaped the Cambodian genocide as refugees.

They couldn't understand why Mel was obsessed with this machine, but it completely opened up Mel's world and changed her life.

Now with anxiety growing around AI, surveillance and mega tech companies, Mel is trying to get people to understand the history of computers and how they work.

She hopes this will give back to people a sense of agency over machines, rather than feeling powerless to the opacity of algorithms and large language models.

Radical Computing is exhibiting at the National Communication Museum in Melbourne from 19 September 2026, until 21February 2027.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores technology, artificial intelligence, Facebook, Instagram, social media, coding, making a website, HTML, CSS, PS5, playstation, games console, computer games, desktop games, Apple iOs 27, Mac, Macbook, Mac versus PC, IBM, Commodore 64, Steam Frame, iPhone, smartphone, dumb phone, Steve Jobs, Jack Tramiel, computer race, home appliances, toy market, super computers, science and technology, future of computers, techno optimist, tech subculture, Demoscene, hackers, jailbreak phone, crack software, pirated software, Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, ChatGPT, Claude, Anthropic, Zuckerberg.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Prisoner advocate Vickie Roach spent decades in and out of jail but after studying for her masters degree, she helped change the story for thousands of other prisoners.

When Vicki was just two years old, she was given a police record, which enabled authorities to place her into the custody of a family she didn't know.

She grew up under the strict religious rule of her adoptive mother, whom she clashed with frequently.

Vickie left school at thirteen. It was that year she met her birth mother for the first time, and discovered she was Aboriginal.

Decades of trouble followed, including numerous prison terms.

Vickie's also known periods of stability, such as after winning back her son after a long-running custody dispute.

In 2007, Vickie was awarded her Master's degree while serving her final prison sentence at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Victoria.

She was also the sole plaintiff in a ground-breaking legal challenge to the High Court, which returned some prisoners the right to vote.

Today, Vickie continues her work as an advocate for the rights of women in prison. 

Content warning: episode contains mentions of violence, suicide and drug use

Further information

Vickie was joint winner of the 2017 Tim McCoy Human Rights Award

Adoption resources and support

Jigsaw Australia - search and contact

Find and Connect - support for former residents of children's homes, orphanages and institutions

Post-Adoption Support Benevolent Society AustraliaForced Adoption services Government support services website or, contact the Forced Adoption Support Service in your state or territory, call 1800 21 03 13

For immediate support, you can call Lifeline 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 46 36

Growing up Lisa Henson and her siblings spent a lot of time in their father's workshop and studio, watching puppets get drawn, sculpted and brought to life.

Jim Henson first started messing around with puppets as a teenager, and not long afterwards he began collaborating with his wife Jane. 

Together they founded Muppets Incorporated.

Puppets became a way for Jim to share his extraordinary imagination with the world, and he went on to become one of the most influential creative minds of the 20th century. 

His legacy includes Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and the movies The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth.

Jim’s creations, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, and the Cookie Monster remain recognisable and beloved around the world.

Jim Henson died in 1990, but the Jim Henson company is still owned by the family, and his eldest child Lisa is now the CEO.

Further Information 

The Jim Henson exhibition at QAGOMA in Brisbane is on until April 2027

Make, Believe, Magic, The worlds of the of the Jim Henson companyThis episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake and the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores Jim Henson, Lisa Henson, puppets, The Muppets, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, creativity, puppetry, The Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, television, animatronics. Frank Oz, Sesame Street, children's television,  Sam and Friends, creativity, technology, Jane Henson, Harvard University, England, The Creature Shop

Author Rebecca Huntley used supervised MDMA therapy to help her with complex PTSD and the legacy of childhood trauma.

Rebecca's public life as a broadcaster, an author and a social researcher made her well-known to many Australians.

But in private, Rebecca spent years grappling with complex PTSD and childhood trauma.

At 50, while walking the Camino, she realised that despite decades of therapy, she was still living with a roiling anger about what had happened to her as a child.

She decided to undergo MDMA therapy delivered by an underground healer. 

Further Information

Rebecca Huntley's book Sassafras is published by Hachette.

Since 2023, psychiatrist in Australia have been authorised to prescribe MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

You can read about some of the complications of how MDMA is prescribed here.

Catrine Clay with the story of the children of Nazi perpetrators and Holocaust survivors came together under extraordinary circumstances to come to terms with their dark past.

In the early 1990s, historian and author Catrine Clay was working at the BBC, making a documentary about a woman named Renate.

Renate had been born in Germany in 1941, and grew up in the postwar years as the sole child of a single mother.

When Renate asked her mother about her missing father, she was told he had been an important general in the German forces, who had been imprisoned by the Russians.

But that wasn't the truth.

Renate's father was actually a Nazi war criminal of the highest rank, and she had been conceived as part of an experiment to produce Aryan children for the German fatherland.

Catrine and Renate travelled through Germany and Eastern Europe to find the truth about her father and the home she'd been born into.

Eventually, they go to Israel, where Renate comes face to face with the children of Holocaust survivors. 

There, they bond over their shared attempts to find a way forward, out of the silences and hidden fears of their parents' dark pasts.

Children of the Third Reich: Three pasts three futures is published by Hachette.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison

It explores World War II, history, family trauma, intergenerational trauma, holocaust survivors, Aryan super-race, experiments on humans, genetic experiments, SS soldiers, the body keeps the score, Epigenetics, psychology, suicide, mental health, mental illness, healing, Jewish history, reconciliation, German history, Nazis, reckoning with the past, family secrets, absent fathers, Israel, Palestine, forgiveness, humanity, Hitler, war criminal, war crimes.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Urzila Carlson grew up in South Africa. Her father threatened the family with a gun when she was 6, and he walked out on the family soon afterwards.

Urzila's mum, who she describes as a 'warrior woman', raised Urzila and her sister.

When she was in primary school, one of Urzila's teachers taught her a big lesson about regret, which has stayed with her for life.

Urzila moved to New Zealand in 2006 to begin working in advertising.

One day a group of her co-workers persuaded her to perform at a local open mic night.

Within a year she had become a professional comedian in Australia and New Zealand.

Further information

Watch Urzila's latest comedy special 

Watch Urzila's TV sketch show on ABC TV

This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

It explores South Africa, comedy, family, domestic violence, alcoholism, Afrikaans, racism, violence, home invasion, stand up comedy, confidence, body image, migration, New Zealand, Australia, memoir, siblings.

The singer-songwriter on her early introduction to musicals in Port Moresby, how singing became a form of speech therapy for her stutter and also a path into her life’s work.

Meg Washington was born in a musical home in Port Moresby, where her parents had met as Australian expats.

Meg and her sister spent a lot of their time watching classic Hollywood musicals and also down at the local yacht club where their dad DJ'd every Saturday night.

Singing became something Meg was encouraged to do herself after she developed a stutter as a little girl.

And eventually it grew from a therapy into a thrill.

Meg's stutter was something she did her best to disguise while building her career as a singer and songwriter in Australia.

But after going public about her speech impediment in a TedX Talk, Meg realised she no longer cared about hiding who she was.

This honesty led to a whole host of exciting new opportunities – including becoming the voice of Calypso in Bluey, and making a film with her husband based on the iconic Paul Kelly song, “How To Make Gravy”.

More information

This episode was produced by Meggie Morris. The Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores Papua New Guinea, DJ, filmmaker, being expelled from high school, creative arts, performance camps, eisteddfods, Rodgers and Hammerstein, love at first sight, quick wedding, spirituality, Christianity, Brisbane.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Louise Adler has been one of the biggest and most controversial names in Australian publishing for decades. This is the story of how she fell in love with the world of books.⁠An asthmatic child, she spent most of Melbourne’s winters in bed with nothing else to do but read novels.

But it wasn't until her parents intervened in Louise's obsession with Enid Blyton’s boarding school series that her deep pleasure in the world of books began in earnest.⁠Shaped by her family's story of surviving World War Two, Louise grew up in questioning everything.

She was 15 years old when she went to her first Vietnam moratorium and was locked up for her role in the protests.⁠

She travelled to Israel at the age of 17, which was a transformative experience for her.⁠⁠Back in Australia, Louise began her career in publishing, backing some unconventional and headline-grabbing authors from Tony Abbott and Mark Latham to Louise Milligan and Mick Gatto.⁠Louise was Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week from 2023, until the dramatic collapse of the 2026 festival.⁠

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. It was recorded live at the Byron Writers Festival.

It explores writing, writers, books, Australian literature, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Israel, Palestine, Anti-Semitism commission, Judaism, WWII, Holocaust survivors, Adelaide Writers Festival, Byron Writers Festival, freedom of speech, Australian literary scene, origin story, Auspol, politics, big ideas, memoir, love, marriage, safe spaces, Grace Tame.

Acclaimed poet and philosopher David Whyte has come to believe a single line of poetry is enough to change your life. 

David grew up amongst the moors and fields of West Yorkshire, with an English father and an Irish mother who had a gift for lyricism and language.

He started writing poems at just seven years old, but it wasn't until he was working as a guide in the Galapagos Islands that David truly understood what poetry was and what it could do for us.

A near-death experience there prepared him for life as a poet by teaching him to pay attention to what lay right in front of him at any given time.

For David, the power of poetry lies in its unmatched ability to meditate and focus on what's right in front of us, whether it's a mountain, a loved one, or our own reflection.

First broadcast in 2025

Further information

David's latest collection of poems and essays is Consolations II, published by Canongate.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores, poetry, poems, near death experiences, mothers, sons, family, Ireland, meditation, Zen, love, heartbreak, anxiety, time, happiness, the Galapagos Islands, family, grief, memory, spirituality, Christianity, language, England.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Why were 400 civilians allowed to fly into a war zone as Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait? What really happened to them when they were held as hostages? And why has the British government fought for so long to keep it all a secret?

Stephen Davis is an investigative journalist who has been following a story, within a story, within a story for more than 30 years.

It starts on 2 August, 1990 when a British Airways plane landed in Kuwait for a scheduled stopover.

There were nearly 400 passengers and crew on board, mostly British, who had no idea they were flying straight into Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Instead of refuelling and then carrying on to Madras, the people on board were taken into Iraqi custody, ferried to various hotels and strategic locations around Kuwait, and then Baghdad, deployed as human shields in an unfurling international conflict.

Used like chess pieces by Saddam Hussein's men, their experiences would scar them for the rest of their lives, but eventually they would point the finger at their own government's role in their fate.

Because Flight 149 should never have landed in Kuwait, and the reasons why it was allowed to fly into a war zone were covered up for more than three decades.

Stephen's sources pointed him to a secret British black ops mission that embedded nine operatives on that same civilian flight.

The Secret History of Flight 149 is published by Bonnier Books UK.

Around 100 passengers and crew of Flight 149 are suing the UK Government and British Airways for “deliberately endangering” them, claiming they knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane landed.

A preliminary hearing was held last November in the High Court in London. Both sides are still battling over procedural issues before a full trial can begin.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores the Middle East, geopolitics, President Bush, Gulf War, Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, invasion, oil, world economy, Margaret Thatcher, spies, MI6, CIA, conspiracies, cover ups, investigations, lawsuits, Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Desert Sabre, Dick Cheney, Saudi Arabia, Republican Guard, modern history, modern conflicts, 9/11, terrorism, rise of terrorism.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Historian Katja Hoyer was born in 1985, under the old regime of the GDR and grew up in the 1990s, watching many former East Germans struggle in the years after reunification.

Learning about the Nazi era was a big part of her education but Katja left school feeling unsatisfied about what she’d been taught about the period when the Nazis rose to power.

She knew about all the big political moments, but not much about the lives of ordinary Germans and how they responded to the dramatic changes that unfolded around all around them.

So Katja the historian traced the lives of residents in the town of Weimar from 1919 to 1939 to examine how a cultural hub of democracy transformed into a Nazi stronghold.Further information 

Weimar: Life of the Edge of Catastrophe is published by Penguin.

Katja's earlier book is Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990

Learn more about Katja Hoyer on her website

This episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake and the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.

It explores German history, the rise of the Nazis, Weimar, the Weimar Republic, Adolf Hitler, the Stasi, secret police, the Berlin Wall, Communism, Fascism, World War II, East Germany, the GDR, democracy, Jewish persecution, Buchenwald, concentration camps, Carl Weirich, Nazi era history, the rise of the Nazis.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Journalist Hedley Thomas grew up knowing that his grandmother Gladys had vanished in the sea off Sydney in the 1950s. The mystery of what happened to Gladys helped to inspire his hit podcast 'The Teacher's Pet'.

Hedley has had a storied career in journalism which has seen him win many Walkley Awards and expose a lot of corruption and dodgy dealings.

But it has also placed Hedley and his family in harm's way. 

In 2002 Hedley and his wife Ruth were at their home when bullets were fired into their bedroom. The shooter was never found, and Hedley grappled with PTSD after the event.

A couple of decades later Hedley returned to a story which had stayed with him for years.

It was the about a woman named Lynette who had gone missing from her home in the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Hedley's podcast about her story became a massive hit. 

Five years after 'The Teacher's Pet' began, Lyn's former husband Chris Dawson was convicted of her murder. Despite his recent appeals, Dawson will spend the rest of his life in jail for Lynette's murder.

Recently, Hedley has started talking about the family secret which helped inspire the podcast when it first began.

Further information

Help and support is always available. Beyond Blue provides 24/7 support on mental health issues.

Hear Sarah's conversation with Lynette's daughter, Shanelle Dawson.

The episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores family, journalism, domestic violence, police investigation, murder, The Teacher's Pet, true crime, true crime podcast, Lynette Dawson, Chris Dawson, Shanelle Dawson, PTSD, home invasion, secrets, prison, Northern Beachers of Sydney, mothers, grandmothers, Walkley awards, justice, cold case.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Millie Robinson’s family had been through enough as it was before her devoted dad Jim Rogers received his diagnosis in 2021. Today they navigate the unknown together and stay in the moment to enjoy their tight-knit community.

Millie is a celebrant, mum and author living in Brisbane.

She also supports her dad, Jim, who has younger-onset Alzheimer’s. 

Millie started life in the UK, in a very tight-knit network of family and friends who wrapped their arms around Jim, Millie and her siblings when Millie’s mum died of cancer.

Jim became the dad and the mum of the house, and for years put himself last to care for his babies and make sure they were alright.

Then he fell in love with Tyler, and Millie gained a stepdad.

The family thought they’d used up their quota of shock for one lifetime, but when Jim was diagnosed in 2021, they rallied and continue to care for him with the same devotion he showed when they were kids.

Further information

Holding On To Happiness, written by Jim Rogers and Millie Robinson is published by Pan Macmillan.

Watch the 2025 Australian Story featuring Millie, Jim and their family.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan and the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It covers caring for parents, Dementia Australia, living well with dementia, Hamish Macdonald, the sandwich generation, losing a mother, motherless mother, finding love again, going back into the closet, two dads, step parent, tight knit family, grandparent, Redditch, cottage, forget me not, Brisbane, moving to Australia, skin cancer, melonoma, mole, Canary Islands, celebrant, marrying, getting married, VW Beetle, high school sweetheart.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

British writer Ben Macintyre on the eerie history of Colditz Castle which the Germans used as a prisoner of war camp during World War II.

Since the Middle Ages, Colditz Castle has existed in some form, perched on the edge of a cliff in eastern Germany.

Colditz has served as a royal hunting lodge, a madhouse, and most famously as a prisoner of war camp during World War II.

It was said to be inescapable, but that didn't stop the English officers from trying to escape the nightmare of this gloomy fortress, and the clutches of the Germans.

Ben Macintyre tells the full story of Colditz and the men imprisoned there, who were as flawed as they were heroic legend.

Further Information

Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle is published by Penguin

This episode of Conversations explores history, World War 2, prisoners of war, Colditz Castle, Germany, allied soldiers, the officer class, escape, prison, solitary confinement, heroes, the middle ages, research, first hand accounts.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Author Tess Woods had always dreamed of her big day, growing up watching her beloved Nana create in-demand bridal gowns. The stories of these dresses became a way for Tess to understand her family’s origins in North Africa, which she left in the late 1970s. (Warning: This episode references the loss of a child.)

Tess moved to Melbourne from Egypt when she was five years old.

At large family gatherings, Tess dreamed of a big, fat, Egyptian wedding with 250 guests, food for days, belly dancing — the works.

But after she became engaged to her sweet, mild-mannered Australian boyfriend Paul, Tess’ parents’ marriage imploded and she decided to elope to Fiji with a wedding party of just 11.

Tess’ cherished and feisty Nana made her wedding dress and her wedding underwear, and the nuptials were an unexpected hit.

Tess and Paul moved their young family to Perth to begin their own story, which would unfold with ambition, tragedy and religion.

Further information

The Cairo Bridal Shop is published by Penguin Random House.

This episode refers to the loss of a child. Please contact Red Nose on 1300 308 307 if you need support.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores migration, getting married, homemade wedding dresses, loss of a child, stillbirth, Japanese shrines, Kyoto, philosopher's walk, near death experience, collapsed lung, intubation, fear of death, religion, Coptic Christian, Catholic, lapsed Catholic, catholicism, church, Mass, Perth, physiotherapy, physiotherapist, historic fiction, divorce, family get togethers.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Who are the Kennedys, really? And what has made the legacy of America's political dynasty so famous, divisive and enduring? 

The Kennedys are often described as the closest thing the United States has to a royal family, with fiercely competitive and divisive figures taking up space in American political and public life for generations.

Even now, the influence of the Kennedy family continues to persist with RFK Junior, who is serving as the U.S. secretary of health and human services.

There have been Kennedys who thrived with fame and power, and those who struggled greatly with that burden, with tragic consequences.

The sunniest images of this famous family come from when they gathered at their rambling seaside compound in Cape Cod in the summers.

One particular summer, in 1944, changed everything for the Kennedy clan, according to historian Leigh Straw, who is an internationally recognised expert on the Kennedy family and their legacy.

It was the final year of World War Two—Jack, the future president, had become a war hero but his health was ailing; his brothers Bobby and Teddy were there, but their eldest brother Joe Junior was in England, preparing to embark on his final wartime mission. Their sister Rosemary was out of the picture altogether, hidden away from public and never spoken of.

This was the year, Leigh says, when personal tragedies and public heroics began to shape the Kennedy legacy.

The Kennedys at Cape Cod, 1944: The Summer That Changed Everything is published by Bloomsbury.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggiei Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores American politics, the United States, family dynasties, Trump, federal elections, JFK, John F Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, RFK Jr, Covid, Rosemary Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, family trauma, mental health, intellectual disability, war, veterans, assassination, car crash, accidental death, grief, Hyannis Port, modern history, American history, who were the Kennedys, why are the Kennedys famous, Maria Shriver, nepotism, nepo babies, nepo baby, political elite, conspiracy theorists, vaccines, political scandals, Jacqui Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

After Pauline McGrath's husband David was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he chose to use Voluntary Assisted Dying. Pauline supported him through the journey as he took the steps to end his life.A few years ago, Pauline came home from work and found the lights on and the dog already fed.

This was something which had never happened in her 30-year marriage to David, a director of paediatric medicine at Queensland Children's Hospital.

Straight away, Pauline asked David, "Who has died?"

Her beloved husband told her he had a brain tumour, and that voluntary assisted dying was going to be an option for Queenslanders in six months.

This moment began a heartbreaking but ultimately empowering path for David, Pauline and their family.

David's wish was for Pauline to speak openly about their family experience. So that's what she's been doing while grieving her husband, supporting her two daughters, and embarking on the next chapter of her own life.

Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of death and dying.

Further information

Help and support is always available. Call Lifeline on 131114 - they are available 24 hours a day.

Since Sarah spoke with Pauline in 2024, the family has welcomed a grandchild, baby Margot.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison.

It explores death, dying, brain tumour, cancer, medical treatment, medical diagnosis, family, paediatric medicine, marriage, love, children, voluntary assisted dying, medical autonomy, grief, advocacy, medical profession.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Monday Morning Cooking Club's Merelyn Chalmers her family's story of survival, and piecing together hundreds of treasured family recipes from Jewish communities around the world, including her mother's top-secret yellow cake recipe.

Merelyn grew up tied to the apron strings of her mother, an Hungarian Jew who had survived Auschwitz and eventually ended up in Western Australia.

In Perth, she met a man who had his own remarkable World War Two survival story, after fleeing Poland and being conscripted into the Polish regiment of the Red Army.

For the couple, Perth became their Garden of Eden, where they raised Merelyn and her older brother in peace.

From her mother, Merelyn learnt how to make the perfect pastry in her pyjamas at midnight; how to fry schnitzel properly; and how to make a succulent roast for Shabbat. 

And from her father, Merelyn learnt how to appreciate both an Aussie barbecue of snags and steaks, as well as the acquired taste of Gefilte fish.

Years later, Merelyn would join a group of women who decided to raise money for charity by putting together a cookbook filled with treasured family recipes from Jewish communities in Australia and around the world.

As a member of the Monday Morning Cooking Club, Merelyn finally convinced her mother to share her secret recipe for yellow cake, a chiffon cake that had become famous in suburban Perth.

A Year of Jewish Cooking is published by Simon & Schuster.

You can find out more about the Monday Morning Cooking Club online.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores cooking, cookbooks, holiday cooking, Jewish cooking, stories of survival, origin stories, Bondi, Shabbat, Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Passover, Pesach, Hanukkah, family recipes, secret recipes, charity, books, writing, Shoah tapes, Holocaust, Auschwitz, refugees, migration, first generation Australians, Kosher kitchen, Judaism, religion, cultural identity, children of immigrants, Communism, Stalin, Hitler, Soviet Union, Spielberg.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn was teaching a university class on Homer's The Odyssey, when his elderly father decided to enrol in it.Daniel became fascinated by the stories of the ancient world as a child and grew up to study the classics and then write books and essays to share his knowledge with the wider world.

Eventually he began teaching the Ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey, to first year university students at Bard College in New York State.

But when his elderly father Jay asked to sit in on the course, it led to a big change in their relationship.This episode was first broadcast in 2020

Further information

An Odyssey: A father, a Son, and an Epic is published by KnopfDaniel's latest book is The Odyssey: A New Translation 

This episode was first broadcast in 2020.

It explores the Ancient World, Homer, The Odyssey, the Classics, translation, poetry, writing, teaching, parents, family, fathers, students, New York State, memoir, Odysseus, hero, storytelling, siblings, Winnie the Pooh, emotions, love, books.

For writer Richard Flanagan, the political belief that white Australians do not belong in this land is wrong and it's damaging any progress we might hope to make as a collective people.

Richard has spent the last 30 years writing award-winning pieces of fiction and non-fiction, tackling the climate crisis, the meaning of art, free speech and the stubborn necessity of hope.

Threaded through all of Richard's writing is a contempt for power and its acolytes, and a great tenderness for human struggle and goodness.

Richard says that while writing novels is an introspective process, and journalistic writing is very much outward-looking, they share the same fundamental purpose - telling the truth.

His latest book is a collection of speeches and opinion pieces that assembled in order to contextualise and define the rest of his oeuvre as fiercely Australian.

Because Richard says the story Australia tells itself as a nation must change, to include all of us as profoundly belonging to its land and history.

For Richard, the political belief that white Australians do not belong in this land is wrong and it's damaging any progress we might hope to make as a collective people.

Heresies is published by Penguin.

This episode of Conversations was recorded live at the Byron Writers Festival in August 2026. It was produced by Jennifer Leake. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores white history, black history, Australian history, Indigenous, non-Indigenous, Aboriginal Australia, writing, books, politics, climate crisis, black arm band view of history, colonialism, settlers, invasion, national identity, bushfires, natural disasters, early onset dementia, incorrect medical diagnosis, monoculture, multiculturalism, One Nation, fedpols, federal politics, Pauline Hanson, First Nations identity, the Voice Referendum.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Micaela Sahhar grew up hearing stories of her Palestinian family's life in Jerusalem before 1948, and what happened when they had to leave.

There was her grandfather’s tourism business, her grandmother’s wedding necklace, and the dramatic circumstances of her father’s birth.

Most of all there was the house, built by her grandfather for his extended family, at 8 Asa Street Jerusalem.

This was the house her family had fled in 1948.

And one midnight, many decades later, Micaela found herself standing outside its front gate.

Further Information Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, an encyclopedia of a Palestinian family is published by NewSouth books.

This episode was recorded at the 2026 Byron Bay Writer's Festival.

The producer was Jen Leake and Nicola Harrison is the Executive Producer.

It explores family, memoir, Palestinians, Israel, 1948, bombings, violence, mass displacement, Christianity, religion, Arabic, Melbourne, grandparents, Palestinian diaspora, family stories, memories, trauma, history, family home, keys, memory, Nakba, church, Jerusalem, Jordan, maternity hospital, tourism.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Raising girls in an age of smartphones and early sexualisation is tough and in this complex arena, parenting educator Maggie Dent says we can't leave these lessons to chance.Growing up Maggie was a tomboy and noticed when she was treated differently from little boys, who were allowed to be their exuberant selves when she was not.

She can clearly recall her indignation at being made to wear a dress as a little girl.

The process of raising girls has changed since Maggie was a child, but there are new challenges today like smartphone usage and unwanted sexualisation of young girls, among others.

She says there are core lessons we can learn to face these challenges and raise confident and well-adjusted girls.

Further information

This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2022.

Girlhood: raising our little girls to be healthy, happy and heard is published by Pan Macmillan

This episode explores parenting, daughters, young girls, raising girls, smartphones, early sexualisation, psychology, emotions,  mothers, fathers, aunties, friends, teachers, attention, focus, listening, guidance, self-esteem, anxiety, bullying, teenagers, support.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Political journalist, George Megalogenis has mapped key areas in our population, workforce and geopolitical standing in recent decades, and looks at how these shifts are impacting our collective political future.

For the first time since Federation, Australia’s population is mostly made up of migrants and their children. 

Professional women have now replaced men doing blue collar jobs as the largest segment of the workforce.

And on the world scale, Australia can no longer rely on our traditional allies or trading partners.

These three elements have already changed the political landscape in our country, and this will only continue as time goes on.

Further information

Three Shocks: Who we are becoming in the 21st Century is published by Penguin Random House.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan and the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It covers auspol, populism, John Howard, Paul Keating, Harold Holt, Pauline Hanson, One Nation, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Western Australia, parliament, teals, Higgins, Bennelong, Chinese-Australians, Peter Costello, First Nations, Federation, convicts, migration, White Australia policy, one parent born overseas, census, data, graphs, data journalism and Prime Ministers.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Melissa Redsell was in Year 12 when her doctor told her she was going to have a baby.  After her baby was born, she was told she had 'ruined her life'. Then she set out to prove all her doubters wrong.When Mel broke the news to her parents, they were disappointed and at school, the Principal instructed her to not expect any special treatment.

At 7 months pregnant, Mel graduated, and a little while later, her beautiful baby girl Breanna was born.

Six weeks later, Mel moved out of home into a share house.All her friends were partying, and she was in the thick of the sleepless nights and nappy changes. So, a few months later she decided to make a big change.

Further information

First broadcast in 2023

Learn more about Mel's charity, A Brave Life

Help and support is always available

1800RESPECT is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

The episode of Conversations was produced by Nicolar Harrison.It explores pregnancy, childbirth, teen pregnancy, families, divorce, education, independence, doctors, Year 12, surprise pregnancy, charity, babies, newborns, nappies, feeding, childcare, share house, domestic violence, getting help, family support, starting over, motherhood.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Paul E Mullen has spent decades interviewing and studying men who have committed unthinkable acts of violence and says these tragic events represent the endpoint of a slow-building private narrative of resentment, isolation and rage. (CW: descriptions of violence)

Now retired, Paul dedicated much of his life's work to the extreme end of the human condition.

First focusing on victims, researching the psychology of stalking and domestic violence.

But after he was caught up in the aftermath of a massacre carried out by a lone gunman, the trajectory of his career changed.

Paul began studying the minds of men who commit a mass killings, to unlock the workings of their minds and recognise the warning signs.

Further information

Running Amok: Inside the mind of the Lone Mass Killer is published by NewSouth

This episode was produced by Jen Leake, the Executive Producer of Conversations is Nicola Harrison.

It explores violence, murder, lone actor mass murder, Pt Arthur, psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, resentment, rage, fame, isolation, gun violence and gun control, media, serial killers, criminally insane, fantasy rehearsal, depression, suicide, narcissistic injury, early intervention, prevention, threat assessment.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Guitarist and engineer Josie Scott battled crippling gender dysphoria for decades before finally deciding to live openly as a trans woman in her 60s.

In 1984 in Adelaide, two brothers formed a pioneering alternative rock band called The Mark of Cain.

They wanted to make music that was heavy and intense with lyrics about war, and death, and being misunderstood.

Over the years the band gained an international following and plenty of fans at home in Australia.

Earlier this year, one of the band's two founders, Josie Scott, announced on the band's website that she was a trans woman.

At the age of 63, Josie wrote that she had finally decided to 'embrace rather than endure who she is'.

And her decision to go public with her story was met with a huge and loving response from fans of the band.

Help and support is always available

Call QLife on 1800 184 527 for LGBTIQA+ peer support

Lifeline is available on 13 11 14 for 24/7 crisis support

Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800 is available for young people aged 5 to 25. 

This episode was produced by Jen Leake and the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores gender identity, music, Australian music, living authentically, transgender issues, male to female transition, drug abuse, substance abuse, addiction issues, romance, love, relationships, mother child relationships, heavy metal, Adelaide's music scene.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Former Detective Sergeant, Deb Wallace on policing the heroin hotspot of Cabramatta in the 1990s and how Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' gave her new ideas for clamping down on illegal gang activity.

When Deb joined the NSW Police Force in 1983, there were very few women on the front line. 

She quickly discovered she had the cool-headed resilience ideal for police work, and she was determined to make a career of it.

In the mid-1990s Deb was a junior Detective when she was given a tough assignment — breaking up the gangs who ruled the streets of the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta.

At the time, Cabramatta was a vibrant place full of migrant families trying to carve out a new life in Australia, but crime was surging, and the train station was the centre of a thriving heroin trade.

After reading Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", Deb met up with the gang members in person to ask them about their lives. 

They told her that they were lost to the world crime, but she should focus on the next generation, so she helped set up a street school with Father Chris Riley.

Some years later Deb was given a new challenge — leading Strike Force Raptor, a squad charged with breaking up bikie gangs. 

Deb retired after 36 years on the force and now volunteers at Grace’s Place, a site of healing and restoration for young people affected by homicide.

Further information

Originally broadcast May 2023.

Read more about Graces's Place.

Michael Murphy, one of the men convicted for the murder of Anita Cobby, died from cancer at Long Bay Jail in 2019.

This episode was produced by Nicola Harrison. The Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores gang violence, drugs, toxic masculinity, Vietnamese community, improving the next generation, street school, bikies, outlaw motorcycle gangs, culottes, female cop, bar brawls, DV, domestic violence, happy childhood, legislation, cops, Anita Cobby, murder, how policing has changed, beat, partner, colleague.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Mark Woodland is an unexpected CEO — he started his career in the Army as a tribute to his late brother, then went on to revolutionise his mum's paper-based childcare company.

As a young man Mark Woodland was at a loss with what to do with his life.

After years of moving around, the family — headed by Mark's single mum — settled in Ipswich, Queensland, where Mark showed himself to be a playful and enthusiastic boy, but school wasn't his first priority. 

When he graduated, Mark was most interested in driving around with his friends, playing music loudly with the windows down. 

When he needed money to fill the tank, Mark found a job at McDonald's.

His younger brother was a new recruit to the Army when he was killed in a  car accident. Ben was just 18.

Mark decided to honour his brother by keeping Ben's wish alive, and so Mark joined the army, and served for 10 years.

He left to help his mum run her childcare business, and Mark revolutionised the business' administrative system, moving from paper to a digital world.

Today Mark is the founder and CEO of tech healthcare company Kismet.

Further information

Read more about the short film, Versa.

This episode was produced by Meggie Morris. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It covers infant loss, NDIS, digitisation, childcare subsidy, daycare, family business, Army, Navy, not giving up, not quitting, car accident, morgue, Ipswich, Brisbane, Puckapunyal, Albury-Wodonga.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Mary Li was a star ballerina when she fell in love with her dance partner Li Cunxin.  When their daughter Sophie was born profoundly deaf, Mary walked away from dance for many years.

Mary says she was the least likely girl to grow up to be a ballerina,

She grew up in a family of eight kids in the rough and tumble of the Queensland country town of Rockhampton.

But in a little timber hall, with cattle trains rolling by outside, Mary discovered a talent for dance.

That talent, and a huge amount of hard work and family support took her to the Royal Ballet School in London at sixteen.

She then became the principal dancer with the London Festival Ballet, then the Houston ballet.

There in Houston Mary fell in love with her dance partner Li Cunxin.

Li had also come a long way from his home in rural China, defecting to the U.S. as an adult and then becoming an internationally celebrated dancer.

In Houston Li and Mary married and had their first child, a beautiful daughter named Sophie.

But when Sophie was 16 months old their lives were turned upside down.

This episode was first broadcast in 2020

Further information

Mary's Last Dance is published by Penguin

After a catastrophic car crash in the parking lot of her hospital, Dr Olivia Ong became a paraplegic. But her obsession with learning how to walk again was stronger than her incomplete spinal cord injury.

When Olivia Ong was 28 years old, she had the world at her feet.

She had recently qualified as a doctor, something she had dreamed of since she was a child growing up in Malaysia.

She had married a man she loved deeply, and they were busy building their future together.

Then, everything changed after a car crashed into her in the parking lot of the hospital she worked in.

Olivia now refers to herself as a 'walking paraplegic'.

She spent years working hard to walk again, using simple exercise therapies she discovered in the United States.

Back On My Feet: From Doctor to Patient is published by HarperCollins.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores medicine, university, love, faith, spinal cord injuries, paraplegia, car crashes, from doctor to patient, marriage, love, motherhood, pain specialist, rehab specialist, California, Project Walk, exercise therapy, surgery, wheelchair user, people living with disability, parenting with disability, accessibility.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Lynne Shori grew up with her hero dad, thinking her Papua New Guinean mother was dead. As an adult, she discovered the truth and set about finding her lost family.

When Lynne was growing up, it was just her and her dad.

Lynne's dad was her hero; he was different and adventurous but she always felt safe with him when they went on hair-raising adventures together in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

He had always told Lynne that her mum had died in childbirth.

But when she became an adult, Lynne discovered this wasn't true.

Just as she turned 40, Lynne set off to a remote island in northern Papua New Guinea to discover the truth of her family story.

Once she started gathering all the answers to her lifelong questions, Lynne and her father then set about healing their own, very special relationship.

Find out more about Wantaim PNG, and the work they're doing across remote Papua New Guinea, online.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores the Pacific, Pasifika, family origin stories, Stolen Generations, charity work, tok Pisin, Manus Island, father daughter relationships, mixed race children, Australia's relationship with PNG, sanitation, education, discovering your truth, mental health, mother daughter relationship, Melanesian culture, family, siblings, blended families, Oceania, geopolitics, knowing your parents, therapy, estrangement, reunion, forgiveness, grief, identity, Sydney, finance, mid-life crisis, rehab, sense of community, family secrets.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Steve Biddulph spent decades working to understand what children need as they grow, but then in his mid-50s, Steve gained an insight that shifted almost everything about how he saw himself.

Steve likes to remind us that humans are 'big sensitive mammals' with needs for connection and self awareness.

As a psychologist (now retired) and parent educator, he has been at the forefront of an evolving conversation about masculinity, emotional intelligence, caring for our children and making sense of our own childhoods.

His best-selling books include The Secret of Happy Children, Raising Boys, Raising Girls and Manhood.

But it wasn't until he was in his mid-50s that Steve gained an insight into a huge facet of his own story.

He was having a lunch with a friend, a psychiatrist, who began asking him a series of pointed questions.

That conversation shifted almost everything about how Steve saw himself.

This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2021 

The producer was Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

Further information

Fully Human: A New Way of Using Your Mind is published by Pan Macmillan

Environmental journalist, Michael Dulaney looks at viruses and bacteria that can move between bats, horses, seals, pigs, voles and even polar bears, and the conditions that lead to human infection.

These diseases are known as zoonoses.

Michael says climate change, urban sprawl, animal farming and even homelessness contribute to wild animals coming into ever closer contact with people, leading these illnesses to move from creatures to us.

To understand how this process works, Michael has researched the volunteers dedicating their lives to conservation. 

He has camped out on a freezing Victorian night to try to catch ducks with a net shot from a cannon, to test them for bird flu. 

He has gone frog hunting in the jungles of Indonesia, and he’s visited a suburban Melbourne apartment where a dedicated citizen gives up her master bedroom to a collection of injured flying foxes, while she sleeps in the spare room.

Michael also explains how the curious case of Trench Fever fits into the zoonotic puzzle. It was found first in Edmonton, Canada in 2022, when patients developed a serious heart condition after they were given organs donated by homeless victims of the opioid crisis.

Further information

Sentinels: When diseases spread between animals and humans is published by Scribe.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode covers H5N1 bird flu, covid-19, pandemic, lockdown, flu, cat flu, swine flu, hendra virus, horse racing, horse trainer, fly by night bat clinic, Werribee poo ponds, necropsy, chicken farms, disease-proof pigs, PRRS, CRISPR, vaccines, vaccination, smallpox, pox virus, borealpox and northern red-backed vole.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Colleen Gwynne led the investigation into the murder of the British backpacker and eventually confronted his killer in prison.

In 2001, Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were ambushed on a remote stretch of road in the outback and Peter was shot dead.

Colleen was working as a cop in Alice Springs when she was asked to take over the complex murder case.

With help from the F.B.I, her work saw Bradley John Murdoch arrested and charged.

She confronted him in prison, and refused to be intimidated, despite his intense aggression towards her.

Murdoch was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in 2025.

After leaving the police force, Colleen took up another challenging job.

She became the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, tasked with protecting vulnerable children.

Colleen's own story mean she brings a unique understanding to the work.

This episode was first broadcast in 2018 

The producer was Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

Nikki Goldstein was in a coma in the ICU at St Vincent's Hospital when she first 'met' Rabbi Eli Schlanger. When she woke, the pair embarked together on a project to share the wisdom, compassion and universality of several Jewish teachings.

Although they were from very different worlds, when Nikki gained consciousness and met Rabbi Eli properly the two became fast friends.

Then, they started writing a book together - based on the deep and expansive conversations they began having about hope, personal growth, spirituality and modern life.

Rabbi Eli wanted Nikki's help to share seven ancient Jewish guidelines on living a good life, which he believed could be helpful to anyone, Jewish or not, who was looking for a way to live in a world that feels increasingly chaotic.

While Nikki and Rabbi Eli didn't agree on everything all the time, they did both believe these teachings to be universal in their compassion and wisdom.

The pair had just recorded their last conversation for the project in December last year, when Rabbi Eli was one of 15 people killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Nikki decided to honour his memory by finishing their book alone.

Conversations with My Rabbi is published by HarperCollins.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores religion, faith, modern living, disconnection, hope, radical empathy, togetherness, multiculturalism, learning from others, spiritual, family, near-death experiences, autoimmune disease, anti-Semitism, terrorism, grief, tragedy, suffering, meaning of life, spiritual teachings, friendship, prayer, meditation, Judaism, secularism.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Gardening Australia's Hannah Moloney on the heartwarming and heartbreaking reasons humans continue to lovingly tend to their gardens — for healing, beauty and joy.

For thousands of years, tending to a garden or a small farm meant human survival. 

But now, with massive commercial farms, genetically modified crops, refrigerated freight and modern irrigation, we don't need to tend to our own gardens to survive.

So why, then, do so many of us still lovingly plant, water and cultivate flowers, fruits and vegetables? Or watch 'lawn porn' to relax?

It's a question that Hannah Moloney has asked thousands of gardeners from around the world.

Hannah is a permaculture educator, landscape designer and the Tasmanian presenter for ABC TV's Gardening Australia. 

Gardening is in Hannah's blood, having grown up in a herb nursery run by her green-thumbed father in the Brisbane suburbs.

For Hannah, gardening remains a lifeline, a way to bond with her family and a joyful act of protest.

Why We Garden is published by Simon & Schuster.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores gardening, hobbies, outdoor activities, mental health, grief gardening, why we like being outdoors, gardening as meditation, the beauty of our gardens, Australian native gardens, vegetable patches, how to grow your own vegetables, fruit trees, family origin stories, losing a parent, pregnancy, motherhood, postpartum depression, gardening for healing, creative inspiration, human history, horticulture, climate change, global warming, food scarcity, food supply, drought, flood, famine, Costa Georgiadis, green thumb, meditation.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Zenith Virago was a married mother of two, when she left her family to begin again as a lesbian.  Then she found a new path as a death walker, helping people navigate their life's end. 

Zenith grew up in England, and she was still at school when she fell in love with another student. 

At seventeen, she married Richard, Head Boy of the local Comprehensive school. 

They had two children, Jodie and Todd.

Then at 24, Zenith had a realisation about who she really was. She left her husband and children to begin a new life as a lesbian in New Zealand,

Eventually she arrived in Byron Bay, where she met a community of people who inspired her.

One day, Zenith's dear friend Sylvia died unexpectedly doing yoga in her garden. Rather than outsourcing to the funeral industry, Sylvia's loved ones took over her funeral and cremation themselves.

This experience launched a new path for Zenith, and she became a ‘death walker’, helping people navigate the end of life with reverence and calm.

In the midst of her new chapter, the death of a former lover brought her third son Tane back into her life unexpectedly.

Further information

Original broadcast February 2019

Learn about Zenith Virago's Natural Death Care Centre

Help and information are always available

Lifeline 13 11 14 24 hour counselling

Beyond Blue's telephone and online counselling 1300 22 4636

Conductor Alexander Briger has led orchestras all over the world. But his niche occupation is not the only fascinating thing about him. Alex's family history is wild.

Alexander Briger has stood in front of musicians all over the world, summoning a gigantic, beautiful noise from them.

Classical music was a huge part of Alex’s story growing up.

He is the nephew of the famous conductor, the late Sir Charles Mackerras; and descended from the so-called "father of Australian music", Isaac Nathan.

Another branch of Alex's family tree astonishingly connects him to the man who murdered Rasputin.

Rasputin was a Russian peasant and mystic, whose abilities as a faith healer drew him into the inner circle of the Russian Tzars.

Fearing his destructive grip on the monarchy, a posse of aristocrats led by Alex’s ancestor, Prince Felix Yusupov, drew Rasputin into a trap, luring him to his death in a Saint Petersburg basement in 1916.

In recent years, Alex was invited to Russia to conduct a modern opera, coincidentally called and about Rasputin, in a full circle moment.

Alex is back in Australia right now as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Australian World Orchestra, the only ensemble of its kind in the world.

The Australian World Orchestra is playing in Melbourne on 19 August and in Sydney on 20 August. You can find out more about the orchestra and its performances online.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores classical music, Russian revolution, family history, Paris, Munich, Berlin Philharmonic, conducting, symphony, Mahler, the great Western composers, Wagner, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Jewish Australians, whacky history, Yusupov, how did Rasputin die, European politics, Bolshevik Revolution, the October Revolution, exile, ballet, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australian classical music, Australian expats.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Adele Dumont was a teenager when she first started pulling out her hair, an urge that became so uncontrollable she was left with a bald spot.

She would sometimes enter a trancelike state, covertly sitting on her bathroom floor, picking at her scalp for hours on end.

The urge to pull at her hair was uncontrollable, and secret.

When Adele finally put a name to her behaviour, she learnt that trichotillomania has a complex history and psychological understanding, much of which remains unknown.

This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2024

The producer was Meggie Morris and the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney

Further information

The Pulling is published by Scribe

Some helpful resources on trichotillomania include Trich Stop and The TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours

Ralph Jackman was a sports journalist who retrained as a teacher in midlife, and got his first job at Melbourne’s Parkville Youth Detention Centre, where he was tested by the troubled and bright, charismatic young men.

At the centre he found students who struggled with basic literacy, and he also met boys who were yearning for more than juvenile justice could provide.

Ralph created bonds with some of the boys that proved his teaching was making a connection. 

But he also saw how hours of isolation in their cells stamped the hope out of the young men, despite the committed teachers’ best efforts.

Further information

Detention is published by Allen & Unwin.

Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. Research by Alice Moldovan.

This episode covers incarceration, troubled youth, youth work,  behind bars, youth detention, Tony Abbott, Hugh Jackman, 

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.

After a near-death experience, Kate Clinch became drawn into the astonishing, Gothic story of a young Australian woman named Eileen O'Connor, who is buried under the floorboards of a home in Coogee.

Kate was working as a GP in country South Australia when an ectopic pregnancy nearly killed her.

She had a vivid near death experience, which prompted her to start interrogating inexplicable and miraculous events.

Kate hadn't grown up Catholic, or even religious, but years after her near death experience, she was drawn into the story of a young Australian saint-in-waiting named Eileen O'Connor.

Eileen lived in Sydney at the turn of the 20th century.

She lived with profound physical disabilities, standing at only 115cm tall, but somehow she managed to head up a group of nurses who delivered free medical care to people living in the slums of Sydney.

Eileen's story is an astounding collection of ups and downs - suffering, tragedy, a scandalous relationship with a young priest, threats of excommunication, a wartime sea voyage to Rome and a meeting with the Pope.

And she is currently being scrutinised by the Vatican for possible canonisation, which would make Eileen Australia's second saint.

Every Inch a Saint is published by Monkfish.

Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor has been caring for the sick and disadvantaged in their own homes for more than 100 years. You can read more about the religious order and the lay nurses who work with the nuns - colloquially known as the Brown Nurses - online.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores spirituality, dying, sickness, religion, faith, Christianity, Catholic Church, World War One, Spanish Influenza, TB, Tuberculosis, history, Australian history, nuns, priests, scandal, people living with disability, sainthood, miracles, near death experiences, metaphysical experiences, motherhood, doctoring, medicine, modern medicine, x-rays, medical history, resilience, divinity, holy, the divine, sainthood, how does someone become a saint, what is a miracle, living with disability, spinal deformity, grief, death.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.