Explore every episode of the podcast Conversations: Archive: 2015-2017

How to raise a bestselling crime writer (R)

Listening to trees, nature's magnificent networkers (R)

Learning to freedive helped one man explore life and death (R)

Mary-Rose MacColl on betrayal, motherhood and letting go of secrets (R)

Daniel Kish uses a self-initiated sonar, called echolocation, to navigate the world as a blind person (R)

Being raised as the son of an Oklahoma preacher inspired the American Songbook of this prolific singer-songwriter (R)

Wild funerals, and staff who jump the counter: a day in the life of Graham Long and the Wayside Chapel

Hugh White says Australia faces a choice between the power keeping us safe, and the one making us rich

From Johnny O'Keefe to Sia, via AC/DC — Andrew P. Street counts down Australia's greatest pop songs

Australia's best-known Olympic skater nearly died on the ice when he was 20. Eight years later, he won history's most unexpected gold medal

Colin Friels, Zelie Bullen, Pip Courtney, and drover Bruce Simpson on their deep love of horses (R)

Tony draws on decades of clinical experience to help couples and individuals navigate dating and love with Asperger's

How Bob and Jo’s married life changed course when Jo needed full-time care

Roy Williams tells the story of Arthur Stace, who for decades rose before dawn to write a one-word sermon, in chalk on the footpaths of Sydney.

Genevieve had never imagined a life in technology, until a chance meeting in a bar in Palo Alto

How high-flyer Susan Duncan completely remade her life after a series of losses (R)

A master storyteller reflects on stories she’s witnessed and crafted for the page

Verne Harris on post-Apartheid South Africa, and life lessons from Madiba

Cartoonist and author Kaz Cooke traces the dramatic life of a singular woman

A true champion of the game reflects on opening up the AFL, and his dream to sell it to the world

A suburban Brisbane childhood, a particularly determined nun and the Beatles all shaped Bernard Fanning's music

Lawrence Levy was hired by Steve Jobs in 1994, to save a struggling animation company with a secret project

Tales from one of Australia’s most prolific comedy writers and performers

Rosemary Stanton and her family had to break free of a religious sect before she could attend university (R)

Stories of subterfuge, tragedy and romance from the cold-war games

Historian and fishing enthusiast Anna Clark on the story of fishing in Australia

Australia’s sporting Lindrum family was dogged by scandal and tragedy

Stephen Dando Collins returns with the story of Robert Stigwood

Sports writer Joe Gorman on the unique challenges facing Australia's 'beautiful game'

Princess Diana, public housing and the patriarchy — politics is always personal for one of Britain's most influential thinkers

Maritime historian Chris Frame unfolds the history of these engineering marvels (R)

An adventurous spirit and deep connection to the land fill the pages of the books of this prolific author and illustrator

Chris Masters explains the fine balance between force and diplomacy in Uruzghan

When Melinda Hildebrandt learned how to sign with her daughter Amelia, it began a new relationship between them

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

Susan Francis met the love of her life in her fifties. But her story with the miner named Wayne didn't turn out as she planned

Scott Bevan on the harbour’s vivid history, generous people and quiet pleasures

A shocking event in Peta Clarke's early life saw her become one of the world's most respected animal trainers

Pieter de Vries has filmed the Earth's most remote corners - from its deepest oceans, to the jungles of Papua New Guinea.

Jan Becker is a helicopter pilot, and a midwife in Tanzania, where she teaches infant resuscitation

Russian-American journalist and author Masha Gessen believes Donald Trump is a threat to democracy

George Saunders' first novel Lincoln in the Bardo centres around the grief that haunted Abraham Lincoln (R)

Sean Dooley is a twitcher, recording the lives of birds like the Godwit, which flies from Alaska to New Zealand without stopping

Capturing the sounds of wildlife, natural phenomena and secret worlds

Richard Flanagan recounts a strange chapter from early in his writing career

How police officer Allan Sparkes became one of Australia's most highly decorated people (R)

The second of two episodes on Hugh Riminton's adventurous life in news reporting

The first of two episodes on Hugh Riminton’s adventurous life in news reporting  

Lily Bailey spent years making lists of 400 things she'd done wrong each day (R)

Anita Link experienced her first major psychotic episode shortly after the birth of her first child (R)