The Briefing

With Melbourne being sent back into lockdown last week, it’s time to ask, “has the pandemic highlighted our problem with booze?”    20 percent of us say our alcohol consumption has increased since the pandemic began. Caterina Giorgi is CEO of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE).  She says we’re drinking more – and it’s wo...

You may know Clare Bowditch from her ARIA award-winning music career, her Logie-nominated role on the hit TV series Offspring , or her work as journalist, host and entrepreneur.   Clare sits down with best-selling journalist and host Jamila Rizvi to discuss body image, balancing parenthood with a Rockstar lifestyle and working through grief in a beautifully honest conversation.   THE WEE...

Naomi Osaka walked out of the French Open tennis tournament this week. Just days before she’d copped a $15,000 fine for refusing to appear at mandatory post-game press conferences.  Osaka said she refused to appear in a bid to protect her fragile mental health.   Jana Pittman is a three-time Olympian and four-time Commonwealth gold medallist. She had a tumultuous relationship with...

More than 2,000 New Zealanders have been deported since 2014 when the federal government changed laws to make it easier to send Kiwis with a criminal record back across the ditch. The problem is, many of them have lived their entire lives in Australia   Greg Barns SC is a barrister who has represented multiple clients trying to appeal their deportation; and Taryn O’Dowd is a 41-year old...

Being a vet and working with animals might seem like a dream job...but vets are at a higher risk of emotional distress and burnout...and the pandemic has made it worse.   We’re joined by Dr Warwick Vale, CEO and President of the Australian Veterinarian’s Association to look at what’s causing vets to leave the industry and what can be done to fix it.  Jess Batt is a vet...

Australia’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout has been plagued by problems.  First it was difficulty sourcing vials, and then people across the world started developing blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca shot.    Rachel Clun, the Federal Health Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age joins us for an update….to bring you the latest developments and to determin...

Are Geriatric Millennials the heroes the world needs?   Geriatric millennials are generally people born in the early 1980s and they make up some of the world’s leading CEOs including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.  Often defined as “weathered internet veterans” they can still keep up with the latest tech trends while holding onto traditional communication skills. Tod...

Rove McManus is undoubtably one of Australia’s favourite TV personalities of all time, popularising the US format of late-night television on our own soil before taking on the medium in the States.   Having also been an early platformer to the likes of Carrie Bickmore, Peter Helliar, Hamish Blake, Andy Lee and Judith Lucy; and executively produced The Project, Rove also knows talent and...

Coal mining employs around 50,000 people directly... so why does coal dominate Australian politics?!  It came up again at the weekend’s NSW by-election where Labor got smashed and the Nationals were re-elected.    Kosmos Samaras is a former Labor strategist and is a director at the political consultancy firm Redbridge.  He provides a fascinating insight into why thes...

Of all the things to destabilise Bitcoin... it turns out the environment has been a key factor.    The digital currency has seen some wild price drops over the last two weeks. It peaked at 63,000 USD in mid-April and since then it’s dropped as low as $31,000.  Dr Sean Foley, Associate Professor of Finance at Macquarie University, joins us to explain why.   Dr Foley says m...

Monica Dux has written a book called Lapsed... about walking away from Catholicism, her childhood religion.   It’s a relevant story in today’s world because Catholicism in Australia has been in slow decline over the last 50 years... but at 22% of all Australians, it’s still the biggest single religion in Australia and it’s held ground much better than the Anglican Chur...

Violent protests have broken out on the streets of Colombia. Demonstrations about tax reform have turned into massacres on the streets.   Neighbourhoods have become battlegrounds as Colombians fight with police and the military – and the government struggles to maintain order.  Alexandra Phelan is an expert on Colombian politics. We learn what the protests are about, and what the g...

There’s been a lot of talk this year about housing affordability after another surge in home and apartment prices.  But interest rates have remained at record lows, meaning borrowing money is cheaper than ever.   So on, balance, is housing really as unaffordable as we’re making it out to be?  We’re joined by Steven Koukoulas, leading economist and economics consult...

The Royal Record is your weekly dose of Royal news, without the spin! Royal correspondent and expert Juliet Rieden and journalist Bryce Corbett use their insider info on The Royals to separate the fact from the fiction behind the latest Royal headlines. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rick Morton’s book My Year of Living Vulnerably is topping best-seller lists around Australia for unpacking Australian masculinity.   Jamila Rizvi sits down with Rick to talk about the male role models throughout his life, reckoning with his sexuality and the lightning bolt moment that made him realise he was grappling with complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.   Warning: This ep...

Everyone knows a conspiracy theorist.  Someone who believes we didn’t make it to the moon; or the September 11 attacks were a hoax.   How do you talk to them?   Is engaging with them, giving their theories legitimacy?   Professor John Cook is from the Centre for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University in the US.   He’s also writte...

The violence in Israel and Gaza explained.   We’ll ask how it started... how similar is it to the last major flare ups in Israel... and what would it take to stop these cycles of violence? We’re joined by Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb, MSF Deputy medical coordinator in Gaza; Greg Barton, Professor in Global Islamic Studies at Deakin University; and Sophie McNeil, a former ABC Middle...

Everyone is talking about NFTs - Non-Fungible Tokens.   These digital certificates have been hailed as a way for creators to get paid for digital works and files that get shared online.  Cameron Wilson, tech journalist and Associate Editor at Crikey joins us to explain the new phenomenon.   But what are NFTs and are they destined to live on the fringes of web culture? Or could they...

Huge numbers of mice have been tormenting farms and communities in western NSW for months.  After lobbying, the state government has finally come up with a support package which they say will help “napalm” the mice.   But this comes after locals have had to see crops and livelihoods decimated as they spent months fighting the crisis on their own.  We’re joined by K...

In last week’s federal budget papers, we discovered the government plans to keep our international borders closed until at least mid-2021.   When can we realistically begin to plan to go back overseas?  We’re joined by Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews – and we ask why the government is not providing more information on the timeline for international travel.  We...

Tanya Hennessy is one of the funniest (and busiest) people in Australia. As well as being a podcaster, radio host, TV presenter, comedian and author, Tanya also counts makeup guru and an “adults should be able to eat children’s meals” campaigner in her pursuits. Jamila Rizvi and Tanya discuss her latest book Drum Roll Please, It’s Stevie Louise , women in comedy and whether...

In March/April last year, 33,000 homeless people were given emergency Covid accommodation around the country. It was amazing to watch; thousands of people taken off the streets or from couch surfing situations, put in nice hotels.    At the time, people in the sector were hoping this moment would be a circuit breaker that could end homelessness.   We’re joined by Katherin...

We go right to the top today to question the Finance Minister Simon Birmingham about Tuesday night’s budget.    Some key questions:  Where was the money for a quarantine facility; will we all be vaccinated by the end of the year; when will the borders open; and what about our struggling uni sector?   Following up from Wednesday’s episode focusing on what’s in...

Last night’s federal budget was handed down by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.   What does it mean for you?  Why do we no longer focus on surpluses?  How much impact has the pandemic had on the nation’s bottom line?  And has it addressed the critical issues facing ordinary Australians – things like housing affordability and the cost of living.   On today&rsquo...

A story of courage, perseverance and bare-knuckle fighting.    From seven years detained on Manus Island... to elite fighting in America... this is the story of Ezatullah Kakar    Two weeks ago, Ezatullah stepped into the ring for his first fight in America’s Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship... and he won in 33 seconds!!!   Eza joins us from the US to tal...