The Briefing

Why has North Korean leader Kim Jong-un decided to reveal his daughter to the world now?  Kim Jong-un has revealed North Korea plans to build the “world’s most powerful nuclear force” after testing out a new ballistic missile. He’s also revealed his daughter to the public for the first time ever. So why has the North Korean leader chosen to unveil her to the world now?    In this episode of the Br...

What is it like for youngsters locked up inside Western Australia’s Banksia Hill detention centre?     We’re joined by the ABC reporter Grace Tobin, whose distressing Four Corners report has revealed the number of excessive force complaints against officers at Banksia Hill. Officers have been exposed for using the ‘folding up’ technique to restrain teenagers. The movement is banned in Queensland o...

Dr Anne Summers is one of Australia's greatest contributors to the feminist movement.  She is a writer, speaker and author, who was editor of the American publication Ms magazine in the 1980s and editor of the Good Weekend here in Australia in the 1990s. In between those roles she advised Prime Ministers Hawke and Keating on women's issues and went on to run the Office for the Status of Women, in...

You may know Isaiah Firebrace from the X Factor or Eurovision.  Well he’s written a new children’s book - Come Together - things every kid should know about our First Peoples   Isaiah joins Rhianna to explain the book is a heart-warming, debut picture book for children aged 5 and up, inspired by Isaiah’s petition to the Australian Government calling for Aboriginal history to be taught in every cla...

The Chinese government introduced its ‘zero-Covid’ policy back in 2019 when the virus was first detected. So why are protesters choosing to demonstrate against it almost three years later? We’re joined by author and Senior Fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute Richard McGregor, to discuss the ‘White Paper protests’ and how the Chinese authorities are attempting to mute them. In this episode o...

Why is it becoming more common for women to freeze their eggs?  A couple in the US has just welcomed twins into the world using embryos made 30 years ago. The twins have been named the ‘oldest babies’ to be born after the eggs were kept in ice for 3 decades.  We’re joined by Molly Johnston, a bioethics lecturer at Monash University and she’s been working in the IVF field for the last five years to...

Should employers respect a worker’s right to disconnect? The age of mobile phones and the internet means we’re connected more than ever. We’re basically available 24/7. Should workers retain the right to disconnect once their work day is done? A growing movement, called 'right to disconnect' is urging employers to respect a worker’s right to their own downtime.  We’re joined by a Queensland teache...

So many of us have developed mental health problems in the wake of the pandemic.  The federal government currently has a program where you can see a GP and the doctor will refer you to a psychologist for 20 help sessions, but the government is planning on winding that back to ten sessions by the end of the year.  To add to the problem it’s virtually impossible to find a psychologist who will take...

Angela White is Australia's most successful porn star.    Angela knew she wanted to work in porn from the age of fourteen. She saw the industry as a place where her sexuality and her love of sex would be celebrated, not stigmatised. Today, Angela is one of the biggest adult entertainers in the world, with her own empire. The Daily Beast describes her as the "Meryl Streep of porn".  In this convers...

Cryptocurrency is having a year from hell.  And it’s been a massive fall - the market capitalisation of the crypto market has fallen from around $US3 trillion last year to around $US 800 billion.  As part of the fall, one of the world’s most famous crypto cowboys came down to earth. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX We’re joined by Paul Vigna, a reporter at the Wall Street Jour...

Chinese president Xi Jinping met with Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese last week.  It was a first step in a bid to mend relations between the two countries.  China blocked Australian imports of wine, barley, live seafood and beef - among others - in 2020 in response to Australia’s criticism of China in the wake of the pandemic.     We’re joined by Joanna Chiu - a Vancouver-based journal...

We look at the results of an inquiry into sexism in the Queensland Police Service. In May, QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced an independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service responses to domestic and family violence.      We’re joined by Kate Kyriacou, a senior journalist at Brisbane’s Courier Mail newspaper.  Kate has followed the hearings since day one and says the i...

Protests against Iran's clerical establishment erupted two months ago after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly breaking the strict hijab rules.     We’re joined by Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert who spent more than 800 days imprisoned in Iran and has carried out research into protests and revolutions in the Middle East.  Kylie explain...

Victoria will head to the polls this weekend, to decide whether to re-elect Daniel Andrews. We look into what has shaped the man who has become one of Australia’s most powerful and divisive premiers.   We speak to Sumeyya Ilanbey from  The Age  who has written a biography of Andrews, the man who is likely to lead his government into a third term.  Headlines: - Severe weather lashes east - FIFA Wor...

Tom Boyd was just eighteen years old when he was named the number one AFL draft pick of 2013. After briefly playing for Greater Western Sydney he moved back to Melbourne to join the Western Bulldogs. The teenager’s contract was worth a record-breaking $7 million. Tom Boyd was instrumental in the Bulldogs premiership of 2016, the team’s first in 62 years. Three years later, at 23 years old, Tom mad...

Each morning, The Briefing tells you what is happening in the world. But does it tell you why it is happening? Well, yes, actually it does. It’s a real all-rounder.   But what if I told you that there was a brand new podcast that could tell you the whats and the whys of what is happening in relation to astrology? Hosted by astrologer Katherine Gillies, It’s a Sign is a daily, 90-second guide to yo...

Covid cases are rapidly rising on Australia's east coast, leading Queensland to issue an amber alert across the state. There are fears Australia is heading for a Covid crisis in the lead up to Christmas.  Experts are urging us to work from home; there are calls for mask mandates to be re-introduced; and Queensland has issued an amber alert across the state.  In this episode of the Briefing, we tal...

Towns in the Central West of NSW have been inundated by floodwaters this week.  Residents of Forbes were told to leave town with the Lachlan River forecast to hit a new record. There were wild scenes across a number of small towns on Monday: more than 100 people were rescued by helicopter in Eugowra. Molong and Canowindra were also hard hit by flooding, and Wyangla Dam on the Lachlan has been over...

A brand new podcast has lifted the lid on every parent’s worst nightmare. Listnr’s new podcast, The Children in the Pictures follows Australian documentary-maker and dad, Akhim Dev, as he uncovers the truth behind a global criminal network of child sexual abuse.   We’re joined by Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, who has been running Taskforce Argos at QLD Police for 25 years. His team infiltrates ch...

After Elon Musk’s incredible success at Tesla and Paypal, the world wanted to see what he would do when he announced he was buying Twitter. So far, it's been a disaster. From day one, Musk has pivoted from one mistake to another, sacking thousands of people before backtracking and making a complete mess of the verification process.  In today’s Briefing, we take a deep dive on Elon Musk’s twitter c...

Rebel Wilson has just announced her daughter was born via surrogate. She’s one of a growing number of people having their children this way. In her announcement she thanked the surrogate who “carried Royce and birthed her with such grace and care,” and it got us talking about surrogacy.  In today's Briefing, we speak to lawyer Sarah Jefford, a surrogate herself, about the Australia system which fo...

NASA is heading back to the moon in the hopes of setting up a colony there.   But this endeavour – called Artemis - has been plagued by delays and the spacecraft remains firmly on the ground.   So, what’s going on? Why hasn’t it launched yet?  Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Matthew Agius about the Artemis missions, what's gone wrong so far and when we’re likely to a see m...

Brooke Blurton was Australia's first ever Indigenous and bisexual Bachelorette.   There is so more to this impressive young woman than reality TV fame. Brooke is a passionate advocate for mental health, a proud champion of young queer people and people of colour. In her new book Big Love, she reveals a far more complex character than we were permitted to see on screen, and speaks about a childhood...

Wil Anderson’s new book is called I am NOT fine, thanks.  It's all about how the pandemic impacted us: we worked from home, or maybe lost our jobs, or began losing friends down rabbit holes.  Wil says it’s time to bring those who drifted into conspiracy theories back into the fold.    In today’s Briefing, Wil Anderson talks us through how the pandemic impacted his career and how he found himself l...

We all watched in amazement as the world’s super-rich went gangbusters during the pandemic. Some of the increases in wealth were next level. If 2020 and 2021 were dream years, 2022 has been a nightmare for billionaires.  James Thomson writes the Chanticleer column in the Australian Financial Review.  James explains why the pandemic was so profitable for the uber-wealthy, and why 2022 has seen some...