Days Like These

It's 2011. Australia is in its tenth year of the War on Terror. Reports of hate crimes are on the rise. And 20-something Nazeem Hussain is a tax specialist. Before he was selling out shows and touring stand-up internationally, Nazeem Hussain wore a suit and clocked in at 9am for his day job. At evenings and weekends, he was also media spokesperson for the Islamic Council of Victoria. And one morni...

Days Like These is back — with spies, comedians, lost parents and a lightning strike — oh, and then there’s a pilgrimage of the agnostic  and the atheist, travelling from Sydney to Ireland with a wooden statue of Mary. And that’s just for starters. So join us, for more stories of the day when everything changed.

Days Like These is taking a break for the summer, but while we’re away we wanted to share with you some of our favourite true story podcasts. One Sunday evening, widower Warren Kirk was home alone and decided to do something he'd never done before in his life. He rang an escort service. Hear other great stories like this on Earshot, on Radio National and on podcast.

Days Like These is taking a break for the summer, but while we’re away we wanted to share with you some of our favourite true story podcasts. History, tragedy, and triumph. Marrickville’s Henson Park is an icon of Sydney's inner west. But before the unshakable Newtown Jets footy fans called it home, the community oval was a giant hole in the ground supplying Sydney's building boom. This is one of...

Days Like These is taking a break for the summer, but while we’re away we wanted to share with you some of our favourite true story podcasts. Holidays can stir up memories of loved ones no longer with us. They can be a time to remember things that were once a bone of contention but now speak to a beautiful understanding between husband and wife. As told by our Executive Producer, Sophie Townsend f...

When horse lover Nicole began to learn about brumbies, there was one who took her breath away on Facebook page: Paleface. He was the most famous stallion of all the wild horses on the Snowy Mountains. A rock star horse with a breathless online following. But after the bushfires of 2019, he disappeared. Fast forward to 2021 when Nicole helps rescue a herd of brumbies from the Mountains: could an an...

Growing up in pre-revolution Iran, Jaleh Misaghi dreams of becoming a race car driver. So strong is the pull of rubber on the road, she glues herself to the TV, watching Formula 1, practicing her moves and yearning for the speed of the track.  But after the Iranian revolution, Jaheh’s driving quest is shattered – she can’t even get her licence. With the regime cracking down and a young daughter to...

Jacek Koman grew up in theatres, the son of two actors performing their way around Communist Poland in the 1950s and 1960s. At school he’s more interested in learning Russian than stagecraft, by the time Jacek reaches university he decides to follow in their footsteps and go to drama school.   But, after a night out ends in a brush with the Polish secret police, Jacek and his brother make a run fo...

It’s mid-winter in the Snowy Mountains and in the Thredbo river, where the water is 3.3 degrees, a woman swims laps. She’s wearing just a regular swimsuit, cap and goggles.   The swimmer is 40-year-old Joy Symons, attempting an ‘ice mile’, a feat considered by some the most dangerous swim in the world. To achieve this official ice mile, she must give proof that she is alive 45 minutes after the ev...

Sonya grew up in Brisbane. But at 26 she decides to move her life to London. Within days of arriving, she meets a beautiful woman at a bar in Soho. They click instantly. They fall in love, get married and build a life together in their adopted city. The only thing missing is… a baby. But after 5 years of trying, it doesn’t happen for them and they decide to call it a day.    Not long after Tess an...

Growing up in a small city in south-west China during Mao’s Cultural Revolution led Guojian to join the People's Liberation Army, China’s military.   He was a doctrinaire solider until an illegal Australian radio station, and a love song, opened his world. 

When Megan met Leon, they thought they were just in for a holiday romance. But it became a long distance thing. Then it became a real life thing.  And then it wasn't a thing. Leon had his life sorted out, while Megan felt her real life hadn’t even started.  They let each other go, they met other people, they had adventures... but eventually, real life and real love collided – but could it work, al...

One night, fresh from his first big break-up, a 23-year-old Graham Panther is hanging out at a friend’s house when she pulls out a massive bag of weed.   Together, they decide to cut loose, forget about their troubles for one night.   But what starts as a light-hearted trip soon sours, as Graham finds himself tumbling into a different dimension. And when he returns to reality, things are not as th...

Emma Jane Holmes is a funeral director by day, but when night falls, her alter ego appears.  Emma takes our lead reporter Pat Abboud behind the closed doors of a mortuary, to reveal how the death care industry is dealing with the pandemic and letting us in on her secret double life.

Two men go head-to-head over a set of photographs taken in the Tasmanian wilderness. The images could rewrite the history of a legendary animal, if only they can agree on what they're looking at. Here are the images captured by Neil Waters and the Thylacine Awareness Group. *A previous version of this story claimed that the parties had not met, which was inaccurate and has now been corrected.

At the beginning of 2019, country singer Felicity Urquhart was preparing for a huge year of performing and publicity. She was about to release Frozen Rabbit, her first solo album in a decade. Creating the record had been an extended labour of love for her and her husband, Glen Hannah, also a musician and producer. But the year would unfold in ways that no one saw coming, and the album would mark a...

When Jane Rowe tries her first hit of heroin, the relief it offers is undeniable. Rebelling against her privileged upbringing, she throws herself into the punk scene of 1970s London, rubbing shoulders with rock stars and moguls. But when the party's over and Jane's rattled by the aftershocks of addiction, she sets out to rescue the forgotten victims of drug abuse.

A cold-war thriller, set on the streets of Sydney. Our hero, a man only recently promoted from the ASIO mail room to spy-catcher, finds that chasing a KGB operative doesn’t always follow a James Bond-type script.   

Two friends set off on a one-way ticket overseas intending to have the time of their lives. It’s their big adventure before settling down to start “real life’.  But, in a small village in Nepal, amongst hikers from all over the world, it all goes terribly wrong... and it’s all they can do just to survive.  To take a look at Athena’s photos and to find out more, head to   www.athenazelandonii.com/

A brother and sister duo face a life-changing diagnosis, a family secret and flooding rains as they race across state borders to make it home. This is a story about the frustrations and fractures of addiction, the loneliness of life in a pandemic and the wonders of long-distance love.  Mostly, it’s about the ties that bind, and the people who are always there for us, even when you don’t expect it....

One evening, a team of scientists realise that a tracking device they'd attached to a bull shark off the coast of NSW has come ashore and is now leaving a GPS trail all over Wollongong and surrounds. This tag, once attached to a bull shark's dorsal fin, contains valuable scientific data that could help unlock the secrets of the deep, and of the apex predators who call it home. But will a team of r...

Cut Copy. Evermore. Bliss n Esso. British India. Tame Impala! You've got your tickets. Your favourite band is headlining and your mates are by your side. A music festival in amongst the wild animals at a South Australian Zoo ... it could have been so right. So how did everything go so, so wrong?

Singer-songwriter Shellie Morris still remembers the first time she heard Yothu Yindi's Treaty. She had left her adopted white family in Sydney when "Treaty yeah, Treaty now" blared through her car radio, and changed her forever.  The song would become part of the soundtrack of her incredible journey to find her Aboriginal birth family in the Northern Territory and to work out where, and what, hom...

Tai Snaith has always loved animals, especially horses. After growing up on a farm, she thought she was used to the practical cycles of life and death that Australian country life can throw at you. But when her beloved horse Ziffy dies, she shares an unbelievable moment with him… it’s on the very boundary of the known and the unknown. She knows this bond will last forever.

How do you orchestrate a meeting with your hero? For Tate Sheridan it was simple: a clandestine operation involving a long and heartfelt letter, a demo CD, some wrapping paper and sneaky dash backstage at a big Elton John gig. Two years later, Tate was to join his now mentor on tour, performing in front of 38,000 Elton John fans playing the actual piano of a real life rock and roll god. Thanks to...