Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Lesbia Harford was one of the first women to graduate as a lawyer from Melbourne University in the First World War, but followed her socialist ideals by working as a machinist in a factory. She went on to become one of the first female trade union leaders in Australia and a leader in the anti-war, anti-conscription movement. All the time she wrote poetry, mostly about love for both men and women,...

A bloody reshuffle for Britain’s Conservatives — is Kemi Badenoch taking the party further to the right? Andy Burnham faces his first week back in parliament as Prime Minister, and the UK turns up the pressure on Israel over its plans to expand West Bank settlements. Guest Ian Dunt: iNews columnist and regular LNL commentator Producer: Ali Benton 

We all carry GPS technology around in our pockets. But there’s a lot more to the 'Global Positioning System' than meets the eye. GPS was originally conceived as a military product, one designed to drop enormously powerful bombs with staggering precision. It now underwrites everything from rideshares to traffic light systems, international banking and supply chains. Our over-reliance on it makes us...

In October, the citizens of Alberta will vote in a referendum to decide whether the province should proceed with a process to separate from the federation of Canada. The vote exposes fractures in one of the world's most stable federations, but is there any real prospect of secession, anytime soon?   Guest: Andrea Lawlor, Associate Professor in political science, McMaster University, Ontario Produc...

Anna Henderson discusses One Nation's historic win in Western Australia, securing its first lower house seat in the state for candidate Luke Herdegen., and what the latest polling shows about the issues One Nation voters care about most.  Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS

Early last century, Alice Duncan-Kemp grew up on a remote Queensland cattle station. Later she would write down her childhood memories of learning from Aboriginal women and men at home on their own Country. Historian and writer Tom Griffiths examines - and corroborates - Alice's revelatory encounters. Guest:  Tom Griffiths, author of 'Alice's dreaming' (2026)

The wealth and power of American elders was epitomised in the US 2024 election, with Joe Biden vs Donald Trump. But elder power spreads beyond political leadership, and is preventing the US from becoming as forward thinking and economically successful as it could be, our guest argues. Guest: Samuel Moyn, the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. Author of 'Gerontocracy in America:...

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore traces 125 years of war, revolution, upheaval and revival in the Middle East. From the final days of the Ottoman Empire to to the current Iran-US conflict, Simon's new book The Cauldron examines the forces, characters and calamities that have shaped the region. Guest: Simon Sebag Montefiore, writer and historian Producer: Ali Benton

In May 1841, French sea captain Augustin Lucas arrived in Sydney with the first camera ever seen in colonial Australia. A new book offers a comprehensive study of photography's arrival, and its implication in the colonial project.  Guest: Elisa DeCourcy, writer and curator, author of Early Photography in Colonial Australia, Melbourne University Press Producer: Jack Schmidt This program originally...

A UN Security Council report has found 'credible' evidence that weapons and ammunition are making their way from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into Sudan, despite an international arms embargo. The UAE denies it is covertly arming the RSF - the Sudanese paramilitary group accused of mass killings, rape and torture. The UAE is currently Australia’s biggest weapons export market, with nearly $300m...

Our regular commentator on US politics explains why American cattle producers have a beef with President Trump. Many of them Trump supporters, they feel betrayed after he announced on Friday that he was lifting tariffs on imported ground beef. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for the Nation; executive director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma

Parents generally choose the name of their child based on familial or cultural ties, or for the way a name looks in writing. But perhaps more important - in day to day life - is the sound of our names (and nicknames) when spoken or called.  Guest: Andrew Ford, composer and host of The Music Show on ABC Radio National Read Andrew's piece on names for Inside Story

Israel's Ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman has defended the IDF probe into the death of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, which recently cleared soldiers of any criminal liability for the deadly 2024 strike on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza. Newman's defence of the report prompted UN commissioner Chris Sidoti to call for him to be returned to Israel. David Marr discusses Newma...

One Nation's Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson have been busy trying to correct what fellow One Nation MP David Farley said the party's immigration figures should be on ABC's Insiders program on Sunday . Mr Farley said the migration target should be around 130,000 plus "a minimum" 100,000 skilled workers under established visa schemes, which is very close to Labor's migration targets.  Guest: Anna...

Until the mid-20th century the Wyndham Native Hospital, on the far north coast of Western Australia, was an apartheid institution where Indigenous men, women and children were imprisoned, left untreated and subjected to experimental treatments without their knowledge and against their will. Guest: Annabel (A.M.) Stafford, former journalist, teacher, author of 'The wanted and the unwanted' (MUP) Pr...

John Cameron Mitchell wrote and starred in punk musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch – the tale of a gender queer east German rock and roll singer. He’s now on a mission to bring back punk, saying: “The job of youth is to be punk, meaning to question the status quo in a way where it doesn’t matter if you feel offended, safe…they should be physically safe, mentally unsafe. That is education.”  He tack...

The Cambridge Five have gone down in history as the most notorious spies of the 20th century. For seventeen years, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Donald Maclean and John Cairncross got away with leaking top-secret British intelligence to the Soviet Union with disastrous consequences. Now a new book, drawing on recently declassified files, debunks some enduring myths about them. Guest: Ant...

Is true social equality an impossible dream? The German philosopher Dr Hanno Sauer argues that class hierarchy is a permanent feature of human societies. Old elites may fall, but new ones fill the void. Rank, hierarchy and privilege, stubbornly persists. Hanno Sauer appears at Melbourne's The Wheeler Centre on 20 August and at Sydney's Festival of Dangerous Ideas from 22-23 August.  Guest: Hanno S...

From Shogun era Japan to the techno bunkers of 90s Berlin, people across time and cultures have always looked to let loose at night.  Guest: Imogen Willetts, author of 'Up All Night: A History of Going Out' Producer: Ali Benton

An expert guide to the commercial sins that have put the big consultancy under the spotlight, after more information emerged in a parliamentary hearing last week. Guest: Tom Ravlic, journalist, author and academic who has been writing about the KPMG saga for Crikey, and The Mandarin. He has previously been involved in the setting of ethical standards and accounting regulation. 

Ian Dunt examines the fallout from the death of Cambridge academic Jason Arday. And Nigel Farage’s Clacton by election victory -  what does it say about his political fortunes? Plus an update on the Andy Burnham 'bounce'. Is it still happening? Guest: Ian Dunt, iNews columnist and regular LNL commentator Producer: Ali Benton 

In recent weeks, the ABC has removed references to the Australian mining executive Gina Rinehart , following complaints. Guardian reporter Sarah Martin looks back at Rinehart's efforts to defend her public image in recent years.  Guest: Sarah Martin, reporter at the Guardian Australia, host of Gina: Becoming Mrs Rinehart Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Jordan has been trying to maintain neutrality in the Middle East war, but with a pre-existing military agreement with the US, that is proving increasingly difficult. After Iran sent missile strikes into Jordan recently, prominent Jordanian citzens have been urging the government to shore up sovereignty and neutrality. Guest: Nabih Bulos, Middle East bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times Producer:...

SBS political correspondent Anna Henderson surveys a busy week ahead in federal parliament, with the government eager to broker a deal to reform the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS

The popularity of calming 'night' music to help people sleep is the latest iteration of compositions that reflect the coming of the night. It was composer John Field at the end of the 19th century, followed by Chopin and others, who first brought us the musical concept of 'nocturnes'. Guest: Susan Tomes is an award-winning pianist and writer,  'Nocturnes, and the fascination of night music' (Yale...