Conversations

A freewheeling conversation with the celebrated poet and essayist

After two suicides changed her family forever, Jessie Cole returned to Northern NSW to begin again (CW: Suicide references) Jessie grew up in Northern NSW in a rainforest house lovingly built by her parents. They had moved to the hills outside Byron Bay in the 1970s and believed they could remake the world. Jessie’s father had two older daughters from a previous marriage, who visited from Sydney e...

In the midst of her grief, Sarah became aware that hospital negligence led to her mother's death

Hamish Maxwell Stewart from the University of Tasmania has spent his working life deep in the Tasmanian convict archive (R)

Amateur astronomer Greg Quicke was working in Northern Australia, sleeping under the stars in a swag when he bought a second-hand telescope

How three cultures shaped one of our great performing artists

Social researcher Hugh Mackay has some ideas for a more compassionate and socially cohesive Australia

Reflections on a failed campaign to become America’s first female President

In 2014, Stephen Davis went on a rescue mission to northern Nigeria to save the Chibok girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram (R)

Jeremy Heimans was one of the founders of GetUp in 2005. Since then he's been at the forefront of the online movement for social change

Dr Rosemary Laing was Clerk of the Senate for seven years

Katy was described by Donald Trump as disgraceful, a liar, and 'third-rate' during her coverage of his successful Presidential campaign

Biologist Jodi Rowley has identified 26 new species of frogs in South-East Asia and Australia

How a shy Mormon girl named Sharon became Poh Ling Yeow. Sharon Ling Yeow grew up in Malaysia, and moved to Adelaide with her parents at the age of 9. She was a shy child, who loved to paint and draw, but found school and socialising overwhelming. At home, her Aunty Kim taught her how to cook Malaysian food, and her mum taught her how to bake. At 16, Sharon joined the Mormon Church, where she met...

Growing up next door to some of Australia's most notorious criminals shaped Patrick Kennedy's family

The story of the 2011 earthquake that triggered multiple disasters in Japan, and took many thousands of lives

Annie Raser-Rowland's adventurous life as a weed forager and free thinker

Raised in rural Idaho in an extremist Mormon family who forbade her to attend school, Tara studied in secret, and made her way to university

Journalist Masha Gessen on growing up Jewish in the Soviet Union, and her two remarkable grandmothers

Charles Eddy became an expert on rare bleeding diseases after his son Lachie was born with haemophilia

Liz's life before and after netball; and what she had to unlearn to have a baby boy after facing secondary infertility

Robert Fisk has spent his career reporting from war zones, and he's one of the few Western journalists who met Osama Bin Laden in person (R)

Kerry Tucker rewrote her life story from inside maximum security

Historian and angler Anna Clark on the story of fishing in Australia (R)

Peter Venn's imagination was captured by the simple physics of the hovercraft. He turned flying them into a business, but the unusual vehicles still bring him joy