Saturday Extra - Full program podcast

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

The latest on the Middle East and the clearest sign yet of a breakthrough between Washington and Tehran  -  David Rennie, the Geopolitics Editor at The Economist, and Professor David Kilcullen, one of Australia's leading military thinkers, unpack the overnight announcements and meetings. Author and journalist Katherine Stewart looks at the feud between Donald Trump and Pope Leo, and whether it poi...

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

As a search and rescue mission is underway for a crew member from a US fighter jet that was downed in southern Iran, Gregg Carlstrom, the Middle East Correspondent for The Economist, joins Saturday Extra with the latest news from the region. To the stars and the Artemis moon mission with Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. David McCloskey, the co-host of p...

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

The Pentagon is sending more US Marines to the Middle East as the war with Iran escalates and widens  -  Professor Robert Pape explains how the US is falling into an "escalation trap". Economist Stephen Koukoulas on how the oil shock is hitting the Australian economy and whether the government may use the crisis to bring forward economic reform. Andrew Day from The American Conservative, on how th...

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

Yalda Hakim joins Nick Bryant from Qatar, as Iran continues strikes against Gulf states. Ed Luce, from the Financial Times discusses  how Donald Trump has moved from a "peacemaker" to the pursuit of Iranian regime change. The discovery of a possum and a glider in the forests of West Papua that were thought to be extinct with Professor Tim Flannery.  Magda Szubanski reflects on the life of Ted Emer...

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

Australian economist Justin Wolfers reacts to the bombshell US Supreme Court ruling which deemed Donald Trump's tariffs illegal.  Cricketing legend Greg Chappell discusses the imprisonment of former rival-turned-mate Imran Khan. BBC News royal correspondent Jonny Dymond unpacks the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.  The New York Times' Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks about her powerful interview wit...

Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.

Katty Kay from The Rest is Politics US dissects the latest in US politics including the reaction to a now deleted racist post of the Obamas.  Plus, the Epstein files political fallout in the UK with Jon Sopel from The News Agents. How is the Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Australia being reported in Israel? And former National Party leader John Anderson on the surge in One Nation suppor...

The latest on Iran from BBC Persian's Bahman Kalbasi as Tehran faces the threat of US military action in response to the killing of peaceful demonstrators and mass executions. The downfall of China's top military general Zhang Youxia as Xi Jinping escalates his purge of the People's Liberation Army elite with Richard McGregor from the Lowy Institute. Plus, is the Trump administration  de-escalatin...

Charles Kupchan and Malcolm Turnbull assess the week of diplomacy at Davos in Switzerland this week, the implications of Trump's America first approach and the remarkable speech made by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who described the end of the era underpinned by United States. Plus Niki Savva on the "inevitable" split of the Coalition and the future of Sussan Ley's leadership of the Libera...

On Saturday Extra's final show of the summer break:  Our best conversations with authors of notable books. CNN's Jake Tapper on one of the most fateful decisions in American history - Joe Biden's decision to run for re-election despite evidence of his decline; actor Griffin Dunne on coming of age in a family of larger-than-life characters in Hollywood; and historian Sophia Rosenfeld on the history...

From the Colossus of Rhodes to the hanging gardens of Babylon, we visit the seven wonders of the ancient world with author and historian Bettany Hughes; and from jewels to jumbo jets, a history of diplomatic gift giving; journalist Ed Wong on how travelling China with his father taught him that his family story is deeply entwined with China's rising power; 50 years of Papua New Guinean independenc...

On the show: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, Lord Norman Foster who was awarded the Pritzker prize for architecture , and Irish novelist Colum McCann who won the National Book Award in America.

What shaped the world in 2025? We revisit the heartbreaking conflicts and the peacemaking. From the powerful influence of the Trump presidency to the Australia federal election, the big beautiful bill to Beijing's rising power, we take stock of pivotal developments with the world's best analysts.  Highlights from our most insightful conversations with some of the world's biggest thinkers: Thomas F...

Welcome to Summer on Saturday Extra where you'll hear some of our best conversations of 2025. This week - Australian arts and culture. A conversation with the playwright Suzie Miller about her blockbuster play, Inter Alia; David Wenham brings back the much loved character Jonny Spitteri for the sequel to the 2003 cult film Gettin' Square. Music from the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Austral...

One of Australia’s most celebrated authors, Geraldine Brooks on how she came to write a book with the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris; the deep schism between Europe and the US over the National Security Strategy and how to end the war in Ukraine; the BBC Chief North America Correspondent -Gary O’Donoghue, or BlindGazza as he calls himself on social media, takes us behind the scen...

An updated US National Security Strategy pledges “lethal force” against drug cartels as the US continues a massive military presence off Venezuela - Phil Gunson from the International Crisis Group analyses the situation from Caracas; a candid conversation with Governor-General Sam Mostyn about her role and the "goodness" in Australia that can be masked by media and polarising voices; a guide to th...

A chat with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook from chart-topping The Rest is History podcast;  the year of Donald Trump with the author and journalist David Frum from The Atlantic magazine; a deep dive into the 2025 Australian Election study, and after European leaders were blindsided by President Trump’s 28-point-plan to end the Ukraine war - where do peace talks now stand?