Sunday Extra - Full program podcast

Will the new African Credit Rating Agency level the playing field for the world's poorest nations? What is next for Nepal after August's devastating floods? In the wake of the death of lab worker at a Russian anti-plague institute, should we be worried about lab leaks? And ethical hacker Freakyclown shares lessons from his decades of experience robbing banks (legally).  Plus on The Year That Made...

Raygun on her doco Breaking Badly, Dr Karl Deisseroth on winning the Nobel Prize for Medicine, and nonagenarian comic, Liz Hicklin on her play Sylvia Plath Stole My Boyfriend. Plus, Papua's melting glaciers, the complexity of keeping time on the moon, and the story of vaudeville sensation Harry Burrell aka Platypus Man.  And on The Year That Made Me, photojournalist Lorrie Graham reflects on her f...

As Nike's value plummets, is it's reputation heading in the same direction? What does it take to clear a war-ravaged country of landmines? And who was the real man behind the myth of Stephen Hawking.  Plus Jeremy Dicker returns for Extra Intrigue, the cover-up of failed WWII rescue mission in Borneo, and a play that shares the stories of displaced children from Afghanistan and Syria. And on The Ye...

Sunday Extra presents a mix of national and international affairs, analysis and investigation.

Indonesia’s ambitious free nutritious meals program is plagued by food poisoning, the inaugural Bangsamoro Parliamentary election and research revising Australia's pre-colonial population.  Plus, the mind behind the Australian classic ‘Possum Magic’ Mem Fox,  Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Joby Warrick and Melanie Huang Buntine’s “love letter to the personal computer”. 

A deep dive into the newly expanded BRICS+ summit, the breakdown of the Indus Treaty, and the world's store of gold. Also, the extraordinary life of Australia's first indigenous military officer, the mysterious world of Echidnas, and a French astrophysist making waves. Then on The Year That Made Me, Australian author Sandy 'AJ' Mackinnon on a life full of spontaneous adventure.

Introducing Extra Intrigue a new monthly segment on the global affairs stories you might have missed. Plus, fast fashion giant Shein floats on the Hong Kong share market, the woman behind NASA's new telescope, and author Rosalie Ham on the Year that Made Me.

Syria's shifting fortunes, a new Australia-Japan defence pact, and the promise (or peril) of AI-powered democracy.  Plus Andrew Upton, Lily Shearer, Jim Henson's imaginative legacy, and Danny Estrin's moving race against time to tell a story worth sharing.

Taiwan prepares for the predicted 2027 invasion by China, hunger stones in the dry river-beds of Europe remind us of the devastation of drought, medical hope from the Clinical Trial of the Year, and on The Year That Made Me, former cricket Bharat Sundaresan shares his love of cricket... and poetry.

Following Vietnamese leader Tô Lâm’s landmark visit to Australia, we examine what a deeper strategic partnership reveals about shifting power dynamics in the Asia-Pacific. while also exploring global efforts to reform corporate taxation and Iceland’s debate over renewing EU accession talks. We also look at a National Library podcast uncovering Australia’s oral history treasures, a documentary foll...

China's new 'ethnic unity' law has reignited the debate over Beijing's treatment of Tibet Digital Rights Watch warns about AI scribes in healthcare, and Tony Jones on the ethical dilemma of medical testing on primates.  Plus, with the focus on Spain's exclave of Ceuta, what are exclaves, enclaves and counter-enclaves? A new play explores the famous 18th century castrato Farinelli and Paul Toohey o...

The anniversary of Arthur Calwell’s 1945 “populate or perish” speech that shaped Australia, the first polls open for the next UN Secretary General, why Indonesia's economy is on a downturn, and an author who's work took her to the heart of insidious cults. Plus, a dictionary of Parramatta, traditional Middle Eastern cooking going viral, war journalist turned author Mohammed Massoud Morsi on The Ye...

The forces driving India's cockroach protests, and the evolution of the Labor Party. The forgotten mother of popular astrology, and the medieval book that fuelled witch hunts. Plus, former Liverpool football star Craig Johnston on The Year That Made Me, whose football achievements might be the least remarkable thing about him.

One Nation didn't emerge in a vacuum, then or now. The global surge in right-wing populism has propelled the party and thirty years on, it’s arguably stronger than ever. But is its popularity a protest or a fundamental realignment of Australian politics? And what happens to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, post Pauline? In the sixth and final episode of The Making of One Nation, we speak to Jill Shepp...

A journalist who was pursued by Moroccan authorities on the arrest of "the best rapper in North Africa", a scientist who mapped the global fungal network, and rock star classicist Mary Beard on Mussolini and Beyoncé. Plus, author and lawyer Alice Pung on The Year That Made Me, how the online outrage industry is manipulating our worst impulses, and tickling great apes for science.

The media made Pauline Hanson and One Nation, but now the party holds all the power. It’s a perfect storm for democracy: a shrinking and cowering traditional media, the toxic algorithms of the unmoderated social media cess pit and the warped reality of generative AI. But why is the party that once led the charge in the new internet age seemingly so restrained in weaponising AI? In the fifth instal...

The latest on Albania's "Flamingo Revolution", John Safran on Race Around the World in the digital age, and Sri Lankan-Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan on The Year That Made Me.

It’s never held government, or even opposition, yet One Nation’s managed to exert an outsized influence on the public policy agenda. From borders to migration, multiculturalism to Indigenous affairs, the far-right party has mastered mainstreaming and captured the masses fleeing the Coalition. In the fourth instalment of The Making of One Nation, we speak to Josh Sunman, Associate Lecturer in Publi...

Solar solutions to food waste in Africa. The legal battle facing France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Marcia Langton asks what it means to belong on one's own land. The design evolution of the soccer ball. What is the protocol for alien first contact. And on The Year That Made Me, Jessica Mauboy. 

We’d all like deeply considered policy and informed debate to be at the heart of politics, but unfortunately controversies and scandals tend to steal the show. For most parties, scandals are disastrous: they lose seats, ministers and elections — but not One Nation. It's weathered defections and punch-ups (including a memorable smearing of blood on a Senate door), jail and chaos, and thirty years o...

From missing oil money to disappearing flight credits, and new Mozart music uncovered. Plus chess prodigy and International Master, Irina Berezina on how a chess competition nearly ended her life. 

You might remember this line in Pauline Hanson's maiden speech: "I'm afraid we're in danger of being swamped by Asians." It wasn't the first racist comment she'd made in public and it certainly wasn't the last. Over the years, her enemies have changed and she now targets Muslims and elites, but it's the same tactic and it's infiltrated Australian politics. This series was hosted by Ashlynne McGhee...

From a knife-edge by-election in Britain to a pivotal vote in Colombia, a peek at Arthur Boyd's monumental tapestries and acclaimed author Anna Funder on The Year That Made Me.

From a fish and chip shop in regional Queensland to the heart of Australian politics: this is the unlikely story of the country's most controversial minor party. In episode one, Ashlynne McGhee asks who was Pauline Hanson before she became a phenomenon, and what did she actually represent? Was she a cause of a new kind of politics, or a symptom of one already forming?

This week on Sunday Extra, the father-daughter dates of North Korea's Supreme Leader and his 13-year-old daughter being positioned as successor, Russia and the Taliban cosy up and Gen-Z discover the joys of bird-watching.