Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Zero is one of mathematics’ most profound inventions: a symbol for nothing that made new ways of thinking about numbers possible. Clemency Montelle traces its evolution across civilisations, from an empty placeholder to a number in its own right. Guest: Clemency Montelle, Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand Producer: Ali Benton

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on a mission when he visited Greece last week: to shore up defence ties between the two countries, to make new energy routes for US LNG exports and to use Greece as an example of a model NATO ally to the rest of Europe. Greece had its own agenda: deterrence against Turkiye who recently stepped up their global positioning with a defence pact with Saudi Arabia a...

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is pushing for a reset in Britain’s relationship with the EU, arguing Brexit has left the UK worse off and calling for closer economic ties.  Guest: Ian Dunt, iNews columnist and regular LNL commentator Producer: Ali Benton 

Artificial intelligence is raising big questions about power, profit and what it means to be human. Father Paolo Benanti, advisor to the Holy Sea on AI ethics, is in Australia to discuss how we should navigate the challenges posed by this rapidly developing technology Guest: Father Paolo Benanti, Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and advisor to the Holy Sea on AI Ethics Producer: A...

Under federal law, faith schools in Australia have the right to expel pupils and sack teachers who are gay. The Law Reform Commission recommended abolishing the practice several times, but so far faith leaders have successfully argued such powers are essential to maintaining the ethos of their schools, whether Christian or Islamic. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised to address this gap in an...

Writer and historian Sally Young solves the strangest crime in Australian political history: the theft of the ceremonial mace from Victoria's parliament in October 1891. Guest: Sally Young, author, 'The Curious Case of the Stolen Mace: Solving Australia's Strangest Political Crime,' New South 

Kate Grenville's new book, 'The Country Schoolmaster: A Mystery in 88 Letters' began with the discovery of an unassuming bundle of letters in state archives. On closer inspection, they revealed a curious tale of a rural teacher, Joseph Connor, accused of savagely beating his students. Was he a monster, or the victim of a small-town vendetta?

A chance encounter in 2003 led Heather Morris to meet 87 year-old Auschwitz survivor Lale Sokolov. For the next three years, Lale told her his story. Heather’s book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, went on to be an international best-seller and television series, and led to two follow-up stories, Cilka’s Journey  and Three Sisters. Now another chance encounter has led Heather to write a remarkable tru...

J.R.R. Tolkien created one of the most intoxicating imaginative worlds of the 20th century, but the man behind Middle-earth remains surprisingly elusive. A deeply religious, conservative Oxford academic, Tolkien was also an obsessive inventor of languages, myths and imaginary histories. Guest: DJ Taylor, author of The King under the Mountain Producer: Ali Benton

Tree rings are more than a record of a tree’s life. They’re an archive of climate, fire and environmental change. They can take us back thousands of years, revealing droughts, disasters and even clues to the rise and fall of societies. Valerie Trouet examines the science of reading these ancient records, from Europe’s oldest tree to Stradivarius violins. Guest: Valerie Trouet, Professor in the Lab...

Bruce Shapiro looks at the political fall-out from the Cornell University rape case, how the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee has intensified national debate in the US over lethal-injection protocols, and, four weeks out from the mid-terms, all the polls are showing a Democrat win in both the House and the Senate... but how accurate are the polls? And could President Trump's recent $2...

Australian writer Lech Blaine shares the stranger-than-fiction story of his childhood, growing up with a loving foster family in a rural Queensland pub, haunted by fanatical Christian kidnappers.  Guest: Lech Blaine, author, 'Australian Gospel'  Originally broadcast in November 2024

It's invisible, it drives us crazy, and we can't live without it. The wind has been worshipped, feared and cursed across cultures, referenced in the earliest forms of writing. Simon Winchester tells the stories of how we've mastered the winds, and when we've been humbled by it's awesome force.  Guest: Simon Winchester, journalist and author of The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the...

This author ate multiple breakfasts in each of ten Indian cities, with the aim of looking at India's diversity and layered societies through its breakfast foods, makers and consumers. Guest: Priyadarshini Chatterjee, Kolkata-based travel, culture and food writer. Author of ‘First Bite: Breakfast stories from urban India’ (Speaking Tiger Books, 2026) Producer: Ann Arnold

Confronted with a series of existential threats, like the climate crisis and the potential of AI to end life on earth, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor argue in their new book that wealthy billionaires, including the so-called "tech bros", have become focused not on how we can deal with those threats,  but who will best survive them. Leaders of tech companies are now warning they could soon lose contr...

The German Peasants' War was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. In 1524 and 1525, it swept across Germany with astonishing speed as thousands of people massed in armed bands to demand a new and more egalitarian order. The response from feudal overlords was brutal, but while the rebellion was suppressed, it would continue to influence subsequent revolts, c...

Trauma has become one of the defining languages of our age. Cultural theorist, Catherine Liu argues that our focus on individual suffering can obscure the deeper forces of class, inequality and power. So has trauma become a new form of political identity, and is it getting in the way of solidarity? Guest: Catherine Liu, Professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of California, Author...

Australian and Canadian-run companies, some with questionable credentials, are trying to cash in on Donald Trump's promotion of deep sea mining licences. The US licensing disregards the international regulator, the International Seabed Authority.   Plus, the US Administration is moving to open up a big slab of the seabed off American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, despite those territorie...

David Marr is on holiday in the outback, to see Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre in flood. He shares his birdseye view of the rare natural wonder. 

Volkswagen was once the powerhouse of German industry. Now Chinese car makers are challenging its dominance, while Dieselgate still casts a shadow over the company. VW is cutting jobs, considering factory closures, and even turning one car plant towards defence production. Can the company reinvent itself before its glory days become history? Guest: Jack Ewing, New York Times reporter and author of...

Mark Kenny reviews PM Anthony Albanese's week at the United Nations in New York, and asks whether the Australian leader should be more assertive in rebuking the US President, on issues like the regulation of AI.  Guest: Professor Mark Kenny, Director of the Australian Studies Institute ANU, columnist for Canberra Times, co-host of Democracy Sausage podcast

Dozens of Australian and New Zealand doctors and nurses have worked in Gaza over the past two years. They temporarily joined the local medical staff in working around the clock, sometimes on very little food, trying to help people despite limited resources, and with the constant threat of attack. Forty of those medics have contributed accounts of their experiences to a book called '‘The Weight of...

A new book tracks this exotic 'spice' from the 16th century, and its origins in the world's only edible orchid, found in Central America, to the widespread use of vanilla flavouring today. And it explains how this very expensive resource came to be equated with bland. 'Vanilla' is now a synonym for ho-hum, whiter-than-white. Guest: Eric Jennings, Professor of History, University of Toronto. Author...

Humanity has extracted more from the Earth in the past 50 years than in all previous history combined. James Crawford explores the global scramble for dwindling resources, from lithium in Chile to the fossil-fuel landscapes of his childhood. What happens when the age of abundance comes to an end? Guest: James Crawford, historian and broadcaster. Author,   The Vanishing Earth, A journey through the...

Immigration built Australia. Since the 1830s, when free settlers began to outnumber convicts in the colonies, some 12 million migrants have come to Australia, shaping the country's economy, culture and identity.  These days, Australia is seen as one of the world's great multicultural success stories yet our relationship with newcomers has often been uneasy. Guest:  Mark Cully, the author of Waves...