Conversations

When journalist Jon Ronson visited castle owned by a digital tycoon, it became a portal into a world of disaffected men, grasping for purpose online in a world where traditional institutions are collapsing. He had received a series of texts from his son Joel, after he was lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, and those texts set him off into an investigation of...

When school principal Manisha Gazula changed how her students were learning to read, she began an entirely new system which made her an icon of literacy learning. Manisha Gazula is the principal of Marsden Road Public School in the outer south-western suburbs of Sydney.  When Manisha first came to the school, less than three per cent of its students were proficient in English reading and writing,...

Psychologist Kerrie Lumbewe on trying to unpack what has happened inside ordinary people that has made loving one another so difficult. Kerrie Lumbewe is a psychologist who specialises in love and relationships. She spends her days sitting with people as they try and work out how to make things work; to understand how they can be in a partnership and still feel so alone; to make sense of how two p...

When author Bonnie Garmus tried to sell her first novel, it was rejected 98 times, but then at 66, she wrote a novel called Lessons in Chemistry, which sold four million copies around the world. Bonnie  had wanted to be a novelist since she was five years old. Decades later, she was a copywriter, an open-water swimmer and a rower when she tried to sell her first novel. After many rejections, she r...

Zoe Terakes is a writer and actor with deep family connections to the island of Crete, where their great-grandparents migrated to Australia from. This island is the site of Europe’s first ancient civilisation. Bronze Age Crete had palaces, temples, art, written language and mythology long before the Roman Empire existed, and centuries before the Parthenon was built. When Zoe started reading the my...

Anthony talks about his turbulent childhood in Adelaide, escaping to a cocaine-fuelled New York in the 1980s to begin his life as an actor, and how writing his memoir helped him forgive his parents. Anthony grew up in the suburbs of Adelaide, in a house full of rage, disappointment and violence. He spent as much time as he could alone, reading books, watching classic Hollywood movies, and dreaming...

Fashion designer Jenny Kee co-created a whole new era in Australian fashion in the 1970s. But nothing could have prepared her for her own next chapter. Jenny was born in Bondi in the 1950s, and left Australia for London when she was young. She began selling vintage clothes at the Chelsea markets, where she attracted attention for her stall and her brilliant style. When she returned to Australia in...

When Edith Wright discovered the turbulent history of her great-grandfathers, who were some of the founders of the pearling industry in the waters off Broome, she knew she had to write down the storyEdith is a Bardi Jawi woman from the saltwater country of Western Australia’s Dampier Peninsula. When she was a little girl growing up in the Kimberley, her dad would tell her stories about his two Eur...

Dasha Ross tells the story of her bizarre brush with memory loss and what happened when she and her husband decided to takeover a rundown beachside hotel in Sri Lanka. Dasha has lived a life full of adventures, from nude modelling in Sydney and making films in Brazil, to renovating a nightclub in Harlem with a baby on her hip. But Dasha's most epic escapades were with her beloved husband John Pind...

Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci on his childhood, becoming a success on Wall Street and why backing Trump was a colossal error. Anthony grew up on Long Island, part of a large Italian-American community and far away from the world of money, power and influence. When he was accepted into a prestigious university, Anthony’s parents put their retirements savings on the line to make sure he was able to...

When Robin Bailey’s husband and father of their three boys died by suicide, she had to figure out the best way to help her children work through their grief while also managing her own sadness and anger. (CW: this episode discusses suicide, please take care when listening)Robin is one of Brisbane’s best-known breakfast radio hosts, and she’s been in the business for decades. When she was 11, Robin...

Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know it's the weekend. Dr Culum Brown is a leading researcher in the field of fish cognition. He's based at Macquarie University where he runs the Fish Lab — the Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory. His fascination for fish stems from growing up in parts of south-east A...

Broadcaster and author Dee Salmin on how her parents' epic love story and dramatic relationship shaped her understanding of love and men; and how she eventually found healthy romance in life. When Dee was growing up in Perth, her father, a great Russian ballet dancer, was ‘the man of the house’. Life at home, and every choice that Dee, her siblings, and her mum made revolved around his whims and h...

Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophrenia, and Mimi's glamorous other life in the intoxicating hubbub of Hong Kong. Mimi presented the news on ABC and Channel Nine, and worked in the newsroom for more than 20 years.  Today she has four children with her loving husban...

Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophrenia, and Mimi's glamorous other life in the intoxicating hubbub of Hong Kong. (CW: Discussion of mental illness and suicide attempt) Mimi presented the news on ABC and Channel Nine, and worked in the newsroom for more than 20 yea...

Mick won 3 world surfing titles, and famously punched a great white shark in South Africa. But his life out of the water has been threaded through with devastating loss, after the death of his three older brothers. (CW: loss and grief) Mick Fanning grew up on the Gold Coast in a raucous, loving family of five kids, raised by his mum Elizabeth, a nurse who worked night shift.  He and his brother Se...

Journalist Rick Morton on how his mum raised three children in poverty and the class disparities in Australia. Rick's family come from the vast country of Outback Queensland, near the Birdsville Track. His grandfather, George Morton, was a wealthy landholder and he ruled over his family like a tyrant. When Rick was little, a terrible accident was followed by the break-up of his family and Rick, hi...

Judith Lucy is one of Australia's most loved comedians. Recently after years of tummy troubles, burnout, and a complicated relationship with alcohol, she began her mission to work on her health, in earnest.  As well as being a beloved comic, Judith is also the author of four books and the presenter of several television series. For decades Judith has been busying herself with project after project...

A portrait of one teacher and his class as they journey through the ups and downs of a school year. Brendan James Murrary has been a high school teacher for more than ten years and although his own experiences at school weren't great, he ended up taking a job back at the school where he was a bullied and unhappy student. During his time as a teacher he's seen hundreds of kids move through the same...

The instructions found in endorsed baby books over the last century could be, with hindsight, bizarre or cruel. And were most often given by “experts” with no children of their own.  Journalist and broadcaster, Richard Glover tackles the changing landscape of parenting advice. He looks back at his own experience of being parented, which included having his ears sticky-taped while growing up in Pap...

The author on the diagnosis that floored her and the gifts that got her through harrowing treatment — including a cat named Nicholas. The Australian-Irish author was last on the program in 2020. She reflected on her childhood by the railway tracks in the Clare Valley, South Australia, where she grew up with her band of brothers and sisters. After she recorded that interview, Monica received a canc...

RAF pilot Frank Dell parachuted into Nazi occupied Holland after his plane was hit by cannon fire and with the aid of courageous Dutch families and resistance fighters he got out alive. As a teenager, Frank saw the Battle of Britain played out in the skies above his village in the south of England. He joined the RAF and piloted a De Havilland Mosquito on bombing raids into Germany. In October 1944...

When Magda Szubanski discovered what had happened to her mum as a child, she began to see her in an entirely new light (CW: discussion of sexual abuse, please take care when listening) Magda released her first memoir a few years ago, to widespread acclaim. It was the story of how Magda unearthed the life story of her Polish-born father and his role as an assassin during WWII. Magda's now written h...

Laurie Lawrence's obsession with winning Gold started when he was a small boy growing up above the Tobruk Pool in Townsville. When he became a coach, he had an epiphany about the nature of victory. When Laurie was a child, he had a chronic lung condition that meant he had to sleep sitting in a chair. Doctors advised his parents that an operation was necessary, and part of one of his lungs was remo...

Kim Huynh on his family's remarkable journey from Vietnam to Australia. And taking on the role of carer for his fiercely strong-willed father, Thiet. Kim grew up in Canberra, arriving in Australia with his family as refugees from Vietnam. Like many migrant children, Kim is a very driven person and has taken on a lot of responsibilities in life. He is an academic, an ABC broadcaster, an author and...