Conversations

Roland de Chazal is best known for being the 81-year-old motorbike postie on Magnetic Island, but his earlier life in Rhodesia had its moments too — it was there he met the Queen Mother and kept his pet cheetah, Jackals

Judy on life with her late husband, the politician Tim Fischer, and how her son Harrison helped inspire a new beginning on her farm (R)

Stories from Dave Grohl about his life in music, including how he went from being "that guy from Nirvana” to a superstar rock star fronting the Foo Fighters

John Baker on hunting down a cache of rare and impossibly valuable French wine hidden away by Josef Stalin, deep in the Republic of Georgia (R)

Music was always a friend to Ed, but while he struggled to come to terms with being trans, he couldn't face his beloved instruments. Once he accepted himself, his relationship with sound flourished

Monica McInerney with tales from her childhood in a railway family in the South Australian town of Clare (R)

Australia's most famous landscape architect on learning from the garden, Greek school and his Yiayia

Philippe Sands on how a cache of letters sent him on the trail of Nazi war criminal Otto Von Wachter, who escaped to Rome on the 'Ratline' (R)

Designer Jenny Kee with the story of her wild and creative life, including how she and Linda Jackson began a movement which changed Australian fashion (CW: discretion required. Drug references, suicide and content that might be upsetting)

The ABC Sports presenter describes his life at 17, a year dominated by football, girls, beer, and a serial killer stalking his neighbourhood

While they greet one another with soft "woohoos", carefully feed their fat, fluffy babies and bleat at sunset, field naturalist Tanya Loos keeps an eye on the beautiful and ferocious population in her backyard

When an eruption began in 1994 in Papua New Guinea, the last thing singer-songwriter Ngaiire expected was a second volcano to begin spewing ash. Tuning in to the mystery and majesty of PNG has become a lifelong project (CW: Some listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening) Throughout her childhood, singing was something Ngaiire did at church, somew...

Zen priest and writer Ruth Ozeki takes us into world brimming with the voices of people and household objects, and her own experience of hearing her father's voice in her ear after he'd died

David Hepworth charts our fascination with that most earth-bound of gods, the rock star; and discusses some of music history's striking examples (R)

After Isaac Adams returned from Afghanistan struggling with anger and hypervigilance, he found that working with traumatised racehorses was helping him heal

Lynn Rainbow grew up in a castle in one of Australia’s most theatrical families. In the 1970s she became a famous actress, before she began a new life as a philanthropist

'Jack the Insider' returns with the story of Neddy Smith, the violent criminal and heroin dealer who became an enforcer for a cabal of corrupt police detectives in the 1980s (CW: discussion of violent acts)

Miriam Lancewood on her life roaming the New Zealand bush, hunting possums and goats to survive (CW: Graphic descriptions) (R)

Miriam was conceived in an air raid during WWII and brought up in a nice Jewish home with a charismatic mother. She became the naughtiest girl at Oxford High School and then grew up to be one of the world's best known actors

How the 'Men at Work' front man managed the trip to mega-stardom and back again (R)

Singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb on how growing up as the child of an Oklahoma preacher inspired his music (R)

When Joan Marie Larkin was given a guitar at the age of 13, she was on the path to becoming the Godmother of Punk (R)

Jimmy Barnes grew up as a boy called James Swan in Glasgow, then in South Australia. In his late teens, he joined a band called Cold Chisel and became a huge star. But on and off stage Jimmy was battling the demons of his troubled childhood (R)

Museum curator Imelda Miller on the history and vibrancy of Australian South Sea Islanders

Physicist Paul Davies on the mysteries of our universe, including the puzzle of the 'super-void' inside the constellation of Eridanus