Conversations

Hearing their Tongan mother’s powerful voice rise above the congregation in church, primed Vika and Linda for a life in song. Their distinctive harmonies and dazzling energy have seen them grace stages and studios for thirty five years 

In the midst of Lisa Millar's brilliant career as a journalist, she found herself in the grip of aviophobia, a crippling fear of flying (R)

Historian Lucy Inglis on humankind's greatest painkiller and how its trade and cultivation are threaded through the story of civilisation, and the lives of every one of us

The co-creator of Absolutely Fabulous says her success rests on a series of happy accidents and calls herself an extreme procrastinator (R)

When Danna Young's husband Mike received a terrible diagnosis, she found herself drawn to conspiracy theories in the search to find someone, or something to blame

Australian comedian on Nanette, her 'farewell' to stand up comedy; being diagnosed with high-functioning autism as an adult; and on Douglas, the show and the dog Hannah made an instant impression with her first comedy set, winning a national contest in 2006. She quickly became a regular on the Australian and UK festival circuits, and on television shows including Adam Hills Tonight and Please Like...

When Pasi was a boy he would sneak into his father's empty schoolroom in northern Finland and pretend to be a teacher. Now he's one of the world's leading voices in education, encouraging schools to help kids find their passion in life, and to follow it

Gisela Kaplan fell under the spell of birds when she hand-reared a magpie nestling. When it learned to speak, she was so intrigued she switched careers to study avian behaviour. Her books on Australian native birds have been ground-breaking (R)

Meet a sound designer and naturalist who makes field recordings all over the world. He then puts them to use in soundscapes for film and television, galleries, museums and apps (R)

Uncle Jack was forcibly removed from his mother as a baby and denied his Aboriginality. A one-off trip to Fitzroy connected him with a family he didn’t know about, and promptly landed him in jail (R)

Europe's startling deep past explained: pygmy dinosaurs, blue-eyed Neanderthals; and how an asteroid the size of Manhattan ruptured everything (R)

The Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less was working as an odd-jobs man for an Italian Baroness when a phone call upended his life (R)

Walking through grief and facing up to life on the Pacific Crest Trail, the true story of Wild (R)

Celebrated British poet Lemn Sissay grew up not knowing his given name or his Ethiopian parents. His life was shaped by being adopted, and then raised in state care (R)

James explains the traditions, language and pleasures of shepherding in England's Lake District (R)

When Darleen Bungey set out to uncover her father's past she discovered a Hollywood heartthrob and a singer whose records outsold Bing Crosby's

Maira's daily life as a New York-based artist who likes to paint trees, dogs and hats, and why the contents of her mother's closet became famous

One of the world's only master paint-makers, David Coles on how he found a life creating colours like Lapis Blue and Rose Madder (R)

On 9/11 Captain Beverley Bass diverted her American Airlines jet to a tiny town in Newfoundland, along with thousands of other airspace refugees (R)

Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know when it's the weekend

Miranda's story from growing up in Kakadu National Park as a Larrakia Tiwi girl, to finding fame in The Sapphires, and co-creating Top End Wedding, the first romantic comedy set in the Northern Territory

Sheila Heti on the life of Finnish writer Tove Jansson who created the Moomins, and some of her own reflections on her choice about whether or not to become a mother

Helen recently published her diaries from the years 1978 to 1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, and the quest for the right pair of shoes (R)

Rutger Bregman takes a new look at the accepted idea that humans are just one disaster away from bad behaviour. He says our species' survival has long depended on the best aspects of our nature, such as kindness and the sharing of ideas

When Hayley moved to a cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, the rural idyll wasn't quite as she imagined