Conversations

Rafael Bonachela was born in the dying years of Franco’s Spain, into a patriarchal culture that didn’t appreciate little boys who wanted to dance.  As the eldest of four brothers, his father expected him to be an example of academic achievement and bravado. This hardline approach slowly drove his father away from the family, though when it came time to say goodbye, Rafael saw an unexpected side of...

Justin Heazlewood fled a complicated early life in Tasmania searching for fame as an artist on the mainland but then moved back to his home town of Burnie, and realised community is where you find it. For years he imagined his hometown as somewhere he had to leave, especially if he was going to be any kind of artist. And there were other, more personal reasons that made staying in Burnie complicat...

For journalist Kate Halfpenny, moving to a beachside town during Melbourne's lockdowns seemed like the perfect way to unwind and escape her huge mortgage. Then she had to contend with the triple whammy of perimenopause, her husband's alcoholism and distance from family and friends. For the first time in her life, Kate had an empty house, no job commitments and no city life to distract her. She was...

The artist Loribelle Spirovski on her unusual childhood in the Philippines, meeting her father for the first time at 7 years old, and making her way as one of Australia's most exciting young painters. Loribelle Spirovski grew up in the Philippines, with her mum and her extended Filipino family. Her Serbian father, whom she had never met, was in Australia, driving taxis and waiting for the visa tha...

Felicia Djamirze grew up in the criminal underworld, then became a beauty queen. But her life outside the pageant circuit was mired in the world of drugs, bikie gangs and violence.(CW: graphic discussion of domestic violence and crime)  Felicia Djamirze is a counsellor, an advocate for women's justice, a three-time Miss Australia winner and a convicted drug trafficker. Felicia grew up surrounded b...

When Anh Nguyen Austen was a small girl, her family fled South Vietnam on a boat which met a once-in-a-century storm in the South China sea. When all on board thought hope was lost, they were rescued.

For Professor Kelvin Kong, the ear is our most beautiful organ. Kelvin is a proud Worimi man and an ENT surgeon at the forefront of medical innovation. For Professor Kelvin Kong, the ear is our most beautiful organ. It's vital to how many of us understand each other, and how we understand ourselves. The proud Worimi man is the third doctor in his family, and is now an ENT surgeon at the forefront...

When Professor Mandyam Srinivasan began studying bees almost 35 years ago, we was interested in learning how bees landed so elegantly, and avoided colliding in mid-air. What Mandyam discovered was a complex and astounding system of vision and flight, which is now being applied to machine vision and robotics. He and his team at the Queensland Brain Institute built an autonomous aircraft, without GP...

As a marine molecular biologist, Dr Nerida Wilson spends a lot of her time getting acquainted with the mysterious creatures lurking in the dark depths of the sea. From nudibranchs, to sea dragons and a UFO-looking spiral that's around 150 feet long, Nerida doesn't need to know why these weird and wonderful creatures exist, that they made it here in the first place is enough. This episode of Conver...

When Lee Berger entered the field of palaeoanthropology there was a one in 10,000,000 chance he would discover anything 'worthwhile' digging around South Africa. But this real-life Indiana Jones kept bucking the odds. First, he found a pair of hominid teeth in southern Africa, and then after a fossil-hunting dry spell, his 9-year-old son Matthew found the jawbone of a completely new hominid specie...

Dr Culum Brown is a leading researcher in the field of fish cognition, his research has shown that even that smallest fish are capable of learning and can retain memories for months. His fascination for fish stems from growing up in parts of south-east Asia, where he would spend every possible hour in the ocean with a snorkel. As an adult, Culum's marine biology studies around the world have revea...

Dr Campbell Costello's work as a vet has taken him out of his family's station in North Queensland to places as far flung as Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Patagonia. He's acted as the official vet for a sled race in Alaska, for epic horse races in Mongolia and Argentina, and he has run a cattle station in the former Soviet Union. But after a family tragedy, Dr Costello got his pilot's licence so he cou...

Dr Tanya Latty is an insect scientist with a quirky taste in pets, and a keen eye for detail, but it's the lessons from her brainless pet slime mould that she's most fascinated about. Tanya studies the behaviour of ants and bees and she's particularly interested in their ability to work effectively as a team to achieve a common goal. But her pet project is focused on a creature that defies classif...

When his elders named him Bindi, David Hudson had no idea his future would involve performing with his didgeridoo at the Taj Mahal, or a role in a film starring Marlin Brando   Western Yalanji and Ewamian man David Bindi Hudson is a performing artist and musician. His parents were born on Mona Mona mission, near Cairns. David's mother didn't like being told what to do, and so in 1956 she walked of...

Erna Walraven was one of the first female zookeepers to work at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in the 1980s. Despite practical jokes from her male colleagues, like animal dung in her gumboots, Erna kept her nerve. She was born in The Netherlands, to parents who were involved in the Dutch resistance during World War II. Erna's love of languages took her to Spain, where she lived for many years with her widow...

At 18 years old, Mick Doleman miraculously survived when his ship capsized in the freezing Southern Ocean off Tasmania. But as he floated in a life raft with his nine crewmates, his ordeal at sea had only just begun. This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison. It covers ship wreck, overcrowding, emergency rescue, team dynamics, ship capt...

Liz Cameron was 18 years old when a stranger approached her in a book shop. It was the beginning of her induction into a cult, and it was an experience Liz barely survived. The process of brainwashing happened gradually, first came the love-bombing and the allure of finding a new purpose in life. Then came the isolation from friends and family, along with sleep deprivation, overwork and sexual man...

Tom Robinson was a 14-year-old living in the Brisbane suburbs when he made a promise to himself to become the youngest person ever to row across the Pacific Ocean.  Nine years later Tom set off from Peru bound for Australia without a support crew and limited communication. Tom navigated by the stars, made eye contact with a shark and rowed up to 15 hours a day when strong currents pushed him off c...

The bestselling Irish author grew up on a farm set on “50 acres on the side of a hill”. Growing up, she witnessed a harsh, misogynistic country that convinced her she would never marry. Claire shares what she has learned about writing from a litter of newborn piglets. Her works Small Things Like These and Foster have both been made into movies. Claire's stories often take place in the landscape wh...

When artist Vincent Fantauzzo was a boy he was a street-fighting petty criminal with dyslexia and a blazing talent for drawing. He escaped jail time, and grew up to become one of Australia's most well-known portrait artists. VIncent Fantauzzo is one of Australia's most successful portrait artists. For his luminous, photo-realistic paintings he's won the People's Choice Award at the annual Archibal...

How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctorWhen Norman was 10 years old his dad decided to change the family's surname to Swan in a response to ongoing anti-Semitism in Scotland after WWII. Norman wanted to be an actor growing up, but his parents encouraged him to study medicine. After he completed his studies at the university of Aberdeen he spent...

The author and actor thinks summer in Australia is done bigger, better and weirder than anywhere else. For three months of the year, life slows down and heats up. But for William, summer in Australia is an imperfect paradise where more than anything, people yearn to connect. Summer can be a hellish time in Australia, where temperatures soar and fires can turn bush and buildings to rubble in an ins...

Journalist and author, Brigid Delaney looked into the ancient philosophy during an assignment from her editor. What she discovered led her to years of study and a brand-new outlook on life that focuses less on happiness and more on meaning and contentment. Brigid is devoted to the Stoics, a philosophy that encourages its followers to focus on what they can control, accepting what happens outside o...

Cult survivor and psychotherapist Dr Martina Zangger on her ten years devoted to an Indian mystic and how she learned to stand on her own two feet. When Martina Zangger was 19 years old she became a devotee of the Rajneeshee Movement led by the Guru, Bhagwan. The cult had its headquarters in a huge ashram, built in rural Oregon, and Martina decided she needed to go there to be closer to Rajneesh t...

When Helen Garner began following her grandson Amby's under-16s football team, it was a chance to spend more time with her youngest grandchild before he became an adult and she was fascinated by the spectacle. She went along to all the games, and to every training session, shivering on the sidelines at dusk, it also gave Helen a new writing project. As Helen began writing about Amby and his season...