Conversations

Patrick Kennedy on growing up next door to some of Australia's most violent criminals (R)

Aminata Conteh-Biger was kidnapped by rebel militia when they stormed her village and ransacked her family home. A strange series of events saw her released, but then she was still being hunted (R)

As a girl, Davida Allen was brought up to be a proper young lady. Instead, she covered her naked body in paint and rolled around to make art. She grew up to become one of Australia's most famous painters (R)

British boys as young as nine were transported to Van Diemen's Land for petty crime. 3000 of them were incarcerated at Point Puer, the first prison in the world built exclusively for children

Juliet Rieden traces the story of her Czech father, who was taken as a child refugee to Britain a week before the Nazis arrived in Prague, and thus spared the fate of his extended family

Australian journalist Kumi Taguchi grapples with divided loyalties after the death of her father

Kate Forsyth tells the origin story of a fairy tale staple, the ever-flowering red rose. Her version has its roots in Imperial China, and arrives via the French Revolution

Dr. Melissa Kang explained sex, puberty and periods to teen girls in her role as Dolly magazine's ‘Dolly Doctor’. She spent 23 years answering questions sent by mail, that young people were too embarrassed to ask out loud

The random find of a dinosaur bone on her Queensland property led Robyn Mackenzie to develop an outback museum of international importance, and a deep sense of wonder at prehistoric geology

Author Favel Parrett’s grandmother escaped from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, but her sister stayed behind - suffering the twin nightmares of Nazism and Stalinism

Waiting in line to enrol for a teaching degree in history and English, Eddie was persuaded to pursue maths instead. Despite never really liking maths at school, he signed up. The split-second decision changed his life, and the lives of many of his future students

Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of Australia's most loved building nearly didn't make it off the drawing board (R)

Growing up, Louisa Deasey knew very little about her late father's life. Then she found a bundle of his lost love letters (R)

Neuropsychologist Dr Amee Baird on the mysterious connections between our brains and our desires

From the party of protest to the balance of power, journalist Paddy Manning looks at the history of Australia's most successful third party

Why is scratching an itch so pleasurable? How can someone leap from a burning plane in the sky and survive with a few bumps and scratches? Take a journey through the wondrous complexity of the human body

When working with people experiencing homelessness, Erin Longbottom looks to their strengths to help them find their way to health and a home

Alison Hoddinott and Gwen Harwood were great friends with a shared love of English, family, and thumbing their noses at convention (R)

School was nearly the undoing of the intensely curious child who went on to discover nearly a quarter of the world's coral species, and be awarded the Darwin Medal (R)

The late Kath Venn was a powerhouse of community spirit. After serving in Tasmania's parliament, she was State President of the Housewives Association, a marriage celebrant and much else besides (R)

In October 1944 Frank's De Havilland Mosquito was shot out of the sky and he parachuted into Nazi territory (R)

Botanist and Dharawal elder Fran Bodkin uses western science to explain up to 80,000 years of Australian Indigenous plant knowledge (R)

After attending a conference on endometriosis in 2015, journalist Gabrielle Jackson broke down in tears. She realised she knew nothing about the disease that had been wreaking havoc with her body

Durnford Dart longed to return to life on the land, where he’d spent his best childhood years. He went on to pioneer bamboo farming in Australia 

Seeking a connection with a higher power led Rob Donnelly into the Catholic priesthood, but the reality of a religious life was not what he expected