Conversations: Art & Passions

From homeless teen to operatic stardom: how a job at the David Jones food hall changed the trajectory of Stephen Smith's life

Josh Niland on his mission to cook fish eyes, fish liver, and fish sperm to help revolutionise how we cook and eat fish Chef Josh Niland is devoted to changing ideas about how we cook and eat fish in the western world. He believes that rather than eating just the fillet, we should aim to eat the whole fish, as we do nose-to-tail with animals. At his restaurants he cooks with fish eyeballs, fish li...

Robyn Davidson on her adventures high in the Himalayas, her love affair with an Indian prince, and her late in life reckoning with her own story (CW: mentions suicide)

Artist David Rankin grew up as the son of a bootmaker in suburban Sydney. He became an outback teacher, then  a a painter, before meeting the great love of his life, the writer Lily Brett To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best ...

Pádraig Ó Tuama survived conversion therapy and exorcism as a young gay man in a church in Ireland, then became a leading peace negotiator and a poet. Pádraig Ó Tuama grew up in the South of Ireland, and spent a long time not knowing quite where he fit in. He loved poetry, and prayer and talking to people so he decided to become a Priest. But a realisation about his sexuality began a struggle with...

Amar Singh's sense of belonging to Australia has only grown since he leant into his Sikh faith, growing out his beard and his hair, wearing a turban and committing himself to the service of his entire community

The new chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, on the chair of spikes that accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't tone down his Italianness in Australia. During his Suzuki lessons in Turin, Italy, Umberto Clerici was sitting up straight on a chair full of spikes, lest his posture slip. Umberto chose the cello as his instrument, mainly because it wasn’t the violin,...

Dave Gleeson is known for his blistering performances in The Screaming Jets and The Angels, but he grew up singing at Mass in Cardiff, with a mum who opened their home to hundreds of foster children

Nick Cave on how living through addiction, love and unthinkable loss has changed his inner life

The stage and screen actor looks back at his mother's magical influence on his childhood imagination, and his life in character

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians. Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason is a former English academic and the mother of seven extraordinary children. All of them are gifted classical musicians. Her eldest daughter, Isata wrote and performed her first piano concerto at the age of eleven. Her son Sheku mastered the cello and performed at...

Maggie Beer started her working life at the age of 14 in a chenille bedspread factory. Two decades later, in a pheasant farm in the Barossa Valley, she found her dream job Legendary cook, author food producer and educator Maggie Beer grew up in Lakemba in South-West Sydney, and got her first job when she was 14. Maggie had to leave school early to go out to work to help support her family after he...

He's one of the world's most acclaimed opera stars, but Teddy Tahu Rhodes did everything he could, for a very long time, to avoid his destiny on stage

As a Chinese-Australian girl growing up in the era of the White Australia Policy, artist Lindy Lee always felt that she didn't belong. When she began studying Zen Buddhism, some big shifts began to happen in her life, and her art

Nadia Wheatley with the stories of two women ahead of their time: the writer Charmian Clift and her own mother Nina Watkin. Two decades ago, Nadia published her acclaimed biography of the late Australian writer Charmian Clift. Charmian is best known for her memoirs Peel Me A Lotus and Mermaid Singing about her family's poverty-stricken but wildly romantic life on the Greek Islands in the early 50s...

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

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)

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...

Jane Fonda's big life has included Barbarella, activism, three husbands, workout videos and hair epiphanies. Now in her 80s, she's devoting her energy to raising awareness about climate change Jane has lived her entire life in the public eye, as the daughter of acting aristocracy. Her father Henry Fonda was a Hollywood legend by the time she was born. Jane grew up to study acting with Lee Strasber...

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...

Helen recently published her diaries from 1978-1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, the quest for the right pair of shoes, and the pleasures of mowing the grass Helen is the author of many books, including Monkey Grip, The First Stone, This House of Grief and The Spare Room. Helen's also kept a diary for almost all her life. But until now those exercise boo...

When David McAllister was a little boy growing up in Perth he would tuck tea towels into his undies and dance around in front of the TV. He watched his own reflection, as he twirled, and leapt around the lounge room. At 7, David went to his first ballet class at a suburban scout hall, and loved it right away. But doing ballet was a kind of social death for a boy, in the 1970s in Western Australia....

Archie tells of writing Took the Children Away and playing it in public for the first time, of his belated reunion with his siblings, and his love story with Ruby Hunter Widely admired for his powerful lyrics and the grace of his pin-drop performances, Archie has overcome blow after blow throughout his life. He was just two years old when he was taken from his Aboriginal mother and given to the Co...

Bryan’s played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have been his ticket to the world.  From Breaker Morant and Newsfront to Two Hands and Sweet Country, a huge number of classic Australian films feature Bryan, a testament to his talent, popularity and work ethic.  Bryan also spent a period working in America, star...

Exploring the drawings of children who've survived Syria's conflict. Australian artist Ben Quilty has made several visits with World Vision to camps in Greece, Lebanon and Serbia, housing refugees from the Syrian conflict. On his first visit to Lebanon’s Bekka Valley, Ben asked the children there to draw for him. The power of their pictures, expressing what they’d seen before fleeing their homelan...