ABC Australia

Late Night Live — Full program podcast

Society EN ↓ 249 episodes

Incisive analysis, fearless debates and nightly surprises. Explore the serious, the strange and the profound with David Marr.

Author

ABC Australia

Category

Society

Podcast website

www.abc.net.au

Latest episode

Jul 9, 2026

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Episodes

Bruce Shapiro's America, and hunting down the Myall Creek murderers 10.06.2025

As protests over immigration raids continue in Los Angeles, US President Donald Trump has sent in the National Guard. Bruce Shapiro surveys the chaos. Plus, on the anniversary of the Myall Creek massacre in northern NSW, Mark Tedeschi KC remembers the good men who pursued justice for the slain Wirrayaraay people. 

The true power of land ownership, plus giving children the right to vote 09.06.2025

Political scientist Michael Albertus shows that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment. And David Runciman calls for the emancipation of 6-year-olds. 

Two months on from Myanmar's earthquake, and healing a divided United States 05.06.2025

The Myanmar military and militia groups have just extended the ceasefire they agreed to after the earthquake. But there are concerns China is using the disaster to increase its influence, and scam centres are still going strong.  Plus, the United States has become very divided, again. An anthropologist tries to understand these extremes and how to bridge them.

Haiti's gang crisis takes a dark turn, plus the mother of all languages 04.06.2025

Beset by years of gang violence, the Haitian government has enlisted the assistance of the ex-CEO of the defunct private military firm Blackwater, notorious for its role in the death of civilians in Iraq. Plus, the science journalist Laura Spinney traces the ancient origins of English, Russian, Hindi, Greek and more - back to a linguistic origin known as "PIE" (Proto-Indo-European).

Ian Dunt's UK, Pakistan and India's war over water, and who named our body parts? 03.06.2025

Ian Dunt examines Britain's new defence plan, as Europe ramps up its war-readiness. Why water is at the centre of ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. And how did some of the more obscure parts of the human anatomy get their names? 

Bernard Keane's Canberra, what America's 'comfort class' doesn't get, and the life of a food critic 02.06.2025

Crikey's Politics editor Bernard Keane on the surprising defection of Senator Derinda Cox from the Greens to Labor, and US calls for Australia to increase its defence spending. Writer Xochitl Gonzalez critiques the widening chasm between the haves and have-nots in the US. Plus John Lethlean's colourful life as a food critic.

The origins of the term 'national security', and actress Merle Oberon's false identity 29.05.2025

The term 'national security' wasn't always around. It was invented, effectively, by US President Franklin D Roosevelt, as a call to Americans to get involved in WW2. And Hollywood actress Merle Oberon had to hide her South Asian origins in 1930s London and America, in order to work in movies and remain in America. 

Abalone cultural heritage in Tasmania and overtourism in the Canary Islands 28.05.2025

First Nations in Tasmania have now secured permanent cultural fishing rights for abalone, and now they’re putting it back on the dining tables of Tasmanians. And the civil engineer who quit his job to campaign against the construction of a port in Tenerife.

Bruce Shapiro's America, the money behind the 'Enhanced Games', and an ancient Roman cookbook 27.05.2025

US President Trump is threatening to deport a group of men to war torn South Sudan. We track the money behind the Enhanced Games - a kind of Olympics on steroids. And there is much to learn from a famous cookbook from ancient Rome.

Late Night Live farewells Laura Tingle 26.05.2025

After 30 years of appearances on Late Night Live - spanning nine Australian Prime Ministers - Laura Tingle bids farewell to LNL as its political correspondent in Canberra, before commencing her ABC Global Affairs role. In a sprawling conversation, Laura recounts her early beginnings in journalism, the ebbs and flows of Canberra politics through the decades, and what she's come to admire in our rep...

D-day looms for Woodside's Burrup gas plant, and teaching troubled teens to hunt in the New Zealand wilderness 22.05.2025

Australia's Commonwealth government is due to make a decision on the proposed 50-year extension of Woodside's gas lease on Western Australia's Burrup Peninsula. Marian Wilkinson investigates. And David meets the New Zealand hunter, fisher and gatherer Terressa Kollatt, now teaching troubled teens to forage for their own wild food.

The Aussies the union movement left behind, and what causes a society to collapse? 21.05.2025

A new history of the union movement in Australia looks at those often left out of the picture: migrants, women, Indigenous Australia and LGBTIQA+ people. Plus Cambridge scholar, Luke Kemp and his   historical autopsy of why societies collapse.

Tariff chaos on American shelves, Ukraine minerals deal and Lake Eyre in flood 20.05.2025

Trump's constant changes to tariffs are wreaking havoc on US ports, logistics, and the price of goods. Any Russia/Ukraine ceasefire may be at a high cost to Ukraine, given the losses it agreed to in the recent US minerals deal. And Kati-Thunda Lake Eyre is on the brink of its biggest inundation in 15 years.

Laura Tingle's Canberra, and Harriet Walter re-writes Shakespeare's women 19.05.2025

7.30 Political Editor Laura Tingle surveys the path ahead for conservative politics in Australia. And from Lady Macbeth to Kate the Shrew - actor Dame Harriet Walter imagines what Shakespeare's women might have said, if the Bard's plays had a more female perspective. 

The Brazilian Marxists claiming unused land, and Australia's Antarctic obsession 15.05.2025

Journalist Vincent Bevins on the popular Landless Workers Movement of Brazil - an agrarian movement which redistributes unused government land. And environmental historian Rohan Howitt, from Monash University, argues that Australia had an Imperial zeal to claim the Antarctic and Southern Ocean as its own. 

Who's still selling arms to Israel? And the legal rights of nature 14.05.2025

Antony Loewenstein on the countries still supplying arms to Israel. And nature writer Robert Macfarlane asks, is a river alive?

Ian Dunt's UK, Europe's thirsty data centres, and the survival of Indigenous message sticks 13.05.2025

Ian Dunt unpacks the UK government's tough new plan to reduce migration. With swathes of Europe in drought, could new data centres exacerbate growing water problems? And the project preserving Australia's most ancient long-distance communication tool: the message stick. 

Laura Tingle's Canberra, US-China trade talks and the art of the courtroom sketch 12.05.2025

Analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture.

Does our world lack moral ambition? And the Victorian obsession with orchids 08.05.2025

Analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture.

The destruction of Gaza's universities, and Donald Trump's fantasy maps 07.05.2025

Cambridge scholars Dr Wesam Amer and Dr Mona Jabril on the destruction of universities in Gaza. Plus, why does US President Donald Trump enjoy meddling with the world map?

Bruce Shapiro's America, How Kerala got rich and vale Ted Kotcheff of Wake in Fright 06.05.2025

Bruce Shapiro critiques Donald Trump's first hundred days in office. Fifty years ago Kerala was one of India’s poorest states, now it's one of the richest. How? And a tribute to Canadian Ted Kotcheff, who directed one of Australia's biggest cult films - Wake in Fright.

Labor's stunning landslide, plus the hangover from Australia's wine boom 05.05.2025

Laura Tingle and Niki Savva dissect Labor's landslide victory in the federal election, and examine what went wrong for the Coalition. Plus, writer Nick Ryan explains why there's a glut of wine in Australia. 

Was Hitler's filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl complicit in Nazi atrocities? 01.05.2025

Leni Riefenstahl has been hailed as one of the greatest directors of all time, even though her most famous films were works of propaganda for Hitler's Reich. Her film about the 1934 Nuremberg rallies broke new ground in cinematic techniques and had a huge influence on filmmakers for years to come. Riefenstahl always claimed she was just an artist, unaware of Nazi atrocities, but a new documentary...

Australia's biggest tax lurks, and Mexico stares down Donald Trump 30.04.2025

Australia's tax system is unusually generous to the prosperous. Ahead of the Federal election, why is tax reform not on the agenda? And how Mexico's first female President, Claudia Sheinbaum, is taking on US President Donald Trump.

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