Late Night Live — Full program podcast

Veteran war correspondent Janine di Giovanni has set up a project that trains journalists and researchers to gather evidence that can be used to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Syria. And the women who played a critical role behind the scenes at the Nuremberg trials. Guests:  Janine di Giovanni, war correspondent, CEO and co-founder of The Reckoning Project Natalie Livingstone, au...

Ian Dunt surveys the unfathomable political turmoil in the United Kingdom, as a monumental by-election looms for Andy Burnham, the key Labour rival of embattled Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Journalist Maria Ramirez examines the left-wing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. a defiant political voice on the world stage. Plus, it's been 100 years since Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova first toure...

Anna Henderson looks at how likely it is that independents like the Teals could form  a new centrist party. Does the success of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani herald a new era of popular Leftist politics in America? US socialist Bhaskar Sunkara surveys the future. And far from being worthless trivia, the gossip of Ancient Romans revealed a lot about the society and politics of the time.  Guest...

Global financial analyst Satyajit Das looks at how the double whammy of Trump's economic warfare and the war on Iran is playing out here and around the world. Writer Tareq Baconi reflects on life growing up as Palestinian refugee in Jordan, coming to terms with being gay.  Guests:  Satyajit Das, global financial analyst Tareq Baconi, Hamas expert and author of Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir  

Roddy Doyle reflects on a lifetime telling the stories of working-class people in Dublin, with themes of domestic violence, unplanned pregnancy and life in the IRA.  Guest: Roddy Doyle, author of The women behind the door , published by Penguin Random House. Roddy is in Australia for Sydney Writers' Festival Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Bruce Shapiro looks at the Republicans' shaping of South Carolina's congressional districts, in an effort to win the November mid-terms. John Safran's new documentary for SBS explores the notion of offence, and what can and cannot be said in Australia today.  A new book says he may have been an aristocratic Aussie trooper.  Guests: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for The Nation, executive direc...

Anna Henderson looks at why the government remains unpopular despite popular support for changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in the budget. Dr. Guy Shalev, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, on why the IDF continues to hold fourteen Palestinian doctors in detention, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. And Daniel Hahn discusses the art and the magic of translating Shakespeare int...

There have been 141 royal commissions in Australia since Federation, but not all of them have brought about meaningful policy change. Plus, a new book tells the stories of people who have struggled to protect their food culture in the face of war, genocide, and violence. Guests:  Michael Mintrom, Professor of public policy at Monash University Michael Shaikh, author of The Last Sweet Bite: when wa...

Ian Dunt on the political demise of Keir Starmer: even if he hasn't yet resigned, Ian says, he's already dead. How Antoinette Lattouf found inspiration in the stories of other Australian women who challenged power structures when she was fighting her own case against the ABC. And Australia is celebrating fifty years at the Cannes film festival, so why are there no Aussie films in competition this...

Journalist Debbie Whitmont revisits the 1994 murder of John Newman MP - a crime billed as Australia's first political assassination - and the man still behind bars, Vietnamese refugee and political aspirant Phuong Ngo. Plus, a new biography of Hideki Tojo challenges assumptions about Japan's ruthless wartime leader.  Guests: Debbie Whitmont, journalist and author of The Man Who Couldn't Wait: The...

Anna Henderson looks at One Nation's victory in the Farrer by-election. What does the result say about the growing frustration with the major parties? The British nuclear submarine that's spent a record-breaking six months submerged and a look at the ethics of reporting in a crisis zone.  Guests:  Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club Director Josh Glan...

Acclaimed journalist and author, Fintan O'Toole argues Trump’s political power lies in projecting the “right amount of crazy”. Plus how to help an Afghan woman and her five daughters escape the Taliban.  Guests:  Fintan O'Toole, regular contributor to the Irish Times and advising editor to the New York Review of Books. Mij Tanith, playwright, teacher, refugee advocate and author of Laila’s Story (...

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may come up against a rightwing-centrist super coalition in elections later this year, after two of his biggest political rivals - former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid - combined forces to form a new party. Plus, the Australian writer Nadia Wheatley's new book sheds light on the ordeals experienced by prisoners liberated from the Nazi...

Our regular US commentator looks at recent political attempts to use defamation law to silence American media. 2SER, a Sydney community radio station with a long history of training professional broadcasters, is under threat. And descendants of the Bounty mutineers, who lived on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific, crowdfunded to get an important document returned to them from London.  Guests:  Bruce S...

Anna Henderson on the Japanese PM's visit and the tragedy of Kumanjayi Little Baby's death in Alice Springs. Plus 2020 wasn’t a good year for North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un - there were reports he was seriously ill, and speculation ran wild about his future. But nearly six years later, Kim has defied the doubters, exploiting global instability, drawing closer to both Putin and Xi, and te...

David Malouf, who died last week at 92, was a hugely influential figure in Australian culture. A novelist, poet, teacher, arts advisor and board member, ' Boyer lecturer, and enormously generous mentor to many other writers. His friends and peers pay tribute. Guests:  Peter Goldsworthy, Adelaide-based poet Nicholas Jose, Adelaide-based novelist Kate Grenville, Melbourne-based novelist Omar Sakr, w...

Ian Dunt looks at King Charles' address to US Congress and the subtle anti-Trump messages within it. Plus, a new biography details the life of Richard 'Dick' Meagher - a talented young Australian solicitor with political ambitions in Federation-era Australia, who was embroiled in scandal for his handling of a high-profile murder trial. For the rest of his life, Meagher worked to scrub this stain f...

Why is Pakistan the new deal broker in the US-Iran war? And what do cryptocurrency and critical minerals deals have to do with their new-found role? And the ethics of media coverage of mass shootings, or attempted shootings, as with President Trump over the weekend. Guests:  Dr Farzana Shaikh, Associate Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, author of MAKING SENSE OF PAKISTAN (20...

Indigenous soldiers who fought in WW felt betrayed when they returned, then formed the first radical Aboriginal political organisation. And, before the Pacific War, Australia had a strong business relationship with Japan. But were there spies in the mix?  Guests: John Maynard, historian, author, Emeritus Professor at Newcastle University. Contributor to the book ‘Challenging Anzac: stories that do...

How the British elite see themselves is not what the data reveals. An historian of medicine, who's mother had polio, is revisiting the experiences of polio for thousands of people, via archival records. And a brief tribute to the Australian writer David Malouf. Guests: Professor Sam Friedman, a sociologist of class and inequality at the London School of Economics Professor Catharine Coleborne, his...

New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon survives a no confidence vote, but how long can he hang on to the leadership? Plus why the Musician's Union of Australia put an end to the career of popular 1930's Jewish jazz band, The Weintraubs' Syncopators. Guests:  Henry Cooke, Deputy political editor, The Post, based in Wellington Albrecht Duemling, historian and author of From Berlin to Sydney: The Weintraub...

Trump contemplates his next move on Iran as the ceasefire deadline looms, while at home his administration is dealing with yet more scandal, this time in the FBI. 40 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster,  the Exclusion Zone has become a thriving wildlife refuge. Plus the story of Australians most daring convict escape on the whaling ship Catalpa, which sailed from America to pick up six Iris...

Our regular Canberra correspondent on the latest polling, and Independent David Pocock's new focus on taxing gas. Historian Peter Stanley argues for a new way to do war commemoration, and the spectacle of a flooded Lake Eyre/Kathi-Thanda is alluring, but fuel anxiety may limit the number of visitors.  Guests Anna Henderson, SBS chief political correspondent Peter Stanley, former Australian War  Me...

The Melbourne legal scholar Marika Sosnowski spent many years researching violence and the law in Syria. Now she reckons with her own family's proximity to state violence in 1950s Palestine. Plus, it's easy to be cynical about the impunity of corporations that commit great financial crimes. But political scientist Pepper Culpepper thinks that, in the long run, corporate scandals can help restore d...

Ian Dunt examines what Viktor Orban's loss in Hungary means for the EU and looks at questions around Donald Trump's mental capacity. There once was a plan that brought disparate countries together, to work for their common good, in Asia and the Pacific. And an author and scholar has been getting some very flattering emails from 'people' keen to promote his books. Guests:  Ian Dunt, iNews columnist...