Late Night Live — Full program podcast

Cuba's leader is defiant in the face of the country's worst humanitarian crisis in decades, while President Trump hints at inflicting more pain. And the Strait of Hormuz is the latest of many maritime chokepoints which, in the past, have destroyed or saved civilisations.          Guests: Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer with The New Yorker Damien Valdez, historian from the University of Cambridge

Professor Mark Kenny reflects on Australia's record fuel price hike and the Australian government's unfolding response. We meet the Log Cabin Republicans, a prominent organisation of gay conservatives that continues to support US President Donald Trump. Plus, amid reports of damage to cultural heritage sites in Iran, Australian archaeologist John Tidmarsh reflects on the beauty of damaged and dest...

Alec Derwent Hope (1907–2000) was one of Australia's most acclaimed poets. His first collection was not published until he was 48 years old, but its release cemented his reputation as the pre-eminent Australian poet of his time. The literary scholar Susan Lever knew Hope, and has written the first biography of his life - from rural Tasmania, to the halls of Oxford, and the heights of Australia's l...

Pulitzer prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee, recently laid off by Jeff Bezos's Washington Post, looks at the state of the arts in Trump's America., Plus, the story of Daniel Defoe's secret life as a spy, against Scottish independence, in the early 1700s, before he became the author of the famous 'Robinson Crusoe'. Guests: Sebastian Smee, writer and art critic, formerly with The Washington Pos...

Bruce Shaprio on the US President's latest ultimatum for Iran.  Prof. Assa Doron reveals how India has become the global epicentre for the world's antibiotic resistance problem. And anthropologist Luke Taylor celebrates the artistic legacy of the late Peter Marralwanga, the master bark painter of West Arnhem Land.  Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director at the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma, C...

The writing of Australian history has tended to focus on the south-eastern corner of the continent, but the story of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn paints a vastly different picture of this country, its people, politics and ambitions.  Guest: Henry Reynolds, historian and author of Looking from the North: Australian History from the Top Down

In his new memoir, Former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, Robert Reich, traces how the Democrats lost the working class and paved the way for Donald Trump. Plus ten years on since the release of the Panama Papers, has anything changed in the global financial system?

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces his plan to address fuel prices. And 'The Shah's party, and the Iranian revolution that followed'. Bob Templer on how Iran's recent history explains the deep divisions and violence that occurred in February, leading to the current war.  Guests:  Ian Dunt: iNews columnist and regular LNL commentator Robert Templar, author of 'The Shah's last party, and the I...

The only Australian state with a budget surplus will get an extra $6.6 billion from Australian taxpayers in the coming financial year, under its special GST deal. Israel's parliament has passed a law that makes the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who have been found guilty of killing Israelis. Australia's wilderness has just been mapped for the first...

The Australian government will halve the fuel excise for three months, as the energy crisis triggered by the Iran war looks set to drag on. UK journalist, commentator and self-identified communist Ash Sarkar offers her critique of the modern liberal-Left, and its tendency to fall into culture war traps that do not serve people's material needs. Plus, why has the Canadian province of British Columb...

Millions have been made homeless by wars in the Middle East, but with access severely limited, humanitarian agencies are struggling to get aid into the region. Plus, the National Library of Australia's departing General-Director Marie-Louise Ayres reflects on a decades-long career at this cherished public institution, where she's overseen the digitisation of millions of precious Australian archive...

Bruce Shapiro on whether Trump now looking for a way-out of the war in Iran, and why the Pentagon has lost its defence of media shut-out rules. Plus the New York Times has investigated  Donald Trump’s private business footprint in the Gulf, and found luxury real estate, golf courses, and high-profile partnerships. And why we should celebrate failure.  Guests: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor wit...

The South Australian election result has got the major parties elsewhere scrambling to understand what the One Nation phenomenon means for them. In tribute to the late Rhoda Roberts, we replay an interview she did with David Marr on the 'Welcome to country' backlash. Plus the downsides of pretty flowers, and what the industry is doing to clean up its act. 

Journalist and author William J. Kole examines how white evangelicals in the United States have fused the gospel and guns - and are standing in the way of reasonable restrictions on firearms. Plus, fresh scrutiny on the makers of the herbicide Roundup - and the widely-cited research used as evidence of its safety. Guests: William J. Kole, journalist and author of In Guns We Trust -The Unholy Trini...

Pauline Hanson rose from Ipswich City Council in 1994, to win the federal seat of Oxley in 1996, as a disendorsed Liberal turned independent. Her maiden speech ignited national controversy, and after just two years in Canberra, and a string of failed comebacks, she’s now back at the centre of Australian politics — with One Nation now polling at 24% of the primary vote (Resolve Strategic). Some of...

Ian Dunt on why UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has refused to be drawn into the "wider war" in the Middle East. Geoffrey Watson reflects on the findings of the National Anti-Corruption Commission into Robodebt - and finds them wanting. And why a law professor thinks the power of presidential pardons in the USA should be curtailed. Guests:  Ian Dunt: iNews columnist and regular LNL commentator Geof...

Our regular Canberra correspondent Anna Henderson on the new-look Nationals. Saudi Arabia is playing a quiet hand so far in the war. And a longtime radical feminist reflects on the need to keep protesting. Guests: Anna Henderson,  chief political correspondent, SBS Simon Mabon, Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University, specialising in Saudi-Iranian relations Margaret 'Mag' Merri...

The so-called 'mad monk' Rasputin bewitched Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. But their strange and scandalous relationship conceals a riddle, which casts an intriguing light on the controversial 'great man' theory of history. And, in a push to deepen engagement with Grok, the chatbot on the X platform, Elon Musk allowed AI to generate porn from public images of people, including children.

Australian TV now has to compete with social media, on-demand streaming, and, soon, AI. Our government supports the industry, but the amount of Australian TV being made has continued to drop. What can be done to keep Australian stories on screen? Plus: why do the Irish have such pervasive belief in conspiracy theories?

Donald Trump's war in Iran is certainly taking the world's attention away from the scandals of his administration, including the firing of former Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and the latest allegations about Trump in the Epstein files. Speaking of the US military, what role does Christian nationalism play in the most lethal military in the world? Any role is too much for Mikey Wein...

Our Canberra correspondent on Australia's delicate positioning with the Middle East War. Why the French President is passionately arguing for no further attacks on Lebanon. And the mafia, even after all these years, still holds sway in Japan, the US, and Italy.

Yanis Varoufakis, the firebrand economist and former Greek Minister of Finance, joins David for a talk about the Iran war, Trump's tariffs and the new drug charges against him. Plus how our oldest library has been reflecting us for 200 years. The Mitchell Librarian, Richard Neville, talks about the living collection under his care.

For the first time, Late Night Live UK political commentator Ian Dunt, meets David Marr in person. In this special hour-long conversation, Dunt explores the parallels and distinctions between political developments in the United Kingdom and Australia, analyses the strains in relations between the UK and the US over the Iran conflict, and examines the recent Greens by-election win, in a long-held U...

What are Israel's ultimate objectives in Iran, Lebanon and the broader Middle East? The veteran journalist and author Gideon Levy joins the show to discuss Israel's role in the Iran war, and whether or not peace is possible in the Middle East. Then: what even is a battery? So much of modern life depends on our ability to store energy, and humanity's turn towards a green energy future is only possi...

Australian Government leaders have been taking a cautious 'let's just wait and see what happens' approach to the war in the Middle East. Bruce Shapiro explains the legal and political constraints on President Trump's war leadership. And the scandals scattered across the literary world.