Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Pakistan has taken over from Qatar as the mediator in the US-Iran peace talks. So how did this happen? What's the relationship between Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir and Donald Trump? And how does cryptocurrency fit in? Pakistan expert Dr Farzana Shaikh says  cryptocurrency, critical minerals and counterterrorism are key to Pakistan's relationships with both countries, as is the close relationsh...

In the years before Pearl Harbour, Australian authorities were convinced that members of the Japanese diplomatic and business community were spying, and that some of their Australian associates were helping them. But how much espionage and theft of secrets really occurred?  Guest: Nick Hordern, author, former diplomat and policy advisor with the Australian Government, and former senior journalist...

Australian indigenous soldiers who served in World War l were radicalised by the experience. They were shaken and angered by the injustices they experienced, both while serving and when they returned home. The result was the formation of the first all-Aboriginal political organisation.   Guest: John Maynard, historian, author, Emeritus Professor at Newcastle University, contributor to the book ‘Ch...

In the 1950s, Australia endured several dangerous outbreaks of polio - a highly infectious disease that threatened lifelong paralysis. Many aging survivors are still living with its impacts today, including the mother of Professor Catharine Coleborne, a historian of medicine at the University of Newcastle. Now, Catharine is surveying Australia's archival records to better understand the experience...

The British elite present themselves as part of a new, open, dynamic meritocracy. Is that true? Of course not, and two sociologists have the data to prove it. Guest: Professor Sam Friedman, a sociologist of class and inequality at the London School of Economics, and the co-author of Born To Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite, published by Harvard University Press Producer: Alex Tig...

The Weintraubs Syncopators were Germany's most popular jazz band until 1933, recording much of the music for Marlene Dietrich’s films. As Jewish musicians, they were forced into exile by the Nazis, and fled to the Soviet Union and Japan, before finding a new home in Australia in 1937. They were hugely popular here, until the Australian Musician’s Union put an end to their career.   Guest: Albrecht...

New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon says his leadership is secure after the National Party caucus backed him in an unexpected confidence vote on Monday. Luxon called for the vote after weeks of speculation about party room discontent. Amid tough economic conditions and in a volatile coalition, will Luxon survive through to New Zealand's next election in November?  Guest: Henry Cooke, Deputy political...

It is 150 years since one of the greatest convict escapes in Australian history. In 1876, a whaling ship called the Catalpa picked up six Irish political prisoners from a rowboat off Fremantle, WA, and sailed back to America with them. The Catalpa had come from New York solely for that purpose. Guest: Tony Moore, historian, and Professor of Media and Communications, Monash University             ...

It's been 40 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when an exploded reactor emitted four hundred times the radioactive material released by the Hiroshima bomb. Some 350,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area, but today the 'Chernobyl Exclusion Zone' is a thriving wildlife refuge, home to a range of species that have adapted to their irradiated environment.  Guest: Germán Orizaol...

As the Iran ceasefire deadline looms, Trump says he's unlikely to extend it without a new deal, but will Iran believe anything he says? Meanwhile there's more scandal in the Trump administration with allegations FBI Director Kash Patel is drinking to exces, and labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has stepped down after after an internal investigation revealed she was having an affair. Democratic C...

As ANZAC Day approaches, the esteemed Australian military historian Peter Stanley asks whether Australia's remembrance of war reflects the complexion of our modern society.  In Stanley's view, we need to ask questions about who and what we ‘remember’, why and how, and what we continue to forget. Guest: Peter Stanley, military historian, former principal historian at the Australian War Memorial

Recent polling shows some interesting results: the PM and the Opposition leader are a close race in one poll, and One Nation is dipping. Plus, Independent David Pocock's gas tax billboards, and how the NDIS went from a much vaunted health and wellbeing support, to a political nightmare.  Guest: Anna Henderson, SBS chief political correspondent

Australia's vast inland salt lake Kati-Thanda Lake Eyre might overflow this year, for the first time since 1974. The spectacle is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but will there be enough fuel around for long-haul tourists and joy flight operators?  Guest: Trevor Wright, veteran aviator, owner of Wrightsair and the William Creek Hotel, SA Producer: Jack Schmidt

Two political scientists make the argument that corporate malfeasance, when brought to light, can create a democratic fury that leads to civic renewal. They call it the 'billionaire backlash', and think that the next decade of politics will be defined by anti-elite anger. Guest: Professor Pepper Culpepper, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and the Blavatnik Chair in Government and Public Policy at th...

Legal anthropologist Dr Marika Sosnowski grew up knowing that her grandparents survived the Holocaust. But it was only when she began researching revolutions and state violence in Syria that she learned that her own family committed war crimes against Palestinians while helping to establish the nation-state of Israel in the 1950’s.  She’s now woven together a very personal tale of two countries, o...

A veteran writer and scholar has been getting some very flattering and inventive emails, purportedly from people wanting to promote his work, one way or another.   There may be a little AI involved.. Guest: Dennis Altman, writer and gay rights activist. Author of an article in Australian Book Review about literary AI ... Producer: Ann Arnold

The Colombo Plan, launched in 1951, is best known in Australia for bringing Asian students to Australian universities on scholarships. But it was a much more complex plan of mutual development and aid across multiple countries. This model of working together, and learning about each other, is in stark contrast to the aggressive power plays currently deployed by some nations.  Guest: Professor Davi...

Keir Starmer is proposing legislation that would let the UK quickly adopt certain future EU rules using secondary legislation, meaning less parliamentary debate and fewer full votes. The aim is to allow “dynamic alignment” with EU standards—especially in areas like food, carbon pricing, and energy—to make trade deals easier. Plus, Starmer continues to distance himself from US President Donald Trum...

Control of maritime chokepoints helped decide conflicts like the Gallipoli Campaign and the Suez Crisis; now, renewed tensions and shipping disruptions in Hormuz, show the same logic still holds. What once shaped empires now drives energy security, making even small disruptions capable of sending shockwaves through the global economy. Read Damian Valdez's essay on chokepoints for Engelsburg Ideas...

US President Donald Trump has continued to threaten an American invasion of Cuba, telling reporters that US forces 'may stop by Cuba' after they deal with the current quagmire in the Strait of Hormuz. Writer for the New Yorker Jon Lee Anderson has reported from Cuba many times, including recently during America's latest blockade. But how likely really, is a US intervention in Cuba? Guest: Jon Lee...

Last month, US and Israel bombing of Iran caused significant damage to cultural heritage sites - the most serious confirmed damage has been to Tehran’s Golestan Palace, dating to the 14th century, and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace in Isfahan. Australian archaeologist and tour leader Dr John Tidmarsh knows the region well and is dismayed at the impacts of successive wars on cultural sites a...

The Log Cabin Republicans is a group of LGBTQ+ conservatives in the United States who support Republican policies while also advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion within the party. Founded in 1977, it often sits at the centre of debate because it represents the tension between conservative politics and LGBTQ+ rights. Guest: Ed Williams, Executive Director of the Log Cabin Republicans Producer: Ali Bento...

The Albanese government is seeking to reassure Australians of the nation's fuel security, with multiple supply missions to Asia, and a new $20m ad campaign offering fuel-saving advice.  Journalist and ANU Professor Mark Kenny reflects on Australia's long-standing fuel import dependency, now painfully exposed. Guest: Professor Mark Kenny, former journalist for the Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Dir...

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...

Daniel Defoe, the writer of 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Moll Flanders', was a spy in Scotland in the early 1700s, sending information to England, to help England end Scottish independence, and form a parliamentary union.  The spy craft he used was possibly the first known example of deploying surveillance, espionage and propaganda to achieve political outcomes.  Guest: Marc Mierowsky, author of 'A spy...