Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

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...

On the day of his inauguration, US President Donald Trump issued a mass pardon covering over a thousand people charged or convicted in connection with the January 6 riots. Trump has gone on to issue hundreds of other pardons, many of them controversial.  Law professor Saikrishna Prakash has looked at the use and abuse of presidential pardons, and says the law should be changed to restrict their po...

"I don't feel like it's satisfactory at all." Geoffrey Watson SC, has compared the sealed section of the Holmes Royal Commission into Robodebt with the recent findings by the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The NACC found two senior public servants engaged in serious corrupt conduct, but cleared former prime minister Scott Morrison and three other public servants, including former secretary o...

US President Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of the UK government over its response to the Iran conflict, after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the country would not be drawn into the "wider war". On the domestic front in the UK, Starmer announces a cost of living package, to help with the rising cost of oil. Guest: Ian Dunt: iNews columnist and regular LNL commentator Guest: Ian Dunt: iNe...

Adelaide writer Margaret Merilees has spent her life protesting: from Pine Gap in the 1980 through to the Rising Tide protests against coal exports, to joining Extinction Rebellion and protesting SANTOS' support of the Tour Down Under bicycle race. Now she's written a collection of essays reflecting on the issues she's fought for, why people in their seventies are as determined as ever, and why yo...

Saudi Arabia has long sought to be the dominant power in the Middle East and there is speculation Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself urged President Donald Trump to go ahead with the bombing of Iran on February 28. But in the past few years the kingdom has been softening its stance towards its formal rival, and Saudi Arabia has been diversifying its economy away from oil production. So...

The new Nationals' leader has announced his front bench. Our weekly correspondent analyses what the reshaped Nationals will offer, and how they will deal Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce. Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS

In January, AI-generated pornography flooded the social media site X, owned by Elon Musk. X's AI chatbot turned anybody into pornography, and brought millions of eyeballs to the site. What should we make of this new frontier of pornography? Guest: Jo Bartosch, journalist and assistant editor at The Critic, and co-author of Pornocracy Producer: Alex Tighe

Grigory Rasputin rose from a humble Siberian peasant to become one of the most influential figures at the court of Tsar Nicholas II. A mystic and self-proclaimed holy man, he won the trust of the Romanov family and gained extraordinary access to power. But his growing influence, scandals and enemies at court deepened the crisis facing imperial Russia. In Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs ,...

The Irish have high trust in government, and, also, a surprisingly widespread belief in conspiracy theories. What explains the Irish appetite for conspiracies, and how can damaging beliefs be slowed down? Plus: a digression about bouncy castles. Guest: Jane Suiter, Professor in the School of Communications at Dublin City University (DCU) and director of DCU's Institute for Future Media, Democracy...

The amount of money going towards subsidising Australian film and TV has gone way up over the last two decades. The number of hours being made has gone way down. Why? Guests: Professor Anna Potter, a professor in Digital Media and Cultural Studies in Queensland University of Technology’s School of Communication; and Simon Nasht, a former political journalist for The Age and the ABC, and now a docu...

In the early 2000s, esteemed Australian archaeologist Matthew Spriggs made a promise to the community of Aneityum, an island of Vanuatu: he would try to recover their lost numbering system, erased by English missionaries in the mid-1800s. He has now found it, and is returning the knowledge to the community. Guest: Matthew Spriggs, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at The Australian National Univer...

US military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops. A group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation based in the US, says it has received more than 200 complaints from service members across the armed forces, about the rise of Christian nationalist rhetoric in the military. Guest: Mikey Weinste...

Will the war in Iran be long or short? According to Donald Trump: both, depending on what day you ask him. Plus, new and scandalous allegations from the Epstein files about Trump, which haven't made the front page due to all the other news. And: the firing of Kristi Noem. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, Contributing Editor with The Nation, and Executive Director at the Global Centre for Journalism and Traum...

In Mafia: A Global History, Ryan Gingeras draws on more than a decade of research to uncover this suppressed underworld history. Crossing centuries and continents, he introduces legendary figures – Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, Du Yuesheng – and explores the conditions, cultures and locales that gave birth to modern mafias. Guest: Ryan Gingeras, author, Mafia: A Global history Producer: Ali Benton 

“For Lebanon we must act,” said French President Emmanuel Macron last week. “Everything must be done to prevent this country, so close to France, from once again being drawn into war.”  The President is stepping forward to honour the long held ties between France and Lebanon. Guest: Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief for The Economist  Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Australia's military capabilities are in focus as the government decides how it can assist Gulf states facing an Iranian retaliatory strike, amid the war in the Middle East.  Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent with SBS

The State Library of NSW has had to adapt its collections and philosophy over the years, becoming both a foundation of, and mirror to, broader societal change.  Guest: Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian, State Library of NSW. Also Director, Learning, Scholarship & Outreach at the library. Co-editor, with Philippa McGuiness, of ‘The library that made me: 200 years of the State Library of NSW’...

Yanis Varoufakis sits down with David Marr to reflect on the war on Iran, the failures of the Democracy in Europe Movement, cancelling his appearance at Adelaide Writers' Week and being charged with promoting drug use for admitting to taking ecstasy at Sydney Mardi Gras nearly forty years ago.  Guest: Yanis Varoufakis - leader of the Democracy in Europe Movement, co-host of The Econoclasts podcast...

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...

Sometimes described as a 'phantom population', because so little is known about them, the first settlers across the arid interior of Australia are coming to life through a research project which is systematically documenting and dating cultural sites. The researchers say the evidence is very strong that people lived in even the most difficult landscapes well over 50,000 years ago. Guest: Peter Vet...

The green energy future depends on batteries. But batteries are not exactly a low-footprint technology; a massive mining and industrial operation will be required to make all of the batteries we need. And: is it worth recycling AA batteries? Guest: Jay Turner, Professor of Environmental Studies at Wellesley College, President of the American Society for Environmental History, and the author of Cha...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US bombing of Iran had to happen because they had intelligence that Israel was about to take action. He also said the hardest hits are yet to come from the US military. With Iran now bombing various targets across the Middle East and Israel sending ground troops into Southern Lebanon, how long could this war go on? And what are Israel's ultimate objec...

Behind every great book lies a story — and sometimes, it’s a disaster. In When Books Go Bad, Alexander Johnson uncovers the scandalous mishaps that have shaped literary history. From bitter author feuds and savage reviews, to catastrophic misprints and publishing blunders. Guest Alexander Johnson, author, When books go bad Producer Ali Benton

President Trump has put the United States, and the world, into an unpredictable situation: a war without a clear rationale, and without a clear end. In the week before Trump's attacks on Iran, lawmakers in the United States were attempting to rein Trump in. How is the country reacting now that America is at war with Iran? Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation and Executive Dire...