Quick Smart

For most of history believing in UFOs and aliens has been considered pretty fringe… that is until now. In the last few years talk of UFOs has become so mainstream that it has been the topic of debate in the US Congress, and now NASA is doing its own research. So was the X Files actually factually accurate? And could aliens have been watching us this whole time? Guest: Taryn Priadko for Rear Vision...

Despite how true personality tests might feel, a lot of them are pseudoscience. But it turns out there is science behind at least one of the big personality factors: introversion versus extroversion. So what makes someone an introvert or an extrovert? And is one innately better than the other (because it turns out one is on average happier!) Guest: Sana Qadar for All in the Mind

The harsh reality of being an adult in Australia is spending a huge chunk of time talking about house prices! So what’s the deal with our housing obsession? Is it possible to afford a home anymore without getting help from the bank of mum and dad? And how is the housing crisis further entrenching our growing class divide? Guest: Richard Aedy for the Money

For better or worse, ultra processed foods are the backbone of many of our diets. But much like their effect on our cholesterol, blood pressure and waist lines, the evidence that they do us harm is rapidly increasing.  Guest: Jen Leake from Rear Vision

AI is impacting every creative indsutry - and movies are no exception. If a young Harrison Ford can be churned out of a computer, what does the future of film look like? And would you feel differently about your favourite TV show if you knew the characters in it were created by a computer? Guest: Bev Wang from Stop Everything!

There are people who love Disney and then there are people who really really love Disney. Disney adults are a rapidly growing group who have all the costumes, they know all the songs and some have even sprinkled a loved ones ashes in a Disneyland. So it is possible to love Disney a little too much? Guest: Rohan Salmond from Soul Search

If you’re a fan of detective novels you’ll know this name almost as well as you know your own: Agatha Christie. She’s the mind that created Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, and she put the Orient Express on the map... But there’s one Agatha Christie mystery that’s never been solved – and you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s the story of her own disappearance, on one December evening in 1926. Gue...

Jingle Bells, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, Walking in a Winter Wonderland....You know it's almost the end of the year when you can shamelessly blast your Christmas playlist. We know all the words to the songs, we sing them every year, but have you ever given much thought to where those songs came from? And isn’t it about time we had some tracks about Australian Christmas? Guest - Anna Levy f...

More people are working from home now than ever. Which means everything we've been told about workplace culture and standing desk ergonomics is out the window. So how can managers know that people working from home are actually working from home? Well... some have taken to spying on their employees.  Guest: Sophie Kesteven from the Law Report

Scrolling through Instagram it's impossible to avoid people giving their unsolicited advice - about fashion, the news or the latest food trend. But with the rise of the hot take comes the people trying to monetise this advice in the form of life coaching... and unfortunately a lot of people looking for real help are falling into the trap. Guest: Kellie Scott for All in the Mind

Driverless cars feel like they've been "two or three years away"… for the last 10 years. So why don't we have them yet? What technical and ethical hurdles do we still need to overcome to finally make robots our designated drivers? Guest: James Purtill from Science Friction.

What makes a man, a man? Well eating copious amounts of red meat of course – at least according to certain corners of the internet. The alt-right has made mass beef consumption their business, and this comes at a time when climate scientists and animal activists are urging people to eat less meat to help the planet. So why is the alt-right so focused on eliminating "soy boys" and getting into that...

The term Stockholm syndrome has become a phrase we throw around to describe people in toxic relationships and bad jobs, but originally it was a diagnosis for a young woman who fell for her captor during a week long bank heist. But it turns out the psychologist who first invented the term never even met the the woman. So what’s the history of this strange syndrome? Is it an early understanding of w...

The Olympic Games are about to kick off and athletes from all over to the world will make their to France to compete. The event is watched by billions, there's a massive increase to local tourism and of course an eye watering amount of advertising dollars at stake so it’s wild to think that at one stage - the Olympics was almost cancelled for good. Guest: Jack Schmidt for God Forbid

We've all been there. Laying on the couch after a long day of work, paralysed by the task of choosing what show to watch. We're so spoiled for choice — and there are thousands of new shows hitting multiple platforms everyday. The big streaming services — like Netflix and Amazon argue that television writers are getting more money up front — but the writers say it's become impossible to make a livi...

It's no secret we should be working a little bit less, and sleeping a little bit more. And in the age of the always on hustle, some people are doing just that - and these "Sleepfluencers"are making a whole lot of money. So who are these people that are cashing in on their sleep cycles? Why are people paying to watch strangers sleep? And how could the online phenomena of sleepfluencing be a gateway...

We all try to do our bit for the climate, we say no to plastic bags, we consider buying an electric car, we bring our keep cups to the cafe...but it’s going to take us drinking from a keep cup everyday for 100 million years to cancel out the problems caused by the big polluters - so how do we get everyone on the same page? Are we incentivising the wrong things when it comes to climate? And, should...

In the last little while, you've likely told someone "you've had a busy few weeks", or "work is so crazy right now" but can you actually remember a time when you weren't busy? Will the busy-ness every stop or are we destined to feel like we're on the cusp of burnout for the rest of our lives? Is it possible to reach that mystical balancing point where we can be productive at work but also have eno...

Around 85% of the world’s population is religious. And 22% of the world’s population is on TikTok, so it makes sense that a whole lot of religious content is making it’s way into people’s feeds. So with more and more people of faith getting online, is TikTok about to become the new religious pulpit? How is the advent of the religious influencer changing the idea of faith? And how can we ensure peo...

On October 14th, Australians will head to the polls to vote in the Voice referendum. An important vote which could ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a say when it comes to matters relating to them. In our history, we’ve only had 44 referenda and of those, only eight have been successful. So will this one buck the trend? And will it really improve the lives of Indigenous peo...

Summer in the northern hemisphere was the hottest on record. There were unprecedented wildfires and floods resulting in mass destruction and deaths, so what does that tell us about what summer will be like in Australia? And after already experiencing such widespread devastation during the 2019 bushfires, how can we better handle the spike in our collective climate anxiety?  Guest: Nate Byrne from...

The term Stockholm syndrome has become a phrase we throw around to describe people in toxic relationships and bad jobs, but originally it was a diagnosis for a young woman who fell for her captor during a week long bank heist. But it turns out the psychologist who first invented the term never even met the woman. So what’s the history of this strange syndrome? Is it an early understanding of what...

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard of the recent hike in RBA interest rates. But let’s face it, with the cost of housing as it is, living under a rock is looking more and more likely. These increases are a measure to curb spending to bring down inflation, but the RBA is secretly hoping something else will happen …. and that’s for you to lose your job. So do we really need inflation to...

There's nothing better than disappearing into a good book. You can fall in love with people who have never existed and revel in events that never happened. But how does your perception of that book change when that author isn’t who they made themselves out to be? There's a long tradition of literary fraudsters in Australia, So why are we still so scandalised when this happens? And why is it still...

Recently, a tiny, pesky parasite called the varroa mite was detected in Australia for the first time, and already they are absolutely wreaking havoc on bee colonies. Bees are fundamental for Australia's produce, without them - we'd lose a third of our fresh fruit and vegetables. So what impact will these mites have on our food supply? And is there anything we can do to stop them wiping out local b...