RN Drive - Separate stories podcast

From brutal global conflicts to divisive elections and a cost of living crisis that has put a strain on your wallet and seen your fridge running on empty - times are tough right now

The government’s plan to wipe 16 billion dollars off of the HECS debt accumulated by students has been met with a mixed response today, with the Opposition labelling the plan “profoundly unfair” and unlikely to increase University enrolments.  GUEST: Professor Bruce Chapman is an Australian economist and academic, and the architect of HECS

Two weeks of environmental talks in Colombia ended not with a bang over the weekend but with the delegates of several nations fast asleep at their voting desks.

At 50, Hello Kitty is looking pretty good for her age and is still raking in billions for the company that owns her.

How Australia deals with drug use is a very vexed issue with states and territories taking their own approaches. In NSW the Minns government has launched a four day drug summit which it says will "build consensus on the way NSW deals with drug related harms".

Today the federal member for Wentworth Allegra Spender announced she will quit the VIP lounges at Qantas and Virgin. GUEST: Allegra Spender is the Independent MP for Wentworth.

Doctors are debating whether low-risk prostate cancers should still be called 'cancer' or instead be considered a normal aspect of ageing.

Australian surfer Laura Enever took a wave in Hawaii that saw her set a new wave height record of 13.3 metres. GUEST: Laura Enever, Surfer of the Year, Surfer Big Wave Challenge Awards

The Friday Wrap with Dr Craig Emerson, managing director of Emerson Economics, former federal Labor minister for trade and tourism and Karen Barlow, chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper.

For decades, Norwegian students have been assessed twice a year on their personal order and social behaviour with the aim of fostering a respectful and orderly school environment. It’s a novel idea, but could it work here? GUEST: Corey Bloomfield, Senior Lecturer, School of Education and the Arts, Central Queensland University

Pianist and composer Elio Villafranca describes the sights, sounds and smells of his home in Cuba.

Have you found yourself tuning into the news lately and thinking, “I’m glad I don’t live in America”?

A study of 1950s sugar rationing in Britain has provided a fascinating natural experiment, highlighting the impact of sugar at a young age on the risk of developing diabetes.

It’s a sad day for the ABC and for Australian journalism, veteran broadcaster Matt Peacock has died at the age of 72

AI might be the talk of the investment world right now, but its emergence in the world of online dating has thrown up some serious ethical issues.

Friday marks the start of three regional drug summits with drug experts warning Australia is dangerously close to the edge of another drug epidemic this time with synthetic opioids that are up to 50 times more potent than fentanyl.

What did the mother Superb Fairy-wren say to her egg? Prof. Sonia Kleindorfer discusses some of the new findings in communication between birds.

It produces an almighty amount of waste plastic, it’s equally loved and loathed by Australians but fair to say those feelings are divided pretty firmly down generational lines. I’m talking about Halloween - which in case you missed it is today, October 31st. Are you on board with Halloween, with the witches, ghosts and goblins, the trick or treating, or are you in the camp of Australians who decry...

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken legal action against Optus claiming it sold products to hundreds of vulnerable consumers.

Shareholder activists have failed in their bid to stop Woolworths sourcing farmed salmon from a Tasmanian harbour that is home to an endangered marine species.

More than 120 civilians have been killed by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces paramilitary in a near-week-long massacre in the state of Gezira.

Could the NACC's first scalp be its own Commissioner?

Police in Shanghai have launched a crackdown against Halloween revellers. 

Lost Maya city rediscovered by accident 

Why can't women still get timely access to abortions in regional Australia?