Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

After a devastating two year war, Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first stage of a peace deal this week.

Last week on Saturday Extra we were talking about the return of the budgie smuggler to the catwalks and beaches of the northern hemisphere. This week we delve into reports that leggings are dead and baggy work-out gear is in. To help make sense of all it all, Nick turned to fashion writer, Glynis Traill-Nash.

Peter Lewis and Lizzie O'Shea from Digital Rights Watch will be running live panels around Australia asking 'How Can Democracy Survive AI?' 

Efrat Machikawa is a member of the Hostages Families Forum and her uncle Gadi Moses was released by Hamas after 482 days. She says she is grateful for President Trump's leadership and hopes that all the hostages will be released soon, and that there can be an end to the war. 

For 23 years, one of Shanghai's key attractions was a restaurant run by Australian woman Michelle Garnaut. M on the Bund was known for western fine-dining, a welcoming atmosphere, chamber music concerts, parties, and its glorious views — a vantage point from which to watch Shanghai and China change. After 23 years, Michelle closed its busy doors for the last time, and filmmaker Luo Tong captured t...

This year's Nobel peace prize is being announced in Oslo on Friday. In the past, the award has gone to Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr., and the journalist Maria Ressa. Three sitting or former US presidents are also Nobel laureates — Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. Donald Trump would like to add his name to that list, and he has been nominated b...

Hamas has agreed to release all the remaining Israeli hostages but the group wants further negotiations on a number of key points outlined in the US peace plan. In a statement, the group said it agreed "to release all Israeli prisoners, both living and dead, according to the exchange formula contained in President Trump's proposal" - if the proper conditions for the exchanges are met. Palestinian...

Spring has arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and as Australians head to the beach, we take a look back at the history of the iconic 'Budgie Smuggler,' invented by Speedo and popularised by the Australian Olympic swimming team in Los Angeles in 1984.  We talk to a leading British fashion journalist about the renaissance of the lovable lycra in Europe.

Almost one in every two Australian universities has been restructured in the past year, and there is more to come. Thousands of jobs have been cut, and thousands more are in the firing line. At the University of Technology Sydney, hundreds of staff have recently been informed that they may not have a job next year. Now, they anxiously wait for the list of 400 names that will hit the chopping block...

ABC Radio National is counting down the Top 100 Books of the 21st Century and you can help shape the list by casting your vote. 

In 1975 the world celebrated International Women’s Year, which produced a plan to advance the rights of girls and women around the globe and Australia was hailed as something of a trailblazer on gender equity. In a world first, Gough Whitlam appointed a special advisor, Elizabeth Reid, to help guide government policy on a range of women’s issues. But 50 years on, can Australia still claim to be a...

A look back at the UN General Assembly this week, where President Trump told the international body that it was increasingly irrelevant. In his first-ever UN speech, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a fresh push for Australia to get a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2029-30. He also described climate change as an "existential threat" presenting a different view to Trump, who use...

In an eventful week in New York City, Donald Trump delivered a speech calling climate change a hoax, and attacked the United Nations as he addressed the General Assembly. The United States committed to a stronger show of support for Ukraine, and Australia, the UK, France and Canada recognised Palestine. For an assessment of US policy this week, Nick is joined by leading foreign policy expert, Jame...

Jon Sopel from the award-winning podcast The News Agents delivers a chilling warning: when leaders go unchallenged, authoritarianism follows. In the wake of President Trump’s UK state visit and the furore over tv host Jimmy Kimmel’s removal from air after comments about the assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Jon Sopel joins Nick Bryant to discuss the week in US and UK politics.

he's one of the most universally loved people on the planet. The one and only Dolly Parton is being brought to life in a fictionalised story co-written by American actor and playwright Tricia Paoluccio, who also plays Dolly.  Here we come again is touring Australia after sell-out seasons in the US and Europe. Obsessed with Dolly since she was a little girl, Tricia used her time during the COVID-19...

President Trump’s official push to formally acquire Greenland for America has a long history.  From earlier American attempts to claim the island, to Greenland’s pivotal role in World War II and the Cold War, to its increasingly strategic importance today, Arctic expert Elizabeth Buchanan explains why Greenland is much more than a desolate blob on top of a world map.

This week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the country's climate target for 2035. The PM acknowledged that everyone in government, industry and at home would have to "lean in" to help achieve the emission target range of 62-70 per cent.  So what does that mean for regional communities and towns reliant on the resources and rural sectors in Australia?

The Prime Minister is set to embark on an 11-day trip to the UK and US where its hoped he will have a meeting with US President Donald Trump. There's been a flurry of diplomacy already this month, with Anthony Albanese attending key events in the Pacific but failing to come away with defence and security treaties with Vanuatu and PNG.  Arthur Sinodinos, who served as the Australian ambassador in W...

World leaders will arrive at the United Nations for their annual high-level meeting this week.  Although the UN is marking the 80th anniversary of its founding,  difficult issues will overshadow the gathering.  Top of the agenda is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, climate action, global governance for AI, and a proposed restructure of the United Nations.

Cathy Freeman lighting the Olympic cauldron, then sprinting to victory in her ‘400 metres of reconciliation”. There was Thorpedo in the pool, Roy and HG, the volunteers, Kylie Minogue, Midnight Oil and INXS... A quarter of a century on from the Sydney Olympics, and some of the moments that helped define a nation are being celebrated around the country as we look back on what was declared "The best...

As the Liberal Party continues to manage the fallout from Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's comments about Indian migration, we explore how the boundaries of politically permissible language have shifted over time; from the White Australia policy, through Whitlam-era multiculturalism, to Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration rhetoric and John Howard's dog whistles.

The real life drama of the Murdoch family's succession battle ended this week in a closed Nevada court.  Rupert's eldest son Lauchlan will take control of the media empire that includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Times in the UK, with his three siblings receiving an estimated $1.1bn each for their shares in the business. The psychological workings behind ultra rich and famous famili...

Great power competition has returned. The head of geopolitics at Cambridge University discusses the history of how great powers emerged and makes sense of the current rivalries. 

Australia's history as a British colony is well known, but our history as a colonial ruler is less familiar. Papua New Guinea is a country of 600 tribes and 840 languages, and there were predictions that independence from Australia would come with violence, chaos and bloodshed. But despite all those odds, PNG peacefully achieved independence exactly 50 years ago.  So how was this achieved, and wha...

A 22 year old man is in custody in Utah, as the United States deals with the aftershocks of the public murder of political activist, Charlie Kirk. while on stage at Utah Valley University. Acts of political violence in the United States have become more frequent of American life, and there’s a long history.