Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

The United States National Archives is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of America with a lofty, high-altitude initiative called the Freedom Plane, a flying exhibition of nine founding documents of the American republic. 

The state government of Victoria has announced that later this year a fee will be introduced for tourists visiting the Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road. Traditional owners and locals won't have to pay — though it is not yet clear how 'locals' will be defined. David Rae, CEO of Corangamite Shire Council provided an audio statement on the council's position on the upcoming visitor fee. Gue...

Werner Herzog's documentary Ghost Elephants takes us deep into the remote Angolan Highlands, following conservationist Dr Steve Boyes and a team of Indigenous trackers on an extraordinary expedition. After more than a decade of work, Dr Boyes is preparing to venture into one of the wildest regions in Africa — in search of an elephant so elusive that even local trackers rarely see it. Guest: Dr Ste...

Short-wave radio enthusiasts have eagerly reported the appearance of Farsi-language encoded messages being broadcast out of Western Europe. The messages are being transmitted via number stations, which are radio broadcasts used by intelligence agencies to send encrypted messages to agents in the field. It is one of the oldest forms of clandestine communication, dating back to the first World War,...

A major new study from the University of Sydney, published in The Lancet Psychiatry , has found medicinal cannabis is no more effective than a placebo in treating common mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and PTSD. Despite that, more than one million applications for medicinal cannabis have been approved in Australia, with prescriptions continuing to rise. So, is the evidence laggin...

Julian speaks with former Matildas vice captain Moya Dodd about the outcome of the Matildas Asia Cup final against Japan. Guest: Moya Dodd, former Matildas Vice Captain

“A political earthquake” with “massive national implications”: that was the verdict of ABC Election Analyst Casey Briggs on the outcome of Saturday's South Australian state election.

Antarctica has long captured the imaginations of artists and poets, as well as explorers and scientists. Since 2023, The University of Tasmania has been running a research project called  Creative Antarctica , the first comprehensive survey of Antarctic-themed works by Australian writers and artists, funded by the Australian Research Council.  Melbourne's RMIT is holding a free exhibition of works...

Adam Elliot is an auteur writer and director of animated films, who has carved his own path in the Australian film industry with his idiosyncratic films that have resonated across the globe. 

Australia will mark the 30th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in April 2026. The process of dealing with the grief and its ongoing effects are dealt with in Beyond the Neck, a theatre production written by acclaimed playwright Tom Holloway.

Have you ever wondered what your ancestors were feeling decades or centuries ago? Rob Boddice is an historian who argues that differences in our contexts and world-views would make our emotional experiences completely different - even the experience of pain. Guest: Rob Boddice, Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki, author of The History of Emotio...

As an official in the US State Department, Edward Fishman worked on imposing sanctions on Russia. Eddie discusses his latest book  Chokepoints , which examines how critical economic monopolies have become the key to geopolitical power in the twenty-first century. Chokepoints was chosen by The Economist as one of the best business and economics books of 2025.  Guest: Edward Fishman, Director of the...

NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in 2022, hoping the kinetic impact would nudge it off its orbit. The mission was called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART. Four years later, scientists have published their findings and say the experiment was even more successful than expected. Guest: Rahil Makadia , planetary defence scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign a...

As the conflict in the Middle East enters its third week, Iran continues to launch attacks against US allies in the Gulf. Iraq, which borders Iran, is being struck by both Iran and the United States because the country plays host to a range of groups allied to both sides. 

This week seven members of the Iranian women’s soccer delegation were given humanitarian visas to stay in Australia rather than returning to Iran after competing in the Women’s Asian Cup. The events of this week echo previous instances of Australia giving humanitarian visas to athletes, such as the decision in 2021 to give visas to members of the Afghan women's cricket team. 

Julie Janson is a Burruberongal woman, novelist, playwright and poet. In her new book, Letters from India, she writes about the profoundly moving experience of visiting India as an Indigenous woman — the tears, the joy and the unexpected connections she makes along the way. Guest: Julie Janson , novelist, playwright, poet and author of Letters from India

Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO is a soprano and composer whose extensive CV includes Artistic Director of Short Black Opera and Dhungala Children's Choir , First Nations Creative Chair at Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Chair of Vocal Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Deborah describes herself as a “21st century urban woman who is Yorta Yorta by birth, stolen generation by government...

Gatz is a six-hour theatrical reimagining of The Great Gatsby (eight and a half hours with intervals), which The New York Times called “the most remarkable achievement in theatre … this decade”. Gatz will be performed at the Adelaide Festival from 13 to 15 March. Guest: John Collins, director of Gatz and founder of the Elevator Repair Service Theater.

As doctors are weighed down by increased demands, reduced support and the fast pace of change in medical research, could AI help save the health system for both patients and physicians? Guest: Dr Charlotte Blease, associate professor in the Department of Women's and Children's Health at Uppsala University, Sweden; researcher at Harvard Medical School; and author of Dr. Bot: Why Doctors Can Fail Us...

Roughly 98% of all global internet traffic travels not via phone towers or even satellites, but underwater, along a vast network of fiber optic cables that run some 1.5 million kilometres along the ocean floor. 

Rapper-turned-politician Balen Shah has been elected Nepal's new Prime Minister. The 35 year-old was the mayor of Kathmandu before he ran against former leader KP Sharma Oli. Nepal went to the polls on Thursday 5 March, just six months after the Gen Z protests that saw the deaths of dozens of students and ultimately brought down the government of the day. Guest: Roman Gautam, journalist and editor...

Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, is pitching himself as a democratic future leader of Iran, claiming to have broad support in Iran. Who were the Pahlavi Shahs and what was life like under their rule?

Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz highlights how vulnerable global trade routes can be to disruption — and how easily strategic choke points can be weaponised. Guest: Sarah Schiffling , Deputy Director of the HUMLOG Institute and Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility at the Hanken School of Economics.

Donald Trump has announced the death of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from a missile strike coordinated by the United States and Israel. Julian speaks with UN and New York Correspondent at the BBC Persian Service, Bahman Kalbasi about what this means for the Iranian regime.  Guest: Bahman Kalbasi, UN and New York Correspondent for the BBC Persian Service.

Bob Brown is a giant of the environmental movement and Australian politics. A former doctor, Bob is the co-founder of the Australian Greens, served as a Senator from 1996, and party leader from 2005 until his retirement in 2012. Today at 81 he continues his lifelong work of environmental campaigning with the Bob Brown Foundation .  The first biography of Bob aptly called him the “Gentle Revolution...