Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

This week's mystery caller likes woodland and open country right across mainland Australia — the Jacky Winter.

For over 30 years, the Snuff Puppets have brought all manner of giant puppets to streets and communities of Melbourne and beyond.  But a recent funding cut means the Snuff Puppets are now in danger of becoming Snuffed Puppets. Indeed, Snuff Puppets is just one of a number of Melbourne cultural institutions who either missed out or were scaled back in the latest round of the Victorian governments C...

In March, Time Out magazine released its list of the  The 100 greatest cinemas in the world right now , and 6 Australian cinemas made the cut. Sun Pictures in Broome, The Regal Theatre in Adelaide, Melbourne’s Sun and Astor Theatres, and Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema and Bar all made the list, but the highest ranking Australian cinema is the art deco Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Sydney, coming in...

Hungarians will go to the polls on April 12 in what is shaping up to be a historic election. Incumbent president, Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most right wing populist, and an ally of US president Donald Trump, is being challenged by Peter Magyar, a young centre-right candidate who originally hailed from Orbán’s Fidesz party.

Held every Easter long weekend at Exhibition Park in Canberra, the National Folk Festival is still going strong for it's 60th year running. To mark the anniversary, festival co-artistic director Holly Downes joins the show to speak about the history of the festival, and the strengths of folk culture today.  Featuring the song Waterfall Way by The Double Dole Stringband .   Guest: Holly Downes, one...

For more than 700 years, the upper house of British parliament, House of Lords, was largely made up of hereditary peers. Seats in the House of Lords were passed down through generations of Lords and Viscounts along with their titles. But that all changed last month, when the last of the hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords, replaced with Life Peers, nominated by the Prime Minister...

North Korean workers in Russia work up to 16 hours a day with no day off and earn as little as 10 USD per month, according to a report titled A Day in the Life of a DPRK State-sponsored Labourer.

Adelaide's O-Bahn was the second guided bus railway in the world, and is now one of only four on the planet. But it has been an enormous success, and remains the most used public transport option in Adelaide. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Adelaide's O-Bahn, and the Bus Preservation Association of South Australia organised an informative tour to mark the occasion. Guest: Michael Pretty -...

This week's mystery caller occupies wooded habitats across the south and up the east – the Golden Whistler.

Emily Strasser was in her late teens before she began to realise the depth of her family's secret. Her grandfather, George, whom she had never met, had been a scientist at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, during the development of the atomic bomb that was eventually dropped on Hiroshima. This was the start of Emily's journey to uncover the truth about her grandfather's role and to come to terms with her fa...

Much has been written about Errol Flynn, whose extraordinary life took him from Hobart, to Papua New Guinea, to Hollywood's Golden Age where he became an icon of the screen. But drawing from new sources including Flynn's own letters, Patricia A. O'Brien has written "the first complete account" of his life, which reveals the extent of Flynn's involvement in slavery, in more than one form. Guest: Pa...

Is the longevity of Australians in the 21st century actually a curse for future generations? Government spending on the elderly is predicted to grow significantly in the next 30 years, and the proportion of taxpayers will decline. So what are the burdens future generations will face if we all keep going on and on? Guest: Lucinda Holdforth, speechwriter and author of Going On and On

As the negative effects of long-term alcohol use become clearer, it's a question that worries most modern parents: Is it OK to drink in front of your kids? Senior research fellow, Sergey Alexeev, has taken the question to task and joins Sunday Extra to talk about the findings of his new study Intergenerational Transmission of Alcohol Use. Guest: Sergey Alexeev, Senior research fellow at University...

With the rise of popularity of One Nation with rural and regional Australians, what is the effect on refugees who have settled in regional areas? Do they feel welcomed and supported in  their communities?  Our guest,Associate Professor Natascha Klocker, shares insights from her multi-year study “Settling Well investigates the impacts of refugee settlement in regional Australia” . Guest: Natascha K...

Type 5 diabetes is fast becoming a significant public health issue in parts of sub-saharan Africa, rivalling infectious diseases like Malaria and HIV. 

Why have Russia and China offered only tepid support to Iran in the form of statements criticising the US and Israel, and might that change if the Iranian regime goes to the brink of collapse?

After two years of sold-out shows in Sydney, in 2026 the Africa Film Fest is making its Melbourne debut. From Friday March 27 until the 29th, films from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, Algeria and Guinnea-Bissau will be screened for the first time for audiences in Melbourne. Tickets available at the Cinema Nova and Africa Film Fest websites. Guest: Mumbi Hinga, co-director of Africa Film Fest

Early in her medical career, Dr Olivia Ong decided that instead of becoming a neurosurgeon, she would go into rehabilitation medicine. Little could she know how important that field would be to her not just as a doctor, but also as a patient.  Because one otherwise-ordinary work day, when a driver with dementia in the hospital parking lot accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake, Oliv...

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.