Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Last October, we covered the story of Australian writer and resident of Thailand Murray Hunter, who was arrested in Thailand for articles he had written on Substack that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission deemed to be false and defamatory. We have an update on that case - a settlement agreement has been reached and the charges against Murray have been formally withdrawn. Guest:...

Last week we spoke with Christopher Gunness from the Myanmar Accountability Project about the universal jurisdiction legal case that Timor-Leste has opened against the Myanmar military regime for crimes against humanity.  This week there has been a fresh development - Myanmar has responded by withdrawing their diplomatic representative from Timor-Leste. Guest: Salai Za Uk, executive director of th...

The e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on growing up in a single parent household, her connection to Ted Bundy, rejecting an offer from the CIA and implementing the world’s first social media band for children.

In August 2024, astrophysicists from Swinburne University sent vials full of the mycelium of edible mushrooms to the International Space Station.  They made it there on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and lived in space - where no mushroom has lived before - for a month, before returning to Earth, and finally to a frying pan in Melbourne, where they were cooked in a cheesy sauce. Guest: Doctor Sar...

A fascinating new study observing the effects of the psychedelic drug DMT - or dimethyltryptamine - on people who have already tried two other forms of treatment for depression has recorded “ significant and lasting reductions ” in depressive symptoms after a single dose. This study, led by David Erritzoe from the Imperial College in London, shows the potential DMT could bring to the burgeoning ps...

The legendary publisher and one half of McPhee Gribble has re-published her memoir Other People's Words with a new afterword.

The testing that identified the poison that killed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was carried out at Porton Down, a British government chemical defence laboratory with a long and secretive history.

Geopolitical analyst and president of the Eurasia group, Ian Bremmer has a new avenue for explaining the big news in international politics: Muppets-style satirical YouTube videos.

A political debate has erupted in New Zealand over whether or not to retain special Maori electorates in the New Zealand parliament. 

Steven Scherer has written about his unexpected journey from career high to just trying to make ends meet and provide for his family in a touching essay in which he reflects on the nature of fragility and desperation. 

This week's tweeter has a soft, high-pitched call, and can be found around dense undergrowth in forest, scrub, heath and along creeklines. It's the  Red-browed Finch , known to some as the Red-browed Firetail.

Dr Marianne Jauncey works with people many in society dismiss as “lost causes” — drug users in Kings Cross, in inner-city Sydney. But far from acting the martyr, she approaches her work and her clients with optimism, passion and genuine respect. She is the first to admit how much she has learned from the people who come through the doors of the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre each day. Guest...

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program contains names of people who have died. “It seems certain some human voices can work magic, and I don’t know whether it’s their timbre, their range, or the way they harmonise and surprise… It’s a gift they’re given and, if all goes for the best and we are lucky, pass on to the rest of us.” These are the words of...

In what is perhaps the biggest news in TV comedy of the year - maybe in forty years - earlier this month, a brand new episode of The Muppet Show was released.  The Muppet Show was Jim Henson’s star-studded vaudeville variety TV show that ran for 5 seasons over 120 episodes from 1976 to 1981.  Now, forty years later, The Muppet Show is back, streaming on Disney Plus, with Seth Rogan as Executive Pr...

In this episode of Household Names we delve into the history of Breville, a company that many of us are familiar with because of their iconic jaffle makers. The company started out in radios and even produced mine detectors during the Second World War because moving into home goods.

A scientific breakthrough by Colossal Bioscience has seen the 'resurrection' of the dire wolf, a megafauna-hunting wolf species that died out around 10,000 years ago.  But is the science being used really the same as 'de-extinction'?  And does the very concept of 'de-extinction' undermine efforts to prevent species extinction in the first place? Guest: Dr Christopher Lean , Research Fellow with th...

Queensland software developer Fraser Tweedale made a Freedom of Information request for the MyGov Code Generator app's code so he could review it, but the government refused.  Services Australia said that releasing the code would leave it open to attack. Fraser argues that cybersecurity requires transparency.  Having exhausted other avenues, Fraser has crowdfunded legal fees to take Services Austr...

Timor Leste has appointed prosecutors to investigate crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military junta against members of the Chin ethnic group, in a test for Timor Leste's commitment to universal jurisdiction.

In the 1960s independent magazine OZ became a cause célèbre when its editors were charged, in the UK and Australia, with obscenity. Edition 4 of OZ magazine is a rare collectors item, valued at $700 by collectors online. One of the founders of OZ himself, Richard Walsh, had been searching for edition 4 far and wide. This missing piece of Richard's collection was finally returned when Jill Bowen re...

Abraham Kuol spent the first seven years of his life in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. His family came to Australia as refugees, and this year he is Victoria’s  Young Australian of the Year .  Abraham is an Associate Research Fellow in Criminology at Deakin University, where his research focuses on the post-settlement challenges faced by African Australians, particularly regarding interactions with...

The Magna Carta is one of the world's most famous documents, and Australia has it's own copy from 1297. Libby Melzer recently completed a 10 year project to analyse and conserve this copy of the Great Charter, touching the 700 year old document with the scalpel herself. Libby is the Head of Collection Care at State Library Victoria, and she is giving a talk about the Conservation of the Australian...

Straight from Sydney Festival to Melbourne's Art House, Opera for the Dead is a striking contemporary Chinese cyber-opera that blurs ritual, music and technology. Co-creator Mindy Meng Wang reflects on how her personal experience of grief and funeral rites shaped the immersive visual and musical work she developed with sound designer Monica Lim. Guest: Mindy Meng Wang , world-leading guzheng playe...

Mary Penfold was the driving force behind Penfolds wines, which grew from a small vineyard outside Adelaide in the 1850s to the wine-producing powerhouse that we know today. Being a woman in the agriculture sector in the mid-1800s meant that Mary didn't get much recognition for her contribution to running Penfolds. But following the death of her husband she continued to direct production and expan...

The number of countries planning to relocate their capital cities now also includes Mongolia, where building works are underway on a new capital.

'Good character' as a mitigating factor of sentencing is poised to be abolished in NSW courts. The proposed new bill in NSW parliament relies on the recommendations in the report from the NSW Sentencing Council, but not all members of the council were in agreement.  Barrister Felicity Graham explains why she dissented from the council's recommendations and what the unintended consequences of the c...