The Briefing

Research shows sniffer dogs can be 100% accurate at detecting Covid! On today’s episode we find out how do they do it? Which breeds are best? And when could our furry friends could be used to save us from Covid?   We’re joined by both Dr Anne-Lise Chaberis and Dr Susan Hazel, from the School of Animal and Veterinary Science at Adelaide Uni who explain the science behind this and w...

It is one year since Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York prison and exposed a dark underbelly among some of the world's most powerful people. For many of us watching on, it was this mysterious death that first brought Epstein to our attention. On today's episode we go back and find out more about what happened up until that point.   We’ll also find out what’s happened since, i...

On todays episode we explore how COVID-19 has impacted our weddings. Classed as 'super spreading events’ Covid Marshals are now required as part of a safety plan at weddings. But does this actually stop the spread of the virus, or is it just as a visual deterrent? These ‘fun police’ are required to ensure safety guidelines are being met which includes no dancing, no mingling, no...

What are terrorists up to now during the pandemic? Are they more or less of a threat?   Whether it’s Islamic State or right-wing extremists some experts are warning that the pandemic is giving terrorists a unique opportunity to recruit new members online. In this episode we speak with Greg Barton, one of Australia’s leading experts on Islamic Terrorism who says there’s actua...

One of the biggest issues of the last year was climate change. So where is the climate debate now and how has the pandemic affected it?   Best known for his work with The Chaser, Craig Reucassel joins us to talk about his environmental quest. His new show Fight For Planet A raises the question: How much difference we can make as individuals?   In today's headlines: JobKeeper to be expand...

A number of countries have used curfews as part of their pandemic lockdown measures including France, Italy, Cyrus, parts of the US, Malaysia, Thailand, South Africa and now our very own city of Melbourne, but have they been proven to work? In this episode we explore the psychological impacts of a curfew, and also get the medical perspective on the impact it’s supposed to have.   We&rsq...

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a 33 year old Australian academic convicted of spying, and sentenced to ten years in an Iranian prison. Kylie has always maintained her innocence. After serving two years, she was recently transferred to what’s been described as one of the world's worst women’s prisons, severely overcrowded and rife with coronavirus.   On todays episode we discover t...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly facts about Coronavirus you need to know. When the coronavirus pandemic first took hold in March one of the most prominent voices explaining what was happening was the ABC’s Dr Norman Swan. He’s a medical doctor and journalist and has become one of the most trusted voices in the country when it comes to the Coronavirus. Now that it’s almost five mon...

Has the pandemic pushed more people not to have kids? By 2030, the number of couples without children will overtake the number of couples with children. Despite initial talk of lockdown love and the ‘the makings of a baby boom’, history tells us that birth rates are likely to drop in the wake of Covid-19 and the recession.   For some people the pandemic, is the final straw, they &...

The label ‘Karen’ has become a new archetype of middle-class white privilege. ‘Karen’ has mostly been used in the U.S as a way of calling out entitled white women who are used to getting their way and who police the behaviour of others.    So today we find out what this label really means... by going back to where it started.   In today's news headlines:...

The mental health consequences of COVID-19 are being described as the next wave of the pandemic. The pain of this pandemic could last for years, even if the medical emergency ends soon.   Calls to Lifeline have increased and new research from Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre predicts that under a best case scenario rates of suicide will rise by 14 per cent over the next five ye...

One of the biggest threats of the pandemic is unfolding right now. The number of old people getting covid-19 in Victoria’s aged care facilities is frightening.    On today’s episode we look at the Covid crisis engulfing the aged care centres in Melbourne, and how this could be happening given the loss and devastation at Newmarch house in Sydney?   Nicholas Barboussas sha...

The Tokyo Olympics were scheduled to open last week before the pandemic pushed them back to next year. Australian Olympic Swimming champion Mack Horton would’ve been racing this week, defending his 400m Gold medal from Rio. It would also have been the first Olympics without a Sun Yang drug cloud hanging over it after the Chinese swimmer was banned for eight years after tampering with a drug...

Across Australia children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in youth prisons. We’re one of the only western countries that do that. Today Australian lawmakers will have a historic chance to change that. The Council of Attorneys-General will be looking at raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years in li...

Welcome to a special weekend edition of The Briefing with guest Julia Gillard.    In today’s episode, we catch up with Australia’s first and only female Prime Minister about her famous misogyny speech of 2012, how ultra macho leadership styles are letting us down during the pandemic, and her new book Women in Leadership.   In today's episode Julia Gillard speaks to us ab...

Today we take a deep dive on JobKeeper rorts and the bosses taking advantage during the pandemic. Common issues include workers being forced to change hours and duties to receive JobKeeper, and workers being pressured into accepting JobKeeper on the employer’s terms. Since the scheme began in March the Australian Tax office has received more than 6168 tip offs about JobKeeper payment issues,...

Shark attacks are at a ten year high in Australia. We’re only halfway through the year and we’ve already seen 18 attacks, 4 of those in the past 5 weeks. 5 of these attacks have been fatal, when the average is usually 1.8 deaths per year.   On today's episode we're joined by Dr Vanessa Pirotta: wildlife scientist, marine biologist and last week’s shark attack victim who love...

When Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood up in parliament and gave her misogyny speech in 2012 she had no idea it would become the defining moment of her career.  It went viral with 6 million people watching it on YouTube alone, and it made Julia a feminist hero. She was the Australia’s first and only female Prime Minister, coming to power controversially after the axing of Kevin Ru...

Last month our Prime Minister, side by side with the Defence Minister gave us a very strong warning about cyberattacks. Along with that warning here in Australia, there’s been a concerning development in the UK after they accused a Russian hacking group of trying to steal COVID-19 research.   On todays episode we find out what harm these attacks could actually do., and what we really ne...

On todays episode we interview a disease detective hunting for patient zero and trying to stop the spread of COVID-19. Christian Peut is a Contact Tracer in the Communicable Disease and Control Branch at SA Health. Coronavirus contact tracers or "disease detectives" are the health experts who interview people with COVID-19 to try and work out who they might have got the disease from and who they m...

Welcome to a special weekend edition of The Briefing with guest Dr Pimple Popper.   In today’s episode, we catch up with global YouTube sensation, dermatologist Dr Pimple Popper AKA Dr Sandra Lee. She has more than 6.5 million YouTube subscribers and 3.9 million on Instagram… with some individual videos clocking up 60 million views.   Did she ever expect to clock up 4 millio...

Is the pandemic making us watch strange internet videos? Jan Fran has felt the need to watch ASMR and Pimple Popping videos during lockdown and on today's episode we explore why? Pimple popping videos are a type of ASMR which is an Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. We’re joined by the biggest pimple popper in the world: Dr Pimple Popper who has 6.5million subscribers on youtube and 3.9m...

For 45 years letters between the Queen and Australia’s Governor General have been kept secret. This week, against the Queen's wishes this series of private letters were released.   On todays episode our guest is the Gough Whitlam biographer who fought for the palace papers to be released in court - Australian Historian Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking from Monash University. We're also...

When most of us could travel overseas we knew that that if it all goes pear shaped you still call Australia home and it will be waiting for you with open arms. But for many Australians overseas that changed this week.   Today we're joined by Lachlan Kitchen, who has been trying to build a life in Dubai... but had a redundancy  last week. Our other guest is James Mort who is still in Lond...

Should we be wearing face masks in public? To mask or not to mask? It’s a simple question: so why has there been so much mixed messaging about wearing a face mask here in Australia and Overseas? The advice from the World Health Organisation has now become clearer and stronger. Same with the Victorian Authorities and the American Centre for Disease control.    To answer this timely...