The Briefing

Genesis Owusu is an award winning musician and artist, taking home 3 ARIA's just a couple of weeks ago including album of the year. Moving from Ghana to Canberra when he was 2 years old, since then he has become a trailblazer in the Aussie music landscape. In this chat with Tom Tilley, Genesis reveals how grew up with a confidence and sense of self that most of us spend years trying to cultivate....

What was once an American tradition has now come to signal the start of the busy festive season in Australia: the Black Friday sales, which are now underway and will last right through to Monday night. According to research by Roy Morgan, Aussies are tipped to spend a whopping $6.36 billion dollars over the next four days, with more than half of us on the hunt for cheaper Christmas gifts. While sh...

Have you ever been asked to send a resume via TikTok? Hilton Hotels Australasia has announced they will be accepting TikTok CVs in a bid to stay relevant with Gen Z. It’s also in a bid to combat resumes created with the help of ChatGPT. In this episode of The Briefing Katrina Blowers speaks with Dee Madigan about whether a TikTok resume will become the norm or if it’s just a flash in the pan. Head...

Did you know most of the dating apps Australians swipe through every day are using artificial intelligence?  From safety features to enhancing match compatibility, it looks like AI is here to stay- and it could help you find the love of your life. But how will AI’s role in the dating space change in the (near) future?  On today’s extra episode of The Briefing, we hear from psychologist, neuroscien...

The war in Gaza has seen tens of thousands of graphic images and videos proliferate across the internet. Overconsumption of this type of media can lead to secondary Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this episode of The Briefing, Antoinette Lattouf speaks with Associate Professior Arash Javanbakht from Wayne State University about how to care about what’s happening without sacrificing our mental h...

Melbourne is in the grip of a crime war over the illicit tobacco market.  Cheap imported tobacco, known as ‘chop chop’ is flooding the market and crime gangs want a slice of the action.  Police say the battle for market share is behind a string of firebomb attacks on tobacco shops across the city.  In this extra episode of the Briefing, we're joined by Alexandra Bryant from our LiSTNR newsroom in...

One in six Australian men have reported sexual feelings towards children in the world's largest ever child sexual abuse perpetration prevalence study. Researchers at UNSW and Jesuit Social Services have studied almost 2,000 men and have shed unprecedented light on sexually abusive behaviours. In this episode of The Briefing, Katrina Blowers speaks with Professor Michael Salter about what we can le...

The cost of living is an issue affecting Australians right across the board, whether you're young or old, renting or buying, working or unemployed.  Yet while we all feel the sting of forking out for a GP and rising petrol prices, new data shows Aussies under 40 are being hit the hardest by interest rate rises and rental pressures while Baby Boomers are living it up. According to Commbank iQ’s Cos...

Melissa Caddick is the infamous financial adviser who orchestrated a multi-million dollar investment scam, and then disappeared in 2020. In the latest instalment of the Caddick saga, her husband Anthony Koletti has decided to walk away from ownership claims on a number of luxury items that were in Caddick’s possession. In this episode of The Briefing Tom Tilley speaks with investigative journalist...

Since the 1970s, young Aussies have marked the end of their schooling career by descending on beaches across the country for a week of drinking, partying and hooking up – an annual event known as schoolies or leavers. After making headlines for all the wrong reasons, police and organisers started clamping down on celebrations, especially on the Gold Coast. This year’s official event has gone so fa...

The Federal Government has announced it will ban the importation of vapes and cut permitted nicotine levels under reforms set to be phased in from January next year. With a new survey of 2,500 young people aged 14-25 finding that 50% had vaped, with 1 in 6 vaping daily, it seems the reforms can't come soon enough.  Tom Tilley is joined by Joy, a 19-year-old who started vaping at 16 to share her st...

Speak now or forever hold your peace! Australian feminist writer, broadcaster and public speaker Clementine Ford makes the case against marriage. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf Clementine breaks down the patriarchal structures of marriage in a western society and how it never favoured women. Weekend list: Choc dipped dried mangos from Aldi Article Erewhon's Secrets by The Cut Antoinette vers...

Ever wondered if extinct species could make a comeback? The Tasmanian Tiger became extinct in 1936, but an Australian researcher is working on bringing them back from the dead. Professor in Epigenetics Andrew Pask has opened the TIGRR lab at the University of Melbourne to work on de-extinction of the Thylacine. It’s partnering with U.S company Colossal Biosciences who’s working on similar projects...

Meet the man who is becoming one of the most powerful Australian’s in the world, Lachlan Murdoch. The Murdoch family are the owners of the huge global media empire News Corp, which was built by Lachlan’s father Rupert. Paddy Manning is an investigative reporter and has been researching the Murdoch’s for years, he joins Tom Tilley to unpack the very private life of the new successor Lachlan Murdoch...

Have you ever been sent a marketing email that didn’t have an unsubscribe button? Or maybe you’ve received a message from a company you’re sure you’ve already unsubscribed from? More and more businesses are getting caught out for breaching Australia’s spam laws- including Kmart, Ticketek and Uber just in the last few weeks. Today on this extra episode of The Briefing, we speak to Andrew Williams,...

An eighth Covid wave is gripping the country, coming in right before Christmas again! Thousands of people are still getting sick, with this strain being one of the nastier ones. Now now the vast majority of us are vaccinated, how concerned should we be? Should we consider getting a booster and masking up again? In this episode of The Briefing Antoinette Lattouf asks Professor Paul Griffin all the...

Taylor Swift is arguably the biggest pop star in the world at the moment, breaking all sorts of records with her new music and re-recorded albums. But why is one of the highest-selling musicians of all time releasing new versions of her old work? And what does it mean for the industry going forward? On this extra episode of The Briefing, we break down music copyright to explain how Taylor Swift is...

Last week the High Court ruled that 92 asylum seekers being held in detention indefinitely was unlawful, leading to their immediate release. Since, concerns have been raised about the safety of the community, with many of those who were kept in detention failing character tests, including a Malaysian hitman and a stateless Rohingya man who had previously served time in jail for child sex offences....

Do you know what's happening right now at Gaza's biggest hospital?  The Dar al-Shifa hospital is currently on its third day without power, fuel, water or food after a number of bombardments, while Hamas militants and Israeli troops clash outside its doors. It’s created a humanitarian crisis inside the hospital’s walls as doctors desperately try to save the sick and dying. On this extra episode of...

For 650 days Sean Turnell was held in Myanmar’s terrifying Insein Prison on the trumped-up charge of being a spy. In An Unlikely Prisoner he recounts how an impossibly cheerful professor of economics ended up in one of the most notorious prisons in South-East Asia. Tom Tilley sits down with Sean to unpack how he survived.   Headlines: Optus reveals the cause of nationwide outage Eighty asylum seek...

We expect safeguards for advertisers to provide fact-based information that isn't deceptive or misleading. Sadly, when it comes to political advertising, the same cannot be said. So why is it that our politicians are allowed to be less than truthful when it comes to political advertising? And isn't it time that we rectify this issue? On this extra episode of The Briefing, we speak with Independent...

What happens when breast implants go wrong? In this episode, we find out about every type of issue from pain and illness to “double bubble” and “waterfall” deformities. Katrina Blowers speaks with Professor Anand Deva about what we need to know if we’re considering going under the knife.   Headlines: Penny Wong calls for ceasefire in Gaza Thousands of Aussies rally in pro-Palestine protests Latest...

Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of Israel; he's the country's longest-serving and most controversial leader. Currently he is responsible for the invasion of Gaza, which began in retaliation against Hamas' attacks on October 7. In this bonus episode of the Briefing, Antoinette Lattouf speaks with Guy Ziv, an associate professor at the American University about who Benjamin Netanyahu really...

In September 2010, with a handful of clothes to sell and a Facebook page for promotion, Jane Lu founded Show Pony in her parents garage. Fast Forward thirteen years, and ShowPo is a global fashion force, shipping to 120 countries and is rumoured to bring in upwards of $100 million annual revenue. In this chat with Jamila Rizvi, Jane Lu breaks down the highs and lows of becoming a fashion business...

Australia is entering an eighth wave of COVID, with cases growing by 23.6% in the last reporting period.  Most of us are getting on with life, but did you know there are still young Aussies who are choosing to live COVID-cautiously? Many of them are skipping out on events, wearing masks everywhere and rolling up their sleeves to get vaccinated with each new booster. As a result, many are finding t...