The Briefing

After Elon Musk’s incredible success at Tesla and Paypal, the world wanted to see what he would do when he announced he was buying Twitter. So far, it's been a disaster. From day one, Musk has pivoted from one mistake to another, sacking thousands of people before backtracking and making a complete mess of the verification process.  In today’s Briefing, we take a deep dive on Elon Musk’s twitter c...

Rebel Wilson has just announced her daughter was born via surrogate. She’s one of a growing number of people having their children this way. In her announcement she thanked the surrogate who “carried Royce and birthed her with such grace and care,” and it got us talking about surrogacy.  In today's Briefing, we speak to lawyer Sarah Jefford, a surrogate herself, about the Australia system which fo...

NASA is heading back to the moon in the hopes of setting up a colony there.   But this endeavour – called Artemis - has been plagued by delays and the spacecraft remains firmly on the ground.   So, what’s going on? Why hasn’t it launched yet?  Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Matthew Agius about the Artemis missions, what's gone wrong so far and when we’re likely to a see m...

Brooke Blurton was Australia's first ever Indigenous and bisexual Bachelorette.   There is so more to this impressive young woman than reality TV fame. Brooke is a passionate advocate for mental health, a proud champion of young queer people and people of colour. In her new book Big Love, she reveals a far more complex character than we were permitted to see on screen, and speaks about a childhood...

Wil Anderson’s new book is called I am NOT fine, thanks.  It's all about how the pandemic impacted us: we worked from home, or maybe lost our jobs, or began losing friends down rabbit holes.  Wil says it’s time to bring those who drifted into conspiracy theories back into the fold.    In today’s Briefing, Wil Anderson talks us through how the pandemic impacted his career and how he found himself l...

We all watched in amazement as the world’s super-rich went gangbusters during the pandemic. Some of the increases in wealth were next level. If 2020 and 2021 were dream years, 2022 has been a nightmare for billionaires.  James Thomson writes the Chanticleer column in the Australian Financial Review.  James explains why the pandemic was so profitable for the uber-wealthy, and why 2022 has seen some...

We dive into some mindblowing research scientists have been doing in the field of lucid dreaming. They’ve actually spoken to people in their sleep, even asking them to solve complex mathematical problems, and those people have responded. It’s a bit like the real life version of that movie Inception, where Leonardo DiCaprio entered into other people’s dreams and interacted with them.  We're joined...

The US midterm elections are happening this week, with major implications for President Joe Biden. A third of the seats in the US senate are on the ballot along with every seat in the House of Representatives; that means the country’s legislature could swing towards either party. Biden’s Democrats are hoping to win votes by focusing on abortion rights and democracy, while Republicans are concentra...

The Australian housing market is experiencing strange times. In this episode we’ll look at previous downturns, and how they’ve panned out to discover if the current downturn will be the worst housing market crash in Australian history. We chat to Eliza Owen, Property Analyst from Corelogic to give us the inside scoop.  Headlines: - COP 27: past 8 years hottest on record - Floodwaters move downstre...

Teela Reid is a proud Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, lawyer, and story-teller. Teela was also involved in the Constitutional dialogue process that culminated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The Prime Minister has foreshadowed a referendum on the question of a First Nations Voice to Parliament; a key component of the Statement of the Heart. One day soon we will all be called upon to vote on th...

In our first two episodes of the gut instinct series, we’ve explored the growing evidence that suggests how so much of what happens in the gut impacts diseases traditionally linked to the brain. We’ve also examined the booming multi-billion dollar probiotics and kombucha industries, and found they have little or limited effect on the gut. So what other ways can we treat the mind via our guts? Arou...

Globally the kombucha and probiotics market is worth billions and it’s rapidly growing as people spend big on wellness and gut health. In part two of our three part series on gut health, we’ll be exploring if we’re being fooled by some of the extraordinary health claims these products make. Or maybe there's a tiny nugget of truth in the proclamations— and it's just been over-hyped. We talk to Jord...

This series will examine the growing body of evidence between gut health and gut microbiomes to mental health, sleep disorders and in some cases even autism. Should we be changing our approach to mental health treatment which is so heavily geared toward quick pharmaceutical interventions? Professor Emad El-Omar is the director of the University of New South Wales Microbiome Research Centre and is...

Australian workers have been getting a raw deal on wages.  Wages actually being stolen, that is, unlawful underpayment, and then there’s the terrible bargaining power that has seen real wages flat-line for the last decade.  That’s one of the issues the Labor party campaigned on to get into office, and now that they’re in office, it's proving hard to change.  Ben Schneiders has been investigating t...

It was a dramatic week last week in the story of Ye-formerly known as Kayne West. The list of companies that have walked away from Kanye is huge, he says it cost him $2bn in one day. So is this the end of Kanye’s career?  Kanye West, or Ye has been a master of controversy; he loves to shock. But in the last month his attacks on Jewish people have brought serious consequences.  We’ll get a Jewish p...

Ryan Shelton is a hugely successful comedian, actor, writer, radio and television presenter.   In this conversation Jamila Rizvi and Ryan Shelton discuss following opportunities for success, discovering the power of vulnerability and Ryan’s own creative processes, where he has found honesty as the secret for his latest accomplishments.    THE WEEKEND LIST: WATCH:  Hocus Pocus & Hocus Pocus 2 –...

Trends in funerary practices and how the recently departed are remembered are nothing new. From face moulds of the dead to making the rear window of your car a rolling memorial, the way someone is remembered has changed through time. But would you turn the tattoos of a dead family member into art? Kyle Sherwood does just that for a living and it’s proving quite popular.  Remembrance is a very indi...

Canberra might cop it a lot for being one of the most boring cities in Australia but it’s always been pretty progressive when it comes to social issues.  It’s the only place in Australia where the personal use of cannabis is legal. We recently shared with you here on The Briefing that it was hosting a trial of the first fixed pill testing site, and now the ACT government has passed legislation dec...

Labor’s first budget in a decade has been handed down. It’s being touted as a cost of living budget that’s friendly for families. The government’s focus is on childcare, paid parental leave and disaster resilience as well as TAFE and university places. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has also taken into account our challenging economic times; growth is forecast to slump while unemployment is set to rise. W...

The UK's political saga continues with Rishi Sunak named the UK's new Prime Minister overnight. He replaces Liz Truss who was forced to resign just 45 days into the job after her disastrous mini-budget sent financial markets into meltdown. Truss had replaced Boris Johnson who sent his party into a meltdown.  Rishi is 42, the youngest person to take office in more than 200 years, and is the first f...

On election day, a record number of independents seized previously "safe" seats and helped spell the end of the near decade-long Liberal government. It was a teal wave that surged stronger than anyone had expected, and it was backed by Climate 200 - a non profit, non partisan group that employed crowdfunding, whose founder, Simon Holmes à Court says is just getting started.   Simon joins us on the...

If you tuned in to watch this year’s federal election night coverage, even for a few moments, you would have seen a sea of teal. All the political commentators could talk about was the wave of centre right independents who had claimed previously safe Liberal party seats.   At the centre of these shifting political winds is Allegra Spender, former businesswoman and now the member for Wentworth cove...

Why has an Aussie heavy metal band gone green? In Hearts Wake have used their passion for ecological advocacy, to push the boundaries of the music industry by recording, releasing and performing their last album, (Kaliyuga), in a radically new and sustainable way. Kaliyuga became the first carbon offset album, pressed on recycled materials to hit the top 5 in the ARIA Australian Albums Chart as it...

Parts of NSW and Victoria are again under water as another big weather system heads for already sodden regions. Flood warnings are in place in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Thousands of people living in the Victorian NSW border towns of Echuca and Moama are bracing for a second flood in a week as local rivers peak.   We spoke to Bianca Hall, senior reporter with The Age newspaper...

Alex Jones is an American radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist who was last week ordered to pay almost a billion dollars US to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre. Jones had peddled the theory the shooting was a hoax to curb America’s gun laws.  A court in Connecticut ordered Jones to pay up – but he’s now claiming bankruptcy and there are fears the families...