The Briefing

The Queen’s funeral is tonight and it’s expected to be the most-watched television event of all time. Four billion people are expected to tune in. It will be the end of an era in Australia with King Charles III taking over from his mother. So what will it mean for Indigenous Australians? Our very own Rhianna Patrick, a Torres Strait Islander, tells us about her connection with the Queen and how gr...

Hugh Van Cuylenburg is a bestselling author and co-host of the popular podcast, The Imperfects. Hugh works in the area of resilience, through his podcast and books, he’s worked with everyone from school kids to football stars on how to live a more resilient life. In this conversation Jamila Rizvi and Hugh Van Cuylenburg discuss embracing the current season of your life, the power of resilience and...

Rapper Tasman Keith says the ARIA Awards should be judged on art, not charts. Is he right?  Keith posted a lengthy explainer on how the ARIA Awards are not based on merit, they’re based on sales this week.  ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd joins us to explain why those claims are not quite right, but the awards could do more to acknowledge artists who fly under the radar.  We’re also joined by ARIA judge a...

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, a wide range of sanctions has been imposed by western countries. Sanctions are penalties imposed by one country on another, to stop it acting aggressively, or breaking international law.     We’re joined by David Uren - an economic analyst and commentator with the Australian   Strategic Policy Institute - to determine the real impact of the sanctions. In today’s Brief...

We have now entered the realm of King Charles III. To many, Charles is an eccentric environmentalist whose relationship with his first wife Diana filled tabloids and documentaries for decades.  Now he’s ascended the throne on his mother’s death, we take a deep dive on the man himself with Dr Cindy McCreery, a historian with the University of Sydney and an expert on the history of the Royal Family....

With the Queen’s death last week, the world woke to a new generation. We have a new King, a new heir to the throne and many expect conversations to begin about Australia’s future in the Commonwealth. What should you do if you feel unsure about the future? In today’s episode of the Briefing, we’re joined by Brigid Delaney whose new book Reasons Not To Worry - How to Be Stoic in Chaotic Times, comes...

The Queen’s body has begun its journey from Scotland to England. Tens of thousands of Britons lined the highways of Scotland overnight to watch the Queen’s cortege from Balmoral Castle to Holyrood House in Edinburgh where her body will lie in state for a day before being taken to London. We’re joined by Jacob Farr from Edinburgh Live who can take us through the ins and outs of the Queen’s final jo...

Two months ago Hannah Diviney wrote a tweet that went viral. Hannah was the driving force behind Lizzo and Beyonce, two of the most powerful and influential people in pop music, changing their lyrics which used an ablest slur.     Hannah Diviney is a writer and disability & women’s rights advocate. In this conversation Jamila Rizvi and Hannah Diviney unpack everything from pop stars, to cartoo...

In today’s Briefing, we bring you the news that Queen Elizabeth has died aged 96. Buckingham Palace made the official announcement at 6.30pm British time -  3.30am this morning our time. Her majesty was Britain’s longest-serving monarch. The Queen, born in Mayfair, London on April 21, 1926, died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. In this special episode of the Briefing, we remember Her Majesty, Queen...

It’s National Child Protection Week. Australian authorities have served Apple, Microsoft and Meta with world-first legal orders this week to come clean on what they are doing to detect and report child sex abuse material or face fines of more than half a million dollars a day. Australia’s move will be watched internationally- in the US, there has been bitter debate over whether child security shou...

As a detective, Gary Jubelin used to sit on one side of the interview room table facing murderers, child abductors and rapists. Now he’s sitting on the other side: disgraced, forced out of the police and judged to be a criminal. His new book Badness, shows us the view from the other side. One of Australia’s most famous detectives has done a very different kind of investigation; instead of locking...

Japan is planning a dramatic shift back to nuclear power more than a decade on from the Fukushima disaster. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced last week Japan will restart idle reactors and develop new plants to avoid new strains on power grids that buckled under heavy demand this summer.  We’re joined by Dr Carol Bond from RMIT, a political and social scientist with a focus on energy policy....

A new study has found friendships between rich and poor can reduce poverty. The study looked at thousands of social media connections and found if poor children grew up in neighbourhoods where 70% of their friends were wealthy, it would increase their future incomes by 20%. We’re joined by one of the study’s authors, Matthew O Jackson, a professor of Economics and Stanford University who explains...

Johnny Ruffo is an Australian singer, songwriter, dancer, actor, television personality and now a newly minted author, with his memoir No Finish Line .     Johnny auditioned for X-Factor Australia in 2011 on a whim and after placing third signed a recording contract with Sony. He won Dancing with the Stars the following year, released a debut single and joined the cast of Home and Away. Then Johnn...

Could your next job be in tech? Job shortages are hitting the Australian economy hard, mostly in lower-skilled lower-paid jobs. One sector is bucking the trend; the tech sector is growing, with the number of jobs set to triple while salaries are growing strongly. We talk to Australia Tech Council deputy CEO Tom McMahon to get to the bottom of why Australia is so bad at tech. Dude, where’s my tech...

In one of the most anticipated courtroom verdicts in living memory, Chris Dawson was this week found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette more than 40 years ago. A packed court heard Dawson murdered his wife so he could pursue a relationship with the Dawsons’ teenage babysitter. We’re joined by Matthew Condon, a journalist with the Australian who worked alongside Hedley Thomas, the creator of the...

At May’s federal election, six so-called teal independents defeated six sitting Liberal MPs. Teal is a mix of green and blue - so voters saw the six candidates as having conservative views, while supporting a green, or climate active, political leaning.  Tom and Annika take a deep dive on the teals, as both NSW and Victoria head to the polls in the next six months. Will the teal wave crash the upc...

Back on July 19th, Australia’s first fixed pill testing site opened in Canberra’s city centre. The pilot program is running two nights a week for six months. Pill testing was one of the recommendations made by a coronial inquest into festival deaths. The team behind this latest site, called Harm Reduction Australia, has run a couple of trials of pill testing before at the Groovin the Moo festivals...

Could BeReal overtake Instagram and Facebook? Data from Google trends, which ranks a search term’s popularity out of 100, shows social media platform BeReal shot from 38 to 92 points the same week “Make Instagram Instagram Again” started trending. We’re joined by Claire Reilly - an Aussie tech journo living in San Fran working for tech news site CNet to find out what Be Real is all about, and if i...

The Science Briefing is a new podcast from LiSTNR and The Royal Institution of Australia about the science of everything and your new go-to podcast for your snapshot of science news. In this episode, Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine journalist Petra Stock about how we perceive robots and the lengths to which we, as humans, breathe life into machines. See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...

Nevo Zisin is a queer author, speaker, performer, and activist. Their speaking and writing in the gender and LGBTQIA+ space has been affirming for so many queer kids and adults, and educative for friends, family and allies alike. Nevo’s books Finding Nevo and The Pronoun Lowdown are available at all good bookstores.   In this conversation Jamila Rizvi and Nevo Zisin discuss queer activism, Nevo’s...

Actor Sean Bean, known for Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings has been getting heat for saying intimacy coordinators reduce “the natural way lovers behave” into a “technical exercise.” Emma Thompson and Amanda Seyfried are among the high-profile actresses to come out against the comments—saying intimacy coordinators make sets safer and more comfortable.   We speak to Chloe Dallimore, an intimac...

Shockwaves: The Bali Bombings is a narrative documentary series exploring the lives of people in Australia and Bali impacted by the 12 October 2002 Bali Bombings. Of the 202 people killed, 88 were Australian. It was our worst peacetime atrocity. We’re joined by Network Ten journalist Ali Donaldson who explains many of the survivors have incredibly uplifting stories to now tell. Shockwaves: The Bal...

There’s been a major split in Australia’s Anglican Church; conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage have launched a breakaway movement led by former Sydney Archbishop Glenn Davies. They aim to lure Anglicans who are unhappy with progressive bishops. Small, localised breakaway churches aren’t new, but there’s never been any with this sort of scope or involving such senior members of the establish...

The oral contraceptive pill was an absolute game changer for Australian women when it was introduced back in 1961. Why then, are oral contraceptives on their way out. We’re joined by Kelsey Menzies, a 25-year-old who went off the pill and is now on the rhythm method; and Professor Jayashri Kulkarni from Monash University who’s been leading research in this area. In the last 30 years, people using...