The Briefing

NASA is preparing to launch three rockets from the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory, scheduled for the end of this month and early July. Professor Melissa Zwart from Flinders University tells us the three rockets are “sounding” rockets. They won’t actually reach orbit, but they will collect scientific data.  It’s a big deal, it’s the first time NASA has conducted a rocket launch from...

An energy crisis across Australia took us to the brink of blackouts last week.  A cold snap; the war in the Ukraine; and escalating global coal and gas prices formed a perfect storm where we were being urged to turn the dishwasher off.  The crisis prompted the market operator to suspend the short term market and take control over supply.  Mark Ludlow writes for the Australian Financial Review on e...

It’s January 1982, Lyn and Chris Dawson appear to have the perfect marriage. He's a star footballer and popular high school teacher. She's a devoted wife and mother who worked as a nurse. Lyn Dawson goes missing shortly afterwards. Chris Dawson was charged with the 1982 murder of his wife, Lynette.  The cold case was at the center of widely popular investigative podcast series Teachers Pet, which...

Pete Helliar is one seriously funny dude. He is also seriously busy. Pete is a regular host on The Project and the creator and star of 10's How To Stay Married. He has created and co-produced two series of the award winning It’s A Date for ABC TV. He hosts a podcast called You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, has written children’s books and his latest stand up special is streaming ...

Tik Tok has been the fastest growing social media app ever. In just five years it has had over 2 billion downloads and now reports 1.6b regular users - about half of Facebook, already.  Many of its users are young and so there’s obviously concern that it's being used to sell and promote drugs.   Dr. James Martin is a senior lecturer in Criminology at Deakin University who spec...

The Reserve Bank of Australia provides forward guidance for the economy.  One of the key levers of fiscal policy is interest rate projections. RBA boss Philip Lowe predicted he couldn’t see interest rates rising before 2024 – and many Australians took out mortgages based on that advice.  Well we now know he was wrong.    John Kehoe, the economic editor at the Austra...

The concept of the four-day working week has been around for almost a century, but like the idea of working from home which needed a pandemic to make happen, the four-day week concept hasn’t really taken off in Australia until recently.    Researchers have found a four-day work week without a pay cut improves both productivity and a sense of wellbeing, less stress and burnout,...

Johann Hari’s new book Stolen Focus is all about the crisis in concentration sweeping the world. The book goes into why it’s happening, how much it’s affecting us, and what can be done to tackle the problem.   Johann joins us to explain there are so many things competing for our attention, it makes it really hard to focus. Can we fight back against it as individuals......

Australia’s new government has appointed an Assistant Minister for the Republic.  Matt Thistlethwaite has been tasked with taking the Labor Party’s policy of making Australia a republic from policy to reality.   Mr Thistlethwaite joins us on the Queen’s Birthday holiday to talk about what his plans for a republic, what our new nation’s leader would be called&helli...

Sophie Cachia has always been in a rush. At twenty she met a bloke and fell in love, by age twenty-three she’d given birth to her first child, and within another year or two grew a formidable social media following for her account “The Young Mummy”. Then There Was Her is Sophie’s debut book. It’s intimate, illuminating and revealing - which might surprise readers give...

Filming on Australia’s longest-running television show Neighbours, finishes today…..after nearly 9,000 episodes, 63 weddings, 20 births and 68 deaths.   We’re joined by Ryan Moloney – who plays Jarrod "Toadfish" Rebecchi to talk about the show’s legacy – and his plans for the future; and Andrew Mercardo – the TV reviewer and historian about why the s...

Australian journalist Cheng Lei has been charged in a Chinese court of supplying state secrets. Detained since August 2020, her family and friends now say she’s been denied access to consular officials and prison officials have tightened her food supply.   Her partner, Nick Coyle joins us on the Briefing to talk about what the future looks like for Cheng Lei and what life is like for he...

In the next 20 years, almost 250 billion dollars will be transferred from baby boomers to Generations X, Y and Z.   We’re joined by Aleks Vickovich, the Wealth Editor at the Australian Financial Review to discuss what it means for the economy – and in particular young Australians hoping to buy their first home.   And with yesterday’s interest rate decision by...

Will Joe Biden be the US President who actually changes gun culture in America?   19 students and two teachers were shot at an elementary school in Texas last week.  It was the 27th school shooting in the US this year.  It feels like every time it happens we hear the same calls for action on guns, AND the same rhetoric from the NRA and gun owners…..that the Second Amendment i...

The LiSTNR team has launched a new podcast, Post: News In Five    Hosted by journalist and producer Ninah Kopel, Post: News In Five is a brand new, daily news short cast adapted from The Saturday Paper’s daily newsletter Post, written by Max Opray.  Each weekday morning, a five-minute episode will drop, bringing listeners up to speed on the top five ne...

In just 12 months, the video app TikTok has transformed the music industry….artists can reach audiences like never before.  Directly getting new music to their fans in seconds.  But some artists say they’re being told to create content purely for the short-attention span market of TikTok.  Halsey blew up last week after her record company insisted she create a FAKE post...

Daniel and Luke Mancuso are brothers who live in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. In 2010, after 23 years of marriage their parents separated. What followed was a campaign of intimidation and coercion by their father Paulino towards their mother Teresa. Hang up calls. Stalking. Threats. Rumors… Three years later, Daniel and Luke’s beloved mum was murdered at home by their father. T...

The Liberal Party began its rebuilding process under new leader Peter Dutton this week.  The Young Liberals are the next generation of conservative politicians.  So what do young Liberals see as the future of the party - they will, after all, potentially be candidates for election for the Liberal Party in years to come.  What will the Liberal Party look like in 2030? Deyi Wu is Pres...

New Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised a referendum on the Uluru Statement from the Heart.  So what is it?  What will Australians be voting on? The Statement itself calls for an Aboriginal voice to parliament and a Makarrata Commission, a process of agreement making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about their history.  It came from a convention brin...

The Liberal Party has a new leader – and an uncertain future.  Australia voted to send a message in last month’s election….the Morrison government was out of touch and no longer listening.   Dave Sharma was defeated by Allegra Spender, one of the so-called ‘teal independents’ in the Sydney seat of Wentworth.    In today’s Briefing…Dav...

Everyone knows someone who’s been floored by the flu. And many say this flu virus is the worst they’ve ever experienced. They say they feel way worse than when they had covid.    Medical experts are worried about how quickly this so-called ‘super flu’ is spreading - particularly in Victoria.    Cases have tripled, meaning some schools have had to go back...

Menstruation is having a bit of a moment in Australia.  Victoria and South Australia made tampons and pads free last year. The federal government poured $58 million into endometriosis from this year’s budget.     But with Spain becoming the first European nation to take steps to provide paid leave for period pain and new Aussie research finding that 1 in 3 women feel the...

Laura Henshaw looks like a model. But when she speaks? She defies all those stereotypes about what a woman who has been beautiful for a living might be. Laura started modelling at nineteen and when she was in Europe for a shoot was introduced to fellow model and now business partner Steph Claire Smith. The two became fast friends and have since built a remarkable business called Keep it Cleaner wh...

Everyone’s talking about the Labor Party’s big win in last weekend’s election.  But the Greens too, have had an incredibly successful campaign, looking to pick up at least three seats in the House of Reps and a swag of seats in the Senate.   Greens leader – and member for Melbourne – Adam Bandt joins us to explain why voters turned away from the big parties...

Women voted to send Scott Morrison a message on Saturday: the Liberal Party has a problem with women….and his government was going to pay for it.   Today’s Briefing takes a deep dive on how - and more importantly why - women turned their back on the Liberal Party (without necessarily flocking to Labor) and backed ‘teal independents’ at the 2022 federal election, chang...