The Yarn

After President-elect Donald Trump's landslide win and a federal election looming, Australian politicians have lessons to learn from the US election.   The Yarn spoke to two US political analysts, on different sides of the political aisle, to get a breakdown of the Republicans' success.  Tim Lynch is a professor of American politics at the University of Melbourne. Cory Alpert is a former Biden-Har...

The Harry Brookes Allen Museum is one of many collections at the University of Melbourne. The University has collected artefacts that has contributed to a wealth of knowledge that is vital to Melbourne, Australia and the world.  But the way University scholars collected these artefacts was not always done in an ethical way. Reporter Haoyue Deng learns how a rare marsupial mole is the key to the fo...

What would Australia look like if we had monkeys swinging around our cities? In the late 19th Century, a number of associations called “acclimatisation societies” sprung up across Australia with the goal of bringing familiar plants and animals to what the British colonists saw as an impoverished landscape.  This episode explores the massive ecological transformation that shaped what the university...

The Old Quadrangle is one of the most photographed spots on the University of Melbourne campus, with students and tourists alike posing under its iconic archways.  The romantic European architecture feels like you've been transported to the set of Hogwarts, but did you know that the stones used to create this effect were stolen from Indigenous lands in Tasmania?  Reporter Giulia Scenna investigate...

Between the 1800s to1950s, anthropologists at the University of Melbourne were digging up burial sites of First Nations ancestors who had been laid to rest and collecting, rather stealing, their bodies. And while some of these human remains were returned to land and reburied, one collection remained hidden away at the university in a storage room until 2003.  Uncover the true story of The Universi...

On the surface, the University of Melbourne is a historical spectacle – with its grand arches, stone facades, echoing hallways, and the chimes of the old clocktower. But this university is also home to many secrets, from human remains unearthed on university grounds, to its role in nuclear testing on Indigenous lands. In an eight-part series, students from the Centre for Advancing Journalism explo...

This week, we're bringing you another episode of News Bites, a series of live interviews about the craft of journalism.    Today’s guest is Silvia Montaña-Niño. Silvia is a new CAJ lecturer and was a journalist at El Espectador, one of Columbia’s most important newspapers.   At the start of her career, Columbia was besieged by guerilla warfare and death squads. Drug lords like Pablo Escobar waged...

Today’s News Bites guest is journalist and CAJ Lecturer Dr Caroline James-Garrod. Caroline got her start as a cadet at Leader Community Newspapers in Melbourne. Since then, she’s had an expansive career working across the country and abroad.  She’s also seen major industry upheavals, from the rise of the 24/7 online news cycle to the era of mass job cuts. These shifts have left many journalists wi...

This week, we're bringing you another episode of News Bites, a series of live interviews about the craft of journalism.   Today’s guest is Khalid Amiri, who was a prominent news presenter for the Afghan state broadcaster RTA. He’s known for his courageous reporting and outspoken criticism of the Taliban.   After Kabul fell in August 2021, Khalid and his family fled to Australia, where he’s pursuin...

In Victorian London, a persistent rumour spread of a murderer who could leap between the city’s alleyways to avoid detection. Newspapers called him spring-heeled jack—one of the first ever urban legends.  He wasn’t real, but the fears that inspired him were. Fears of rapidly changing urban spaces and the upheavals of industrialization.   This week, we’re bringing you stories about similar mythical...

A decade before the global internet even existed, William Gibson coined the term "cyberspace". He was describing a realm of pure information in his 1983 novel Neuromancer. The story unfolds in a future where data flows form the arteries of an interconnected world.  It’s one of many inventions that appeared in novels and films years   before they materialised in reality, along with spaceships, Arti...

Back in the 13th Century, a catastrophic eruption in Indonesia ushered in a “volcanic winter”. Sulfur smothered the sky, causing crop failure and famine as far away as Europe.   Almost 800 years later, geoengineers are considering replicating this effect on purpose . The theory goes that plumes of aerosols could shield us from the sun and combat climate change. Experts say it could work, but not w...

When we think of navigation, we imagine satellite imagery mapping our world with laser-point precision.  But not all maps are for navigating reality.   "World building” describes the mapping of entire fictional realms. Think the vast continent of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings, or the expansive galaxies of Star Trek.  But it doesn’t end there. It can extend to complex political systems, ancient...

2030. That’s the date renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil says humans could merge with machines and achieve immortality. He's is a disciple of transhumanism — a movement aiming to cheat death through technological innovations.     We might not get there by 2030, but this week, we’re bringing you stories about the breakthroughs paving the way. Stories about breaking free from human limits.  It’s the fir...

For Australian whistleblowers, the truth often comes at price.  The Human Rights Law Centre says federal whistleblowing laws have failed to protect a single person since their inception, and those who speak out risk exorbitant fines or even jail time.  Today, you’ll hear from a panel of experts who say reforms are long overdue: Kieran Pender (an expert in legal frameworks for whistleblower protect...

Today we're returning to our News Bites series which spotlights the work of staff and students at the Centre for Advancing Journalism.  This week’s guest is podcaster, PhD candidate, and former journalism student Dylan Bird. You might recognise his voice from Triple R’s Future Perfect program, which Dylan hosts. He also works behind the scenes on the CAJ podcast Masterclass.   On top of this, he’s...

24 hours after announcing a partial victory, the pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Melbourne is still intact and students are still occupying the Arts West building.   It’s not what they were anticipating yesterday. During a press conference last night, a pro-Palestine spokesperson said the university had agreed to a deal that could end the encampment.  The protesters were set to pack...

On Wednesday, dozens of pro-Palestine protesters occupied the University of Melbourne’s Arts West building. They say this sit-in will last until they are either forcibly removed or their demands are met. They’re calling for the divestment of university funds from weapons manufacturers.   The university has threatened those involved with severe consequences. Last night, police were given the green...

Coming up to its third week, the Gaza solidarity camp at the University of Melbourne is growing — It’s almost quadrupled to at least ninety tents.  But the encampment is coming under increasing pressure.  Last Thursday, pro-Israel demonstrators marched across campus, culminating in a face off with pro-Palestine students amid a heavy police presence. And this week, Petter Dutton called for encampme...

On ANZAC Day last week, protesters set up camp at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus. Since then, the “Gaza solidarity encampment” has been the epicentre of several peaceful demonstrations attracting hundreds of participants.  On Monday, more than 300 protesters marched on campus demanding the university to cut ties with weapons manufacturers and take an “ethical stance” against Israel...

Melbourne’s status as Australia's live music capital is under threat. Since the start of the pandemic, one third of small and mid-sized venues nation-wide have closed their doors for good.   This week we’re bringing you stories about how performers along the number 19 tramline are getting by.  It's the third episode of Tram Tales. Our new series about Melburnians who live, work, and travel along t...

Ask a group of teenagers about their dream jobs and you’ll likely hear a familiar list: doctor, lawyer, architect, psychologist...  According to an OECD survey, these are some of the most desired jobs among students worldwide.  But what about all the jobs they don’t even know exist?   This week, we’re bringing you stories from off the beaten career path. Stories about people along the number 19 tr...

The number 19 tramline is Melbourne’s backbone, taking passengers all the way from Coburg north to Flinders Street Station. Our new series, Tram Tales, shares the stories and struggles of people who, live, work, and travel along this central artery.   For our first episode, we're focusing on an issue that’s top of mind for most Australians — the cost-of-living crisis.  Energy, housing, and food co...

In the days of hunter-gatherers, social exclusion meant certain death. Humans have evolved with a primal need for belonging — and we still suppress our differences so we can fit in. But what happens when we buck this trend?   This week, we’re bringing you stories about embracing our differences.   It’s the sixth episode of Not Natural, a series about the tension between the natural and the artific...

According to an old urban myth, a frog suddenly dropped in boiling water will instantly leap out to safety. But if the water is tepid and gradually heated, the oblivious frog will slowly boil to death. This process is a metaphor for human psychology — especially when it comes to ecological decline.   Over time, gradual changes can make unprecedented catastrophes feel normal .   This week, we’re br...