The Briefing

Ozempic is the new wonder drug sweeping the world of weight loss. But now a new surprising side effect has potentially been uncovered. There's anecdotal evidence that semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic, may also be able to reduce the desire for alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs. Now, research is being undertaken to find out if science can back up those claims. In this episode of The...

Imagine going to your doctor and having treatment forced upon you. This is called compulsory treatment and in Australia it’s legal. Compulsory mental health treatment is when a psychiatrist believes that a patient is at a severe risk of harming themselves or others, who can then be forced to take medication or undergo treatment. But how subjective is that decision on labelling the risk? And if the...

At least 120-thousand people are experiencing homelessness in any given night in Australia. And this isn't a problem that only we are facing, with many countries around the globe struggling to tackle the homelessness issue.  However, this isn’t the case in Finland.   In their capital, Helsinki, the government aims to end homelessness – or get it down to where becoming homeless is likely to be very...

Huge crowds gathered at the weekend to protest laws that see high-risk offenders released on bail. As anger mounts over this year’s soaring domestic violence death toll, we speak with Kay Schubach, a domestic violence survivor about what really needs to change to stop more Australian women dying at the hands of offenders released by our courts. In this episode of The Briefing, Kay joins Sacha Barb...

Do you feel like you have a good work-life balance? It’s something that most people struggle with, particularly with current cost-of-living pressures. Tim Duggan is the co-founder of Junkee Media. As a young man who launched several digital media platforms he knows a thing or two about work life balance. He’s also the author of several books, his latest is called Work Backwards . In this interview...

Nina Oyama wants people to hire more lesbians. She also has a fondness for iPads over mobiles. But most of all, Nina is funny. She’s a comedian, actor and award-winning writer and director who can go from smutty stand-up to sweet characters on screen. Her portrayal of the uptight eco warrior Courtney in Utopia or the anxious policewoman Abby in Deadloch being some of her stand out performances. He...

A rocket is set to take off soon from North Queensland, becoming the first locally made orbital rocket to blast off from Australian soil. It will also mark our country as one of only twelve around the globe that can boast space launch technology that goes from build to launch. Yet, strangely enough, this rocket is highly likely to fail. On this episode, Bension Siebert speaks with LiSTNR journalis...

Columbia University in New York this week called in police to arrest pro-Palestinian protestors. Universities have always championed free speech. Is Columbia a sign of the changing nature of protest in our tertiary institutions? Once places that encouraged challenging discussions on politics and culture. In this episode of The Briefing, we’re joined by Tim Briedis, an academic and historian from t...

At pubs around the country, people are watching pairs of coins tossed in the air for the classic ANZAC Day tradition of playing two-up.  In most parts of Australia it’s illegal to play this quintessentially Australian game any day other than ANZAC Day.  But one pub in Broken Hill – the far west New South Wales mining town near the border South Australia – it's played legally every Friday night.  S...

On this Anzac Day morning, we reflect on the rise and rise of Anzac Day and how only a generation ago, it was declining before a huge upsurge in interest and favour in the late 1990s. The day has not always been as revered as it is today. We’re joined by Anzac historian Mat McLachlan to discuss the current popularity of Anzac Day, and whether it will survive into the future. See omnystudio.com/lis...

At the beginning of this week, a woman was allegedly murdered by her former partner while he was out on bail. He’d been charged with her rape as well as intimidation. The alleged incident has thrown our bail laws into sharp relief, with both federal and state politicians pledging to do more to keep women safe.   In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt speaks with Dr Terry Goldsworthy,...

Social media has become entrenched in our society, replacing town squares and the water cooler as the place we come together to share our lives, our thoughts and our ideas. But the internet can be a dangerous place, especially for kids, where predators lurk, scams are rife and content inappropriate for young eyes is readily available. Even innocent trends can prove dangerous; think intense skincar...

For the first time, two independent candidates are attempting to run for federal parliament as ‘job-sharing candidates’.   Lucy Bradlow and Bronwen Bock want to run for the Melbourne seat of Higgins as a single candidate on the ballot paper. They claim that they could do the role like any other job-share – splitting duties, making join decisions, sharing the salary – and that allowing job-sharing...

Today, we bring you the final episode of our exclusive, three-part special investigation into the risky new frontier of Australia's healthcare system. The Briefing's investigative team went undercover online to expose the risks Australia's government, medical regulators and doctors' groups are only now beginning to realise. The investigation reveals how the crisis in Australia's GP practices has d...

Today, we bring you the second part of our exclusive, three-part special investigation into the risky new frontier of Australia's healthcare system.   The Briefing's investigative team went undercover online to expose the risks Australia's government, medical regulators and doctors' groups are only now beginning to realise.  The investigation reveals how the crisis in Australia's GP practices has...

Today, we bring you the first part of our exclusive, three-part special investigation into the risky new frontier of Australia's healthcare system.   The Briefing's investigative team went undercover online to expose the risks Australia's government, medical regulators and doctors' groups are only now beginning to realise.  The investigation reveals how the crisis in Australia's GP practices has d...

Alone has been dubbed the most successful original commission in SBS history. The series is a reality show like never before, where 10 people get dropped into a remote environment completely alone to see who can survive for the longest. Andreas Lundin, a former model, personal trainer and hunter, was part of Australia's season two. In this chat with Tom Tilley, Andreas explains the strategy he use...

History is a lot of things. Fascinating, confronting, sometimes shameful, often brutal, and also incredibly kinky. Esme Louise James is a sex historian – her work explores the history of human sexuality – including hidden queer histories, plus kinks and fetishes throughout the ages. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Esme reveals her favourite historical kinky and her TMI moments whilst working...

This spring, up to 16 states across the US will see a natural phenomenon of spectacular proportions not seen in over 200 years, as an estimated trillion periodical cicadas emerge in the same season. While there are over 1,500 different species of cicada, only seven emerge as a brood every 7 years, 13 years or 17 years. Because these cycles are all prime numbers, it is incredibly rare that the diff...

This week lawyers in New York are trying to pick the jury for Donald Trump’s trial. On the first day more than 50 potential jurors were dismissed, with many saying they couldn’t be impartial. In this episode of The Briefing we ask Chief Justice Lucy McCallum about the future of juries. Justice McCallum presided over the trial between Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins— that case ultimately had to...

Australia was shocked as a mass stabbing event unfolded at Sydney’s Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre at the weekend. The centre reopened today for quiet reflection. Retail outlets did not open, trade will recommence tomorrow. The 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi, who was responsible for the attacks was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager, and spent more than 20 years trying to...

The health issues associated with long-term lead poisoning are not secret and governments around the world have been making moves since the 1970s to limit our exposure to the element. But there’s a theory floating around that the damage has already been done and its impacts are being seen clearly on an entire generation – the Baby Boomers. The ‘Boomer stare’ is a trend that’s taken off on TikTok a...

Malware, spyware and stalkerware programs give unauthorised and undetected insight into another person’s device. All too often, they are used as an insidious tool for domestic violence offenders. Installed without consent or knowledge of the victim, the software gives the perpetrator control to track the user, read their messages, or even discreetly activate the phone's microphone or camera. In th...

Iran dropped 300 missiles and drones on Israeli territory over the weekend after an air strike on Iran’s consulate in Syria last week. Most were intercepted – as many as 99% according to Israel – but it is being deemed a watershed moment in the conflict. Professor Michael Humphrey from the University of Sydney joins the Briefing to explain the significance of the strike globally. Headlines: An upd...

The National Institute of Dramatic Art has launched a new course to help teach Gen Z how to be in an office environment after they came of age during the pandemic. The course called ‘Prologue’ was created off the back of research showing younger workers have a skills gap when it comes to offline interaction, like picking up a phone instead of sending an email or text.  In this episode of The Brief...