The Briefing

Caleb Finn was named the 2nd most influential Australian on social media in 2022, known for his avant-garde, dress-ups, and short horror stories. He has nearly 16 million followers on TikTok and 800k on Instagram. And yet he describes himself as an introvert and doesn’t like to leave the house. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf Caleb explains how long it takes him to create content and how it’s...

Medicare is 40 years old this month, and the little green card is now a ubiquitous presence in our wallets and on our phones. It has become a point of pride for Australians - especially those of us who have ventured over to the United States. But that wasn’t always the case.  The birth of Medicare was fraught; with its first iteration, Medibank, finding a very controversial reception by the public...

Up to 80 percent of new years resolutions fail by the end of January. So what is our obsession with starting fresh in the new year? Dr Gordon Spence from the University of Sydney sits down with Sacha Barber Gatt to reveal what tools you can use to help change your habits and why so many people become unstuck. Headlines: US to launch air strikes on Iran-backed militia group AEC releases the who's w...

For many Australians, Indian food equals butter chicken. It’s delicious and creamy and it’s incredibly popular here and across the world.  But it hasn’t been around forever – in fact, it’s less than 100 years old. And now, a fight over exactly who invented butter chicken and when has erupted in India’s high court, with two families - and two restaurants - battling it out for bragging rights. On to...

The latest series in the Secrets We Keep podcast is called “Nest of Traitors” and follows LiSTNR journalist Joey Watson’s three-year journey to find the spy who betrayed Australia. During the Cold War an Australian spy turned to work for the enemy, providing intel to the KGB and potentially sabotaging ASIO from the inside. In this episode of The Briefing, Joey Watson sits down with Sacha Barbour G...

Most of us try to do the right thing with recycling. We sort our rubbish into plastics, cardboard and paper, and our landfill waste, in the hope we’re saving the planet.  But there have been reports of recyclable waste ending up in landfill, or even being shipped overseas for processing (that’s quite a carbon footprint).  So The Briefing team decided to do our own experiment, placing trackable Air...

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to pass a bill that would allow the UK to deport refugees, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants to Rwanda. The inspiration for the idea has come from Australia and our use of third-party countries like Nauru to deal with illegal immigrants. The policy is extremely controversial, it was initially launched by Boris Johnson in April 2022, and was then struck d...

While a neo-Nazi demonstration was shut down in Sydney over the Australia Day long weekend, this isn't the only time that white supremacist groups have made the news recently. Last month a group of masked men marched through Ballarat chanting that 'Australia is for the white man', while earlier last year, about 30 men repeatedly performed the Nazi salute during an anti-trans rally.  So how worried...

A ship called The Serenade of the Seas has embarked on a nine-month cruise, visiting more than 60 countries across all seven continents. It's being hailed as the world's longest cruise, and it gained notoriety when passengers began posting on TikTok - and it's now gone completely viral. In this episode of The Briefing, we're joined by Christian Hull, comedian, YouTuber and host of the Complete Dri...

The potential for artificial intelligence is indisputable. Though it has just been over a year since Chat GPT launched, now over 100 million people use the site weekly. But how far could the technology go? Could AI accurately predict the future? Some Danish researchers believe that it already can. In a published study, they've taken the principles of large language models, like Chat GPT, and appli...

With annual fees pushing $50,000 at Australia's costliest elite private schools in 2024, it's time to look at what the data says on student performance in the big private vs public school debate. Is it actually worth sending a child to private school? What do they get for that eye-watering amount? Or is public education a better option, even if they don't have the fancy tennis courts and plunge po...

Tina Rahimi is one of the 12 boxers who have been selected to represent Australia at the Paris Olympics this year. She’s already made history without stepping into the ring. The Sydney sider is our first female Muslim boxer to make it to the Olympics. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf Tina explains how she went from a makeup artist to boxer in a few years, going on to win a bronze medal at the...

What does January 26 really mean to ordinary Australians in 2024?  Yevheniia Cherkasova found safety in Melbourne after she fled the war in Ukraine with her now-16-year-old sister, making a home here for almost two years. Jeffrey 'Yello' Simon-Ullungurra grew up on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin. He’s been looking for new ways to reconcile First Nations and Australian identities, and how to hel...

This year’s Australia Day comes after the defeat of the indigenous Voice to parliament last year - and the decision by a number of big retailers to stop stocking Australia Day merchandise. The question for many Australian’s over whether we should be celebrating on January 26 is still in debate. In this episode of The Briefing, ANU’s Frank Bongiorno speaks with us about Australia Day’s difficult hi...

There are many ways in Australia to have children if you can’t physically procreate. You can foster or look into adoption - or you can find a surrogate.  In Australia, it’s illegal to pay someone to carry a child for you – but nothing is stopping you from paying someone overseas. However, surrogacy isn't without contention or is an easy road - just this month the head of the Catholic Church, Pope...

Our chat with Nicky Bentham, an Australian movie producer living and working in London.  Nicky’s been nominated for an Academy Award for her work producing the short film ‘The After’.  In this episode of The Briefing, we talk with Nicky about what it’s like to get the call to say you’re nominated, what it means for her career, and what she expects to happen on the big night.  See omnystudio.com/li...

We stare into the crystal ball to see what's in cryptocurrency's future in 2024. Last year saw the notorious high-profile crypto court cases involving Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao. But despite the downfall of two of the currency's biggest players, crypto ended the year 160 percent up on 2022. In this episode of The Briefing, we're joined by Dr Dimitrios Salampasis, a financial technologies...

2024 will be the largest single election year in human history, with voters representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s population going to the polls this year.   Fascist, authoritarian and strong-man candidates are candidates in many of those elections – threatening no less than the future of democracy.  We take democracy for granted, but democracies can actually be very fragile.  On today'...

If you've been online at all in the last decade, you would've seen the phrase 'do your own research' in likely hundreds of comments sections. It turns out 'doing your own research' is precisely what can lead you to believing something untrue, according to a new study from the University of Central Florida. In this episode of The Briefing we speak with lead author Kevin Aslett about why we're more...

Scomo is finally calling it – the former PM announced today he will be stepping down from federal parliament. It closes a wild chapter in Australian political history.  Most Australians came to know him as Immigration Minister in 2013, but Scott Morrison got the top job when he toppled Malcolm Turnbull to become Prime Minister in 2018.  As PM, he came to grief over a badly timed holiday to Hawaii...

Grocery prices have been sky-rocketing. A brief trip to the supermarket for just a handful of items can cost a small fortune. The Federal Government has announced it is holding a review into grocery prices in its bid to reduce cost of living pressure. In this episode of The Briefing, we're joined by Tim Harcourt and Gary Mortimer to ask 'can the government actually force supermarkets to lower the...

With parts of the Northern Territory experiencing the ongoing impacts of devastating floods across summer, Far North Queensland is again bracing for heavy rainfall from the currently developing Tropical Cyclone Kirrily. These weather events are nothing new - they follow a long list of devastating floods that have plagued the country over the last few years. But could a sponge city be the best way...

Buckingham Palace has announced King Charles will have a procedure on his prostate. The news prompted an 11-fold increase in internet searches for 'enlarged prostate'. Men all over the world are renowned for ignoring their health and their reluctance to be tested for critical health diagnoses. Why? In this episode of The Briefing, we speak with Jonathon Papadopoulo, who was diagnosed with testicul...

Breakfast radio is brutal. The 4am wake ups, the competition, trying to stay at top of the ratings and unpredictable talkback callers. But Laura O’Callaghan just loves it In 2021 Loz joined Roo and Ditz on Triple M brekky in Adelaide and she’s then has made her mark taking home best new talent at the commercial radio awards last year. In this chat Antoinette Lattouf, Loz explains what it’s really...

We’ve all heard the term ‘print is dead’, but is it? Turns out the magazine sector continues to have a loyal consumer base, in fact seeing growth in Australia through 2023. And it isn't just the same old magazines that maintain popularity - we've seen the launch of new products, as well as the rebirth of previously discontinued magazines such as Girlfriend. So what is it about the magazine? The no...