Conversations with Richard Fidler
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Daniel Morden
UK storyteller Daniel Morden tells a wide range of traditional stories, including fairy tales, riddles, nursery tales and Greek myths.
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Des Bishop
Des Bishop's dad Mike was a male model who missed out on James Bond when George Lazenby got the job.
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Hannah Kent
When Hannah Kent first went to Iceland as an exchange student she heard a true story which became an obsession.
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Anna Krien
A high-profile rape trial led journalist Anna Krien to investigate a broader issue: the treatment of women by professional footballers.
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Bianca Nogrady
Science journalist Bianca Nogrady has been researching the medical, historical and spiritual aspects of death.
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Dick Braithwaite
Dick Braithwaite's father survived one of WWII's most strange and cruel episodes - one of only six men to do so.
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Rebecca Huntley
After Rebecca Huntley's beloved and enigmatic Italian grandmother died, the real story of her life began to surface.
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Rodney Croome
Rodney Croome was the inaugural recipient of the Tasmanian Humanitarian of the Year Award
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David Elliott
Finding dinosaur bones on his property in Western Queensland dramatically changed David Elliott's life.
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Magnus Linton
Swedish journalist Magnus Linton spends half of every year in Colombia, a place he describes as deeply scarred and deeply beautiful.
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Zelie Bullen
Zelie Bullen has been around horses for most of her life - as a rider, a trainer, and as a stunt performer.
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Chris Bray and Jess Taunton
Chris Bray and Jess Taunton saw many amazing things during their ocean adventure, at the top of the world.
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Juliet Darling
Filmmaker and artist Juliet Darling has written about the murder of her partner, Nick Waterlow.
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Linsey Pollack
Linsey Pollack wants us to return to the pleasures of making music instead of just consuming it.
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Colin Friels
Actor Colin Friels has been a beloved presence on our screens and stages since his first film, "Monkey Grip".
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Brendan Shanahan
Travel writer Brendan Shanahan had high hopes when he booked what he was assured was a luxury cruise, but the reality was horribly different.
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John 'Stinker' Clarke
Fishing fantatic and historian John 'Stinker' Clarke loves telling stories from his part of the central coast of New South Wales.
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Jo Nesbo
Soccer player, pop star and stockbroker Jo Nesbo is now a world-renowned crime writer.
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Jo Nesbo
Soccer player, pop star and stockbroker Jo Nesbo is now a world-renowned crime writer.
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James McInnes and Ben Redward
James McInnes and Ben Redward survived the hijack of a plane they were piloting in New Guinea.
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Debbie Allen
Acclaimed director, choreographer, dancer and actor Debbie Allen is best known for her role in Fame.
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Kristina Keneally
Kristina Keneally was the 42nd Premier of New South Wales, but there is much more to her life than a political career.
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Lisa Miller
Lisa Miller is acclaimed by critics and fans alike as a sublime songwriter with a very distinctive voice.
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Sally Sara
ABC correspondent Sally Sara says what fascinates her most about the people in her stories is their resilience.
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George Megalogenis part 2
Writer and political analyst George Megalogenis with the second part of his conversation on how Australia got to its current place in the world - the envy of every other economy.
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George Megalogenis
George Megalogenis has looked back over four decades to explain how and why Australia's economy is the envy of the world.
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Pranks
Today's program is a series of conversations about different Australian pranks.
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Lucia de Bortoli
When she was 12 Lucia de Bortoli left her small home town in Italy for the tobacco fields of country Australia.
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Judy Sharp
Judy Sharp defied expert opinion when raising her son Tim, who went on to create cartoon superhero, Laser Beak Man.
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Dave McEvoy
Skydiving master, Dave McEvoy, has been skydiving for forty years and still gets 'butterflies' before each jump.
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Ken and Patricia Taylor
Ambassador Ken Taylor and Dr Patricia Taylor tell the story of what really happened inside the Canadian Embassy during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
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Barbara Arrowsmith Young
Barbara Arrowsmith Young was born with severe learning disabilities, but as an adult she managed to completely overcome them by changing her own brain.
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Julie Ainsworth
Julie Ainsworth started out at the 'Newcastle Herald' as a sales rep. forty years ago and ended up General Manager.
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Peter Willcox
Peter Willcox was skipper of Greenpeace's flagship vessel, Rainbow Warrior, when it was bombed in 1985.
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Anne Deveson
Journalist Anne Deveson was renowned for tackling topics others considered outrageous and breaking new ground for women in media.
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Charles Miranda
Journalist Charles Miranda broke the story of a high-level mole operating within the NSW Crime Commission. It became the worst intelligence breach of a major anti-crime organisation in our history.
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Lemon Andersen
Acclaimed poet, actor and spoken word artist Lemon Andersen grew up in a close-knit Puerto Rican community in Brooklyn in New York.
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Kristina Olsson
Kristina Olsson has untangled the story of her long-lost brother Peter, who was stolen from their mother's arms as a baby.
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Callum Roberts
Marine scientist Callum Roberts has dived all over the world looking at the impact of fishing on the ocean.
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Victoria Finlay
Victoria Finlay became interested in colour as a young child, on a visit to Chartres cathedral.
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Jocelyn Brewer
Teacher and psychologist Jocelyn Brewer became a Hare Krishna devotee in her late teens.
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Getano Bann
Singer songwriter Getano Bann is a music therapist who works with children on the streets, in drug rehabilitation and in detention centres.
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Andrew Lancaster
Filmmaker Andrew Lancaster explored the life of his great-uncle, fearless aviator Captain Bill Lancaster; a story of adventure, intrigue and a famous murder trial.
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Ann Wroe
Ann Wroe has been the Obituaries Editor of 'The Economist' for ten years.
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David Broadbent
David Broadbent has been recording conversations with his three daughters pretty much from the moment they could talk.
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Peter Hain
Former British cabinet minister Peter Hain was closely involved in the struggle to bring peace to northern Ireland.
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Graham and Giovanna Webb
Graham and Giovanna Webb run Crocodylus Park in Darwin.
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Zoe James
Zoe James is the granddaughter of the man who tested the British postal system to its limits.
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Professor Brian J O'Brien
Australian physicist Professor Brian J. O'Brien was closely involved in the Apollo moon missions.
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Helen Sage
Helen Sage became her adult daughter's carer after an accident left her with profound disabilities.
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Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries remains astonished at the success of his character Dame Edna and her enduring appeal.
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Jack Waterford
Jack Waterford is the Editor-at-Large of The Canberra Times.
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Tony Birch
Tony Birch's novel Blood is partly inspired by his experience of growing up in the slums around Fitzroy.
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Susan Swingler
Susan Swingler's story is one of lies, forged letters and a family secret that got out of control - a story too strange for fiction.
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Ron Tremaine
Ron Tremaine has run dance clubs, pubs and venues everywhere between Alice Springs and Adelaide.
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Matthew Condon
Matthew Condon has unearthed the truth of Queensland's corrupt past; stories first glimpsed during the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
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Karen Lord
Karen Lord grew up in Barbados on a steady stream of books, but one of her favourites was an encyclopaedia of legends and folk stories from around the globe.
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Oliver Burkeman
Oliver Burkeman has helpful suggestions for finding happiness... for people who hate positive thinking.
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Steven Poole
British journalist and writer Steven Poole takes aim at society's obsession with food and gastroculture.
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Brian Ritchie
Violent Femmes bassist, Brian Ritchie has been busy with diverse musical projects since moving to Tasmania.
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Jessie Taylor
Jessie Taylor made a film about asylum seekers waiting in Indonesia for passage to Australia.
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Kirstie Clements
Kirstie Clements was the editor of Vogue Australia for more than a decade.
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Akmal Saleh
Comedian Akmal Saleh went back to Egypt in 2011 to film a documentary about the country's experiences of Arab Spring.
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Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury embodies almost seven decades of lived experience in film, theatre and television.
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Greg De Moore
Greg De Moore spent years researching the life of the flamboyant and brilliant Tom Wills, Australia's first superstar sportsman.
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Rowan Callick
Rowan Callick is the Asia Pacific Editor for 'The Australian' and was their China Correspondent for many years.
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Jill Stark
Jill Stark is a journalist with the 'Sunday Age' in Melbourne, specialising in health.
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Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond believes there is plenty we can learn from traditional societies: on child-rearing, conflict resolution, and the benefits of speaking more than one language.
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Nassim Soleimanpour
Nassim Soleimanpour is a playwright from Tehran, Iran.
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Scott Johnson
Scott Johnson is a journalist whose father was a CIA agent.
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Magistrate Jacqui Payne
Magistrate Jacqui Payne has raised six children while pursuing her legal career.
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Sue Gardner
Sue Gardner is Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
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James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an acclaimed actor with one of the world's most distinctive voices.
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Robert Spillane
Professor Robert Spillane from Macquarie University's School of Management believes personality tests are actually useless.
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Ann Fogarty
Ann Fogarty saved the lives of her daughters during the Ash Wednesday bushfire disaster of 1983.
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Benjamin Law
Writer Benjamin Law grew up in a highly unusual household on the Sunshine Coast.
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Peter Allison
Peter Allison is back, this time with tales from the jungles of South America: howling monkeys, evil fish and the puma named Roy.
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Jill Fisher
Jill Fisher's work in suicide bereavement means she has become an expert in saying the unspeakable.
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Mick Foley
Mick Foley was one of pro-wrestling's greatest names before he bowed out to write books and perform comedy.
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Manfred Jurgensen
Manfred Jurgensen is an Australian writer, raised in Germany during WWII.
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Rachel Wotton
Rachel Wotton is a sex-worker whose clients include people with disabilities.
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Dr Martyn Jolly
Martyn Jolly is the head of Photography and Media Arts at the ANU School of Art, and fascinated by the the craze for spirit photography in the late 19th century.
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Dr Paul Bennett
Dr Paul Bennett is a forensic podiatrist.
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Professor Tony Attwood
Tony Attwood is one of the world's leading experts on Asperger's Syndrome.
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Barbara Laidlaw
Barbara Laidlaw was born in Hong Kong during WWII, while her mother was a prisoner of the Japanese army.
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Anna Goldsworthy
Anna Goldsworthy has earned an international reputation as a classical pianist, scholar and writer, and is Artistic Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.
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Gary 'Kong' Elkerton
Gary 'Kong' Elkerton was one of the world's greatest pro-surfers.
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Nikolai Razouvaev
Nikolai Razouvaev is a champion cyclist raised in the Soviet sporting system.
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Mary Graham
Mary Graham is an Indigenous elder.
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Tori Spooner
Synaesthete Tori Spooner sees numbers as colours, and she has a vast calendar in her head that's looks like a city skyline.
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George Georgiou
George Georgiou runs a doll and toy hospital.
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Gill Hicks
Gill Hicks survived the London bombings of 2005 and is now a peace 'actionist'.
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Tim Soutphommasane
Tim Soutphommasane is an academic calling for a different idea of Australian multiculturalism.
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Paul Daley
Paul Daley has written a book about his adopted city of Canberra.
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Ray Butler
Ray Butler was orphaned when his mother was jailed for the murder of his father.
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Michael Fruin
Michael Fruin is a Master Farrier.
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Bille Brown
Bille Brown was a successful playwright and performer for stage and screen.
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Larry Page
Larry Page managed and produced two great British bands of the 1960s: The Kinks and The Troggs.
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Whatever Doesn't Kill Me...
The last program for 2012 - our special collection of stories from different guests: 'Whatever Doesn't Kill Me....'
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Graham Martin
Psychiatrist Graham Martin trained as a doctor, but learned a lot of new things about medical education when he unexpectedly and painfully became the patient.
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Gwyn Muir
An series of unlikely coincidences helped Gwyn Muir discover the truth about her father, a British Air Force navigator who was killed in WW2.
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Costa Georgiadis
Costa Georgiadis thanks his grandfather for introducing him to gardening and a love of the soil.
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Glenn Carle
Glenn Carle worked for the CIA for 23 years.
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Michael Westaway
Michael Westaway is an archaeologist and forensic anthropologist, or as he sometimes calls himself: a 'time detective'.
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Ruth Leiser
For years in her childhood Ruth Leiser had to keep absolutely silent as she hid with her family in forests, farmers' sheds, and covered holes in the ground.
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Kay Schubach
Kay Schubach fell in love with a charismatic stranger, who turned out to be a cunning and violent man.
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Gina Perry
Psychologist Gina Perry has had a long and deep fascination with the Milgram experiments, conducted in the 1960s.
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Grahame Bond
For two years on Australian TV in the mid seventies, Grahame Bond put on a gigantic Victorian frock, a wig and a golden boxing glove, and became Aunty Jack.
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Live Stories
Live Stories Vol 2: the second in our series of true stories, told live on stage, recorded at storytelling nights across Australia during 2012.
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Robert Forster
Songwriter Robert Forster returns to share his annual slice of music history.
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Patricia Feenan
Patricia Feenan discovered her son had been sexually abused for years by the family's priest
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William McInnes
William McInnes is a writer, actor and raconteur.
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Melissa Langridge
Melissa Langridge is a marine biologist who recently worked in Antarctica.
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Stephen Dando Collins
Stephen Dando Collins has uncovered yet another extraordinary true story: of the Australian man wrongly convicted of identical crimes in Sydney and San Francisco.
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Debra Oswald
Debra Oswald is one of the few playwrights to have written successfully for both youth and adult audiences, and her many plays have been performed all over Australia and overseas.
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Keelen Mailman
Keelen Mailman manages an ancient indigenous cultural site called 'Lost City', a place that means so much to her, and allows her mind to time travel back thousands of years.
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Julia Baird
Julia Baird is back in Australia after an extended stint working in the US as deputy editor of the prestigious 'Newsweek', in its final years of glory.
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Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell comes from an era when cricket was fun, colourful and controversial.
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John Cantwell
For more than twenty years, John Cantwell has been fighting his own personal war on terror.
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Noritta Morseu-Diop
Noritta Morseu-Diop was enticed into a cult when she was a teenager, managed to escape with her children and now works in criminal justice.
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Les Hall
Les Hall has lived among bats and immersing himself in finding out everything he could about them has taken him into some very odd places.
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Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson is a kind of travel writer in all his books - even if the travel is through his childhood, or the world of science, or the history of private life.
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Victoria Mielewska
Voice coach Victoria Mielewska has taught many actors how to assume an accent that is foreign to them.
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Ray Moynihan
Investigative writer Ray Moynihan realised in his early years of training that he wanted to focus on health issues.
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Hara Estroff Marano
Hara Estroff Marano thinks children are over-supervised and need their playgrounds to be more dangerous.
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The Kransky Sisters
The Kransky Sisters are a musical trio from Esk, Queensland who perform on tuba, vocals, guitar and saw.
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David Hill
David Hill has explored the story of the race between Matthew Flinders and Nicholas Baudin to map Australia.
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James R Doty
Neurosurgeon and entrepreneur James R Doty made a fortune, lost nearly all of it, then gave the last bit of it away.
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Ian Thorpe
His childhood allergy to chlorine was just one reason nobody in Ian Thorpe's family thought he'd become one of the world's greatest swimmers, and winner of nine Olympic gold medals
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Michael Palin
Michael Palin is equally at ease striking up a casual conversation with an elk hunter in Lapland as he is conducting a symphony orchestra in Borneo.
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Grandmaster Henry Sue
For 50 years Grandmaster Henry Sue has been studying and teaching a very effective and dangerous form of kung fu.
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Peter FitzSimons
Peter FitzSimons returns to 'Conversations' with the story of the deadly battle at the Eureka Stockade - the battle that effectively transformed Australia.
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Lily Brett
Australian writer and poet Lily Brett grew up in a home filled with sadness, but also with love and laughter.
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Julie Elliott
Former policewoman turned celebrant Julie Elliott is especially qualified to offer kind and wise words, drawing from her own extraordinary experiences.
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Owen Davies
Owen Davies trekked one thousand kilometres through the remote Channel Country of Western Queensland.
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Dave Graney
'King of Pop' Dave Graney started his working life in a South Australian mill, sorting out lengths of wood.
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Mark Tedeschi
Mark Tedeschi believes the criminal trial of Eugenia Falleni is one of the most important in legal history.
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Paul Ham
Historian Paul Ham tells the story of what really happened at Sandakan - the notorious Japanese WW2 prisoner of war camp.
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Shellie Morris
Indigenous singer songwriter Shellie Morris teaches women and children to write songs in their own languages.
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Margaret Simons
Journalist and media commentator Margaret Simons has some ideas on how journalism, and the mainstream press, need to change in order to survive.
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Carolyn Burke
Biographer Carolyn Burke has unravelled the myths, rumours and half truths surrounding Edith Piaf.
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Mark MacLean
Mark MacLean spent a year walking through the open drains in his Newcastle suburb - and has found all sorts of amazing things - and people - there.
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Gina Sherritt
Gina Sherritt uses Maremma dogs to protect the animals on her property from the ravages of wedge tail eagles and wild dogs.
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Paul Simmons
RAAF fighter pilot Paul Simmons has been flying planes of one kind or another since he was a young teenager.
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Grandparents as Carers
Eileen, Gavin and Carole are grandparents who for different reasons are doing the parenting all over again.
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Aubrey Brooks
Like his father and grandfather before him, Aubrey Brooks worked at the BHP steelworks - for so many years the single largest employer in Newcastle.
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Cuban Missile Crisis special
A special program looking from an Australian point of view at just how close the world came to Armageddon during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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Lisa Jackson Pulver
Lisa Jackson Pulver has an extraordinary CV: Aboriginal Jewish health expert and - wing commander in the Air Force Reserve.
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Jack Thompson
As a boy, actor Jack Thompson developed a deep love of the bush, and his childhood was steeped in poetry.
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Alison Markell
Alison Markell and her husband were staying in the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, when the hotel was bombed and 127 people were killed.
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Peter Silburn
Peter Silburn is a world expert in treating neurodegenerative disorders, like Parkinson's Disease, using a technique called Deep Brain Stimulation.
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Tim Bowden
Tim Bowden has recorded the stories from Australian soldiers held captive by the Japanese in WW2, with many of the men talking of their experiences for the first time.
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Wolf Blass
Wolf Blass has played a major role in transforming Australia into one of the world's most respected winemaking countries.
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Claire Bidwell Smith
Claire Bidwell Smith is a grief counsellor and writer, based in Los Angeles
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Mark Colvin
Mark Colvin is this week celebrating 15 years as presenter of ABC Radio's flagship current affairs program PM.
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Peter Doherty
Scientist Peter Doherty says the time has come to celebrate the 'sentinel chickens' and other birds we rely on to keep us healthy.
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Becky Crew
In Becky Crew's eyes, the world is a truly weird and funny place - in which every day more strange things are discovered.
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Brian Freeman
Former Special Forces soldier Brian Freeman runs treks along the Kokoda Trail, and was told by local villagers of a battlefield that for decades had lain lost and forgotten.
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Shirley Walker and Anne Summers
Shirley Walker and Anne Summers both went searching for answers about some old family secrets.
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Nilaja Sun
Nilaja Sun is an award-winning actress and playwright who spent 8 years teaching drama in some of New York's toughest schools.
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Richard Holloway
Richard Holloway was an Anglican priest in the slums of Glasgow and became the Bishop of Edinburgh - but the higher he rose in the Church, the more he wanted to take issue with it.
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David Bird
Historian David Bird has uncovered some surprising names among the Australians who became admirers of Hitler in the 1930s and 40s.
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James Button
James Button came to the job of Kevin Rudd's speechwriter with his own distinguished Labor party pedigree.
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Charlie King
Charlie King is a veteran ABC sports broadcaster from the Northern Territory.
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Susan Bradley
Pastoralist Susan Bradley is known to many as the Queen of the Kimberley.
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Jane Stork
Jane Stork is a former devotee or 'sannyasin' of cult-leader, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
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Peter McAllister
Archaeologist and science writer Peter McAllister was astonished to learn that there were pygmy-sized Aboriginal people in northern Australia.
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John Waters
Performer John Waters has been part of many of our biggest films and television series.
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Matina Jewell
Matina Jewell joined the Australian Army when she was 17 and became a highly-skilled and decorated officer.
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Jason Dax Woodward
Jason Dax Woodward is an aerosol artist, or muralist, also known as Kasino
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Henry Rosenbloom
Henry Rosenbloom is the founder of publishing house, Scribe Publications
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Clive James
Clive James has been a prolific writer and broadcaster since the 1970s.
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Genelle Guzman-McMillan
Genelle Guzman-McMillan was rescued from the World Trade Center after the attacks of 9/11.
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Ian Rankin
Scottish crime-writer Ian Rankin is best known for his character Inspector Rebus.
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Rachel Sommerville
Australian investigator Rachel Sommerville works with men on death row in the US, to bring their full story to the court and save them from execution.
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John Lanchester
John Lanchester likes to write about lots of things: people, money, food, sport and books.
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Jenny Hocking
Jenny Hocking's new book contains the story of the most tumultuous government in Australia in living memory.
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Venero Armanno
A painful experience with a frozen shoulder gave author Venero Armanno the idea for his new novel.
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David Day
David Day has written the first real biography of of Antarctica.
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Keith Schafferius
Keith Schafferius has been a private investigator for over 40 years, specialising in child retrieval
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Benjamin Law
Gay Asian-Australian writer Benjamin Law has travelled across Asia to find out how life might have been for him if he had grown up there.
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Fiona and Stuart Higgins
Fiona and Stuart Higgins were leading very different lives when they fell in love, and took a huge risk on each other.
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Kristy Chambers
Kristy Chambers tried moonlighting as a maid and a bartender before taking up nursing, the profession she calls "a hell ride and joyride".
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Tony Mott
Tony Mott has spent most of his life photographing legends from the world of rock and roll.
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Rebecca Huntley
Rebecca Huntley is the Executive Director of the Ipsos Mackay Report, which for years has been researching the mind and mood of Australians.
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Greg Jericho
Greg Jericho writes an influential political blog under the name of Grog's Gamut.
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Gillian Huxley
Gillian Huxley has dangled from the Sydney Opera House, the Olympic Stadium and buildings and movie sets all over the world.
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Gwyn Muir
An series of unlikely coincidences helped Gwyn Muir discover the truth about her father, a British Air Force navigator who was killed in WW2.
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Mark Kempton
Mark Kempton is a highly-experienced helicopter pilot and he's used to flying them in very unusual circumstances.
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Tony Moore
Historian Tony Moore has written his new book about the libertines, radicals and reprobates who were Australia's bohemians.
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Lord David Puttnam
David Puttnam was responsible for many classic films, including 'The Killing Fields', 'Midnight Express' and 'Chariots of Fire'.
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Boris Mihailovic
Boris Mihailovic took one look at a motorcycle when he was a teenager, and that was it - he was in love.
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Anne Gallagher
Dr Anne Gallagher is considered the leading global expert on the international law on human trafficking .
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Paul Carter
Paul Carter has worked on oil rigs in some of the wildest places in the world.
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David Rakoff
Richard's interview with the late, great David Rakoff.
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George Megalogenis and Professor Ian Lowe
Journalist George Megalogenis and conservationist Professor Ian Lowe have their own ideas on whether Australia, the 'big country', is in fact big enough.
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Mark Onslow
Mark Onslow is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on why some people stutter, and how they can be helped
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Faiza El Higzi
Faiza El Higzi was born in Khartoum, and she always thought she'd live and work in her native country for the whole of her life.
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Mike McDowell
Mike McDowell is an adventurer and entrepreneur who likes to take people to interesting places.
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Robert Adamson
Robert Adamson, one of Australia's major poets, grew up in the fifties with a fascination for the natural world, particularly for birds.
Recommended Shows
PROGRAM INFORMATION
- Brisbane, QLD
- Interviews
- ABC (Australia)
- English
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Conversations
GPO Box 9994
Brisbane 400107 3377 5567 -
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