Conversations

Lee Berger, the National Geographic Explorer in Residence and real-life Indiana Jones, has found remarkable things underground. His discoveries are revolutionising what we understand about our own origins

John Simons is fascinated by the lives of animals which have become stars. From a famous hippo at London Zoo, to a wombat owned by a Pre-Raphaelite painter in England, these are the rock stars of the animal world

Briana Blackett was a journalist working in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to his name. When Max was diagnosed with autism, and in time her second son Freddy was too, she left Doha to begin an entirely different life (R)

Neville White was trying to heal from the trauma of the Vietnam War when he travelled out to a remote community in Arnhem Land called Donydji. Their stories became increasingly intertwined as he spent more and more time there

Gail Jones grew up in an old quarantine station, wondering about the soldiers who stayed there on their way home from WWI. Her new novel imagines life on the eastern front in 1917

Alex Braczkowski is a big cat exert and National Geographic explorer. For years he's been following a rare group of tree-climbing lions, including the charismatic, enigmatic, three-legged Jacob

Writer Louise Kennedy spent her early childhood just outside of Belfast. It was the height of The Troubles and violence was ever-present. After that violence came too close to home, Louise’s family moved to the Republic of Ireland. After 3 decades working as a chef, a chance invitation to a writer's group lead to an unexpected new career.

Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett on his life in music, environmental action, and politics, and the end of The Oils.

Amar Singh's sense of belonging to Australia has only grown since he leant into his Sikh faith, growing out his beard and his hair, wearing a turban and committing himself to the service of his entire community

One of the most influential disability rights activists in history tells her story of her fight for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human (R)

Rodney Fox was torn apart by a great white shark and it took 462 stitches to put him back together again. He was then instrumental in filming Jaws, the most terrifying shark film of all time. But over time, this salty seadog has become the apex predator's fiercest protector (R)

Esther Freud has many famous men in her family, including psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. But it is her mother's story which has left the greatest mark on the writer

Fintan O’Toole grew up in an Ireland undergoing great change but before the country could move forward, it would have to deal with its sometimes dark past.

Once journalist and author Kate Legge recovered from the news her husband of 30 years was cheating on her, she uncovered four generations of infidelity through his family

Jess Johnston found skydiving after a tough few years, and while it might sound like a contradiction, plummeting towards the earth at 400 km/h saved her life

No, he's not 'that' Richie Ramone, but this Richie Ramone's passion for punk is just as fierce (R)

For a thousand years, Colditz Castle has existed in some form, perched on the edge of a cliff in eastern Germany. From a royal hunting lodge, to a madhouse, and then most famously as an inescapable prisoner of war camp during World War II

As a child, before she escaped communist Hungary, Bo Remenyi had no ambitions. But when she got to Australia all of that changed. She's gone from cruising the casino floor as a high-stakes professional poker player, to saving the lives of children in remote Australia (R)

When Margaret Humphreys received a letter from Australia, she had no idea it would unearth a huge, heartless scheme that forcibly removed children from their homeland and sent them alone, isolated and confused to the other side of the world

Darwin's Ben Graetz on becoming one of Australia's best-known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Drag Queens (R)

Franceska Jordan with the story of her remarkable mother Isabella — a South African trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist who inspired her daughter to carry on her community work

Growing up in Wangaratta, Judy Ryan learned we all have a responsibility to look after each other. When she moved to inner-city Melbourne that meant caring for the injecting drug users dying in her neighbourhood

Mark Trevorrow on how the music of composers Anthony Newley and Paul Williams influenced the course of his life and began the evolution of his alter ego, Bob Downe (R)

Kris Helgen loves mammals and he's ventured to some dangerous, isolated places to find them. In fact, Kris has helped name and discover more than 100 magnificent mammals

The new chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, on the chair of spikes that accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't tone down his Italianness in Australia

Two years ago, Karin Bäumler found herself in the fight for her life after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In the thick of it all, making music with her husband Robert Forster became her refuge

After a serious brain operation, Anne Howell woke up in hospital with retrograde amnesia, thinking she was nine years old. With no real understanding of who she was or who she could trust, she set about rediscovering her identity

DNA expert Dr Jeremy Austin on his 14-year quest to help solve one of Australia's enduring military mysteries: the identity of the 'unknown sailor' (R)

Taranaki descendent Rachel Buchanan with the story of priceless Maori artwork and their role in the ransom of a child, kidnapped by Italian gangsters

How women cricket players saved the "gentleman's" game and repaired diplomatic relations between England and Australia

Melissa Redsell was 16 and in her last year of school when she found out she was pregnant. Although many people told her she'd 'ruined her life' she went on to prove everyone wrong

Firie Bronnie Mackintosh is built from tough stuff - she attends emergencies to cut people out of crushed cars and rescue them from burning buildings. Her strength was forged in Rotorua, New Zealand, where she experienced a violent undercurrent and the first frothy coffees, introduced by her parents

Writer Tony Birch with tales of his Fitzroy childhood including his grandmother Alma's 'op shop fever', his love for pine cones and blankets, and the macabre holiday he lived through when he was 5 years old (R)

Listened to around the world by locals, spies and military officials, Radio Australia has long been rated by its hundreds of thousands of global listeners as more informative than the BBC World Service. So why don't we know anything about it?

Hilton Koppe on how his life as a soccer-obsessed country GP changed forever when he became a patient himself

Deborah Lawrie had her first flying lesson at 16, then became a flying instructor herself. But when she applied for a job as a pilot, she found herself in the fight of her life (R)

Vic Simms, Jen Cloher, Vika and Linda Bull, Rob Hirst, Elena Kats-Chernin, William Barton with stories from their formative years

Novelist John Grisham with his life story; from his work as a trial lawyer, to writing, and how he became involved in a movement using DNA testing to exonerate the innocent (R)

Academic Danielle Celemajer on how the Black Summer bushfires brought she and her rescue pig Jimmy into a terrible proximity with the inferno, changing both of their lives forever

Valerie Browning moved to the northern deserts of Ethiopia as a naive young nurse in 1973. A chance meeting on the streets of neighbouring Djibouti changed her life, and women's health in the region

Dr Irving Finkel on the ghosts who joined the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians in their day to day lives (R)

Tim Ferguson was in the midst of a high-flying comedy career when he started experiencing 'whacky symptoms'. In his early 30s, doctors told him he had Multiple Sclerosis

When Dr Genevieve Campbell heard the intoxicating music of Tiwi song women, it made her hair stand on end. Immediately she knew she needed to meet the women, and these relationships have changed her ideas of what music is

Dave Gleeson is known for his blistering performances in The Screaming Jets and The Angels, but he grew up singing at Mass in Cardiff, with a mum who opened their home to hundreds of foster children

One of America's oldest lighthouses was built in 1716 and survived the Revolutionary War. Its first two keepers met dismal ends, but Sally Snowman was always enamoured by it. She is the first woman to care for the lighthouse, and now she will be the last (R)

When Cynthia Banham survived the unthinkable, she had to reinvent herself, with the support of her family, and the kindness of the Sydney Swans AFL team

Edita Mujkic fled the Bosnian War in Sarajevo with her two children, 50 American dollars in her pocket and no real plan. It took her almost two years to get her husband Goran out of the deadly siege situation, all the way from the Lake District in England

Lifelong stutterer Jonty Claypole on how fluency can be a barrier to our creativity, authenticity and persuasiveness

At 90, Elizabeth Chong recalls the familiar abundance of the Queen Victoria Market of the 1930s, how her father popularised the dim sim in Australia and the 37,000 people she has taught to cook (R)

Tony spent three decades in and out of jail. Inside Hobart's Risdon Prison, he joined a debating club with Chopper Read, and found his voice for the first time. Then a few years ago, on a fishing trawler far out to sea, he began the painful process of changing his life (R)

Professor Kelvin Kong is one of Australia's leading ENT surgeons. The proud Worimi man changes the course of children's lives by looking inside their ears (R)

As a Chinese-Australian girl growing up in the era of the White Australia Policy, artist Lindy Lee always felt that she didn't belong. When she became a student of Zen Buddhism, big shifts began in her life, and her art (R)

The author tells the thrilling, surreal story of Yuri Gagarin, the loyal communist and father of two who became the first person to journey into space, in a capsule perched on top of a modified Soviet R-7 missile (R)

Artist Ken Done grew up in a country town in NSW, drawing, fishing and listening to the Argonauts. Before he became a became a full-time artist, he had a wild career in advertising in the 1960s

Greg Fisher, CEO of Sydney's first queer museum, wanted to replicate his family's warm, loving spirit with his own future family. He and his wife didn't see his being gay as an obstacle

Niki Savva has seen ten prime ministers move in and out of the lodge during her decades as a political reporter, but one of those leaders stood out to her from the rest

Linguist Kate Burridge with the story of how Old English began on a small, damp island on the periphery of the world (R)

Victor's refugee mother was widowed at a young age, his grandparents were tortured and killed by the Soviets, but Victor says he comes from four generations of radical optimists

Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith on the mystery of the octopus and giant cuttlefish, and why cephalopods are the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien

When Eva's parents fled from their home in communist Poland, she was told to "ask no questions". But once she got to the 'free world' she couldn't stop asking questions, trying to reclaim her stolen childhood

The actor on the late love of his life, his wife Joan Washington, and the final message she left him

Gruen's Dee Madigan on her turbulent early life as one of four children to a former Catholic Priest

Nick Cave on how living through addiction, love and unthinkable loss has changed his inner life

Michael's professional rugby career came to a brutal end after dozens of concussions took their toll on his brain

When acrobat and circus performer Anna Yen decided to become a playwright, in the process of finding out her family stories she unearthed a new facet of Australia’s Chinese history

Sarah Parry first saw a tall ship sailing into Sydney Harbour in 1965. Two decades later, in an abandoned Hobart warehouse, she began building her own full-sized Square Rigger from scratch. In the process, she realised it was time to change her own life

Hannah Kent with the true story of the Prussians who fled Europe for a new life in South Australia (R)

After the loss of his mum Carol, James Crawley tried to push down his own grief. Then he watched 35 hours of raw and turbulent footage of his Dad Richard grieving in real time (CW: loss, grief and drug use)

David Heilpern with stories of drama, crime and heartache from his 21 years as a country magistrate (CW: references to drug use and sexual assault) (R)

Heather Rose  on her decades-long quest to make peace with life and loss after a tragedy befell her family when she was a girl (CW: grief and loss)

Paulie Stewart made a name for himself as the frontman of legendary Melbourne punk band Painters and Dockers, but he's also spent much of his life campaigning on behalf of the people of East Timor

The singer-songwriter shares memories of her mother's sacred, ancestral mountain, surviving childhood cancer and being rescued via a message on AM radio after a double volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea (R) (CW: Some listeners may find parts of this conversation upsetting. Please use discretion when listening)

The Danish-British author and comedian on her father's laissez faire attitude to school, and how this opened her mind and brought her to NASA's mission control room for the moon landing of 1969

Diana Nguyen's mother would walk out of her performances at interval in protest of her career, but Diana forged on and in the process healed this mother-daughter relationship

Almost half of Australian adults struggle with some level of literacy — writing a shopping list, or reading a text message in private. Jo helps her students turn their lives around

The French horn is made up of metres and metres of brass coiled around and around until it opens into a big bell. Let Peter Luff lead you through the maze of this mysterious instrument

Peter FitzSimons has written many books on Australian military history, but pulling out the remarkable stories from the Battle of Long Tan was a long process, despite the fact that many of the participants in this great defining moment are still alive

Animal communication specialist, Justin Gregg on killer whales' grief behaviour, the Piping Plover's broken wing strategy, and what would happen if humans toned down the need to be 'why specialists'

When Lamorna Ash began to explore her Cornish ancestry she started work on a rusty yellow fishing trawler called the Filadelfia, scaling fish, gutting them and hauling in the nets (R)

When Carol, an Australian, and Buri Kidu, a young Papua New Guinea man, fell in love in the 1960s, their partnership defied convention (R)

Ray Seidler was a brilliant doctor and a family man, whose secret struggle with depression ultimately claimed his life. Now his son Jonathan is helping to change the story when it comes to his own mental illness (CW: mentions suicide, drug use)

Costa is the friendly face of Gardening Australia, a devotee of composting, keeping chickens and developing insect hotels (R)

Mat Rogers on football, family, stepping out of his Dad's shadow, and stealing the Queen's spoons (CW: mentions suicide)

Who was the legendary chair maker? An emancipated convict? An Irish refugee? A First Nations man? All we know is that he lived in a tree

Brisbane choir director, Astrid Jorgensen shares how she thinks in sound, and why it's not about you, darl, when you come to sing in a group

Aaron Fa’Aoso on the mistakes, heartaches, and lucky breaks on his path to success as an actor and producer

Dale Kent is an esteemed scholar of the Italian Renaissance who grew up in Australia. Rejecting her Christian Science upbringing, she forged an unapologetic life of her own design (R)

Crime writer, Peter Doyle delves into the notes and photographs kept by his uncle, Detective Sergeant Brian Doyle on the Kingsgrove Slasher and other cases that he helped crack

Chris Pepin-Neff grew up as an identical twin in a small town in Connecticut. When he was four years old, his family suffered a terrible loss. Then Chris grew up to help change history (CW: loss and grief)

From Scotland's Orkney Islands, stories of how a chance meeting in a pub led Andrew Greig to climb the Himalayas, how golfing helped him recover from a near-death experience (R)

From walking alone across Antarctica, to crossing the Simpson Desert using wind, Geoff Wilson has led a life full of adventure. Content Warning: Graphic discussion of natural disaster death toll

Recorded in 2013, celebrate the seven-decade long stage and screen career of the remarkable actor (R)

Dai Le tells the story of her family fleeing Saigon and travelling across 2 oceans to make it to Australia, and how a sense of fairness drew her into public life

Dr Christina Zdenek wants to change our minds about Australia’s deadly snakes, not just because their venom holds healing secrets

When cooking teacher Anna Kharzeeva began a quest to cook her way through an iconic Soviet-era book of recipes, her grandmother Lena became her guide

Joanne Petersen recalls working as a personal assistant to The Beatles' manager, the freedom of the Swinging Sixties in London and eloping to the Bahamas with a Bee Gee

The conservationist is on a quest to see all 2600 species native to Australia, before time runs out

David Read was one of the first doctors on the ground in Bali, 20 years ago and what he saw there turned him into a leading figure in disaster response

Kyra Maya Phillips on her family's search for home, from Morocco's Atlas Mountains, to Israel, then to Venezuela and beyond