Conversations

ABC Australia

Conversations draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met. Journey into their world, joining them on epic adventures to unfamiliar places, back in time to wild moments of history, and into their deepest memories, to be moved by personal stories of resilience and redemption.

Hosted by Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, Conversations is the ABC's most popular long-form interview program. Every day we explore the vast tapestry of human experience, weaving together narratives from history, science, art, and personal storytelling.

Conversations Live is coming to the stage! Join Sarah Kanowski and Richard Fidler for an unmissable night of unforgettable stories, behind-the-scenes secrets, and surprise guests. Australia’s most-loved podcast — live, up close, and in the moment. Find out more at the Conversations website.

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87 episodes
Avg 50 min
English

Episodes 87

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Friday · 53 min
How Usman Khawaja changed Australian cricket
As the first brown immigrant and the first Muslim to enter the very white world of Australian cricket, Usman Khawaja overcame many setbacks while forging his extraordinary career in the sport. Born in Pakistan, Usman moved to Sydney with his family at four and fell in love with cricket watching his older brothers play. In 2011, Usman debuted for the Australian cricket team in the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG, becoming the first Muslim to wear the Baggy Green. But his journey has been as muc
Thursday · 50 min
Encore: Bryce Courtenay's son on his father's many secrets
Growing up with brilliant writer as a father, Adam Courtenay slowly became aware of many gaps and untruths in his dad's life story. So he decided to set the record straight, once and for all. When Adam was growing up, he saw his Dad as a hero. Bryce worked in advertising so he knew all the latest, coolest trends, and at bedtime, Bryce told Adam and his brothers amazing stories about his life in South Africa and the Courtenay family’s noble origins. When Bryce went from adman to wildly success
Wednesday · 52 min
Hags, bears and magic — what fairytales can teach us about modern life
Instructions on how to forge a path through a darkening world, according to former neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, Dr Sharon Blackie. Sharon grew up in what she calls the edge lands — on a council estate, near marshes full of migrating birds, next to the chemical factories of North-Eastern England. She was given fairy stories to read that mirrored her own experience in a way — Sharon knew the world was not always a safe place and that little children should be careful. After her violent
Tuesday · 46 min
Encore: An accidental midwife and the business of everyday miracles
Lisa Peberdy has been delivering babies for over 40 years, in hospitals and homes, in cities and remote locations and she still cries with joy at every birth. During Lisa's first career as a nurse, she was physically repelled by the notion of childbirth. When she re-trained to become a midwife, delivering a baby unassisted was a great challenge. When Lisa finally did it, she was hooked; and she says she still cries with joy at every birth for which she's present. Lisa's delivered babies in
November 2 · 53 min
Waleed Aly: Finding real meaning, in the midst of global collapse
As we're bombarded with the drumbeat of news that veers from the shocking to the unfathomable, Waleed Aly wants to know, how do we come to grips with this chaos? For years, that is exactly what Waleed Aly has done by writing a series of columns for Melbourne's Age newspaper. Recently he's revisited the columns written during a concentrated period of profound upheaval, to see what they reveal. Waleed hopes to articulate what is revolutionary in this moment but also what is not, to examine our
October 30 · 51 min
Jon Ronson investigates the men looking for purpose in strange, dark places
When journalist Jon Ronson visited castle owned by a digital tycoon, it became a portal into a world of disaffected men, grasping for purpose online in a world where traditional institutions are collapsing. He had received a series of texts from his son Joel, after he was lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, and those texts set him off into an investigation of the modern manosphere. Jon began to investigate the wider ‘man crisis’ – where some are feeling t
October 29 · 51 min
Encore: The teacher who turned non-readers into literacy superstars
When school principal Manisha Gazula changed how her students were learning to read, she began an entirely new system which made her an icon of literacy learning. Manisha Gazula is the principal of Marsden Road Public School in the outer south-western suburbs of Sydney. When Manisha first came to the school, less than three per cent of its students were proficient in English reading and writing, which severely limited their options in life. This was for many reasons - some children had never
October 28 · 51 min
Why is it so difficult to love each other?
Psychologist Kerrie Lumbewe on trying to unpack what has happened inside ordinary people that has made loving one another so difficult. (CW: this conversation mentions suicide, please take care when listening) Kerrie Lumbewe is a psychologist who specialises in love and relationships. She spends her days sitting with people as they try and work out how to make things work; to understand how they can be in a partnership and still feel so alone; to make sense of how two people who started out
October 27 · 52 min
Encore: Bonnie Garmus on the spark of anger which began a whole new life, in her 60s
When author Bonnie Garmus tried to sell her first novel, it was rejected 98 times, but then at 66, she wrote a novel called Lessons in Chemistry, which sold four million copies around the world. Bonnie had wanted to be a novelist since she was five years old. Decades later, she was a copywriter, an open-water swimmer and a rower when she tried to sell her first novel. After many rejections, she realised it would never be published. One day Bonnie was at work when a male colleague took credi
October 26 · 52 min
Zoe Terakes and the mythic tales of gods, sex and magical transformations
Zoe Terakes is a writer and actor with deep family connections to the island of Crete, where their great-grandparents migrated to Australia from. This island is the site of Europe’s first ancient civilisation. Bronze Age Crete had palaces, temples, art, written language and mythology long before the Roman Empire existed, and centuries before the Parthenon was built. When Zoe started reading the mythology of Crete they were astounded by how many of the tales involve mutability, metamorphosis,
October 23 · 47 min
Why Anthony LaPaglia is unapologetically irritable
Anthony talks about his turbulent childhood in the Adelaide suburb of Beefacres, escaping to a cocaine-fuelled New York in the 1980s to begin life as an actor, and how writing his memoir helped him forgive his parents. Anthony grew up in the suburbs of Adelaide, in a house full of rage, disappointment and violence. He spent as much time as he could alone, reading books, watching classic Hollywood movies, and dreaming of another life. For a while he thought soccer might be his ticket to escape
October 22 · 44 min
Encore: The incandescent life of fashion visionary Jenny Kee
Fashion designer Jenny Kee co-created a whole new era in Australian fashion in the 1970s. But nothing could have prepared her for her own next chapter. Jenny was born in Bondi in the 1950s, and left Australia for London when she was young. She began selling vintage clothes at the Chelsea markets, where she attracted attention for her stall and her brilliant style. When she returned to Australia in the early 70s Jenny met a gifted couturier named Linda Jackson. Together they embarked on
October 21 · 51 min
Learning my family connection to the brutal history of Australia's pearling industry
When Edith Wright discovered the turbulent history of her great-grandfathers, who were some of the founders of the pearling industry in the waters off Broome, she knew she had to write down the story Edith is a Bardi Jawi woman from the saltwater country of Western Australia’s Dampier Peninsula. When she was a little girl growing up in the Kimberley, her dad would tell her stories about his two European grandfathers. Both men were pioneers in W.A's pearling industry, which required the skill
October 20 · 52 min
Encore: My orgasm induced amnesia and other epic adventures
Dasha Ross tells the story of her bizarre brush with memory loss and what happened when she and her husband decided to takeover a rundown beachside hotel in Sri Lanka. Dasha has lived a life full of adventures, from nude modelling in Sydney and making films in Brazil, to renovating a nightclub in Harlem with a baby on her hip. But Dasha's most epic escapades were with her beloved husband John Pinder, including the time the two of them took up a surprising offer to revamp and manage a beachside
October 19 · 45 min
Anthony Scaramucci on Trump, getting fired and owning his mistakes
Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci on his childhood, becoming a success on Wall Street and why backing Trump was a colossal error. Anthony grew up on Long Island, part of a large Italian-American community and far away from the world of money, power and influence. When he was accepted into a prestigious university, Anthony’s parents put their retirements savings on the line to make sure he was able to go. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he began his career on Wall Street, then into pol
October 16 · 51 min
How to keep living when life falls apart
When Robin Bailey’s husband and father of their three boys died by suicide, she had to figure out the best way to help her children work through their grief while also managing her own sadness and anger. (CW: this episode discusses suicide, please take care when listening) Robin is one of Brisbane’s best-known breakfast radio hosts, and she’s been in the business for decades. When she was 11, Robin’s father died suddenly, and her mother was left to raise Robin and her sister while forging on w
October 15 · 50 min
Encore: Inside the minds of the fish who sleep, have friends, and know it's the weekend
Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know it's the weekend. Dr Culum Brown is a leading researcher in the field of fish cognition. He's based at Macquarie University where he runs the Fish Lab — the Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory. His fascination for fish stems from growing up in parts of south-east Asia, where he would spend every possible hour in the ocean with a snorkel. As an adult, Culum's m
October 14 · 53 min
How I decentred men and fell in love with my friends instead of another f*ckboy
Broadcaster and author Dee Salmin on how her parents' epic love story and dramatic relationship shaped her understanding of love and men; and how she eventually found healthy romance in life. When Dee was growing up in Perth, her father, a great Russian ballet dancer, was ‘the man of the house’. Life at home, and every choice that Dee, her siblings, and her mum made revolved around his whims and his moods. Dee worshipped her parents and all the opportunities they fought for her to have, so sh
October 13 · 49 min
A little girl with a life split in three — how Mimi made it [PART II]
Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophrenia, and Mimi's glamorous other life in the intoxicating hubbub of Hong Kong. Mimi presented the news on ABC and Channel Nine, and worked in the newsroom for more than 20 years. Today she has four children with her loving husband, John. This is all a long way from Mimi’s early life in Perth, where she managed backpackers
October 12 · 48 min
A little girl with a life split in three — how Mimi made it [PART I]
Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophrenia, and Mimi's glamorous other life in the intoxicating hubbub of Hong Kong. (CW: Discussion of mental illness and suicide attempt) Mimi presented the news on ABC and Channel Nine, and worked in the newsroom for more than 20 years. Today she has four children with her loving husband, John. This is all a long way from Mi

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