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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September 11 · 52 min
Comedian Urzila Carlson regrets nothing
Urzila Carlson grew up in South Africa. Her father threatened the family with a gun when she was 6, and he walked out on the family soon afterwards. Urzila's mum, who she describes as a 'warrior woman', raised Urzila and her sister. When she was in primary school, one of Urzila's teachers taught her a big lesson about regret, which has stayed with her for life. Urzila moved to New Zealand in 2006 to begin working in advertising. One day a group of her co-workers persuaded her to perform at a
September 10 · 48 min
Encore: Meg Washington on the magic of music
The singer-songwriter on her early introduction to musicals in Port Moresby, how singing became a form of speech therapy for her stutter and also a path into her life’s work. Meg Washington was born in a musical home in Port Moresby, where her parents had met as Australian expats. Meg and her sister spent a lot of their time watching classic Hollywood musicals and also down at the local yacht club where their dad DJ'd every Saturday night. Singing became something Meg was encouraged to do
September 9 · 47 min
Louise Adler on why she questions everything
Louise Adler has been one of the biggest and most controversial names in Australian publishing for decades. This is the story of how she fell in love with the world of books. ⁠ An asthmatic child, she spent most of Melbourne’s winters in bed with nothing else to do but read novels. But it wasn't until her parents intervened in Louise's obsession with Enid Blyton’s boarding school series that her deep pleasure in the world of books began in earnest. ⁠ Shaped by her family's story of surviving Wo
September 8 · 51 min
Encore: The beautiful questions your intellectual mind can't answer
Acclaimed poet and philosopher David Whyte has come to believe a single line of poetry is enough to change your life. David grew up amongst the moors and fields of West Yorkshire, with an English father and an Irish mother who had a gift for lyricism and language. He started writing poems at just seven years old, but it wasn't until he was working as a guide in the Galapagos Islands that David truly understood what poetry was and what it could do for us. A near-death experience there prepare
September 7 · 52 min
Black ops and human shields—the secrets on board Flight 149
Why were 400 civilians allowed to fly into a war zone as Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait? What really happened to them when they were held as hostages? And why has the British government fought for so long to keep it all a secret? Stephen Davis is an investigative journalist who has been following a story, within a story, within a story for more than 30 years. It starts on 2 August, 1990 when a British Airways plane landed in Kuwait for a scheduled stopover. There were nearly 400 passengers and
September 4 · 55 min
From the Nazis to the Stasi, how ordinary citizens live through extraordinary times
Historian Katja Hoyer was born in 1985, under the old regime of the GDR and grew up in the 1990s, watching many former East Germans struggle in the years after reunification. Learning about the Nazi era was a big part of her education but Katja left school feeling unsatisfied about what she’d been taught about the period when the Nazis rose to power. She knew about all the big political moments, but not much about the lives of ordinary Germans and how they responded to the dramatic changes tha
September 3 · 51 min
Encore: The family secret which inspired 'The Teacher's Pet'
Journalist Hedley Thomas grew up knowing that his grandmother Gladys had vanished in the sea off Sydney in the 1950s. The mystery of what happened to Gladys helped to inspire his hit podcast 'The Teacher's Pet'. Hedley has had a storied career in journalism which has seen him win many Walkley Awards and expose a lot of corruption and dodgy dealings. But it has also placed Hedley and his family in harm's way. In 2002 Hedley and his wife Ruth were at their home when bullets were fired into
September 2 · 45 min
Loving my dad, who has younger-onset Alzheimer's
Millie Robinson’s family had been through enough as it was before her devoted dad Jim Rogers received his diagnosis in 2021. Today they navigate the unknown together and stay in the moment to enjoy their tight-knit community. Millie is a celebrant, mum and author living in Brisbane. She also supports her dad, Jim, who has younger-onset Alzheimer’s. Millie started life in the UK, in a very tight-knit network of family and friends who wrapped their arms around Jim, Millie and her siblings w
September 1 · 51 min
Encore: An infamous WWII prison and the soldiers who tried to escape
British writer Ben Macintyre on the eerie history of Colditz Castle which the Germans used as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. Since the Middle Ages, Colditz Castle has existed in some form, perched on the edge of a cliff in eastern Germany. Colditz has served as a royal hunting lodge, a madhouse, and most famously as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. It was said to be inescapable, but that didn't stop the English officers from trying to escape the nightmare of this gloom
August 31 · 51 min
The day my big, fat Egyptian wedding went pear-shaped
Author Tess Woods had always dreamed of her big day, growing up watching her beloved Nana create in-demand bridal gowns. The stories of these dresses became a way for Tess to understand her family’s origins in North Africa, which she left in the late 1970s. (Warning: This episode references the loss of a child.) Tess moved to Melbourne from Egypt when she was five years old. At large family gatherings, Tess dreamed of a big, fat, Egyptian wedding with 250 guests, food for days, belly dancin
August 28 · 53 min
The Kennedys—inside the infamous political dynasty and their summertime secrets
Who are the Kennedys, really? And what has made the legacy of America's political dynasty so famous, divisive and enduring? The Kennedys are often described as the closest thing the United States has to a royal family, with fiercely competitive and divisive figures taking up space in American political and public life for generations. Even now, the influence of the Kennedy family continues to persist with RFK Junior, who is serving as the U.S. secretary of health and human services. There ha
August 27 · 52 min
Encore: My beloved husband's path to Voluntary Assisted Dying
After Pauline McGrath's husband David was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he chose to use Voluntary Assisted Dying. Pauline supported him through the journey as he took the steps to end his life. A few years ago, Pauline came home from work and found the lights on and the dog already fed. This was something which had never happened in her 30-year marriage to David, a director of paediatric medicine at Queensland Children's Hospital. Straight away, Pauline asked David, "Who has died?" Her bel
August 26 · 52 min
Top-secret cake recipes and a 'Garden of Eden'—nourishing the soul with homestyle Jewish cooking
Monday Morning Cooking Club's Merelyn Chalmers her family's story of survival, and piecing together hundreds of treasured family recipes from Jewish communities around the world, including her mother's top-secret yellow cake recipe. Merelyn grew up tied to the apron strings of her mother, an Hungarian Jew who had survived Auschwitz and eventually ended up in Western Australia. In Perth, she met a man who had his own remarkable World War Two survival story, after fleeing Poland and being conscr
August 25 · 47 min
Encore: A father and a son and The Odyssey
Author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn was teaching a university class on Homer's The Odyssey, when his elderly father decided to enrol in it. Daniel became fascinated by the stories of the ancient world as a child and grew up to study the classics and then write books and essays to share his knowledge with the wider world. Eventually he began teaching the Ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey, to first year university students at Bard College in New York State. But when his elderly father Jay ask
August 24 · 52 min
Richard Flanagan on belonging in books and in Australia
For writer Richard Flanagan, the political belief that white Australians do not belong in this land is wrong and it's damaging any progress we might hope to make as a collective people. Richard has spent the last 30 years writing award-winning pieces of fiction and non-fiction, tackling the climate crisis, the meaning of art, free speech and the stubborn necessity of hope. Threaded through all of Richard's writing is a contempt for power and its acolytes, and a great tenderness for human strug
August 21 · 50 min
A Palestinian family story
Micaela Sahhar grew up hearing stories of her Palestinian family's life in Jerusalem before 1948, and what happened when they had to leave. There was her grandfather’s tourism business, her grandmother’s wedding necklace, and the dramatic circumstances of her father’s birth. Most of all there was the house, built by her grandfather for his extended family, at 8 Asa Street Jerusalem. This was the house her family had fled in 1948. And one midnight, many decades later, Micaela found herself st
August 20 · 52 min
Encore: Maggie Dent on guiding young girls to become confident young women
Raising girls in an age of smartphones and early sexualisation is tough and in this complex arena, parenting educator Maggie Dent says we can't leave these lessons to chance. Growing up Maggie was a tomboy and noticed when she was treated differently from little boys, who were allowed to be their exuberant selves when she was not. She can clearly recall her indignation at being made to wear a dress as a little girl. The process of raising girls has changed since Maggie was a child, but there
August 19 · 53 min
The three shocks that changed Australia
Political journalist, George Megalogenis has mapped key areas in our population, workforce and geopolitical standing in recent decades, and looks at how these shifts are impacting our collective political future. For the first time since Federation, Australia’s population is mostly made up of migrants and their children. Professional women have now replaced men doing blue collar jobs as the largest segment of the workforce. And on the world scale, Australia can no longer rely on our traditio
August 18 · 50 min
Encore: How a teen mum named Melissa proved everybody wrong
Melissa Redsell was in Year 12 when her doctor told her she was going to have a baby. After her baby was born, she was told she had 'ruined her life'. Then she set out to prove all her doubters wrong. When Mel broke the news to her parents, they were disappointed and at school, the Principal instructed her to not expect any special treatment. At 7 months pregnant, Mel graduated, and a little while later, her beautiful baby girl Breanna was born. Six weeks later, Mel moved out of home into a
August 17 · 51 min
The forensic psychiatrist fascinated with the minds of lone mass killers
Paul E Mullen has spent decades interviewing and studying men who have committed unthinkable acts of violence and says these tragic events represent the endpoint of a slow-building private narrative of resentment, isolation and rage. (CW: descriptions of violence) Now retired, Paul dedicated much of his life's work to the extreme end of the human condition. First focusing on victims, researching the psychology of stalking and domestic violence. But after he was caught up in the aftermath of a

Showing 41–60 of 87 episodes