Earshot
Eavesdrop on life as it's lived. Earshot brings you intimate stories exploring the human experience.
Sat, January 25, 2025
The Mystery of the Marree Man
The Australian outback is home to many mysteries, but the Marree Man has to be one of the biggest. In every sense of the word.
Sun, January 19, 2025
Deaf heart
Jodee Mundy is the only person in her family who can hear. Ever since she was little, she has moved between two worlds.
Sun, January 12, 2025
Becoming a motherless mother
Olivia Humphreys found herself pregnant and full of questions about what it's like to be a mother when you don't have a mother of your own.
Sun, January 05, 2025
What does haka mean today?
The All Blacks have taunted their opponents with haka for more than a century. But the world saw haka in a new light after the Christchurch terror attacks in 2019 triggered spontaneous haka performances in streets, parks and outside the Al Noor mosque.
Sun, December 29, 2024
The Other Me | Becoming Boy Michael and The Animal Outside
Tales of following your fantasy to find your true self. Performing as a drag king on-stage has helped Rae be her authentic non-binary self off-stage and by night Kusaki becomes something else…something animal, when he slips into a fur suit.
Sun, December 22, 2024
The Other Me | Return of the songbird
When her Parkinson's Disease medication stopped working musician and writer Linda Neil was in a very dark place. But a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation has allowed her to return to playing the violin, singing, songwriting, living an independent life and riding her pink bicycle.
Sun, December 15, 2024
The Other Me | The foster files
Earshot presents documentaries about people, places and ideas, in all their diversity.
Sun, December 08, 2024
The Other Me | The other Martin
Martin lives out of a shopping trolley and sleeps rough on the cold streets of Canberra. But his passion for running, gift for words and an unlikely friend help him to get by.
Sun, December 01, 2024
The Other Me | Shadow dance
Andrew was building a life and career in Singapore when his world was turned upside down by a routine visit to the doctor.
Sun, November 24, 2024
The Other Me I An Interloper's Escape
Come on a wild ride through the compelling life of Taku Mbudzi, who defied the constraints of a strict Zimbabwean church, embarked on a solo journey to Australia at 19, and held onto a life-altering secret that shattered her father's heart. Discover how she harnessed the healing power of comedy, to develop resilience, understanding and forgiveness.
Sun, November 17, 2024
The Other Me | Mars Venus and Max
It used to be said that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus but Max has been to both planets. As a trans-man he has some fascinating observations about the world of men, having stood on the other side of the gender divide.
Sun, November 10, 2024
The Other Me | Jim Everett's black sauce
Jim Everett is a man of many selves – philosopher, fisherman, scholar, activist, poet, soldier, filmmaker, sauce maker. And at sixteen he discovered a hidden part of himself.
Sun, November 03, 2024
The Other Me | Half-Caste legends
Paulina always knew she had half- siblings around the world. They all shared the same Tongan father. Finding them was the best thing she ever did.
Sun, July 28, 2024
Mapu Anyul Yandi Gindarr - people come together as one
Indigenous and African migrant communities collide in the Northern Territory, as Sydney-born Brian Obiri-Asare explores what it means to be black in Australia
Sun, July 21, 2024
Bev Francis - strongest woman in the world
Bev Francis found out by accident she was the strongest woman in the world. It was the late 1970s, and the sport of women’s weightlifting was still new. When international records were compared, no one was as strong as Bev: she could defy gravity, lifting more than three times her bodyweight. Meet this forgotten champion of women’s muscle sports, who’s a firm believer that rules are meant to be broken.
Sun, July 14, 2024
Escaping The Taliban
When Kabul fell to the Taliban Samira and Fahim were in grave danger, they went into hiding and could see no way out of Afghanistan. Then a text from a stranger in Australia asking for their help changed everything. Vanessa sent them on a dangerous mission and in exchange she guided them across a perilous border to safety.
Sun, July 07, 2024
Follow the music | The Incurable romantics
Meet The Incurable Romantics, older fans of The Cure - one of the most influential post-punk bands of the 1980s. These women talk about the music, being on tour with the band and their fan artwork.
Sun, June 30, 2024
Follow me to the death | Love, blood and deathmatch wrestling
Erin follows her partner and Deathmatch wrestler Callen Butcher to ringside. While he battles his opponents in choreographed displays of gory competition, she is fighting to feel alive, as a disabled person living with chronic illness. Can they find harmony in their minds and bodies, together?
Sun, June 23, 2024
Follow me out of oblivion | Clare's story
The only thing that would quell Clare’s anxiety about her disintegrating marriage was a drink. It started with just one or two a night, it took the edge off. And so she kept following that feeling, the numbness, until she was drinking herself into oblivion.
Sun, June 16, 2024
Follow me down the rabbit hole | A mother's story
Sarah and Miles took a strict approach to internet use with their 13 year old daughter Ruby. And when Miles suspected she was being groomed on Pinterest, they cracked down harder. But Ruby pushed back – she hacked the controls, secretly spent nights and class time on socials. Their relationship with Ruby took a hit and she shut down. When Sarah realised she was losing her daughter she decided to find a new way to keep Ruby safe, sane and connected.
Sun, June 09, 2024
Follow me up a mountain | Climbing Mt Bowen
It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever. When he was sitting around a campfire on a remote island in Far North Queensland, Warren Macdonald made a life-changing decision. He’d sparked up a conversation with a Dutch hiker named Geert van Keulen, and he decided to follow Geert up a mountain the following morning. It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change both their futures forever.
Sun, June 02, 2024
A Final Promise | Meet me in the middle of the air
If a friend sent you a farewell text, saying she was planning to end her life, what would you do? Jennie’s response was to go and sing with Nia and promise to tell her story. Nia has scleroderma, her skin and lungs have hardened over the last 20 years, the pain and discomfort has now become unbearable. But thanks to the Voluntary Assisted Dying laws that Nia helped establish she will have the death she hopes for.
Sun, May 26, 2024
A Promise Renegotiated | For the love of God
Charlotte was a deeply religious teenager - she prayed, served, and saved herself for marriage. Marriage, she was promised, would bring fireworks, fulfilment. After 5 years of dating, Charlotte married Casey. But as she got older, Charlotte began to question those promises made to her about marriage and happy-ever-after.
Sun, May 19, 2024
An Unattainable Promise | Beauty queens who want to save the world
Full of hope, botox and impossible dreams, beauty queens are judged on their beauty, sincerity and smarts. They promise world peace in exchange for fame, fortune and adoration. That’s the pact contestants make with the faceless owners of glittering pageants.
Sun, May 12, 2024
A Promise Frayed | When Oscar was promised the world
Oscar Berry is 24 and has a rare genetic disorder, speech disability, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. He might have a “dodgy chromosome” as his mum Kim says, but he’s gregarious, lives for the gym and his weekend activities, and is dying to move in with his mates. But when Oscar got his new NDIS plan in April, those dreams blew apart.
Sun, May 05, 2024
A Silent Promise | The keeper of forgotten souls
Imagine facing death with no next of kin and no funds to pay for your funeral. In Victoria you’ll end up in the care of Alan Barr at the Old Ballan Cemetery. He’s made a promise to people like this, who often become State Trustees, to provide a dignified end to their lives. When Miyuki Jokiranta finally finds her friend, Monika, a State Trustee who died during the pandemic, she meets Alan, the keeper of the forgotten souls
Sun, April 28, 2024
A Promise Stretched | Marry me marry my ADHD
Promise me you won’t walk out of our restaurant, quit on our kids, run from our poverty, ignore our autism, ADHD or alopecia, or be defeated by our pandemic-induced loss of home and income. If author Naomi Hart had known the marriage vows that had tripped off her tongue so easily 14 years ago would come to mean all this, would she ever have said them in the first place? You will laugh, cringe and cry as Naomi and her husband Gregory share the story of their marriage.
Sun, April 21, 2024
A Promise Lost | Lost Birds of Tasmania
Susan Lester inadvertently entered a world of political and corporate corruption when she was made the promise of a lifetime by one of Tasmania’s most powerful businessmen. When she signed a contract with Edmund Rouse to paint 200 watercolours of birds she had no idea it would be a decision that would overwhelm her and her artistic career.
Sun, April 14, 2024
A Promise Fulfilled | Love is not enough
Jess made a promise to a woman she would never meet, the mother of her daughter Noelle. Baby Noelle was found in the arms of her dead birth mother on the streets of Kinshasa in The Congo, she lived in an orphanage until she was four. Now, she’s 16 and living in Melbourne with Jess and her sisters, but she’s never known another Congolese person. Will a trip to Shepparton to meet the Congolese community take away that emptiness that she feels inside? Will it fulfil the promise that Jess made all those years ago?
Mon, January 15, 2024
The Other Me | Climbing Mt Bowen
It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever.
Mon, January 08, 2024
The Other Me | Me, my half-sister and her biological mum
The unlikely story of two half-sisters who connected late in life, a birth mother turned adoptive mother, and what can happen when biological relatives turn up out of the blue.
Mon, January 01, 2024
The Other Me | Return of the songbird
When her Parkinson's Disease medication stopped working musician and writer Linda Neil was in a very dark place. But a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation has allowed her to return to playing the violin, singing, songwriting, living an independent life and riding her pink bicycle.
Mon, December 25, 2023
The Other Me | The foster files
Earshot presents documentaries about people, places and ideas, in all their diversity.
Mon, December 18, 2023
The Other Me | Becoming Boy Michael and The Animal Outside
Tales of following your fantasy to find your true self. Performing as a drag king on-stage has helped Rae be her authentic non-binary self off-stage and by night Kusaki becomes something else…something animal, when he slips into a fur suit.
Mon, December 11, 2023
The Other Me | The other Martin
Martin lives out of a shopping trolley and sleeps rough on the cold streets of Canberra. But his passion for running, gift for words and an unlikely friend help him to get by.
Mon, December 04, 2023
The Other Me | Shadow dance
Andrew was building a life and career in Singapore when his world was turned upside down by a routine visit to the doctor.
Mon, November 27, 2023
The Other Me I An Interloper's Escape
Come on a wild ride through the compelling life of Taku Mbudzi, who defied the constraints of a strict Zimbabwean church, embarked on a solo journey to Australia at 19, and held onto a life-altering secret that shattered her father's heart. Discover how she harnessed the healing power of comedy, to develop resilience, understanding and forgiveness.
Mon, November 20, 2023
The Other Me | Mars Venus and Max
It used to be said that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus but Max has been to both planets. As a trans-man he has some fascinating observations about the world of men, having stood on the other side of the gender divide.
Mon, November 13, 2023
The Other Me | Jim Everett's black sauce
Jim Everett is a man of many selves – philosopher, fisherman, scholar, activist, poet, soldier, filmmaker, sauce maker. And at sixteen he discovered a hidden part of himself.
Mon, November 06, 2023
The Other Me | My voice is my passport
What does your voice say about you? Not your choice of words, but all the extra information the voice carries, like our emotions, accents, even apparently our identity. Details that big tech and governments are more and more interested in each day.
Mon, October 30, 2023
The Other Me | Half-Caste legends
Paulina always knew she had half- siblings around the world. They all shared the same Tongan father. Finding them was the best thing she ever did.
Mon, October 23, 2023
INTRODUCING - The Other Me
Secrets are everywhere, we hide all sorts of truths about ourselves. Taku Mbudzi brings you stories of double identities, recently discovered inner-selves and journeys of transformation.
Wed, August 23, 2023
Remember Balgo | NDIS
All those statistics you hear about the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people? In Balgo it’s a gaping chasm. Especially for Aboriginal people with a disability.
Mon, August 21, 2023
Remember Balgo
The remote Aboriginal community of Balgo is famous for footy, art and fighting. But it’s a community in crisis, where “the gap” reveals its deepest scars. Dulcie and George are fighting to save it.
Mon, August 14, 2023
Remember Me | Ghost in the Machine
For as long as she can remember, Zoe’s dad Greg was addicted to alcohol. By the time she was 26, his drinking had taken its final toll. And this led to a reckoning. “What are my memories of dad? Am I actually remembering something real, or just creating a memory from an old photo? Was that really me? Or one of my sisters who wore that dress and sat on his knee?” Ghost in the Machine documents Zoe’s search for answers: who was the man she called Dad before he lost his battle with the bottle? And what does she carry of him, good and bad? If this story raised any concerns for you, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 and the 24/7 National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015.
Mon, August 07, 2023
Remember Me | The Sceptic
Sunil's mother loved telling him stories of his colourful uncle, India's best-known sceptic, who devoted his life to disproving fraudulent gurus' "miracles" by eating fire, bending forks and floating mid-air. But at the heart of the Sceptic's magic was a disappearing act.
Mon, July 31, 2023
Remember Me | Laurie's Ashes
Julie found herself collecting the ashes of her dead friend Laurie, even though they hadn’t spoken for ten years and she had no idea he was dying. In this intriguing trip into the realm of death and memory Julie finds out what happened to Laurie and works out a unique way to honour him and his ashes.
Mon, July 24, 2023
Remember my words
A comment at a funeral pushes Toby Hemmings to discover what his grandfather, Bill Hoddinott, recorded on reel-to-reel tapes back in the 1960s. What he finds are fragments of Aboriginal languages from long ago – can you revive a language from such little material?
Mon, July 17, 2023
Remember Me | Good spooks bad spooks
Earshot presents documentaries about people, places and ideas, in all their diversity.
Mon, July 10, 2023
Remember me when the *** is over
What is ordinary life like for Russians as their lives are shaped by a *** they had no say in?
Mon, July 03, 2023
Remember Me | Roman
In the early noughties the Australian band Rocket Science was being touted as the ‘next big thing’. But that all changed when the band's lead singer Roman Tucker had a serious accident, and lost his memory. This is Roman's music-fuelled journey to try and remember himself.
Tue, June 27, 2023
INTRODUCING - Remember Me
Memory can be a trickster, a balm, or sharp claws scratching at your heart. In this next season of Earshot we're telling tales of remembering and forgetting.
Mon, May 01, 2023
Follow me and my mobile phone | Escaping The Taliban
When Kabul fell to the Taliban Samira and Fahim were in grave danger, they went into hiding and could see no way out of Afghanistan. Then a text from a stranger in Australia asking for their help changed everything. Vanessa sent them on a dangerous mission and in exchange she guided them across a perilous border to safety.
Mon, April 17, 2023
Follow me and the Virgin Mary| Preparing for the apocalypse
When Claire Ashman followed her husband into a gated community on the NSW South Coast, she never imagined she would spend the next decade hoarding food and covering her windows to prepare for the apocalypse.
Mon, April 10, 2023
Follow me to the death | Love, blood and deathmatch wrestling
Erin follows her partner and Deathmatch wrestler Callen Butcher to ringside. While he battles his opponents in choreographed displays of gory competition, she is fighting to feel alive, as a disabled person living with chronic illness. Can they find harmony in their minds and bodies, together?
Mon, April 03, 2023
Follow me out of oblivion | Clare's story
The only thing that would quell Clare’s anxiety about her disintegrating marriage was a drink. It started with just one or two a night, it took the edge off. And so she kept following that feeling, the numbness, until she was drinking herself into oblivion.
Mon, March 27, 2023
Follow me down the rabbit hole | A mother's story
Sarah and Miles took a strict approach to internet use with their 13 year old daughter Ruby. And when Miles suspected she was being groomed on Pinterest, they cracked down harder. But Ruby pushed back – she hacked the controls, secretly spent nights and class time on socials. Their relationship with Ruby took a hit and she shut down. When Sarah realised she was losing her daughter she decided to find a new way to keep Ruby safe, sane and connected.
Sun, March 19, 2023
Follow me up a mountain | Climbing Mt Bowen
It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever. When he was sitting around a campfire on a remote island in Far North Queensland, Warren Macdonald made a life-changing decision. He’d sparked up a conversation with a Dutch hiker named Geert van Keulen, and he decided to follow Geert up a mountain the following morning. It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change both their futures forever.
Mon, March 13, 2023
INTRODUCING - Follow Me
Introducing our next season, Follow Me. Seven confessional stories of following.
Mon, February 20, 2023
Our audio favourites: Me, my English and all the languages of my life
An exploration into language, accents, love and life, featuring the Eurythmics.
Mon, February 13, 2023
Our audio favourites: The Isle of Denial
William Cuffay, transported from London in 1848 for allegedly planning an uprising, became the unlikely face of Australia's trade unionists.
Mon, February 06, 2023
Our audio favourites: Shadow of a Doubt
Eight years ago, residents of the Sydney beach-side suburb of Coogee were spellbound by a vision of the Virgin Mary that appeared in a shadow cast by the sun upon a fence post. But what was it really?
Mon, January 30, 2023
Our audio favourites: A portrait of a foster family
Meet the Greenocks. They fostered their first child seven years ago oblivious to the joy, the grief, the chaos, the worry and the love it would bring to their home.
Mon, January 23, 2023
Our audio favourites: Lady of the swamp
Margaret Clement was a wealthy Victorian heiress whose life fell into ruin. She finished her days living alone in a swamp in Gippsland in her decaying mansion Tullaree surrounded by waist-deep water. Margaret Clement became known to locals as "the lady of the swamp", then in 1952 she disappeared without trace
Mon, January 16, 2023
Our audio favourites: Meat factory ear worms
A young man is trapped in a dead end job in a meat factory and the monotony of process line slaughter is unbearable. Music keeps him going, specifically those songs that get stuck in your head, which he calls ear worms. This program was originally broadcast on RTE in Ireland.
Mon, November 28, 2022
A Final Promise | Meet me in the middle of the air
If a friend sent you a farewell text, saying she was planning to end her life, what would you do? Jennie’s response was to go and sing with Nia and promise to tell her story. Nia has scleroderma, her skin and lungs have hardened over the last 20 years, the pain and discomfort has now become unbearable. But thanks to the Voluntary Assisted Dying laws that Nia helped establish she will have the death she hopes for.
Mon, November 21, 2022
A Promise Renegotiated | For the love of God
Charlotte was a deeply religious teenager - she prayed, served, and saved herself for marriage. Marriage, she was promised, would bring fireworks, fulfilment. After 5 years of dating, Charlotte married Casey. But as she got older, Charlotte began to question those promises made to her about marriage and happy-ever-after.
Mon, November 14, 2022
An Unattainable Promise | Beauty queens who want to save the world
Full of hope, botox and impossible dreams, beauty queens are judged on their beauty, sincerity and smarts. They promise world peace in exchange for fame, fortune and adoration. That’s the pact contestants make with the faceless owners of glittering pageants.
Mon, November 07, 2022
A Promise Frayed | When Oscar was promised the world
Oscar Berry is 24 and has a rare genetic disorder, speech disability, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. He might have a “dodgy chromosome” as his mum Kim says, but he’s gregarious, lives for the gym and his weekend activities, and is dying to move in with his mates. But when Oscar got his new NDIS plan in April, those dreams blew apart.
Mon, October 31, 2022
A Silent Promise | The keeper of forgotten souls
Imagine facing death with no next of kin and no funds to pay for your funeral. In Victoria you’ll end up in the care of Alan Barr at the Old Ballan Cemetery. He’s made a promise to people like this, who often become State Trustees, to provide a dignified end to their lives. When Miyuki Jokiranta finally finds her friend, Monika, a State Trustee who died during the pandemic, she meets Alan, the keeper of the forgotten souls
Mon, October 24, 2022
A Promise Stretched | Marry me marry my ADHD
Promise me you won’t walk out of our restaurant, quit on our kids, run from our poverty, ignore our autism, ADHD or alopecia, or be defeated by our pandemic-induced loss of home and income. If author Naomi Hart had known the marriage vows that had tripped off her tongue so easily 14 years ago would come to mean all this, would she ever have said them in the first place? You will laugh, cringe and cry as Naomi and her husband Gregory share the story of their marriage.
Mon, October 17, 2022
A Promise Lost | Lost Birds of Tasmania
Susan Lester inadvertently entered a world of political and corporate corruption when she was made the promise of a lifetime by one of Tasmania’s most powerful businessmen. When she signed a contract with Edmund Rouse to paint 200 watercolours of birds she had no idea it would be a decision that would overwhelm her and her artistic career.
Mon, October 10, 2022
A Promise Fulfilled | Love is not enough
Jess made a promise to a woman she would never meet, the mother of her daughter Noelle. Baby Noelle was found in the arms of her dead birth mother on the streets of Kinshasa in The Congo, she lived in an orphanage until she was four. Now, she’s 16 and living in Melbourne with Jess and her sisters, but she’s never known another Congolese person. Will a trip to Shepparton to meet the Congolese community take away that emptiness that she feels inside? Will it fulfil the promise that Jess made all those years ago?
Sun, October 02, 2022
INTRODUCING — Promise Me
Earshot is back doing what we do best – telling intimate, personal stories…and we're going seasonal. Our first season is called Promise Me. How easy is it to make a promise? What happens when you don't deliver? In Earshot's new eight-part series, promises are made, broken, kept and stretched. From a vow to love, honour and obey to a pledge to save the world, from the intimate to the highly public, from funny to devastating. Join us for a rollercoaster of trust, hope, betrayal, love and loss. Promise me? Podcast drop: Wednesday 5 October 2022
Mon, August 29, 2022
Greetings from Hobart
Take a stroll up Elizabeth Street from the colonial era docks, past the Empire Hotel with its notorious bullet holes to beyond “the flannelette curtain”. Local artist Kate Kelly is our guide to the hidden histories of Hobart and tales of the original Palawa custodians, gentrification and the art that ate Hobart.
Mon, August 22, 2022
Greetings from Yirrkala
Our guide to Yirrkala is Siena Stubbs who grew up between the two worlds of her mother’s Yolngu culture and her father’s Balander or white world. Siena explains how every person, creature or place belongs to one of two balancing moieties - Yirritja or Dhuwa. She also explores the town’s history of missionaries and Yolngu resistance, along with her own connection to family and country.
Thu, August 18, 2022
Greetings from Nambour
Aunty Doreen has a soft satirical spot for her home town of Nambour. Join her on a tour back in time when sugar cane ash used to rain down on the town, Miss Sugartown reigned supreme and Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan were in short pants at Nambour High, dreaming of going to Canberra.
Mon, August 15, 2022
Greetings from Elizabeth
Out on the arid edge of Adelaide, ghosts of Holden cars and electric guitars haunt streets with names like Bogan Road. Join Glenn Shorrock and other locals as they tell a tale of migrants who powered Australian manufacturing success and our music industry.
Mon, July 04, 2022
We'll be back
Earshot is working on something new! We're busy putting together a special season of shows: see you in your podcast feed again soon.
Mon, June 27, 2022
Absence makes the heart grow fonder | Part 2
Ahmed spent six years in immigration detention before winning a landmark legal case, he was finally free. But when the government appealed that decision in the High Court Ahmed and his partner Danice faced a difficult choice.
Mon, June 20, 2022
Absence makes the heart grow fonder | Part 1
Danice and Ahmed fell hard for each other, even though he was behind bars and she had four children. When he was released they started building a life together until Ahmed's visa was cancelled, he was thrown into immigration detention and Danice was left fighting for his release.
Mon, June 13, 2022
The CWA and the F-word
When the daughter of a trailblazing feminist moves to small town NSW, the only women’s organisation she can join is the Country Women’s Association. How will she fit in?
Mon, June 06, 2022
Hear me out
Stand up comedian David Rose is deaf in one ear. His own experience of living with hearing loss gets him curious about the rise and rise of headphone wearing, and what this may be doing to one of our key senses: hearing.
Mon, May 30, 2022
Who is Tootie? A journalist investigates her cat
Listless in the Melbourne lockdowns two through six, Lisa Divissi became obsessed with the mystery of her adopted cat’s past life - and what it means to live with the unknown
Mon, May 23, 2022
In the shadow of The Taliban
We follow two people in Afghanistan whose lives have been transformed since the Taliban takeover. Surveillance and poverty have become part of everyday life for Ahmad, whose home has been searched by The Taliban. When Bayan lost her job as a manager in the media simply because she was a woman she had no reason to stay.
Mon, May 16, 2022
The Mathoura bra fence
Two stories from the beating heart of small town country Australia: how a fence is helping to hold one community together and the tale of local legend Charlie Woollett
Mon, May 09, 2022
Mum's saris
As he helped his mother Sushila pack up her home to move into residential aged care, writer Sunil Badami uncovered something even more valuable than his grandmother’s century-old wedding sari: the stories of some of the most important saris — and moments — in Sushila’s long and trailblazing life. And in sorting out what to hold onto and what to let go of, Sunil discovered what might have always been the most precious thing of all. And another portrait of a special family member, producer Catherine Merchant's Uncle, Bruce. He loves music, fairs, and keeping things tidy. His generosity and zest for life made him the best babysitter and friend a child could possibly have.
Mon, May 02, 2022
04 Shifting Cultures | From paddock to plate
Four sisters plan to take on their family’s huge beef cattle property in southwest Queensland. Despite the spectre of drought, the Penfold daughters are determined to keep feeding Australia well into the 21st century.
Mon, April 25, 2022
03 Shifting Cultures | Saving our species
Australia is famous for its unique wildlife and landscapes but we also have the highest mammal extinction rate in the world, and there are big declines in frogs, reptiles, and birds caused by introduced predators and land clearing. Could paying farmers and indigenous landowners to return parts of their properties to nature help solve our biodiversity crisis?
Mon, April 18, 2022
02 Shifting Cultures | Healing with fire on koala country
In regions worst-hit by Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, a rebirth is happening. Not just the green shoots bursting from the blackened trees, but the reawakening of ancient knowledge. On sacred land of the Yuin people, cultural fire is being reintroduced to protect endangered koalas, and bring the land back to life.
Mon, April 11, 2022
01 Shifting Cultures | A town in fear of the sea
The ocean is central to the Esperance community’s lifestyle and identity. But three fatal shark attacks in three years have had a profound impact on this remote Western Australian coastal town. As this community grieves the loss of life, they are also navigating their relationship to the ocean and the apex predator that swims within it.
Mon, April 04, 2022
Changing faces: how cosmetic injectables are reshaping our idea of beauty
As more people use anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers to alter their appearance, the way we see ourselves and what we think we should look like is changing. What does that mean for the future of our faces?
Mon, March 28, 2022
The last chance lands: Werribee South's market gardens
Welcome to Werribee South. A wedge of verdant farming land 30km south-west of Melbourne that's under threat from the ever-growing city.
Mon, March 21, 2022
501 Deportees
For most of us the experience of deportation is unimaginable. In this story we meet 3 people who've been deported under Australia's controversial 501 clause in the Migration Act, who've failed the character test or are considered to pose a threat to safety
Mon, March 14, 2022
Everyone wants to be Fuhrer | Part 2
Between 2015 and 2019, Michael* was a leader in the Australian alt-right movement. He was instrumental in building the presence of extreme rightwing groups, online and in the real world, before a series of shattering events forced him to pull away. For the first time, he tells his story in full. In part 2 of 2, Michael travels the country helping to steer warring facist groups towards a united project, before an unexpected visit, and a traumatic family event, forces a personal reckoning. *Name changed to protect his identity
Mon, March 07, 2022
Everyone wants to be Fuhrer | Part 1
Between 2015 and 2019, Michael* was a leader in the Australian alt-right movement. He was instrumental in building the presence of extreme rightwing groups, online and in the real world, before a series of shattering events forced him to pull away. For the first time, he tells his story in full. In part 1 of 2, islamophobia in politics and the media inspires Michael to look for answers online. In his late teens, he is groomed into a fast-growing fascist movement, with tentacles reaching right into the heart of Australian politics. *Name changed to protect his identity
Mon, February 28, 2022
The seed savers
How important is diversity in seeds and what kinds of diversity will we eat in the future?
Mon, February 21, 2022
Myanmar - a year in the life of a coup
What’s it like to live under a military coup? Across the past year, after the military seized power in Myanmar on February 1st, 2021, young Burmese journalist, Mi Zar has been keeping a diary of daily life in her country under the junta.
Mon, February 14, 2022
Danny's inferno part 2 — The Whiskey monster
Danny Stuart was a teenager when he witnessed what he says was a stitch-up by corrupt Queensland Police of his Uncle John Stuart for the firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub. Veteran journalist Frank Robson tells the tale of Danny’s obsession with clearing his Uncle’s name, an obsession that took him to the brink of madness. But it’s also a story of a brother and sister whose love and support for each other helped them survive an unspeakable childhood.
Mon, February 07, 2022
Danny's inferno | Part 1 Family demons
Behind the tragic firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Brisbane 1973, where 15 people lost their lives, lies another tale of two young children surviving the violence of their abusive father. Queensland journalist Frank Robson tells the story of Danny and Maggie Stuart and their Uncle John Stuart, one of the few people ever to show them respect and kindness, before he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the firebombing. A crime he said he never committed and a conviction aided and abetted by the false testimony of his own brother – Danny’s father.
Mon, January 31, 2022
A Succulent Chinese Meal
How an imprisoned playwright helped create Australia’s most iconic internet meme. This...is democracy manifest.
Mon, January 24, 2022
Secrets and sexuality: the cost of coming out
Every family has its secrets, but for people from the LGBTQIA+ community the 'secret' can be their true selves. We meet three young queer Australians at different stages of coming out.
Mon, January 17, 2022
Walking eel country
As you enter the town of Lake Bolac in southwest Victoria, you pass a sign that says 'home of aquatic sports', but historically Lake Bolac is famous for its fine quality and abundance of kuyang or short-finned eels. Eels were the most important food source for indigenous communities in this area, but the records that are left are patchworked and few. Walk eel country, following the path of the eel migration and in the footsteps of human history.
Mon, January 10, 2022
A newspaper is born
Locals were devastated when their newspaper was axed, so they set up their own. Dynamo editor cum journalist Susanna Freymark tells the stories that really matter to The Richmond River community.
Mon, January 03, 2022
Mapu Anyul Yandi Gindarr - people come together as one
Indigenous and African migrant communities collide in the Northern Territory, as Sydney-born Brian Obiri-Asare explores what it means to be black in Australia
Mon, December 27, 2021
Cath and Jack and the firestorm in Dale Place
When the Black Summer firestorm hits her street, Cath runs for her life—leaving her partner Jack, who’s hellbent on staying to defend their home. Later, among the shock and the chaos, it hits her: Oh my god, where is Jack?
Mon, December 20, 2021
Songs of Love and Suicide - Landays poetry of Afghanistan
Landays is a powerful and subversive form of poetry in Afghanistan, performed by women. Part of traditional folk culture, the poems are oral and improvised. And for the women who give voice to them, there's a price to pay.
Mon, December 13, 2021
Who's going to make the gravy?
It might be the most famous recipe in Australia: flour, salt, a little red wine, and don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce. Paul Kelly’s ‘How to Make Gravy’ — written as a letter from prison at Christmas time — has grown in popularity since it was first recorded 25 years ago. Using the song as a starting point, Earshot speaks with five previously incarcerated people about their experience in prison on Christmas day.
Mon, December 06, 2021
The Kabul diaries part 2
Ghezal is a journalist trapped in a safehouse in Kabul as The Taliban take over the city. Through the intimacy of voice messages she tells her story of searching for a way out of Afghanistan for her young family and the realities of becoming a refugee.
Mon, November 29, 2021
The Kabul diaries Part 1
Ghezal is a journalist in Afghanistan and when her city Mazar i Sharif falls to The Taliban they come looking for her. She escapes to Kabul, joining the desperate crowds at the airport but unable to board a plane she returns to the city, her young family in tow, with nowhere to stay. She tells her story of fear and defiance through intimate voice messages recorded on her phone.
Mon, November 22, 2021
Rise of The Cat Empire
The Cat Empire’s style is impossible to pin-down. The most accurate description might be 'uniquely Melbourne'. The six-piece have earned fans worldwide through 20 years of raucous live shows and dogged touring. Before the original line-up play their final shows together the band reflect their incredible story.
Mon, November 15, 2021
Songs from a walled village
Chinese-Australia singer, Rainbow Chan, returns to her mother’s village in Hong Kong. She meets some charismatic grannies who sing surprisingly subversive and feminist protest songs, known as bridal laments.
Mon, November 08, 2021
Brief Encounters
Three stories which explore brief encounters, chance meetings and the fleeting nature of life
Mon, November 01, 2021
The dignity business
It’s the perennial question: what's for dinner tonight? But for a rising number of Australians experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic, the question has taken on new meaning. As NSW emerges from lockdown, Earshot shares a portrait of the community group, Addi Road and discovers what we can learn from their hyperlocal response to the crisis.
Mon, October 25, 2021
Following The Star of Taroom
It was a simple act, done in a less-than-simple way. When Johnny Danalis decided to return the “Star of Taroom”, an ancient Indigenous groove stone his father had souvenired in the 1970s, it was simply to give back what was taken. But when he decided to wheel the 160 kilogram stone 500 kilometres from Brisbane to Taroom he had no idea it had the power to teach its people’s history, draw Iman people back to country and heal old wounds.
Mon, October 18, 2021
My voice is my passport
What does your voice say about you? Not your choice of words, but all the extra information the voice carries, like our emotions, accents, even apparently our identity. Details that big tech and governments are more and more interested in each day.
Mon, October 11, 2021
You are not alone - Turkey
Under the rule of President Erdogan Turkey has become the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.
Mon, October 04, 2021
You are not alone - Stella Nyanzi Uganda's rudest writer
Stella Nyanzi’s words are searing, she plans to topple a dictator with them. She was imprisoned for her poem on facebook that called the President of Uganda, Museveni, a diseased foetus that should not have been born. Her 18 months in prison have made her bolder, angrier and more determined to create change in Uganda.
Mon, September 27, 2021
You are not alone - Ma Thida prisoner of conscience
Ma Thida is a major figure in the struggle for democracy in Myanmar. A surgeon and writer she was initially happy to go to prison to gain experience to write a prison memoir. However after years in solitary confinement it was only mindfulness meditation and books she had smuggled into jail that got her through. She speaks to Earshot for this special series marking the anniverary of PEN International from an undisclosed location she has fled to after the February coup in Myanmar.
Mon, September 20, 2021
You are not alone - Uyghur poets
In this first program in a series marking 100 years of Pen International, the organisation that advocates for prisoners of conscience around the world, we investigate the disappearance of Uyghur poets into the detention camps of Xinjiang.
Mon, September 13, 2021
Let's talk about race: Is it ok to be white?
Are white people being silenced by being labelled as racists? Controversial comedian Isaac Butterfield thinks so. And what about people who publicly call out racism? Are they also silenced? Sami Shah feels frustrated with all this shouting and looks for answers to cancel culture by confronting his own racism.
Mon, September 06, 2021
Let's talk about race: Race and class
The idea that immigrants are taking work away from working class white people has created a perfect racist storm. Where does the idea come from and how do we counter it?
Mon, August 23, 2021
Let's talk about race: The new racists
Why do people who’ve experienced racism dish it out to other racial groups? Sami Shah investigates a taboo subject that’s like a crack in the mirrorball of multicultural Australia.
Mon, August 16, 2021
Let's talk about race: An uncomfortable truth
Comedian and journalist Craig Quartermaine describes to Sami Shah white Australia’s reaction to Indigenous people and their place in our national narrative as “an uncomfortable truth”. So how do young Indigenous people get around that reality? Craig talks to two young people who are facing up to racism with bravery and creativity.
Mon, August 09, 2021
Let's talk about race: Is Australia racist?
Comedian and journalist Sami Shah had never experienced racism until he moved to Australia from Pakistan. It makes him the best person to prise open the lid on this difficult conversation about what racism means, who experiences it and the impact it’s having on the whole country.
Mon, August 02, 2021
Walking eel country
As you enter the town of Lake Bolac in southwest Victoria, you pass a sign that says 'home of aquatic sports', but historically Lake Bolac is famous for its fine quality and abundance of kuyang or short-finned eels. Eels were the most important food source for indigenous communities in this area, but the records that are left are patchworked and few. Walk eel country, following the path of the eel migration and in the footsteps of human history.
Mon, July 26, 2021
Bev Francis - strongest woman in the world
Bev Francis found out by accident she was the strongest woman in the world. It was the late 1970s, and the sport of women’s weightlifting was still new. When international records were compared, no one was as strong as Bev: she could defy gravity, lifting more than three times her bodyweight. Meet this forgotten champion of women’s muscle sports, who’s a firm believer that rules are meant to be broken.
Mon, July 19, 2021
The Melbourne Towers' hard lockdown - one year on
In July last year, after a surge in Covid outbreaks, 3000 residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were forced into hard lockdown. Police surrounded the buildings and no one was allowed in or out. The controversial lockdown drew a lot of criticism. Residents struggled to get hold of essential supplies and the heavy police presence made people feel like prisoners in their homes. One year on, we speak with some of those people who were locked down and locked in.
Mon, July 12, 2021
Martuwarra Fitzroy River: Then they came for the water
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program contains the voice of a person who has died. The Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of Australia’s most pristine and unregulated river systems. But now the pressure is on to take its water for irrigation. Pastoralists watch the water flowing through their stations and see wasted opportunity. Traditional owners see life and say not one drop is wasted.
Mon, July 05, 2021
Martuwarra Fitzroy River: First they came for the land
The Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of our most pristine river systems. But it’s fast becoming one of Australia’s most contested spaces; for the oil, gas and land around it, and for the water in it.
Mon, June 28, 2021
Refugees chase the Olympic dream
How can you represent your country at the Olympics if you don’t have one? This was the challenge facing refugee athletes until 2016 when an Olympic team made up of asylum seekers was brought together to represent 80 million displaced people. In the run up to the 2021 Tokyo games, Earshot follows two Australian-based refugee athletes hoping to be selected for the highly competitive Refugee Olympic team.
Mon, June 21, 2021
Greetings from Port Kembla
From the Aboriginal mission to the steelworks to the sex workers, there’s many a tale etched into the bitumen of Wentworth Street. Local artist Anne-Louise Rentell takes us on a tour of a suburb with a colourful past, in search of a new identity.
Mon, June 14, 2021
Greetings from Footscray
Migrants, artists, drug users and The Western Bulldogs have brought fame and infamy to Footscray. Writer and local Alice Pung introduces us to the people that make this Melbourne suburb feisty and full of heart.
Mon, June 07, 2021
Greetings from Mallacoota
The firestorm of 2019 has left a lingering shadow over this town. Local radio DJ Don Ashby shows us the other side of Mallacoota – the abalone divers, the museum in a war bunker and the traditional owners who had to hide their Aboriginality to survive.
Mon, May 31, 2021
Greetings from Broken Hill
There’s so much more to this town than Priscilla and Mad Max. Writer Jack Marx takes us to the hidden corners of Broken Hill and its history; from the cross that used to light up the main street every time someone died to staring down the six o’clock swill.
Mon, May 24, 2021
The Iceman of Nederland
The town of Nederland in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains has an unusual mascot: an old, dead Norwegian man, whose body is preserved in a backyard cryogenics chamber. Behind it all - his grandson keeps the dream of his return alive.
Mon, May 17, 2021
Boy on the Bike - the mystery of a wartime photograph
In 2003, journalist Andrew Gray was embedded with a US tank battalion during the Iraq invasion. In this documentary he returns to an event from that time which has haunted him for nearly 20 years.
Mon, May 10, 2021
Searching for Trough Man
He emerged of Sydney's gay party scene of 1980s, a time of creative and sexual freedom. But where is he today?
Mon, May 03, 2021
Me, my half-sister and her biological mum
The unlikely story of two half-sisters who connected late in life, a birth mother turned adoptive mother, and what can happen when biological relatives turn up out of the blue.
Mon, April 26, 2021
Broken by battle
Australian forces took part in the conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Three soldiers share their experiences of those wars and returning home to face a battle of a different kind.
Sat, April 17, 2021
Antarctica, the Big Dead Place
When a young American took up a position with the US Antarctic Program in the late '90s he imagined incredible adventures within a pristine landscape, but he found something completely different.
Sat, April 10, 2021
Secrets and sexuality: the cost of coming out
Every family has its secrets, but for people from the LGBTQIA+ community the 'secret' can be their true selves. We meet three young queer Australians at different stages of coming out.
Sat, April 03, 2021
After faith
What happens when you no longer believe in God, but still experience a God-shaped hole in your life?
Sat, March 27, 2021
A newspaper is born
Locals were devastated when their newspaper was axed, so they set up their own. Dynamo editor cum journalist Susanna Freymark tells the stories that really matter to The Richmond River community.
Sat, March 20, 2021
My fake naked body: one woman's story of image-based abuse
Noelle Martin was an 18-year-old law student when she found hundreds of explicit images online with her face photoshopped onto the naked bodies of porn actresses.
Sat, March 13, 2021
Boobs Behaving Badly: the dark side of breast implants
In 2018 more than 20,000 Australians decided to ‘upsize their cup size', and if the numbers are anything to go by, the desire for bigger breasts isn’t decreasing. Breast augmentation is currently the most popular cosmetic procedure worldwide.
Sat, March 06, 2021
Cath and Jack and the firestorm in Dale Place
When the Black Summer firestorm hits her street, Cath runs for her life—leaving her partner Jack, who’s hellbent on staying to defend their home. Later, among the shock and the chaos, it hits her: Oh my god, where is Jack?
Sat, February 27, 2021
Overlooking the grasslands
Natural temperate grasslands once spread from the Melbourne to the South Australian border, but only 1% remain. So how can we learn to see the landscape anew and protect the remaining grasslands?
Sat, February 20, 2021
Mapu Anyul Yandi Gindarr - people come together as one
Indigenous and African migrant communities collide in the Northern Territory, as Sydney-born Brian Obiri-Asare explores what it means to be black in Australia
Sat, February 13, 2021
The Gift: life on the organ donor waiting list
What's it like to be waiting for an organ transplant waiting for the gift that could save your life, knowing that you're waiting for someone to die, but that you could also die waiting? This is 30 year old Matt's story
Sat, February 06, 2021
Australia's caste divide
The caste system has impacted the lives of many South Asians for thousands of years, but how does it affect communities here in Australia?
Sat, January 30, 2021
One Single Moment
What's it like when an ordinary day suddenly spins out of control? Three people tell their stories of a near-death experience
Sat, January 23, 2021
Lucky Dube: how a South African musician changed the sound of desert music
In the remote Aboriginal communities of Central Australia, a musician most of us have never heard of, was “bigger than The Beatles”.
Sat, January 16, 2021
Kangaroo cuddles - life inside a premmie baby unit
Come inside a neo-natal intensive care unit, where the lives of premature babies hang in the balance. Four mothers remember the excitement and the agony of their babies' first few months of life.
Sat, January 09, 2021
Small town syndrome
A documentary maker can’t forget the hopes and dreams of a 14-year-old boy he interviewed and returns to the same rural town nine years later to track him down.
Sat, December 26, 2020
My beautiful lungs - living with cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis affects nearly 4000 Australians but how much do you know about what it's like to live with?
Sat, December 19, 2020
The cop and the crim
30 years ago Bill was a Policeman and Brett was a teenager heading towards a life of crime. But then Bill said something to Brett that turned his life around. This is a rare encounter between two men whose lives have been scarred by violence and anger, who want to reach out and help each other to heal.
Sat, December 12, 2020
The New Normal, ep 3
2020 will forever be remembered as the year which was turned upside down in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. Using intimate audio diary recordings, this series follows 11 people from around the country and across several generations through this rollercoaster year. In the final episode, we hear from a group of people in their 40s.
Sat, December 05, 2020
The New Normal, ep 2
Covid-19 has turned everyone’s lives upside down and as the year has dragged on, we are all learning to live with a new post-pandemic economic and social reality. Using intimate audio diary recordings, this episode captures the lives of four people in their 30s, who've all experienced the precarious nature of existence this year.
Sat, November 28, 2020
The New Normal, ep 1
Covid-19 has created a new economic and social reality. Using intimate audio diary recordings, this series follows the lives of 11 people, spread around the country and spanning several generations, through the rollercoaster of 2020
Sat, November 21, 2020
Four parents two gaybies: part 2
A gay family story with a twist. Gay couples John and Charlie, and Ruth and Betty hit some very modern day family dilemmas.
Sat, November 14, 2020
Four parents two gaybies: part 1
About twenty years ago two gay couples met by chance in Sydney. Betty and Ruth wanted to have children, so did Charlie and John. But the boys didn't just want to be sperm donors, they wanted a family. Four parents two gaybies tracks the foursome over the next two decades, as their unconventional family plan hatches
Sat, November 07, 2020
Living on the ice edge
What if instead of looking at the world through complex systems like politics, economics, community health, we observed the world through the lens of ice?
Sat, October 31, 2020
What does haka mean today?
The All Blacks have taunted their opponents with haka for more than a century. But the world saw haka in a new light after the Christchurch terror attacks in 2019 triggered spontaneous haka performances in streets, parks and outside the Al Noor mosque.
Sat, October 24, 2020
Worm Holes and Dinosaur Trails
What can dinosaurs and giant worms tell us about the meaning of time?
Sat, October 17, 2020
Songs from a walled village
Chinese-Australia singer, Rainbow Chan, returns to her mother’s village in Hong Kong. She meets some charismatic grannies who sing surprisingly subversive and feminist protest songs, known as bridal laments.
Sat, October 10, 2020
The genetic lottery
The Ashkenazi Jewish population have a much higher risk of cancer than other people. In this story three families talk about receiving the news that could drastically change their lives.
Sat, October 03, 2020
Songs of Love and Suicide - Landays poetry of Afghanistan
Landays is a powerful and subversive form of poetry in Afghanistan, performed by women. Part of traditional folk culture, the poems are oral and improvised. And for the women who give voice to them, there's a price to pay.
Sat, September 26, 2020
Facing down the beauty myth
On the 30th birthday of Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth we do a deep dive into the multi-billion dollar world of the beauty vlogger and the young feminists who love it.
Sat, September 19, 2020
No ordinary beauty queen
Anyier Yuol has been a soccer star, beauty queen and a refugee. She's on a mission to change the face of Australian fashion and the lives of young African-Australian women.
Sat, September 12, 2020
The forbidden city - Melbourne's covid curfew
Take a near empty tram through Melbourne in curfew and meet the people behind the masks who are keeping the city alive.
Sat, September 05, 2020
A Bucket List of Sounds
Before the tumours on her auditory nerve turn Kylie Webb’s world silent, she has a few sounds she’d like to hear one more time.
Sat, August 29, 2020
Small town syndrome
A documentary maker can’t forget the hopes and dreams of a 14-year-old boy he interviewed and returns to the same rural town nine years later to track him down.
Sat, August 22, 2020
Still in the shearing game
Australia is facing a shortage in shearers — long hours, injury, poor working conditions, and extended trips away from home are making the job a difficult proposition for the next generation.
Sat, August 15, 2020
Quarantine dreams
Have you been having more vivid dreams lately? You’re not alone. We delve into the collective unconscious to find out what’s behind these ‘quarantine dreams’.
Sat, August 08, 2020
My voice is my passport
What does your voice say about you? Not your choice of words, but all the extra information the voice carries, like our emotions, accents, even apparently our identity. Details that big tech and governments are more and more interested in each day.
Sat, August 01, 2020
The Lone Soldier
Every month many young Australians pack their bags and travel to Israel to join the Israeli Defence Force. And when they do, the army calls them lone soldiers.
Sat, July 25, 2020
Beyond the cure
A family receives devastating news that changes their lives and propels them into a future they never imagined.
Sat, July 18, 2020
Cann River Emergency Warning
As New Year's Eve approached, the crossroads town of Cann River in the heart of East Gippsland was facing the flames of an unprecedented bushfire season. Three residents describe their response to the threat.
Sat, July 11, 2020
Arncliffe's rear window
During the pandemic lockdown a documentary maker grows increasingly obsessed with his neighbours and sets out to meet them all.
Sat, July 04, 2020
A stroke of love
A split second was all it took to shatter Judi Green’s life. It took decades, a lot of forgiveness and a little luck to piece it back together.
Sat, June 27, 2020
04 | Housing the Australian Nation: Brisbane
In the final episode Peter Mares is in Brisbane to see if the not-for-profit community housing model offers some solutions to the crisis in affordable housing.
Mon, June 22, 2020
The artist and the algorithm: how YouTube is changing our relationship with music
An obscure Japanese musician has found millions of fans thanks to YouTube. Hiroshi Yoshimura's ambient synth music is perfect for long background listening and keeps you on the YouTube platform for hours, caught in the attention economy.
Sat, June 13, 2020
03 | Housing the Australian Nation: Adelaide
Peter Mares travels to Adelaide, home to the South Australian Housing Trust, which once set the gold standard for state housing authorities worldwide, but now struggles to house even the most vulnerable and needy citizens. With the public sector failing to meet the need, Peter goes onsite with an enterprising developer who claims he can build and sell houses at price that even pensioners can afford.
Sat, June 06, 2020
02 | Housing the Australian Nation: Hobart
Peter travels to Hobart which in late 2019 was named Australia’s least affordable capital city for renters. More than one in four Australian households rent from a private landlord. There are growing numbers of long-term renters, older renters, and families renting with young children.
Sat, May 30, 2020
01 | Housing the Australian Nation: Melbourne
The COVID-19 virus has exposed the failings of Australia’s housing system like never before: rough sleeping and homelessness, the insecurity of renting, and a real estate boom-bust cycle. Our housing mess can be measured in lost productivity, poor health, high debt and growing inequality. Peter Mares visits four capital cities, to investigate what’s gone wrong with housing in Australia, and what we might do about it, beginning in his home town of Melbourne
Sat, May 23, 2020
The COVID Diaries — Episode 3: Work
A paramedic, an Indigenous educator in the remote Kimberley, and an international student turned bike courier take us to the frontline of working through COVID-19.
Sat, May 16, 2020
The COVID Diaries — Episode 2: School
From the trenches of the home schooling front a teacher, a student and a parent tell the story of the education revolution brought on by COVID-19.
Sat, May 09, 2020
The COVID Diaries — Episode 1: Home
Stolen hand sanitizer, an iso wedding, losing all three of your jobs in one week—life at home in lockdown in Australia, as told through the intimate audio diaries of three women.
Sat, May 02, 2020
Where have all the sharks gone?
In 2019, the famous flying great white sharks of South Africa’s False Bay completely disappeared, leaving locals, scientists and a booming tourism industry desperate for answers. Are shark-eating orcas or climate change to blame? Or could the answer lie across the Southern Ocean in Australia?
Sat, April 25, 2020
Lives After Hate, part 2
The story of one man's slide into the white supremacist movement in Canada, and the aftermath. How do we deal with those who've engaged in the politics of hate when they decide to walk away from it?
Sat, April 18, 2020
Lives After Hate, part 1
The story of one man's slide into the white supremacist movement in Canada in the late 1980s, and which asks the question; whose voices should be heard in the aftermath of violence, as a community attempts to move towards life after hate?
Sat, April 11, 2020
Homer of the Wimmera
The fascinating life story of Homer Rieth — a composer, poet and founder of the Minyip Philosophical Society.
Sat, April 04, 2020
Solomon Islands: encounters in paradise
If your government failed to provide running water, electricity, roads, safety from gender violence, or other staples of everyday life, what would you do? In the Solomon Islands people are taking matters into their own hands, even schoolgirls. If their government can’t provide, they’ll try.
Sat, March 28, 2020
Survival across the ditch: Kiwis in Australia
We make it easy for New Zealanders to work in Australia but not so easy for them to survive in times of personal crisis. Four Kiwis tell their stories of falling between the cracks.
Sat, March 21, 2020
Tombstones
Tombstones were once doors to the afterlife, where spirits could pass through. Today they're smaller, but they still mark a place where we can leave offerings, tell stories and think alternative thoughts.
Sat, March 14, 2020
My beautiful lungs - living with cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis affects nearly 4000 Australians but how much do you know about what it's like to live with?
Sat, March 07, 2020
#I'llridewithyou, West Papua
How do you make people care when they risk going to jail for it? Three women helped start a movement in Jakarta bringing attention to West Papua, and today it’s seen thousands protesting across the country. But the personal toll has been huge.
Sat, February 29, 2020
Inside the birth suite: why women are left traumatised by birth
After her own traumatic birth Elly Bradfield started asking other mothers about their births, it was like swapping war stories. Why are so many Australian women leaving the birth suite traumatised?
Sat, February 22, 2020
Vanuatu's stolen generation
150 years ago thousands of young men were taken from the Pacific Islands. Today the scars are still being felt.
Sat, February 15, 2020
Polygamous marriage in modern Malaysia
Muslim Malaysians often have complex and tangled views about polygamy. Their feelings and beliefs aren’t always mirrored by their actions. What role does pragmatism play? What role does faith play?
Sat, February 08, 2020
Survival and revival in the Torres Strait
The island of Poruma is a shrinking tropical paradise – battered by king tides and eaten by coastal erosion. Meet the locals fighting for survival, in more ways than one.
Sat, February 01, 2020
South Korea's hope in hell
Expectation and competition are pushing young South Koreans to give up on marriage and kids.
Sat, January 25, 2020
Love, obsession and fanyuism in figure skating
To his cult-like following of fans Yuzuru Hanyu is the “god of figure skating”, and no price is too high or distance too great to watch him skate.
Sat, January 18, 2020
Banaba: The island Australia ate
100 years ago the Banaban people had no idea they were living on the richest natural resource in the Pacific- one the world was desperate to get its hands on. The first they heard of it was when a mysterious visitor arrived, wanting signatures. That was the beginning of the end of their time on their island home, and the start of a superbly rich period in Australia’s history.
Sat, January 11, 2020
Burn
Indigenous Australians have been setting fire to the bush for tens of thousands of years, and today their "cool burns" are making a welcome comeback.
Sat, January 04, 2020
Singing the Stones: can industry and ancient rock art coexist on the Burrup Peninsula?
After fifty years of industrial development that’s destroyed thousands of sacred petroglyphs, the West Australian government is finally backing a push for World Heritage Listing. But it’s also considering two major new chemical plants.
Sat, December 28, 2019
Ball by bloody ball
Two blokes buy the radio rights to an international test cricket series on a credit card.
Sat, December 21, 2019
The peaceful rebels of Poso
How does a community learn to live together after years of fighting each other in the most violent way possible? The remote Indonesian province of Poso is recovering from a decade-long religious conflict and in the face of hatred a brave group of women are leading the charge for peace and sovereignty.
Sat, December 14, 2019
Five days in a balloon
Hot air ballooning is more popular in Australia than ever before. But how did it start? And where is it drifting to?
Sat, December 07, 2019
Back to the multilingual future
To imagine our multilingual future do we have to return to the past?
Sat, November 30, 2019
Talking through the generations
Migrant languages tend to disappear by the third generation. But is there a way to resist this trend towards being a 'graveyard of languages' and for us to hold onto language through the generations?
Sat, November 23, 2019
How language education is failing and flourishing
The Australian education system both values and devalues languages other than English. So schools play a crucial role in contributing to a multilingual Australia — or do they?
Sat, November 16, 2019
Bringing up bilingual baby
Australian families and communities who bring up their children in more than one language take on a huge challenge. Is it worth the effort?
Sat, November 09, 2019
Is Australia ready for the multilingual mindset?
Australia has a monolingual mindset but a multilingual reality. What does this mean for how we go about our day-to-day lives? Masako Fukui and Sheila Ngoc Pham investigate.
Sat, November 02, 2019
From St Kilda to Kings Cross
Jump on a bus 'From St Kilda to Kings Cross' and discover the significance of the song that sparked Paul Kelly's career.
Sat, October 26, 2019
Kangaroo cuddles - life inside a premmie baby unit
Come inside a neo-natal intensive care unit, where the lives of premature babies hang in the balance. Four mothers remember the excitement and the agony of their babies' first few months of life.
Sat, October 19, 2019
The cop and the crim
30 years ago Bill was a Policeman and Brett was a teenager heading towards a life of crime. But then Bill said something to Brett that turned his life around. This is a rare encounter between two men whose lives have been scarred by violence and anger, who want to reach out and help each other to heal.
Sat, October 12, 2019
Lucky Dube: how a South African musician changed the sound of desert music
In the remote Aboriginal communities of Central Australia, a musician most of us have never heard of, was “bigger than The Beatles”.
Sat, October 05, 2019
The Call: inside the Christian Brothers
For almost a century the Christian Brothers was a formidable presence in education in Australia. In recent decades the order's reputation has been deeply marred by revelations of widespread sexual abuse. Two former Christian Brothers, who entered the order as young teens, recall their lives inside their notoriously cloistered world
Sat, September 28, 2019
Aziz: A Stranger in Geneva
Manus Island detainee Abdul Aziz Muhamat has been allowed to spend three weeks in Geneva in order to accept a human rights award. But he has a big decision to make. Should he stay and seek asylum or return to Manus? There's no middle ground.
Sat, September 21, 2019
Aziz: Flight from Manus
After six years in detention on Manus island, Abdul Aziz Muhamat is allowed to visit Geneva for two weeks. It's a strange blip in his internment which is happening because he's on the short-list for a human rights award.
Sat, September 14, 2019
The last golden age of the bee people
Australia is the last inhabited continent on earth without a little mite that could unravel our food system. Meet the city and regional beekeepers who are preparing for its inevitable arrival that will change everything for them and their bees.
Sat, September 07, 2019
Borderland: Ireland in the shadow of Brexit
Come on a road trip along the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as the departure of Britain from the European Union creeps closer. Hear what locals from both sides of the line have to say about Brexit, and its' impact on their lives. Will a no-deal UK departure signal the end of 20 years of peace along this once troubled border?
Sat, August 31, 2019
My fake naked body: one woman's story of image-based abuse
Noelle Martin was an 18-year-old law student when she found hundreds of explicit images online with her face photoshopped onto the naked bodies of porn actresses.
Sat, August 24, 2019
The Mystery of the Marree Man
The Australian outback is home to many mysteries, but the Marree Man has to be one of the biggest. In every sense of the word.
Sat, August 17, 2019
The Iceman of Nederland
The town of Nederland in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains has an unusual mascot: an old, dead Norwegian man, whose body is preserved in a backyard cryogenics chamber. Behind it all - his grandson keeps the dream of his return alive.
Sat, August 10, 2019
Naponi's story: Loving a man with schizophrenia
The man Naponi married turned out to be violent and for decades her life was simply about survival. But her husband's been in a psychiatric facility for over 14 years now and some in her Sudanese community blame her for keeping him there.
Sat, August 03, 2019
The artist and the algorithm: how YouTube is changing our relationship with music
An obscure Japanese musician has found millions of fans thanks to YouTube. Hiroshi Yoshimura's ambient synth music is perfect for long background listening and keeps you on the YouTube platform for hours, caught in the attention economy.
Sat, July 27, 2019
Ball by bloody ball
Two blokes buy the radio rights to an international test cricket series on a credit card.
Sat, July 20, 2019
You should feel uncomfortable: One family's time in Outreach International
Robert, Laura and Lee Sullivan were all once members of Outreach International, an organisation that they now believe is a cult because they felt controlled and were only allowed to have relationships with other members of the organisation. And find out why they left.
Sat, July 13, 2019
A Mother's Mind
For most women becoming a new mother is an exhilarating, if physically exhausting experience; infused with love and joy. But what if it's the opposite of this? The stories of three women who have suffered from postpartum psychosis.
Sat, July 06, 2019
Singing the Stones: can industry and ancient rock art coexist on the Burrup Peninsula?
After fifty years of industrial development that’s destroyed thousands of sacred petroglyphs, the West Australian government is finally backing a push for World Heritage Listing. But it’s also considering two major new chemical plants.
Sat, June 29, 2019
Wentworth Street Port Kembla
It's deceptively quiet but the main street of Port Kembla has a thousand tales to tell and a cast of captivating characters to tell them.
Sat, June 22, 2019
A revolution in the paddocks - regenerative farming
A young farming couple find out they can rehabilitate the environment by the way they farm, but the stakes are high, they could go broke by doing it.
Sat, June 15, 2019
Coal country
A coal mine, an anonymous billboard, and a community split in two.
Sat, June 01, 2019
Banaba: The island Australia ate
100 years ago the Banaban people had no idea they were living on the richest natural resource in the Pacific- one the world was desperate to get its hands on. The first they heard of it was when a mysterious visitor arrived, wanting signatures. That was the beginning of the end of their time on their island home, and the start of a superbly rich period in Australia’s history.
Sat, May 25, 2019
A Sense of Quietness
This story reveals a line of connection through four Irish women across two referendums, to explore the unexpected consequences of talking about abortion.
Sat, May 18, 2019
A tourist in Modi's Varanasi
The ancient city of Varanasi, Prime Minister Modi’s chosen electorate, offers Hindus a direct path to the heavens but it’s one of the worst polluted places in the world and a demolition site.
Thu, April 25, 2019
Shutup bonus — Andrew Bolt talks to Sami Shah
Sami Shah talks candidly with this controversial columnist and commentator about the challenges of being so open with his opinions.
Thu, April 25, 2019
Shutup Bonus — Nyadol Nyuon talks to Sami Shah
Lawyer and anti-racism advocate is searing and reflective with Sami Shah about the divisions in Australian media and society and her role in public debate.
Sat, April 13, 2019
Shutup 01 — Talking about speaking
What is freedom of speech and how much of it do we have? Sami Shah goes in search of the origins and limits of our free and frank speech.
Sat, April 13, 2019
Shutup 02 — Going mad
Sami Shah finds out what political correctness is and why it’s so darn mad.
Sat, April 13, 2019
Shutup 03 — Getting Yassmined
A young woman posted on Facebook on Anzac Day and Australia went mad. Sami Shah investigates why every comedian of colour is afraid of being 'Yassmined'.
Sat, April 13, 2019
Shutup 04 — Frontlines and punchlines
Sami Shah looks at where the free speech lines are being drawn in our newsrooms and comedy clubs.
Sat, April 13, 2019
Shutup 05 — Not shutting up
Online, on campus, everywhere we’re losing free and frank speech. Sami Shah discovers the consequences of this loss but also finds some solutions.
Sat, April 06, 2019
Life on the border: Tijuana migrant stories
As the 'migrant caravans' continue to roll into Tijuana, on the US-Mexico border, journalist Janak Rogers spent a week on the ground in the city, speaking with recent arrivals and local residents.
Sat, March 23, 2019
Boy on the Bike
In 2003, journalist Andrew Gray was embedded in a US tank battalion during the Iraq invasion. In this documentary he returns to an event from that time which has haunted him for over 15 years.
Sat, March 16, 2019
The peaceful rebels of Poso
How does a community learn to live together after years of fighting each other in the most violent way possible? The remote Indonesian province of Poso is recovering from a decade-long religious conflict and in the face of hatred a brave group of women are leading the charge for peace and sovereignty.
Sat, March 09, 2019
Stainforth Court: closing the door
In 2011, a murder prompted a transformation of Stainforth Court, a troubled public housing estate in Hobart. Who’s living there now? And what we can learn from this story when it comes to improving Australia’s public housing?
loading...