Conversations

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 reunificat

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 ins

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

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

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 Tes

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 clos

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 t

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 th

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

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 col

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 t

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 cha

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

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 t

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 slo

The post-punk guitarist who decided to finally live openly as herself, a trans woman

Guitarist and engineer Josie Scott battled crippling gender dysphoria for decades before finally deciding to live openly as a trans woman in her 60s. In 1984 in Adelaide

Encore: Catching killers and breaking up bikie gangs

Former Detective Sergeant, Deb Wallace on policing the heroin hotspot of Cabramatta in the 1990s and how Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' gave her new ideas for clamping down o

Helping other people became my business success story

Mark Woodland is an unexpected CEO — he started his career in the Army as a tribute to his late brother, then went on to revolutionise his mum's paper-based childcare com

Encore: Falling in love with 'Mao's Last Dancer'

Mary Li was a star ballerina when she fell in love with her dance partner Li Cunxin.  When their daughter Sophie was born profoundly deaf, Mary walked away from dance for

The doctor who learnt to walk again, using exercise

After a catastrophic car crash in the parking lot of her hospital, Dr Olivia Ong became a paraplegic. But her obsession with learning how to walk again was stronger than