Inside Story
53 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 5 years ago -Inside Story combines original, high-quality journalism and rigorous analysis to bring its readers a distinctive view of Australia and the world. Drawing on a network of Australian writers and academic researchers, together with correspondents in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, Inside Story investigates the forces shaping politics, society and culture.
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Episodes
Time to rethink the Great Australian Dream (Inside Story)
July 29, 2019 00:51 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBHomelessness is entrenched and many Australians face overwhelming housing costs, yet housing policy has slipped off the political agenda. In this discussion with Peter Clarke, housing specialists Wendy Stone and Peter Mares trace the rise and fall of housing policy in Australia, and how the right to adequate, affordable housing can be brought back to the centre of policymaking. Podcast originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 30 April 2019.
The revolution continues (Inside Story)
May 05, 2019 22:32 - 39 minutes - 36.3 MBA decade after her first interview with Inside Story, writer and media analyst Margaret Simons talks to Peter Clarke about ten years of change, and looks at the prospects for journalism and the media Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website 31 December 2018.
Fit for purpose? (Inside Story)
May 05, 2019 22:31 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MBAustralia's last big healthcare reform was in the 1970s. As the election campaign gets under way, two analysts talk to Peter Clarke about urgently needed reforms. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website 15 April 2019.
The elusive x-factor (Inside Story)
March 19, 2018 01:37 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBTwo political insurgencies - in Batman and in South Australia - failed to live up to expectations this weekend. Peter Clarke talks to political scientist Rob Manwaring about why. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 18 March 2018.
In Melbourne, progress on chronic fatigue (Inside Story)
December 08, 2016 00:00 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBWith its debiliating symptoms - fatigue, "brain fog," pain, gastrointestinal disorders - and its elusive causes, chronic fatigue syndrome has been one of the great unsolved medical mysteries. Now, a growing number of research teams around the world are tackling the challenge of diagnosing and treating the illness using new medical research techniques. By looking at patients' genetics and the changing pattern of their metabolites - the molecules produced by their individual metabolisms - these...
Do synonyms exist? (Inside Story)
October 12, 2016 13:00 - 13 minutes - 12.6 MBThey might have started off meaning the same things, but words acquire all kinds of baggage along the way - which means that mutts, hounds, curs and canine quadrupeds aren’t interchangeable, despite what the thesaurus might imply. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 12 October 2016.
Noun, verb, adjective - or all three? (Inside Story)
October 04, 2016 13:00 - 11 minutes - 11 MBKate Burridge and Peter Clarke discuss how and why we turn nouns into verbs into adjectives. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 28 September 2016.
No need to be possessive about apostrophes (Inside Story)
September 30, 2016 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.78 MBKate Burridge and Peter Clarke explore the erratic history, contentious present and far-from-certain future of this tricky piece of punctuation. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 14 September 2016.
Pardon our French (Inside Story)
July 28, 2016 01:00 - 9 minutes - 8.83 MBDutch courage, French letters, it's all Greek to me... In the latest Inside Language podcast, Peter Clarke talks to linguist Kate Burridge about how outmoded attitudes have hung around in English. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 25 July 2016.
Me, myself and I (Inside Story)
July 21, 2016 00:00 - 8 minutes - 8.72 MBSmall words can create big problems. In the latest Inside Langage podcast, Peter Clarke talks to linguist Kate Burridge about misplaced pronouns. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 24 June 2016.
Turning point in the US primaries (Inside Story)
May 04, 2016 14:00 - 43 minutes - 40 MBTed Cruz has gone; Bernie Sanders's numbers still don't add up… it looks like Clinton vs Trump in November. Political scientist Simon Jackman talks to Inside Story podcast editor Peter Clarke about how the contest is likely to unfold and what it means for Congress and the post-2016 political scene. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 4 May 2016.
Untangling nots (Inside Story)
April 07, 2016 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.77 MBNouns and verbs aren't the only parts of the language on the move, says Kate Burridge. She talks to Peter Clarke about the evolution of that short but unequivocal word, "not". Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 8 April 2016.
The contronym conundrum (Inside Story)
March 29, 2016 13:00 - 9 minutes - 8.77 MBEnglish is peppered with contronyms - those words that mean one thing in one context, and the opposite in another. Where do they come from and what do they signify, asks linguist Kate Burridge in this conversation with Peter Clarke. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 28 March 2016.
Bad language (Inside Story)
February 14, 2016 23:00 - 9 minutes - 18.4 MBContent contains strong language. Once a word attracts negative connotations there seems to be no going back, linguist Kate Burridge tells Peter Clarke in the second of a series of Inside Language podcasts. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 17 January 2016.
On the slippery slope with rorters and fraudsters (Inside Story)
February 10, 2016 13:00 - 7 minutes - 10 MBOnce a word attracts negative connotations there seems to be no going back, linguist Kate Burridge tells Peter Clarke in the second of a series of Inside Language podcasts. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 8 January 2016.
Benedict Cumberbatch and the art of distance assimilation (Inside Story)
February 08, 2016 13:00 - 7 minutes - 13.6 MBBenedict Cumberbatch set off a small storm when he unconsciously pronounced penguin as "pengwing" in a recent wildlife documentary. For linguist Kate Burridge, it was another case of "distance assimilation," one of the ways we tend to harmonise the elements of difficult words as we speak. In the first of a series of Inside Language podcasts, she talks to Peter Clarke. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 7 January 2016.
For better or worse (Inside Story)
February 01, 2016 13:00 - 21 minutes - 19.9 MBIan Macfarlane's failed attempt to switch from the Liberal Party to the Nationals highlights problems in Queensland's merger of the two main anti-Labor parties and suggests tensions within the federal Coalition. With a leadership change looming for the Nationals, Peter Clarke talks to Brian Costar, emeritus professor of politics at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, about Barnaby Joyce, Malcolm Turnbull and the balancing act that keeps the Coalition afloat. Interview originally appe...
The Baird factor, the Abbott factor, and the challenge for Labor (Inside Story)
March 28, 2015 13:00 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBThe Coalition has won a convincing victory in New South Wales. Stephen Mills talks to Peter Clarke about the result and its implications. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 29 March 2015.
Coalition still ahead in New South Wales, still behind in Canberra (Inside Story)
March 25, 2015 13:00 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MBDown to the wire? In this fifteen-minute podcast, Peter Clarke talks to psephologist Peter Brent about this Saturday's NSW election and the federal Coalition's continuing problems. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 25 March 2015.
Queensland: how it happened and what it means (Inside Story)
January 31, 2015 13:00 - 19 minutes - 17.8 MBTo the surprise of most commentators, Labor looks set to form government in Queensland. Not so surprised was Brian Costar, professor of politics at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research. He talks to Peter Clarke about what went wrong for the Liberal National Party. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 1 February 2015.
Three elections and a hypothesis (Inside Story)
January 21, 2015 13:00 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBThe Coalition lost in Victoria and looks like doing less well than expected in Queensland and New South Wales. Peter Clarke discusses why, and what it says about the Liberal Party, with Brian Costar, Sally Young and Peter Brent. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 22 January 2015.
Fixing the Senate (Inside Story)
May 15, 2014 14:00 - 39 minutes - 36.5 MBSenate voting needs to be simpler and more transparent. Brian Costar talks to Peter Clarke about a plan to fix the system, and looks at the politics of the federal budget. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 16 May 2014.
Winners and losers (Inside Story)
October 13, 2013 13:00 - 23 minutes - 10.8 MBBill Shorten discusses Labor factions, parliamentary career paths, and winners and losers in this interview with Peter Mares recorded in 2006. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 14 October 2013.
Independent in Indi: what happens now? (Inside Story)
September 26, 2013 14:00 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBPeter Clarke talks to Brian Costar about why Cathy McGowan is likely to serve more than one term, why the Electoral Commission is under attack, and who should lead the Labor Party. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 27 September 2013.
The facts are the story (Inside Story)
August 19, 2013 14:00 - 54 minutes - 24.7 MBPeter Clarke talks to Fact Check presenter John Barron about the ABC's newest project. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 20 August 2013.
Kerry Packer: the interview (Inside Story)
October 04, 2012 14:00 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBA third Kerry Packer-based TV series is in production just as the late mogul's magazines head offshore. In this interview in 1978 with Terry Lane, Packer provided a rare insight into his childhood and the influence of his father. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 5 September, 2012
'If you can reach that point of almost nonchalance in playing, that's a different level of creativity again' (Inside Story)
May 23, 2012 10:00 - 29 minutes - 13.6 MBJohn Bell talks to Peter Clarke about acting, King Lear and the Bell Shakespeare Company. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story web site, 30 June 2010.
Living the language (Inside Story)
April 13, 2012 10:00 - 36 minutes - 16.9 MBAfter nearly a quarter of a century collecting data among the Mennonites of southern Ontario, Kate Burridge is identifying the broader linguistic implications of her research. She talks to Peter Clarke. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story web site, 1 October 2009.
The subtle art of collaboration (Inside Story)
April 13, 2012 10:00 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBAustralia's twenty-second prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, defeated in 1983 by Bob Hawke after almost eight years in office, has remained a significant public figure. But he has written little about the often-turbulent events of his long political career. Now comes an autobiography written not by Malcolm Fraser alone, but in collaboration with the journalist and writer, Margaret Simons. Together they've produced Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs, written in the third person and bearing all...
In the red zone (Inside Story)
April 13, 2012 10:00 - 42 minutes - 19.6 MBAustralian journalist Martin Chulov tells Peter Clarke about the challenges of reporting from Iraq and the preparations for January's election. This interview originally appeared on the Inside Story web site on 9 November 2009.
Authenticity and the ABC (Inside Story)
April 13, 2012 10:00 - 42 minutes - 19.8 MBSix months into the job, the ABC's director of news, Kate Torney, talks to Peter Clarke about where the national broadcaster is headed. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story web site, 16 November 2009.
Great expectations (Inside Story)
April 13, 2012 10:00 - 16 minutes - 7.68 MBThe Victorian government has invested considerable effort in securing the UNESCO designation, City of Literature, for Melbourne. Infrastructure and staff are now being assembled to help the city match the title with reality. A new literary hub, the Wheeler Centre, has been established in a renovated wing of the State Library of Victoria on the fringes of the city's university precinct, which contains RMIT University and the University of Melbourne. Other resident literary organisations includ...
'It's good to be back' (Inside Story)
April 05, 2012 10:00 - 39 minutes - 18.4 MBBarack Obama has gone onto the front foot, but did he leave it too late? Political historian David Farber discusses the post healthcare reform prospects with Peter Clarke. Interview originally appeared on the 'Inside Story' website 28 April 2010.
Rob Oakeshott: why I became an independent (Inside Story)
March 29, 2012 10:00 - 23 minutes - 13.4 MBIn this interview with Terry Lane, first broadcast on ABC Radio National's The National Interest in 2002, Rob Oakeshott discusses why he joined the Nationals, and why he left. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 25 August 2010.
Fourth estate under scrutiny (Inside Story)
March 29, 2012 10:00 - 31 minutes - 21.8 MBPeter Clarke talks to Margaret Simons and Tim Dunlop about the federal government's media inquiry and the fallout from the judgement in the Andrew Bolt case. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website, 11 October 2011.
'I needed to know all about them. And, more than that, I needed to write about them' (Inside Story)
March 29, 2012 10:00 - 59 minutes - 24.2 MBBrian McFarlane talks to Peter Clarke about a lifetime at the movies. Interview originally appeared on the Inside Story web site, 23 December 2010.
Paywalls: the good news and the gamble (Inside Story)
March 23, 2012 10:00 - 45 minutes - 20.8 MBWith the Australian's online paywall up and running, Peter Clarke talks to the former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Gordon Crovitz, Crikey editor Sophie Black and the University of Canberra's Jason Wilson about the Australian's experiment, the success of the New York Times's 'porous paywall', and the broader challenge of persuading readers to pay for online content. This interview originally appeared on the Inside Story website on 2 November 2011.
Digging up a scandal: the story of how two journalists unearthed the Securency scandal shows what would be lost if newspapers stop funding investigative journalism (Inside Story)
March 23, 2012 10:00 - 48 minutes - 22.3 MBAfter simmering for a year in the Melbourne Age, allegations of international bribery involving Securency, the bank-note company half-owned by the Reserve Bank, have gained national coverage following a Four Corners story late last month. Age investigative journalists Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie talk to Peter Clarke about where the first nugget of information came from, how they researched the story, how they worked with Four Corners to take it further and why it took so long to become a ...
Getting off the bus (Inside Story)
March 22, 2012 10:00 - 42 minutes - 19.5 MBEven before election day the signs were that the news media were struggling to interpret national politics in a way that captured the interest of readers and viewers and enhanced the democratic process. Meanwhile, neither of the major parties was making a convincing pitch for a majority of votes. But it was the hung parliament that threw the spotlight most brightly on the shortcomings of the political and media establishment, raising important questions about how politics and policy are pract...
Getting back to the craft (Inside Story)
February 16, 2010 10:00 - 41 minutes - 38.7 MBConferences on 'the future of journalism' have become a growth industry. In many ways, the news media's own digital evolution has become one of its biggest stories. The collapse of the twentieth century funding model for (quality) journalism is pre-occupying western news operations. Rupert Murdoch is leading another attempt to try to make online news content pay its old media creators as well as its new media recyclers. But the myriad micro-realities of changing journalism practice in a digit...
Will democracy survive (Inside Story)
January 27, 2010 10:00 - 33 minutes - 31.6 MBThere are some shocks in John Keane's (University of Westminster) latest book, The Life and Death of Democracy. First, he punctures the "democracy started in Athens" myth - "assembly democracy,"" he writes, was practised much earlier and further east. But a bigger jolt comes from his thesis that democracy did not emerge as an historical inevitability. It was an invention at a certain time and place, not a natural state of human power-sharing. And its survival as a system of government in the ...
Schooling and the common good (Inside Story)
December 07, 2009 10:00 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBEducation reform is back on the national agenda. Among the many issues being discussed are the need for a significant improvement in teaching skills and standards and the knotty and persistent problem of entrenched inequity of opportunities and outcomes. A marked flight away from government secondary schools has been amplified by the previous government's approach to parental choice and funding patterns. Professor Jack Keating from the University of Melbourne has written a report, A New Fede...
A trillion dollars on the table: Part 1 (Inside Story)
November 06, 2009 10:00 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBSix months into his presidency, Barack Obama is facing the first major legislative test of his administration: the passing of his reforming health care bill, with a potentially massive impact on spending. If Obama doesn't succeed on this key legislation, his entire reform agenda and his presidency will be fundamentally diminished. Australian-born Professor Simon Jackman, based at Stanford University in California, is currently a visiting professor at the United States Study Centre at the Un...
A trillion dollars on the table: Part 2 (Inside Story)
November 06, 2009 10:00 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBSix months into his presidency, Barack Obama is facing the first major legislative test of his administration: the passing of his reforming health care bill, with a potentially massive impact on spending. If Obama doesn't succeed on this key legislation, his entire reform agenda and his presidency will be fundamentally diminished. Australian-born Professor Simon Jackman, based at Stanford University in California, is currently a visiting professor at the United States Study Centre at the Un...
Evolution and creativity (Inside Story)
October 23, 2009 10:00 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBIt's relatively easy to accept the fundamentals of evolutionary science when it seeks to describe changes in physical features through the processes of natural selection. But it becomes harder when evolutionary psychologists argue that our ways of thinking, use of language and even creating and appreciating art also evolved during the time of our Pleistocene ancestors. In 1994, Stephen Pinker was praised and attacked for his book The Language Instinct. Now, a philosopher of art from the Uni...
Revolutionary highway (Inside Story)
September 20, 2009 10:00 - 18 minutes - 21.9 MBHumans have always craved and shared news. News journalism started to emerge after the Gutenberg Revolution in the fifteenth century eventually blossoming as a profession with the Industrial Revolution and the invention of a clutch of mass media technologies that characterised the twentieth century. Then, on the eve of the twenty-first century, another revolution, as profound as the Gutenberg, started a new wave of even more complex and layered transformations. We are in the "one-reeler" stag...
Has radio's future passed? (Inside Story)
September 14, 2009 10:00 - 31 minutes - 36.2 MBDigital radio as an evolving technology has been around for over twenty years. Now, after much plotting, planning, tests and delays, it will start up in Australia in the middle of 2009. It comes with a joint promise: better audio quality and potentially more diversity of audio content. But since serious discussions about its introduction here first took place about fifteen years ago, the digital media world, and the audio aspects of it specifically ,have changed dramatically. The internet has...
Making famine history (Inside Story)
September 07, 2009 10:00 - 18 minutes - 21.9 MBFor many people around the world, especially in developing countries, famine is not an abstract notion. Wars, crop failures, callous urban elites and ruthless dictatorships are the classic causes, but countervailing factors are increasingly at work. Could it be that a true famine is now close to impossible, with globalised communications and relief systems? Is democracy a sure protection from mass starvation? Does the global financial crisis increase the likelihood of famine? Peter Clarke spo...
Child Care: where we came from and where we're going (Inside Story)
July 27, 2009 10:00 - 17 minutes - 20.4 MBIf any area of social policy deserves the label, "never-ending-story", it is childcare in Australia. Once the province of community-based providers, from the late eighties childcare gradually became broadly privatised under both Labor and Coalition governments. Recurring questions of standards and improved childcare quality were largely pushed to the background. Using tax-funded subsidies and contemporary corporate practices, ABC Learning and other companies took off, flew high and crashed. D...
Black Saturday's pre-history (Inside Story)
July 21, 2009 10:00 - 15 minutes - 18.2 MBBlack Saturday seared itself into the history books and the memories of many on 7 February 2009. The grieving, the slow recovery and the debates continue. Over missions of years, the world's tallest flowering plants, the great Mountain Ash eucalypts of the forests of Victoria, have evolved as "fire weeds" ensuring their survival by spreading their seeds in ash beds open to the light previously shadowed by their towering canopies. They die to survive. Their cycles are much longer than ours. Bu...