Late Night Live - Full program podcast

Afghanistan's lost city of Alexandria. A secret library in Syria and a bookshop in Cairo

Edmund Richardson recounts the story of Charles Masson, a self-taught archaeologist, and his quest to find the lost city of Alexandria.

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz. Hitler's war against modern art and the mentally ill.

Clothing historian Lucy Adlington on the ‘The Dressmakers of Auschwitz' and Charlie English's account of Hitler's war on modern art and the mentally ill.

Are skyscrapers the future? and the hounding of jazz legend, Billie Holiday

They're very resource hungry and yet skyscrapers are, and will remain essential to future living, and the hounding of singer Billie Holiday by the FBI.

Murray Darling wetlands. Taking on science deniers. A brief history of clocks

Environmental historian Emily O’Gorman explains why it's a mistake to set wetlands aside as areas not available for human interaction and use. Philosopher Lee McIntyre urges a push back against science denial and disinformation. David Rooney on how clocks have been deployed as instruments of faith, money and power, imposing social order and regulating behaviour.

Water trading in the Murray Darling and a dissenting Doc Evatt

Stuart Kell, author of Sold down the River: How robber barons and Wall Street traders cornered Australia’s water market. Gideon Haigh looks at Doc Evatt's legal rather than political legacy.

Environmental history and the Murray Darling. Reconsidering Ethel Rosenburg

Quentin Beresford analyses the environmental history of the basin. Anne Sebba's 'Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy'

The Murray Darling basin debacle. How whales communicate. Stonehenge replicas

Richard Beasley's provocative account of what has gone wrong in the Murray Darling Basin. Hal Whitehead on how sperm whales communicate. Nancy Wisser's weird and wonderful world of Stonehenge replicas.

One on one with Sir Peter Cosgrove

Phillip Adams sits down with Peter Cosgrove for a wide ranging discussion about Australia, its democracy and its future.

Justice as love

So often the complex issue of justice is viewed through the legal prism of criminal, distributive or procedural justice. But Dr Rowan Williams and Mary Zournazi argue that justice needs to confront individuals' suffering as well as the deep patterns of violence and denial in society.

A history of fire. Drowned worlds

Stephen Pyne's history of fire and humanity's complicated love-hate relationship with it. Patrick Nunn explores the possibility that some stories of drowned civilisations might shed light on actual geological events that happened multiple millennia ago.

The peripatetic life of journalist Jon Lee Anderson

Jon Lee Anderson has been a foreign correspondent for over 40 years and Staff writer with the New Yorker Magazine. He shares with Phillip the highs and lows of an extraordinary career across continents.

Cricket's unforgiven. Marine animals and consciousness

Ashley Gray tells the untold story of the rebel West Indian cricketers who toured apartheid South Africa. Australia’s ‘scuba-diving philosopher’ Peter Godfrey-Smith explores the evolution of animal consciousness.

Simon Winchester and the history of land

Simon Winchester on how people's relationship to land, its borders and its ownership have changed over time and geography.

Isabel Allende's memoir. A history of women's self portraiture

Isabel Allende explores how feminism has shaped her life over the past seven decades. Jennifer Higgie documents the lives of women artists and their self-portraits.

2021 Year in review, with laughs aplenty and sombre reflection as well

Our cheery panel find the humour in some of the most challenging parts of a difficult year.

Home truths: David Williamson's memoir

Ian Dunt's final commentary for 2021 on UK politics and society. Playwright David Williamson's warts and all autobiography.

US Politics, the vaccine race and the history of the index

Bruce Shapiro looks back at the successes and failures of 2021 for America and its President, Brendan Borrell recounts the epic race for the COVID-19 vaccine and Dennis Duncan reveals the unexpected history of the book index.

Laura Tingle, Yanis Varoufakis and mazes

Laura Tingle has the latest from Canberra, political economist Yanis Varoufakis discusses a difficult year in global politics and Adrian Fisher reveals what life is like as the world's leading maze designer.

China and the global goldrush and Rebecca Solnit on George Orwell's roses

Mae Ngai explains how the racism that the thousands of Chinese found on the goldfields of California and Australia in the 19th century has had a lasting influence on East-West relations today, and Rebecca Solnit explains how seeing George Orwell's garden, in particular his roses, changed her whole perception of him.

Indigenous update with Jack Latimore, strife in the Solomon Islands, and the US story of a train called the 'Deportation Express'

An acting legend has died, and there's still a push for better protection for indigenous cultural sites. What now for The Solomons, after riots and unrest. And American/Australian scholar Ethan Blue tells a powerful and disturbing story of US deportation.

Bruce Shapiro's America, the digital public square and Charles Strong's Australian Church

Bruce Shapiro on the latest court cases holding America's attention, Peter Lewis on creating a digital public square and Marion Maddox on Charles Strong's Australian Church (and on the Religious Discrimination Bill).

Laura Tingle's Canberra, refugees from Afghanistan and trans trailblazer Ewan Forbes

Laura Tingle has the latest on Canberra politics, Barat Ali Batoor discusses the long history of Afghan refugees in Australia and Zoe Playdon tells the story of trans trailblazer Ewan Forbes.

Howard French: Born in Blackness

Howard French has written an acclaimed new book putting Africa and Africans front and centre in their contribution to the making of the modern world.

UK update with Patrick Wintour, who exactly are the 'freedom' demonstrators, and Australia's mountains

The Guardian's diplomatic editor on Boris's bizarre speech and the British role in AUKUS, a close look at Covid restriction protestors, and Australia might not be famous for our mountains but there's lots to appreciate about them.

Bruce Shapiro's America. The Australian diaspora. The Women who made television. 

Bruce Shapiro on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict and what it means for America's open carry gun laws. Andrew Rosser considers whether Australia does enough to engage and connect with its diaspora. Media historian Jeannine Baker looks at the crucial but long-hidden role of the women who made Australian TV happen.

Laura Tingle, reviving the arts and the history of the seven-day week

Laura Tingle has the latest from Canberra politics, Julian Meyrick discusses how to revive the arts post Covid and David Henkin tells the fascinating history of the seven-day week.

A history of medical transplants and the Berndt Collection

First the history of medical transplants that goes way back further in history than you might imagine, and then we find out the history of the Berndt Collection of notebooks and artefacts gathered in the 1940s and why they are currently inaccessible to the Gurindji people who are the subject of the collection.

Pacific update. The kleptocrats' enablers. Symbols of Australia

Tess Newton Cain surveys reaction across the Pacific to Glasgow's Climate Change Summit. Frank Vogl discusses how the West aids and abets authoritarian rulers who plunder their nations' resources. Gum trees, the Southern Cross or the Boomerang? Historian Richard White discusses the iconic symbols of Australia and considers how they were determined and created.

Bruce Shapiro's America, the Belarus border dispute and an Albanian memoir

Bruce Shapiro on the court cases that have America on edge, what is going on at the border between Belarussia and Poland and a memoir about growing up in communist Albania.

Laura Tingle's Canberra, whistleblower legislation and amusing Australian history

Laura Tingle has the latest from Canberra, lawyer Kieran Pender looks at changes to whistleblower legislation 

Hollywood workers revolt and human composting

Kate Fortmueller and Kevin Sanson explore labor conditions for "below the line" workers in Hollywood and how they impacts sets across the world, and Lynne Carpenter-Boggs discusses her world-first study into composting human bodies.

Ian Dunt's Britain, passion and work, and an African American communist in the Soviet Union

Bruce Shapiro's America, transitioning from coal in the LaTrobe Valley and the dish turns 60.

Bruce Shapiro with the latest from Washington, how the LaTrobe Valley is preparing for the post-coal world and although the dish at Parkes turns 60, it is still being used to monitor space travel.

Canberra politics, deporting Indigenous Australians and endangered languages

Laura Tingle has the latest from Canberra, Eddie Snyot discusses deporting Indigenous Australians and James Griffith's new book explores the politics of languages.

Judith Brett on writing about politics and Bain Attwood on the petitions of Indigenous leader William Cooper

Judith Brett discusses the shifts she has seen in the political landscape in her 40 years of observation and writing and Bain Attwood tells the story of William Cooper's petition to the King for Indigenous representation in Federal Parliament almost 75 years ago. He believed that there was an urgent need for someone capable of 'thinking black' in developing government policies.

Judith Brett on writing about politics and Bain Attwood on the petitions of Indigenous leader William Attwood

Judith Brett discusses the shifts she has seen in the political landscape in her 40 years of observation and writing and Bain Attwood tells the story of William Cooper's petition to the King for Indigenous representation in Federal Parliament almost 75 years ago. He believed that there was an urgent need for someone capable of 'thinking black' in developing government policies.

Indigenous update, carbon justice, the children of ancient Rome.

Sarah Collard, NITV's political correspondent, has an update on Indigenous news and issues. Political philosopher Jeremy Moss explains why Australia's major carbon exporters have a moral responsibility to share the burden of climate transition. Archaeologist Tamara Lewit goes in search of the children largely missing from the history of ancient Rome.

Bruce Shapiro on US politics and Lara Marlowe on Robert Fisk

Bruce Shapiro on the latest court case out of Guantanamo and also Texas where a new law challenging the right to an abortion is heading to the Supreme Court. Lara Marlowe reminisces about her life as a foreign correspondent with Robert Fisk, a regular on Late Night Live who died last year.

Laura Tingle's Canberra, Julian Assange's trial and Film Noir

Laura Tingle has the latest from Canberra, Rebecca Vincent reports from Julian Assange's extradition appeal and Eddie Mueller discusses the endurance of film noir.

East meets West during the Ottoman Empire and in Sicily

Marc David Baer explains why the history of the Ottoman Empire should be considered part of European history and Jamie Mackay takes us through the many empires that left a mark on the island of Sicily

Ian Dunt's Britain, Australia's growing Indian population and Cairo's much loved Diwan bookstores

Ian Dunt sets the UK scene for COP26 starting on Sunday,and discusses the rising Covid hospitalisations. The burgeoning Indian Australian population could reshape ties between the two countries. And Nadia Wassef, one of the founders of the Diwan bookstores in Cairo, has written a book about these iconic cultural oases.

Joe's woes, Iraq's upcoming election and the stately homes controversy

Bruce Shapiro on President Joe Biden's struggle to get his climate policy in place before Glasgow, Rasha Al-Aqeedi on the upcoming Iraqi elections and Sam Knight on the dark side of Britain's stately homes.

Laura Tingle's Canberra, a Syrian seed bank and letters to Robert Menzies

Laura Tingle has the latest from Canberra, Helen Sullivan discusses a Syrian seed bank and Martyn Lyons examines the thousands of letters written to Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

Shashi Tharoor on Indian nationalism and Paul van Reyk on Australia's food history

Shashi Tharoor on how post-colonial nationalism in India has been perverted under Prime Minister Modi and Paul van Reyk looks at what the history of food in Australia tells us about ourselves.

Pacific update, Northern Territory water pressures, and insights into mysterious illnesses

The realities of PNG's Covid situation in the provinces are emerging. Development plans in the NT are creating controversies over water. And UK writer Alice Hattrick has been examining mystery illness - an experience she knows well.

Colin Powell's legacy, the sinking of the SIEV-X, recreating the woolly mammoth

Bruce Shapiro looks back over the achievements of Colin Powell, Tony Kevin looks back at the sinking of the SIEV-X twenty years ago and Ross Barnett discusses the risks and rewards of bringing the woolly mammoth back to life.

Laura Tingle's Canberra, farm succession and lost in Larrimah

Laura Tingle has the latest on Canberra politics, Lucie Newsome discusses why sons are favoured to inherit the family farm and journalists Caroline Graham and Kylie Stevenson examine the disappearance of a man from a tiny outback town.

When Einstein meets Curie at the Solvay Conference and the complexity of ancient civilisations

What happened in 1911 when many brilliant minds of the era like Marie Cure and Albert Einstein meet at a conference in Brussels and what we can learn from ancient civilisations about how to live with nature.

Ian Dunt's Britain, and Lech Blaine on Australian larrikins

The UK's early response to Covid has been condemned, but life now under Covid is relatively 'normal'. Lech Blaine's Quarterly Essay looks at elites' misuse of the larrikin identity.

Bruce Shapiro, update from Afghanistan and "Fat Leonard" sings

Bruce Shapiro on the journalists who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, Andrew Quilty and Nadene Ghouri report on the latest from Afghanistan and Tom Wright tells the story of Leonard Francis, the scandalous US Navy contractor.