Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast
1,319 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 18 ratingsLNL stories separated out for listening. From razor-sharp analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture, Late Night Live puts you firmly in the big picture.
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Episodes
Can monoculture farming keep feeding us?
February 02, 2022 11:40 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBIf we stopped using monoculture farming practices, most of would starve within a year. But it doesn't mean the practice isn't without significant problems.
Chile's bold new government
February 02, 2022 11:20 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBA ‘generational change’ is underway in Chile. A youthful new government has been elected, led by 35-year-old President-elect Gabriel Boric. Boric recently announced a female-dominated Cabinet, which includes the grand-daughter of former Socialist leader Salvador Allende. She will be the Minister of Defence. And there are moves to limit lithium mining, which the world will be watching anxiously.
Pacific Update: The latest news from Tonga and the Solomon Islands
February 02, 2022 11:05 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBIt is now more than 2 weeks since a huge volcanic eruption generated a 15m tsunami which hit the islands of Tonga leaving hundreds homeless and the islands covered in ash. Now COVID has sadly made its way to the Pacific Island nation along with the aid arriving from around the world. And what is the current situation in the Solomon Islands where 100 Australian police and army arrived in November last year?
The work of artists Ann Newmarch and Hossein Valamanesh
February 01, 2022 11:40 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBAnn Newmarch and Hossein Valamanesh are two world renowned Adelaide based artists who sadly died last month. Ann Newmarch was at the vanguard of progressive feminist art in the 1970s and continued to make provocative art throughout her highly successful career. Hossein Valamanesh brought his Iranian heritage and his love of poetry into his artworks creating pieces that inspired contemplation and a connection to nature. Both will be sadly missed by the...
The shortest history of democracy
February 01, 2022 11:20 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBHistory professor John Keane argues we need to harness the radical potential of democracy or the despots and demagogues will win.
Conflict worsens in Yemen
January 31, 2022 11:40 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBThe protracted war in Yemen has escalated in recent weeks, with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels launching two separate missile strikes on the United Arab Emirates, which forms part of the Saudi-led coalition. As the conflict spills over Yemen's borders, the United Nations predicts that January will likely mark the highest number of civilian casualties in the country in a single month since the war began in 2014. Meanwhile, roughly 16 million Yemenis fac...
Guy Rundle's writings on Australia
January 31, 2022 11:20 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MBAs we kick off an election year, a timely collection of Australian political essays has been released. They include analysis of Labor's loss of the 'unlosable' 2019 election.
Canberra politics with Bernard Keane
January 31, 2022 11:05 - 13 minutes - 12.2 MBThe crisis in aged care, funding for the Great Barrier Reef, and how many political donations do we ever find out about?
Stolen Focus - why you can't pay attention
January 27, 2022 11:20 - 36 minutes - 33.9 MBAuthor Johann Hari argues our collective attention span is declining rapidly, and there are sinister reasons behind it.
Ian Dunt's Britain
January 27, 2022 11:05 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MBIan takes us through exactly how Westminster’s party-gate has played out – and is likely to play out. And argues that the UK needs to respond much more effectively to the Ukraine/Russia crisis.
The republic, recognition, reconciliation and the constitution
January 26, 2022 11:20 - 16 minutes - 15.5 MBIndigenous lawyer Megan Davis is a republican, but she is foremost an advocate for changing the constitution to meet the requirements of the Uluru Statement. She believes that the unfinished business of a voice to parliament needs to be enshrined in the constitution before a republic can be considered. Unless you reconsider the whole constitution at once.
The Australian Republic Mark '22
January 26, 2022 11:05 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBThe Australian Republic Movement have released their constitutional model for Australia to become a republic. After the failure of the referendum in 1999, they have opted for a direct election model, which they believe will have a better chance of success at a referendum. But the proposal doesn't please everyone.
The story behind the Aboriginal Tent Embassy
January 25, 2022 11:20 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBFifty years ago, Gary Foley was among the protestors that established the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of Parliament House. What started out as a media stunt turned into one of the most significant and enduring protests for Aboriginal land rights and sovereignty. This year it is celebrating fifty years of endurance.
The march of the Arctic trees and what it reveals about the climate crisis
January 24, 2022 11:40 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBThe Arctic Treeline circles the world in an almost unbroken ring, almost like a green halo. But as the climate warms the trees are marching towards the pole at an unprecedented speed, turning the white Arctic green. It's not the same story across the Arctic, but as writer Ben Rawlence discovered during his visits between 2018-2020, strange things are happening wherever you look in the boreal forest, and it's threatening ancient ways of life. ...
Joshua Yaffa on the Russia-Ukraine border crisis
January 24, 2022 11:20 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBAfter weeks of diplomatic talks, 100,000 Russian troops remain stationed at the border with Ukraine. Moscow correspondent for the New Yorker Joshua Yaffa tells us why he thinks we're seeing these events unfold now, and what the situation looks like from Moscow. Joshua is also the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin's Russia.
Gillian Mears: skinless and brilliant
January 20, 2022 11:05 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBBernadette Brennan has written a biography of the award winning author Gillian Mears that reveals a woman her friends called 'skinless'. She was incredibly sensitive and vulnerable to the world around her, absorbing both the emotion and the physical details. She used the experiences of both her life and sometimes ruthlessly she also drew on the lives of those closest to her in her work.
Sicily's long cosmopolitan history
January 19, 2022 11:20 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBSicily lies at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and for over 2,000 years has served as a gateway between Europe, Africa and the East. The island survived a string of colonisations by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Normans and the Spanish, each of whom left their indelible mark on Sicilian culture and politics. A new book traces the impact of the island’s deep cosmopolitan roots.
The Ottomans
January 19, 2022 11:05 - 26 minutes - 23.8 MBThe mostly Muslim Ottomans at one point ruled over a quarter of Europe, but they have been often cast out of European history. The reality, says historian Marc David Baer, is that Ottoman history is very much European history. Especially as the Ottomans were a surprisingly mixed bunch, of various religions, and there was much cultural and religious exchange between them, and other Europeans.
The most difficult (and determined) women in history
January 18, 2022 11:20 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBThe history of feminism is littered with so called difficult women. Women who defied the conventions of their time to make life better for their contemporaries and those that followed at work, at home, on the streets and in public life. Many of their battles are continuing today as we have seen in Australia. UK journalist Helen Lewis documents just a few of these women.
WW2 Secret Operation on Borneo
January 18, 2022 11:05 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MBDuring WW2 Australia, NZ and Britain launched a secret military operation to infiltrate Borneo, under Japanese occupation. But first they needed to persuade the indigenous Dayaks, notorious head-hunters - to assist the Allies in defeating the Japanese
The role of chance in life
January 17, 2022 11:20 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBIs our existence, and that of the world, the result of pure chance?
Exposing the flaws in forensics
January 17, 2022 11:05 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MBFrom fingerprints to firearms, bite marks and fibres - Brandon Garrett author of autopsy of a crime lab explains why the impression of forensic evidence as an all powerful infallible technology and science is far from the truth.
Emily Midorikawa - the rise of Modern Spiritualism through the voices of six women
January 13, 2022 11:20 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBKate and Maggie Fox were infamous in 19th century America for their ability to speak for the dead through some strange knocking sounds - and they weren't the only women who were making a living from talking to the dead. Other women like Emma Harding and Victoria Woodhull used their abilities as spiritual mediums to raise awareness of the progressive issues of the time like abolition of slavery and equal rights for women. Were the women charlatans or t...
The history of the handshake
January 13, 2022 11:05 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBStrangers do it, friends do it, politicians do it and so do bonobos and chimpanzees. But what is the biological purpose of the handshake and why has it outlasted other forms of greeting?
Nadia Wassef - A Cairo bookseller
January 12, 2022 11:40 - 17 minutes - 15.7 MBWhen Nadia Wassef, her sister Hind and friend Nihal started their bookshop, Diwan, back in 2002, they had no idea that ten years later they would be running ten bookshops across Egypt meeting a growing demand for books both in Arabic and English, French and German. There were many bumps in the road, and there was certainly a toll taken on their personal lives, but now looking back she can see what she learnt about her country and herself along the way...
Syria's rebel librarians
January 12, 2022 11:20 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBIn the midst of the 2012 siege of Daraya, a band of young Syrian revolutionaries embarked on an extraordinary project, rescuing all the books they could find in the bombed-out ruins. They collected 15,000 and set up a secret underground library where books became their ‘weapons of mass instruction’ and reading their daily act of resistance.
The man who found Alexandria
January 12, 2022 11:05 - 16 minutes - 14.9 MBCharles Masson was a red-haired Englishman with a Cockney accent, a self-taught archaeologist who, in the 19th century, became the first westerner to explore Afghanistan’s ancient past.
Hitler's war on modern art and the mentally ill
January 11, 2022 11:20 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBAt the end of the First World War, the German doctor Hans Prinzhorn began collecting the paintings, drawings and sculpture of psychiatric patients. Their work inspired a generation of modernists including Max Ernst, Paul Klee and Salvador Dali, but when Hitler came to power the Prinzhorn artists were caught up in the Führer's war against 'degenerate' humans.
The women who sewed to survive Auschwitz
January 11, 2022 11:05 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MBIn the depths of the Holocaust, twenty-five young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were selected to make high-end fashion for the Nazi elite. The Upper Tailoring Studio, housed in an SS admin block, became a vital hub of resistance as the dressmakers of Auschwitz used their sewing skills to survive.
The hounding of jazz legend, Billie Holiday
January 10, 2022 11:20 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBIn 1939, Billie Holiday stood up on stage in a Manhattan hotel and performed Strange Fruit, a haunting protest song about the lynching of Black Americans. That night, the young jazz singer received a warning from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics never to sing the song again. Holiday’s lifelong defiance of that warning led to her being relentlessly pursued by Harry Anslinger, the racist director of the FBN. Author Johann Hari talks to Phillip about ...
Are skyscrapers the future?
January 10, 2022 11:05 - 23 minutes - 21.2 MBThere has been a global boom in high-rise construction and people living vertically. But can we live in them happily and build them sustainably?
A brief history of time keeping
January 06, 2022 11:40 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBOver the centuries, people of all cultures have made and used clocks, from the city sundials of Ancient Rome through hourglasses and medieval water clocks to atomic time-keeping devices. But clocks are not just a way of measuring time. Throughout history they have also been deployed as instruments of faith, money and power, imposing social order and regulating behaviour.
How to talk to a science denier
January 06, 2022 11:20 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MBDo nothing, say nothing only makes it worse. Philosopher Lee McIntyre explains why it's vital to push back against science denial and disinformation.
Murray Darling Wetlands
January 06, 2022 11:05 - 16 minutes - 15.5 MBScattered across the Murray Darling basin are numerous wetlands, 16 of them deemed important enough to be protected by the international RAMSAR Convention. But environmental historian Emily O’Gorman says it is a mistake to set wetlands aside as areas not available for human interaction and use. Because humans, especially Aboriginal people, have been intertwined with these places, always.
The dissenting nature of Doc Evatt
January 05, 2022 11:20 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBHerbert Vere Evatt had been on the High Court of Australia for almost ten years when he stood down to run for Federal Parliament in 1939. Much has been written about his political life but a new biography from Gideon Haigh looks at some of his legal arguments on the High Court to better understand his brilliant legal mind. He tells the story of the death of seven year old Max Chester and his mother's claim for compensation for the 'nervous shock' his ...
Murray Darling: Water trading
January 05, 2022 11:05 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBBuying and selling water is more complex, a new book argues, than the markets for many other tradeable commodities. It is a ruthless market, and it pits institutional traders – banks and hedge funds – against farmers.
Reconsidering Ethel Rosenberg
January 04, 2022 11:20 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBOn 19th June 1953, Ethel Rosenberg was sent to the electric chair with her husband Julius. The young couple had been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. For those on the right, Ethel Rosenberg got what she deserved as a Communist spy. For those on the left, Ethel was an icon of flawed justice whose cause was championed by everyone from Einstein to the Pope. A new biography offers a fresh take on Ethel's co...
Murray Darling: Wounded country
January 04, 2022 11:05 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBQuentin Beresford analyses the environmental history of the basin. When he delved into the historical records, he found a recurrent theme of two strands of violence: against indigenous people, and against nature.
Cloning Stonehenge
January 03, 2022 11:40 - 16 minutes - 15.1 MBPeople across the world are constantly building replicas of Stonehenge. From permanent stone structures to small models made of cheese and laptops, the prehistoric monument continues to inspire. Nancy Wisser, the editor of Clonehenge, a blog dedicated to keeping track of the replicas, explains where they are and why they keep being built.
The clans, clicks and culture of sperm whales
January 03, 2022 11:20 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBNew research indicates that sperm whales were able to communicate to each other in order to avoid the whalers of the 19th century. Our guest is Hal Whitehead, professor and marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Canada.
Murray Darling debacle
January 03, 2022 11:05 - 18 minutes - 17 MBWhy are the fish dying? Why are the wetlands suffering? The strife in the Murray Darling Basin can be attributed to the 'maladministration', 'negligence' and 'illegality' of the instrument that is supposed to manage it, the Murray Darling Basin Plan. And also the authority responsible for it, the MBDA. That was the 2019 finding of the Murray Darling Basin Royal Commission. The counsel assisting in that commission, Richard Beasley, has now written a li...
Sir Peter Cosgrove: Everything from the dismissal to the Brereton report
December 29, 2021 11:05 - 53 minutes - 48.9 MBWhat does Sir Peter Cosgrove think of the dismissal of Whitlam, the war crime accusations in Afghanistan and the future of the monarchy in Australia.
Forensic science of rare art
December 28, 2021 11:20 - 25 minutes - 23 MBArt and science are not often bedfellows. Conservation scientist Dr Narayan Khandekar discusses a world-first preservation of a Mark Rothko, the scientific analysis of bark paintings and Tyrian purple, a rare pigment.
Wayne Quilliam; Culture is Life
December 28, 2021 11:05 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBAdjunct Professor Wayne Quilliam’s camera has been his ticket around the world and has taught him a lot about Indigenous Australia and his own identity.
The frontline of koala conservation
December 27, 2021 11:05 - 53 minutes - 48.5 MBThe koala is listed as one step below endangered so why aren’t we saving them? The Australian Koala Foundation's Deborah Tabart and specialist koala ecologist Dr Steve Phillips discuss all things koala: their personalities, their history and how a broken political system is pushing them to extinction.
Justice as love - not just a legal matter
December 23, 2021 11:05 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBSo 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.
Patrick Nunn on drowned worlds
December 22, 2021 11:20 - 28 minutes - 25.7 MBTales of mythical lands thousands of leagues beneath the sea have long sparked the imagination of writers, artists and filmmakers. But not all watery legends are the stuff of fiction. A growing band of geomythologists are beginning to explore the possibility that some stories of drowned civilisations can shed light on actual geological events that happened multiple millennia ago.
The pyrocene and the history of fire on planet earth
December 22, 2021 11:05 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBA short history of fire on planet earth and humanity's complicated love-hate relationship with fire that has evolved over time. Our use of fire for cooking and heating has helped our evolution, but for those in the cities we have lost our direct connection to fire as we burn the fuel of the past at such a pace that we threaten our futures.
Jackie French on writing women, animals and rocks into history
December 21, 2021 11:05 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBAuthor, historian and ecologist Jackie French AM discusses writing women into war history, her close friendship with the philosopher Val Plumwood, wombat culture and more.
Avo toast, parmi and Thai curry
December 20, 2021 11:20 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBThe Italians have pasta, the Japanese have sushi, the Filipinos have adobo. What is Australia’s national dish and what do we eat? Chef and cookery writer Ross Dobson's discusses his new recipe book which explores indigenous bush foods, chicken parmigiana and avocado toast.