Late Night Live — Full program podcast
ABC Australia
Incisive analysis, fearless debates and nightly surprises. Explore the serious, the strange and the profound with David Marr.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 13, 2025 • 54min
Ian Dunt's UK, Europe's thirsty data centres, and the survival of Indigenous message sticks
Ian Dunt unpacks the UK government's tough new plan to reduce migration. With swathes of Europe in drought, could new data centres exacerbate growing water problems? And the project preserving Australia's most ancient long-distance communication tool: the message stick.
May 12, 2025 • 54min
Laura Tingle's Canberra, US-China trade talks and the art of the courtroom sketch
Analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture.
May 8, 2025 • 54min
Does our world lack moral ambition? And the Victorian obsession with orchids
Analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture.
May 7, 2025 • 54min
The destruction of Gaza's universities, and Donald Trump's fantasy maps
Cambridge scholars Dr Wesam Amer and Dr Mona Jabril on the destruction of universities in Gaza. Plus, why does US President Donald Trump enjoy meddling with the world map?
May 6, 2025 • 54min
Bruce Shapiro's America, How Kerala got rich and vale Ted Kotcheff of Wake in Fright
Bruce Shapiro critiques Donald Trump's first hundred days in office. Fifty years ago Kerala was one of India’s poorest states, now it's one of the richest. How? And a tribute to Canadian Ted Kotcheff, who directed one of Australia's biggest cult films - Wake in Fright.
May 5, 2025 • 54min
Labor's stunning landslide, plus the hangover from Australia's wine boom
Laura Tingle and Niki Savva dissect Labor's landslide victory in the federal election, and examine what went wrong for the Coalition. Plus, writer Nick Ryan explains why there's a glut of wine in Australia.
May 1, 2025 • 54min
Was Hitler's filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl complicit in Nazi atrocities?
Leni Riefenstahl has been hailed as one of the greatest directors of all time, even though her most famous films were works of propaganda for Hitler's Reich. Her film about the 1934 Nuremberg rallies broke new ground in cinematic techniques and had a huge influence on filmmakers for years to come. Riefenstahl always claimed she was just an artist, unaware of Nazi atrocities, but a new documentary reveals secrets from her extensive archives.
Apr 30, 2025 • 54min
Australia's biggest tax lurks, and Mexico stares down Donald Trump
Australia's tax system is unusually generous to the prosperous. Ahead of the Federal election, why is tax reform not on the agenda? And how Mexico's first female President, Claudia Sheinbaum, is taking on US President Donald Trump.
Apr 29, 2025 • 54min
Ian Dunt on UK's gender wars, John Lyons on Ukraine's resistance, and arts funding under pressure
Ian Dunt looks at how the gender wars have exploded in the UK, Global Affairs Editor John Lyons take us to a bunker in Kyiv and Brook Turner examines the funding dramas inside some of Australia's oldest arts institutions.
Apr 28, 2025 • 54min
Laura Tingle's election, and the year that changed the world
Laura Tingle counts down to election day, as costings are released and Labor maintains its two-party preferred polling lead. Writer Phil Craig recounts how the final, dramatic acts of the Second World War shaped the ensuing century. And a look back at 125 years of Australian electoral paraphernalia: from flyers, to ballots, boxes, pins and corflutes.
