Conversations

Patrick Nunn on the real life stories of volcanic eruptions, meteor crashes and encounters with megafauna, recorded long before written language

Greg de Moore tells the forgotten story of psychiatrist Dr John Cade

The 'dog whisperer' Guy Hull on the dogs that made Australia, from life-saving Kangaroo dogs to plane flying Alsatians

John Bevins helped change Australians' minds about smoking and drink driving

Fiona Katauskas wrote a funny, charming book for children about the facts of life. Then she discovered the book had a life of its own

Anne Poelina, the daughter of a Timorese pearl diver and an Indigenous mother, has always been drawn back to her home town of Broome

Pat Lowe was working as a prison psychologist in Broome when she met the artist Jimmy Pike, who was serving a life sentence

Artist Davida Allen's true feelings about some of the trials of parenthood, bushwalking, and a raging attraction to actor Sam Neill have poured out through her paintbrushWhen Davida Allen was in her 30s and stuck at home looking after her four young children, she'd reward herself on a Sunday night by watching the TV series Reilly, Ace of Spies, starring Sam Neill.Davida is a painter, and around this time she made a series of works featuring Sam Neill as the object of her erotic fantasies, which culminated in the short film Feeling Sexy.The Australian press went into a frenzy, calling Davida a 'Sex Mad Housewife'.The reality is that she has rarely behaved the way that the world expected her to, in her art or in her life.Davida won the Archibald Prize in 1986.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Now a wildly popular author, for many years Marian doubted her ability to write (R)

Helen Pitt on how the luminous shells of the Sydney Opera House nearly didn't get off the drawing board