Conversations
ABC Australia
Conversations draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met. Journey into their world, joining them on epic adventures to unfamiliar places, back in time to wild moments of history, and into their deepest memories, to be moved by personal stories of resilience and redemption.
Hosted by Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, Conversations is the ABC's most popular long-form interview program. Every day we explore the vast tapestry of human experience, weaving together narratives from history, science, art, and personal storytelling.
Conversations Live is coming to the stage! Join Sarah Kanowski and Richard Fidler for an unmissable night of unforgettable stories, behind-the-scenes secrets, and surprise guests. Australia’s most-loved podcast — live, up close, and in the moment. Find out more at the Conversations website.
Hosted by Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, Conversations is the ABC's most popular long-form interview program. Every day we explore the vast tapestry of human experience, weaving together narratives from history, science, art, and personal storytelling.
Conversations Live is coming to the stage! Join Sarah Kanowski and Richard Fidler for an unmissable night of unforgettable stories, behind-the-scenes secrets, and surprise guests. Australia’s most-loved podcast — live, up close, and in the moment. Find out more at the Conversations website.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 13, 2023 • 53min
Mick and Juana: a love story
Mick O'Regan met his feisty and brilliant wife Jo for the first time on a work brigade in Nicaragua. They fell in love and had a beautiful baby boy. Then quite unexpectedly, when Jo was in her 50s, Mick became her carer
Nov 10, 2023 • 50min
Wily cockatoos, bin chickens and spangled drongos
Darryl Jones, an expert on Australia's city-dwelling native birds, discusses the dramatic lives of these birds, including their interactions and behaviors. Topics covered include bird species thriving in cities, the fearlessness of birds towards humans, bird myths related to bushfires, bird identification challenges, urban bird adaptations, and the controversial issue of feeding birds in Australia.
Nov 9, 2023 • 52min
How David got his sea legs
When David Hannan was a young man, he fled university and took a detour to the wild coral coast of WA where he became a lobster fisherman, before earning an Emmy for his underwater cinematography
Nov 8, 2023 • 53min
Kylie Moore-Gilbert's freedom fight
Kylie Moore-Gilbert shares her harrowing experience of being wrongly imprisoned in Iran for over two years, forming relationships with fellow women prisoners. She talks about the power of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, her interrogation and suspicions, coping with solitary confinement, and her reunion with friends in prison.
Nov 7, 2023 • 52min
Richard Flanagan's chain of events
Richard Flanagan was forever changed as a young man, when he was trapped for hours and almost drowned in an isolated stretch of river on Tasmania's wild west coast
Nov 6, 2023 • 53min
Ariadne and the Minotaur
Writer Kate Forsyth on how revisiting the story of a mythic Minotaur lurking in a labyrinth in Crete helped her realise that we all need monsters (R)
Nov 3, 2023 • 53min
Running from the FBI: life in The Weather Underground
Zayd Dohrn’s parents were militant left-wing revolutionaries, and he was born while they were living underground, fugitives from the FBI (R)
Nov 2, 2023 • 47min
Killer sponges of the vasty deep
Dr Merrick Ekins is Australia's leading expert in carnivorous sea sponges. Some sponges are secret killers, others are made up of glass and imprison tiny shrimp-like lovers for eternity, and others make love to themselves to reproduce
Nov 1, 2023 • 46min
Bruce Englefield's devilish charm
On a whim, Bruce Englefield bought a wildlife park in Tasmania and moved from across the other side of the world to make life better for Tasmanian Devils
Oct 31, 2023 • 46min
Sandi Toksvig and the school of life
The Danish-British author and comedian on her father's laissez faire attitude to school, and how this opened her mind and brought her to NASA's mission control room for the moon landing of 1969
