Conversations

Actor and writer Brendan Cowell with tender and funny tales from his boyhood as a child actor and a budding playwright (R)

Suzie Miller with stories from her free range St Kilda childhood, her drama-filled life as a lawyer, and the inspiration behind her play Prima Facie

Meaghan Katrak Harris with stories from her life as a teenage mother and raising a multicultural family, and her working life as a social worker and an academic

Forensic scientist Dr Xanthe Mallett on her work analysing skeletal remains, investigating cases of wrongful conviction and studying the decomposition of the human body (CW: contains references to death and crime) Xanthe is a forensic anthropologist, criminologist and author who works with police to analyse skeletal remains.Xanthe worked for years at Scotland's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification in Dundee, and presented her research in facial identification to the FBI in Quantico.She also looks at cases of wrongful conviction, including mothers falsely accused of killing their children, with specific reference to the wrongful convictions of Lindy Chamberlain and Kathleen Folbigg.Currently Xanthe spends some of her working life at a taphonomy facility outside Sydney studying the details of human bodily decomposition.Further informationLearn more about the Forensic Taphonomy facility run by UTSTo 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.

Dog behaviourist Laura Vissaritis uses science and psychology to better understand what our dogs really are telling us

Nicholas Jose was living in China in 1989, when the military was sent in to violently quell pro-democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square. He left Beijing the next day and returned to a changed city

Sam Neill is a winemaker, a cancer survivor and a father. He's also an actor, who's made more than 100 films

Rachael Mead with the true story of Nel Law, who stowed away on a Danish ship in 1961 to become the first Australian woman to set foot on Antarctica 

Strategic analyst Sam Roggeveen says Australia needs to think more like an echidna when it comes to defence 

Dr David Sinclair is a longevity expert who believes ageing is a treatable disease (R)