

Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast
ABC Australia
Incisive analysis, fearless debates and nightly surprises. Explore the serious, the strange and the profound with David Marr.
This LNL podcast contains the stories in separate episodes. Subscribe to the full podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
This LNL podcast contains the stories in separate episodes. Subscribe to the full podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 24, 2026 • 17min
The museum that celebrates famous flops and failures
The Museum of Failure, founded by psychologist Dr. Samuel West, is a celebration of innovation gone wrong. It showcases a wide range of failed products and ideas from around the world, from famous flops like the Apple Newton and Google Glass to lesser-known attempts that never made it to market. The museum emphasises that failure is not something to be feared or hidden, but rather a crucial part of creativity, experimentation, and progress.Guest: Dr Samuel West, Clinical psychologist and founder, Museum of FailureProducer: Ali Benton

Mar 24, 2026 • 18min
Skyscrapers to sand dunes: Trump’s business ventures in the Gulf
Donald Trump’s private business footprint in the Gulf spans luxury real estate, golf courses, and high-profile partnerships. The Trump administration denies that this business activity is a conflict of interest with the US presidency. The Democrats, US based ethics groups and the American constitution says otherwise.Guest: Eric Lipton, Investigative reporter, New York TimesProducer: Ali Benton

Mar 24, 2026 • 15min
Bruce Shapiro's America: Is Trump really negotiating with Iran?
Donald Trump told the press his Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner conducted talks with Iran on Sunday. The US stock market rose sharply but fell again when Iran denied the talks. Now a Guardian report says Egypt has been assisting negotiations - so is Trump looking for an out? Meanwhile Congress has confirmed a new Homeland Secretary to replace the disgraced Kristi Noem, but Markwayne Mullin will have his hands full dealing with chaos as airports across America as Trump sends ICE agents in to replace workers affected by a go0vernmet shutdown. And the Pentagon loses its defence of media shut-out rules. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine and Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma. Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Mar 23, 2026 • 14min
The dark side of floristry
Pretty flowers often carry a dark side. Pesticides that harm the florists who handle them. Thousands of travel miles for the many imported flowers. And floral foam that leaks microplastics into water, and therefore waterways.Guest: Rita Feldmann, founder and education director of the Australian-based Sustainable Floristry NetworkProducer: Ann Arnold

Mar 23, 2026 • 21min
Remembering Rhoda Roberts AO
Trailblazing Arts executive and Widjabul Wieybal woman of the Bundjalung Nation Rhoda Roberts AO has died, aged 66. Alongside her vast accomplishments in Australian arts, media and culture, she is credited with coining the term 'Welcome to Country' - a modern ceremony with ancient roots, which first emerged in Australia's cultural scene in the 1970s. Rhoda joined David Marr on Late Night Live in February 2025, at a time when some federal politicians were suggesting these ceremonies were too costly and 'overdone'. Rhoda discussed their origins, purpose and value to First Nations people and the broader community. Guest: Rhoda Roberts AO, Arts executive and Widjabul Wieybal woman of the Bundjalung Nation

Mar 23, 2026 • 16min
Anna Henderson's Canberra: what the SA election result means for the nation
Why One Nation appealed to South Australians, plus the looming fuel shortage - is Australia moving fast enough to prepare for it?Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent with SBS

Mar 19, 2026 • 22min
Research that claimed Roundup herbicide is safe, retracted by US journal
In 2017, a lawsuit uncovered internal emails from chemical giant Monsanto that suggested its employees helped ghostwrite an influential paper that claimed to find no evidence the company’s widely used glyphosate herbicide, Roundup, caused cancer. Now, the scientific journal that published the 2000 paper has announced it has been retracted, at the request of Harvard scientist Naomi Oreskes.Guest: Naomi Oreskes, Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Producer: Ali BentonThe authority which regulates pesticides in Australia - the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) - maintains that glyphosate products are "...considered safe to use when the instructions on the label are followed."

Mar 19, 2026 • 26min
Evangelical Christians are manufacturing the guns used in mass shootings
In the USA today the Americans who own the most guns are not military veterans or hunters. They are white evangelical Christians, and there are 60 million of them. Evangelical churches are not only encouraging their congregations to bring their guns to church, in some cases they are setting up shooting ranges, raffling off guns as prizes and even manufacturing the mass killing weapons being used in school shootings. Veteran journalist Bill Kole was an evangelical Christian himself when began investigating the intersection between guns and god, and what he found out made him question his own religion. Guest: William J. Kole, journalist and author of In Guns We Trust -The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms, published by Broadleaf books Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Mar 18, 2026 • 55min
Please explain: Niki Savva, Paul Kelly and Antony Green on the resurgence of Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson rose from Ipswich City Council in 1994, to win the federal seat of Oxley in 1996, as a disendorsed Liberal turned independent. Her maiden speech ignited national controversy, and after just two years in Canberra, and a string of failed comebacks, she’s now back at the centre of Australian politics — with One Nation now polling at 24% of the primary vote (Resolve Strategic). Some of Australia's finest political minds unpack Hanson's remarkable resurgence.Guests:Niki Savva, journalist, author and former political advisor to Peter CostelloPaul Kelly, Editor-at-large for The AustralianSimon Hunt and his alter ego Pauline PantsdownABC Election Analyst Emeritus, Antony GreenProducer: Ali Benton

Mar 17, 2026 • 22min
How US presidential pardons are being used as a political tool
On the day of his inauguration, US President Donald Trump issued a mass pardon covering over a thousand people charged or convicted in connection with the January 6 riots. Trump has gone on to issue hundreds of other pardons, many of them controversial. Law professor Saikrishna Prakash has looked at the use and abuse of presidential pardons, and says the law should be changed to restrict their power. Guest: Saikrishna Prakash, Distinguished Professor of Law and Miller Center Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia and author of The Presidential Pardon: the short clause with a long, troubled history, published by Harvard University Press.Producer: Ann Arnold


