Background Briefing
ABC Australia
Background Briefing is the ABC's flagship investigative journalism podcast. Its award-winning investigations and documentaries expose cover-ups, corruption, real-life mysteries, whistleblowing, crime, fraud and miscarriages of justice — often before these stories receive mainstream attention.
The Background Briefing podcast brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear, told by trusted reporters across Australia.
This Australian podcast makes investigative journalism bingeable. From scams and fraud to schooling and health scandals, tech and social media digs, police exposes and various unsolved cases, each episode of the Background Briefing podcast is a must-listen.
Recent series include:
Hometown Boys exposed how a terrible crime fractured a local community around a local football club.
The Invisible Killer: a forensic investigation into unexplained deaths in aged care after a doctor makes an unusual discovery.
The Favourite: how a schoolyard secret stayed hidden for years.
Stop and Search, which uncovered the mechanics of power and police accountability.
Before and After investigated medical hype, telehealth, body image, cosmetic procedures and consumer risk.
Beef: how small feuds escalate into serious disputes.
The Background Briefing podcast brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear, told by trusted reporters across Australia.
This Australian podcast makes investigative journalism bingeable. From scams and fraud to schooling and health scandals, tech and social media digs, police exposes and various unsolved cases, each episode of the Background Briefing podcast is a must-listen.
Recent series include:
Hometown Boys exposed how a terrible crime fractured a local community around a local football club.
The Invisible Killer: a forensic investigation into unexplained deaths in aged care after a doctor makes an unusual discovery.
The Favourite: how a schoolyard secret stayed hidden for years.
Stop and Search, which uncovered the mechanics of power and police accountability.
Before and After investigated medical hype, telehealth, body image, cosmetic procedures and consumer risk.
Beef: how small feuds escalate into serious disputes.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 12, 2023 • 29min
The Whistleblower who captured the nation — and the man who unmasked her as a fraud
Kathy Jackson was once heralded as a revolutionary who shone a bright spotlight on union corruption but she too was later found to be a fraudster who had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in union members' money. So who was the man responsible for blowing the whistle on her? Reporter Annika Blau investigates.
Oct 5, 2023 • 32min
The Whistleblower who helped catch a paedophile politican
After an electoral officer helped police arrest a popular state minister, her life began to unravel.
Oct 3, 2023 • 2min
INTRODUCING — 'The Whistleblowers', a new series from Background Briefing
In this 6-part series presented by Adele Ferguson, the Background Briefing team brings you the untold stories of ordinary Australians who helped bring some of Australia’s biggest and dirtiest scandals to light.
Aug 10, 2023 • 33min
Can a rape trial be a positive experience?
Two years ago, Meagan complained to the ABC that our coverage of sexual assault cases was too negative, and it didn't reflect her personal experience.
Aug 3, 2023 • 34min
03 | The outland or the cage
Just after midnight, Marty woke to find three young intruders in his bedroom. Then they started talking to him. He'd now become one of the hundreds of victims of crime in Mount Isa each year. This is the final episode looking at the youth justice system in Queensland — the state with the highest number of children behind bars.
Jul 27, 2023 • 31min
02 | The outland or the cage
"Locked down for hours and hours": Jaxon explains what life is like inside a juvenile detention centre.
Jul 21, 2023 • 33min
01 | The outland or the cage
Jaxon stole a car at age 10. Six years later, the Mount Isa teen has a decision to make.
Jul 13, 2023 • 40min
'What's your p(doom)?' Why AI experts are calculating our doomsday odds
A growing number of AI industry insiders are guessing at the probability that Artificial Intelligence will lead to a catastrophic scenario for humanity, and calculating their ‘p(doom)’.
Jul 6, 2023 • 39min
The little-known religious code ruling many major public hospitals
Did you know that some of Australia’s largest public hospitals are run according to a religious code of ethics?
Jun 29, 2023 • 38min
Fashion victims
Kym Ellery, the founder of collapsed Australian fashion label Ellery Land, tells reporter Rachael Brown that business collapses are sometimes the price of working in the fashion industry.
