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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.

Conversations

Tommy Caldwell grew up exploring Yosemite, looking up at El Capitan's punishing 3000ft sheer rock face. After years of training, he was ready to climb it. 

Tommy is regarded as the world’s best big wall climber.

He spent 15 years ascending various routes on El Capitan, the Yosemite National Park mecca for big wall climbers, until he was finally ready to attempt a route christened 'The Dawn Wall'.

The Dawn Wall is a 3000-foot ascent up sheer rock on the southeast face of El Capitan.

It took Tommy and his partner Kevin Jorgeson 19 days, but in 2015 they became the first to successfully free climb The Dawn Wall.

The accomplishment was the culmination of years of endurance, just only on the wall, but also on the ground. 

As a younger man, Tommy was kidnapped in Kyrgyzstan and he later lost a finger in an accident, which is a particularly devastating loss for a climber. 

Through it all, Tommy says climbing is what kept him sane.

Further information

First broadcast in August, 2019.

A documentary about Tommy and Kevin's climb, The Dawn Wall, is available on Netflix.

2025 update: Tommy has published a best-selling memoir, ‘The Push’.

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

This episode of Conversations explores rock climbing, bouldering, California, National Parks, outdoor pursuits, free climbing, sports injuries, documentary, adrenaline sports.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: Tommy Caldwell — born to climb The Dawn Wall

Vickie's police record began when she was just 2 years old, and followed her throughout her life. But as an adult she pushed back, challenging a federal law for the rights of prisoners.

When Vickie was given a police record as a toddler, it enabled authorities to place her into the custody of a family she didn't know.

She grew up in western Sydney, under the strict religious rule of her adoptive mother, with whom she clashed time and again.

Vickie left school at 13., and in the same year she met her birth mother for the first time and discovered she was Aboriginal.

Decades of trouble followed, including numerous prison terms.

But Vickie has also known periods of stability, like winning back her son after a long-running custody dispute.

In 2007, Vickie was awarded her master's degree while serving her final prison sentence at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Victoria.

She was also the plaintiff in a ground-breaking legal challenge to the High Court, which returned to prisoners serving less than three years' the right to vote.

Vickie now works as an advocate for the rights of women in prison.

Content warning: this episode contains mentions of violence, suicide and drug use.

Further information

First broadcast in May, 2019.

Vickie appears in ABC TV's You Cant Ask That - Domestic Violence (survivors) episode

Vickie was joint winner of the 2017 Tim McCoy Human Rights Award

Adoption resources and support

Find and Connect - support for former residents of children's homes, orphanages and institutions;

Benevolent Society Australia - post-adoption support;

For forced adoption support you can visit the Government support services website or contact the Forced Adoption Support Service in your state or territory on 1800 21 03 13.

For immediate support, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 46 36.

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

This episode of Conversations explores the Stolen Generations, DOCS, child protection, forced adoption, family separation, cultural identity, justice system, Aboriginal incarceration rate, deaths in custody, mental health, origin stories, family dynamics, motherhood, Yuin.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: Vickie Roach's turbulent life in and out of strife

Hollywood actor Alan Alda has devoted his life to science, by taking his acting and communication skills off the screen and into the laboratory.

Alan grew up in a show business family and spent his childhood touring with a burlesque show run by his parents.

He eventually made a name for himself in showbiz, becoming well-known and much-loved for his performances in M.A.S.H. and The West Wing, as well as his roles in many Hollywood films.

Alan is also famous for his love of science.

He wrote Dear Albert for the stage, based on the love letters of Albert Einstein, which reveal Einstein as a beautifully passionate man.

Alan has used his acting for the good of science by teaching communication skills to scientists so they might make their work better known and better understood.

Further information

First broadcast December 2016.

2025 update: Alan has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but he says he’s managing it well. Alan is still working occasionally, most recently in the TV remake of his 1981 film ‘The Four Seasons’.

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

This episode of Conversations explores science, science communication, MASH, television, Hollywood, silver screen, acting, show biz families, family business, Vietnam, origin stories, memoir.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: Alan Alda on bringing science to the stage

Law Professor Ron McCallum was a premature baby in the 1940s. He completed his studies by recording people reading his textbooks aloud onto cassettes. Then an early version of text to speech opened up new possibilities for him.

When Ron was born, prospects for blind people to have careers outside sheltered workshops were few.

In the late 1970s enormous change swept into Ron’s life. He fell in love with fellow lawyer, Mary Crock, and they began a family. 

Ron became the first totally blind professor of any discipline in Australia with a role at the University of Sydney Law School.

He was also chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and 2011 Senior Australian of the Year.

Further information

First broadcast July 2019.

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

The researcher on this episode of Conversations was Michelle Ransom-Hughes. The Executive Producer is Carmel Rooney.

This episode touches on disability, a career in law, uni, life story, epic life story, premature babies, history and autobiography.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: Born blind at the right time

Aged 17, Chris 'Brolga' Barns was meant to be the 'bird guy' at a new zoo in Broome. A cough in his keeper's house alerted him to a kangaroo joey called Josie, who needed four-hourly feeds and help with the toilet. From then on he was hooked.

Brolga knew early on he wanted to make a living working with animals.

After meeting Josie he began to rescue other joeys left alive in their mothers' pouches after the large animals had been hit by cars.

Word spread about his passion for orphaned joeys, and he started an education centre in an old double-decker bus.

In 2013 the BBC made a documentary about Brolga, Kangaroo Dundee, which became a worldwide hit.

Brolga and his wife Tahnee now run a hospital and rescue centre outside Alice Springs.

Further information

Originally broadcast October 2018.

Read more about Brolga's Kangaroo Sanctuary.

2025 update: since Sarah’s original conversation with Brolga, the mighty Roger has passed away, at the age of 12.

A new Australian movie, Kangaroo, based on Brolga’s life and the sanctuary, is due for release in September.

Standout story – Belinda Terry

Hear Belinda Terry, ‘Nocka' Peoples, Cheryl Thompson, Elizabeth 'Thumper' Clark in a special night of storytelling from Muttaburra.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/conversations/muttaburra-stories-conversations-in-the-shearing-shed/7788918

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-03/richard-fidler-reflects-on-20-years-of-conversations/105495784

This episode was produced by Nicola Harrison. The Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

This episode of Conversations touches on kangaroos, wildlife care, Alice Springs, orphaned joeys, kangaroo joeys, epic life stories, origin stories, zoos, roadkill, outback Australia and the outback.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: Brolga the 'kangaroo mum'

Male midwife, Christian Wright tells stories of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities, helping Yolŋu women birth their babies.

Growing up South of Sydney as one of six boys, midwifery wasn't the occupation Christian Wright expected for himself.

At the age of nine he experienced a vision that gave him a sense of his future in a life of service.

In the tiny town of Nhulunbuy, right on the tip of the Northern Territory, Christian worked with Yolŋu women of remote Arnhem Land to help them birth their babies.

Further information

First broadcast March 2021.

2025 update: Several years ago, Christian married his beloved, Caroline in Gove.

On the first day of their honeymoon as they were driving up the track, their troop carrier rolled. 

Christian’s spine was broken, and he was airlifted to Royal Adelaide Hospital, where the doctors feared that he may not walk again.

Christian went back to work within six months of the accident and has since worked in the NT and Papua New Guinea.

He and Caroline now have a baby boy. And yes, Christian did deliver the baby!

Learn more about Christian's research into pregnancy and birth.

Discover the Djakamirr program, training doulas to help Yolŋu women give birth on their own country.

Christian also recommends the book Why Warriors Lie Down and Die by Richard Trudgen as a valuable resource on Indigenous Australia.

Standout story – Nigel Newton

You can hear Richard's full conversation with Nigel Newton on the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/conversations/publisher-nigel-newton-on-harnessing-the-harry-potter-effect/7788834

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-03/richard-fidler-reflects-on-20-years-of-conversations/105495784

This episode of Conversations explores birth, midwifery, Yolŋu country, First Nations birthing, the fourth trimester, active labour and a male midwife.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: The male midwife who birthed babies in Arnhem Land

The veteran Wiradjuri journalist spent his first year living in the wreck of a Model T Ford on a NSW mission. He has reported from China and North Korea, covered Nelson Mandela’s release, the death of Princess Diana, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and reported from outside Osama bin Laden’s house after he was killed.

His father was a hard man and an itinerant sawmiller who taught Stan the lessons he would need to survive and thrive as he grew older.

On the surface, Stan seemed disinterested in his studies, but he memorised everything he learned and gathered his knowledge for the future.

The family moved to Canberra when Stan was a teenager and suddenly the world opened up for him.

Further information

Originally broadcast May 2013.

This episode was produced by Michelle Ransom-Hughes and the Executive Producer is Carmel Rooney.

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-03/richard-fidler-reflects-on-20-years-of-conversations/105495784

This episode of Conversations touches on Indigenous family, Wiradjuri country, tabloid TV, racism, fatherhood, fathers, origin stories, personal stories, epic life stories, family dynamics, First Nations, news reporting and international news and journalism.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: Stan Grant on what his father taught him

Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Adelaide edition.

London Bombing survivor, Gill Hicks was one of the special guests who appeared on stage to share some photos close to her heart, and the stories attached to them.

Further information

To see Gill's photos for yourself, head to the ABC Conversations Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/abcconvos/

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Conversations Live podcast extra: Gill Hicks

Sarah and Richard give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of the Conversations Live Tour, Adelaide edition.

Legendary sports broadcaster, Bruce McAvaney was one of the special guests who appeared on stage to share some photos close to his heart, and the stories attached to them.

Further information

To see Bruce's photos for yourself, head to the ABC Conversations Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/abcconvos/

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Conversations Live podcast extra: Bruce McAvaney

Longtime TV casting agent, Kirsty de Vallance was 16 when Police searched the house and arrested her father on serious drugs charges. Throughout her teen years she had to navigate the complexity of having a parent in prison. 

The family went into freefall and a short time later Kirsty's mother died.

Her two older sisters raised Kirsty and she stayed in touch with her father until his release from prison.

The effects on the family were far-reaching and devastating and as a result, Kirsty volunteers with children who find themselves in a situation like hers — with parents in jail.

For many years Kirsty ran a successful casting agency with her husband and together they found contestants for TV shows including Masterchef and Project Runway.

Further information

First broadcast June 2015.

2025 update: Kirsty continued working in TV casting up until recently, but now she and her husband focus on the wellbeing side of production. 

Their company ‘Strength on Set’ looks after the health and wellbeing of cast and crew on shows like ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ and ‘The Bachelor’.

Kirsty has also returned to studying, and is completing a Diploma in Counselling.

Standout story: Nicholas Hammond

You can hear Richard's full conversation with Nicholas Hammond on the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/conversations/nicholas-hammond-the-sound-of-music-cinderella-julie-andrews/14069188

You can read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-03/richard-fidler-reflects-on-20-years-of-conversations/105495784

The Executive Producer of this episode of Conversations was Pam O'Brien.

This episode of Conversations explores parents in prison, kids with a parent in prison, drugs charges, heroin, early death, mentoring, prison, jail, Ireland, TV casting agent, Farmer Wants a Wife, Masterchef and Project Runway.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

20th Anniversary Collection: Surviving my dad's arrest and learning to thrive

Dave Pearson runs Bite Club, a support service for anyone who has survived a shark attack. Dave’s own brush with death came in 2011, when a three-metre-long bull shark almost tore his arm off. Dave lived that day, but it’s what happened during his recovery that he didn’t see coming.

Dave Pearson was with his mates on the NSW mid-north coast back in 2011, and couldn’t get in the water fast enough to try out his brand new surfboard.

He’d caught a few ripper waves when he was slammed by what felt like a freight train.

Under the water, through the bubbles and the shock, Dave saw something huge, brown and grey.

Dave survived that day, but it’s what happened during his recovery that he didn’t see coming.

He founded Bite Club to support survivors through the mental heath challenges following their shark attacks.

This episode of Conversations touches on an epic personal story, grief, shark attacks, PTSD, surfing, and mental health.

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.

Further information

Bite Club is a closed Facebook group available to those who have survived an attack by an apex predator.

Bite Club: Surviving a shark attack, and the aftermath

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