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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.

Conversations

For the last decade or so we’ve looked on as the United States has radically changed itself, but the UK has been changing too as it continues to struggle with economic stagnation and the fallout from Brexit.

The British people, famous for their aversion to radical and emotional politics, have embarked on a course which was supposed to take them back to the comforting certainties of the past, but has instead, brought them into an uncertain new world.

It began with the huge shock of Brexit, then the constant turnover of Prime Ministers including Liz Truss whose term in office was famous outlived by a head of lettuce.

In 2025 British Labor won government in a massive landslide, which saw many hope things might settle down, but now Kier Starmer is hanging on by his fingernails.

And for those looking to the monarchy for a sense of continuity and national unity, that’s not going well either.

So what on earth has happened to the land of toast and tea? 

Ian Dunt is a British political journalist and author of How Westminster Works and Why is Doesn't 

Ian is also a regular contributor to Late Night Live on Radio National.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake, the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores British politics, Brexit, the financial crash, austerity, David Cameron, The Conservative Party, referendum, European Union, New Labor, populism, government services, the UK-US alliance, Christianity, Marxism, puberty, disillusioned, dogma, ideology, psychedelic, journalism, political discourse, British public school system, elites, power, Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, immigration.

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.

The decline of modern Britain — where did it all go so wrong?

In the 1990s, Glenn Jarvis was living in London working for a very powerful American corporation called Enron. He was under a huge amount of stress at work, when his mental health began to spiral downwards.

In the late 1990s Australian Glenn Jarvis won a job in London with Enron, a giant American energy and investment corporation. Life was exhilarating and he made lots of friends.

But after a time Glenn began to notice some very odd transactions at Enron.

Giant amounts of money were flooding in to the company that simply couldn't be accounted for.

Glenn took it up with with his bosses, but they didn't want to know.

In part because of the questions he was asking, Glenn's reputation at work began to change, and his mental health began to deteriorate.

He had a psychotic episode, and spent the next 2 years in and out of mental health units in Australia and the UK.

Eventually he found himself back in town of Queanbeyan where he grew up, with no job, no money, and few friends who understood what he'd been through.

His family stuck by him, but things were difficult, and he ended up in supported accommodation.

Across the road from where he was living was a local Bowling Club. He would go there and buy a single beer most nights, and eventually befriended some of the regulars.

With the help of these elderly friends, and meaningful work, Glenn began a slow and painstaking climb back into an entirely different kind of life.

Encore: climbing back into life after a schizophrenia diagnosis

The former Kings Cross street kid on his time in prison, recovering from an alcohol-induced brain injury, the puppy called Sunny who showed him what love is and how buying car parking spaces set him up for the rest of his life.

Warning: This episode contains sensitive topics and reference to physical violence against women.

John Howard came from a dysfunctional and often violent home in the outer suburbs of Sydney, and when he was able to, he ran away to the dank but promising Kings Cross of the 1960s and 70s.

He would see Abe Saffron having dinner at the local Bourbon & Beefsteak joint and John found himself doing odd jobs for his sex worker friends in exchange for somewhere to sleep.

John was caught up in a horrific assault and in the following years he found himself in jail and then drawn to drinking.

At his lowest point he was rescued by chance by a passing taxi, and taken to hospital to recover from an alcohol-induced brain injury.

As he was recovering, it was a toy poodle puppy called Sunny who showed John what love and affection were — and from there he was able to build his life for the first time.

Further information

You can call the National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence counselling service on 1800-RESPECT or 1800-737-732. 

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. 

It covers topics like homelessness, alcoholism, prison escape, solitary confinement, toy poodles, lesbian separatism, disability support pension, brain injury, Callan Park hospital, Rozelle Hospital, getting sober, quitting alcohol, Kings Cross, street kid, sex workers, drug use, drug addiction, prostitute, Bourbon & Beefsteak, Abe Saffron, The Coconut Grove, doggy poo bags, pooper scoopers, Potts Point.

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.

John Howard's toy poodle epiphany

Kate McClymont is chief investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, she has won 10 Walkley Awards for her work on some of the biggest crime and corruption cases in NSW.

She grew up on a farm in NSW, and during university, funded her start in Sydney by setting up a busking booth in Kings Cross.

Passers-by would pay her to answer a question, have an argument, or verbally abuse them. 

Kate's start in crime reporting came from an early job writing for a gossip column. 

She was instructed to cover a wedding of a family member of known criminal figure, George Freeman.

Kate compared the sequins in the bridal party's outfit to a bullet-proof vest, and received the first of many death threats throughout her career. 

She has exposed the crimes of politician, Eddie Obeid, former Health Services Union boss, Michael Williamson and financial fraudster, Melissa Caddick, among many more.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan and the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.

It explores crime, investigative journalism, newspapers, police, corruption, politicians, Eddie Obeid, Melissa Caddick, fraud, murder, defamation, court cases, police, lawyers, timelines, research, contacts, financial fraud, death threats, award winning journalism, the Sydney Morning Herald, Four Corners, Chris Masters, Sydney, NSW

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.

Encore: The fearless Kate McClymont — weathering death threats and court cases for work

For years, Brendan Cullen was known around Broken Hill as the happy man who ran thousands of ewes across tens of thousands of hectares with a smile. What they didn't see was the guy crying in a room by himself, drinking himself stupid, thinking he wasn’t providing enough for his family.

Brendan calls himself a ‘glorified shepherd’.

He manages a sheep station outside Broken Hill, a part of the country he loves and knows like the back of his hand.

But Brendan also has another moniker: ‘the desert swimmer’.

A few years ago, he was floored by a cruel bout of depression, the core of which he later understood came from an experience of childhood sexual abuse that he never spoke about.

While recovering, Brendan decided to try to swim the English Channel.

As his swim coach Mike ‘the Tractor’ told him: swimming the channel is straightforward – you get in the water at Dover and keep swimming until you hit something, and that something is France.

The swim is just one of the tools in his 'toolkit' that he uses to stay mentally well and present with his family, and his flock.

Desert Swimmer is written with Paul Mitchell and published by Allen & Unwin.

Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse.

Help and support is always available. You can call or text Lifeline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores rural, remote Australia, men's mental health, mental wellbeing, mental fitness, exercise for mental health, farming, boarding school, childhood sexual abuse, children who abuse other children, fatherhood, access to education, how to ask for help, mental illness, long distance swimming, ocean swimming, farming, sheep, livestock, Menindee, farming families, succession plans, generational farming, family business.

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.

Drought, depression and asking for help—how an Outback farmer found peace in the ocean

Filmmaker Lynette Wallworth on how nearly dying as a little girl set her on a lifelong path to interrogate out-of-body experiences, spirituality and what really happens to us when we die.

When Lynette was a little girl, she had a near death experience on her grandparents' property.

Her father brought her back from the brink and what she saw and experienced there, on the edge of death, came back with her.

For years, Lynette struggled to talk about what happened so she made paintings and artworks trying to make sense of this experience.

But when she started visiting remote Indigenous communities here in Australia and abroad, in the Amazon, that she finally found some sort of language for describing the scientifically unprovable. 

There, in cultures where out of body experiences are accepted as either spiritual or possible through the use of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and ayahuasca, Lynette stopped feeling weird.

Her latest film investigates how doctors in Melbourne are turning to psychedelic drugs to help ease their terminally ill patients towards death, and in the process learn that "we weren't put on earth to run around in fear".

Edge of Life will be available to stream on Binge from 28 March.

Currently, you can watch it via Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fetch and YouTubel; or organise your own cinema screening via Fan Force.

You can find more information about Lynette and her films at her website.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores death, dying, grief, medical trials, shamans, hallucinogens, science, psychology, psychiatry, acceptance, palliative care, caring for the dying, nursing, art, filmmaking, philosophy, shrooms, magic mushrooms, the immortality key, religion, spiritualty, quacks, health and wellness industry, tripping, epiphanies, film.

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.

Where do we go when we die? Looking for answers in psychedelics

The chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on the chair of spikes which accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't tone down his Italian self for work (R)

During his Suzuki lessons in Turin, Italy, a young Umberto Clerici was sitting up straight on a chair full of spikes, lest his posture slip.

Umberto chose the cello as his instrument, mainly because it wasn’t the violin, which sounded like a cat in a washing machine when played by the older students in his neighbourhood.

Throughout his career playing in orchestras around the world, Umberto has gone to great lengths to let the music filter through him, to embody the meaning behind the notes, to learn what the composer thought or felt.

Today Umberto Clerici is the chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

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.

Encore: The spiked chair which began conductor Umberto Clerici's life in music

The act of care and service through food has been incredibly important to Besha Rodell throughout her life, from her first, euphoric experience of a fancy restaurant at age eight, to the aftermath of September 11.

Today Besha is the chief restaurant critic at The Age.

The thrill of a fancy restaurant first imprinted itself on her psyche when she was a girl, treated to dinner at Stephanie's iconic spot in Melbourne.

As a teenager, Besha was transplanted to her mother's native USA and got her first job in hospitality — and found her people — in North Carolina.

A stint in New York followed, where Besha witnessed September 11 in real time.

Eventually Besha started a family with her boyfriend, Ryan, in North Carolina and the family found they were living under the poverty line. 

They got by thanks to a government food voucher program.

Shortly after, Besha's blog posts, written for fun, gained traction and she was given her first assignment in food writing.

Further information

Hunger Like A Thirst is published by HardieGrant.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode covers food, restaurants, restaurant critic, Stephanie's, Stephanie Alexander, Narnia, Melbourne, North Carolina, 9/11, September 11, migrant, not fitting in, government cheese, hospo, acts of service, behind the pass, line cook, pastry chef, methadone, coming off methadone, heroin, addiction, loving an addict, New York Times, food reviewing.

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.

How I went from being a new mum on food stamps to an anonymous restaurant critic, worldwide

Naomi Mourra grew up as a door-knocking Jehovah's Witness but at 21, she realised Doomsday was not upon her, and left the religion for good.

As a child, Naomi thought she was going to live forever.

She was told the end of the world was coming, but she would survive the apocalypse and live in paradise for eternity, because she was special.

She spent her youth in Western Sydney, preaching these same beliefs to neighbours, strangers, and classmates because Naomi was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness.

Now, though, she describes herself as the city's only Lebanese, lesbian, ex-Jehovah’s Witness.

Naomi says she “woke up”, and it wasn’t until she realised Armageddon was not actually coming, that she truly started to live.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores religion, Jehovah's Witnesses, dogma, family, Western Sydney, Armageddon, faith, leaving a religion, culture, sexuality, stand up comedy, lesbian, Lebanese culture, apocalypse, school, education, strangers, freedom, neighbours, strangers

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.

From child preacher to wicked defector — leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses

Tony Tan’s parents pinned their hopes on him when they sent him from home in Malaysia to Melbourne to become a white collar professional in the 1970s. There he found “funny smelling cigarettes”, a lovely man called Terry and a destiny he couldn’t escape.

Tony was exposed to deep, rich flavour and the precision of cooking from a young age.

His mother was a chef in Malaysian colonial kitchens and Tony would often accompany her to work, where he would sometimes receive a single golden, dripping roasted potato, or pinch the meat from a leftover kitchen carcass.

He was a precocious child — known as Little Chilli — always wanting to know how certain cooking techniques worked. 

His parents didn’t want him to follow them into the world of food, so they sent him to study at university in Melbourne, with hopes that he would ascend to the world of white collar work on behalf of the family.

He had his first introduction to Lygon Street in the 1970s, and university couldn’t keep him away from the world of food.

Further information

Tony Tan's most recent cook book, Tony Tan's Asian Cooking Class is published by Murdoch Books.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode covers food tours, Kuantan, SBS, Shakahari, Stephanie Alexander, char siu, Tatler's, cooking school, Asian cooking class, roast chicken with soy sauce, recipes, sexual awakening, gay marriage, Trentham, regional Victoria.

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.

A boy called Little Chilli — how flavour and migration led to unexpected love

Judy grew up on a farm in north-east Victoria.

When she was seventeen, a family tragedy saw her thrust into life as a farmer for the first time.

Being a young farmer led her into local politics, and eventually into a burgeoning friendship with a lanky, much-loved local politician named Tim Fischer.

On their first date, Tim took Judy to the Tocumwal Debutant Ball, and it was a disaster.

But despite the age difference, the two of them eventually fell in love and started a family.

When their first son, Harrison, was diagnosed with autism Judy became an advocate for people on the autism spectrum.

The family is still grieving Tim, whom they lost to leukaemia in 2019.

But Judy is now working to make her beloved family farm, ‘Grossotto’, a sanctuary for vulnerable adults.

Learn more about Care Farms.

Listen to Tim Fischer in conversation with Richard Fidler.

Watch the 2018 Australian Story about the Fischer Family.

This episode was produced by Nicola Harrison, Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores love, marriage, relationships, Auspol, local politics, country Australia, regional Australia, rural communities, motherhood, age gap relationships, grief, death, grieving a spouse, neurodivergence, autism spectrum disorder, raising children with autism.

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.

Encore: Judy Brewer on country love, deb balls and understanding autism

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