Society & Culture – Australia – Popular podcasts

  • What makes you a heretic? Journalist Andrew Gold believes that, in an age of group-think and tribes, we need heretics - those who use unconventional wisdom to speak out against their own groups, from cancelled comedians and radical feminists to cult defectors and vigilantes hunting deviants.

    Learn from my guests how to rebel, think differently and resist social contagion. From Triggernometry's Francis Foster and the world's most cancelled man Graham Linehan to ex-Hasidic Jew Julia Haart and gender critical atheist Richard Dawkins. These are the people living with the weight of their own community's disappointment on their shoulders.

  • On a scratchy recording made in a Melbourne hotel room above a casino, a man admits to committing murder. But as journalist Alicia Bridges investigates the man on the tape known as Mr Big, she finds herself in a world of lies and subterfuge, where very few things are as they seem. The recording leads her deep inside an international controversy, to a world of secrets that powerful institutions don't want revealed.

    Previous seasons of Unravel have covered everything from love scams to Neo-Nazi gangs.

    'Snowball' (Season 4) won Best True Crime at the Australian Podcast Awards in 2020, was one of Apple Podcasts' Best Listens of 2019, made the American Bello Collective's top 100 list that year.

    'Blood on the Tracks' (Season 1) won a Walkley Award for Coverage of Indigenous Affairs.

    In Season 5, Firebomb, Crispian Chan investigates what really happened after his family's restaurant went up in flames in 1988. He was just a kid when Chinese restaurants were being firebombed in the dead of night and a campaign of terror was underway in Perth. Thirty-five years on, most of us have never heard about it, even though it's one of the few sustained and coordinated terrorism campaigns in Australia's history. Crispian teamed up with ABC reporter Alex Mann, and together they traversed the country to find answers and explore the darker forces that still lurk in our suburbs today.

    In Season 4, Snowball, Ollie Wards investigates how his brother's whirlwind romance with a charismatic Californian woman ultimately cost his family more than a million dollars. When Greg Wards met Lezlie Manukian, a beautiful woman whose world is full of glamour, he is immediately drawn to her. They fall in love, get married and start planning the rest of their lives together — the only catch is Lezlie is a con artist. To find out who his brother's wife really is, Ollie must track down Lezlie herself, and it soon becomes clear that his family's story is just one piece of a bigger jigsaw.

    In Season 3, Last Seen Katoomba, reporter Gina McKeon digs deep into the suspicious unsolved disappearance of young mum, Belinda Peisley, who was last seen in the Blue Mountains town of Katoomba, west of Sydney, in September 1998. Belinda's life descends into chaos after her 18th birthday when she receives a large inheritance and buys her own place in town.The house becomes a magnet for a world of drugs and a crowd of hangers-on who visit day and night. Gina pieces together the stories and evidence around the six main persons of interest named in the inquest into Belinda's disappearance and suspected death, and what emerges is a picture of a town and a case shrouded in secrecy.

    In Season 2, Barrenjoey Road, reporter Ruby Jones tries to solve the mystery of what happened to 18-year-old Trudie Adams after she disappears while hitchhiking home on Sydney's northern beaches in 1978. Ruby exposes the dark underbelly of the seemingly beautiful and serene "Insular Peninsula," uncovering a world where surfers run drugs home from Bali, gangs of men prowl the beaches and predators have unchecked power. Ruby will question why the case was never solved and her investigation will lead her to a criminal monster with links to organised crime and police corruption at the highest level.

    In Season 1, Blood On The Tracks, award-winning Muruwari and Gomeroi journalist Allan Clarke spends five years investigating the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of 17-year-old Gomeroi teenager, Mark Haines. An Aboriginal community on one side, a largely white population on the other. Some will say it was a suicide and others a murder. Despite the strange evidence found at the scene of his death, the family feel like police are ignoring them. The story ends with a revelation no one was expecting, and the thirty-year-old mystery finally begins to unravel.

  • 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.

    Whether it's an exploration of Australian and American politics, the intricacies of mental health, or the mysteries of ancestry and origin stories, our episodes offer a conversational approach that brings topics to life.

    We uncover epic tales of war and peace, the complex dynamics of relationships and family, and the profound impact of grief and loss.

    Follow Conversations for thought-provoking discussions, heartfelt stories, and a deeper understanding of the world around us.

    Conversations explores the meaning of life, history, relationships, motherhood and fatherhood, love, religion and the origins of human life through a contemporary and conversational Australian lens.

    From distinctive accounts of crime, mental health, ancestry, cults, grief, family and parenting, to discussions about science, books, art, music, war, spies and economics, Conversations traverses myriad topics.

    Our interviews focus on pioneers of the natural world, wildlife, oceans, fungi, archaeology, palaeontology and megafauna.

    Our guests speak about geopolitics, being a refugee and the experience of migration. They come from all walks of life — First Nations, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander peoples, CALD communities and ancestors of Australia's first fleeters. We explore Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu faith traditions, among other beliefs, including atheism.

    We look at social history as well — close encounters with the ancient world, the Stolen Generations, and adventurers on an explorative odyssey.

    In a Conversations interview, you will hear personal stories of secrets, lies, adoption, and living with disability, neurodiversity or chronic illness.

    We traverse a person's life story, full of human interest topics, including redemption, love at first sight, spirituality, poverty, having children, family dynamics and even hidden families.

    We hear from individuals who have struggled with drug addiction, jail, family violence, political imprisonment, persecution, abuse, depression, anxiety and mental health issues.

    Conversations also speak to the public figures of Australian and international society — leaders, artists, politicians, authors, sports stars, actors and musicians.

    A writer, a builder, a neurologist, a Paralympian, an Olympian, an amputee, a historian, a comedian, a funeral director, a bird photographer, an ethicist, a doctor, a spy, a pilot, a choreographer, a firefighter, a bookseller, an astrophysicist, a martial artist, a principal, an oud virtuoso, an ecologist, a carer, a demographer, a chess master, a forensic archaeologist, a biologist, a chef, a surfer, a button shop owner, a costume and set designer, a boxer, a drummer, a conductor, a dog behaviourist, an AFL player, a longevity expert, a barber, a Matilda, and a psychologist have all appeared on our program.

    Stories make us who we are. Join Conversations for an hour of diverting listening, to transport, touch and uplift you. Our guided storytelling will teach you something new, introduce you to someone extraordinary and take you away to a different place or time in history.

    After almost 20 years of digging into the lives, stories and worlds of thousands of people, Conversations continues as the ABC's most popular podcast, providing Australians with a social history of our country and paying close attention to the small, personal details that make up a life.

  • Think nothing ever happens in your town? Australia's suburbs are home to some of the most mysterious and disturbing true crime cases in the world. Meshel Laurie is a true crime obsessive, and with the help of expert interviews with writers, victims, investigators and perpetrators, she probes the underbelly of our towns and suburbs, and uncovers the darkness at the heart of Australian life.


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  • True Crime Conversations explores the stories and the people behind some of the worldโ€™s most notorious crimes.

  • Join Louis Theroux as he embarks on a series of in-depth and freewheeling conversations with a curated collection of fascinating figures from across the globe. The Louis Theroux Podcast is a Spotify podcast from Mindhouse, now available everywhere.

  • Each season, Secrets We Keep investigates a different Australian secret.

    Shame Lies & Family: A mystery photo of Amelia Oberhardtโ€™s mum exposes the practice of shotgun marriages, forced adoption, and quiet abortions carried out in Australia until the 1980s

    Nest of Traitors: Joey Watson is pulled into the world of espionage, attempting to track down an Australian spy who turned to work for the enemy during the Cold War

    Baghdad Nights: Richard Baker takes you inside Australia's biggest corruption scandal, finding out how Australia funded a dictator in the lead up to the Iraq War.

    Pray Harder: Investigative journalist Richard Baker uncovers the unbelievable and compelling true story of Australiaโ€™s oldest and most hard line Pentecostal Church, the Geelong Revival Centre.

  • The podcast Who's Gonna Save Us has changed its name to The Weather That Changed Us

    Australia experiences all kinds of extreme weather. Cyclones, fires, floods and heat — we see it all. But in the midst of these disasters, it seems we're pretty good at rallying together and making necessary changes. So how have we taken what we've learned in the past to shape the Australia of today and our future? And what are the challenges that climate change will bring? In a year of ever-hotter global temperature records, warnings about ice melting in Antarctica and the northern hemisphere, rapidly developing hurricanes, torrential rain and flooding, it can be hard to understand the ways our weather is changing and intensifying. Everyone is grappling with what it's like to live in a warming world and the consequences we will have to face and survive.

    In this season we revisit 2009 when a blanket of heat smothered south-eastern Australia, killing hundreds and melting cities. It's the story of how that became a wake-up call for Australia, that we need to change how we manage extreme heat.

    Fifty years later we learn how Cyclone Tracy decimated the northern city of Darwin on Christmas Day in 1974. But its devastation also led to transformation. Building codes were overhauled changing how we build houses across Australia today.

    In 1999 a hailstorm like no other came out of nowhere and rained down across Sydney, Australia's most populous city. The hail shattered roofs, windows and cars and all previous

    insurance bills from natural disasters. It also became a transformative moment for the state's emergency services.

    In 2003 on a baking hot Canberra day, a phenomenon never before caught on camera was captured unleashing its full power. The first pyro-tornadogenesis, or fire tornado, ever recorded screamed across the Canberra hills and into the suburbs. It also supercharged fire research in Australia and changed our warning systems.

    For some children, the breaking of the millennium drought was the first time they'd seen rain and puddles. But the decade-long dry spell that covered eastern Australia delivered more than cracked earth — it changed how we thought about and valued water. It also heralded 'star ratings' so we could buy appliances that saved water.

    For those who lived through them, our past disasters have left deep and lasting change. But they've also left a legacy for us all, from the houses we build to the jobs we do, our politics and the way we live in our world. Join 'The Weather That Changed Us' to learn more about the disasters that shocked, united and rallied Australians and how they can prepare us for the next ones Australia will face.

  • Season three of Expanse dives into the murky world of spies, lies and secrets that surrounds the most secretive place in Australia.

  • A fast-paced fun-filled ethics podcast for kids and their parents that asks those curly questions. From banning lollies to trusting robots, and from colonising other planets to eating pets, Short & Curly covers it all.

  • Something Was Wrong is an award-winning docuseries about survivors discovery, trauma, and recovery from crime and abuse.

  • Helping you figure out all the big stuff in life: relationships, health, money, work and the world. Let's talk! With trusted experts and your stories, Life Matters is all about what matters to you.

  • Created by Michael Adams, author of The Murder Squad and Hanging Ned Kelly, Forgotten Australia delves deep into bloody crimes, dark histories, unsolved mysteries, eccentric personalities and bizarre happenings that are almost always stranger than fiction. Each episode brings to life people and events that were once known to everyone but are now barely remembered by anyone. Based on intensive original research, Forgotten Australia is crafted with a novelistโ€™s eye for character and detail to create gripping narratives that sound so fresh it's like they're ripped from today's headlines. This is the history you wish youโ€™d been taught in school.


    You can get early ad-free access and bonus Forgotten Australia episodes by subscribing at Apple or supporting at Patreon.


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  • A podcast exploring Social Work practice through stories & critical reflection.

  • What makes us conscious beings and why does it matter that we are? In his first ever podcast, Deepak Chopra welcomes a far-ranging group of guests, including Jane Goodall, Russell Brand, Dan Savage, Christopher Wylie, Jean Houston, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and many more, who have paved new paths for understanding our present and future. How do we define, harness, and elevate our minds? How can we live creatively and purposefully? What makes you…you? Join Deepak as he delves into this moment of great transformation to answer these questions…and explore our infinite potential.

  • When Brian Dowling lost his mum Rosie two years ago, it changed his outlook on life.

    Grief is a complicated journey, and one that Brian now endeavours to explore with the help of his friends and family. Join Brian and his nearest and dearest as they grow to understand death through open conversation, humour and honesty.

  • Weโ€™ve all had wardrobe malfunctions โ€“ moments when our clothes badly let us down. Susannah Constantine has had many. Like the time her dress straps snapped during a Windsor Castle supper, releasing her breasts into the soup. Clothes and how they define us have fascinated Susannah for years โ€“ and were famously explored in her seminal 'What Not To Wear' TV series and bestselling books. Now, she returns to her first and true love in 'My Wardrobe Malfunction', a revealing podcast about our relationship with the items we wear. The ups, downs and a lot more besidesโ€ฆ This series began in January 2020 and continued over Zoom throughout lockdown, so please forgive any sound malfunctions. Promise we get our acts together eventually!

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  • The Gays Are Revolting is a dissection of social and cultural issues relevant to gay men. We put the G in LGBTQIA+, and weโ€™re here to help you be the best G you can be.

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  • A much-loved mother, teacher and friend steps on a plane for an overseas adventure and is never seen again. Marion Barter, the former wife of Australian soccer great Johnny Warren, went missing in 1997. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are bizarre. Her daughter has never given up hope of finding her. This is her quest.

  • Cold is a narrative podcast series focused on missing persons cases. Investigative journalist and host Dave Cawley takes on a single story with each season.

     

    Season 1: Susan Powell Case Files, the Cold journey begins with Dave’s investigation into the unsolved disappearance of Susan Powell… and the man with the most to gain from her death.

     

    Season 2: Justice for Joyce Yost delves into the details of a murder-for-hire plot and attempts to find justice for Joyce – a woman who bravely reported her kidnapping and rape only to vanish without a trace.

     

    Season 3: The Search for Sheree follows two suspects in the 1985 disappearance of Sheree Warren while examining the dangerous escalation of domestic abuse and sexual violence. The Cold team seeks to answer the question: what really happened to Sheree Warren?

  • When April Balascio was 40 years old, something she’d feared for decades was finally proven true. Her father, Edward Wayne Edwards, really was a murderer. The Clearing is about what came after April called a detective in 2009 to tell him about her suspicions — a call that led to her father’s arrest and eventual conviction on multiple murders — and tracks the emotional journey as she and host Josh Dean dig back into her childhood, unravel the truth of her father’s life, and overturn a viral online narrative that had turned Edward Wayne Edwards into a kind of serial killer caricature. Produced by Pineapple Street Studios in association with Gimlet.