It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever.  

The unlikely story of two half-sisters who connected late in life, a birth mother turned adoptive mother, and what can happen when biological relatives turn up out of the blue.

When her Parkinson's Disease medication stopped working musician and writer Linda Neil was in a very dark place. But a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation has allowed her to return to playing the violin, singing, songwriting, living an independent life and riding her pink bicycle.

Earshot presents documentaries about people, places and ideas, in all their diversity.

Tales of following your fantasy to find your true self. Performing as a drag king on-stage has helped Rae be her authentic non-binary self off-stage and by night Kusaki becomes something else…something animal, when he slips into a fur suit.

Martin lives out of a shopping trolley and sleeps rough on the cold streets of Canberra. But his passion for running, gift for words and an unlikely friend help him to get by.

Andrew was building a life and career in Singapore when his world was turned upside down by a routine visit to the doctor.

Come on a wild ride through the compelling life of Taku Mbudzi, who defied the constraints of a strict Zimbabwean church, embarked on a solo journey to Australia at 19, and held onto a life-altering secret that shattered her father's heart. Discover how she harnessed the healing power of comedy, to develop resilience, understanding and forgiveness.

It used to be said that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus but Max has been to both planets. As a trans-man he has some fascinating observations about the world of men, having stood on the other side of the gender divide.

Jim Everett is a man of many selves  – philosopher, fisherman, scholar, activist, poet, soldier, filmmaker, sauce maker. And at sixteen he discovered a hidden part of himself.

What does your voice say about you? Not your choice of words, but all the extra information the voice carries, like our emotions, accents, even apparently our identity. Details that big tech and governments are more and more interested in each day.

Paulina always knew she had half- siblings around the world. They all shared the same Tongan father. Finding them was the best thing she ever did.

Secrets are everywhere, we hide all sorts of truths about ourselves. Taku Mbudzi brings you stories of double identities, recently discovered inner-selves and journeys of transformation.

All those statistics you hear about the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people? In Balgo it’s a gaping chasm. Especially for Aboriginal people with a disability.

The remote Aboriginal community of Balgo is famous for footy, art and fighting. But it’s a community in crisis, where “the gap” reveals its deepest scars. Dulcie and George are fighting to save it.

For as long as she can remember, Zoe’s dad Greg was addicted to alcohol. By the time she was 26, his drinking had taken its final toll. And this led to a reckoning.  “What are my memories of dad? Am I actually remembering something real, or just creating a memory from an old photo? Was that really me? Or one of my sisters who wore that dress and sat on his knee?” Ghost in the Machine documents Zoe’s search for answers: who was the man she called Dad before he lost his battle with the bottle? And what does she carry of him, good and bad?  If this story raised any concerns for you, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 and the 24/7 National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015.

Sunil's mother loved telling him stories of his colourful uncle, India's best-known sceptic, who devoted his life to disproving fraudulent gurus' "miracles" by eating fire, bending forks and floating mid-air. But at the heart of the Sceptic's magic was a disappearing act.

Julie found herself collecting the ashes of her dead friend Laurie, even though they hadn’t spoken for ten years and she had no idea he was dying. In this intriguing trip into the realm of death and memory Julie finds out what happened to Laurie and works out a unique way to honour him and his ashes.

A comment at a funeral pushes Toby Hemmings to discover what his grandfather, Bill Hoddinott, recorded on reel-to-reel tapes back in the 1960s. What he finds are fragments of Aboriginal languages from long ago – can you revive a language from such little material?

Earshot presents documentaries about people, places and ideas, in all their diversity.

What is ordinary life like for Russians as their lives are shaped by a *** they had no say in?

In the early noughties the Australian band Rocket Science was being touted as the ‘next big thing’. But that all changed when the band's lead singer Roman Tucker had a serious accident, and lost his memory. This is Roman's music-fuelled journey to try and remember himself.

Memory can be a trickster, a balm, or sharp claws scratching at your heart. In this next season of Earshot we're telling tales of remembering and forgetting.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban Samira and Fahim were in grave danger, they went into hiding and could see no way out of Afghanistan.  Then a text from a stranger in Australia asking for their help changed everything.  Vanessa sent them on a dangerous mission and in exchange she guided them across a perilous border to safety.

Meet The Incurable Romantics, older fans of The Cure - one of the most influential post-punk bands of the 1980s. These women talk about the music, being on tour with the band and their fan artwork.

When Claire Ashman followed her husband into a gated community on the NSW South Coast, she never imagined she would spend the next decade hoarding food and covering her windows to prepare for the apocalypse.

Erin follows her partner and Deathmatch wrestler Callen Butcher to ringside. While he battles his opponents in choreographed displays of gory competition, she is fighting to feel alive, as a disabled person living with chronic illness. Can they find harmony in their minds and bodies, together?

The only thing that would quell Clare’s anxiety about her disintegrating marriage was a drink. It started with just one or two a night, it took the edge off. And so she kept following that feeling, the numbness, until she was drinking herself into oblivion.

Sarah and Miles took a strict approach to internet use with their 13 year old daughter Ruby. And when Miles suspected she was being groomed on Pinterest, they cracked down harder. But Ruby pushed back – she hacked the controls, secretly spent nights and class time on socials. Their relationship with Ruby took a hit and she shut down. When Sarah realised she was losing her daughter she decided to find a new way to keep Ruby safe, sane and connected.

It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change Warren and Geert's futures forever.   When he was sitting around a campfire on a remote island in Far North Queensland, Warren Macdonald made a life-changing decision. He’d sparked up a conversation with a Dutch hiker named Geert van Keulen, and he decided to follow Geert up a mountain the following morning. It was supposed to be a hiking adventure, but it ended in an unforeseeable accident that would change both their futures forever.  

Introducing our next season, Follow Me. Seven confessional stories of following.

An exploration into language, accents, love and life, featuring the Eurythmics.

William Cuffay, transported from London in 1848 for allegedly planning an uprising, became the unlikely face of Australia's trade unionists.

Eight years ago, residents of the Sydney beach-side suburb of Coogee were spellbound by a vision of the Virgin Mary that appeared in a shadow cast by the sun upon a fence post. But what was it really?

Meet the Greenocks. They fostered their first child seven years ago oblivious to the joy, the grief, the chaos, the worry and the love it would bring to their home.

Margaret Clement was a wealthy Victorian heiress whose life fell into ruin. She finished her days living alone in a swamp in Gippsland in her decaying mansion Tullaree surrounded by waist-deep water. Margaret Clement became known to locals as "the lady of the swamp", then in 1952 she disappeared without trace

A young man is trapped in a dead end job in a meat factory and the monotony of process line slaughter is unbearable. Music keeps him going, specifically those songs that get stuck in your head, which he calls ear worms. This program was originally broadcast on RTE in Ireland.

If a friend sent you a farewell text, saying she was planning to end her life, what would you do? Jennie’s response was to go and sing with Nia and promise to tell her story. Nia has scleroderma, her skin and lungs have hardened over the last 20 years, the pain and discomfort has now become unbearable. But thanks to the Voluntary Assisted Dying laws that Nia helped establish she will have the death she hopes for.  

Charlotte was a deeply religious teenager -  she prayed, served, and saved herself for marriage. Marriage, she was promised, would bring fireworks, fulfilment. After 5 years of dating, Charlotte married Casey. But as she got older, Charlotte began to question those promises made to her about marriage and happy-ever-after.

Full of hope, botox and impossible dreams, beauty queens are judged on their beauty, sincerity and smarts. They promise world peace in exchange for fame, fortune and adoration. That’s the pact contestants make with the faceless owners of glittering pageants.

Oscar Berry is 24 and has a rare genetic disorder, speech disability, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. He might have a “dodgy chromosome” as his mum Kim says, but he’s gregarious, lives for the gym and his weekend activities, and is dying to move in with his mates. But when Oscar got his new NDIS plan in April, those dreams blew apart. 

Imagine facing death with no next of kin and no funds to pay for your funeral.  In Victoria you’ll end up in the care of Alan Barr at the Old Ballan Cemetery. He’s made a promise to people like this, who often become State Trustees, to provide a dignified end to their lives. When Miyuki Jokiranta finally finds her friend, Monika, a State Trustee who died during the pandemic, she meets Alan, the keeper of the forgotten souls  

Promise me you won’t walk out of our restaurant, quit on our kids, run from our poverty, ignore our autism, ADHD or alopecia, or be defeated by our pandemic-induced loss of home and income. If author Naomi Hart had known the marriage vows that had tripped off her tongue so easily 14 years ago would come to mean all this, would she ever have said them in the first place? You will laugh, cringe and cry as Naomi and her husband Gregory share the story of their marriage. 

Susan Lester inadvertently entered a world of political and corporate corruption when she was made the promise of a lifetime by one of Tasmania’s most powerful businessmen. When she signed a contract with Edmund Rouse to paint 200 watercolours of birds she had no idea it would be a decision that would overwhelm her and her artistic career.

Jess made a promise to a woman she would never meet, the mother of her daughter Noelle. Baby Noelle was found in the arms of her dead birth mother on the streets of Kinshasa in The Congo, she lived in an orphanage until she was four. Now, she’s 16 and living in Melbourne with Jess and her sisters, but she’s never known another Congolese person. Will a trip to Shepparton to meet the Congolese community take away that emptiness that she feels inside? Will it fulfil the promise that Jess made all those years ago? 

Earshot is back doing what we do best – telling intimate, personal stories…and we're going seasonal. Our first season is called Promise Me. How easy is it to make a promise? What happens when you don't deliver? In Earshot's new eight-part series, promises are made, broken, kept and stretched. From a vow to love, honour and obey to a pledge to save the world, from the intimate to the highly public, from funny to devastating. Join us for a rollercoaster of trust, hope, betrayal, love and loss. Promise me? Podcast drop: Wednesday 5 October 2022

Take a stroll up Elizabeth Street from the colonial era docks, past the Empire Hotel with its notorious bullet holes to beyond “the flannelette curtain”.  Local artist Kate Kelly is our guide to the hidden histories of Hobart and tales of the original Palawa custodians, gentrification and the art that ate Hobart.

Our guide to Yirrkala is Siena Stubbs who grew up between the two worlds of her mother’s Yolngu culture and her father’s Balander or white world.  Siena explains how every person, creature or place belongs to one of two balancing moieties - Yirritja or Dhuwa.  She also explores the town’s history of missionaries and Yolngu resistance, along with her own connection to family and country.

Aunty Doreen has a soft satirical spot for her home town of Nambour. Join her on a tour back in time when sugar cane ash used to rain down on the town, Miss Sugartown reigned supreme and Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan were in short pants at Nambour High, dreaming of going to Canberra.

Out on the arid edge of Adelaide, ghosts of Holden cars and electric guitars haunt streets with names like Bogan Road.  Join Glenn Shorrock and other locals as they tell a tale of migrants who powered Australian manufacturing success and our music industry.

Earshot is working on something new! We're busy putting together a special season of shows: see you in your podcast feed again soon.

Ahmed spent six years in immigration detention before winning a landmark legal case, he was finally free. But when the government appealed that decision in the High Court Ahmed and his partner Danice faced a difficult choice.

Danice and Ahmed fell hard for each other, even though he was behind bars and she had four children. When he was released they started building a life together until Ahmed's visa was cancelled, he was thrown into immigration detention and Danice was left fighting for his release.

When the daughter of a trailblazing feminist moves to small town NSW, the only women’s organisation she can join is the Country Women’s Association. How will she fit in?

Stand up comedian David Rose is deaf in one ear. His own experience of living with hearing loss gets him curious about the rise and rise of headphone wearing, and what this may be doing to one of our key senses: hearing.

Listless in the Melbourne lockdowns two through six, Lisa Divissi became obsessed with the mystery of her adopted cat’s past life - and what it means to live with the unknown

We follow two people in Afghanistan whose lives have been transformed since the Taliban takeover. Surveillance and poverty have become part of everyday life for Ahmad, whose home has been searched by The Taliban. When Bayan lost her job as a manager in the media simply because she was a woman she had no reason to stay.

Two stories from the beating heart of small town country Australia: how a fence is helping to hold one community together and the tale of local legend Charlie Woollett

As he helped his mother Sushila pack up her home to move into residential aged care, writer Sunil Badami uncovered something even more valuable than his grandmother’s century-old wedding sari: the stories of some of the most important saris — and moments — in Sushila’s long and trailblazing life. And in sorting out what to hold onto and what to let go of, Sunil discovered what might have always been the most precious thing of all. And another portrait of a special family member, producer Catherine Merchant's Uncle, Bruce. He loves music, fairs, and keeping things tidy. His generosity and zest for life made him the best babysitter and friend a child could possibly have.

Four sisters plan to take on their family’s huge beef cattle property in southwest Queensland. Despite the spectre of drought, the Penfold daughters are determined to keep feeding Australia well into the 21st century.

Australia is famous for its unique wildlife and landscapes but we also have the highest mammal extinction rate in the world, and there are big declines in frogs, reptiles, and birds caused by introduced predators and land clearing. Could paying farmers and indigenous landowners to return parts of their properties to nature help solve our biodiversity crisis?

In regions worst-hit by Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, a rebirth is happening. Not just the green shoots bursting from the blackened trees, but the reawakening of ancient knowledge. On sacred land of the Yuin people, cultural fire is being reintroduced to protect endangered koalas, and bring the land back to life.

The ocean is central to the Esperance community’s lifestyle and identity. But three fatal shark attacks in three years have had a profound impact on this remote Western Australian coastal town. As this community grieves the loss of life, they are also navigating their relationship to the ocean and the apex predator that swims within it.

As more people use anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers to alter their appearance, the way we see ourselves and what we think we should look like is changing. What does that mean for the future of our faces?

Welcome to Werribee South. A wedge of verdant farming land 30km south-west of Melbourne that's under threat from the ever-growing city.

For most of us the experience of deportation is unimaginable. In this story we meet 3 people who've been deported under Australia's controversial 501 clause in the Migration Act, who've failed the character test or are considered to pose a threat to safety

Between 2015 and 2019, Michael* was a leader in the Australian alt-right movement. He was instrumental in building the presence of extreme rightwing groups, online and in the real world, before a series of shattering events forced him to pull away.  For the first time, he tells his story in full. In part 2 of 2, Michael travels the country helping to steer warring facist groups towards a united project, before an unexpected visit, and a traumatic family event, forces a personal reckoning. *Name changed to protect his identity

Between 2015 and 2019, Michael* was a leader in the Australian alt-right movement. He was instrumental in building the presence of extreme rightwing groups, online and in the real world, before a series of shattering events forced him to pull away.  For the first time, he tells his story in full. In part 1 of 2, islamophobia in politics and the media inspires Michael to look for answers online. In his late teens, he is groomed into a fast-growing fascist movement, with tentacles reaching right into the heart of Australian politics. *Name changed to protect his identity

How important is diversity in seeds and what kinds of diversity will we eat in the future?

What’s it like to live under a military coup? Across the past year, after the military seized power in Myanmar on February 1st, 2021, young Burmese journalist, Mi Zar has been keeping a diary of daily life in her country under the junta.

Danny Stuart was a teenager when he witnessed what he says was a stitch-up by corrupt Queensland Police of his Uncle John Stuart for the firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub.  Veteran journalist Frank Robson tells the tale of Danny’s obsession with clearing his Uncle’s name, an obsession that took him to the brink of madness. But it’s also a story of a brother and sister whose love and support for each other helped them survive an unspeakable childhood.

Behind the tragic firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Brisbane 1973, where 15 people lost their lives, lies another tale of two young children surviving the violence of their abusive father. Queensland journalist Frank Robson tells the story of Danny and Maggie Stuart and their Uncle John Stuart, one of the few people ever to show them respect and kindness, before he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the firebombing. A crime he said he never committed and a conviction aided and abetted by the false testimony of his own brother – Danny’s father.

How an imprisoned playwright helped create Australia’s most iconic internet meme. This...is democracy manifest.

Every family has its secrets, but for people from the LGBTQIA+ community the 'secret' can be their true selves. We meet three young queer Australians at different stages of coming out.

As you enter the town of Lake Bolac in southwest Victoria, you pass a sign that says 'home of aquatic sports', but historically Lake Bolac is famous for its fine quality and abundance of kuyang or short-finned eels. Eels were the most important food source for indigenous communities in this area, but the records that are left are patchworked and few. Walk eel country, following the path of the eel migration and in the footsteps of human history.

Locals were devastated when their newspaper was axed, so they set up their own. Dynamo editor cum journalist Susanna Freymark tells the stories that really matter to The Richmond River community.

Indigenous and African migrant communities collide in the Northern Territory, as Sydney-born Brian Obiri-Asare explores what it means to be black in Australia

When the Black Summer firestorm hits her street, Cath runs for her life—leaving her partner Jack, who’s hellbent on staying to defend their home. Later, among the shock and the chaos, it hits her: Oh my god, where is Jack?

Landays is a powerful and subversive form of poetry in Afghanistan, performed by women. Part of traditional folk culture, the poems are oral and improvised. And for the women who give voice to them, there's a price to pay.

It might be the most famous recipe in Australia: flour, salt, a little red wine, and don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce. Paul Kelly’s ‘How to Make Gravy’ — written as a letter from prison at Christmas time — has grown in popularity since it was first recorded 25 years ago. Using the song as a starting point, Earshot speaks with five previously incarcerated people about their experience in prison on Christmas day.

Ghezal is a journalist trapped in a safehouse in Kabul as The Taliban take over the city. Through the intimacy of voice messages she tells her story of searching for a way out of Afghanistan for her young family and the realities of becoming a refugee.

Ghezal is a journalist in Afghanistan and when her city Mazar i Sharif falls to The Taliban they come looking for her. She escapes to Kabul, joining the desperate crowds at the airport but unable to board a plane she returns to the city, her young family in tow, with nowhere to stay. She tells her story of fear and defiance through intimate voice messages recorded on her phone.

The Cat Empire’s style is impossible to pin-down. The most accurate description might be 'uniquely Melbourne'. The six-piece have earned fans worldwide through 20 years of raucous live shows and dogged touring. Before the original line-up play their final shows together the band reflect their incredible story.

Chinese-Australia singer, Rainbow Chan, returns to her mother’s village in Hong Kong. She meets some charismatic grannies who sing surprisingly subversive and feminist protest songs, known as bridal laments.

Three stories which explore brief encounters, chance meetings and the fleeting nature of life

It’s the perennial question: what's for dinner tonight? But for a rising number of Australians experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic, the question has taken on new meaning. As NSW emerges from lockdown, Earshot shares a portrait of the community group, Addi Road and discovers what we can learn from their hyperlocal response to the crisis.

It was a simple act, done in a less-than-simple way. When Johnny Danalis decided to return the “Star of Taroom”, an ancient Indigenous groove stone his father had souvenired in the 1970s, it was simply to give back what was taken. But when he decided to wheel the 160 kilogram stone 500 kilometres from Brisbane to Taroom he had no idea it had the power to teach its people’s history, draw Iman people back to country and heal old wounds.

What does your voice say about you? Not your choice of words, but all the extra information the voice carries, like our emotions, accents, even apparently our identity. Details that big tech and governments are more and more interested in each day.

Under the rule of President Erdogan Turkey has become the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.

Stella Nyanzi’s words are searing, she plans to topple a dictator with them.  She was imprisoned for her poem on facebook that called the President of Uganda, Museveni, a diseased foetus that should not have been born.  Her 18 months in prison have made her bolder, angrier and more determined to create change in Uganda.

Ma Thida is a major figure in the struggle for democracy in Myanmar.  A surgeon and writer she was initially happy to go to prison to gain experience to write a prison memoir.  However after years in solitary confinement it was only mindfulness meditation and books she had smuggled into jail that got her through.  She speaks to Earshot for this special series marking the anniverary of PEN International from an undisclosed location she has fled to after the February coup in Myanmar.

In this first program in a series marking 100 years of Pen International, the organisation that advocates for prisoners of conscience around the world, we investigate the disappearance of Uyghur poets into the detention camps of Xinjiang.

Are white people being silenced by being labelled as racists? Controversial comedian Isaac Butterfield thinks so.  And what about people who publicly call out racism? Are they also silenced? Sami Shah feels frustrated with all this shouting and looks for answers to cancel culture by confronting his own racism.

The idea that immigrants are taking work away from working class white people has created a perfect racist storm.  Where does the idea come from and how do we counter it?

Why do people who’ve experienced racism dish it out to other racial groups?  Sami Shah investigates a taboo subject that’s like a crack in the mirrorball of multicultural Australia.

Comedian and journalist Craig Quartermaine describes to Sami Shah white Australia’s reaction to Indigenous people and their place in our national narrative as “an uncomfortable truth”.  So how do young Indigenous people get around that reality?  Craig talks to two young people who are facing up to racism with bravery and creativity.

Comedian and journalist Sami Shah had never experienced racism until he moved to Australia from Pakistan. It makes him the best person to prise open the lid on this difficult conversation about what racism means, who experiences it and the impact it’s having on the whole country.

As you enter the town of Lake Bolac in southwest Victoria, you pass a sign that says 'home of aquatic sports', but historically Lake Bolac is famous for its fine quality and abundance of kuyang or short-finned eels. Eels were the most important food source for indigenous communities in this area, but the records that are left are patchworked and few. Walk eel country, following the path of the eel migration and in the footsteps of human history.

Bev Francis found out by accident she was the strongest woman in the world. It was the late 1970s, and the sport of women’s weightlifting was still new. When international records were compared, no one was as strong as Bev: she could defy gravity, lifting more than three times her bodyweight. Meet this forgotten champion of women’s muscle sports, who’s a firm believer that rules are meant to be broken.

In July last year, after a surge in Covid outbreaks, 3000 residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were forced into hard lockdown. Police surrounded the buildings and no one was allowed in or out. The controversial lockdown drew a lot of criticism. Residents struggled to get hold of essential supplies and the heavy police presence made people feel like prisoners in their homes. One year on, we speak with some of those people who were locked down and locked in.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program contains the voice of a person who has died. The Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of Australia’s most pristine and unregulated river systems. But now the pressure is on to take its water for irrigation. Pastoralists watch the water flowing through their stations and see wasted opportunity. Traditional owners see life and say not one drop is wasted.

The Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of our most pristine river systems. But it’s fast becoming one of Australia’s most contested spaces; for the oil, gas and land around it, and for the water in it.

How can you represent your country at the Olympics if you don’t have one? This was the challenge facing refugee athletes until 2016 when an Olympic team made up of asylum seekers was brought together to represent 80 million displaced people. In the run up to the 2021 Tokyo games, Earshot follows two Australian-based refugee athletes hoping to be selected for the highly competitive Refugee Olympic team.

From the Aboriginal mission to the steelworks to the sex workers, there’s many a tale etched into the bitumen of Wentworth Street.  Local artist Anne-Louise Rentell takes us on a tour of a suburb with a colourful past, in search of a new identity.  

Migrants, artists, drug users and The Western Bulldogs have brought fame and infamy to Footscray.  Writer and local Alice Pung introduces us to the people that make this Melbourne suburb feisty and full of heart.

The firestorm of 2019 has left a lingering shadow over this town.  Local radio DJ Don Ashby shows us the other side of Mallacoota – the abalone divers, the museum in a war bunker and the traditional owners who had to hide their Aboriginality to survive.

There’s so much more to this town than Priscilla and Mad Max. Writer Jack Marx takes us to the hidden corners of Broken Hill and its history; from the cross that used to light up the main street every time someone died to staring down the six o’clock swill.

The town of Nederland in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains has an unusual mascot: an old, dead Norwegian man, whose body is preserved in a backyard cryogenics chamber. Behind it all - his grandson keeps the dream of his return alive.

In 2003, journalist Andrew Gray was embedded with a US tank battalion during the Iraq invasion. In this documentary he returns to an event from that time which has haunted him for nearly 20 years.

He emerged of Sydney's gay party scene of 1980s, a time of creative and sexual freedom. But where is he today?

The unlikely story of two half-sisters who connected late in life, a birth mother turned adoptive mother, and what can happen when biological relatives turn up out of the blue.

Australian forces took part in the conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Three soldiers share their experiences of those wars and returning home to face a battle of a different kind.

When a young American took up a position with the US Antarctic Program in the late '90s he imagined incredible adventures within a pristine landscape, but he found something completely different.

Every family has its secrets, but for people from the LGBTQIA+ community the 'secret' can be their true selves. We meet three young queer Australians at different stages of coming out.

What happens when you no longer believe in God, but still experience a God-shaped hole in your life?

Locals were devastated when their newspaper was axed, so they set up their own. Dynamo editor cum journalist Susanna Freymark tells the stories that really matter to The Richmond River community.

Noelle Martin was an 18-year-old law student when she found hundreds of explicit images online with her face photoshopped onto the naked bodies of porn actresses.

In 2018 more than 20,000 Australians decided to ‘upsize their cup size', and if the numbers are anything to go by, the desire for bigger breasts isn’t decreasing. Breast augmentation is currently the most popular cosmetic procedure worldwide.

When the Black Summer firestorm hits her street, Cath runs for her life—leaving her partner Jack, who’s hellbent on staying to defend their home. Later, among the shock and the chaos, it hits her: Oh my god, where is Jack?

Natural temperate grasslands once spread from the Melbourne to the South Australian border, but only 1% remain. So how can we learn to see the landscape anew and protect the remaining grasslands?

Indigenous and African migrant communities collide in the Northern Territory, as Sydney-born Brian Obiri-Asare explores what it means to be black in Australia

What's it like to be waiting for an organ transplant waiting for the gift that could save your life, knowing that you're waiting for someone to die, but that you could also die waiting? This is 30 year old Matt's story

The caste system has impacted the lives of many South Asians for thousands of years, but how does it affect communities here in Australia? 

What's it like when an ordinary day suddenly spins out of control? Three people tell their stories of a near-death experience

In the remote Aboriginal communities of Central Australia, a musician most of us have never heard of, was “bigger than The Beatles”.

Come inside a neo-natal intensive care unit, where the lives of premature babies hang in the balance. Four mothers remember the excitement and the agony of their babies' first few months of life.

A documentary maker can’t forget the hopes and dreams of a 14-year-old boy he interviewed and returns to the same rural town nine years later to track him down.

Cystic fibrosis affects nearly 4000 Australians but how much do you know about what it's like to live with?

30 years ago Bill was a Policeman and Brett was a teenager heading towards a life of crime. But then Bill said something to Brett that turned his life around. This is a rare encounter between two men whose lives have been scarred by violence and anger, who want to reach out and help each other to heal.

2020 will forever be remembered as the year which was turned upside down in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. Using intimate audio diary recordings, this series follows 11 people from around the country and across several generations through this rollercoaster year. In the final episode, we hear from a group of people in their 40s.

Covid-19 has turned everyone’s lives upside down and as the year has dragged on, we are all learning to live with a new post-pandemic economic and social reality. Using intimate audio diary recordings, this episode captures the lives of four people in their 30s, who've all experienced the precarious nature of existence this year.

Covid-19 has created a new economic and social reality. Using intimate audio diary recordings, this series follows the lives of 11 people, spread around the country and spanning several generations, through the rollercoaster of 2020

A gay family story with a twist. Gay couples John and Charlie, and Ruth and Betty hit some very modern day family dilemmas.

About twenty years ago two gay couples met by chance in Sydney. Betty and Ruth wanted to have children, so did Charlie and John. But the boys didn't just want to be sperm donors, they wanted a family. Four parents two gaybies tracks the foursome over the next two decades, as their unconventional family plan hatches

What if instead of looking at the world through complex systems like politics, economics, community health, we observed the world through the lens of ice?

The All Blacks have taunted their opponents with haka for more than a century. But the world saw haka in a new light after the Christchurch terror attacks in 2019 triggered spontaneous haka performances in streets, parks and outside the Al Noor mosque.

What can dinosaurs and giant worms tell us about the meaning of time?

Chinese-Australia singer, Rainbow Chan, returns to her mother’s village in Hong Kong. She meets some charismatic grannies who sing surprisingly subversive and feminist protest songs, known as bridal laments.

The Ashkenazi Jewish population have a much higher risk of cancer than other people. In this story three families talk about receiving the news that could drastically change their lives.  

Landays is a powerful and subversive form of poetry in Afghanistan, performed by women. Part of traditional folk culture, the poems are oral and improvised. And for the women who give voice to them, there's a price to pay.

On the 30th birthday of Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth we do a deep dive into the multi-billion dollar world of the beauty vlogger and the young feminists who love it.

Anyier Yuol has been a soccer star, beauty queen and a refugee. She's on a mission to change the face of Australian fashion and the lives of young African-Australian women.

Take a near empty tram through Melbourne in curfew and meet the people behind the masks who are keeping the city alive.

Before the tumours on her auditory nerve turn Kylie Webb’s world silent, she has a few sounds she’d like to hear one more time.

A documentary maker can’t forget the hopes and dreams of a 14-year-old boy he interviewed and returns to the same rural town nine years later to track him down.

Australia is facing a shortage in shearers — long hours, injury, poor working conditions, and extended trips away from home are making the job a difficult proposition for the next generation.

Have you been having more vivid dreams lately? You’re not alone. We delve into the collective unconscious to find out what’s behind these ‘quarantine dreams’.

What does your voice say about you? Not your choice of words, but all the extra information the voice carries, like our emotions, accents, even apparently our identity. Details that big tech and governments are more and more interested in each day.

Every month many young Australians pack their bags and travel to Israel to join the Israeli Defence Force. And when they do, the army calls them lone soldiers.

A family receives devastating news that changes their lives and propels them into a future they never imagined.

As New Year's Eve approached, the crossroads town of Cann River in the heart of East Gippsland was facing the flames of an unprecedented bushfire season. Three residents describe their response to the threat.

During the pandemic lockdown a documentary maker grows increasingly obsessed with his neighbours and sets out to meet them all.

A split second was all it took to shatter Judi Green’s life. It took decades, a lot of forgiveness and a little luck to piece it back together.

In the final episode Peter Mares is in Brisbane to see if the not-for-profit community housing model offers some solutions to the crisis in affordable housing.

An obscure Japanese musician has found millions of fans thanks to YouTube.  Hiroshi Yoshimura's ambient synth music is perfect for long background listening and keeps you on the YouTube platform for hours, caught in the attention economy.

Peter Mares travels to Adelaide, home to the South Australian Housing Trust, which once set the gold standard for state housing authorities worldwide, but now struggles to house even the most vulnerable and needy citizens. With the public sector failing to meet the need, Peter goes onsite with an enterprising developer who claims he can build and sell houses at price that even pensioners can afford.

Peter travels to Hobart which in late 2019 was named Australia’s least affordable capital city for renters. More than one in four Australian households rent from a private landlord. There are growing numbers of long-term renters, older renters, and families renting with young children.

The COVID-19 virus has exposed the failings of Australia’s housing system like never before: rough sleeping and homelessness, the insecurity of renting, and a real estate boom-bust cycle. Our housing mess can be measured in lost productivity, poor health, high debt and growing inequality. Peter Mares visits four capital cities, to investigate what’s gone wrong with housing in Australia, and what we might do about it, beginning in his home town of Melbourne

A paramedic, an Indigenous educator in the remote Kimberley, and an international student turned bike courier take us to the frontline of working through COVID-19.

From the trenches of the home schooling front a teacher, a student and a parent tell the story of the education revolution brought on by COVID-19.

Stolen hand sanitizer, an iso wedding, losing all three of your jobs in one week—life at home in lockdown in Australia, as told through the intimate audio diaries of three women.

In 2019, the famous flying great white sharks of South Africa’s False Bay completely disappeared, leaving locals, scientists and a booming tourism industry desperate for answers. Are shark-eating orcas or climate change to blame? Or could the answer lie across the Southern Ocean in Australia?

The story of one man's slide into the white supremacist movement in Canada, and the aftermath. How do we deal with those who've engaged in the politics of hate when they decide to walk away from it?

The story of one man's slide into the white supremacist movement in Canada in the late 1980s, and which asks the question; whose voices should be heard in the aftermath of violence, as a community attempts to move towards life after hate?

The fascinating life story of Homer Rieth — a composer, poet and founder of the Minyip Philosophical Society.

If your government failed to provide running water, electricity, roads, safety from gender violence, or other staples of everyday life, what would you do? In the Solomon Islands people are taking matters into their own hands, even schoolgirls. If their government can’t provide, they’ll try.

We make it easy for New Zealanders to work in Australia but not so easy for them to survive in times of personal crisis. Four Kiwis tell their stories of falling between the cracks.

Tombstones were once doors to the afterlife, where spirits could pass through. Today they're smaller, but they still mark a place where we can leave offerings, tell stories and think alternative thoughts.

Cystic fibrosis affects nearly 4000 Australians but how much do you know about what it's like to live with?

How do you make people care when they risk going to jail for it? Three women helped start a movement in Jakarta bringing attention to West Papua, and today it’s seen thousands protesting across the country. But the personal toll has been huge.

After her own traumatic birth Elly Bradfield started asking other mothers about their births, it was like swapping war stories. Why are so many Australian women leaving the birth suite traumatised?

150 years ago thousands of young men were taken from the Pacific Islands. Today the scars are still being felt.

Muslim Malaysians often have complex and tangled views about polygamy. Their feelings and beliefs aren’t always mirrored by their actions.  What role does pragmatism play? What role does faith play?

The island of Poruma is a shrinking tropical paradise – battered by king tides and eaten by coastal erosion. Meet the locals fighting for survival, in more ways than one.

Expectation and competition are pushing young South Koreans to give up on marriage and kids.

To his cult-like following of fans Yuzuru Hanyu is the “god of figure skating”, and no price is too high or distance too great to watch him skate.

100 years ago the Banaban people had no idea they were living on the richest natural resource in the Pacific- one the world was desperate to get its hands on. The first they heard of it was when a mysterious visitor arrived, wanting signatures. That was the beginning of the end of their time on their island home, and the start of a superbly rich period in Australia’s history.

Indigenous Australians have been setting fire to the bush for tens of thousands of years, and today their "cool burns" are making a welcome comeback.

After fifty years of industrial development that’s destroyed thousands of sacred petroglyphs, the West Australian government is finally backing a push for World Heritage Listing. But it’s also considering two major new chemical plants.

Two blokes buy the radio rights to an international test cricket series on a credit card.

How does a community learn to live together after years of fighting each other in the most violent way possible? The remote Indonesian province of Poso is recovering from a decade-long religious conflict and in the face of hatred a brave group of women are leading the charge for peace and sovereignty.

Hot air ballooning is more popular in Australia than ever before. But how did it start? And where is it drifting to?

To imagine our multilingual future do we have to return to the past?

Migrant languages tend to disappear by the third generation. But is there a way to resist this trend towards being a 'graveyard of languages' and for us to hold onto language through the generations?

The Australian education system both values and devalues languages other than English. So schools play a crucial role in contributing to a multilingual Australia — or do they?

Australian families and communities who bring up their children in more than one language take on a huge challenge. Is it worth the effort?

Australia has a monolingual mindset but a multilingual reality. What does this mean for how we go about our day-to-day lives? Masako Fukui and Sheila Ngoc Pham investigate.

Jump on a bus 'From St Kilda to Kings Cross' and discover the significance of the song that sparked Paul Kelly's career.

Come inside a neo-natal intensive care unit, where the lives of premature babies hang in the balance. Four mothers remember the excitement and the agony of their babies' first few months of life.

30 years ago Bill was a Policeman and Brett was a teenager heading towards a life of crime. But then Bill said something to Brett that turned his life around. This is a rare encounter between two men whose lives have been scarred by violence and anger, who want to reach out and help each other to heal.

In the remote Aboriginal communities of Central Australia, a musician most of us have never heard of, was “bigger than The Beatles”.

For almost a century the Christian Brothers was a formidable presence in education in Australia. In recent decades the order's reputation has been deeply marred by revelations of widespread sexual abuse. Two former Christian Brothers, who entered the order as young teens, recall their lives inside their notoriously cloistered world

Manus Island detainee Abdul Aziz Muhamat has been allowed to spend three weeks in Geneva in order to accept a human rights award. But he has a big decision to make. Should he stay and seek asylum or return to Manus? There's no middle ground.

After six years in detention on Manus island, Abdul Aziz Muhamat is allowed to visit Geneva for two weeks. It's a strange blip in his internment which is happening because he's on the short-list for a human rights award.

Australia is the last inhabited continent on earth without a little mite that could unravel our food system. Meet the city and regional beekeepers who are preparing for its inevitable arrival that will change everything for them and their bees.

Come on a road trip along the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as the departure of Britain from the European Union creeps closer. Hear what locals from both sides of the line have to say about Brexit, and its' impact on their lives. Will a no-deal UK departure signal the end of 20 years of peace along this once troubled border?

Noelle Martin was an 18-year-old law student when she found hundreds of explicit images online with her face photoshopped onto the naked bodies of porn actresses.

The Australian outback is home to many mysteries, but the Marree Man has to be one of the biggest. In every sense of the word.

The town of Nederland in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains has an unusual mascot: an old, dead Norwegian man, whose body is preserved in a backyard cryogenics chamber. Behind it all - his grandson keeps the dream of his return alive.

The man Naponi married turned out to be violent and for decades her life was simply about survival. But her husband's been in a psychiatric facility for over 14 years now and some in her Sudanese community blame her for keeping him there.

An obscure Japanese musician has found millions of fans thanks to YouTube.  Hiroshi Yoshimura's ambient synth music is perfect for long background listening and keeps you on the YouTube platform for hours, caught in the attention economy.

Two blokes buy the radio rights to an international test cricket series on a credit card.

Robert, Laura and Lee Sullivan were all once members of Outreach International, an organisation that they now believe is a cult because they felt controlled and were only allowed to have relationships with other members of the organisation. And find out why they left.

For most women becoming a new mother is an exhilarating, if physically exhausting experience; infused with love and joy. But what if it's the opposite of this? The stories of three women who have suffered from postpartum psychosis.

After fifty years of industrial development that’s destroyed thousands of sacred petroglyphs, the West Australian government is finally backing a push for World Heritage Listing. But it’s also considering two major new chemical plants.

It's deceptively quiet but the main street of Port Kembla has a thousand tales to tell and a cast of captivating characters to tell them.

A young farming couple find out they can rehabilitate the environment by the way they farm, but the stakes are high, they could go broke by doing it.

A coal mine, an anonymous billboard, and a community split in two.

100 years ago the Banaban people had no idea they were living on the richest natural resource in the Pacific- one the world was desperate to get its hands on. The first they heard of it was when a mysterious visitor arrived, wanting signatures. That was the beginning of the end of their time on their island home, and the start of a superbly rich period in Australia’s history.

This story reveals a line of connection through four Irish women across two referendums, to explore the unexpected consequences of talking about abortion.

The ancient city of Varanasi, Prime Minister Modi’s chosen electorate, offers Hindus a direct path to the heavens but it’s one of the worst polluted places in the world and a demolition site.

Sami Shah talks candidly with this controversial columnist and commentator about the challenges of being so open with his opinions.

Lawyer and anti-racism advocate is searing and reflective with Sami Shah about the divisions in Australian media and society and her role in public debate.

What is freedom of speech and how much of it do we have? Sami Shah goes in search of the origins and limits of our free and frank speech.

Sami Shah finds out what political correctness is and why it’s so darn mad.

A young woman posted on Facebook on Anzac Day and Australia went mad. Sami Shah investigates why every comedian of colour is afraid of being 'Yassmined'.

Sami Shah looks at where the free speech lines are being drawn in our newsrooms and comedy clubs.

Online, on campus, everywhere we’re losing free and frank speech. Sami Shah discovers the consequences of this loss but also finds some solutions.

As the 'migrant caravans' continue to roll into Tijuana, on the US-Mexico border, journalist Janak Rogers spent a week on the ground in the city, speaking with recent arrivals and local residents.

In 2003, journalist Andrew Gray was embedded in a US tank battalion during the Iraq invasion. In this documentary he returns to an event from that time which has haunted him for over 15 years.

How does a community learn to live together after years of fighting each other in the most violent way possible? The remote Indonesian province of Poso is recovering from a decade-long religious conflict and in the face of hatred a brave group of women are leading the charge for peace and sovereignty.

In 2011, a murder prompted a transformation of Stainforth Court, a troubled public housing estate in Hobart. Who’s living there now? And what we can learn from this story when it comes to improving Australia’s public housing?

Stainforth Court was a troubled public housing estate in Hobart. But what was it really like to live there?

Ben Buckley is a pilot, politician and a maverick - a councillor who won't vote for himself.

From homelessness on the riverbank, to having a million people come view his paintings, this is the story of an immensely creative man who lived hard, painted every day as though he was on a mission, and died too soon.

Giant, slate-blue glaciers of asbestos tailings still contaminate Western Australia’s Wittenoom Gorge more than fifty years after the blue asbestos mine closed, putting new generations at risk of mesothelioma.

The Aboriginal people of Western Australia’s Pilbara region have one of the highest mortality rates from mesothelioma of any group, anywhere in the world. Thrust into working at the blue asbestos mine, it’s had a devastating and disproportionate impact.

Maximiliano's world was turned upside down when he got a phone call from a stranger that said "You're not who you think you are." At 40 he found out he was one of Argentina's lost grandchildren.

Dianne McGrath is a Mars One astronaut candidate. She is on the short list for a one-way ticket to live and die on the red planet.

Shearers and roustabouts are our modern-day swag-people. They straddle two worlds; travelling from shed to shed, doing one of the toughest physical jobs around.

The story of a young Australian man killed fighting with the Kurds in Syria.

Meet the Greenocks. They fostered their first child seven years ago oblivious to the joy, the grief, the chaos, the worry and the love it would bring to their home.

Crusading journalist Jill Jolliffe has spent her time giving a voice to others. But since being diagnosis with Alzheimer's, telling her own story has become more urgent than ever.

Writer Stephanie Coombes, not satisfied with her F-list media lifestyle, goes in search of lucrative Instagram fame.

After a 21st birthday party a car accident left a teenager dead, another in jail and a third with a permanent brain injury.  This is a story about grief, forgiveness and the healing power of music.

The unlikely story of two half-sisters who connected late in life, a birth mother turned adoptive mother, and what can happen when biological relatives turn up out of the blue.

A split second was all it took to shatter Judi Green’s life. It took decades, a lot of forgiveness and a little luck to piece it back together.

What can the last flamingo who lived in Australia tell us about zookeeping, taxidermy and loneliness?

Contemporary Australian poets respond to the centenary of the Armistice.

Olivia Humphreys found herself pregnant and full of questions about what it's like to be a mother when you don't have a mother of your own.

How should transgender athletes prove that they are woman enough to play with other women on the sporting field?

Public thinker Robert Manne's voice changed after he had surgery for throat cancer. In this candid documentary he reflects on questions of voice and identity, enduring love and friendship.

Once considered nerdy, Japanese pop culture like manga and anime is now big in Australia. What’s the appeal?

Three bad-ass women wrestlers talk about the power, performance and passion in Australia's world-class pro-wrestling scene.

Come to a Gypsy wedding but don't be shocked that the bride is 14. Perty had no choice, but months later she is learning to walk a fine line between being a feminist and honouring her Roma tribal traditions.

Two Australian musicians travelled overseas for work but they didn't make it past immigration at the airport; tales of holding cells and humiliation.

The fascinating life story of Homer Rieth — a composer, poet and founder of the Minyip Philosophical Society.

The women of a remote Aboriginal community are thrilled to finally be playing the sport that's always been in their hearts and it's helped heal their grief.

A story of heartbreak, a journey across Australia to take an Aboriginal child, a bitter court case and, in the middle of it all, two people who loved their child.

We travel to Aurukun, an Indigenous community in far north Queensland, to hear the story of a Wik woman, a white engineer turned anthropologist, and their son Bruce.

Our insatiable appetite for fish is growing, the way we hunt them is changing, yet fish farming for many still has a salty pong about it. Come visit the community of Port Stephens who are treading the choppy waters of aquaculture.

Life in Afghanistan is dangerous, but if you've worked as an interpreter, you're even more of a target.

A gay family story with a twist. Gay couples John and Charlie, and Ruth and Betty hit some very modern day family dilemmas.

Twenty years ago two gay couples met by chance in Sydney. Betty and Ruth wanted to have children, so did Charlie and John. But the boys didn't just want to be sperm donors, they wanted a family. Four parents two gaybies tracks the foursome over the next two decades, as their unconventional family plan hatches

After a chance encounter with a ghost from her past, Elizabeth Mora is forced to confront a decade old question: did coming to Australia break or save her family? As she reconciles her parents’ complicated love story, Elizabeth’s capacity for forgiveness is put to the test.

Approximately half of Australia's prisoners are also parents. So how do they maintain a relationship with their kids while they're inside?

When Mina Abdolmaleki arrived in Australia as a spiritual exile from Iran, she thought the challenges would end there. But despite now having the freedom to think and act freely, her faith is still the greatest comfort as she waits for her future to be decided.

When Australia stopped the boats, what happened to the refugees? Mozhgan and Jafar are young asylum seekers now stranded in Indonesia, trying to build an awkward life in limbo.

15 year old Hugh knows he’s gay but he’s terrified of anyone at his Catholic boy’s school finding out.  Then he meets Peter who was in the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 40 years ago.  Will Hugh find the courage to come out?

Shearers and roustabouts are our modern-day swag-people. They straddle two worlds; travelling from shed to shed, doing one of the toughest physical jobs around.

Kudakwashe Pwiti always wanted to make dancehall music, but his sheltered childhood wouldn’t prepare him for the dark side of the music scene.

Why did all the Jews suddenly leave a town in Morocco where they had lived in harmony with their Muslim neighbours for centuries?

An out-of-this-world quest to find the origins of life in the middle of the desert.