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Conversations

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

society & culture relationships

All Episodes

0:51:00

Encore: Why I became a teacher at the school where I...

Conversations ·

2026/10/06

A portrait of one teacher and his class as they journey through the ups and downs of a school year.Brendan James Murrary has been a high school teacher for more than ten years and although his own experiences at school weren't great, he ended up taking a job back at the school where he was a bullied and unhappy student.During his time as a teacher he's seen hundreds of kids move through the same hallways and classrooms - boisterous, angry, shy, big-hearted, awkward - all of them on

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0:52:22

Richard Glover on the strange, hilarious and...

Conversations ·

2026/10/05

The instructions found in endorsed baby books over the last century could be, with hindsight, bizarre or cruel. And were most often given by “experts” with no children of their own. Journalist and broadcaster, Richard Glover tackles the changing landscape of parenting advice.He looks back at his own experience of being parented, which included having his ears sticky-taped while growing up in Papua New Guinea, and draws on modern day grand-parenthood to highlight the marked

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0:52:25

Monica McInerney's five year rollercoaster ride

Conversations ·

2026/10/02

The author on the diagnosis that floored her and the gifts that got her through harrowing treatment — including a cat named Nicholas.The Australian-Irish author was last on the program in 2020.She reflected on her childhood by the railway tracks in the Clare Valley, South Australia, where she grew up with her band of brothers and sisters.After she recorded that interview, Monica received a cancer diagnosis.International borders were closed due to covid, and Monica found herself

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0:52:00

Encore: The pilot shot down by enemy fire and how he...

Conversations ·

2026/10/01

RAF pilot Frank Dell parachuted into Nazi occupied Holland after his plane was hit by cannon fire and with the aid of courageous Dutch families and resistance fighters he got out alive.As a teenager, Frank saw the Battle of Britain played out in the skies above his village in the south of England.He joined the RAF and piloted a De Havilland Mosquito on bombing raids into Germany.In October 1944 Frank's plane was shot out of the sky and he parachuted into Nazi territory.Frank

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0:52:56

Magda's mum, the tragic secret, and the moment of grace

Conversations ·

2026/09/30

When Magda Szubanski discovered what had happened to her mum two years after she died, it helped her see her in an entirely new light (CW: discussion of sexual abuse, please take care when listening)Magda released her first memoir a few years ago, to widespread acclaim.It was the story of how Magda unearthed the life story of her Polish-born father and his role as an assassin during WWII.Magda's now written her second memoir which hinges on the life story of her charming and funny

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0:52:08

Encore: The Olympic swim coach who spat on a silver...

Conversations ·

2026/09/29

Laurie Lawrence's obsession with winning Gold started when he was a small boy growing up above the Tobruk Pool in Townsville. When he became a coach, he had an epiphany about the nature of victory.When Laurie was a child, he had a chronic lung condition that meant he had to sleep sitting in a chair.Doctors advised his parents that an operation was necessary, and part of one of his lungs was removed.After the operation, Laurie's father took over the management of Townsville's Tobruk

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0:52:24

Caring for my fiercely strong-willed father

Conversations ·

2026/09/28

Kim Huynh on his family's remarkable journey from Vietnam to Australia. And taking on the role of carer for his fiercely strong-willed father, Thiet.Kim grew up in Canberra, arriving in Australia with his family as refugees from Vietnam.Like many migrant children, Kim is a very driven person and has taken on a lot of responsibilities in life.He is an academic, an ABC broadcaster, an author and a father.And when his 80-year-old father had a serious stroke, Kim also took on the role

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0:44:13

Stories from our elders: how Jane Fonda changed her...

Conversations ·

2026/09/25

The legendary actress Jane Fonda on her activism, her hair epiphanies and why older women are often fearless.Jane has lived her entire life in the public eye, as the daughter of acting aristocracy.Her father Henry Fonda was a Hollywood legend by the time she was born.Jane grew up to study acting with Lee Strasberg, and Marilyn Monroe was a classmate.But behind the public adoration, Jane was battling some big personal demons, including bulimia and the legacy of a shocking family

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0:47:00

Remembering Angry Anderson: rock n' roll animal and...

Conversations ·

2026/09/24

Iconic Australian musician, actor, youth advocate and charity ambassador Angry Anderson has died at the age of 79.Angry spent 50 years in the music industry with his legendary rock band, Rose Tattoo, and the band was due to return to the stage this month for another Australian tour.But Angry was much more than a raging rock n' roll animal.He was an incurable romantic, despite his violent childhood in Melbourne. He was a loyal, devoted father of four, and Angry was always a friend

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0:51:00

Stories from our Elders: My passionate friendship...

Conversations ·

2026/09/23

Alison Hoddinot was one of the first Australian women to study at Oxford University, but one of her lecturers, J.R.R Tolkein, refused to take on a woman PhD student. Alison was born in Tasmania in 1931.As a young woman she won a scholarship to study at Oxford University.But when she arrived, none of the male professors including J.R.R Tolkien, would take on a woman PhD student.Back in Tasmania Alison became great friends with the poet Gwen Harwood.The two shared recipes, letters,

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0:51:43

Stories from our Elders: the chef who taught 37,000...

Conversations ·

2026/09/22

Elizabeth Chong didn't cook her first meal until she was a newlywed. Six decades later, the owner of a cooking school specialising in Chinese cuisine, she had taught more than 37,000 people how to cook.Chef, author and teacher Elizabeth Chong was born in China's Guangdong Province in 1931.When her heavily pregnant mother was expelled from Victoria under the White Australia Policy in the 1920s, the whole family returned to China.Years later her family returned and a young Elizabeth

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0:48:37

Stories from our elders: Bryan Brown's road from...

Conversations ·

2026/09/21

Bryan Brown has played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have been his ticket to the world.In our week of stories from our elders, we begin with the life of Bryan Brown.Now aged 79, Bryan has had more film and television acting roles than he’s had birthdays, and is an instantly recognisable figure on screens around the world.From Breaker Morant and Newsfront to Two Hands and Sweet Country, a huge

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0:53:09

The radical history of personal computing—looms,...

Conversations ·

2026/09/18

Mel Huang Buntine on how computers started entering our homes, and the beige box of a machine that changed her own life.Personal computers are so ubiquitous now, it's hard to imagine a time when computers were inaccessible to everyday people.For decades, computers were the size of rooms, and they were used for specialist tasks like processing large data sets for researchers, or sending men to the moon.But by the 1980s computers had become smaller and more affordable, and people

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0:51:00

Encore: Vickie's turbulent life in and out of prison,...

Conversations ·

2026/09/17

Prisoner advocate Vickie Roach spent decades in and out of jail but after studying for her masters degree, she helped change the story for thousands of other prisoners.When Vicki was just two years old, she was given a police record, which enabled authorities to place her into the custody of a family she didn't know.She grew up under the strict religious rule of her adoptive mother, whom she clashed with frequently.Vickie left school at thirteen. It was that year she met her birth

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0:51:00

My dad Jim Henson, the creative genius behind 'The...

Conversations ·

2026/09/16

Growing up Lisa Henson and her siblings spent a lot of time in their father's workshop and studio, watching puppets get drawn, sculpted and brought to life.Jim Henson first started messing around with puppets as a teenager, and not long afterwards he began collaborating with his wife Jane. Together they founded Muppets Incorporated.Puppets became a way for Jim to share his extraordinary imagination with the world, and he went on to become one of the most influential creative minds

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0:52:00

Encore: What happened when I tried MDMA therapy

Conversations ·

2026/09/15

Author Rebecca Huntley used supervised MDMA therapy to help her with complex PTSD and the legacy of childhood trauma.Rebecca's public life as a broadcaster, an author and a social researcher made her well-known to many Australians.But in private, Rebecca spent years grappling with complex PTSD and childhood trauma.At 50, while walking the Camino, she realised that despite decades of therapy, she was still living with a roiling anger about what had happened to her as a child.She

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0:48:31

Healing intergenerational trauma and epigenetics—the...

Conversations ·

2026/09/14

Catrine Clay with the story of the children of Nazi perpetrators and Holocaust survivors came together under extraordinary circumstances to come to terms with their dark past.In the early 1990s, historian and author Catrine Clay was working at the BBC, making a documentary about a woman named Renate.Renate had been born in Germany in 1941, and grew up in the postwar years as the sole child of a single mother.When Renate asked her mother about her missing father, she was told he had

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0:52:00

Comedian Urzila Carlson regrets nothing

Conversations ·

2026/09/11

Urzila Carlson grew up in South Africa. Her father threatened the family with a gun when she was 6, and he walked out on the family soon afterwards.Urzila's mum, who she describes as a 'warrior woman', raised Urzila and her sister.When she was in primary school, one of Urzila's teachers taught her a big lesson about regret, which has stayed with her for life.Urzila moved to New Zealand in 2006 to begin working in advertising.One day a group of her co-workers persuaded her to

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0:48:58

Encore: Meg Washington on the magic of music

Conversations ·

2026/09/10

The singer-songwriter on her early introduction to musicals in Port Moresby, how singing became a form of speech therapy for her stutter and also a path into her life’s work.Meg Washington was born in a musical home in Port Moresby, where her parents had met as Australian expats.Meg and her sister spent a lot of their time watching classic Hollywood musicals and also down at the local yacht club where their dad DJ'd every Saturday night.Singing became something Meg was encouraged

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0:47:52

Louise Adler on why she questions everything

Conversations ·

2026/09/09

Louise Adler has been one of the biggest and most controversial names in Australian publishing for decades. This is the story of how she fell in love with the world of books.⁠An asthmatic child, she spent most of Melbourne’s winters in bed with nothing else to do but read novels.But it wasn't until her parents intervened in Louise's obsession with Enid Blyton’s boarding school series that her deep pleasure in the world of books began in earnest.⁠Shaped by her family's story of

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