Smart analysis, lively conversations, and great company. Understand Australia and the world with Nick Bryant.
Subscribe:.rss.atom.json.md.m3u.pls
Live Last read · last published · next check
Saves to your Listen queue, to pick up on another day or another device.
What's the first sweet thing you remember eating? Comedian Jennifer Wong is a keen observer of Australia's changing tastes, and she's found that starting a conversation with food quickly leads it to surprising and profound places. She joins Nick to share her best last things.
The rise of One Nation has been one of the biggest political stories in Australia this year. But who exactly are the people behind the surging polling numbers? This week, a survey of 1,014 One Nation supporters shed some light on the kind of people getting on board with the party. One finding was 91 per cent believed the country is heading in the wrong direction. For all voters, this is 62 per…
There was sad news this week from Nashville, Tennessee, the home of the undisputed Queen of Country, Dolly Parton. Regular listeners will know that we were big Dolly fans, in fact we tried to get her to come on the show on July 4th, to mark America’s 250th birthday. We did that partly because in the disunited states of America, she was a unifying figure. We’ve been looking back on an extraordinary…
An Australian start-up company has been developing a drag-reducing adhesive film for use on aircraft which helps reduce fuel and lower emissions. And it was all inspired by a shark.
The US has launched a campaign to cripple Iran's economy by cutting off its remaining economic lifelines. The Treasury sanctioned more than 60 entities, including Chinese firms, but fell short of placing more forceful sanctions directly on China.
Washington and Ottawa are locked in a tariff tit-for-tat after trade talks collapsed earlier this week. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are potentially at stake on both sides of the border.
Nepal and Tibet are still reeling from the catastrophic flash floods that hit the Himalaya region earlier this week. The images coming from the disaster have been shocking: Bridges swept away, highways destroyed, entire villages engulfed by torrents of mud and water. As more details of the disaster continue to emerge, we speak with a journalist on the ground there.
In 2022, parts of the Nord Stream gas pipeline system, the multibillion-dollar network carrying Russian gas into Europe, were blown up. So who exactly was behind what has been described as "the greatest act of sabotage in modern history?"
When a badly stuffed "fox head" was advertised by a UK auction house, James Cranfield quickly worked out that it was a "priceless" head of a thylacine. The taxidermist and collector won the two-way bidding war for "the find of a lifetime." How important is this specimen of the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger?
This week, the federal government's gambling reforms passed parliament, after a bipartisan deal was struck with the Coalition. The package includes restrictions on gambling ads, but in the eyes of some politicians and many campaigners, it doesn't go nearly far enough. So why is it so hard to pass major gambling reform in this country?
It was Britain's deadliest terror attack: In December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded in the air above Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers on board and 11 on the ground. Almost four decades on, there is fresh evidence and a new trial. Next week, a Libyan man suspected of making and detonating the bomb will face court in Washington DC.
This week, the headlines were dominated by the Trump administration's decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, a longtime US ally and a linchpin of America's national security strategy in Asia. The US aircraft carrier USS George Washington has been redeployed to the Middle East, temporarily leaving the Asia-Pacific region without an American carrier strike fleet. So is the…
Growing up in a lower middle class family on the south side of Chicago fundamentally shaped the thinking of Glenn Loury, but his politics cut against the grain of many black Americans. "Here I was in the era of Reagan telling black people to pull their socks up," the leading US black conservative intellectual says. He discusses the impact of Obama's presidency, self-censorship, and diversity,…
This week, former Liberal leader Sussan Ley joined a cast of former politicians who have found a new voice in a life after politics. She's been in the media after spending 6 weeks on a solo trip catching Greyhound buses across the US. It got us thinking here at Saturday Extra, how do we reassess politicians after they say goodbye to politics? And in some cases, do we only find ourselves liking…
Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation is the world's biggest green bank. After a decade in the role, CEO Ian Learmonth reflects on Australia's progress to decarbonise the economy and global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
This week marks five years since the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan. Since its return, the Taliban has imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, as it did when it first came to power in the 1990s. For women and girls, whose worlds have become smaller and heavily policed, the anniversary is a grim one.
Next week, Darwin is hosting its first international test cricket match in 22 years. In a city known for cane toad races and a million-dollar barramundi fishing competition, the mood and the event itself are likely to be a little different than other Australian cities.
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is the daughter of legendary comedian Richard Pryor, whose stand-up transformed American comedy in the 1970s. In her new memoir, Elizabeth weaves together family memories with historical research to explore the legacy of her father, the history of one of America's most contested words and what it reveals about race, identity and belonging.
In what was billed as a battle over the future of the Democratic Party, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary this week. He defeated Haley Stevens, a more moderate candidate who had the backing of much of the party establishment. What does this say about the direction of the Democrats and its chances of winning back the White House?
In recent weeks, FIFA President Gianni Infantino proposed to sell a stake in future World Cup profits to private investors. He's since abandoned the highly controversial idea, but not before triggering a civil war in the footballing world, which may lead to his downfall. Being a FIFA story, it's all about power, influence and of course, money.
Richard Flanagan has brought out a collection of essays, speeches and columns entitled Heresies. Its topics range from Manus Island to the Black Summer bushfires to the growing corrosion of democracy. Flanagan, the only writer on the planet who has won both the Booker Prize for fiction and the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction, joins us for an extended discussion.
Aussie kids is touring the country with a one-woman theatre production. Noni Hazlehurst plays publican Rose Grey in The Lark, a show about an inner city Melbourne pub facing demolition as gentrification marches on without her.
