The Radio National Hour

In the push for peace in Ukraine, has the west misread Putin? 16.09.2026 54мин

Fran Kelly brings you compelling conversations on issues that challenge,entertain and inspire us.

AI, copyright and the battle for Australia's creative future 15.09.2026 55мин

Fran Kelly brings you compelling conversations on issues that challenge,entertain and inspire us.

How One Nation's migration plan would hit regional Australia 14.09.2026 55мин

Fran Kelly brings you compelling conversations on issues that challenge,entertain and inspire us.

Bill Bailey on reviving the lost art of vaudeville 11.09.2026 54мин

Tracey Holmes brings you compelling conversations on issues that challenge,entertain and inspire us.

Will AI destroy us? 10.09.2026 55мин

At first blush, it was more naughty than scary: a few AI agents escaped their sandbox and hacked into a real world company. but we now know that there were hundreds of them, conniving and cheating to escape and then covering it up prompting fresh warnings that AI development is moving so fast it could soon pose an existential threat to humans. And as the US president makes his mid-term pitch to Americans, offering every voter a five thousand dollar ‘Trump dividend’, Alistair Campbell, host of The Rest is Politics podcast insists we are reaching peak populism.

Two weeks on from catastrophe, hope remains for trapped workers in Nepal 09.09.2026 55мин

Recent headlines have painted a horrific picture of the levels of domestic and sexual violence afflicting Australia. Today the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin confirmed that despite committing billions to the fight against this scourge, we're going backwards as a nation. Two weeks on from the catastrophic flash flood in Nepal, rescuers remain hopeful that some of the hundreds of workers trapped inside the mud covered hydro-power tunnels are still alive. Australian tunnelling expert Arnold Dix could be their best hope. When you’re 100 metres beneath the surface of the North Sea, diving on an oil rig, your luck can run out very fast. That’s where diver Chris Lemons found himself nearly fourteen years ago - freezing cold, alone and running out of oxygen - but his story didn’t end there, and his retelling of it will amaze you.

The Radio National Hour 08.09.2026 54мин

A chance to prevent atrocities, that’s how one grieving father who lost a son to suicide has described the government’s proposed digital duty of care legislation, which - they say - will make Big Tech accountable for harmful content on its platforms and empower us to turn it off. The EU has had its own version for years now; Natali Helberger, Distinguished Professor of Law and Digital Technology at the University of Amsterdam explains how its working there. The case of 36-year old Lindsay Clancy has polarised Americans in recent months. The 36-year old admitted strangling and killing her three children in 2023 but has always claimed she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and cannot be held criminally responsible. Last week a 12 person jury failed last week to reach a verdict in her case after days of deliberation, Jolie Zangari, Co-Director of the Trial Advocacy Institute and an Assistant Professor of Legal Process at Touro University in New York City, explains the legal intricacies and conflicting evidence that led to the mistrial. And most of us have had those moments: when you walk into a room and forget your reason for being there; or worse still you walk into a party and you can’t remember the name of that friend you’ve known for decades. Aging might be inevitable but losing your cognition isn’t, that’s the premise of a new book by Dr Norman Swan called The Brain Cliff.

Germany's AfD edges closer to breaking the fabled 'firewall' 07.09.2026 55мин

A once unthinkable result the far-right party, Alternative for Germany has had a resounding victory in a state election, coming within a hair’s breath of being the first ultra right party to govern since the Nazi era. Historian and journalist Katja Hoyer, says the party may have come very, very close to breaking Germany's fabled firewall. Australia's home construction system is broken.That the Bathla Group went bust building the affordable homes Australia needs most says a lot about the residential construction market, as it battles falling prices, surging costs and poor productivity. Michael Akkawi, chief executive of property developer Conquest says Australia needs a war-time like response to deliver the housing that's needed. Since the very first collection of clay tablets were stored together 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia….libraries have been a force for the democratisation of knowledge … but that unique access is increasingly under threat. Richard Ovenden the head librarian of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, says libraries are radically relevant in our modern world.

Three summits, three very different visions of the future 04.09.2026 54мин

Three summits, three very different visions of the future. From the Pacific Islands Forum to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the G20, we'll examine what this charged week of diplomacy reveals about the rapidly changing balance of global power. From North Korea to the Indo-Pacific, from Washington to ASEAN, Jane Hardy spent decades working on some of Australia's most important strategic relationships. In The Diplomats, she shares the insights, judgements and lessons that only come from a career on the front lines of foreign policy. And it was supposed to disappear without a trace. Instead, a kooky Chinese animated film made by a mother and son has become a box-office sensation. Adelaide University communication, media, and film scholar Yanyan Hong explains why Niu Lai has captured the imagination and heart of a nation.

Israeli leaders sound alarm over 'ethnic cleansing' in the West Bank 03.09.2026 55мин

A week on from the deadly floods in Nepal and Tibet the search continues for more than four thousand missing people including 38 Australians. The focus has shifted to retrieving and identifying the hundreds of bodies and body parts that have been washed downstream, but hope remains with officials today saying there’s a good chance that 46 people could be alive, in a chamber in an underground hydro-electric plant. ABC correspondent Natalie Whiting has been visiting the devastated district of Chitwan. Settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank reach unprecedented levels, and hundreds of former Israeli security chiefs have written to the US president Donald Trump pleading with him to intervene. Former brigadier general Ephraim Sneh describes the violence as 'ethnic cleansing'. Science communicator Vanessa Fuchs just LOVES plants, her latest book What the Flora? is an epic tale of evolution and the ingenuity of plants, and a timely reminder that our survival is deeply intertwined with theirs.

Disasters don't respect borders, and China's strict control of Tibet could make them worse 02.09.2026 53мин

Last week's disaster in the Himalayas did not respect borders, but information flows at a trickle between Nepal and China controlled Tibet and, critics like Dibyesh Anand, a professor of international relations at Westminster University, say has exposed a deeper problem when disaster strikes. More than seventy thousand hopeful African migrants swam to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in late July, spurred on by false rumours online of a new open door policy. Now Spain’s Prime Minister is accusing Israel and Russia of using the event for payback and to sow division in Europe. A major retrospective of Australia's most renowned artists, modernist Margaret Preston goes on show at the National Gallery of Victoria this Friday. Born in Adelaide in 1875, Margaret Preston helped to forge a uniquely Australian modernist style - with bold and distinctly coloured renderings of local landscapes, native flora and fauna. The exhibition's curator Beckett Rozentals lifts the veil on this collection.s.

First it was our data, now author Gil Duran says the Tech Bros are coming for democracy 01.09.2026 54мин

It’s D-Day for the collapsed New South Wales developer Bathla, which needs $20 million in cash to get to the end of the week, if not, the major property developer will be liquidated and with it, the dreams of hundreds of buyers who paid deposits for new apartments. AFR associate editor Primrose Riordan says the next few days will be critical. The 2026 northern summer has driven home the reality of climate change in terrifying and deadly fashion; from the blistering heatwaves that gripped Great Britain like a vice for days on end, to the infernos that engulfed Europe’s holiday coasts and now of course, the catastrophic flash flooding in Nepal, which according to scientists was triggered by a glacial melt and subsequent collapse. Paul Behrens British Academy Global Professor at the University of Oxford says it's not the new normal but the new abnormal. When the titans of Silicon Valley first spouted their ‘move fast and break things’ mantra they were hailed as heroes but little did we know it was democracy itself that they wanted to smash and replace with their own network states, their own laws and in their own image. That's the thesis of a new book called The Nerd Reich by journalist Gil Duran.

Sanjeev Gupta's Whyalla wipeout 31.08.2026 54мин

The number of missing people in Nepal has risen sharply to more than 4,000, with least 900 confirmed dead. We speak to John Torpey who's leading the emergency response for World Central Kitchen. Computers powered by human brain organoids, grown from skin, blood or hair. That's the vision of a Dr Brett Kagan, chief scientist and CEO at Cortical Labs a Melbourne based company which claims to have developed the world’s first biological data centre, replacing silicon chips with human tissue. And Sanjeev Gupta was dubbed 'The Saviour of Steel' when he swooped into the South Australian town of Whyalla in 2017, offering a billion dollar lifeline and a grand vision for the future of green-steel. But as former ABC presenter Paul Barry details in his new book, The Big Steal, that appears to have been a mirage.

Why hostage negotiations just aren't like they used to be 28.08.2026 54мин

The Chair of Universities Australia, Professor Carolyn Evans has spoken out this week about her concerns over creeping government regulation and how populist backlash over issues like migration is already harming higher education. For this week's edition of 'The Diplomats' Tracey spoke to one of the world's foremost most experienced and respected hostage negotiators, Suzanne Williams. For six decades Ghanaian cameraman Chris Hesse toiled in obscurity amassing a visual record of Africa’s painful journey to independence. The precious reels have been used in a new documentary Eyes Of Ghana, debuting at the Africa Film Festival Australia. Tracey spoke to the films producer, Anita Ofanu.

Devastation in Nepal as 'glacial tsunami' sweeps through pilgrim valley 27.08.2026 55мин

Fran Kelly brings you compelling conversations on issues that challenge,entertain and inspire us.

The Radio National Hour 26.08.2026 55мин

A quarter of a century ago, hundreds of refugees were rescued from a small fishing boat adrift in the Indian Ocean and taken aboard the Norwegian freighter the MV Tampa. The stand-off that followed up-ended decades of refugee policy and crystallised a political mantra embraced by governments across the world: ‘stop the boats’. Abbas Nazari was a small child on that ill-fated voyage, Australia refused to take him and his family but they started a new life in New Zealand where he went on to become a Fulbright scholar. They can run, dance and box but the robots on show at the World Humanoid Games in Beijing aren’t just there for our entertainment, they point to a future in which machines that look like us are indispensable to our lives. Michael Milford is a professor and director of the robotics centre at Queensland University of Technology and has been watching the advancements on show in Beijing closely. Dolly Parton wrote over 3,000 songs during her seven decade career, but her gift and passion for storytelling extended well beyond the stage. Because of her, 3 million children around the world and 50 thousand here in Australia receive a book in the mail every month.

Jon Ronson on the algorithms sucking the life force out of disillusioned men 25.08.2026 55мин

One Nation voters say Australia is on the wrong track and immigration is to blame. The Labor government would rather we look the other way, but fresh polling says both major parties are bleeding votes over the issue. It’s been ten years since Myanmar’s military launched a murderous campaign to expel the country’s Rohingya minority forcing more than seven-hundred thousand people to flee the country. Fayazul Islam was just 11-years old when he escaped this horror. Now 20, he works as a photographer documenting his life and that of fellow Rohingya living in the world's largest refugee camp, Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Author and podcaster Jon Ronson has a knack for sniffing out a bizarre story, his latest began when his son was lured to a mock gothic castle in suburban Connecticut and invited to participate in a reality tv series called Princesses 101. What followed was definitely not a fairytale.

Do some young men and boys feel 'entitled' to women's bodies? 24.08.2026 55мин

When teenage boys are accused of sexually assaulting their peers we’re horrified and wonder why and how? But in Australia now, boys are more likely to commit these crimes against their peers than adult men. Global consent advocate Chanel Contos says their sense of entitlement is part of the problem. Israel is accused of feeding Large Language Models propaganda in a bid to influence the response produced by chatbots to questions about their war in Gaza. Politico journalist Jacob Wendler says the information is being used to prepare briefs for US lawmakers. Airports are the backdrop to monumental beginnings and sometimes tragic endings - life, death, adventure and romance - taking flight or coming into land all day long. That’s the premise of a new SBS series, The Airport Chaplain starring beloved Aussie actor Hugo Weaving and inspired by the real-life airport chaplain Martyn Scrimshaw.

Dame Imelda Staunton on her secret to success on stage and screen 21.08.2026 55мин

Tracey Holmes brings you compelling conversations with some of the most interesting people from around the world, on the issues that challenge, entertain and inspire us.

Zomi Frankcom and the limits of justice 20.08.2026 55мин

Fran Kelly brings you compelling conversations on issues that challenge,entertain and inspire us.