Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Epizodes

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  Newcastle goes crazy in the lead-up to the NRL grand final 03.10.2026 7min

  This year's NRL grand final will feature the Sydney Roosters and the Newcastle Knights. And the story of the Knights is a fairytale in the making. The team finished last in the competition last year. Now they're just one win away from a premiership. As a result, the city of Newcastle is going absolutely ballistic.
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  Alan Kohler on the economy and his decision to leave the ABC 03.10.2026 16min

  After a 31-year career as the ABC's finance guru, Alan Kohler announced this week that he's leaving the organisation. He joins Saturday Extra to talk about the latest interest rate hike, the housing market, and how he became one of this country's great economic communicators.
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  Gabriel Sherman on Donald Trump 2.0 and the media 03.10.2026 21min

  Few writers in the world have written with more clarity or authority on the intersection of the modern-day media and modern-day politics than Gabriel Sherman.  Gabriel Sherman is a special correspondent with Vanity Fair, author of the book Bonfire of the Murdochs, and the screenwriter of the movie, The Apprentice, which tells the story of Donald Trump's rise to fame as a property developer in New York City.
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  Can Lula win again? Brazil's election explained 03.10.2026 15min

  The first round of voting in Brazil's presidential and parliamentary election starts on Sunday. The main contest is between the 80-year-old incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his rival Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former leader Jair Bolsonaro.
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  What the flydubai attack means for the region and the world 03.10.2026 12min

  This week, a flydubai plane headed to Tel Aviv in Israel came frighteningly close to crashing after the pilot was stabbed by his co-pilot. We assess the latest information around the alleged terror attack and the geopolitical implications for the region.
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  The Last Thing: Nick Reece 26.09.2026 7min

  It's AFL grand final day, so we talk to Melbourne's Lord Mayor Nick Reece for this month's instalment of The Last Thing. He shares some of the last great things he's read, watched and visited.
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  What is Australia's most important book? 26.09.2026 15min

  While we're all choosing our favourite books as part of Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books, which ones have had a big impact on Australian society and could be considered the most important and impactful? We thought we would ask two very bookish historians.
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  Korean children's classic hits Australian stage 26.09.2026 7min

  The Longest Nights is a popular Korean children's book that is being adapted for the stage by The Sydney Opera House and Seoul musical company Ipkoason.  The two-year long creative collaboration brings pansori, a traditional storytelling technique featuring drums and voice, to Aussie kids.
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  Shaun Micallef's latest subject: Matthew Flinders 26.09.2026 20min

  Comedian, TV host and author Shaun Micallef has combined his trademark humour with historical research to write the story of Matthew Flinders. Matthew Flinders was a British navigator who led the first circumnavigation of the Australian continent and helped popularise the name "Australia."
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  Global crises dominate the UN General Assembly 26.09.2026 7min

  This week, 130 heads of government are in New York for the UN General Assembly. And for the first time ever, artificial intelligence has been centre stage.  But it's the undiplomatic rhetoric which has made headlines with Donald Trump using his speech to threaten to annihilate Iran.  That followed a strong rebuke from Iran's president, marking the first time the leader of a country at war with America has delivered a speech on US soil.
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  Trump and Xi expected to meet again this year 26.09.2026 12min

  Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington has ended after three days of talks, a state dinner and an extravagant welcome ceremony.  In a social media post, President Trump said that the leaders plan to meet twice more before the year’s end. What were the key takeaways from the summit?  
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  Alliance of 800 Indigenous rangers nominated for global environment prize 19.09.2026 10min

  Australia's Indigenous Desert Alliance has been named a finalist in The Earthshot Prize for their work protecting desert habitat across 270 million hectares. The alliance of 70 Indigenous ranger groups has one of the world's leading cultural burning programs and supports threatened species including the Great Desert skink, bilby and night parrot. The Earthshot Prize was founded by Prince William in 2020 to recognise initiatives that find solutions to the planet's greatest environmental challenges. Guest: Samantha Murray, CEO Indigenous Desert Alliance.
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  World leaders head to UN to talk AI, climate and future pandemics 19.09.2026 12min

  Next week, world leaders will meet at UN Headquarters in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Leaders like Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Anthony Albanese are set to speak, against a backdrop of an increasingly sidelined and underfunded UN. Topics are likely to range from AI to climate change to conflict in the Middle East to preparing for the next pandemic.
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  Is Paul Keating's vision of an independent Australia relevant for today? 19.09.2026 29min

  Paul Keating's ambition was to liberate Australia from our remaining attachments to Britain, achieve reconciliation, and reorient the nation in the Asian region. After unprecedented access to the former prime minister's papers, and a series of interviews, James Curran explores Keating's long-term vision for Australia.
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  Kevin Rudd calls for urgent intergovernmental regulation of AI 19.09.2026 17min

  The former prime minister Kevin Rudd has warned that there is an urgent need for intergovernmental regulation of AI. Ahead of next week's meeting in Washington between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, what could a set of guardrails look like, and how would both the US and China be involved?
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  How a musical became 'the most enduring piece of 9/11 art' 12.09.2026 22min

  Come from Away is a musical which tells the story of nearly 7,000 airline passengers who were stranded in the small Canadian town of Gander, Newfoundland, after the September 11 attacks. This week The New York Times dubbed it "the most enduring piece of 9/11 art." As part of our coverage of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we spoke with the Canadian husband and wife who co-wrote the musical.
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  Waleed Aly on the crisis of liberalism 12.09.2026 18min

  In the latest Quarterly Essay, one of Australia's leading public intellectuals tries to make sense of what's happening through a philosophical prism. In particular, he looks at the crisis of liberalism, a collection of ideas which has shaped politics and society since the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century.
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  Will AI kill us all within a decade? 12.09.2026 9min

  This week, an Anthropic researcher resigned over concerns that the technology could kill us all by the end of the decade. As AI developers weighed in supporting his prediction, many are asking if AI power is rapidly slipping out of human hands. Meanwhile in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese introduced a draft digital duty of care bill that would allow social media users to opt out of the algorithm. As courts and governments across the globe try to wrestle back control of the algorithm, is Meta finally facing a global reckoning? 
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  The Looming Tower: What the lead-up to 9/11 can teach us today 12.09.2026 19min

  Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks, their impact continues to be felt in New York, across America and around the world. To mark the anniversary, we spoke with Lawrence Wright, whose acclaimed book The Looming Tower traces the rise of al-Qaeda and the events that culminated in the attacks.
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  Why thousands of Australians are watching 'nest-flix' 05.09.2026 6min

  Get ready, another season of 'nest-flix' is beginning. Melbourne's peregrine falcon camera is back, meaning people can watch a live feed of a peregrine falcon nest, high up in the city's CBD.