Late Night Live — Full program podcast — Podcast

Bruce Shapiro's USA, an Ethiopian philosophy of running, and a Glasgow protest gives hope 02.06.2026 54min

Bruce Shapiro looks at the Republican backlash to Donald Trump's so-called IRS slush fund. How Ethiopian runners win over performance enhanced athletes and a protest in Glasgow took over Kenmure Street, and stopped immigration officers in their van. Guests: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with the Nation, Executive Director at the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma Felipe Bustos Sierra, Director Everybody to Kenmure st plus Tabassum Niamat, Executive Director, Bowling Green Together Community Centre and Kenmure St protester Michael Crawley, social anthropologist at Durham University, UK and marathon runner.

Mark Kenny's Canberra, Syrians return home and Lord Howe Island cockroaches 01.06.2026 54min

A new poll published in the Australian Financial Review has Pauline Hanson's One Nation ahead of Labor and the Coalition on primary vote, and Mark Kenny says political parties can't agree on how to respond. Meanwhile the government is bogged down in budget backlash. Millions of Syrians forced to flee the brutal Assad regime are now returning home, but with much of Syria destroyed what’s left to return to? Plus insect life on Lord Howe Island has significantly increased since the eradication of invasive rodents in 2019. Guests: Prof. Mark Kenny, Director of the Australian Studies Institute, host of Democracy Sausage podcast Kholoud Helmi, Syrian journalist and Managing Director of Enab Baladi news publications’s Daraya edition  Maxim Adams, PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, co-lead in a new study with the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, published in Biological Invasions

When America admired Iran, plus what are conservative environmentalists fighting for? 28.05.2026 54min

Historian and author John Ghazvinian argues that the past fifty years of hostility between the U.S. and Iran are an exception in a much longer relationship marked by fascination, cooperation, and mutual admiration. And an American journalist embeds with a group of young Republican conservationists, to try to pin down what they really value. Guests John Ghazvinian, historian, former journalist and author of America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present Gaby del Valle, journalist, article in Harper's Magazine about the American Conservation Coalition

Reckoning with war crimes, plus the women at the Nuremburg trials 27.05.2026 54min

Veteran war correspondent Janine di Giovanni has set up a project that trains journalists and researchers to gather evidence that can be used to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Syria. And the women who played a critical role behind the scenes at the Nuremberg trials. Guests: Janine di Giovanni, war correspondent, CEO and co-founder of The Reckoning Project Natalie Livingstone, author, The Nuremberg Women, At the trial that brought the Nazis to justice

Ian Dunt's UK, Spain's defiant PM, and Pavlova's tour of Oz 26.05.2026 54min

Ian Dunt surveys the unfathomable political turmoil in the United Kingdom, as a monumental by-election looms for Andy Burnham, the key Labour rival of embattled Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Journalist Maria Ramirez examines the left-wing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. a defiant political voice on the world stage. Plus, it's been 100 years since Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova first toured Australia, captivating audiences across the country. Guests: Ian Dunt, columnist for i-news, cohost of Origin Story podcast Maria Ramirez, journalist for elDiario, Spain Emma Sandall, Australian dance artist, producer, writer

Anna Henderson's Canberra, Bhaskar Sunkara on the Left in America, plus why ancient Roman gossip mattered 25.05.2026 54min

Anna Henderson looks at how likely it is that independents like the Teals could form a new centrist party. Does the success of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani herald a new era of popular Leftist politics in America? US socialist Bhaskar Sunkara surveys the future. And far from being worthless trivia, the gossip of Ancient Romans revealed a lot about the society and politics of the time. Guests: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS World News Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin magazine Caillan Davenport, Professor of Classics and head of the Centre for Classical Studies at ANU.

Satayjit Das on how the war in Iran has rocked global markets, plus queer Palestinian writer Tareq Baconi on finding home 21.05.2026 54min

Global financial analyst Satyajit Das looks at how the double whammy of Trump's economic warfare and the war on Iran is playing out here and around the world. Writer Tareq Baconi reflects on life growing up as Palestinian refugee in Jordan, coming to terms with being gay. Guests: Satyajit Das, global financial analyst Tareq Baconi, Hamas expert and author of Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir

Roddy Doyle on a lifetime of writing the characters of Dublin 20.05.2026 54min

Roddy Doyle reflects on a lifetime telling the stories of working-class people in Dublin, with themes of domestic violence, unplanned pregnancy and life in the IRA. Guest: Roddy Doyle, author of The women behind the door, published by Penguin Random House. Roddy is in Australia for Sydney Writers' Festival Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Bruce Shapiro's USA, John Safran on when offending goes too far, and was Blind Freddy real? 19.05.2026 54min

Bruce Shapiro looks at the Republicans' shaping of South Carolina's congressional districts, in an effort to win the November mid-terms. John Safran's new documentary for SBS explores the notion of offence, and what can and cannot be said in Australia today. A new book says he may have been an aristocratic Aussie trooper. Guests: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for The Nation, executive director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma John Safran, satirist, documentary maker, journalist, and author Adrian Mitchell, author of ‘Blind Freddy: the Pottinger Attainment’ (Wakefield Press)

Anna Henderson's Canberra, and translating Shakespeare 18.05.2026 54min

Anna Henderson looks at why the government remains unpopular despite popular support for changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in the budget.Dr. Guy Shalev, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, on why the IDF continues to hold fourteen Palestinian doctors in detention, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. And Daniel Hahn discusses the art and the magic of translating Shakespeare into other languages, and the difficulties of getting those puns to land. Guests: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent Dr. Guy Shalev, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights, Israel Daniel Hahn, author of ‘If This Be Magic - The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation’, published by Allen and Unwin

How royal commissions make a difference, plus cuisine in conflict zones 14.05.2026 54min

There have been 141 royal commissions in Australia since Federation, but not all of them have brought about meaningful policy change. Plus, a new book tells the stories of people who have struggled to protect their food culture in the face of war, genocide, and violence. Guests: Michael Mintrom, Professor of public policy at Monash University Michael Shaikh, author of The Last Sweet Bite: when war changes the menu

Ian Dunt on Starmer's demise, Antoinette Lattouf on women who win, plus 50 years of Australian film at Cannes 13.05.2026 54min

Ian Dunt on the political demise of Keir Starmer: even if he hasn't yet resigned, Ian says, he's already dead. How Antoinette Lattouf found inspiration in the stories of other Australian women who challenged power structures when she was fighting her own case against the ABC. And Australia is celebrating fifty years at the Cannes film festival, so why are there no Aussie films in competition this year? Guests: Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcast Antoinette Lattouf, journalist and author of Women Who Win John Doggett-Williams, freelance video journalist and documentary maker

Australia's first political assassination, plus the man who led Japan into war 12.05.2026 54min

Journalist Debbie Whitmont revisits the 1994 murder of John Newman MP - a crime billed as Australia's first political assassination - and the man still behind bars, Vietnamese refugee and political aspirant Phuong Ngo. Plus, a new biography of Hideki Tojo challenges assumptions about Japan's ruthless wartime leader. Guests: Debbie Whitmont, journalist and author of The Man Who Couldn't Wait: The true story of Australia's first political assassination Dr Peter Mauch, historian and author of Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General

Anna Henderson's Canberra, six months in a submarine and the ethics of crisis reporting 11.05.2026 54min

Anna Henderson looks at One Nation's victory in the Farrer by-election. What does the result say about the growing frustration with the major parties? The British nuclear submarine that's spent a record-breaking six months submerged and a look at the ethics of reporting in a crisis zone. Guests: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club Director Josh Glancy, associate editor of The Sunday Times Cathy Otten, journalist and a visiting assistant professor of Media Ethics and Journalism at Rutgers University in New Jersey, US

Fintan O'Toole on Trump's brand of 'crazy,' plus how to escape the Taliban 07.05.2026 54min

Acclaimed journalist and author, Fintan O'Toole argues Trump’s political power lies in projecting the “right amount of crazy”. Plus how to help an Afghan woman and her five daughters escape the Taliban. Guests: Fintan O'Toole, regular contributor to the Irish Times and advising editor to the New York Review of Books. Mij Tanith, playwright, teacher, refugee advocate and author of Laila’s Story (Spinifex Press, March 2026)

Netanyahu faces a new opposition party, plus the lives of those liberated from the Nazi camp Bergen-Belsen 06.05.2026 54min

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may come up against a rightwing-centrist super coalition in elections later this year, after two of his biggest political rivals - former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid - combined forces to form a new party. Plus, the Australian writer Nadia Wheatley's new book sheds light on the ordeals experienced by prisoners liberated from the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945. Guests: Irris Makler, veteran Middle East correspondent Nadia Wheatley, writer and historian, author of Strange New World: Belsen's first year of freedom (Monash University Press)

Bruce Shapiro's USA, why community radio matters, and an historic Pitcairn Island document returned 05.05.2026 54min

Our regular US commentator looks at recent political attempts to use defamation law to silence American media. 2SER, a Sydney community radio station with a long history of training professional broadcasters, is under threat. And descendants of the Bounty mutineers, who lived on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific, crowdfunded to get an important document returned to them from London. Guests: Bruce Shapiro, Contributing Editor at the Nation, Executive Director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma Chris Nash, founding Professor of Journalism at Monash University, Former Director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) at UTS in Sydney Jon Bisset, CEO of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia Helen Mears, Head of Curatorship & Research at Royal Museums Greenwich Dr Pauline Reynolds, Chair, Norfolk Island Museums Trust

Anna Henderson's Canberra, Kim Jong Un's comeback and classical marble statues - in colour 04.05.2026 54min

Anna Henderson on the Japanese PM's visit and the tragedy of Kumanjayi Little Baby's death in Alice Springs. Plus 2020 wasn’t a good year for North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un - there were reports he was seriously ill, and speculation ran wild about his future. But nearly six years later, Kim has defied the doubters, exploiting global instability, drawing closer to both Putin and Xi, and testing the limits with South Korea. Also, were ancient marble statues actually painted? Guests: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club Director Dr Jung H. Pak, historian and analyst, former officer with the CIA and the US State Department, author of Becoming Kim Jong Un Mark Bradley, Professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham

Australian writers celebrate David Malouf - friend, mentor, inspiration 30.04.2026 54min

David Malouf, who died last week at 92, was a hugely influential figure in Australian culture. A novelist, poet, teacher, arts advisor and board member, 'Boyer lecturer, and enormously generous mentor to many other writers. His friends and peers pay tribute. Guests: Peter Goldsworthy, Adelaide-based poet Nicholas Jose, Adelaide-based novelist Kate Grenville, Melbourne-based novelist Omar Sakr, western Sydney-based poet The one David Malouf book our guests would recommend reading Kate Grenville: Johnno Omar Sakr: An Open Book Nicholas Jose: 12 Edmonstone Street Peter Goldsworthy: Ransom

Ian Dunt on the King's speech to Congress, plus the scandalous life of Dick Meagher 29.04.2026 54min

Ian Dunt looks at King Charles' address to US Congress and the subtle anti-Trump messages within it. Plus, a new biography details the life of Richard 'Dick' Meagher - a talented young Australian solicitor with political ambitions in Federation-era Australia, who was embroiled in scandal for his handling of a high-profile murder trial. For the rest of his life, Meagher worked to scrub this stain from his reputation. Guests: Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcast Patrick Mullins, author of The Stained Man: a crime, a scandal, and the making of a nation, published by Scribe