Late Night Live - Separate Stories Podcast

On WA's Burrup peninsula in the Pilbara a site of significant Indigenous rock art is at risk from Woodside petroleum's plan to massively expand its Pluto LNG project in Karratha by bringing in more gas from the Scarborough gas fields offshore. Climate analysts say the project so big, it would blow our chances of ever reaching our carbon reduction targets.

Ian Dunt shares his perspective on the building excitement of the Queen's platinum jubilee and the building number of Tory MPs that no longer have confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

There is no doubt Winston Churchill's legacy is complicated. Generally considered as one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century - he was nonetheless a man with some challenging characteristics. Veteran journalist and author Geoffrey Wheatcroft brings an alternative analysis to the life of Winston Churchill.

At the National Press Club before the election, the now Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that her government would implement a First Nations Foreign Policy and since the election she has referred to this new policy several times. James Blackwell explains what a First Nations Foreign Policy could look like.

The United States has been rocked by another horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. A small group of bipartisan senators are holding talks on gun laws. Could this be the breaking point we've been waiting for since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, and before that, Columbine?

Most of the objects found on shipwrecks on the maritime silk route have not been fully understood because they were salvaged without proper archaeological processes and often sold on the private market for huge sums of money. Now Flinders University archaeologists will lead an international consortium to discover the origin of ancient ceramics from the route with the hope of returning them to their countries of origin.

Putin's invasion of Russia has breathed new life into the alliance Trump considered 'obsolete'. As Sweden and Finland are poised to become the latest members, it's worth considering what the purpose of NATO actually is and whether it has made, and will continue to make, the world a safer place.

Labor has won majority majority government, so what does this mean for the influence of the Teals and the Greens? Plus China shelves its Pacific regional agreement and the Liberals and the Nationals elect their new leadership teams.

Over the last few years there’s been growing momentum for green jobs, green manufacturing and Green New Deals to reverse climate change and provide for an equitable transition. But, for the most part, there has been little talk of the ‘blue’ – the importance of the world’s oceans to this effort. Chris Armstrong sets out to change this, by providing an urgent case for the need to save the oceans, and a radical roadmap to do so.

Everywhere in the world that boatloads of asylum seekers land, or where they are detained, there are local people who will inevitably be affected by what they see, and possibly by ongoing involvements. But we don’t hear much about those people. They are the host communities, effectively, even though they usually didn't choose to be.  This story looks at Christmas Island, with reference also to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi argues that in order to resist the populist and polarising impulses of contemporary politics we must read dangerously; works by authors like Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Elias Khoury and Ta-Nehisi Coates that challenge comforting clichés and attempt to change the world.

China were one of the first countries to offer support for the Taliban regime when they seized power in 2021. Where are relations now?  

What is the Pacific response to the new Labor government and can new foreign minister Penny Wong build relationships and regain trust with both our Pacific neighbours and China? Meanwhile her Chinese foreign minister counterpart, Wang Yi, is doing a whistlestop tour of the Pacific.

Franziska Stünke's new film explores the life of Werner Teske, a Stasi agent who has the ignoble title of being the last person to be executed in East Germany in 1981.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, it's clear the West is getting a very different version of the war to the people of Russia who are accessing their news on Russian State television. Vladimir Putin has been drawing on the language of WW2 to keep the population behind the war on Ukraine.

North Korea has taken advantage of the war in Ukraine to step up its military activity, but could a Covid wave present a diplomatic opportunity? Plus, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spends his first day on the job at a Quad meeting in Tokyo.

Roland Ennos believes that we take trees for granted, and that in fact wood and trees have played a significant role in human evolution. From when we lived in trees to using wood to create tools, fire, houses, boats and paper, wood has proved the most versatile of materials.

Laura Tingle and Niki Savva analyse the election outcome and what the new Parliament will look like. What will the results mean for the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Nationals and how will Anthony Albanese manage the huge number of independents in both the lower house and the Senate.

short synopsis

James Zimring explains why our inability to fully understand and process fractions, percentages and numbers has profound ramifications not only for our lives and wellbeing but also in the way we think.