Late Night Live - Separate Stories Podcast

In the era of fervent settlement activity around the Pacific rim - Australia, New Zealand, California - landscape photographers were key to the colonial exercise, a new book argues.  They showed usually empty landscapes devoid of indigenous people.  They contributed to prospective settlers’ interest in new lands.  And they built an emotional attachment to places.  This all strengthened the settler sense of territorialism. 

A record shareholder action is underway in Japan as major energy companies face climate-focussed resolutions demanding more transparency around how they will reduce their emissions.

Women have taken to the streets across the 'land of the free' after the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision eliminating the constitutional right to protection that had existed for nearly 50 years. Bruce Shapiro discusses what the controversial ruling means not only for American women, but for American democracy.

Australian author and essayist Frank Moorhouse died on the weekend. He was author of 18 books over his long and illustrious career and won the Miles Franklin award for his book Dark Palace which was the second book in what was known as 'The Edith Trilogy'. The series followed the life of career diplomat Edith Campbell Berry from her work at the League of Nations in the 1920s to her later career in Canberra. In this interview Frank and Phillip discuss the final book in the trilogy, Cold Light.

Recent reports by Oxfam have revealed that the wealth of the world’s 10 richest men has doubled since the pandemic began. They also estimate that a new billionaire was created every 30 hours during the pandemic, while a million people could fall into extreme poverty at same rate in 2022. Tackling these unprecedented levels of inequality will require the courage to 'break free from the narrow straitjacket of extreme neoliberalism'.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Madrid for the Nato summit, but how will he navigate the tension between the G7's push-back against China's influence in the world and Australia's economic relationship with the global powerhouse?

The modern conservation movement only really began in the late 19th century and since then, has gone through many shifts in its quest to protect animals. It's history is filled with equally passionate and flawed figures.

The eminent Harvard historian says we came inches from disaster when Russian forces shelled a nuclear power plant in Ukraine. In a timely new book he looks at the history of nuclear accidents and the near inevitability of another Chernobyl, and argues that we must remember this history when contemplating the future of the industry.

When is locally made and funded film and television ‘Australian’ enough?  And who decides?

Australia is acquiring eight nuclear powered submarines from the United States under AUKUS. The agreement is still being worked out but what are the pros and cons of stepping across the nuclear threshold?

Foreign minister Penny Wong visits the Solomon Islands to hold talks with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare while the US discusses their special military relationship with the Marshall Islands.

Fairy tales tell us the wolf is a bad guy who wants to eat you. But following the rewilding of the Grey Wolf into Yellowstone National Park and some US states, the canis lupus is back, but not everyone’s happy.  

Australia needs to reset its whole engagement with the Pacific, and a set of papers released today steps out how that might be done. The papers, from Australian think tank AP4D, cover climate change, economy, digital and security.

If you think Australia's economy is looking worse for wear, the picture in the United States looks even bleaker, and the 'r' word is being tossed around - recession. Meanwhile, Trump's vice president Mikle Pence has been painted a hero at the third round of the Watergate-style hearings into the January 6 Capitol riots.

Four thousand Australian soldiers in World War II who signed up for service never fired a weapon. They were called ‘aliens’ or ‘enemy aliens' - non-British subjects who, despite being passionate about wanting to fight Hitler, had to battle for the right to fight for Australia against the Nazis.

Across the globe, migrant workers are more likely to get underpaid but various states and cities are introducing new laws and innovations to solve the problem.

The final Senate lineup is now known, with the last of the votes counted. The newest enators include a former Afghan refugee from Perth, for Labor; and a Victorian conspiracy theorist for the United Australia Party. The Energy Security Board has recommended a new capacity mechanism. And school chaplains are no longer compulsory.

How is it that most of us have not known the name of a man who broke out of Auschwitz as a 19 year old, and was able to tell the world about the terrible, terrible things that were happening there.  He was Rudolf Vrba, although he was born Walter Rosenberg.  A new book, instantly a bestseller, tells his story. It's described by historian and author Antony Beevo as 'an immediate classic of Holocaust literature'. 

Journalist and academic Margaret Simons reveals why she is more depressed about the state of Australian journalism now than at any other point during her 40-year career, and what an overhaul of our press might involve.

Inaugural Shackleton Medal winner Dr. Heïdi Sevestre ‘reads’ glaciers from one of the world’s global warming tipping points.