The Radio National Hour

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

At a time when China is testing America's allies across the region, is Donald Trump easing back one of Washington's most important military partnerships? Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne, Dr Pradeep Taneja explores whether Asia is entering a new era of uncertainty about US power and commitment. Smart glasses can read signs, identify objects and help people with low vision navigate the world. But as cameras move from our pockets to our faces, University of Sydney law professor Kimberlee Weatherall asks whether we're giving up more privacy than we realise. One of President Donald Trump's longest-running political battles is his fight against the "deep state". Former CIA officer Steven Cash is now the executive director of an organisation called Steady State which argues the US is facing its gravest threat to constitutional democracy since the Civil War.

Five years since the Taliban swept back into Kabul Afghan women have been erased from public life. One of Afghanistan’s first professional cricketers, Firooza Amiri, shares her story of exile, resilience and what she fears lies ahead for the country she still calls home. What’s it like to be Australia's representative when a crisis erupts? Former ambassador Amanda Gorley has had to deal with tragedies like the MH17 disaster and negotiations with strong man leaders like former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte. Award-winning film composer David Hirschfelder gives us a peek behind the scenes of composing Aussie classics like Strictly Ballroom.

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

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has survived a second attempt to topple him in less than a year, but questions about his authority inside the National Party haven't gone away. Political commentator Trish Sherson examines whether this is a turning point for the Kiwi leader, or just a stay of execution? Donald Trump is branding Democratic candidates "jihadists" and "communists" as America's midterms start to take shape. As progressive Democrats notch up election wins and Trump's own numbers slide, veteran political commentator E.J. Dionne explores whether the party is finding its future, or opening a damaging new fault line? Scott Clayton has been an AFL recruiter for 35 years. He’s the man behind the scenes of some of the most successful teams and trades in the game, so what's an AFL recruiter looking for when they’re talent scouting?

South Australia has announced a royal commission into Artificial Intelligence at a critical moment for the technology, with leaders of Big Tech calling on the US government to support an international effort to try and slow the pace of AI development, or risk it careening out of control. Victoria has been labelled the suppression order capital of the nation, but after the identities of two high profile rapists were concealed from the public, the state’s new premier is promising to ‘close every loophole’ if he’s re-elected in November. Associate Professor Jason Bosland, Director of the Centre for Media and Communications Law at Melbourne Law School says he's never seen the relationship between the courts and the media at such a low point. Asbestos was once prized for its invincibility as a building material, elevating the ‘humble fibro shack’ to cult status in Australia. But now we know this magic mineral was the devil’s dust - a toxic fibre that’s still killing hundreds of people every year. Historian James Watson joins Fran to talk about his new book, Asbestos Nation.

Every year thousands of giant cuttlefish put on a dazzling show in the freezing waters of South Australia’s Spencer Gulf. But this year the cuttlefish are missing in action and scientists and divers like Manny Katz say it will be very hard for the population to recover. Giant cuttlefish numbers collapsing in South Australia’s algal soaked waters, fur seals with alopecia on a remote Victorian island, hundreds of dead pelican chicks found dead in the far west of New South Wales. Our natural world is sick and in distress, but are we paying attention? Euan Ritchie, Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at Deakin University says ecosystems across Australia are showing signs of collapse. It’s the ultimate story of triumph over adversity, a black autistic academic becomes the youngest ever to be granted a professorship at the prestigious Cambridge University. The downfall of rockstar British scholar Jason Arday has critics of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives frothing but Daniel Engber, staff writer at The Atlantic says his story is unbelievable in so many respects.

We have a brand new segment called 'The Diplomats', turning the spotlight on the peacemakers in our world: the people working, mostly out of sight and under real pressure, to ease the globe's sharpest tensions. Our first guest is Lachlan Strahan, who’s 30 year career in the foreign service took him to North Korea at the height of its nuclear enrichment stand-off. The mea culpa and pleas for unity from the FIFA boss Gianni Infantino have failed to placate powerful football associations, like Uefa which is still threatening to boycott the next World Cup, But would Infantino’s resignation really fix the world’s most political sports governing body? Lorin Parys is the CEO of the Belgian Pro League of football. Australia’s first orchestral performance for deaf people. It's called Across Silence, a multi-sensory experience that treats Auslan not as translation but as an art form in its own right.

The Iran war is now in its sixth month ‌and yet again, the US President is doing his best to suggest everything is hunky-dory and the two sides are getting along. But Iran has labelled reports of negotiations with the US as ‘false’ and is instead trumpeting an imminent agreement with its neighbour Oman. Nada Al Taher a senior foreign reporter with The National, an English language newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, joins Fran to make sense of the latest deal or no deal. One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts has been out and about talking Chemtrails, and he’s got company; the party’s new Victorian State leader, Warren Pickering, who has espoused another well trod conspiracy theory about 15 minute cities. And it’s got us asking, what drives people to adopt these beliefs and who starts them in the first place? Matthew Marques, a senior lecturer in Psychology at LaTrobe University and Dr Kaz Ross, an independent researcher into the far right, extremism and conspiracy theories says at their core conspiracy theories tend to lead back to the same, age-old tropes. And it's national Poetry Month — we explore the life and work of Tasmanian poet, Gwen Harwood, regarded as one of Australia's finest poets.

When a shark viciously attacked Coogee mum Leah Stewart back in June, Charlie Verco didn’t flinch, he paddled straight towards danger. He joined Fran in the studio fresh from his victory in the Paddleboard World Championships in Hawaii. It’s been a record breaking summer across Europe with deadly heat waves, raging bushfires, droughts and major rivers at all time lows, so low that WW2 Nazi ships and woolly mammoth remains have been exposed in the dried out Danube river. Australian, Dr Samantha Burgess is Deputy Director of the EU based, Copernicus Climate Change Service, she says it’s too early to tell, but there's a chance 2026 could be the hottest year on record, making the reality of climate change impossible to ignore for Europe's leaders. The National Census takes place next Tuesday night, and we’ve been reading your questions on the text line and from across the ABC, Jenny Telford, the General Manager of the Census has the answers.

A folksy Congresswoman is taking on a progressive Muslim dubbed the Mamdani of the Midwest in the high stakes Democratic primary in the US state of Michigan — which is being seen as a referendum on the future direction of the party still licking its wounds from the brutal 2024 presidential election defeat. Emily Lawler, the State Government and Politics Editor for the Detroit Free Press, previews the race. We know Artificial Intelligence has a huge appetite for all the good things that make us human, like music and art, now it seems it’s coming for our rare and out of print books. Emanuel Maiberg from independent online journal 404 Media explains how a sudden and unexplained surge in demand tipped booksellers off to this strategy, whilst Australian bookseller Karl Slotte says he's had some curious requests of his own lately.

Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme has provided access to affordable medicines for nearly 80 years, but recently our tough talking government has met with some fierce resistance. That's partly because US President Donald Trump is insisting that American's pay the same for their drugs as other countries, like Australia which subsidises medicines. Dr Elizabeth Deveny, CEO of Consumers Health Forum of Australia and Philip Clarke, Professor in Health Economics at Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne say Australia needs to hold the line with Big Pharma but reform of the PBS is long overdue. A University degree was long considered a ticket to career success and prosperity .. but with the cost of degrees soaring and AI transforming the way students learn, academics like Dr Kylie Moore Gilbert say the experience may not be worth the money or brain rot.

Psychedelics were used to treat mental health disorders like depression long before peace, love and rock n roll. Now decades on, scientists are reclaiming them as therapies to treat conditions like PTSD with remarkable results. Dr Paul Liknaitzky is head of Monash University's Clinical Psychedelic Lab and 'Andrea' is one of his patients. For 14 years Louise Herron has been in charge of one of our most important public institutions - The Sydney Opera House. She made peace with the Utzons after a famous falling out over its design and saw off a campaign by Alan Jones to have her fired. Now she’s stepping down on her terms. It’s one of Mount Everest's most ghoulish landmarks. For thirty years the body of a climber known as ‘green boots’ has been a frozen reminder of the perils facing mountaineers as they enter the death zone above 8 thousand meters. Now authorities are planning to bring him down from the roof of the world. Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa has spent years guiding on Everest and leading body recovery missions, giving him a rare insight into one of mountaineering's most challenging tasks.