Conversations

Latest Episodes:

The late Archie Roach: turning spirit into song Aug 03, 2022

Show notes

Archie tells of writing Took the Children Away and playing it in public for the first time, of his belated reunion with his siblings, and his love story with Ruby Hunter (R) CW: For our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners, this program features the voice of someone who has died. Please take care when listening.

Charmian, the violin and the zipper man Aug 02, 2022

Show notes

Australian violinist Charmian Gadd reflects on her 80 years, from her origins in the bush at Ourimbah on the NSW Central Coast, to her love affair with her teacher, the extraordinary Richard Goldner, who invented a zipper for the war effort

How Tom became 'DJ Hookie' Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

Tom Nash was 19 years old when he fell terribly ill with meningococcal septicemia, and all his limbs were amputated. After he learned to walk again on prosthetic legs and began to navigate life with hooks for arms, he built a new life as a nightclub DJ

The art of survival Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

Writer Susan Varga sees her life as full of hard joys - including her Hungarian Jewish family’s surviving WWII, her recovery from the stroke which destroyed her ability to write and speak, and finding the great love of her life in middle age

Freedom's child Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

Sisonke Msimang fought hard to find a home. She was born in exile, the daughter of a freedom fighter who had fled South Africa during apartheid.

Mapping two and a half million guitars Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

Even the cheapest guitars are made in part from trees which are becoming increasingly rare. Chris Gibson's curiosity about these timbers led him on a worldwide journey to understand the guitar's past and future (R)

The flying vet from outback Queensland Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

Dr Campbell Costello (aka Dr Cozy) has probably the largest, and most exciting, consult room in the world

Cook Maggie Beer: from Bankstown to finding her purpose in the Barossa Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

Maggie Beer started her working life at the age of 14 in a chenille bedspread factory. Two decades later, in a pheasant farm in the Barossa Valley, she found her dream job

Legendary cook, author food producer and educator Maggie Beer grew up in Lakemba in South-West Sydney, and got her first job when she was 14.

Maggie had to leave school early to go out to work to help support her family after her father's business went bankrupt.

Although she had a varied working life over the next two decades, it wasn't until her mid-thirties that Maggie found her purpose.

She and her husband Colin began a pheasant farm in South Australia's Barossa Valley, then added a farm gate shop and a restaurant.

In the process, Maggie discovered that she loved to cook for people. For the first ten years they struggled to make the restaurant work financially, until a big award catapulted the business to fame.

Eventually the hours and the demands became too much, and Maggie's husband Colin issued an ultimatum - it was him or the restaurant.

Maggie chose her husband, and eventually began her media career writing newspaper columns, and then became a TV star on The Cook and the Chef and Masterchef.

In 2010 Maggie was named the Senior Australian of the Year. More recently she has been campaigning to improve the quality of food in aged care.

Further information

Learn more about the Maggie Beer Foundation

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Stupid crooks, crooked cops, and honest John Jul 22, 2022

Show notes

Former narcotics agent, John Shobbrook battled corruption when investigating an audacious plan to air-drop heroin into Far North Queensland in the 1970s (R)

More than the station manager's wife Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

When Sally Warriner left behind the life she had built in the bush, it took her years to define herself as more than 'just the general manager's wife'

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