Conversations

Latest Episodes:

Encore: Krystyna Duszniak and Poland's lost histories Mar 21, 2025

Show notes

As a young woman, Krystyna thought her father had taught her everything about Poland’s history, but she didn’t know that what he’d left out would become a focus of her life (R)

Growing up, Krystyna Duszniak's father didn't speak a word of English to her, instilling in her a love of the Polish language, literature, history and culture.

As the child of immigrants who had survived World War II, history was all around Krystyna, and while her patriotic father taught her so much about his homeland, she found he left out a vital part that turned out to be the focus of her career.

Krystyna has made it her life's work to decipher historical records and bring the past back to life.

She helps families connect to long forgotten events and people in the old country.

Often, she will unearth unsavoury war stories, hidden first children of remarried parents, or secrets no one wants to hear about their relatives.

This episode of Conversations explores family history, modern history, ancient history, Europe, War, family dynamics, migrant stories, patriotism, secrets, family secrets, genealogy, ancestry.

Life on the lam — how Peter escaped from under his fugitive father's shadow Mar 20, 2025

Show notes

Peter Norris's father was a notorious bank robber who lived life on the run, dragging his boy across the country with him, until Peter refused to go with him one last time. It was the hardest decision he ever had to make.

Peter Norris grew up on the run with his criminal father, Clarence 'Clarry' Norris.

Every time Clarry was arrested, he would find a way out of custody and fulfil his promise of coming back to his son, and every time they reunited they would be off once more tearing across Australia.

Peter climbed out windows at foster homes, and escaped group homes for boys to be with his dad, in Sydney, in Shepparton, Perth and Port Hedland.

Until one day, his father came back to Peter when he had landed on his feet in the home of a beautiful foster family in regional Victoria.

The faith the Dullards had in Peter gave him the courage to finally say "no" to his loving, caring, criminal, complicated dad.

It was the hardest decision he ever made, but while desperately Peter wanted to be with his father, but didn't want to be him.

It was the last time Peter ever saw his father.

This episode of Conversations discusses family dynamics, origin stories, crime, criminality, theft, intergenerational trauma, foster care, abandoned children, group homes, remand centres, Baltara, homelessness, abuse, parenting, grief, closure, fatherhood, father son relationships.

The Bank Robber's Boy is published by Simon & Schuster

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, psychologists, musicians and celebrities.

Martha, baby Michael and the police officer who cried Mar 19, 2025

Show notes

Martha Jabour was a young mum when her baby son Michael died suddenly. In the thick of her grief, she worried for the devastated young police officer who had come to her home that day, before he unexpectedly reappeared in her life (CW: this conversation discusses the death of a child).

Martha Jabour has lived through the worst possible day for a parent.

When she was a young mum, she put her baby Michael to bed one night, and by the morning he had died in his sleep.

Michael was just 7 weeks old, and because his was an unexplained death, there were police on her doorstep, and a post-mortem, and an ambulance which took away her baby boy.

At the time of Michael's death in the 1980s, not much was known about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Martha threw herself into support groups, fundraising, and helping to change the story for parents like her, affected by the shocking and unexplained loss of their babies.

Within a few years, research discovered more about the causes, and today rates of SIDS have fallen by nearly 90%.

Martha trained as a grief and trauma counsellor, and her work with grieving parents saw her tapped on the shoulder to start a Homicide Victims Support Group.

It was a job she initially said she’d only do for a year - but it became her life’s work.

This episode of Conversations explores SIDS, death of a child, grieving, grief, policing, community policing, motherhood, fatherhood, parenting, birth stories, sick children, sudden loss, cot death, trauma, shock, counselling, therapy, support groups, where to find support.

Help and support is always available. You can call Lifeline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 13 11 14, or text them 0477 13 11 14.

Red Nose also offers counselling services to parents who have lost a child. Their number is 1300 308 307.

Undercover hitmen, shady drug deals and covert surveillance — life as a top cop Mar 18, 2025

Show notes

While working as an undercover cop, Nick Kaldas played a drug baron in the market for vast quantities of hemp oil, tracked a fugitive with a penchant for hair transplants, and posed as a hit man for a spurned lover.

Nick was a 21-year-old immigrant lad from Egypt when he decided to join the NSW Police Force.

He soon rose up the ranks from working as a junior constable on the beat, then as one of the first Arab-Australian undercover cops, to becoming one of the most senior police officers in Australia.

While undercover, Nick tracked a fugitive with a hair transplant, bought hemp oil and heroin at the Sydney Hilton, and was hired as a hit man by a spurned lover.

He then had stints as the head of the homicide squad, the gangs squad and led some of NSW's biggest criminal investigations as Deputy Police Commissioner.

Nick's work also took him to Iraq to rebuild the police force after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Since leaving the NSW Police, Nick has continued his work in international law enforcement.

This episode of Conversations explores crime, gangs, Egypt, migration, the Arab world, Syria, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, policing, law enforcement, corruption, inquiry, undercover cops, films, Batman, Northern Territory, NT Police Commissioner, Michael Murphy.

Behind the Badge is published by Angus and Robertson.

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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Encore: Andy Paschalidis on the death on the football pitch which changed everything Mar 14, 2025

Show notes

Football tragic Andy Paschalidis was in his 50s when a dear friend and fellow player died during an over-35s soccer game. The tragedy inspired him to begin a whole new story for himself, and the sport (R)

Andy grew up in Sydney's Balmain when it was a working-class suburb, full of migrant families. His parents had arrived in Australia from Greece a few years before, seeking a different life.

Andy grew up to be one of the first Greek-Australian sports broadcasters on TV and radio on SBS and 2GB, and he never lost his zeal for football.

When he was in his early 50s, Andy joined an ordinary weekend over-35s football game as he did each weekend.

His friend and fellow player Matt Richardson had a heart attack on the pitch that day and died. He was just 42 years old.

Then Andy discovered another friend had recently seen his teammate die exactly the same way.

He decided to take six months off work to find a way to reduce the number of deaths in Australian amateur football.

Since then Heartbeat of Football has saved many lives.

This episode of Conversations explores grief, mateship, masculinity, male health, health and wellbeing, heart attacks, heart disease, cardiac arrest, signs of heart attack, exercise, football, FIFA, soccer, senior sports, older sports, amateur sports, deaths on the field, health, safety, migration, migrant Australians, first generation Australians, post-war migration, Sydney.

When Andy's conversation with Richard first went to air, a listener named Kevin Whitby realised he was having a heart attack. Minutes later, he presented himself to the emergency department at Wollongong Hospital, where medical staff confirmed he needed immediate treatment.

Since we last spoke with Andy, last year in Sydney alone, six footballers (the youngest of which was 13 years old) have been saved in the midst of on-field cardiac incidents by the defibrillators provided by Andy's charity.

Learn more about the work of Heartbeat of Football.

Tim Winton on staying alive, in extremis Mar 13, 2025

Show notes

Australian writer Tim Winton on the stories which inspired his latest novel, 'Juice', a story of determination, survival, and the limits of the human spirit.

'Juice' is an astonishing feat of imagination.

It takes us to a far-off future on a superheated planet, where people must live like desert frogs in Northwest Australia.

They go underground for the murderously hot summer months, before emerging in winter to grow and make what they can.

The nameless narrator of the book is travelling with a child under his protection. They are taken hostage by a man with a crossbow, who takes them to the bottom of a mine shaft.

There, the narrator has to tell his story to the bowman in the hope that he won't kill them.

This episode of Conversations explores climate change, science, climate justice, storytelling, writing, books, narrative, fiction, Australian writers, Cloudstreet, Western Australia, coral bleaching, Pilbara, Ningaloo Reef, Putin, Trump, American politics, global politics, Russia, oligarchs, tariffs, trade wars, artists protesting, romantasy, climate change refugees.

Juice is published by Penguin.

This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers' Week.

Love, death and duels — Marie Curie's radioactive life Mar 12, 2025

Show notes

The Polish-French physicist and chemist is famous for discovering radium, but Marie Curie was more than her accomplishments. From 'the flying university' to great loves and losses, Dava Sobel investigates her extraordinary life.

Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win a second Nobel Prize.

But alongside her discovery of radioactivity, Marie’s life was marked by her fierce love for husband Pierre, a scandalous affair following his death, and feats of heroism during the First World War.

Dava Sobel is one of the world's best loved science writers, who has written about revolutionary innovators from an 18th century clockmaker who changed marine navigation forever to Copernicus, Galileo's daughter.

Now, Dava explores the extraordinary and surprising life of Marie Curie.

This episode of Conversations touches on epic stories, origin stories, weird science, physics, chemistry, women in STEM, female scientists, family dynamics, grief, sudden death, modern history, human innovation, technology, military technology, medical technology, medical advancements, radium, polonium, the elements, Pierre Curie, University of Paris, academia, war.

Dava Sobel's book about Marie Curie is called The Elements of Marie Curie: how the glow of radium lit a path for women in science, and is published by Harper Collins.

This episode of Conversations was recorded in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers' Week.

Could you live forever? The neuroscience behind brain preservation, consciousness and death Mar 11, 2025

Show notes

Would you want to live for longer? Forever? Have your mind preserved and uploaded into something non-human? And is it even possible? Neuroscientist Dr Ariel Zeleznikow explores challenging ideas about life and death.

From adding a few decades onto a life span, to suspending the aging process altogether, and more radically, uploading a preserved brain and consciousness into an entirely different physical structure, Ariel's research is at the cutting edge of neuroscience.

These seem like strange ideas, scientifically and morally, but Ariel says that with the advent of new techniques of brain preservation and the recent successful attempts at mapping consciousness, we could be looking at drastically longer lives in the future.

This episode of Conversations explores weird science, epic stories, brain preservation, the aging process, how to stop ageing, getting older, brains, minds, souls, humanity, morality, lifespan, cancer, brain disease, Walt Disney, cryogenic freezing, genomes, biology, neurology, philosophy, ethics.

The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death is published by Penguin.

A life in the law, on the Glitter Strip Mar 10, 2025

Show notes

Gold Coast lawyer Chris Nyst on his 45 years in criminal law, defending career criminals, going head to head with corrupt police, heroin addicts and a postcard bandit (R)

When Chris Nyst finished studying law in the mid 1970s, he moved to a town by the beach to begin his life as a lawyer, not because it was a glitzy and glamorous city back then, but because he wanted to surf.

But his nearly five decades as a criminal lawyer on the Gold Coast turned out to be a wild ride through crime, corruption, and shady characters.

Chris has used some of the most dramatic chapters in his working life as inspiration for his crime fiction and for the film Getting Square.

This episode of Conversations explores drug crime, surf culture, addiction, substance abuse, the justice system, the Fitzgerald Inquiry, the Fitzgerald Report, Tony Fitzgerald, Queensland corruption, cops, petty crime, bank robbing, robbery, murder, Australian crime, Brenden Abbott, career criminals.

Millen is published by Angus and Robertson.

Encore: A restaurant named Parwana — Afghan treasure in Adelaide Mar 07, 2025

Show notes

Durkhanai Ayubi and her family keep alive the stories and flavours they carried to Australia from Afghanistan, in the dining room of their 'accidental' and thriving restaurant (R)

Durkhanai was two years old when she and her family came to Australia from Afghanistan.

She grew up with stories of the old country from her parents, but her most powerful sensory connection to Afghanistan developed in the kitchen of her mother, Farida.

Both her parents had other professions in their homeland, but in 2009, sensing an opportunity to share their culture's rich tradition of hospitality, they opened a restaurant.

They named it Parwana, meaning butterfly, and serve traditional Afghan food cooked by Farida.

This episode of Conversations explores migration, multiculturalism, cooking, food, history, the Silk Road, trade, refugee, war, civil war, family, parenthood, multicultural Australia, origin stories, epic journeys.

Parwana: Stories and Recipes From an Afghan Kitchen (by Durkhanai Ayubi with recipes by Farida Ayubi) is published by Murdoch Books.