Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

This week's common, conspicuous and colourful caller inhabits the east and the south-east – the Crimson Rosella.

Queanbeyan raised, Bornean-Australian poet, visual artist, and award-winning author Omar Musa says his "hyperactive mind" keeps him looking for the next project. He has published five hip-hop records, four books of poetry, wrote and starred in a one-man play about the death of Muhammad Ali, and creates woodcut prints. 

2023 was a year that Omar describes as containing "all the highs and lows that you can experience in life... love, loss, grief, and then grief on a grand scale with the genocide in Gaza". It was the year he met his wife, the cello player Mariel Roberts Musa...

In 1951 the High Court witnessed one of Australia's most high profile legal battles: the Communist Party case. The case saw future Chief Justice of Australia, Garfield Barwick KC, argue against the then Leader of the Opposition, Bert Evatt KC, to determine the constitutionality of the Communist Party Dissolution Act 1950.

In her new book The Framing, lawyer Fernanda Dahlstrom unpacks her past and the crime that sent her mother to jail when she was eight years-old. 

The oldest and largest crossword event in the United States, The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is celebrating its largest attendance ever this year. It is directed by Will Shortz, who founded the tournament in 1978, and has been the editor of the New York Times crossword since 1993. Will is also the only person who holds a degree in ‘enigmatology’ or ‘the study of puzzles’. 

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has published a draft of the Children’s Online Privacy Code. It contains new rules to create better online experiences for children, including a requirement that "agencies and organisations [...] consider the best interests of children before collecting, using or disclosing their personal information."

A new UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, led by Chad, has begun its deployment into Haiti. The new force hopes to succeed where its predecessor — the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support — has failed. In pushing back the violent gangs that have taken over much of Haiti.

Guest: Diego Da Rin, Haiti Analyst at the International Crisis Group

A constitutional brouhaha is brewing in Canada as the Supreme Court weighs legal arguments presented in a landmark case known as English Montreal School Board v. Quebec.

The Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel is the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. Kanishka was born into the Buddhist faith, but a chance conversation with a Christian friend while he was studying law at the University of Sydney inspired a spiritual journey that led him to Christianity and, ultimately, to the priesthood.

This week's mystery caller likes woodland and open country right across mainland Australia — the Jacky Winter.

For over 30 years, the Snuff Puppets have brought all manner of giant puppets to streets and communities of Melbourne and beyond. 

But a recent funding cut means the Snuff Puppets are now in danger of becoming Snuffed Puppets. Indeed, Snuff Puppets is just one of a number of Melbourne cultural institutions who either missed out or were scaled back in the latest round of the Victorian governments Creative Enterprises Program. 

Co-artistic directors of Snuff Puppets Andy Freer and Nick Wilson join the program to explain what these cuts mean for their company, how it's part of a...

In March, Time Out magazine released its list of the The 100 greatest cinemas in the world right now, and 6 Australian cinemas made the cut.

Sun Pictures in Broome, The Regal Theatre in Adelaide, Melbourne’s Sun and Astor Theatres, and Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema and Bar all made the list, but the highest ranking Australian cinema is the art deco Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Sydney, coming in at number 30.

The General Manager of the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, Alex Temesvari joins the program to share what makes the Orpheum so special, and what it's...

Hungarians will go to the polls on April 12 in what is shaping up to be a historic election.

Incumbent president, Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most right wing populist, and an ally of US president Donald Trump, is being challenged by Peter Magyar, a young centre-right candidate who originally hailed from Orbán’s Fidesz party.

Held every Easter long weekend at Exhibition Park in Canberra, the National Folk Festival is still going strong for it's 60th year running. To mark the anniversary, festival co-artistic director Holly Downes joins the show to speak about the history of the festival, and the strengths of folk culture today. 

Featuring the song Waterfall Way by The Double Dole Stringband.  

Guest: Holly Downes, one of the artistic directors of the National Folk Festival.

For more than 700 years, the upper house of British parliament, House of Lords, was largely made up of hereditary peers. Seats in the House of Lords were passed down through generations of Lords and Viscounts along with their titles.

But that all changed last month, when the last of the hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords, replaced with Life Peers, nominated by the Prime Minister.

Does the change mark the end of political nepotism, or the beginning of the end for the House of Lords?

Guest: Ralph Matthew Palmer, 12th...

North Korean workers in Russia work up to 16 hours a day with no day off and earn as little as 10 USD per month, according to a report titled A Day in the Life of a DPRK State-sponsored Labourer.

Adelaide's O-Bahn was the second guided bus railway in the world, and is now one of only four on the planet. But it has been an enormous success, and remains the most used public transport option in Adelaide. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Adelaide's O-Bahn, and the Bus Preservation Association of South Australia organised an informative tour to mark the occasion.

Guest: Michael Pretty - committee member of the Bus Preservation Association of South Australia, who organised the 40th anniversary O-Bahn tour, and is the proud owner of two O-Bahn buses.

This week's mystery caller occupies wooded habitats across the south and up the east – the Golden Whistler.

Emily Strasser was in her late teens before she began to realise the depth of her family's secret. Her grandfather, George, whom she had never met, had been a scientist at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, during the development of the atomic bomb that was eventually dropped on Hiroshima. This was the start of Emily's journey to uncover the truth about her grandfather's role and to come to terms with her family's past and the guilt she has inherited.

Guest: Emily Strasser, Professor in the Department of English at Tufts University in Boston and author of Half Life...

Much has been written about Errol Flynn, whose extraordinary life took him from Hobart, to Papua New Guinea, to Hollywood's Golden Age where he became an icon of the screen. But drawing from new sources including Flynn's own letters, Patricia A. O'Brien has written "the first complete account" of his life, which reveals the extent of Flynn's involvement in slavery, in more than one form.

Guest: Patricia A. O'Brien, Author of Errol Flynn - The true story of Australia's Hollywood icon, Adjunct Professor in Asian Studies at Georgetown University and Honorary Associate Professor in ANU's Department of...

Is the longevity of Australians in the 21st century actually a curse for future generations? Government spending on the elderly is predicted to grow significantly in the next 30 years, and the proportion of taxpayers will decline. So what are the burdens future generations will face if we all keep going on and on?

Guest: Lucinda Holdforth, speechwriter and author of Going On and On

As the negative effects of long-term alcohol use become clearer, it's a question that worries most modern parents: Is it OK to drink in front of your kids? Senior research fellow, Sergey Alexeev, has taken the question to task and joins Sunday Extra to talk about the findings of his new study Intergenerational Transmission of Alcohol Use.

Guest: Sergey Alexeev, Senior research fellow at University of Sydney, and Senior research associate at University of NSW

With the rise of popularity of One Nation with rural and regional Australians, what is the effect on refugees who have settled in regional areas? Do they feel welcomed and supported in  their communities? 

Our guest,Associate Professor Natascha Klocker, shares insights from her multi-year study “Settling Well investigates the impacts of refugee settlement in regional Australia”.

Guest: Natascha Klocker, social geographer, study lead and Interim Head of School, Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong

Type 5 diabetes is fast becoming a significant public health issue in parts of sub-saharan Africa, rivalling infectious diseases like Malaria and HIV. 

Why have Russia and China offered only tepid support to Iran in the form of statements criticising the US and Israel, and might that change if the Iranian regime goes to the brink of collapse?

After two years of sold-out shows in Sydney, in 2026 the Africa Film Fest is making its Melbourne debut. From Friday March 27 until the 29th, films from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, Algeria and Guinnea-Bissau will be screened for the first time for audiences in Melbourne.

Tickets available at the Cinema Nova and Africa Film Fest websites.

Guest: Mumbi Hinga, co-director of Africa Film Fest

Early in her medical career, Dr Olivia Ong decided that instead of becoming a neurosurgeon, she would go into rehabilitation medicine. Little could she know how important that field would be to her not just as a doctor, but also as a patient.  Because one otherwise-ordinary work day, when a driver with dementia in the hospital parking lot accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake, Olivia was hit by a car and left with a serious spinal injury. She was told she would never again. 

The United States National Archives is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of America with a lofty, high-altitude initiative called the Freedom Plane, a flying exhibition of nine founding documents of the American republic. 

The State government of Victoria has announced that later this year, a fee will be introduced for tourists visiting the Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road. Traditional Owners and locals won’t have to pay - though it is not yet clear how ‘locals’ will be defined.

David Rae, CEO of Corangamite Shire Council provided an audio statement on the council's position on the upcoming visitor fee.

Guest: Liz Price, General Manager of the Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism Board

Werner Herzog's documentary Ghost Elephants takes us deep into the remote Angolan Highlands, following conservationist Dr Steve Boyes and a team of Indigenous trackers on an extraordinary expedition.

After more than a decade of work, Dr Boyes is preparing to venture into one of the wildest regions in Africa — in search of an elephant so elusive that even local trackers rarely see it.

Guest: Dr Steve Boyes, conservationist and National Geographic Explorer

Ghost Elephants is streaming in Australia on Disney+

Short-wave radio enthusiasts have eagerly reported the appearance of Farsi-language encoded messages being broadcast out of Western Europe. The messages are being transmitted via number stations, which are radio broadcasts used by intelligence agencies to send encrypted messages to agents in the field. It is one of the oldest forms of clandestine communication, dating back to the first World War, and is still used by modern intelligence agencies today because they're almost impossible to decipher. 

A major new study from the University of Sydney, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, has found medicinal cannabis is no more effective than a placebo in treating common mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and PTSD.

Despite that, more than one million applications for medicinal cannabis have been approved in Australia, with prescriptions continuing to rise.

So, is the evidence lagging behind prescribing?

And should the Therapeutic Goods Administration rethink how medicinal cannabis is regulated and prescribed?

Guest: Jack Wilson, Research Fellow at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health...

Julian speaks with former Matildas vice captain Moya Dodd about the outcome of the Matildas Asia Cup final against Japan.

Guest: Moya Dodd, former Matildas Vice Captain

“A political earthquake” with “massive national implications”: that was the verdict of ABC Election Analyst Casey Briggs on the outcome of Saturday's South Australian state election.

Antarctica has long captured the imaginations of artists and poets, as well as explorers and scientists.

Since 2023, The University of Tasmania has been running a research project called Creative Antarctica , the first comprehensive survey of Antarctic-themed works by Australian writers and artists, funded by the Australian Research Council. 

Melbourne's RMIT is holding a free exhibition of works from the project, called Creative Antarctica: Australian Artists and Writers in the Far South until 2 May 2026. 

Guest: Elizabeth Leane, Professor of Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.

Adam Elliot is an auteur writer and director of animated films, who has carved his own path in the Australian film industry with his idiosyncratic films that have resonated across the globe. 

Australia will mark the 30th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in April 2026. The process of dealing with the grief and its ongoing effects are dealt with in Beyond the Neck, a theatre production written by acclaimed playwright Tom Holloway.

Have you ever wondered what your ancestors were feeling decades or centuries ago? Rob Boddice is an historian who argues that differences in our contexts and world-views would make our emotional experiences completely different - even the experience of pain.

Guest: Rob Boddice, Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki, author of The History of Emotions and A History of Feelings, and member of the Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences at the University of Tumpere.

As an official in the US State Department, Edward Fishman worked on imposing sanctions on Russia. Eddie discusses his latest book Chokepoints, which examines how critical economic monopolies have become the key to geopolitical power in the twenty-first century.

Chokepoints was chosen by The Economist as one of the best business and economics books of 2025. 

Guest: Edward Fishman, Director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in 2022, hoping the kinetic impact would nudge it off its orbit. The mission was called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART.

Four years later, scientists have published their findings and say the experiment was even more successful than expected.

Guest: Rahil Makadia, planetary defence scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and co-author of Direct detection of an asteroid’s heliocentric deflection: The Didymos system after DART