Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

This week's mystery caller is a colourful inhabitant of windswept coastal habitats – the Rock Parrot.

After a disaster, before reconstruction can begin, survivors invariably face a huge and often toxic problem: debris and in particular rubble. Mobile Crisis Construction is an Australian charity that has developed technology that uses rubble to quickly produce new building materials to repair damaged buildings.

In an age of distraction we are losing a surprisingly important skill - daydreaming. 

According to Professor Hannes Leroy, productive daydreaming is not only essential for innovation, but for problem-solving everyday issues and when we don't make space for it, we are losing the ability to find resolutions and solutions in our lives. 

Guest: Hannes Leroy, Director of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership, at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

The winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for Science this year was Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska from  the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at QUT. Lidia has done pioneering research into the air we breathe to safeguard public health and our environment, inlcuding during the COVID 19 pandemic. Now she wants to mandate air quality indoors.

Guest: Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska, QUT and Director of the International Laboratory of Air Quality and Health

“A giant of the Labor Party and a remarkable Australian” - that’s how Prime Minister Anthony Albanese remembered former ALP powerbroker and federal Cabinet Minister Graham Richardson, who died at the age of 76.

On 9 November 1975, Australia’s Governor General, Sir John Kerr, rang the Chief Justice of the High Court, Sir Garfield Barwick, and asked him for a meeting to discuss his intention to dismiss Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

This month it's the Shoemaker Frog. 

It’s one of the many frog species that gets its common name from the sound of its call - with the call reminiscent of a shoe-maker tapping nails into the sole of a shoe!

Thanks to the team at the Australian Museum's Frog Id project run by Dr Jodi Rowley

Kari Byron's time as a co-host on Mythbusters formed the core of her passion for science, but in the years since then she has turned that passion into a calling. She is now an advocate for fostering a love of STEM to younger generations, through her media company, EXPLR and the National STEM Festival which she founded and is expanding from the US to the rest of the world. 

Guest: Kari Byron, former co-host of Mythbusters, co-founder of EXPLR Media and director and founder of the US-based National STEM Festival.

A new mockumentary from Netflix, 1670, looks back on the absurdities of an obscure era of history - the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, which lasted from 1569 to 1795. Central European history expert, Darius Von Guttner Sporzynski shares the nuances of the historical comedy, and the universal truths it satirises. 

Guest: Professor Darius von Güttner Sporzyński, Professor of History at Australian Catholic University 

It's being marketed as Sunlight On-Demand. American startup Reflect Orbital is proposing a 2026 launch date for it's test satellite, which will a carry giant mirror into orbit capable of reflecting the sun's rays back to earth. But astronomers aren't convinced that the plan can work, and they have many concerns as to the side effects of these giant satellites if they did. 

Guest: Michael Brown, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Monash University. 

The Five Eyes alliance involving Australia, the UK, US, Canada and New Zealand is an enduring and sophisticated intelligence-sharing agreement that has been critical to the security of its member nations since its birth following world war two. A proposal from the Lowy Institute would create a similar alliance in the Pacific involving Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

Parliamentary elections were held in Tanzania this week, but with the leaders of the two major opposition parties in jail or disqualified from running, the re-election of current President Samia Suluhu Hassan was inevitable. The Electoral Commission has announced the President won almost 98% of the vote. Protesters have taken to the streets demanding a new election. There are unconfirmed reports that hundreds of protesters have been killed in the violence.

Guest Nosmot Gbadamosi, Nosmot Gbadamosi is a multimedia journalist and writes the Africa Brief for the journal Foreign Policy. 

This week's mystery caller is a colourful summer migrant to Far North Queensland – the Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher.

Omar El Akaad was at college in 2001 when the opportunity to become a writer opened up before him. Over the following decades this path would lead him through the violence of war in Afghanistan, the hidden injustices of Guantanomo Bay and the electric energy of the Arab Spring in Egypt. It would also allow him, in 2023 to voice his anger, disgust and outrage at the images he saw coming out of Gaza, which he has stilled in his latest book, part memoir, part searing manifesto, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. 

Guest: Omar El A...

This is the poem You, Me And That Chair by Johannes Winata, read by Trivita Tiffany Winataputri. The poem was the inspiration for the short film of the same name which recently won the ReelOZInd! short film festival. For more information about the festival click here.

YOU, ME, AND THAT CHAIR(translated from Bahasa Indonesia)Maybe these are the last moments we can spend together Going about our daily lives without worrying that tomorrow we might no longer see each otheror spend the night talking about the football match on TV,or watch you solve math formulas a...

It is the 10th year of the ReelOzInd! short film festival which is open to filmmakers from both Australia and Indonesia. The finalists are shown in both Indonesia and Australia both at the launch and as a pop up festival. This year's theme for the festival was imajinasi. The winning film this year centres on a father facing life as an empty nester.

Guests: Jemma Purdey, Festival Director and Trivita Tiffany Winataputri, the winner of this year's competition for her fllm You, Me and that Chair 

Click here to find more about the ReelOzInd! festival a...

Anti-immigration protests have become a regular fixture of the Australian news cycle. In the UK, CNN reported that anti-immigration rallies in London in September were attended by around 110 thousand people. That is the context for the upcoming 2025 Colin Clark Lecture at the University of Queensland on 29 October

Raila Odinga 'a towering figure in Kenyan politics' died on 15 October 2025, aged 80. A former Prime Minister, and son of Kenya’s first Vice-President, Odinga also famously ran in every Presidential election since 1997 bar one, never actually obtaining that office. 

Thirteen years after U Thant left his position as a school teacher in a small village in Burma, he found himself appointed as Secretary General of the United Nations. 

He was highly involved in many peace negotiations in his 10 years at the helm of the UN, including the Cuban missile crisis, the Congo, the Middle East and many more. Why is his legacy as a peacemaker largely forgotten?

Guest: Thant Myint U, historian, academic and author of The Peacemaker:  U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World 

Getting fired isn't normally something to celebrate, but Laura Brown, along with co-author Kristine O'Neill have created a part-memoir, part-manifesto for the modern woman - All the Cool Girls Get Fired. And it considers why the corporate ladder was never built for women, and how getting knocked off can be a blessing in disguise. 

Guest: Laura Brown, co-author of All The Cool Girls Get Fired

50 years after the murder of the Balibo 5 and 18 years after a coronial inquest confirmed the Australian journalists were deliberately shot by Indonesian forces, no action has been taken for accountability of the war crime. But one campaigner, Professor Clinton Fernandes, has been rallying to have the Balibo files declassified. 

Guest: Clinton Fernandes, Professor of International and Political Studies at UNSW

Theresa Payton made history as the first female Chief Information Officer in the White House, where she steered digital transformation strategy and helped secure critical government systems. With an increase in cybercrime in Australia, what's her advice to Australians on how to stay safe online and how to harness the enormous capabilities of generative AI without losing the human touch?

Guest: Theresa Payton - CEO of Fortalice Solutions and former White House Chief Information Officer

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is the architect of a suite of Donald Trump's hardline border policies, from the so-called “Muslim ban” to the ICE raids on undocumented immigrants. He has been described as a “race-baiting” nativist who is the “root of all evil” in the Trump administration. Who is Stephen Miller and why does he hold so much sway over the president?

Guest: David Klion, columnist for The Nation magazine and contributing editor at Jewish Currents. 

Stephanie Dogfoot is a comedian, poet and lawyer based in Singapore. They have been performing since 2008 and has established open mic nights for poets and comedians in particular encouraging women and the LGBTQI community to get up and perform. They have been forced to come out as bisexual in many different places and the reception is always different.

Guest: Stephanie Dogfoot, poet and comedian. She will be reading some of her poems at Queersland as part of the Brisbane Writers Festival and performing her stand up comedy show Gold Star Bisexual at the Melbourne Fringe Festival

From his early news on the business desk at a number of newspapers to a stint behind the scenes in Victorian state politics to the founding of the online news site Crikey, Stephen Mayne's career has occurred at the nexus of business, politics and journalism.

And while those worlds are often the scene of a lot of shenanigans and grubbiness, Stephen has made it his business to let some light in.

Stephen is now what could be called a professional corporate trouble maker, though his official title is full-time shareholder activist and publisher of The...

If you have ever had a medical procedure in a hospital, you might have noticed that much of the medical equipment that you came into contact with went straight into the bin afterwards. 

Since resigning as UK Prime Minister in 2007, Tony Blair has maintained an active interest in the Middle East through his think tank The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Carole Cadwalladr has been an investigative journalist for over 20 years and is now writing for the media outlet The Nerve. She has been digging into who funds his institute and whether this will compromise his proposed role in the running of Gaza. 

Guest: Carole Cadwalladr, investigative journalist with The Nerve and author of the Substack How to Survive the Broliarchy

Josh Neille took home his first animal to care for when he was eight years old. Now he is a registered wildlife carer in Gippsland VIctoria where he, his partner Amber and daughter Ashlee care for all sorts of wildlife from wombats to kangaroos, birds and snakes and turtles. Now Josh has a huge social media following as he tells the stories of both his successes and failures as a wildlife carer.

Guest: Josh Neille, wild life carer and author of Growing Up Wombat (Affirm Press) You can follow Josh on Tik Tok, Instagram or Facebook too.<...

Dr Margaret Leggatt and Sandy Jeffs are the authors of Out of the Madhouse: From Asylums to Mental Health Reform – Who Cares? 

The book focuses on the now-closed Larundel Psychiatric Hospital in Melbourne, but it has been re-released this week with updated coverage including of Victoria’s Royal Commission into the Mental Health System handed down in February 2021.

University of Sydney academics Dr Nick Riemer and Professor John Keane will be facing the Federal Court on Monday 13th October after university colleagues made a complaint of anti-Semitism against them under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. The case hinges on whether criticism of Israel and Zionism equates to anti-Semitism.

Guest: Dr Nick Riemer, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Sydney

While the physical condition of the 20 living hostages is unknown, it is anticipated that the 2 years spent in captivity has had an extreme impact on all aspects of their health and will require ongoing treatment.

Historian Dr. Emily Gallagher believes that the playtime of a generation is as much a reflection of a cultural history of a time and a place as it is an individual memory. 

Murray Hunter is a retired academic and author who writes a substack column on Southeast Asian politics, with an emphasis on Malaysia where he lived and worked for thirty years. Now living in Thailand he was arrested at Bangkok airport and charged in relation to defamation charged brought against him by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. After a night in a Thai jail he was granted bail.  He believes that this is an another example of cooperation across ASEAN in transnational repression.

Guest: Murray Hunter, retired academic, author and journalist

Murray Hunter's Substack

Syria will mark a major milestone today when it holds its first election since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime late last year.

Geraldine Cox started her long career with DFAT with a posting to Cambodia in the 1970s. In 1993 she was working for a bank when she went back to Cambodia for a visit.  The trip changed her life forever when she decided to give up her city life to run an orphanage in Cambodia - which she is still doing 30 years later. 

Guest: Geraldine Cox, founder of Sunrise Cambodia and author of Home is Where the Heart is.

Snakes and serpents appear in the stories of cultures all over the world. What can these tales tell us about the world today?

Cultural institutions that find their collections contain artefacts have been stolen or obtained illegally are reckoning with how to return important pieces of cultural history.

This week's croak is the Easter Sign Bearing Froglet.

The latest ABS data shows the amount of sugar in the food and drinks we consume has reduced significantly since 1995. 

Steven Freeland is the Chair of the UNCOPUOS Working Group on the Legal Aspect of Space Resources Activity which means that he tries to get 110 countries to agree on the rules regarding space. Given the current state of hostiles on earth, that would seem to be a daunting task, but Steven Freeland remains optimistic, while acknowledging the challenges in getting agreement on what the rules in space should be.

Guest : Steven Freeland, Chair of the UNCOPUOS Working Group on the Legal Aspect of Space Resources Activity and Emeritus Professor at Bond University and the University of Western Sy...