Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Despite taking place more that 500 years ago, the Black Death plague still fascinates us, and historians are still unearthing new facts about the medieval pandemic.

Marjon Mossammaparast is an Iranian poet and English teacher. Now based in Melbourne, she was born in Iran in 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution. 

An exhibition called Cane at the Rockhampton Museum of Art is giving voice to the little discussed stories of the South Sea Islander community in Central Queensland. The exhibition features artworks from artists with South Sea Islander lineage, addressing the history, heritage, and identity of these unique communities in Queensland. 

Guest: Melinda Mann

Ben’Imana is set in Rwanda in 2012, during the Gacaca people’s court trials that sought justice and community reconciliation after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Alongside the court proceedings, a genocide survivor organises discussion groups between women from both sides of the conflict: survivors, and those who are related to male perpetrators. Sometimes they are within the same family. Guest: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, writer and director of Ben'Imana.

Why is the world’s most populous country, which is rapidly advancing in so many arenas, failing to live up to its dreams of glory on the pitch?

Armenia heads to the polls on Sunday in what has been described as “one of its most pivotal elections since regaining independence in 1991.” Just don't describe it as a choice between Russia and the West says Laurence Borers. 

At the 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum, Burmese artist Sai Redacted was one of the recipients of the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.

Who is Field Marshal Asim Munir, the Pakistani military leader balancing negotiations between the US and Iran? How did he win the trust of Iran and become Trump's 'favourite Field Marshal', rising in power and influence abroad and at home in Pakistan?

Guest: Bobby Ghosh, geopolitical analyst and commentator

You can read Bobby's post on Asim Munir on his Substack Ghoshworld.

Chess may not look physically gruelling, but at the elite level it is one of the world's most intense competitive pursuits. Journalist and author Jordan Himelfarb discusses his new book on the fierce battle to become the next world chess champion.

Guest: Jordan Himelfarb, journalist and author of Interregnum: Inside the Grueling and Glamorous Battle to Become the Next King of Chess

This week's mystery caller of the north was spotted tapping at the door of a Sunday Extra listener – the Yellow Oriole.

During World War II, a motley crew of US historians and archaeologists were drawn into a covert mission to protect Greece's the ancient treasures from the Nazis. Author Stephan Talty discusses the remarkable true story behind his new book The American School of Spies.

Being a Bigfooter is an identity in the US, complete with conferences, research organisations and online social groups. They believe Bigfoot is real, and they intend to prove it. But across the Atlantic British sociological researchers are less interested in finding Bigfoot, then uncovering the massive coalition of Bigfoot hunters and the line they toe between mythology and science.

Guest: Dr Jamie Lewis, sociologist at Cardiff University and co-author of Bigfooters and Scientific Inquiry: On the Borderlands of Legitimate Science

Britain’s first housing cooperative for women over 50 opened its doors 10 years ago. The New Ground housing project houses 26 women, almost all of whom previously lived alone. Today, 21 of the original 26 women still live at New Ground, the youngest resident is 60, and the oldest is 96. Guest: Maria Brenton, one of the founders of New Ground co-housing in North London, and UK Cohousing Network’s Senior Co-housing Ambassador.

China's hukou system, which has long restricted the rights of internal migrant workers is undergoing significant reform. What might these changes mean for China's economy, workforce and social structure?

Why do New Zealanders say “fush and chups”, and “hair” like “here”? A new theory about the origins of the distinctive NZ accent is being explored by researchers at the University of Auckland, based on a doctoral thesis they re-discovered from 1921. Guest: Dr Brooke Ross, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Auckland.

Costa Constanti, who was born and bred in Melbourne - is running for parliament in Cyprus with the Volt Party, which calls itself “the first Pan-European party”.

The Nightline is an instalment work coming to the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, and the creators are calling on night owls, shift workers, insomniacs and anyone who happens to find themselves awake in the small hours for anonymous contributions. Guest: Roslyn Oades, director of The Nightline.

This week's colourful wetland caller is found across the north and down the east — the Azure Kingfisher.

Acclaimed Soviet historian Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick reflects on the experiences and historical and personal events of 1989 that shaped her life and career.

Australian author Anne Spencer Parry's debut 1976 fantasy novel The Land Behind the World was described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "weird, complex, fanciful — and intriguing". Sheila Ngọc Phạm describes Parry as someone whose “works are a testament to the life she formed from unusual, difficult and brave choices”.

Future Library is a long-term literary project based in Norway. It currently holds 11 unpublished manuscripts and a growing forest of spruce trees, planted to supply paper for books that will not be printed until 2114. No one has read the manuscripts, and they will remain sealed for almost a century.

Guest: Anne Beate Hovind, Chair and producer of Future Library, in Oslo.

A strange international scandal known as “Honduras-gate” has raised allegations of a covert disinformation campaign targeting left-wing Latin American governments. Former diplomat Jeremy Dicker unpacks the claims and the geopolitical intrigue surrounding the story. 

A bitter disagreement has emerged between Ukraine's Ministry of Defence and military leadership over the use of autonomous weapons. 

Ukraine is emerging as a world-leading drone technology producer, as a result of the Russian invasion, and the new Minister is going all in on battlefield tech capable of making lethal decisions with no human oversight. 

The Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru - which translates to the Party of Wales - is forming government for the first time after an historic electoral victory. While Plaid Cymru has stood for Welsh independence for 100 years, party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has ruled out an independence referendum in their first term. Guest: Elliw Gwawr, Political Correspondent at BBC Wales.

Warren Entsch was the Federal member for the seat of Leichhardt in far north Queensland from 1996 to 2025 with a gap between 2010 and 2013. He was instrumental in the push for marriage equality.

Behind the Met Gala's red carpet "Fashion is Art" theme this year is a more nuanced interpretation of how fashion and art collide. The Met's Costume Institute has a new exhibit called Costume Art, which pairs nearly 400 historical and contemporary garments with paintings, sculptures and artefacts from across the museum's 5,000-year collection.

Guest: Dr Llewellyn Negrin Adjunct Senior Researcher at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Tasmania

The heroic accounts of Australian Army Nursing Sisters Margaret Anderson and Vera Torney who survived the perilous evacuation of Singapore in 1942.

In 2012, a group of writers organised a workshop in Junee Correctional Centre with funding from the South Coast Writers Centre. The collection of writing by inmates was published in a volume called Dreaming Inside: Voices from the Junee Correctional Centre. Since then, the project - now known as Ngana Barangarai (or ‘Black Wallaby’) has grown significantly, with Aunty Barbara Nicholson at the helm as project director. Guests: Dr Aunty Barbara Nicholson, Wadi Wadi elder and project director, and Luke Patterson, Gamilaroi poet, educator and musician.

In her new book Being Reasonable: the case for a misunderstood virtue, Professor Krista Lawlor describes reasonableness as 'one of the essential fluids in our social machine'.

The release of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra after eight months in jail has prompted debate over whether Thailand's long-dominant 'Thaksin era' has finally come to an end.

A painting looted by the Nazis has been discovered hanging in the home of a Dutch SS-Commander's descendants. Portrait of a Young Girl, a modernist painting by Dutch artist Toon Kelder was recovered thanks to the work of art detective Arthur Brand, known as the 'Indiana Jones of the art world'.

Dancing was always part of Frances Rings' childhood, helping her make sense of the world around her in a small country town. But when, at just 17, she boarded a bus to Sydney to study at NAISDA Dance College, Frances discovered dance could be more than movement — it could be a way of carrying culture, ceremony and storytelling, and a deeper connection to her identity.

Guest: Frances Rings, Artistic Director and co-CEO of Bangarra Dance Theatre

A growing body of research suggests that experiencing awe has positive effects for our sense of wellbeing - an idea that might make intuitive sense, but which is being increasingly supported by empirical research in the fields of neuroscience and psychology. Guest: Dr Nikki-Anne Wilson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the UNSW Australian Ageing Futures Institute and Conjoint Research Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia. 

How did the formative experiences, personality traits, world views and leadership styles of Australia's last seven Prime Ministers influence the instability of Australian politics in the last quarter century? Guest: Paul Strangio, author of The Alchemy of Leadership: Seven Australian Prime Ministers in a Turbulent Twenty-First Century, emeritus professor of politics at Monash University.

Proponents of direct action say it’s part of democratic life. It’s detractors say it's a threat to safety, a violation of majority rule and rule of law. What can the history of direct action tell us about its place in our democracy today? Guest: Sean Scalmer, professor of history at the University of Melbourne

Approximately 9,000 educational institutions and 275 million of their students have been affected by a data breach involving the 'learning management system' Canvas Criminal hacking group ShinyHunters has claimed credit for the hack and is demanding a ransom from the US tech company Instructure which runs Canvas. Guest: Abu Barkat Ullah, Associate Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Canberra.

The major human rights conference RightsCon was due to convene in Zambia this week but was cancelled at the last minute, with some suggestion the government was under pressure from China to do so. Guest: Linda Kasonde, Zambian lawyer and civil society activist.

ABC election analyst Casey Briggs not only called the seat for One Nation at 8pm, he also called Farrer as now a safe seat for One Nation.

The Human Rights Legal Centre and the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom have intervened in a case being heard in the High Court to raise what they describe as 'public interest concerns relating to whistleblowing and press freedom'. 

Can you guess this week's tweeter?