Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

“Cooking for Seamus” is a TV cooking project funded by Screen Australia.

The uniqueness of this show comes from the fact that Seamus, the judge of this cooking show, is an Angus bull with a rare palsy condition.

Peter Shmigel's story began in New York City where he grew up steeped in the culture of his Ukrainian refugee parents. His life has since included stints as a Western Sydney builder, a member of an underground resistance group, CEO of one of Australia’s leading suicide prevention service, political advisor and now correspondent for the Kyiv Post newspaper.

It’s the Ornate Burrowing Frog! 

As their name implies, these frogs spend much of their life, particularly in dry times and during the day, buried underground. They emerge to call and breed, and are known to form huge choruses with other species after heavy rains. After they breed, you'll find foamy clumps of eggs left behind.

Thanks to Dr Jodi Rowley and the Australian Museum Frog ID Project. 

Antarctica is at the frontline of witnessing the effects of climate change and Dr Chen Zhao is one of the lead researchers mapping how the Antarctic ice-sheets are affected by global warming, and the potential consequences of this on rising sea-levels. The importance of her work has now been recognised by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, who named her one of two 2025 Young Tall Poppys of the Year.

Guest: Dr Chen Zhao, glaciologist and ice-sheet modeller with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.

Large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, are usually trained on Standard American English. But with all the dialects of English that exist outside of this - how do LLMs understand emotive language from non-American English speakers, especially when it comes to good old Aussie sarcasm.

Guest: Aditya Joshi, Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of NSW.

People on the internet love to like, in fact clicks on 'Like' buttons "now add up to over 160 billion per day - roughly equivalent to every person on the planet, from toddler to great- grandparent, clicking a Like button 20 times daily on average”.

Dr. Arne Rubinstein has spent more than 30 years helping parents and teenagers through the complex transition into adulthood through his Rites of Passage Institute, which seeks to empower young adults and their communities through positive, healthy transitions focusing on personal growth and resilience. He has now been acknowledged for his work by The Fathering Project with the award for the 2025 Australian Father of the Year.

Guest: Dr. Arne Rubinstein, CEO and Founder of the Rites of Passage Institute and recipient of The Fathering Project's Australian Father of the Year Award for 2025.

This week Federal Attorney General Michelle Rowland introduced the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill to Federal Parliament. The Centre for Public Integrity says the bill continues "a worrying trend of prioritising government efficiency over transparency”.

In 1943, Australian Attorney-General Doc Evatt sent UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill... a platypus. 

Why? For diplomacy, of course!

When it inevitably perished two days before arriving in Liverpool, our guest, in the Journal of Environment and History, wrote “Winston’s death cannot have come as a terrible surprise: he was travelling in the middle of the war, constantly under threat by German U-boats.5 He was also a platypus.”.

GUEST: Dr Harrison Croft, recently awarded a PHD from Monash University.

Dr Kate Marvel was named by Time Magazine one of 15 Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change in 2019. She was described as someone who “cuts through misinformation about climate change with storytelling”.

She is a former cosmologist with a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cambridge University. Her professional focus now is modelling climate change.

Brisbane is about getting ready for the dance battle of the year, when Brisbane Festival hosts the 7th year of the sequin-infested, hairspray-recommended, tongue-in-cheek dance competition -The Common People Dance Eisteddfod. Creator of the event, Neridah Waters, shares how the Eisteddfod started and why she welcomes Rock Eisteddfod Rejects from all over Brisbane into the Common People community. 

Guest: Neridah Waters, co-founder of the Common People Dance Project and director of the Common People Dance Eisteddfod.

This week's mystery caller is found dry woodland across the south of Australia – the Yellow-plumed Honeyeater.

Experts say we’ve seen a mainstreaming of once-fringe conspiracy beliefs, fuelled in part by the pandemic and amplified by social media.

So what do they tell us about Australian society?

A hoard of treasure found in the lowlands of Scotland has re-written what historians know about the Viking-age in Britain. Containing silver and gold as well more usual items, from as far away as the West Asia, the highlights of the Galloway Hoard, and the story of their uncovering, are on display at the Museum of Melbourne.

Guest: Adrian Maldonaldo, Researcher of the Galloway Hoard at the National Museum of Scotland.

Flash drives for Freedom is a long-running initiative by the Human Rights Foundation which has smuggled 140,000 donated USB drives, SD cards and micro SD cards into North Korea, filled with information, entertainment and educational content to counter regime propaganda.

The 'Right to Hunt' is at the centre of a controversial new bill being debated in NSW parliament at the moment. Introduced by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, the bill seeks to, among other things, enshrine the rights of hunters into NSW legislation. Stephen Bendle joins us to discuss what the potential implications are of the amendment and what his organisations objections are to the bill. 

Guest: Stephen Bendle, Convenor of the Australian Gun Safety Alliance and a senior advisor for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. 

The most common map of the world is one that was created in the 16th century known as the Mercator projection. Now the African Union has joined a campaign to update this map with a new one which much more accurately represents the size of Africa in the world. Does the size of the African continent represent a 400 year disinformation campaign?

Guest: Lerato Mogoathle, Head of Communications, Africa No Filter

Link to the Correct the Map Campaign

This week the Tweet is the Pilotbird.

It's chocolate-brown in colour, and it measures about 18 centimetres. And although it's a secretive bird, that bright and clear call will alert you to its presence. Legend has it that the Pilotbird's call was a useful guide, or 'pilot', for hunters who were looking for larger, plumper, Lyrebirds!

And back in 2014 our Tweet of the Week quizmaster Matthew Crawford spoke with the sound recordist David Stewart... Matthew asked for a favourite recording - one which would make a good challenge in Tweet of the Week. And Dave chose...

Podcaster and broadcaster Josh Szeps has made a career out of making uncomfortable conversations comfortable. He has worked in America on programs like HuffPost Live and in Australia he worked with Mike Carlton early in his career and hosted the afternoon show on ABC local radio. He now hosts his own podcast Uncomfortable Conversations.

Guest: Josh Szeps, host of the podcast Uncomfortable Conversations.

It was on the 24th August 2006, that the International Astronomical Union changed the definition of planet which meant that Pluto lost its status as the 9th planet in our solar system. On this auspicious anniversary we talk to the astronomer who made the discovery that lead to Pluto's downgrading.

Guest: Mike Brown, author of How I Killed Pluto and What it Had it Coming

Working 4 days a week on the same salary might seem like an unrealistic dream, but years of trials by businesses world wide show that reducing work hours can boost productivity, job satisfaction, reduces sick leave and even increase profits.

So why is there so much reluctance to consider the measure in Australia, in the middle of a productivity crisis?

Guest: Debbie Bailey, co-CEO of 4 Day Week Global.

George Orwell wrote the book Animal Farm during WW2 as he tried to come to terms with his disappointment in the harsh reality of life in the Soviet Union under Stalin. The themes of overturning an authoritarian government made the book the perfect story for the CIA to be using for propaganda.  Over a period of a few months in 1955, they distributed 260,000 copies of the novella behind the iron curtain in an attempt to encourage a revolution. The book celebrated its 80th birthday on 17 August 1925.

Guest: Charlie English, author of  The CIA Book Club - The Best Ke...

The International Criminal Court set an important precedent in international law last month when it included in the arrest warrants issued for members of the Afghan Taliban a number of charges relating to the criminal treatment of LGBTIQ+ people in the country.

It’s the first time that crimes against the LGBTIQ+ community have been included in an arrest warrant issued by the court and sets an important historical precedent. 

100 word including guest & book

The vast contributions of women to horror film is explored in a new documentary titled 1000 Women in Horror. Far from just being scream queens, women have shaped the genre on and off-screen as directors, producers, technicians and actresses, since the silent era. 

Julian Kingma's photo essay book, The Power of Choice, shows the vulnerable, personal and surprisingly beautiful journey of terminally ill people, their carers and navigators as they make the decision to utilise voluntary assisted dying (VAD).

But this project, undertaken with Andrew Denton's organisation, Go Gently, is just one of many moments where death has touched Julian's life.  

Guest: Julian Kingma, photographer and author of The Power of Choice

Content warning: this episode of The Year That Made Me contains discussion of death and dying.

Help and support is always available. C...

Books have always aroused strong emotions in people. So much so that book owners throughout history have written curses in the front of the book to deter their theft or damage. Some of them are funny but in the middle ages the curses threatened death by some very vicious and imaginative methods.

Guest: Eleanor Baker, author of Book Curses: Steal not this book for fear of shame, for here doth stand the owner's name. (Bodleian)  

This week's mystery caller likes wet forest along the east coast – the Russet-tailed Thrush.

Kirli Saunder is a Gunai woman from East Gippsland Victoria who’s written nine books including the poetry collections, Kindred, and Returning  and in February this year Eclipse. She is a multi media artist connecting poetry with music and digital  technology to produce light shows, drone shows and films.

Guest: Kirli Saunders, poet, artist, singer and teacher.

Kirli Saunders is performing at the Poetry Month Gala on Thursday 28th August at the State Library of NSW -- 

AND the Shortwave x Red Room Poetry: Short Films film night on Wednesday 3rd September  at the Sydney Oper...

The Australian National University is being criticised for the decision to disestablish the Australian National Dictionary Centre, which since 1988 has been jointly funded by ANU and Oxford University Press Australia to conduct research into Australian English.

The ABS described the Census testing process in a statement released this week, testing of potential changes to the content of the Census has been underway since late 2023.   

Alaska has been the location of some big negotiations in the past. Back in 1867, the Russians sold the territory to America for 7.2 million dollars, because they were short of cash. Now President  Putin has come back to the former Russian territory to meet with President Trump to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. 

Guest: Ian Hartman, Professor of History, University of Alaska Anchorage

On 17 August 1945, Indonesian nationalist leaders Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesia’s independence, formally ending 350 years of Dutch colonial rule in the midst of occupation by Japanese forces. 

Bret McKenzie is part of the world-conquering New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.  And if that wasn't enough, his song written for the Muppets - Man or Muppet - won both a Grammy and and Academy award. This month he releases his second solo album Freak Out City … which follows his 2022 debut Songs Without Jokes. 

Guest: Bret McKenzie, Songwriter and performer

The Right Reverend Susan Bell is the 12th Bishop of Niagara in Canada and is in Australia to give the Barry Marshall Memorial Lecture at the University of Melbourne's Trinity College. She will be talking about what we can learn about managing polarisation from the 17th century priest and poet George Herbert.

Guest: The Right Reverend Susan Bell, 12th Bishop of Niagara

This week's mystery caller skulks in dense cover near mudflats and marshes all over mainland Australia – the colourful Buff-banded Rail.

While the bagpipes are the national instrument of Scotland, how global is their history? The first written account of someone playing the bagpipes was Nero in the first century - was he playing them while Rome burned? How do you explain the absence of she-pipers in their history? And who were the pipers responsible for the first case of Scottish Nationalist terrorism in the 1940s.

Guest: Richard McLauchlan, author of The Bagpipes: A Cultural History (Hurst)

Women competing at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September will have to undergo an SRY gene test before competing. But the professor that discovered the relevant gene has concerns that thew policy is misguided.

Guest: Professor Andrew Sinclair, Deputy Director of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Professorial Fellow, translational Genomics

Article in The Conversation: World Athletics' mandatory genetic test for women athletes is misguided. I should know - I discovered the relevant gene in 1990

For almost twenty years under the leadership of Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch carried out investigations in 100 countries to uncover and expose human rights abuses.

From the genocide in Rwanda in the mid 1990s, through to China’s abuses against the Uighurs and Russia’s war in Ukraine, Human Rights Watch has been at the frontline of efforts to call out and, where possible, bring an end to the actions of authoritarian regimes.

GUEST:

Kenneth Roth Lawyer and human rights advocate and Executive Director of Human Rights Watch from 1993 until 2022.

Righting Wron...