Behind the Lines

By The Guardian

News & Politics

What's Behind the Lines about?

Come behind the scenes at the Guardian Australia newsroom. We talk to our journalists about the stories they’ve written and how they came to write them. If there are particular articles you’d like us to discuss, please do get in touch

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LAST EPISODE

Introducing Breathless: The...

07.27.2018

Indigenous man David Dungay Jr died in Sydney’s Long Bay jail after a disagreement about a packet of biscuits. Our new podcast explores the questions his death raises about the use of medical restraint and tranquillisers Listen to Breathless, episode ...

Behind the Lines episodes:

07.27.2018 Introducing Breathless: The Death of David Dungay Jnr Indigenous man David Dungay Jr died in Sydney’s Long Bay jail after a disagreement about a packet of biscuits. Our new podcast explores the questions his death raises about the use of medical restraint and tranquillisers Listen to Breathless, episode ...
05.25.2018 How did we start Guardian Australia? Behind the lines podcast In 2012 Katharine Viner’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, took her aside and proposed starting a branch of the Guardian in Australia. A few months later she met the people who would become her first local journalists: Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy. ...
04.09.2018 Tim Winton on men, boys and writing 'with my heart in my mouth' – Behind the Lines podcast In a speech recorded in March at The School of Life in Melbourne, the Australian author explains how writing The Shepherd’s Hut got him thinking about the boys that get left behind • Tim Winton on how toxic masculinity is ...
11.01.2017 Introducing Common Ground – Behind the Lines podcast Gabrielle Jackson introduces you to our latest Guardian Australia podcast: Common Ground. Lenore Taylor and Rebecca Huntley bring four very different Australians together to find out where their views come from
07.24.2017 Brigid Delaney on wellness: yoga, colonics and 'the commodification of spirituality' – Behind the Lines podcast The Guardian columnist Brigid Delaney talks with Gabrielle Jackson and Bonnie Malkin about the highs and lows of the years she spent researching her new book Wellmania. Delaney talks about how retreats and yoga have worked for her … but ...
06.21.2017 Sexual assault and Australian universities: how big is the problem? – Behind the Lines podcast ‘This is not a feminist issue. This is a public health issue,’ says Amy Ziering on the prevalence of sexual assault on university campuses in the USA. She was speaking on a panel to discuss her 2015 documentary, The Hunting ...
06.01.2017 'Trump can't stop progress on climate change' – Behind the Lines podcast With action in countries around the world and on the ground at a state level in the US, is Donald Trump’s position on climate change irrelevant? Martijn Wilder, from Baker & McKenzie and Greg Bourne previously the regional president for ...
05.22.2017 Black Lives Matter: 'We're trying to re-imagine humanity' – Behind the Lines podcast Calla Wahlquist talks to Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and Aboriginal activist Latoya Rule, whose brother Wayne Morrison died in custody in South Australia last year. As the Sydney peace prize is awarded to the Black Lives Matters ...
03.18.2017 Katharine Viner and Lenore Taylor: Does the truth matter? - Behind The Lines Podcast The ABC’s Mark Colvin joins Guardian’s editor-in-chief Katharine Viner and Guardian Australia’s editor Lenore Taylor to discuss the changing face of journalism. They examine Donald Trump’s presidency and the difficulty the media has in holding him to account, as well ...
03.17.2017 Thomas Frank: Donald Trump is right but a hypocrite – Behind the Lines podcast When the US president talked about ‘the forgotten men and women of our country, people who work hard but no longer have a voice’ he connected with voters. After his winning pitch to the working class have the Democrats lost ...
03.02.2017 How 'alt-right' ideology leaked into mainstream Australian politics – Behind the Lines podcast Guardian columnist Jason Wilson explores the rise of the ‘alt-right’. In conversation with Bridie Jabour and Gabrielle Jackson he describes how Richard Spencer coined the term to represent a ‘big tent’ for dissident rightwing thinkers. Wilson argues that the line ...
12.30.2016 The lighter side of 2016 – Behind the Lines podcast We look at the biggest news stories of 2016 that were ‘not really news’. From Harambe’s rise to meme stardom to Pokémon Go and Taylor Swift, Guardian staff discuss some of the year’s cultural phenomena
12.22.2016 Ms Dhu: how an Aboriginal death in custody unfolded – Behind the Lines podcast Calla Wahlquist explores the timeline of Ms Dhu’s detainment and how she was misdiagnosed. We also hear from Ms Dhu’s grandmother and uncle on the impact of her death and why it’s important for everyone to watch the footage of ...
12.14.2016 What is your teenager doing online? – Behind the lines podcast We talk to teenagers about what they were doing on the internet in their formative years and how their parents trying to protect them led to them using the internet in secret. How can parents protect their kids without being ...
11.10.2016 'We need a moratorium on all coalmines': Naomi Klein in conversation – Behind the Lines podcast On a Sydney Peace Prize panel moderated by Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor, the author Naomi Klein, anti-Carmichael coalmine campaigner Murrawah Johnson, climate action leader Maria Tiimon Chi- Fang, Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood and GetUp! ...
10.27.2016 'All they see is your race, because that is what's written on your body' \| Christina Ho It’s impossible to talk about rising pressure in education without addressing the elephant in the room, that is, the prevalence of children of Asian background working overtime for their excellent academic outcomes in our schools, particularly our selective schools. People ...
10.06.2016 Pauline Hanson voters speak: 'I'm utterly disappointed in the way our country is run' – Behind the Lines podcast There has been plenty of speculation about why One Nation supporters voted the way they did in the 2016 federal election. Bridie Jabour asks the voters themselves for the Behind the Lines podcast and the answers are complicated – and ...
09.07.2016 David Marr at Fodi: can we solve the asylum seeker crisis? – Behind the Lines podcast Could a simple change to the law make a difference for asylum seekers in Australia? Or do we need to stop acting as though there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ types of refugees? David Marr, Shukufa Tahiri, Jane McAdam, Daniel Webb ...
08.11.2016 How Guardian Australia broke the Nauru files story – Behind the Lines podcast What’s it like combing through thousands of reports of abuse? Bridie Jabour talks to Paul Farrell, Helen Davidson and Nick Evershed about the investigation, how the project came together and why reporters used to covering immigration and child cruelty cases ...
08.09.2016 Dr Munjed Al Muderis' journey to Australia – Behind the Lines podcast Dr Munjed Al Muderis lived very comfortably in Iraq but what led him to leave as a traitor? Today he is an inspiring doctor who specialises in crafting new limbs for amputees but to get here he risked a dangerous ...
07.08.2016 Kristina Keneally: what has Malcolm Turnbull got himself into? - Behind the Lines podcast He’s still going to be prime minister, but Malcolm Turnbull did not get the election result he wanted. So how can he recapture political momentum? Kristina Keneally joins Bridie Jabour and Miles Martignoni and suggests at least one way the ...
07.02.2016 Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy on a 'strange, upside-down' election – Behind the Lines podcast Join an all-star cast of Guardian contributors as we unpack how election night went. Lenore Taylor, Katharine Murphy and Gabrielle Chan discuss what the result means for Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten. Election analyst Ben Raue takes a close look ...
07.01.2016 Gay Alcorn in Indi: voices from a divided electorate – Behind the Lines podcast Gay Alcorn travels to the Victorian seat of Indi, which independent Cathy McGowan won from Liberal party MP Sophie Mirabella in 2013. Can McGowan repeat her success or will the electorate return to Mirabella, or possibly Nationals candidate Marty Corboy? ...
06.28.2016 Attack ads: do they actually work? – Behind the Lines podcast Kristina Keneally joins Gabrielle Jackson and Miles Martignoni to discuss election ads and slogans, what you should be doing in the last week of the campaign, the best and worst performers so far, and why Scott Morrison could be Australia’s ...
06.22.2016 Is spending billions more on education a price worth paying? – Behind the Lines podcast Lucy Clark joins Gabrielle Jackson and Kristina Keneally to discuss the education policies on offer at this election, why the Gonski funding plan now divides the major parties, and how that debate means some critical questions are being ignored
06.15.2016 How to show 'the stench of death' on the Great Barrier Reef – Behind the Lines podcast Michael Slezak, Guardian Australia’s environment reporter, joins Gabrielle Jackson, Nick Evershed and Lucy Clark to talk about how we revealed the full story of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef for our ‘Reef on the brink’, series and why ...
06.13.2016 Van Badham: don't fall for the same old neoliberal election ads – Behind the Lines podcast Van Badham joins Gabrielle Jackson and Miles Martignoni to discuss inequality in Australia and what the economic policies being presented this election cycle might mean for everyday Australians • Is Australia egalitarian? Ask the worker sacked for using a Post-it ...
06.07.2016 David Marr: Shorten would be a good Victorian premier, but would he make a good PM? David Marr joins Behind the Lines podcast regulars Bridie Jabour and Michael Safi to discuss the the election campaign so far. Is the Labor leader doing well, or is the bar just set very low? Is there even a bar ...
06.07.2016 Kristina Keneally: the truth about election tax cut promises – Behind the Lines podcast Kristina Keneally joins Gabrielle Jackson and Miles Martignoni to discuss the election campaign at the halfway stage, including the claim that Labor once supported corporate tax cuts, Scott Morrison’s aggressive language in a press conference, why Malcolm Turnbull’s father is ...
06.01.2016 Richard Ackland: 'Where is George Brandis?' – Behind the Lines podcast Why has the attorney general been absent from the campaign trail ? Richard Ackland joins Bridie Jabour to discuss this and why Australia’s legal aid funding is so low that it’s actually costing taxpayers more
05.30.2016 Kristina Keneally on why the leaders' debate doesn't matter – Behind the Lines podcast Kristina Keneally joins Bridie Jabour and Gabrielle Jackson to discuss the latest face-off between Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten, the protests against Mike Baird and the coverage of Amber Heard’s domestic violence case against Johnny Depp
05.24.2016 David Marr on the one thing that's stopping the Coalition from ruling forever – Behind the Lines podcast David Marr, Bridie Jabour and Michael Safi discuss the ‘elephant poo’ the Coalition has been cleaning up since Peter Dutton’s remarks on refugees, and what the marriage equality debate says about parliament
05.23.2016 NBN raids: how independent are the federal police? – Behind the Lines podcast with Kristina Keneally Kristina Keneally joins Bridie Jabour and Gabrielle Jackson to discuss the Australian federal police raids over alleged NBN leaks, what they mean for the election campaign, whistleblower protection, freedom of press, and why an independent agency like the AFP is ...
05.18.2016 David Marr asks: could Bill Shorten win? And why is everyone so scared of the Greens? On this weeks’ Behind the Lines podcast David Marr talks to Bridie Jabour and Michael Safi about the Labor leader’s chances, Malcolm Turnbull’s weaknesses and how this election is shaping up as a repeat of 2013
05.16.2016 Women in politics in a world ruled by middle-aged white men – Behind the Lines podcast Kristina Keneally, Bridie Jabour and Gabrielle Jackson discuss gender imbalances in Australian politics, vocal fry, quotas and why having more women in any organisation is better for everyone, male and female
05.12.2016 How to understand the numbers flying around election 2016 - Behind the Lines Podcast Guardian Australia’s data and interactives editor Nick Evershed tells us what you can read into polls – and what you can safely ignore. Plus he discusses the state of data journalism across the world – and how robots are starting ...
05.09.2016 How is everyone going to survive an eight-week election campaign? – Behind the Lines podcast Former New South Wales premier Kristina Keneally joins Guardian staffers Bridie Jabour and Gabrielle Jackson to discuss the truth about life on the campaign trail – whether you’re a politician or a journalist. The threesome also chew over the first ...
05.03.2016 Why journalists are locked up for the budget - Behind the Lines podcast As Scott Morrison delivers the 2016 federal budget, laying the ground for the Coalition’s election campaign strategy, Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy discuss what it’s like being locked in a room trying to extract the real meaning from the budget ...
05.01.2016 'Superannuation is a giant rip-off' and other election pitches - Behind the Lines podcast At a special live event Bridie Jabour and her panel discuss what would happen without superannuation, whether a banking inquiry is justified and just what Clive Palmer’s re-election pitch might sound like
04.19.2016 Paul Farrell on the 'surprising and disturbing' police investigation of his work – Behind the Lines podcast Guardian reporter Paul Farrell speaks to Bridie Jabour about what it feels like when you find out the Australian Federal Police asked to access your metadata
04.11.2016 Behind the lines podcast: what kind of PM would Shorten make? What will he die in a ditch for? This week’s podcast is a special live recording (heavily edited) of Guardian Australia’s first Quarter Time event in Melbourne. Podcast regular Bridie Jabour is joined on stage by Guardian Australia’s deputy political editor, Katharine Murphy, as well as the editor ...
04.05.2016 How personal stories are shaping the debate on marriage equality - Behind the Lines At Guardian Australia’s Why Knot? event, campaigners told how the battle for marriage equality can be won if gay and straight supporters alike go out and spread the word about their own experience. Bridie Jabour and Miles Martignoni look back ...
03.28.2016 What can we expect from the report of Victoria's royal commission into family violence? - Behind the Lines podcast Guardian Australia’s Gay Alcorn and Melissa Davey discuss Victoria’s royal commission into family violence, due to report this week after a year gathering evidence. The state government has vowed to adopt every recommendation and the report is expected to be ...
03.25.2016 Why do children in remote Indigenous communities need open heart surgery? In rural and remote Indigenous communities throughout Australia, and particularly in the Northern Territory, it is not uncommon to see children as young as seven carrying the long scars of open-heart surgery running vertically down their chest. Melissa Davey describes ...
03.03.2016 David Marr on George Pell: He is not a man to put abused children above the church In this special edition of our podcast, David Marr gives his views on the cardinal’s four days of testimony to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. What was missing from these 16 hours of evidence from ...
02.25.2016 Behind the Lines podcast: in the NT, can you really tell if someone has air-con just by looking at them? While personal attacks and silly antics dominate politics in the Northern Territory, there are also serious issues at play in the region, which is home to some of Australia’s most remote communities. Guardian Australia’s Darwin correspondent, Helen Davidson, talks about ...
02.12.2016 Behind the Lines podcast: the day our opinion editor was groped by a stranger at dinner Bridie Jabour talks to Guardian Australia’s opinion editor Gabrielle Jackson and senior editor Lucy Clark about covering feminism and sexism for the Guardian. They examine why the opinion desk gets so few pitches from female writers, discuss the way in ...
01.28.2016 Behind the Lines podcast: a hoax and a trial In the first of a new series on the stories behind the news, Elle Hunt recounts the day she spent chasing an internet hoax that fooled major media organisations and Bridie Jabour examines Australia’s first FGM trial
01.10.2016 Behind the Lines podcast preview: the Parramatta shooting Join Bridie Jabour as she goes behind the scenes at Guardian Australia to discuss the making of a news story. This week we preview the series with Michael Safi on his reporting of the Parramatta shooting

Behind the Lines

What's Behind the Lines about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Behind the Lines episodes:

Introducing Breathless: The Death of David Dungay Jnr

How did we start Guardian Australia? Behind the lines podcast

Tim Winton on men, boys and writing 'with my heart in my mouth' – Behind the Lines podcast

Introducing Common Ground – Behind the Lines podcast

Brigid Delaney on wellness: yoga, colonics and 'the commodification of spirituality' – Behind the Lines podcast

Sexual assault and Australian universities: how big is the problem? – Behind the Lines podcast

'Trump can't stop progress on climate change' – Behind the Lines podcast

Black Lives Matter: 'We're trying to re-imagine humanity' – Behind the Lines podcast

Katharine Viner and Lenore Taylor: Does the truth matter? - Behind The Lines Podcast

Thomas Frank: Donald Trump is right but a hypocrite – Behind the Lines podcast

How 'alt-right' ideology leaked into mainstream Australian politics – Behind the Lines podcast

The lighter side of 2016 – Behind the Lines podcast

Ms Dhu: how an Aboriginal death in custody unfolded – Behind the Lines podcast

What is your teenager doing online? – Behind the lines podcast

'We need a moratorium on all coalmines': Naomi Klein in conversation – Behind the Lines podcast

'All they see is your race, because that is what's written on your body' | Christina Ho

Pauline Hanson voters speak: 'I'm utterly disappointed in the way our country is run' – Behind the Lines podcast

David Marr at Fodi: can we solve the asylum seeker crisis? – Behind the Lines podcast

How Guardian Australia broke the Nauru files story – Behind the Lines podcast

Dr Munjed Al Muderis' journey to Australia – Behind the Lines podcast

Kristina Keneally: what has Malcolm Turnbull got himself into? - Behind the Lines podcast

Lenore Taylor and Katharine Murphy on a 'strange, upside-down' election – Behind the Lines podcast

Gay Alcorn in Indi: voices from a divided electorate – Behind the Lines podcast

Attack ads: do they actually work? – Behind the Lines podcast

Is spending billions more on education a price worth paying? – Behind the Lines podcast

How to show 'the stench of death' on the Great Barrier Reef – Behind the Lines podcast

Van Badham: don't fall for the same old neoliberal election ads – Behind the Lines podcast

David Marr: Shorten would be a good Victorian premier, but would he make a good PM?

Kristina Keneally: the truth about election tax cut promises – Behind the Lines podcast

Richard Ackland: 'Where is George Brandis?' – Behind the Lines podcast

Kristina Keneally on why the leaders' debate doesn't matter – Behind the Lines podcast

David Marr on the one thing that's stopping the Coalition from ruling forever – Behind the Lines podcast

NBN raids: how independent are the federal police? – Behind the Lines podcast with Kristina Keneally

David Marr asks: could Bill Shorten win? And why is everyone so scared of the Greens?

Women in politics in a world ruled by middle-aged white men – Behind the Lines podcast

How to understand the numbers flying around election 2016 - Behind the Lines Podcast

How is everyone going to survive an eight-week election campaign? – Behind the Lines podcast

Why journalists are locked up for the budget - Behind the Lines podcast

'Superannuation is a giant rip-off' and other election pitches - Behind the Lines podcast

Paul Farrell on the 'surprising and disturbing' police investigation of his work – Behind the Lines podcast

Behind the lines podcast: what kind of PM would Shorten make? What will he die in a ditch for?

How personal stories are shaping the debate on marriage equality - Behind the Lines

What can we expect from the report of Victoria's royal commission into family violence? - Behind the Lines podcast

Why do children in remote Indigenous communities need open heart surgery?

David Marr on George Pell: He is not a man to put abused children above the church

Behind the Lines podcast: in the NT, can you really tell if someone has air-con just by looking at them?

Behind the Lines podcast: the day our opinion editor was groped by a stranger at dinner

Behind the Lines podcast: a hoax and a trial

Behind the Lines podcast preview: the Parramatta shooting

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