Background Briefing

Landmark Education is a global, for-profit personal training and development company with thousands of supporters. But it has its critics as well. Reporter Hagar Cohen The audio and transcript of this program are now available to download for Australian audiences only. Click on the story page to access the audio.

We know there are criminals using the net, and also that hackers can infiltrate anyone's computer. At the government level it's not only a murky worry, but has become a battle for who will monitor it all and how we will fight cyberwars. And not everything you hear is true. Reporter Stan Correy

There is a charity for every 437 people in Australia, all under the umbrella of the 700,000 not-for-profit organisations. The whole sector, which includes churches, is again debating its future. Reporter, Stephen Crittenden.

Many country towns are dying, but mining districts can still have a GDP that makes them the richest place on earth. One town has smoked hams that haven't sold in 40 years, in others the rents are $1000 a week. Reporter Ian Townsend.

Prizewinning historian, writer, essayist, and Massey lecturer, Ronald Wright, gives his latest analysis of where mankind is heading. His next book puts America in current context. Photo: Michael Creagen

The oldest collection of jokes in the world, Philogelos: The Laughter Lover, is examined for the light it throws on humour today. Professor in classics at Cambridge University, Mary Beard tells a lot of the jokes.

They look like banks, they walk like banks and they quack like banks, but they're really the undead. Shells filled with toxic assets. Killing these living dead is probably political suicide because of the collateral damage, but it's the way to go say leading economists. Reporter Stan Correy.

In the UK, conservative policies are like the nanny manifesto, in the USA Obama sounds like a modern Roosevelt. Here, Kevin Rudd is pragmatic and super cautious, and Abbott says the Liberals shouldn't have relied so much on magic pudding economics. Whither politics? Reporter Andrew West.

Something happened to management culture decades ago and now being a Master of Business Administration, especially from Harvard, is rather on the nose. MBA, it's being said, can also stand for 'Mediocre but Arrogant', or 'Management by Accident'. Reporter, Stephen Crittenden.

As old as mankind, graffiti can be seen as a cultural expression and a tourist attraction, or as vandalism inducing fear. It can morph into high art, political comment, or territorial border security. Reporter Brendan Trembath.