Conversations: Our Evolving World

Australian writer Tim Winton on the stories which inspired his latest novel, 'Juice', a story of determination, survival, and the limits of the human spirit.

'Juice' is an astonishing feat of imagination.

It takes us to a far-off future on a superheated planet, where people must live like desert frogs in Northwest Australia. 

They go underground for the murderously hot summer months, before emerging in winter to grow and make what they can.

The nameless narrator of the book is travelling with a child under his protection. They are taken hostage by a man with a crossbow, who takes them to the bottom of a mine shaft.

There, the narrator has to tell his story to the bowman in the hope that he won't kill them.

This episode of Conversations explores climate change, science, climate justice, storytelling, writing, books, narrative, fiction, Australian writers, Cloudstreet, Western Australia, coral bleaching, Pilbara, Ningaloo Reef, Putin, Trump, American politics, global politics, Russia, oligarchs, tariffs, trade wars, artists protesting, romantasy, climate change refugees.

Juice is published by Penguin.

This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at Adelaide Writers' Week.

Would you want to live for longer? Forever? Have your mind preserved and uploaded into something non-human? And is it even possible? Neuroscientist Dr Ariel Zeleznikow explores challenging ideas about life and death.

From adding a few decades onto a life span, to suspending the aging process altogether, and more radically, uploading a preserved brain and consciousness into an entirely different physical structure, Ariel's research is at the cutting edge of neuroscience.

These seem like strange ideas, scientifically and morally, but Ariel says that with the advent of new techniques of brain preservation and the recent successful attempts at mapping consciousness, we could be looking at drastically longer lives in the future.

This episode of Conversations explores weird science, epic stories, brain preservation, the aging process, how to stop ageing, getting older, brains, minds, souls, humanity, morality, lifespan, cancer, brain disease, Walt Disney, cryogenic freezing, genomes, biology, neurology, philosophy, ethics.

The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death is published by Penguin.

Lawyer turned journalist Eileen Ormsby on her journey deeper and deeper into the internet's 'evil twin', where, under the cloak of anonymity, people sell buy and share anything a person is willing to pay for. 

Eileen Ormsby had just returned to university to study journalism when her friend told her about a website called The Silk Road.

Created by American libertarian, Ross Ulbricht, it was essentially like any other e-commerce marketplace, the kind that people use to order books and homewares, except that it sold illicit drugs and fake ids.

Eileen became fascinated with the platform, how it operated, who used it and where existed -- in a secretive part of the internet colloquially known as 'the dark web'.

As Eileen journeyed further and further into the darkest corners of the underbelly of the internet, she came across scammers, hit men and horrendous truths, some of which spilled out into her real life.

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

This episode of Conversations explores the dark web, Ross Ulbricht, libertarian, drug dealing, the deep web, FBI, CIA, AFP, undercover agents, Facebook, Meta, Google, Instagram, social media, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, AlphaBay, illicit drugs, addiction, murder, hitman, scams, bitcoin, crypto, crypto currency, investigative journalism, presidential pardon, assassination.

Conversations is bringing you a summer treat — a collection of Richard's most memorable guests through out the years. 

Ross Gittins is one of Australia’s most popular newspaper columnists. For five decades, he has explained the inner workings of the Australian economy to readers in plain English through his three weekly columns in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ross Gittins is one of Australia’s most popular newspaper columnists.

For five decades, Ross has explained the inner workings of the Australian economy to readers in plain English through his three weekly columns in the Sydney Morning Herald.

He's often contacted by readers who tell him he's helped them understand interest rates, negative gearing, and other facets of the economy that would have once been privy to only those in power.

For Ross, his touchstone is his own early life story.

His outlook on life was largely formed by his frugal, hard-working parents, who were Salvation Army officers who lived through the Great Depression.

This episode of Conversations contains discussions about family, Australian history, journalism, economics, the depression, Salvation Army, religion, Christianity, politics, finance, writing, newspapers, editors, publishing, mortgages, interest rates, home ownership, investments, income, Australian society, baby boomers, young people, generational wealth, inheritance, negative gearing, flexible work, job market, women at work, employment, workplace, childcare, cost of living, real estate. 

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt says it is time to reinstate the play-based childhood to bring our kids back from life online and into the real world, away from their increasing obsession with devices. 

It’s a fact of modern life that children who are given smart phones are able to access pornography, real images of violence and harmful comparisons with their friends and also influencers around the world.

Social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt argues that as the social norms have changed, and younger and younger children have been allowed access to their own devices, their participation in the real world has suffered.

Jonathan’s theory is that in order to combat the addicting influence of technology on our kids’ lives, families and society must encourage and allow children to enjoy free play, independence and responsibility in the real world.

He says, rather than despairing at the current state of childhood, we have the power to give children fun, excitement and a passport to the real world.

This episode of Conversations touches on Australia's social media ban, screen addiction, smart phones, online gaming, social media, mental health, teens, childhood, free play, children's independence, risk, outdoor play, child development, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, gaming, and Jonathan Haidt.

Following the coup of 2021, Australian economist Sean Turnell received an email from a "secret friend", warning him he was being watched by Myanmar's military. Moments later, the police closed in on him.

Sean Turnell is an Australian economist with longstanding connections to Myanmar, the nation formerly known as Burma.

In 2016, Sean was appointed as senior economic advisor to the dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, who had become the country's prime minister after decades of military rule.

The country had another election, and democracy was cemented. 

But the military staged a coup in 2021, and Sean was arrested and charged with being a spy, and imprisoned in a sealed room the size of a shipping container.

For nearly two years, Sean struggled to keep his mind and body together, while his wife and the Australian government campaigned for his release.

This episode of Conversations touches on an epic life story, personal story, grief, memoir, reflection, death, modern history, an exploration of Myanmar, political history, Burma, civil war, prison, jail, death row, political prisoners.

Further information

Sean's memoir An Unlikely Prisoner and Sean's recollection of the economic rehabilitation program, Best Laid Plans: The inside story of reform in Aung San Suu Kyi's Myanmar are published by Penguin

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Jon Owen's mum enrolled him in a computer science degree at University - expecting him to build a flourishing career; which he did. It just wasn't the one that everyone expected. (R)

Jon Owen came to Australia as a small child.

He survived playground racism at school, and became a high achiever.

His family expected him to excel at school and university and go on to a flourishing career.

And that's exactly what he did — in a way that nobody could have predicted.

Jon was near the end of his computer science degree when he chose a life of 'intentional downward mobility'.

He began working with the homeless, the addicted and the disenfranchised, and living with them too.

Today he's the Pastor and CEO at Sydney's Wayside Chapel in Kings' Cross.

This story is about family of origin, ancestry, life stories, disadvantage, drug use, children, faith, charity, social work, refugees, asylum seekers, Christianity, Jesus, family stories, family life, homelessness, caring, love, and downward mobility

From sharks with wheels of teeth, to gargantuan sharks like the megalodon, palaeontologist John Long has traced the long and storied history of these oceanic hunters.

Sharks and humans have a complicated relationship.

We have long considered them monsters and super predators that should be eliminated for our own safety.

But sharks are much more than scary and fearsome.

The history of this incredible animal stretches back hundreds of millions of years.

From sharks with wheels of teeth, to the ascent of the super predators like the megalodon, palaeontologist John Long has traced the long and storied history of these hunters, asking how they've managed to survive extinction despite everything that's been thrown at them.

This episode of Conversations explores science, origin stories, ancient history, sharks, palaeontology, the ocean, climate change, megalodon, hunting and predators.

Further information

The Secret History of Sharks: The Rise of the Ocean's Most Fearsome Predators is published by Hachette

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

In this two-part series, historian Paul Ham traces how our definition and understanding of the human soul has transformed over thousands of years. Humans have been probing their own invisible inner voice since the Stone Age. But where did the concept of the soul even come from? And is it really what separates the living from the dead?

Historian and writer Paul Ham has traced how our definition and understanding of the human soul has changed over thousands of years.

Human beings have been probing their own inner voice, what it means and how it makes us feel, since the Stone Age.

The human soul has long thought to be an invisible, inner essence that makes each of us distinctively different from the rocks and trees, and which also separates the living from the dead.

But where did it come from? Who invented the concept of the soul? And do we still believe in the soul as inextricably linked to the human spirit?

In this two-part series, Paul investigated first what the pre-modern world called 'the soul'. In this episode, he explores how the concept of the soul disappeared, and became 'the mind' in the modern era.

This episode touches on ancient history, philosophy, neurology, religion, death, epic storytelling, faith, exploration and memory.

In this two-part series, historian Paul Ham traces how our definition and understanding of the human soul has transformed over thousands of years. Humans have been probing their own invisible inner voice since the Stone Age. But where did the concept of the soul even come from? And is it really what separates the living from the dead?