Mark Winterbottom grew up in outer Western Sydney, in a family with not much money to spend on expensive hobbies. But by an extraordinary twist of fate, Mark won his first mini motorbike in a shopping centre raffle at the age of 8.

Immediately, he was off, speedily rising up from bikes to kart racing, and then to V8 Supercars.

Mark won race after race, earning him the nickname 'Frosty'.

But for years, he could not wrestle the infamous Bathurst 1000 trophy from the hands of his great rival, Jamie Whincup.

Then, in 2013, after six hours roaring around the track, in the final lap, the two of them went bumper to bumper, fighting for first place in an electrifying finish.

Frosty is published by HarperCollins.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores motorsports, supercars, F1, Ford, Holden, Bathurst, cancer, death of a parent, grief, love, marriage, fatherhood, Owen Wilson, Cars the movie, Disney, Pixar, voice over acting, driving, crash, memo0ir, writing books, origin story, raising boys, childhood sweetheart.

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.

Heather's brother and grandfather died in a tragic drowning accident when she was 12 and from that day, she began looking for a way to commune with what lies beyond. 

The quest has taken the Stella award winning writer to Buddhist monasteries, Native American dance rituals and sweat lodges, and to the discipline of writing.

And Heather has had an intuitive sense of life's mystery ever since she was a little girl growing up near the ancient forests and wild beaches of Tasmania.

Heather's novels include The Museum of Modern Love and the best-selling thriller Bruny and Sarah spoke with Heather in 2022 after the publication of her memoir, Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It covers, grief, death, drowning, family, Tasmania, writing, Buddhism, memoir, Native American Dance rituals, therapy, nature, the mystery of life, arthritis, chronic illness.

Louise O'Sullivan spent 10 years with the ADF, including deployments with the Special Forces in Afghanistan which eventually left her with PTSD, but a bigger battle lay ahead, the fight to save her premature twins.

After leaving the military, Louise wanted to begin a family but cancer treatment had left her unable to carry her own children so she found a surrogate in Ukraine.

But when her twins were born prematurely, she spent months living and caring for them in a Ukranian hospital.

Eventually Louise had to begin her own process of healing, which included a life changing course of ketamine therapy.

The episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake and the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.

It covers topics including psychology, trauma, Australian Defence Force, Afghanistan, women in the military, army training, physical and mental endurance, helicopter crash, fatalities, injury, ripping out, trauma response, PTSD, cervical cancer, chemotherapy, radiation, hysterectomy, international surrogacy, premature babies, health care in Ukraine, divorces, EMDR, ketamine therapy

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.

The most shared episode of Conversations in 2025 was Sarah's interview with social psychologist Jonathan Hait on 'attention fracking' and how to stop tech companies stealing your focus.

Sarah's interview with Jonathan Haidt

After the death of her father, a spiritual moment with the life-size wooden statue of Bob at Nine Mile convinced queer rapper, Jamaica Moana that everything would be alright.

Jamaica was born to the music of Bob Marley on the Central Coast of NSW.

Her dad loved Bob’s music more than anything else and would listen incessantly on his interstate truck driving routes.

Jamaica was the beloved baby of six children, growing up in a Maori-Samoan family in the outer suburbs of Auckland.

When the family moved to Campbelltown in Western Sydney, Jamaica began to express her queer identity through the dance troupe The Pioneers.

Jamaica’s father rejected this new version of her, so different from the son he knew, and they became estranged. 

When he became seriously ill years later, Jamaica moved home to care for him and the pair renewed their relationship, staying close until his death.

With her brother, she eventually made a pilgrimage to Bob Marley's home town as a tribute to their father.

Deep in grief, it was a spiritual experience with a life-size statue of Bob at Nine Mile that convinced Jamaica everything would be alright.

Further information

Jamaica Moana's debut EP is Bud & Deni. 

This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.

It covers topics including rap, dance, Hokianga Harbour, Maori, South Auckland, Papakura, Western Sydney, authentic, authenticity, queer, trans, parental estrangement, father daughter relationship, carer, caring for parent, Nicki Minaj, ballroom, duckwalk, west ball, safe space, rupture and repair and community.

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.

Tens of thousands of 'van lifers' and 'grey nomads' drive around Australia each year. But the iconic road trip has a surprising origin story involving a pair of missionaries, a retired butcher and a gun-slinging mother-daughter duo.

David Riley is a pastor and father who was on a lap around Australia with his wife and three children when he heard about the surprising origin story of this great road trip.

In 1925, two young men set off from Perth to Darwin in a tiny French car nicknamed 'Bubsie'.

They were running an errand for their Church – instructed to set up a Seventh-Day Adventist Missionary outpost in the Northern Territory, then to turn around and come back home.

Nevill Westwood and Greg Davies battled flat tires, evil cows, losing their way, leaky fuel tanks, dangerous river crossings and a falling out along the way.

With the help of First Nations people and station owners they met along the way, they made it to Darwin.

But when they got to Darwin, they just kept going, entering into a race with a retired butcher and a gun-slinging mother-daughter duo to become the first vehicle to circumnavigate Australia.

For David, researching and writing the story down became a powerful way to preserve the memories of his own family's lap around Australia, after receiving terrible news.

Bubsie and The Boys: The First Journey Around Australia by Car is published by SIGNS.

Early next year, Bubsie's sister car, a 102-year-old Citroën, will drive around Australia for the 100th anniversary of the original journey. The trip will be raising money for Canteen and Brain Child. Information about the trip will be online early next year.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores travel, road trips, Australian history, modern history, motoring history, great global road trips, grey nomads, caravanning, van life, historical records, religion, church, cancer, losing a daughter, brain cancer, grief, driving, driving Western Australia, madman's track, white history, black history.

Despite being a stand-out young player, many NRL clubs initially rejected Johnathan Thurston because they thought he was too small and wiry but he went on to become one of the best rugby league players of all time.

Johnathan showed his rare talent for rugby league early on but his parents didn't have the money to help him travel to games.

So in his late teens, Johnathan moved to Toowoomba to get a start in rugby league, while working part-time in the butcher’s section of a supermarket.

When Johnathan moved to Sydney at 18 to try his luck with the Cantebury Bulldogs, he began to get noticed and by the time he retired in 2018, had won a record 4 Daly M medals. 

Johnathan Thurston The Autobiography (with James Phelps) is published by Harper Collins.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

It explores the career of Johnathan Thurston, the NRL, rugby league, sporting talent, growing up in Brisbane, working part time jobs, alcohol, scholarships, NRL clubs, the Canterbury Bulldogs, North Queensland Cowboys, State of Origin, Queensland, Daly M medal, NRL Grand Final,  Queensland Maroons, indigenous Australian, Maori heritage, goal kicker, housing commission, Toowoomba, Indigenous All Star, GOAT 

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.

Artist, author and Stolen Generations survivor, Rhonda Collard-Spratt, on bush hugs, beehives, emu bumps, and finding peace.

Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spratt is a Yamatji-Noongar elder and Stolen Generations survivor who grew up on the Carnarvon Native Mission in Western Australia.

As a little girl she would escape from her dormitory into the bush to feel the love and warmth she was missing from her mum.

After leaving the mission as a teenager, Rhonda trained as a hairdresser, creating some of the best beehives in Perth.

Later in life, she managed to reconnect with her mum and formed a surprising bond with her English stepfather, through music.

Rhonda Collard-Spratt's memoir, Alice’s Daughter: Lost Mission Child, was written with Jacki Ferro and published by Aboriginal Studies Press.

You can find her children's book series, Spirit of the Dreaming, online in both print and audiobook formats.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores Aboriginal Australia, black history, colonisation, segregation, assimilation, religion, Christianity, the Native Act, reckoning with Australia's history, the Voice, racism, Indigenous suicide, mental health, medical neglect, art, motherhood, writing, books, memoir, modern Australia, Ipswich, Churches of Christ, Aborigines Mission Board.

Dr James Loxton on how modern democracies can crumble as authoritarian regimes take hold, but also how freedom and democracy can rise again, from the Americas to Europe and into Asia.

James grew up in stable Canada, where he spent his summers herding sheep in the middle of forest plantations.

As a teenager, he hatched a plan to escape his "rough as guts" bush town and the life of a shepherd, moving to India on his own to finish high school.

At an international school in Maharashtra, James' classmates taught him about the world outside of democratic Canada, and he became fascinated by military dictatorships and guerilla insurgencies. 

Later on, years of living in Latin America showed him firsthand how dictators operated, how they are feared and hated, but also revered and loved by some of the people they control.

Now James, and many other political scientists, have their eyes turned to America, watching closely to see how the world's most powerful democracy is changing right before their eyes.

Authoritarianism: A Very Short Introduction is published by Oxford University Press.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores Donald Trump, Putin, USA, regime, dictators, ICE, Clinton, Epstein, politics, democracy, Chilean presidential election, Russia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, government, globalisation, Latin American politics, Whitlam, dismissal, divisive politics, left versus right, parliamentary versus presidential forms of government, united kingdom, British colonies, Javier Milei, Venezuela, Argentina, Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, Maduro, elitism, drain the swamp, populism, power for the people, tariffs, Peru, Cuba, straw man, Stalin, Hitler, competitive authoritarianism, substance abuse, addiction, alcoholism, alcoholic mothers, homelessness, losing a mother.

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.

Eric Philips has always loved cold weather and from young age became fixated on the idea of polar exploration and following in the footsteps of the adventurers he read about in National Geographic.

And he went on to lead gruelling expeditions to the North and South Poles, pushing his body and mind to the limits.

Eric also had dreams of travelling into space and had assumed the would be impossible.

But while on a ski expedition in Svalbard, he met a crypto billionaire who was planning a trip to space and he later asked Eric to come along.

The crew Eric was a part of would go on became the first human spaceflight mission to explore Earth from a polar orbit and fly over the Earth’s polar regions.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake, the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores polar exploration, South Pole. North Pole, hypothermia, mental and physical exhaustion, physical endurance, kite skiing, antarctica, large families, drug overdose, Space x, polar orbit, dramatic weight loss, rescue, failure

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.

Screenwriter Samantha Strauss on her grandmother's vibrant last years in a Gold Coast retirement home where love, sex and startlingly pragmatic conversations about dying were all part of daily life. (CW: not suitable for children) (R)

Samantha Strauss started dancing from the age of 2, and as she grew up, she became increasingly serious about it.

Sam was 18 when her budding ballet career was cut short by a shocking injury.

After a year on the couch recovering, she reinvented herself.

A few years later, inspired by the story of her own life in ballet, she co-created a TV series called Dance Academy.

Dance Academy went on to screen in 160 countries, with Sam as the head writer across the 65 episodes.

Sam's next show, The End, was set partly in a Gold Coast retirement village.

Samantha got the idea as she watched how her own Grandmother's life changed after moving into a similar place at the end of her life.

She expected to hate it, but eventually she found a circle of friends who partied hard and talked freely about love, sex, and death, including experimenting with making their own Nembutal.

Further information

Originally broadcast April 2021.

Samantha has since won a Logie for her work on the Netflix program Apple Cider Vinegar, based on Belle Gibson’s life.

This episode was produced by Nicola Harrison. The Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores Belle Gibson, wellness, scam, scammers, Philip Nitschke, exit international, VAD, voluntary assisted dying, nursing home, aged care, grandparent grandchild relationship, sick parent, writing, being a writer, dance career, LA, Los Angeles, film industry, connections, Australians in LA, actors, nudists and naturalists.

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.