Conversations

By ABC Radio

Society & Culture

What's Conversations about?

Spend an hour in someone else's life. 'Conversations with Richard Fidler' draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met.

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From the Festivals — Andrew...

05.28.2020

The Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less was working as an odd-jobs man for an Italian Baroness when a phone call upended his life (R)

Conversations episodes:

05.28.2020 From the Festivals — Andrew Sean Greer The Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less was working as an odd-jobs man for an Italian Baroness when a phone call upended his life (R)
05.27.2020 From the Festivals — Cheryl Strayed Walking through grief and facing up to life on the Pacific Crest Trail, the true story of Wild (R)
05.26.2020 From the Festivals — Lemn Sissay Celebrated British poet Lemn Sissay grew up not knowing his given name or his Ethiopian parents. His life was shaped by being adopted, and then raised in state care (R)
05.25.2020 From the Festivals — James Rebanks the Herdwick shepherd James explains the traditions, language and pleasures of shepherding in England's Lake District (R)
05.22.2020 Chasing Robert Cutter When Darleen Bungey set out to uncover her father's past she discovered a Hollywood heartthrob and a singer whose records outsold Bing Crosby's
05.21.2020 Maira Kalman: 'I fall in love so many times during the day' Maira's daily life as a New York-based artist who likes to paint trees, dogs and hats, and why the contents of her mother's closet became famous
05.20.2020 The pigment whisperer One of the world's only master paint-makers, David Coles on how he found a life creating colours like Lapis Blue and Rose Madder (R)
05.19.2020 This is your Captain speaking On 9/11 Captain Beverley Bass diverted her American Airlines jet to a tiny town in Newfoundland, along with thousands of other airspace refugees (R)
05.18.2020 With a shark under each arm: Dr Fish Feelings Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and Sting Rays know it's the weekend
05.15.2020 Miranda Tapsell — Kakadu, Cannes and love stories that matter Miranda's story from growing up in Kakadu National Park as a Larrakia Tiwi girl, to finding fame in The Sapphires, and co-creating Top End Wedding, the first romantic comedy set in the Northern Territory
05.14.2020 Moomins, motherhood and me — Sheila Heti Sheila Heti on the life of Finnish writer Tove Jansson who created the Moomins, and some of her own reflections on her choice about whether or not to become a mother
05.13.2020 Helen Garner — from Moonee Ponds to Paris Helen recently published her diaries from the years 1978 to 1987. They include her thoughts on writing and work, parenting, love affairs, and the quest for the right pair of shoes (R)
05.12.2020 A true Lord of the Flies story and what we got wrong about human nature Rutger Bregman takes a new look at the accepted idea that humans are just one disaster away from bad behaviour. He says our species' survival has long depended on the best aspects of our nature, such as kindness and the ...
05.11.2020 Hayley Katzen's unexpected life as a farmer's wife When Hayley moved to a cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, the rural idyll wasn't quite as she imagined
05.08.2020 Marian Keyes on growing up A new conversation with the Irish novelist, on what it means to be a grown up, and standing her ground on Ireland’s moral questions
05.07.2020 Adrian Mole and the Shropshire postman Young Robert Lukins modelled himself on the fictional character Adrian Mole, a prodigious reader and writer (R)
05.06.2020 Sandy Mackinnon's fantastic voyage through the canals of Europe Sandy was teaching at a school in the English countryside when he set off in a Mirror dinghy, intending to sail as far as Gloucester (R)
05.05.2020 William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company How a group of financiers from a poor and damp island on the outer rim of Europe created a private company which came to rule India (R)
05.04.2020 The speech collector Tony Wilson was always drawn to the world's great speeches. Then, without warning, he was called on to make the most difficult speech of his life
05.01.2020 Kindness and coincidence — Naomi Shihab Nye Naomi is an American poet and author living in San Antonio, Texas. Her family story is marked by life-changing coincidences, and narrow escapes
04.30.2020 Not fourteen for ever How Shannon Molloy survived the worst year of his life, as a gay teenager at an all boys' school on the coast of Central Queensland
04.29.2020 Magda Szubanski — my father, the assassin A much-loved performer digs into the challenging truth of her father's past (R)
04.28.2020 Christiaan Van Vuuren's fully sick life While confined to a hospital room for months with a rare form of tuberculosis, Christiaan found love and an entirely new path in life
04.27.2020 Disappointing Dickens — Charles Dickens' son in the Australian outback Tom Keneally with the story of Edward 'Plorn' Dickens who was sent to live in Australia when he was sixteen in the hope he might redeem himself
04.24.2020 The life and death of boxer Davey Browne In 2015, Sydney boxer Davey died of brain swelling after he was knocked out in the ring. When journalist and boxer Stephanie Convery reported on the inquest, she found a sport in a collective state of denial
04.23.2020 A therapist peers inside her own mind When therapist Lori Gottlieb found herself in therapy after a devastating breakup, she began to rethink her own life story
04.22.2020 John Prine — from Paradise to Nashville A songwriter's songwriter, John turned his often bemused view of people and politics into songs for fifty years (R)
04.21.2020 16 sunrises and sunsets in a day — life aboard the Space Shuttle Astronaut Jim Bagian on working, eating and sleeping in micro-gravity while orbiting the earth at 28 000 kilometres an hour
04.20.2020 The healing power of dogs Kate Leaver became fascinated by the curative qualities of dogs after her Shih Tzu Bertie helped her through her darkest days
04.17.2020 Big Adventures — aviator Charles Kingsford Smith Biographer Ann Blainey with the tale of Smithy, king of the Milky Way, and his audacious flight across the Pacific in his plane the Southern Cross (R)
04.16.2020 Big Adventures — Alexander McCall Smith How a lifetime exploring different landscapes inspires the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, who's also one of the world's most prolific writers (R)
04.15.2020 Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 2 Walking the Sahara, towards the fabled city of Timbuktu and into Niger (R)
04.14.2020 Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 1 A breathtaking Saharan adventure: camels, bandits and one fearless woman (R)
04.10.2020 Min Jin Lee's good fortune The author of bestselling novel, Pachinko, explores the lives of generations of Koreans in Japan (R)
04.09.2020 Bonus: when Sarah's Dad's fruit shop map went viral Thanks to her dad’s hand-drawn map, a shopping trip Sarah Kanowski made for her parents during the Covid-19 crisis gladdened hearts on social media around the world. In this father-daughter chat, meet Sarah’s dad, 89-year-old Peter Kanowski
04.09.2020 Hugh Mackay on building community in a crisis Social researcher Hugh Mackay on the many ways Australian society can pull together while we're meant to live apart
04.08.2020 Paul Kelly and the poetry Australia's storyteller in song on poems he's loved since childhood, and how reading and learning great poetry has changed his song writing (R)
04.07.2020 Ray Collins — life in the black, and the blue Ray was a coal miner when an accident underground left him lying prone in a tunnel a kilometre beneath the earth. What he did next changed the course of his life
04.06.2020 Julia Baird on finding shards of light in dark times After journalist Julia Baird survived a terrible bout of cancer, she began to think about what sustains us when the world goes dark
04.03.2020 Doll's prams and hand-knitted togs: a Hockney family portrait John Hockney grew up in an unconventional family of five siblings in post-war Yorkshire. As a child, his brother David drew constantly on any paper he could find. He grew up to become the world's most famous living artist
04.02.2020 A father and son odyssey When Daniel Mendelsohn signed up for a Mediterranean cruise to Ithaca with his aging father, neither of them could have predicted what would happen next
04.01.2020 Bill Bailey — seriously funny amateur naturalist Bill Bailey's passion for twitching began as boy growing up in England's west country (R)
03.31.2020 Tales from captivity Stories of imagination, poetry and menace while living in captivity, from Kari Gislason and Candice Fox
03.30.2020 Elizabeth Gilbert on love and letting go of normal How a flash of insight about her life saw Liz upend almost everything in it
03.27.2020 Bringing life-saving dialysis to Central Australia Sarah Brown always wanted to be a remote area nurse. Then she began a medical revolution (R)
03.26.2020 Saving tiny lives — the mission of a flying midwife Jan Becker on saving the lives of newborn babies in the 'golden minute' after birth (R)
03.25.2020 Graham Martin on going from doctor to patient Psychiatrist Graham Martin learned a lot of new things about medicine when he unexpectedly and painfully became the patient (R)
03.24.2020 Nursing on Sydney's streets When working with people experiencing homelessness, Erin Longbottom looks to their strengths to help them find their way to health, and a home (R)
03.23.2020 The man who saved a million brains: Creswell Eastman's pioneering work with iodine deficiency disorder Abolishing iodine deficiency throughout the world was this doctor's mission (R)
03.20.2020 The Queen of Country — Joy McKean Travelling Australia with her husband Slim Dusty brought challenges and rewards

Older episodes

Conversations

What's Conversations about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Conversations episodes:

From the Festivals — Andrew Sean Greer

From the Festivals — Cheryl Strayed

From the Festivals — Lemn Sissay

From the Festivals — James Rebanks the Herdwick shepherd

Chasing Robert Cutter

Maira Kalman: 'I fall in love so many times during the day'

The pigment whisperer

This is your Captain speaking

With a shark under each arm: Dr Fish Feelings

Miranda Tapsell — Kakadu, Cannes and love stories that matter

Moomins, motherhood and me — Sheila Heti

Helen Garner — from Moonee Ponds to Paris

A true Lord of the Flies story and what we got wrong about human nature

Hayley Katzen's unexpected life as a farmer's wife

Marian Keyes on growing up

Adrian Mole and the Shropshire postman

Sandy Mackinnon's fantastic voyage through the canals of Europe

William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company

The speech collector

Kindness and coincidence — Naomi Shihab Nye

Not fourteen for ever

Magda Szubanski — my father, the assassin

Christiaan Van Vuuren's fully sick life

Disappointing Dickens — Charles Dickens' son in the Australian outback

The life and death of boxer Davey Browne

A therapist peers inside her own mind

John Prine — from Paradise to Nashville

16 sunrises and sunsets in a day — life aboard the Space Shuttle

The healing power of dogs

Big Adventures — aviator Charles Kingsford Smith

Big Adventures — Alexander McCall Smith

Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 2

Big Adventures — Paula Constant Part 1

Min Jin Lee's good fortune

Bonus: when Sarah's Dad's fruit shop map went viral

Hugh Mackay on building community in a crisis

Paul Kelly and the poetry

Ray Collins — life in the black, and the blue

Julia Baird on finding shards of light in dark times

Doll's prams and hand-knitted togs: a Hockney family portrait

A father and son odyssey

Bill Bailey — seriously funny amateur naturalist

Tales from captivity

Elizabeth Gilbert on love and letting go of normal

Bringing life-saving dialysis to Central Australia

Saving tiny lives — the mission of a flying midwife

Graham Martin on going from doctor to patient

Nursing on Sydney's streets

The man who saved a million brains: Creswell Eastman's pioneering work with iodine deficiency disorder

The Queen of Country — Joy McKean

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