Writer Emily Maguire on losing her own faith, but finding awe and inspiration in a controversial myth about a female pontiff who some people believe sat disguised on the papal throne for two years in the ninth century.

Writer Emily Maguire grew up in a very Christian home, where life revolved around the Church and prayer.

By the time she was in her late teens, Emily had well and truly rebelled against her religious upbringing, eventually dropping out of high school, getting a job at McDonalds and getting married.

But it wasn't until she suffered a rare stroke in her 20s, that Emily truly lost her faith.

She remained fascinated by the history and the stories of the Church, however, and has written several books inspired by that interest.

Most recently, Emily was gripped by a tale that has haunted the Catholic Church for more than 1,000 years—rumours of a woman who disguised herself as a man, entered a Benedictine Monastery and rose up the ranks until she was elected the most holy ruler of all, the Pope.

If she truly did exist, after two years on the papal throne, Pope Joan was found out in the most dramatic way possible.

This episode of Conversations discusses Catholicism, Jesus, religion, faith, writing, books, atheism, Christianity, finding God, losing faith, agnostics, spirituality, Christian history, power, politics, Roman Empire, Constantine, Charlemagne, marriage, childless by choice, Pope Joan, female pope, female Bishop, female leadership, teenage girls, teen sexuality, rebellion, crisis of faith.

Jelena Dokic overcame adversity, poverty and violence to rise to the top of the tennis world. Years later, her revelations about her father's abuse stunned the world. (CW: discussion of domestic violence and coercive control).

This episode of Conversations also talks about sport, training, family, origin stories, parenting, relationships, childhood trauma, sports commentary, online trolls, refugees, security, control, family violence, therapy, mental health, identity, disordered eating, books, documentary film, reflection, culture, meaning, Australian, counselling, conversational story, and memoir.

Lee Berger, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and real-life Indiana Jones with tales of his hominid discoveries, many of which have rewritten the story of palaeoanthropology. (R)

National Geographic Explorer in Residence, Lee Berger, entered the field of palaeoanthropology when there was an infinitesimally tiny chance he would discover anything, while digging around South Africa.

But this real-life Indiana Jones kept bucking the odds.

He kept unearthing previously unseen parts of hominids - the group known as the Great Apes; comprising modern humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans plus all their immediate ancestors.

First, he found a pair of hominid teeth in southern Africa. Then after a fossil hunting dry spell, his 9-year-old son Matthew found the jawbone of an entirely new hominid species.

A few years later came Lee's most extraordinary discovery yet: a nearly inaccessible cave filled with skeletons of another new hominid species which seemed to be violating all the rules.

The story of what happened in this cave revolutionises what we understand about the origins of our own human species.

This episode of Conversations discusses the origin of human life, archaeology, science, research, caving, adventure, Indiana Jones, human species, evolution, Charles Darwin, theories of evolution, Africa.

As Andrew Dwyer ventured further into the desert, he fell in love with the people and the landscape. He battled sandstorms, floods and isolation to serve fine foods under the stars.

When Andrew Dwyer was growing up in 1960s Melbourne, the city wasn't the foodie destination it is now, in fact it was often described as a "culinary wasteland".

But luckily for Andrew, his Czechoslovakian godfather and his Chinese stepmother introduced him to incredible flavours and cooking techniques from further afield.

At the same time, Andrew was bushwalking and skiing and falling in love with the outdoors.

Eventually, he combined his passion for wild places with his passion for good food.

Andrew started venturing further and further west, far into the Australian outback — and he took his fine foods with him.

This episode of Conversations explores travel, fine dining, food, cooking, camp cooking, travel, snow skiing, the Victorian Alps, good food, good weekender, travel recommendations, the Gibson Desert, Nothern Territory, South Australia, Adelaide, Australian Explorers, Giles, Pintupi 9, Indigenous tourism, tourism industry, foodies.

An impulse decision to buy a home in the rainforest results in a comedy of errors involving a python in the roof, an unexpected tax bill, two reality TV shows discussing bowel movements with Shane Warne. (R)

Akmal Saleh doesn't like the jungle or rainforests, or any of the animals in the jungle or rainforest. 

Akmal likes cafes and running water, which made the comedian's purchase of a cabin in the hills outside Byron Bay incredibly puzzling to those who know him. 

Looking for a place where their two dogs could run free, Akmal and his wife bought their remote cabin on an impulse.

After twelve days, they knew the tree-change, hippie lifestyle wasn't for them. 

What followed was a comedy of errors involving a python in the roof, carpet-eating rats, a half-finished home, an unexpected tax bill, two reality shows and discussing bowel movements with Shane Warne.

This episode of Conversations discusses sea changes, tree changes, impulse purchases, real estate, comedy, stand-up comedy, regional Australia, regional property market, buying property, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Selling Houses Australia, the rainforest, the Byron Bay Hinterland, northern NSW.

Athlete Gerrard Gosens didn't realise he was blind until his first day at primary school. His adventurous spirit led him to become a three time Paralympian, climb Mt Everest, swim the English Channel, and perform the rhumba on Dancing With The Stars.

This conversation talks about family life, family history, childhood memories, origin stories, training, medical procedures, surgery, mountaineering, mountains, cycling, open water swimming, parenting, genetic conditions, glaucoma, disability, charity, Stevie Wonder, chocolate, training, exercising, Paralympic sport, triathlon, indoor climbing, sepsis, team building, reality TV, and fundraising.

How a Birmingham boy became best-selling thriller writer, Lee Child, and the creator of one of the literary world's most popular loners. (R)

James Grant grew up in Birmingham when it was a bustling industrial city.

While huge workforces would pour of the factories as men ended their shifts and headed home on bicycles, for children, there wasn't much to do.

Young James often found himself at the library, and he grew up a voracious reader.

He began working for Granada Television after leaving university, but after a 20-year career, Jim suddenly found himself out of a job, and with a wife and child to support.

With a pragmatic sense of mission, he sat down with a pencil and wrote his first novel in longhand, under the pseudonym Lee Child.

It was a thriller about a loner named Jack Reacher, and went on to become a best-seller around the world, adapted into films and a television series.

Now every nine seconds, somewhere in the world, someone buys a Jack Reacher book.

This episode of Conversations explores crime writing, stories, thrillers, Jack Reacher, In Too Deep, television adaptations, Lee Child's real name, origin stories, Birmingham, books, authors, best-selling books, book recommendations, Tom Cruise, Netflix, Amazon Prime, film adaption, Hollywood, Bill Clinton.

Dr Tracy Westerman grew up in the Pilbara, where suicide and mental health issues have deeply scarred Indigenous communities. So this Nyamal woman decided to do something about it.

Nyamal woman Tracy Westerman grew up in some of the most remote parts of Western Australia, moving from a station to a town called Useless Loop, eventually landing in the mining town of Tom Price.

Tracy, the daughter of an Aboriginal mother and a white father, became the first person educated entirely in Tom Price, from kindergarten to year 12, to go on to University.

When she arrived in Perth, she had never been on a bus or on an escalator, but she was fired up to study psychology.

Tracy wanted to use the skills she learned in the city to deliver practical mental health care to Aboriginal people, and to help entire communities reeling from the impact of suicide and other mental health issues.

Along the way to obtaining her doctorate, Tracy has become a businesswoman, the WA Australian of the year, and she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal.

Her next mission is to build an army of Indigenous psychologists to continue the work she's already started.

This episode of Conversations discusses mental health care, mental health struggles, First Nations mental health, remote communities, interracial relationships, psychology, university, PhD study, tertiary education, the Pilbara, Nyamal, traditional owners, Indigenous psychologist.

Michael Visontay with the true tale of how fragments of a rare Gutenberg Bible were sold off, leaf by leaf, in New York in the 1920s, and how the sale of these books, chapters and verses changed the course of his own family.

Some years ago journalist Michael Visontay was researching his family history when he stumbled upon the story of a man named Gabriel Wells, who had been a New York book dealer at the height of the Roaring 20s. 

As a way to make fast money, Wells came up with a scandalous plan.

He bought a precious, ancient copy of the world's greatest book, the Gutenberg Bible, and began extracting leaves from it to sell off the individual pages. 

Wealthy buyers were willing to pay big money for the 'noble fragments', and Wells died a rich man.

More than a century later, Michael discovered an extraordinary link between the story of Gabriel Wells and his own family history. He then set out to track down the pages of the broken bible himself.

This episode of Conversations discusses rare books, the Holocaust, World War Two, refugees, the Iron Curtain, post-war migration, Hungary, Judaism, divorce, blended families, small business, love stories, family stories, origin stories, Anglicisation of names, Sydney, Kings Cross.

Legendary cook, author, food producer and educator Maggie Beer had a circuitous path to the food world, which began when she left school at 14. (R)

Legendary cook, author, food producer and educator Maggie Beer grew up in Lakemba in South-West Sydney, and got her first job when she was 14 years old.

Maggie had to leave school early to go out to work to help support her family after her father's business went bankrupt.

Although she had a varied working life over the next two decades, it wasn't until her mid-30s that Maggie found her purpose.

She and her husband, Colin, began a pheasant farm in South Australia's Barossa Valley, then added a farm gate shop and a restaurant.

After a few years of struggle, a review of their business changed everything.

Later, Maggie began her next chapter as a TV star on The Cook and the Chef and Masterchef.

Recently Maggie has been campaigning to improve the quality of food in aged care. This year she was recognised with an international TV host award for her work on ABC TV's Maggie Beer's Big Mission.

This episode of Conversations explores food, food inequality, farm to table, the Barossa, Western Sydney, aged care, nutrition, health and wellbeing, food for the soul, recipes, dinner recipes, home cooking, gastronomy, hospitality, chefs., family recipes.