Conversations

We rarely stop to wonder who invented the wheel, the alphabet or the printing press but so much of what feels fundamental to daily life was once a bold, untested idea, and someone had to think it up first.

In The Shortest History of Innovation, Andrew Leigh traces that long thread of human ingenuity from ancient breakthroughs through to the inventions reshaping our world today like the car, social media and artificial intelligence. 

He also debunks some of the myths about how these things into the word and what happens when they collide with humanity.

The Shortest History of Innovation is published by Black Inc Books.

The executive producer of Conversations is Nicola Harrison

This episode of Conversations explores history, ancient civilisation, the industrial revolution, medical breakthrough, human progress, invention, innovation, human psychology, AI, penicillin, the wheel, cutlery, vaccines, nuclear bomb, nuclear energy, medieval history

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.

Psychologist Dr Tracey Westerman on her groundbreaking work transforming mental health outcomes for Aboriginal communities (R)

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 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 business person, 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.

Further information

Jilya is published by University of Queensland Press.

You can learn more about Dr Westerman's work here.

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.

The iconic folk duo met at an audition for the only country music band at a prestigious jazz school in Boston. They immediately clicked, and joined the rich lineage of Americana artists that stretches back centuries.

In their 20s, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings discovered they had something special when they sang together, a sort of eerie emotional resonance that is usually confined to the blood harmonies produced when siblings sing together.

Ever since they've been making music together which draws on the bluegrass, country and folk traditions they love.

In their historic recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee (which has withstood three tornadoes in the last century), they craft haunting songs about the ugly and beautiful parts of humanity.

For Gill and Dave, the DNA of folk music is something we can all contribute to, and which contributes to all of us.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are currently touring Australia's eastern states. You can find information about where and when they are playing on their website.

Their seventh studio album is called Woodland, named after their indestructible studio.This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores music, recording, career musicians, Woody Guthrie, The Carter Family, Lead Belly, revival folk, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Emmy Lou, Dolly Parton, Southern America, United States, Pete Seeger, Love, relationship, natural disaster, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Odetta, Harry Belafonte, Rhiannon Giddens, banjo, guitar, mandolin, true crime, murder ballad, Revival, Time (The Revelator), Soul Journey, The Harrow & The Harvest, All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone), Grammy Awards, Grammys, songwriting, Coen Brothers, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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.

Growing up, John Marsden found school incredibly difficult and, as a teenager, spent time in hospital after a breakdown. This difficult early life profoundly shaped his work as a writer and educator of young people.

With the help of a therapist, he began to recover, but it took him many years to find his place in the world.

Eventually he studied teaching, then in his mid-thirties John began to write.

John wrote over 40 best-selling novels for young adults and used his profits to buy bushland on the edge of Melbourne and open a primary school.

At Candlebark, students call teachers by their first names, and are encouraged to take risks, John also founded a high school called Alice Miller.

In 2024, John Marsden died at the age of 74, this interview was recorded in 2018.

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

it explores education, strict parenting, teaching, all boys private school education, emotional breakdown, psychiatric care, therapy, counselling, studying teaching, writing, writing for young adults, running an independent school, risk taking, being an author, legacy.

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.

Dan Richards investigates the multifaceted realm of night-time. Hear about when he survived a brush with death, a treacherous journey on a Scottish ferry, shadowing a search and rescue team, and the comfort and exquisite agony of new parenthood.

The writer and broadcaster argues that night-time is universal in that everyone goes through it, but there are so many different experiences of the dark.

He has met the many people who work, helping others and doing the invisible organising that keeps our communal world turning while others rest.

Dan says the night is a place of encounters — both magical and disturbing.

Further information

Dan's book Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark is published by Allen & Unwin.

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

This episode touches on sleep, covid, COVID, covid-19, hospital, emergency workers, NHS, ICU, frontline workers, search and rescue, dreams, outreach workers, homelessness, moominland, the shipping forecast, BBC, new fatherhood.

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 legendary surfer has grieved the deaths of her adoptive mother, stepmother and birth mother. Only later in life did she realise her drive to win came from a place of loss, and Layne needed to look inward to find her place off the podium.

Layne is a legendary surfer who is the first person ever to win six consecutive world titles.

Since her childhood spent on Sydney's Northern Beaches, Layne has loved being in the water but it wasn't until later in life that she realised her relentless drive to win came from a confusion about who she belonged with on land.

Part of her drive to prove her worth and her place came from her experiences of loss.

When Layne was 6 years old, her adopted mother Valerie died. Then, her step-mother Christina died after a long battle with breast cancer.

Twenty years after Layne reconnected with her birth mother, Maggie, she flew to America to be by Maggie's side as she took her last breaths.

Losing three mothers in one lifetime caused Layne to equate motherhood with loss and abandonment. 

But after retiring and learning to slow down, Layne turned inward and finally found herself along the way.

Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of adoption and grief.

Layne's memoir Beneath the Waves was written with Michael Gordon and published in 2009 by Penguin.

Her latest book, Awake Academy, was written with Tess Brouwer and is published by Penguin.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores grief, cancer, death, dying, surfing, pro surfers, Manly, Freshwater, Hawaii, Ken Bradshaw, Kelly Slater, Molly Picklum, Stephanie Gilmore, Kirk Pengilly, love, marriage, stepmother, motherhood, menopause, slowing down, fitness later in life, introspection, awake academy, meditation, beach, ovarian cancer, brain haemorrhage, fatherhood, Tess Brouwer, elite athletes, professional athletes.

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.

After a painful divorce, Charlotte Ree began to piece her broken heart back together by cooking for her neighbours (R)

Charlotte Ree grew up in a family full of love, but with its own particular challenges. 

Her mum struggled with mental illness, which meant Charlotte grew up very quickly.

Charlotte met the man who would become her husband when she was 19. Within a few years, they married, but money became a major source of pain in the relationship.

One night on a boat, Charlotte realised her marriage was over.

Divorce was a devastating turning point for her, and at the same time she found herself living alone in Sydney's lockdown.

Eventually Charlotte decided to find a unique way out of her heartbreak; by cooking for her neighbours.  

Some time later, she also found the courage to look for love again.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores family history, mental illness, relationships, looking for love, love stories, modern love, divorce, recovering after divorce, cooking, baking, unusual family stories, strange family history, family history, lockdown, Covid lockdown, loneliness, solitude, eating, starvation, nourishment, cooking for one, cooking neighbours, baking cakes, cakes, cake batter, broken heart, mending a broken heart, food as love, finding love after divorce, finding love again, healing from a broken heart, men and women, dating apps, life on the dating apps, strange stories from dating apps, recovery from heartbreak, cooking as a cure for pain, cooking for love, cooking for your life, cooking, mothers, complicated mothers, complicated mother daughter relationships, unconditional love, acceptance, accepting your parents.

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.

Philosopher and writer Eamon Evans on humanity's relentless and impossible pursuit of happiness through materialism, social media and self help, and why the kindest and best people have been 'crushed by life' a couple of times.

Eamon started to think more deeply about happiness and contentment in his 20s, after a bout of serious depression.

He realised that trying to be happy all the time was paradoxically making him miserable, and says that's true for most of us in this modern world.

Eamon began to trace the history of human's infatuation with being happy.

What he found was that the story of humanity was tied up with other pursuits like survival, honour, virtue and discipline until very recently.

Only in the 20th century did people start wanting to stop to smell the roses all the time, but Eamon says a permanent state of happiness impossible and emotionally counterproductive.

In fact, our obsession with being happy is actually making us sad, and on top of that, it's making us sad about the fact that we're sad—a concept called 'meta-unhappiness'.

Eamon acknowledges misery can sometimes be pathological, and it's important that lifesaving progress has been made on creating spaces here people can speak out and seek help.

But in terms of daily, natural feelings of struggle, he says it's better to accept these as a normal part of human life, and look upon seasons of misery as miracles that build character, make us kinder, and more interesting.

The Importance of Being Miserable is published by Simon and Schuster.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.

It explores advertising, marketing, smart phones, addiction, dopamine, serotonin, Gen Z, glimmers of hope, gratitude, being grateful, how to be grateful, gratitude journal, Buddhism, enlightenment, Mad Men, advertising, capitalism, mental health, mental wellbeing, self help books, religion, industrial revolution, greed, property, wants versus needs.

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.

Judy grew up on a farm in north-east Victoria.

When she was seventeen, a family tragedy saw her thrust into life as a farmer for the first time.

Being a young farmer led her into local politics, and eventually into a burgeoning friendship with a lanky, much-loved local politician named Tim Fischer.

On their first date, Tim took Judy to the Tocumwal Debutant Ball, and it was a disaster.

But despite the age difference, the two of them eventually fell in love and started a family.

When their first son, Harrison, was diagnosed with autism Judy became an advocate for people on the autism spectrum.

The family is still grieving Tim, whom they lost to leukaemia in 2019.

But Judy is now working to make her beloved family farm, ‘Grossotto’, a sanctuary for vulnerable adults.

Learn more about Care Farms.

Listen to Tim Fischer in conversation with Richard Fidler.

Watch the 2018 Australian Story about the Fischer Family.

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

It explores love, marriage, relationships, Auspol, local politics, country Australia, regional Australia, rural communities, motherhood, age gap relationships, grief, death, grieving a spouse, neurodivergence, autism spectrum disorder, raising children with autism.

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 world's leading eucalyptus expert, Professor Steve Hopper, on what science and culture say about these spectacular trees, and how Noongar elders in WA's South West led his 'second education' in botany.

Australia is one of the richest places on earth when it comes to botanical biodiversity.

Tens of thousands of species of trees and flowers have developed over millions of years of isolation.

But perhaps the most iconic of all native flora is the humble eucalyptus.

From Queensland's ancient rainforests and the alpine region of New South Wales, to the wilds of Tasmania and the granite outcrops of coastal Western Australia, gum trees are synonymous with the Australian landscape.

There are 900 different species of eucalyptus, from giant gums close to 100 metres tall, to tiny wee mallee trees the same height as a kindergartener. 

Steve Hopper has recorded more than 100 of those species, and believes there are still more waiting to be found.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores botany, climate change, extinction rates, gum trees, eucalypts, California wild fires, biodiversity hotspot, Australia's native flora, koalas, mallee, jarrah, karri, ancient trees, dinosaurs, Australiana, Western Australia, Great Southern Blue Mountains, Tasmania, South West of WA, Albany, Stirling Range, Snowy Mountains, red gum, stringy gum, Australian wildflowers, Kew Gardens, London, the United Kingdom, Joseph Banks, environmental exploitation, Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous healing, eucalyptus oil medicinal properties, dreaming, conservation, gardening.

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.