The folk singer on the songs in her blood and the intergenerational conflict between professional creativity and family

Avi Loeb was Harvard's top astronomer when he became intrigued by reports of a pancake-shaped object the size of a football field hurtling through our solar system (R)

Historian Gwynne Dyer on his search to understand whether war is embedded in human nature, and why things are changing, despite the world becoming less violent over the past seven decades

Is war embedded in human nature?

Historian Gwynne Dyer has faced this question during a career serving in the navies of three countries: Canada, the US and the UK.

He says that although war has come to Ukraine, the truth is that the world has been getting less war-like for many decades.

Gwynne is the author of many books on history, war, and technology.

His latest book investigates how people have waged war since the dawn of humanity right up to the present day.

Seven decades have passed since two great powers have gone to war with each other.

But now, Gwynne warns, things are changing.

Further information

The Shortest History of War is published by Black Inc.

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.

Anita Jacoby has spent decades uncovering the truth about other people, but when she turned the lens on her own father, she was shocked

Anita Jacoby has won awards for her excellence in journalism, uncovering the truth about people and places for almost 40 years from behind the television camera.

But a chance encounter at a dinner party a few years ago forced her to turn the lens on her own family.

What she discovered about her father, Phillip, was painful and extraordinary.

And what she thought would be a family history written only for her nearest and dearest, turned into a book filled with unearthed secrets too important not to share with the rest of the world

Further information

Secrets beyond the Screen is published by Ventura Press.

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.

A donation of land and $10 was all Australian-born Gemma needed to establish The School of St Jude in Tanzania (R)

Tom Tilley was raised in a loving Pentecostal family, but as he grew up he began to question the church's teachings, especially when it came to speaking in tongues

When teacher and actor Ned Manning lost his mother when he was 12 years old, he knew little about her life. So as an adult, he set off to re-imagine the life she shared with his father through WWII

From dodgy marathon runners to table tennis stars who 'dope' their paddles, there are few sports which can claim immunity from cheating

Louisa Lim with a history of the city of Hong Kong, including the true story of Tsang Tsou Choi, the 1950s graffiti artist who became a cultural icon

He's one of the world's most acclaimed opera stars, but Teddy Tahu Rhodes did everything he could, for a very long time, to avoid his destiny on stage