After ten years co-hosting The Today Show, Liz Hayes made a decision that would reshape her life — she walked away from the top breakfast-television gig in the country.

In this second part of this conversation with Tina Quinn, Liz shares the personal turmoil that led her to professional triumphs at 60 Minutes, and the extraordinary assignments that took her from the war in Afghanistan, to the emerald mines of Colombia, and detention centers at Guantanamo Bay.

She reflects on the emotional toll of high-stakes reporting, the interviews that have stayed with her, and her eventual decision to leave Channel Nine after an incredible 44 years.

For more on Liz, pick up a copy of her 2023 memoir, I'm Liz Hayes.

Her new book, Outback Astronomer, is out now.

Get in touch:

We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or tweet us at @fourthestateau

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Liz Hayes is one of Australia’s most trusted and enduring journalists — but her story begins far from the studio lights.

In this first part of our profile, Liz joins Tina Quinn in-studio to reflect on her upbringing on the Mid North Coast, where she started out as a cadet reporter, and her rapid rise through the newsrooms of Network Ten and Channel Nine.

She talks about her decade at the helm of The Today Show — a role that made her one of the most recognisable faces in the country, as well as the pressures that came with that visibility, and the expectations placed on women in television in the 1980s and 90s.

Get in touch:

We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or tweet us at @fourthestateau

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For more than a century, Condé Nast defined taste, power, and aspiration. From Vogue and Vanity Fair to The New Yorker and GQ, its magazines didn’t just chronicle culture — they shaped it.

In this episode, Tina Quinn speaks with media correspondent for The New York Times, Michael M. Grynbaum, author of Empire Of The Elite, about how the company built an empire of influence — and how that power has been transformed in the age of social media, shifting values, and audiences who no longer wait to be told what’s beautiful or important.

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Just weeks ago, Palestinian media worker Samer Tarazi was struggling for survival amid the devastation of Gaza. Now safe in Sydney, he reflects on what he witnessed — the destruction of his city, the loss of his journalist colleagues, and the ongoing toll of a conflict that continues to test the world’s conscience.

As news breaks of a “ceasefire” — hailed by some as a breakthrough and dismissed by others as fragile and uncertain — Samer joined host, Tina Quinn in studio to speak about survival, truth-telling, and what peace really means when you’ve lived through war.

With translation and assistance from ABC journalist Nabil Al-Nashar.

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From the main stage at Sydney’s ICC, Women In Media's national conference brought together some of the sharpest voices in journalism and storytelling — Claudia Karvan, Hanna Rosin, Libbi Gorr, Hannah Ferguson, and Monica Attard among them.

To find out more about WIM, head to womeninmedia.com.au - you'll be able to find more information about the Caroline Jones Women in Media Young Journalist’s Award at the website.

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When Stasiland was first published in 2003, it became an international sensation — winning the UK’s top non-fiction prize and propelling Anna Funder onto the world stage.

In part two of this conversation with Tina Quinn, Anna reflects on the book’s extraordinary acclaim, and how her distinctive approach to truth-telling shaped her later works, All That I Am, The Girl with the Dogs, and Wifedom.

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She may not call herself a journalist, but Anna Funder’s work is a fearless meditation on truth, and a masterclass in pushing the boundaries of genre to capture it.

Her writing tackles the great arcs of 20th-century history, from the totalitarian state of East Germany, to the rise of Nazism, to the shackles of patriarchy, always through the lives of real people whose courage, resilience, and quiet heroism shine through.

As part of our ongoing in-profile series, Anna joined Tina Quinn in studio to talk about her journey from Melbourne to East Berlin — the city where the stories that became her award-winning debut book, Stasiland, first began to take shape.

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As we mark 24 years since the September 11 terror attacks, we revisit the Fourth Estate archives with a special episode first broadcast in September 2021 on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Hosted at the time by Prue Clarke — who herself was in New York when the attacks happened — this conversation digs into the media’s role in shaping America’s response, from uncritical reporting that smoothed the path to war, to coverage that overlooked the backlash against Muslim Americans and the erosion of civil liberties within the United States.

Prue was joined by Andrew Rosenthal, former editorial page editor of The New York Times, and Doha Madani, senior breaking news reporter at NBC News.

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Last week, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador in a move that dominated headlines. But while the media focused on the diplomatic drama, the government quietly introduced legislation that would strip certain migrants of their right to procedural fairness — a story almost entirely buried by the Iran announcement.

Both developments raise serious questions about secrecy, accountability, and double standards — questions the media largely failed to ask.

Joining host, Tina Quinn, is two stalwarts of the Canberra Press Gallery - Amy Remeikis (Chief Political Analyst for The Australia Institute) and Mark Kenny (Director of the Australian Studies Institute at ANU).

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Laura Tingle is widely regarded as one of Australia’s finest political journalists, with nearly four decades spent in the Canberra Press Gallery covering every government Malcolm Fraser’s to Anthony Albanese’s.

But this year she stunned even the most seasoned observers by announcing her departure as 7.30’s Chief Political Correspondent — leaving Parliament House behind to take on a new role as the ABC’s Global Affairs Editor.

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