The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: How big tech is creating the next Donald Trump

   Nobel Peace laureate and Rappler founder Maria Ressa sits down with Hamish McDonald at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney to make the case that the algorithms in your pocket, not any one leader, are manufacturing the conditions for authoritarian rule worldwide. Ressa says 74 per cent of the world now lives under authoritarian rule, that only a quarter of the open web is still open, and that most internet traffic is now non-human. She lays out an "authoritarian stack": Peter Thiel bankrolling Donald Trump and JD Vance, Palantir winning a US $10 billion military contract, and Silicon Valley firms wiring themselves into state power. Closer to home, Ressa questions Australia's push for so-called sovereign artificial intelligence, and asks whether the ABC should feed its audio archive to Anthropic to train American models, a deal she calls a "Faustian bargain". She also talks to press freedom, big tech starving newsrooms of revenue, and on whether journalism can survive at all. Guest: Maria Ressa, Rappler founder, Nobel Laureate and journalist Mentioned in this Episode: Is a unified Korea a lost cause? Justice Michael Kirby has hope, Global Roaming Helen Clark defends Fauci pleading the fifth and says Trump's vaccine cuts could cost lives, Global Roaming Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] Find all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

   August 27, 2026·30min
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   Number 2: Helen Clark defends Fauci pleading the fifth and says Trump's vaccine cuts could cost lives

   Helen Clark led New Zealand as Prime Minister for nearly nine years and she hasn't slowed down since. Now the Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Clark spoke to Global Roaming at a moment when vaccines have become a genuine political battleground. Clark talks to Hamish Macdonald about Trump's executive order to cut the recommended childhood vaccine schedule, RFK Jr.'s rise at the top of US health policy, and why she thinks Anthony Fauci pleading the Fifth before a Senate committee isn't necessarily what it looks like. She also raises a crisis that's had almost no attention: a fast-growing HIV outbreak in Fiji, driven by drug use and a lack of harm-reduction infrastructure. Plus: the misogyny and threats faced by women in politics - including, she says, threats to Jacinda Ardern far beyond what she or Julia Gillard ever experienced - and the story of the Tampa refugees New Zealand took in, and the search to reunite them with their families.Guest: Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand & Board Chair, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance. Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] Find all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

   August 26, 2026·30min
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   Number 3: Are American Democrats having their own MAGA moment?

   What happens when a party's own voters start to rebel against the establishment? The victories of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and Democratic senate nominee for Michigan Abdul El-Sayed have brought a lot of attention to progressive candidates, but some in the centre are warning about 'insurgents' that may never reach mainstream electability. Asma Khalid is an American journalist who has spent years reporting from the White House - she says that this movement could represent a real shift for the future of the Democratic party when it comes to tax, healthcare, and America's relationship with Israel. On today's episode, Asma joins Hamish Macdonald and Waleed Aly to talk about the strengths, weaknesses, and goals of the new trend of progressivism that is taking the spotlight, and its roots in Bernie Sander's transformative 2016 presidential bid. Plus: who are the Democratic Socialists of America, are they socialist, communist, or something new? And will these internal divisions lead to a stronger or weaker Democratic party? Guest: Asma Khalid, journalist, co-host of The Global Story podcast, and former NPR White House correspondent Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

   August 18, 2026·29min
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   Number 4: Her father fled the Taliban by boat. She became the first Afghan woman in the Australian army

   At age nine, Kbora Ali arrived in Australia as an Afghan refugee after her family fled Taliban rule. Less than a decade later, she became the first Afghan woman to join the Australian Army. In this deeply personal conversation, Kbora reflects on her journey from Afghanistan and Pakistan to suburban Adelaide, the challenges of growing up Hazara, and her determination to serve the country that gave her family safety and a future. She speaks to Hamish Macdonald and Waleed Aly candidly about belonging, identity, military life, and the deeply difficult choice she made to remove her headscarf when she first arrived at Kapooka. Now an Air Force flying officer, and co-author, along with her sister, of her new memoir First of Her Kind, Kabora shares a story that sits at the intersection of migration, service, multicultural Australia and the enduring consequences of war. Guest: Kbora Ali, Air Force flying officer and co-author of First of Her Kind. Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

   August 28, 2026·30min
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   Number 5: The case for optimism: Michael Kirby looks beyond the dire headlines

   Has the world taken a wrong turn, or are we simply losing sight of how much progress has already been made? In the second part of this conversation, former Justice of the High Court of Australia Michael Kirby reveals why, after years of working in the courts and in international aid, he is convinced that the world is moving in the right direction. Pointing to progress made in the treatment of AIDS and other world pandemics, the growing acceptance and visibility of LGBTQIA+ people, and the spread of universal education, Michael Kirby says that there are reasons to be hopeful. But, he adds, we cannot remain complacent against threats of fascism, climate change, and allowing irrationality to return to the forefront. In this expansive chat, Hamish Macdoanld and Waleed Aly ask Michael Kirby whether public trust in law and experts has been irreparably harmed, and whether political upheavals across the world are a sign of temporary unrest, or a symptom of something much deeper. Plus - what role does the media have in fostering a sense of pessimism or fatalism in the public? Guest: Michael Kirby AC, former justice of the High Court of Australia Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

   August 21, 2026·30min
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