Late Night Live — Full program podcast

What can we learn from Indigenous perspectives on Australian history? Two historians, one Indigenous and one not, explore new and very, very old ways of seeing the past in 'Deep History: Country and Sovereignty'. Then: shade. On a warming planet, shade takes on a new significance. It is an unevenly distributed resource, and, Sam Bloch argues, too often overlooked in urban design. On this special summer episode we look at shade in a new light.

If you left a feather at an American crime scene during the 20th century, chances are that Roxie Laybourne would be called. Laybourne was "The Feather Detective", a Smithsonian forensic ornithologist who solved crimes using her extensive knowledge of birds. Then: the makers of a documentary on the life of Emily Kam Kngwarray, the Indigenous-Australian painter who first picked up a brush in her seventies.

Should prison architecture be used for punishment, or could it be used to create hope, instead? 'Jaywalking' is being decriminalised in some US states as campaigners say the law has been disproportionately enforced on black and Latino residents. Plus how did we end up with the QWERTY keyboard, when it wasn't designed to be fast or logical?

Sir Gerard Brennan served as the 10th Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest judicial position in the country. He was involved in several landmark cases, including the famous Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) decision. This case overturned the concept of "terra nullius" (land belonging to no one) and recognised the native title rights of Indigenous Australians for the first time under Australian law. His son Frank Brennan has collected his father's speeches in Gerard Brennan’s Articles and Speeches, Vol 2: Law in Accord with Justice 

Guest: Father Frank Brennan, SJ

After 30 years of appearances on Late Night Live Laura Tingle shared her memories of Australian politics and her favourite LNL appearances before she began her role as ABC Global Affairs Editor. Plus why Aussies are in love with outdoor cinema. 

Is over-tourism coming for Antarctica? As more and more people travel south for awe and adventure, our guest has some proposals to keep Antarctica pristine. Plus: Dame Harriet Walter, internationally famous for her TV roles, has long been a celebrated Shakespeare actor on the stage. Walter has inhabited the minds of Shakespeare's women for more than half a century, and her new book imagines what else those women might have said... if only they'd been given more lines.

Linguistics Professor Emily Bender, warns that the big tech companies who promote AI, with an almost spiritual zeal, may be off the mark. Plus the bizarre story of the Roosevelt family members who sought to prove the existence of giant pandas to the West. 

20 years on from her famous novel The Secret River, writer Kate Grenville retraces the footsteps of her settler ancestors, and asks what it means to be on land taken from other people.

• Guest: Kate Grenville, author of Unsettled, published by Black Inc

Leni Riefenstahl has been hailed as one of the greatest directors of all time, even though her most famous films were works of propaganda for Hitler's Reich. Her film about the 1934 Nuremberg rallies broke new ground in cinematic techniques and had a huge influence on filmmakers for years to come. Riefenstahl always claimed she was just an artist, unaware of Nazi atrocities, but a new documentary reveals secrets from her extensive archives.

• GUEST: Andres Veiel, Director, 'Riefenstahl', showing at the German Film Festival 
• PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer

*This show originally aired on 01 May 2025

Australian literature was never the same after McPhee Gribble Publishing, the revolutionary women-owned publishing house. The venture was started in 1975 by Diana Gribble, a socialite working in advertising, and Hilary McPhee, a novice editor. Soon authors like Tim Winton, Dorothy Hewett and Helen Garner were knocking at their door. Then: beach shacks, the humble shelters for fishermen and the destitute which adorn Australia's coast.