Late Night Live — Full program podcast

Anna Henderson looks at how likely it is that independents like the Teals could form  a new centrist party. Does the success of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani herald a new era of popular Leftist politics in America? US socialist Bhaskar Sunkara surveys the future. And far from being worthless trivia, the gossip of Ancient Romans revealed a lot about the society and politics of the time. 

Guests: 

• Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS World News
• Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin magazine
• Caillan Davenport, Professor of Classics and head of the Centre for Classical Studies at ANU.

Global financial analyst Satyajit Das looks at how the double whammy of Trump's economic warfare and the war on Iran is playing out here and around the world. Writer Tareq Baconi reflects on life growing up as Palestinian refugee in Jordan, coming to terms with being gay. 

Guests: 

• Satyajit Das, global financial analyst
• Tareq Baconi, Hamas expert and author of Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir 

Roddy Doyle reflects on a lifetime telling the stories of working-class people in Dublin, with themes of domestic violence, unplanned pregnancy and life in the IRA. 

• Guest: Roddy Doyle, author of The women behind the door, published by Penguin Random House. Roddy is in Australia for Sydney Writers' Festival
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Bruce Shapiro looks at the Republicans' shaping of South Carolina's congressional districts, in an effort to win the November mid-terms. John Safran's new documentary for SBS explores the notion of offence, and what can and cannot be said in Australia today.  A new book says he may have been an aristocratic Aussie trooper. 

Guests:

• Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for The Nation, executive director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma
• John Safran, satirist, documentary maker, journalist, and author
• Adrian Mitchell, author of ‘Blind Freddy: the Pottinger Attainment’ (Wakefield Press)

Anna Henderson looks at why the government remains unpopular despite popular support for changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax in the budget.Dr. Guy Shalev, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, on why the IDF continues to hold fourteen Palestinian doctors in detention, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. And Daniel Hahn discusses the art and the magic of translating Shakespeare into other languages, and the difficulties of getting those puns to land. 

Guests: 

• Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent
• Dr. Guy Shalev, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights, Israel
• Daniel Hahn, author of ‘If This Be Magic - The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation’, published by Allen and Unwin

There have been 141 royal commissions in Australia since Federation, but not all of them have brought about meaningful policy change. Plus, a new book tells the stories of people who have struggled to protect their food culture in the face of war, genocide, and violence.

Guests: 

• Michael Mintrom, Professor of public policy at Monash University
• Michael Shaikh, author of The Last Sweet Bite: when war changes the menu

Ian Dunt on the political demise of Keir Starmer: even if he hasn't yet resigned, Ian says, he's already dead. How Antoinette Lattouf found inspiration in the stories of other Australian women who challenged power structures when she was fighting her own case against the ABC. And Australia is celebrating fifty years at the Cannes film festival, so why are there no Aussie films in competition this year?

Guests: 

• Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news; co-host of the Origin Story podcast 
• Antoinette Lattouf, journalist and author of Women Who Win 
• John Doggett-Williams, freelance video journalist and documentary maker 

Journalist Debbie Whitmont revisits the 1994 murder of John Newman MP - a crime billed as Australia's first political assassination - and the man still behind bars, Vietnamese refugee and political aspirant Phuong Ngo. Plus, a new biography of Hideki Tojo challenges assumptions about Japan's ruthless wartime leader. 

Guests:

• Debbie Whitmont, journalist and author of The Man Who Couldn't Wait: The true story of Australia's first political assassination
• Dr Peter Mauch, historian and author of Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General

Anna Henderson looks at One Nation's victory in the Farrer by-election. What does the result say about the growing frustration with the major parties? The British nuclear submarine that's spent a record-breaking six months submerged and a look at the ethics of reporting in a crisis zone. 

Guests: 

• Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club Director
• Josh Glancy, associate editor of The Sunday Times
• Cathy Otten, journalist and a visiting assistant professor of Media Ethics and Journalism at Rutgers University in New Jersey, US

Acclaimed journalist and author, Fintan O'Toole argues Trump’s political power lies in projecting the “right amount of crazy”. Plus how to help an Afghan woman and her five daughters escape the Taliban. 

Guests: 

• Fintan O'Toole, regular contributor to the Irish Times and advising editor to the New York Review of Books.
• Mij Tanith, playwright, teacher, refugee advocate and author of Laila’s Story (Spinifex Press, March 2026)