What is the soul? Is it a substance, your conscience or simply a creation of the mind? Most societies and religions have some concept of the soul. Historian Paul Ham has looked at how the idea has changed through history and across cultures. 

Guest: Paul Ham, author of The Soul: A History of the Human Mind (Penguin Random House)

Originally broadcast on 1 August 2024

Popularised by accountants in Renaissance Florence, the paper notebook has a rich cultural history. Prolific notebook users include master doodler Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin, Agatha Christie and Bruce Chatwin who unwittingly inspired the Moleskine.  

Guest: Roland Allen, author of ‘The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper’ (Profile Books)

Originally broadcast on 25 July 2024.

Frustrated academics are finding new models for publishing academic research that bypasses the big academic publishers who are making millions from their research. And it is the universities that are paying for it - usually twice.

Guest: Arash Abizadeh, professor of political science at McGill University and author of the article in the Guardian titled: Academic journals are a lucrative scam and we're determined to change that

Originally broadcast on 25 July 2024

A new documentary looks at the important career of military analyst Des Ball who kept Australia informed for over 50 years about the changing role of the US military and intelligence facility at Pine Gap.

Guests:

John Hughes, director of the documentary Twilight Time: Des Ball the man who saved the world.

Richard Tanter: Senior Research Associate, Nautilus Institute and former President of the Australian board of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) 

Originally broadcast on 25 July 2024

A new book suggests that Captain James Cook, while previously known as a man with a distinct knowledge of and respect for Indigenous peoples and with his crew, on his last voyage, misjudged and miscommunicated his way to his death at the hands of once friendly Hawaiians.

GUEST: author and historian Hampton Sides author of The Wide Wide Sea - Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook. (Random House)

Originally broadcast on 30 July 2024

The very lucrative practise of lobbying has moved beyond the corridors or Washington. Lobbyists now focus on shaping the opinion of constituents back home in their districts, cozying up to PR gurus, social media experts, pollsters, and grassroots organisers to further the interests of big US Corporations, and reshaping how both major political parties operate.  

Guest: Brody Mullins, author of The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government (Simon and Schuster)

Originally broadcast on 30 July 2024.

For more than 1000 years, India was a trading powerhouse across the globe - not only of spices, wild animals and gemstones but also of language, philosophy, religion, mathematics and astronomy. But why is this part of India's history not so well known, and why did its dominance wane about 1200 AD?

Guest: William Dalrymple, historian, podcaster and author of The Golden Road How Ancient India Transformed the World (Bloomsbury)

Originally broadcast on 3 September 2024

Chas Licciardello, Sashi Perera and First Dog on the Moon - aka Andrew Marlton - join David Marr to survey the profound and the ridiculous from the year we've just had.

Journalist Susan Casey is one of a few souls on Earth who's ventured into the deepest reaches of the ocean, beyond 5000 metres below sea level. 

Trying to trace the history of a place as old as Cyprus is like trying to write the history of human civilisation itself, from the primordial swamp and the frothy sea that spewed forth the mythic goddess Aphrodite to the epic battle between the Greeks and the Turks. For English-Cyprian writer Alex Christofi, the task of writing the history of the island was both epic and personal. 

Guest: Alex Christofi, author of “Cypria - A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean” published by Bloomsbury.