The 2025 federal election marked the most significant electoral defeat in the history of the Liberal–National Coalition, with the party reduced to just 43 seats. The result was widely attributed to strategic missteps, internal divisions, and a failure to connect with a changing electorate. Almost four months on, where does the future lie for the Liberal Party? 

GUESTS:

Judith Brett, Emeritus Professor of politics at La Trobe University

Frank Bongiorno, Professor of history at the Australian National University

Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large at The Australian

PRODUCER Ali Benton

Some of the most powerful figures in America – from Silicon Valley to the White House - are enamoured with a dead French philosopher by the name of René Girard.  Girard’s claim is that all human desire is 'mimetic' or based on imitation. His musings on human behaviour and psychology eventually lead him to God. But why is Girard all the rage amongst tech entrepreneurs? 

• Guest: Alexander Douglas, philosopher and author of Against Identity: The Wisdom of Escaping the Self
• Producer: Hayley Crane

Robyn Williams has been the voice of ABC Radio National's Science Show for fifty years and along the way he’s written ten books, survived at least three heart attacks, two bouts of cancer, been named a National Living Treasure and had a rollicking good time.  He looks back at some of the show's defining moments with David Marr. 

• Guest: Robyn Williams, host of The Science Show
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Before the days of Instagram, personal cameras, and privacy laws, street photographers set themselves up around Sydney. The industry peaked between the 1930s-1950s, and has left the legacy of an incredible archive. 

• Guest: Anna Cossu, Curator, Museums of History NSW
• Producer: Ali Benton

The current leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is nearly 90, and deeply unpopular. As more countries — including Australia — agree to recognise the Palestinian state, what could that future state look like?

• Guest: Khaled Elgindy, an adjunct professor at Georgetown, the former director of Middle East Institute’s Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs, and a former advisor to the Palestinian government.
• Producer: Alex Tighe

The unfortunate face of Trump's deportations is is Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, who is now facing a threatened deportation to Uganda. Former Trump ally John Bolton (and current Trump critic) has been raided by the FBI. Plus: the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

• Guest: Bruce Shapiro, Contributing Editor for The Nation and Executive Director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma.
• Producer: Jack Schmidt

August marks Poetry Month in Australia - a series of talks and events celebrating the country's flourishing scene, including a countdown of the best poems of this century, at the State Library of NSW this week. 

It's a busy time in poetry Australia. Three years ago, the Commonwealth government announced its intention to name an Australian poet laureate in 2025. But in the wake of the Khaled Sabsabi saga, that process is being closely scrutinised. 

• Guests: Jonty Claypole, CEO of Red Room Poetry & Nyaluak Leth, Sydney poet
• Producer: Jack Schmidt

Find all the details for Poetry Month events at the Red Room Poetry website. 

While all eyes have been on the starving people of Gaza, over in Sudan the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster is unfolding.  25 million people are facing acute hunger and over 12 million have been displaced in another man-made crisis as their civil war rages. US President Donald Trump's decision to cut USAID programs earlier this year led to the closure of up to 80 percent of Sudan’s emergency food kitchens and high-level talks to resolve the war have failed. So what lies ahead for Sudan? 

• Guest: Alex de Waal, Sudan expert and Executive Director, World Peace Foundation, Tufts university. 
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer

As pressure mounts for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to formally ditch their net zero target, the Nationals' Barnaby Joyce introduced a bill to repeal the target as soon as possible. But while it may not be popular with younger Coalition members, Anna Henderson says there is still a view in the Liberal party that nuclear should have a role in Australia's energy mix. 

• Guest: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club Director
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer

For millennia, wool has been more than just a textile fibre for cold climates—it has played a strategic role in warfare, both supporting armies with essential clothing and fuelling conflicts through control and manipulation of its supply.

• GUEST: Trish Fitzsimmons, co-author of Fleeced, Unravelling the History of Wool and War published by Bloomsbury

• PRODUCER: Ali Benton