The largest excavation in a lifetime is underway at the famous archaeological site of Pompeii - the Roman city buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Remarkable new discoveries continue to be unearthed. 

Iraq's stunning marshlands are believed to be the location of the biblical Garden of Eden, in ancient Mesopotamia. They were destroyed by Saddam Hussein, then restored by the work of Dr Azzam Alwash and the NGO Iraq Nature. Now once again they face disaster thanks to the threat of climate change and a multitude of dams further up the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. 

• GUEST: Dr. Azzam Alwash, Founder and Director of Nature Iraq
• PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer

The Israeli Left, once a dominant political and cultural force, has seen its influence wane dramatically over the past two decades. Leading peace efforts in the 1990s, left-wing parties have struggled to maintain relevance amid a rightward shift in public opinion. 

• GUEST: Zvika Klein, Editor in Chief, Jerusalem Post.
• PRODUCER: Ali Benton

There is speculation US President Donald Trump may offer Ghislaine Maxwell a pardon as the Dept of Justice meets with her in private negotiations. Plus Trump meets with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and comes out with a new ceasefire deadline for Vladimir Putin - but none for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

• Guest:  Bruce Shapiro, Contributing Editor with the Nation and Executive Director at the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia university. 
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Veteran Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole looks back on the first 7 months of Donald Trump's presidency and examines whether the US Constitution is holding up under the Make America Great again agenda. Plus what is Benjamin Netanyahu's end game on Gaza?

• GUEST: Fintan O'Toole, regular contributor to the Irish Times and advising editor to the New York Review of Books.
• PRODUCER: Ali Benton

As the world reacts to the powerful images of people being starved in Gaza, the Coalition has held fast to the view that Hamas is to blame and Labor is still taking a cautious approach. Plus why the Coalition is walking away from net zero targets. 

• GUEST: Annabel Crabb, ABC writer and political commentator
• PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer

Former Liberal leader John Hewson says after two years the National Anti-Corruption Commission has failed in its mission to properly investigate allegations of systemic corruption. Hewson takes issue with the lack of action over things like procurement contracts and political pork-barrelling.  He says we need an integrity commission which is prepared to have public meetings and that without that it can't be effective. 

• GUEST: John Hewson, professor at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy and former Liberal opposition leader.
• PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer

During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist.  When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. But they ultimately introduced the panda to the West 

• Guest: Nathalia Holt, author of ‘The beast in the clouds: the Roosevelt brothers’ deadly quest to find the mythical giant panda’ (Simon & Schuster) 
• Producer: Ann Arnold

In 2023, the disgraced chief of the mercenary Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin, took off in his private jet from Moscow airport. The flight did not last long. Nine people died with him when the plane – it seems – blew up in midair. A few weeks earlier, Prigozhin had led his mercenaries fighting in Ukraine on a march towards Moscow. Vladimir Putin did not pretend to mourn his death. So what’s been the fate of the Wagner Group?

• GUEST: Candace Rondeaux, Senior Director for the Future Frontlines program at New America, and author, “Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos”. 
• PRODUCER: Ali Benton

In China, more wind turbines and solar panels were installed last year than in the rest of the world combined.  Chinese companies are building electric vehicle and battery factories in Brazil, Thailand, Morocco, Hungary and beyond. The superpower is well on its way to world energy dominance. Guest: Jennifer Turner, former director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum. Non-resident Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub Producer: Ann Arnold