May 31 is the due date for a Federal Government decision on granting another 40 years to Woodside's controversial Northwest Shelf gas operations on the Burrup Peninsular in WA. Critics say over 1 million pieces of world-famous rock art could be damaged. Guest: Marian Wilkinson, celebrated investigative journalist, writing a Quarterly Essay on Woodside and its Kimberley operations. Producer: Ann Arnold 

We're living in unusual times, with political history being made every week, the seemingly imminent collapse of a certain global super power and serious existential crises, or just crises, on the horizon.  "Once you pull on the thread of collapse, the entire tapestry of history begins to unravel" writes Luke Kemp. So what can we learn from looking at the collapse of past societies?

• GUEST:   Luke Kemp - Research affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridg.  His first book - Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse - is due out in September

A new history of the union movement in Australia says marginalised groups like migrants, women, Indigenous Australia and LGBTIQA+ people were often left to run their own grass roots campaigns, and were only embraced by the broader union movement once their campaigns had gained momentum. But the approach of unions reflected the broader attitudes of the Australia of the day.  

• GUEST: Dr Liam Byrne, author of ‘No Power Greater - A History of Union Action in Australia’  published by Melbourne University Press. 

For just the fourth time in 160 years, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is filling up with water, following record-breaking floods in Queensland. As water flows through the desert, the landscape is transforming with plant life, fish, shrimp and migratory birds. 

• Guest: Professor Richard Kingsford, river ecologist and conservation biologist, UNSW

Amid reports of possible ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, there are concerns about the minerals deal that the US has recently signed with Ukraine. Some have described it as a diplomatic win, but how much scope is there to the agreement? 

• GUEST: Antonia Juhasz, writer with Rolling Stone Magazine
• PRODUCER: Ali Benton

US President Donald Trump’s constant changes to tariffs are wreaking havoc on US ports, logistics, and the price of goods. 

The temporary reduction on tariffs on goods from China is actually leading to more upheaval, uncertainty and chaos. 

Trump agreed to a 90 day pause last week on the 145 per cent tariff. But it’s still sitting at 30 per cent on Chinese imports, which small business are lobbying to avoid. 

• Guest: Juliette Kayyem - Lecturer and faculty chair of the homeland-security program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, national security analyst for CNN, NPR, and a contributor to The Atlantic. Juliette served as President Obama’s Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, and wrote The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters.

Laura Tingle returns to the Late Night Live studio moments after Nationals leader David Littleproud announced that his party would not be re-entering a Coalition agreement with the Liberal party. 

• Laura Tingle, Political Editor 7.30

Actor Dame Harriet Walter - known for her recent roles in TV hits like Succession and Killing Eve - has been performing Shakespeare on-stage for half a century. Her latest book She Speaks! imagines what thirty of Shakespeare's female characters might have said if they'd been given more voice in the Bard's beloved plays. 

• Guest: Dame Harriet Walter, actor and author of She Speaks!: What Shakespeare's Women Might Have Said, Hachette

The Liberal Party has a new leader, but what lies ahead for the Coalition, the Nationals and conservative politics in Australia more broadly?

• Guest: Laura Tingle, Political Editor 7.30

Australia had ambitions of creating an Empire that included the Southern Ocean, a new book argues. This explained Australia's willingness to fund Antarctic exploration and rescues, as a demonstration of its authority. Guest: Rohan Howitt, environmental historian at Monash University. Author of ‘The Southern Frontier: Australia, Antarctica and Empire in the Southern Ocean World’ (Melbourne University Publishing) Producer: Ann Arnold