Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation is the world's biggest green bank.

After a decade in the role, CEO Ian Learmonth reflects on Australia's progress to decarbonise the economy and global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. 

This week marks five years since the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan.

Since its return, the Taliban has imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, as it did when it first came to power in the 1990s.

For women and girls, whose worlds have become smaller and heavily policed, the anniversary is a grim one.

Next week, Darwin is hosting its first international test cricket match in 22 years.

In a city known for cane toad races and a million-dollar barramundi fishing competition, the mood and the event itself are likely to be a little different than other Australian cities.

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is the daughter of legendary comedian Richard Pryor, whose stand-up transformed American comedy in the 1970s.

In her new memoir, Elizabeth weaves together family memories with historical research to explore the legacy of her father, the history of one of America's most contested words and what it reveals about race, identity and belonging.

In what was billed as a battle over the future of the Democratic Party, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary this week.

He defeated Haley Stevens, a more moderate candidate who had the backing of much of the party establishment.

What does this say about the direction of the Democrats and its chances of winning back the White House?

In recent weeks, FIFA President Gianni Infantino proposed to sell a stake in future World Cup profits to private investors.

He's since abandoned the highly controversial idea, but not before triggering a civil war in the footballing world, which may lead to his downfall.

Being a FIFA story, it's all about power, influence and of course, money.

Richard Flanagan has brought out a collection of essays, speeches and columns entitled Heresies.

Its topics range from Manus Island to the Black Summer bushfires to the growing corrosion of democracy.

Flanagan, the only writer on the planet who has won both the Booker Prize for fiction and the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction, joins us for an extended discussion.

Aussie kids is touring the country with a one-woman theatre production.

Noni Hazlehurst plays publican Rose Grey in The Lark, a show about an inner city Melbourne pub facing demolition as gentrification marches on without her.

While there is a lot of attention being paid to the economic and technological change that AI is bringing, a new report argues that AI may also become a major force in reshaping Australian politics. 

If the effect of AI falls most heavily on educated professionals in "digitally intensive" neighbourhoods, what will be the political fallout? 

A key step in President Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan appears to have been reached.

Hamas has agreed to a plan with international mediators to lay down its heavy weapons on condition that Israeli forces fully withdraw from the Gaza territory.

Can this complicated agreement work and offer a new path forward?