Speaking with...

The terror attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, changed the way we think about politics, society and safety as the world entered the 21st century.

But as the world learned the identities of the attackers, the response affected one community much more acutely: Muslims.

The media coverage of the 2001 attack and other subsequent incidents in our region, including the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney’s Martin Place in December 2014, increased the feeling among many in the Muslim community that they are not welcome or safe in the Australian cities that they call home.

So, in this increasingly tense climate, how does it feel to navigate the city as a young Muslim?

Dallas Rogers spoke with Western Sydney University PhD candidate Rhonda Itaoui about her research examining the Islamophobia young Muslims experience in Australia. She also explores her own experiences as a young Muslim woman and the success of campaigns like #illridewithyou in countering Islamophobia.

Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or follow on Tunein Radio.

Additional Audio:

Music from:

Dallas Rogers receives funding from the Community Broadcasting Foundation to produce short academic interviews for SoundMinds Radio (http://www.soundminds.com.au/author/dallas/). Segments of this interview were played on community radio on 01/12/2015

In late 2015, the Greater Sydney Commission was established to oversee metropolitan planning and development in Sydney. The commission is intended to function as a partnership between state and local governments, with both the power to create overarching planning proposals and the mandate to work with local governments on local planning controls.

NSW Premier Mike Baird has tasked the commission with delivering 680,000 new homes by 2031, with the aim of tackling the city’s unfolding housing affordability crisis.

In December, Lucy Turnbull was announced as the inaugural chief commissioner for the Greater Sydney Commission. In addition to a successful career in commercial law and investment banking, Turnbull has a history in local government – in 2003 she became the first female lord mayor of Sydney – and is the author of the 1999 book Sydney: Biography of a City. Since 2010 she has been the deputy chair of the Coalition of Australian Governments’ City Expert Advisory Panel.

Dallas Rogers spoke with Lucy Turnbull on the establishment of the Greater Sydney Commission, its structure, plans and mandate from the premier, as well as criticism from some urban planning experts that the commission is an undemocratic “top-down” approach to development.

Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or follow on Tunein Radio.

Music from Free Music Archive: Liquor Files - Treacle by Blue Dot Sessions.

Further reading:

“Participatory, technocratic and neoliberal planning: an untenable planning governance ménage à trois” by Laura Schatz and Dallas Rogers in Australian Planner.

“Monitory Democracy as Citizen-driven Participatory Planning: The Urban Politics of Redwatch in Sydney” by Dallas Rogers in Urban Policy and Research.

Dallas Rogers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Australia’s refugee and border protection policies have been in the spotlight again this week as riots broke out at the Christmas Island detention centre following the unexplained death of an escaped asylum seeker.

The incident happened just prior to a review of Australia’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council. Many countries criticised Australia’s tough stance on asylum seekers, and called on the government to end its policy of boat turnbacks, mandatory detention and offshore processing.

These are the latest episodes in Australia’s long and turbulent history with immigration. From the White Australia policy to Vietnamese refugees to the current turning back of boats, the treatment of migrants and refugees has long been controversial and divisive in Australia.

Dallas Rogers spoke with Shanthi Robertson and Ien Ang about national identities and the role migrants, refugees and borders will play in Australia during the so-called Asian century.

Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or follow on Tunein Radio.

Music from Free Music Archive: Night Owl by Broke For Free, 2044 by Alasdair Cooper, Dream (instrumental) by Chan Wai Fat, and Lo Ka Ping.

Additional audio: BBC News, RN Breakfast (ABC Radio National), Q&A (ABC TV), RT News, Reuters, Department of Immigration and Border Protection, ABC Lateline, The Australian Government.

Dallas Rogers receives funding from the Community Broadcasting Foundation to produce short academic interviews for SoundMinds Radio (www.soundminds.com.au). Shorter segments of these interviews were played on community radio on 03/11/2015.

Roughly 1,600 people are currently on waiting lists to receive an organ transplant in Australia. But for many, the wait will be unsuccessful due to the low number of donors.

Australia was once a world leader in organ donations, but today its organ donation rate is lower than much of the developed world. The country ranks 20th in the world for donations, despite having a higher than average rate of potential donors, and sits below world leaders such as Spain, Belgium, France and the USA.

Australia’s approach has been to focus on signing up more people to be donors and on encouraging families to consent to donation after the death of a relative. But if Australia wants to be world-leading, that’s not enough.

William Isdale spoke with Aric Bendorf about what needs to change if Australia is to, once again, become a leader in organ donation.

Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or follow on Tunein Radio.

Music: Free Music Archive/Kai Engel - The Idea

Additional audio: Sunrise (Channel 7), Organ and Tissue Authority, The World Today (ABC Radio National)

William Isdale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Black holes are incredibly strange phenomena: a collapsed star packed into a tiny region of space. Their gravitational force is so strong that not even light can escape.

So it is not surprising that, for a long time, black holes were not thought to actually exist – they were only a theoretical possibility.

But today, not only do we realise that black holes are relatively common in the universe, we also know that there are black holes lurking in the centre of all galaxies – including our own Milky Way Galaxy.

These black holes, called supermassive black holes, can pack the mass of millions or billions of suns into a region smaller than our solar system.

Tanya Hill spoke to Meg Urry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University and currently the President of the American Astronomical Society, about distant galaxies and the supermassive black holes that can be found in their centre.

This podcast includes excerpts from Museum Victoria’s Black Holes: Journey into the Unknown, narrated by Geoffrey Rush.

Subscribe to The Conversation’s Speaking With podcasts on iTunes, or follow on Tunein Radio.

Music: Free Music Archive/Kai Engel - The Scope

Additional audio: Museum Victoria, Fox News (US), BBC Worldwide, Sky News (Australia)

Tanya Hill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.