Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

This week's mystery caller floods back to Australia from the north to enjoy our summer months – the Sacred Kingfisher.

Photojournalist Lorrie Graham was the first female photography cadet at The Sydney Morning Herald in 1975, and over the five decades since became “one of Australia’s most distinctive and influential photojournalists”. 

The Australian Museum holds an archive of photos, specimens and films taken by Harry Burrell, a vaudeville performer turned amateur naturalist, who changed the way the world understood the platypus.

Harry used his vaudeville showmanship to display the quirks of the platypus in a specially built 'platypusary' which he took on travelling exhibitions around the country and even overseas. 

By today's standards his methods would be considered unethical, but he did add to contemporary scientific knowledge about the species. 

He was joined on tour by his wife and fellow performer Susan. Their archives are currently on display in the exhibit Harry Burrell: The Platypus Man at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

Guest: Dr Zoe Sadokierski, associate professor in Visual Communication at the UTS School of Design.

At the tender age of 95, Liz Hicklin keeps expanding her repetoire — from author and poet, to comedian and now star of a one-woman show about being a footnote to history, as the girlfriend who dated Ted Hughes before Sylvia Plath

Guest: Liz Hicklin, writer and star of Sylvia Plath Stole My Boyfriend, playing at the Melbourne Fringe Festival from October 15-18

100 word including guest & book

Dr. Rachael Gunn aka Raygun represented Australia in women's breaking at the Paris 2024 Olympics. While she scored no points from the Olympic judges, she instantly scored a starring role at the centre of a social media firestorm debating her Australiana inspired routine. 

Recently Raygun told her side of the story in the Netflix documentary series Untold, which features endearing star turns from her parents and husband/coach Sammy. The episode is called Raygun: Breaking Badly.

Guest: Rachael Gunn, aka Raygun

Raygun: Breaking Badly is currently streaming on Netflix.

Indonesia is home to two of the world's last surviving tropical glaciers, which are found near the top of a 4882 metre mountain in Papua Province. 

The glaciers used to cover much of the Surdiman mountain range but they're disappearing rapidly and predictions for when they will finally disappear range from 2026 to 2030.

Dr Donaldi Permana is a climate research scientist and has made a number of expeditions to study the glaciers. He is hoping to make a visit in November this year. 

This year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel, for their work in optogenetics, a method for controlling nerve signals with light. Their research began by isolating a light-responsive cell from pond algae, and now makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain. 

Guest: Dr Karl Deisseroth, Professor of Bioengineering, and Psychiatry and Behavioural Studies at Stanford University, and joint winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

This week's mystery caller towers above its fellow wetland species – the Black-necked Stork.

Dr Anyier Yuol will never forget the day she arrived in Australia: it was the day Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll faced off in the 2003 Australian Idol grand final.

Anyier arrived in Australia on a humanitarian visa from Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya aged 10. 

Her parents, refugees from the civil war in South Sudan, had both died and she was raised in the camp by a aunt. 

A talented footballer who once dreamt of playing for the Matildas, she switched to a career in academia and modelling. 

Her PhD explored the cultural, social, and gendered dimensions of bride price within the South Sudanese diaspora in Australia, deepening her own understanding of culture, identity, and change.

In 2023 she was the SBS Les Murray Award winner highlighting the talent, creativity and courage of refugees who contribute to the fabric of Australia.