Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Imran Khan’s elevation to prime minister was the culmination of a long political campaign with the help of advantages conferred upon him as the favoured candidate of the military establishment. As Pakistan’s traditional political parties join the generals in cornering Khan, there is no major force calling for full democracy.

Guest: Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor, History, Arts and Sciences at Tufts University

Whistleblowers play an important role in holding power to account, by speaking up about human rights abuses, government wrongdoing and corporate misfeasance, but all too often it is the whistleblower who faces reprisal. The Human Rights Law Centre’s Whistleblower Project is Australia’s first dedicated legal service to protect and empower whistleblowers who want to speak up about wrongdoing.

In what's been heralded as a watershed climate change lawsuit, earlier this week an American district court judge ruled in favour of a group of young environmental activists who had sued their home state of Montana.

In what was the first constitutional climate trial in US history, the Held vs Montana lawsuit was filed in 2020 by 16 young Montana residents who argued that state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a "clean and healthful environment" by permitting fossil fuel development without considering its effect on the climate.

The Montana attorney general's office said it will appeal what it called an "absurd" ruling.

But just what might this win mean for future climate litigation brewing elsewhere around the world?

Guest:

Zoe Bush, Senior Solicitor in the Environmental Defenders Office

In one of the most remarkable stories of art theft in history, a Frenchman named Stephane Breitwieser stole hundreds of artworks and valuable objects from around 170 European museums between 1995 and 2001.  

But unlike other notorious art thieves, he didn’t steal the works to sell them or make a profit, despite their value being estimated at more than a billion US dollars.  Instead, he kept them, carefully looked after,  in the bedroom and attic of the house he shared with his girlfriend and mother.

Guest: Mike Finkel, author of The Art Thief

Let's go on a space adventure!

Gomeroi woman and astrophysics honours student Krystal explores the scale of our universe.

Historian Mark Edele's new book explains why and how the war in Ukraine came about.

That’s the question that Antarctic ecologist Dr Dana Bergstrom tackled when she gave the 2023 Allan Sefton Memorial Lecture at the University of Wollongong.

Dr Bergstrom works for the Australian Antarctic Division, studying and identifying risks to Antarctic ecosystems … and she’s been pondering the extent to which one of the risks to Antarctic ecosystems is scientists like her. 

Guest: Dr Dana Bergstrom, Senior Researcher, Australian Antarctic Division and Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Wollongong

Record crowds and viewing numbers have made the 2023 Women's World Cup the biggest women's sporting event ever.

The charity Peter Baines set up has helped underprivileged kids in Thailand with homes, food, education and future pathways.

The FIFA Women's World Cup has transfixed Australian audiences in a way that few sporting events in this country have come close.