Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

The controversial American software and data analytics company Palantir is becoming an increasingly consequential fixture in governments and companies across the globe. What makes it so indispensable, and why did its CEO release a manifesto calling for compulsory military service? Julian Morrow speaks with Michael Steinberger, author of The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State - a book that demystifies Palantir and its unusual CEO, Alex Karp.

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, the date harks back to a gathering of 63 people from 38 African countries in 1991 in Windhoek, capital of the newly independent state of Namibia. In 2026, UNESCO is marking World Press Freedom day with another conference in Lusaka Zambia. 

Since the 13th century, coloured kites have filled India’s early summer skies. But in the last decade, their numbers have dwindled — in part because of the deaths and injuries caused by competitive kite fighting.

Guest: Mir Umar, independent journalist based in New Delhi, author of the article Thousands of kites once filled the skies above India's cities. Today the tradition is dying out

This week's mystery caller is a uniquely colourful inhabitant of Western Australia's southwest – the Red-capped Parrot.

1979 was the year Captain Deborah Lawrie fought for her wings. When her application to become a commercial pilot with Ansett Airlines was unsuccessful, she knew it wasn't because she was underqualified. Deborah brought Australia’s first equal opportunity anti-discrimination case to court, thinking she would be out of there in a day. But after a year of bitter legal battles, Deborah became Australia's first female pilot of a major airline, and paved the way for the women who came after her. Deborah Lawrie's memoir Touching The Sky is out now via Harper Collins. 

After his death, Oliver Sacks left his partner Bill Hayes an unexpected gift: a library filled with his marginal notes, revealing his inner thoughts, philosophies, and intellectual struggles.

Guest: Author Bill Hayes 

When Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce was named Australia’s best novelty song, it revived an old tension: in a comedy culture steeped in racial stereotypes, where does humour end and caricature begin — and who gets to call it?

Guest:  Jess Carniel, Associate Professor in Humanities, University of Southern Queensland

Thirty years ago the Internet Archive was created to digitally preserve content published on the internet. It claims to hold copies of 1 trillion web pages which are freely accessible via the Wayback Machine. Now the Wayback Machine is being threatened by media companies blocking access to their websites.

A landmark ruling in a case involving a French concrete company that operated in Syria during the height of Islamic State may clear the way for national courts to prosecute corporations for serious crimes such as terrorist financing and crimes against humanity.

40 years since the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, a team from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine are researching the effect of nuclear radiation on rodents that live in the forested exclusion zone. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, support from Bioplatforms Australia, with funding from the Ukraine-Australia Research Fund launched by the Australian Academy of Science has helped their research continue in the midst of war.