Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Queanbeyan raised, Bornean-Australian poet, visual artist, and award-winning author Omar Musa says his "hyperactive mind" keeps him looking for the next project. He has published five hip-hop records, four books of poetry, wrote and starred in a one-man play about the death of Muhammad Ali, and creates woodcut prints. 

2023 was a year that Omar describes as containing "all the highs and lows that you can experience in life... love, loss, grief, and then grief on a grand scale with the genocide in Gaza". It was the year he met his wife, the cello player Mariel Roberts Musa - at a chance meeting in New York City, and also the year he tragically lost his best friend, B. 

In 1951 the High Court witnessed one of Australia's most high profile legal battles: the Communist Party case. The case saw future Chief Justice of Australia, Garfield Barwick KC, argue against the then Leader of the Opposition, Bert Evatt KC, to determine the constitutionality of the Communist Party Dissolution Act 1950.

In her new book The Framing, lawyer Fernanda Dahlstrom unpacks her past and the crime that sent her mother to jail when she was eight years-old. 

The oldest and largest crossword event in the United States, The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is celebrating its largest attendance ever this year. It is directed by Will Shortz, who founded the tournament in 1978, and has been the editor of the New York Times crossword since 1993. Will is also the only person who holds a degree in ‘enigmatology’ or ‘the study of puzzles’. 

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has published a draft of the Children’s Online Privacy Code. It contains new rules to create better online experiences for children, including a requirement that "agencies and organisations [...] consider the best interests of children before collecting, using or disclosing their personal information."

A new UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, led by Chad, has begun its deployment into Haiti. The new force hopes to succeed where its predecessor — the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support — has failed. In pushing back the violent gangs that have taken over much of Haiti.

Guest: Diego Da Rin, Haiti Analyst at the International Crisis Group

A constitutional brouhaha is brewing in Canada as the Supreme Court weighs legal arguments presented in a landmark case known as English Montreal School Board v. Quebec.

The Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel is the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. Kanishka was born into the Buddhist faith, but a chance conversation with a Christian friend while he was studying law at the University of Sydney inspired a spiritual journey that led him to Christianity and, ultimately, to the priesthood.

This week's mystery caller likes woodland and open country right across mainland Australia — the Jacky Winter.

For over 30 years, the Snuff Puppets have brought all manner of giant puppets to streets and communities of Melbourne and beyond. 

But a recent funding cut means the Snuff Puppets are now in danger of becoming Snuffed Puppets. Indeed, Snuff Puppets is just one of a number of Melbourne cultural institutions who either missed out or were scaled back in the latest round of the Victorian governments Creative Enterprises Program. 

Co-artistic directors of Snuff Puppets Andy Freer and Nick Wilson join the program to explain what these cuts mean for their company, how it's part of a bigger story in Victoria, and why they believe the world needs puppets right now.

Guest: Andy Freer - founder, CEO, and co-artistic director of Snuff Puppets, and Nick Wilson - co-artistic director of Snuff Puppets.