Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

The sheep dog is part of Australia's farming identity. But as good dogs become more expensive and pressure mounts on farmers, could they be replaced by cheaper robodogs? Ian Sinclair is working on a research project based at the University of the Sunshine Coast and thinks that robodogs have a real future on Australian sheep farms.

Guest: Ian SInclair, Senior Innovation and AI Analyst at the University of Sunshine Coast 

MTV was a groundbreaking media experiment when it first launched in the US in 1981.  The first channel to show 24-hour a day music videos, it was expanded to Australia and Europe in 1987. Now, many of the global channels are set to close as part of what is described as a cost-cutting exercise.

A coded puzzle embedded in a sculpture outside the CIA headquarters has been stumping cryptologists for more than 30 years until, in the lead-up to the puzzle's solution being sold at auction this year, two journalists stumbled on an answer that had been hidden in plain sight. 

Guest: John Schwartz, former New York Times journalist and Professor of Practice at the UT Austin School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas

The citizens of Iran’s capital Tehran are facing a dire situation: the government is warning that people may soon be forced to evacuate the city because it is about to run out of water. On November 19th, the President Masoud Peseshkian described the need to move as “not a choice but a necessity”. 

Victoria has followed Queensland in legislating tough new "adult crime, adult time" laws. In Victoria the new laws mean that a fourteen year old can be given a life sentence for crimes such as home invasion. And in Queensland 113,000 people have signed a petition to give people greater powers to defend themselves from home invasion. But is home invasion on the rise in Australia and will these new laws work to reduce the incidence of these crimes?

Guest : Alex Simpson, Associate Professor of Criminology, Macquarie University

Australian performance artist Stelarc has pushed the boundaries of the human body for the last 50 years, suspending himself by hooks, wiring his muscles to the internet, even adding a prosthetic ear to his arm. On The Year That Made me he traces his experimental foundations back to a visit to Japan in 1970.

Guest: Stelarc, Performance Artist.

The National Assistance Card is a tool that is increasingly being used by people with invisible disabilities to communicate their needs, particularly during emergency situations. 

The African Grey is a very clever parrot whose capacity to mimic has made them stars on social media. But has the increased demand for them threatened their survival in the wild? And should wild birds born to fly be sold as pets especially when they often outlive their owners?

Guest: Rene Ebersole, investigative reporter and co-founder of of the non-profit journalism organisation Wildlife Investigative Reporters & Editors (WIRES).

Her article in Rolling Stone can be found here.

Yet another adaption of Frankenstein emerges from Netflix this month, the latest in over 100 years of screen adaptations. But in 1818, when Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was first released, was the concept of reanimation considered science fiction or potential science fact? 

Guest: Kathryn Harkup, author of Making the Monster: The Science of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

As interest in the possibilities of neurotechnology accelerates, there are growing concerns that some of the downsides are being overlooked. Particularly the issue of what happens to patients if the company that produces their device stops producing component parts, or servicing their technology, or goes out of business altogether.