Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

The UN marks the International Day of Democracy on 15 September every year. But you could be forgiven for missing the celebrations because, let’s face it, democracy’s having a tough time around the world. 

Regional Director at Asia Centre Dr. Jamez Gomez however marked the day with an op-ed that claims that "Asia's Democracy is Being Rewired". 

Guest: Dr James Gomez is Regional Director at Asia Centre. James welcome to Sunday Extra. 

The first parliamentary election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the southern Philippines took place this week. 

The vote, which resulted in a hung parliament, would move the predominantly Muslim region one step closer to self-rule.  

Guest: Benedicto R. Bacani is Executive Director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (Notre Dame University)

With tens of thousands of food d poisoning cases and accusations of corruption, Indonesia's ambitious Free Nutritious Meals Program is under scrutiny by health, economics and welfare experts across Indonesia.

Guest: Dr Elan Satriawan, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Universitas Gadjah Mada

Can you guess this week's tweeter?

AJ 'Sandy' Mackinnon's 2002 bestseller The Unlikely Voyage of the Jack de Crow chronicled his adventures on the canals and river systems of England and Europe. And his subsequent books brought to life the same observational humour and adventurous spirit. Now his latest release, Realms of Gold, brings the story of the mirror dinghy Jack de Crow to a satisfying ending.

Guest: A.J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon, author of The Unlikely Voyage of the Jack de Crow and the newly released sequal Realms of Gold

The Dutch central bank recently confirmed that 27 tonnes of gold were physically transferred from the US and Canada back to the Netherlands, and that was after selling 59 tonnes of gold in New York in order to buy it in London.

The bank says the move was to strengthen “crisis preparedness” citing “increasing geopolitical unrest”.

Guest: Shaokai Fan, Global Head of Central Banks at the World Gold Council.

As we come out of winter, love is giving way to puggle season. 

A puggle is the name for a baby echidna, and it turns out there's a lot more to these spiky Australian animals than first meets the eye. 

Echidnas can sense electric fields, have surprisingly large brains and have particularly strange mating habits. And there's still so much we don't know about them. 

Guest: Danielle Clode, biologist, science writer and author of the Enigmatic Echidna. 

From a backyard in Broken Hill, a former mine worker has helped make a world first planetary discovery. 

Trevor Barry has spent years tracking Saturn from the backyard observatory he built himself.

In July 2024, Trevor first noticed something unusual around Saturn’s south pole. 

What he saw turned out to be a giant 10 sided wave known as “a decagon”,  the first structure of its kind ever seen on a planet in our solar system.

His discovery has now been published in Science Advances. 

Guest: Trevor Barry, Amateur astronomer 

Captain Reginald Saunders was the first Indigenous military officer in Australia. For the first time, his nephew James Saunders, shares a new and personal version of his story and what it means to fight for a country that wasn't willing to acknowledge his sacrafice.

Guest: James Saunders, author of Fighting for Country

Each year the Australian Institute of Physics presents the Marie Curie public lecture series.

In 2026 the lectures are being presented by Dr Karelle Siellez who lectures in physics at University of Tasmania.

Karelle has been crossing the country speaking about her work in a presentation called "Painting the Universe: A Visual and Musical Exploration of Space-Time"

Her work forcuses on transient and multi-messenger astrophysics, including gamma-ray bursts, kilonovae, supernovae, gravitational-wave counterparts, and rapid optical follow-up of short-lived cosmic explosions.