Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Audio from the ABC Archives of Bob Moore interviewing Paul Eslanda Robeson, during their 1960 Australian visit. 

Audio from the ABC Archives of Bob Moore interviewing Paul Eslanda Robeson, during their 1960 Australian visit. 

Blak Douglas has spent his artistic career painting bold and graphic artworks infused with political commentary of the realities of First Nation experiences in modern Australia. He describes his work as "parody, irony, truth". But before he found his voice as an Indigenous artist, Blak had to find a path out of the mono-cultural and prejudiced outer-western suburbs of Sydney, after generations of family members who had been robbed of their indigenous heritage. 

Guest: Blak Douglas, Dunghutti man, Archibald winning artist and musician.

This week's mystery caller is small of stature but sings energetically with a powerful voice – the Inland Thornbill.

When Paul Robeson toured Australia in 1960, it was not only a concert tour, but also a political tour. Paul Robeson was a hero to the political left across the globe and in Australia he met peace activists, Indigenous leaders, and union leaders. His impressive wife Eslanda was an author and correspondent for the United Nations and she met with women's organisations across Australia and New Zealand. What was the legacy of the tour for both Australian activists and the Robesons?

Guest: Ann Curthoys, author of The Last Tour: Paul and Eslanda Robeson’s visit to Australia and New Zealand (Melbourne Univesity Press

The full interview with Paul and Eslanda Robeson from the ABC Archives can be found here. 

Fleuranne Brockway is the first Australian singer to win the Montreal International Musical Competition in its 23 year history. She faced singers from around the world, competing for a prize valued at $85,000 AUD.

The mezzo-soprano singer from Perth has had a meteoric rise as an opera singer Europe, but has returned to Perth this July for rehearsals for Western Australian Opera's Madama Butterfly.

Guest: Fleuranne Brockway, Australian Mezzo-Soprano. You can see her winning performance here.

Is there really the problem with ADHD over-diagnosis? 

GPs are now licensed in multiple states to prescribe ADHD medication, while shortages of those medications are being felt nation-wide. Is the disorder being over-diagnosed, or do we need to find alternative solutions to support the supply chain?

Guest: Dr David Coghill, President of the Australian ADHD Professionals Association

What do Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal have in common? They were all invited to the USA-Africa Summit hosted by President Trump to discuss the move to trade from aid and other security and migration issues. And will the peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo negotiated by the Trump administration hold?

Guest: Nosmot Gbadamosi writes the Africa Brief for Foreign Policy.

Former Director of War Studies for the Australian Army, Albert Palazzo, shares his vision for a radical rethink of Australia's National Security strategy, that he has laid out in his new book The Big Fix. He proposes moving away from our dependency on sovereign powers like the US, futureproofing our military by investing in drones and unmanned vessels, and re-prioritising our defence priorities to focus less on the threat of China, and more on the potential security threats that might come as climate change reshapes the world order, as part of what he calls a "strategic defence approach' to national security. 

Guest: Albert Palazzo, Adjunct Professor at UNSW Canberra in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and former Director of War Studies for the Australian Army.

This week's mystery caller could be a beneficiary of unusually wet conditions on the east coast – the nectar-loving Regent Honeyeater.