The Sugarbag bees who headbutt their queen to her death are among the many Australian bee species which fascinate ecologist Toby Smith

The brutal and beautiful world of Australia's native bees

Spend an hour in someone else's life. Conversations draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met.

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Pádraig Ó Tuama survived conversion therapy and exorcism as a young gay man in a church in Ireland, then became a leading peace negotiator and a poet (R)

Theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama on making peace and living in poetry

Carly-Jay Metcalfe lives with cystic fibrosis, and has faced a double lung transplant, a rare cancer and other huge medical challenges. But through it all humour and hope have fuelled her survival (CW: this story discusses organ transplant and donation, drug use and self harm)

Carly-Jay on dying, living, and learning to breathe

Writer Lech Blaine on Peter Dutton, the former policeman who became the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia

A portrait of Peter Dutton

Scientist Tanya Latty on how a single-cell organism, slime mould, can solve complex problems in some remarkable ways (R)

The secret life of slime mould

What was on the "must-see" lists for tourists in 200 BCE? From the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the Great Pyramids at Giza, historian Bettany Hughes is your tour guide through the seven wonders of the ancient world

The brutal and beautiful world of Australia's native bees

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