The Yarn

Gender-affirming surgeries can cost tens of thousands of dollars. None of it is covered by Medicare. 
 
This week on The Yarn, reporter August Mikleus shares his investigation into the years-long fight for public funding, and what happens when trans patients are forced to front the costs themselves.  

Show Notes:

August Mikleus ’ reporting for The Citizen.

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In this episode of The Yarn, everybody is trying to stay in touch with somebody who has died. A family who turned their house into a hospital, a granddaughter burning money for her grandfather, a woman who says the dead can be booked by the hour, and a stargazer chasing light from stars that no longer exist. 

Stories by Isaure Duruy, Ruiying Tang, Olivia Wright and Jiali Hong. Hosted by Preeshita Shah. 

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In this episode, we're joined by Craig Silverman, one of the world's leading experts on online disinformation, who says the era of tech companies funding fact-checking is over. 

Craig has spent more than two decades reporting on how our information environment gets manipulated, from a blog tracking newspaper corrections in 2004, to investigations into the digital environment for BuzzFeed News and ProPublica. He now runs Indicator, a small independent newsroom investigating digital deception.

We talk about the liar's dividend, why only using detection tools won't save journalists, and why investigative journalism may not necessarily be the best journalism. 

Craig Silverman in conversation with the Centre for Advancing Journalism's cadet Preeshita Shah and lecturers Mell Chun and Silvia Montaño-Niño. 

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In this episode of The Yarn, we meet people who broke new ground without setting out to. The team behind Victoria's first golden kelp restoration project, a sailor who raced a yacht through the roughest water on the planet, and the first woman on the fireground in her region. 

Stories by Theoné van der Merwe, Bea Chirnside and Eamon Leggett. Hosted by Preeshita Shah. 

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In this episode of The Yarn, we meet people whose lives turned on a single first. A boy who became a Beyblade champion, a man whose first night at a soccer club became twenty-five years, and a journalist who chased her first byline from Fiji to Melbourne. 

Stories by Erielle Sudario, Sihan Ren and Yixin Zhang. Hosted by Preeshita Shah. 

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In this episode of The Yarn, the watching comes with a verdict. Cameras keeping guard over a wildlife sanctuary, an app that tracks a delivery rider's every stop, footballers waiting on selection, and women who change how they move through the city just to avoid being watched. 

Stories by Alexandra Nevill, Ruonan Yang, Harry Robertson and Sophie Sewell. Hosted by Preeshita Shah.

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This is the second episode in our three-part series, Somebody's Watching - and it's about Love, and Other Surveillance. In this episode, nobody is performing. But they're being watched anyway. And some of the watching arrives dressed as love, fear, or judgement. Sometimes, a chaotic blend of all. We meet a woman who was outed by a photograph, we step into a self-defence class where women practise watching back, and we are introduced to a mother who can tell you what time her daughter woke up from an ocean away. We also see what it feels like when the watching stops.

Stories by Xue Xue, Mercy Cornwell, Fan Chu and Xinnan Wang. Hosted by Preeshita Shah.

Music credits:

In Xue Xue's story, music was from Pixabay Music, used under the Pixabay Content Licence.

In Mercy Cornwell's story, music was from the Free Music Archive, by artists Jake Hunter, Soularflair, and the Independent Music Licensing Collective.

In Xinnan Wang's story, music was from Purple Planet.

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This is the first episode in our new three-part series, Somebody's Watching - and it’s about Screentime.  In this episode, we meet people who perform for the screen. But in the economy of attention, both performers and watchers are being surveilled.  We meet a streamer who games in front of thousands, we visit a cafe built on viral dessert pastry stuffed with pistachio and wrapped in marshmallow, and we are introduced a cat who has learned to high five for the camera.  We also are shown how we can be seduced into loving this surveillance, by a decade of our own data, gift-wrapped and handed back to us. 

Stories by Hope Kloppenburg, Yuyao Zhao, Megan Nicole Yin and Siena Kinkela.  Hosted by Preeshita Shah.

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On Chinese social media, political influencers risk censorship with every post.  

On today’s episode of The Yarn, we speak to feminist content creators from China and Australia about their differing experiences, both online and in real life.  

  This episode was created by Rachel Liu, Jinghe Huang, Yufei Li, and Zijun Qi. 

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Food can provide far more than just sustenance. For many, meals are a pivotal link to memory, identity, and belonging.  

On today’s episode of The Yarn, our reporters explore the transformative power of food. They speak to a gardener growing Chinese vegetables in Australia, a baker building community through a cake club, and others who turn to food for multifaceted nourishment. 

This episode was created by Kunfan Bai, Zhenxi Zeng, Zhoujun Cai, Qianrui Lu, and Ruiying Tang. 

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