Conversations
Conversations draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may have heard about, but never met. Journey into their world, joining them on epic adventures to unfamiliar places, back in time to wild moments of history, and into their deepest memories, to be moved by personal stories of resilience and redemption.
Hosted by Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, Conversations is the ABC's most popular long-form interview program. Every day we explore the vast tapestry of human experience, weaving together narratives from history, science, art, and personal storytelling.
Conversations Live is coming to the stage! Join Sarah Kanowski and Richard Fidler for an unmissable night of unforgettable stories, behind-the-scenes secrets, and surprise guests. Australia’s most-loved podcast — live, up close, and in the moment. Find out more at the Conversations website.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 50 minutes
- Episodes
- 2025
- Years Active
- 2017 - 2025
Encore: A home filled with music — raising the Kanneh-Masons
Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians (R).
Kadiatu is a former English academic and the mother of seven extraordinary chil…
00:48:48 |
Fri 30 May 2025
Why Colm Toibin ran away with the circus — to Barcelona, Brooklyn and beyond
The Irish novelist has always been open to where life can unexpectedly take him, and the excitement that comes with that kind of freedom.
Colm Toibin's first big move was from rural Ireland to Dubli…
00:53:18 |
Thu 29 May 2025
Hilde Hinton's home for the temporarily defeated
When Hilde Hinton was on the cusp of adolescence, her mother died. For years she protected her younger siblings from the truth about their mum.
Despite the great grief of her mother's shocking de…
00:51:12 |
Wed 28 May 2025
The secret life of Scarlett, the octopus
When Alex Schnell was around 5 years old, playing in rock pools around Clovelly beach in Sydney, she had an alien encounter.
The creature in the shallow water in front of her was a little octopus a…
00:52:08 |
Tue 27 May 2025
Encore: How Sean Sweeney found his deaf heart
Sean Sweeney on the complications and joys of growing up as a a hearing child in a deaf family, using Auslan, a distinctively Australian sign language.
In his twenties, Sean rebelled against the dea…
00:51:20 |
Fri 23 May 2025
The miserable lives and golden guns of tyrants, dictators and despots
Marcel Dirsus is fascinated by the treadmill of tyranny: how dictators gain power, how they stay there and how they fall. This is his blueprint for bringing an end to authoritarianism.
With democrac…
00:51:30 |
Thu 22 May 2025
Claire Keegan on bravery, writing and the single life
The bestselling Irish author grew up on a farm set on “50 acres on the side of a hill”. Growing up, she witnessed a harsh, misogynistic country that convinced her she would never marry. Claire shares…
00:53:10 |
Wed 21 May 2025
Peter Godwin's complicated loves, great losses and occasional wars
The writer had a complex relationship with his mother, whose professional reputation built a wall between them, but also saved his life more than once while working as a war correspondent.
Peter God…
00:53:30 |
Tue 20 May 2025
Treating anorexia by nourishing the heart
Psychiatrist Warren Ward treats patients who are severely ill with eating disorders. Understanding the mystery of human nature has driven him since he was a young doctor.
Warren Ward's patients are …
00:52:00 |
Fri 16 May 2025
Ghost stories and executions in Iceland — when Hannah Kent and Agnes Magnusdottir became entwined
When writer Hannah Kent first visited Iceland in 2003, she came across a gothic true story about Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman hanged in Iceland. That story would change her life.
Hannah's arri…
00:51:12 |
Thu 15 May 2025
Heroin addiction, Ivan Milat's dentist, and beginning again
Claude Robinson developed a heroin habit as a young man, and spent years in jail. In 2006 he began to turn his life around for good. (CW: descriptions of drug use, addiction, and crime) (R)
Claude R…
00:51:36 |
Wed 14 May 2025
Situationships, risks and growing pains — Jemma Sbeg on surviving your 20s
From relationships and loneliness, to indecision and burnout, Jemma Sbeg is your guide to navigating your 20s, and looking back on that decade with a new perspective.
When Jemma Sbeg started recordi…
00:52:00 |
Tue 13 May 2025
Encore: Mt Druitt to Tonga, how Winnie embraced her cultural heritage
Winnie Dunn was a teenager when the Chris Lilley character 'Jonah from Tonga' became a national joke and as a Tongan Australian the stereotype made her feel uncomfortable.
Despite being born into a …
00:51:00 |
Fri 09 May 2025
Jamila Rizvi’s one in a million brain tumour
Jamila’s craniopharyngioma had been growing for years, unbeknownst to her. In hindsight, it was her son who gave the first clue, when he stopped breastfeeding overnight at 11 months old.
Today Jamil…
00:53:14 |
Thu 08 May 2025
Slapped by a whale's tail, and other animal adventures
Whale and dolphin researcher, Barry McGovern’s love of sea creatures started in Clare, Ireland, when as a child he met the county’s solitary, friendly dolphin, named for the singer Dusty Springfield.…
00:51:12 |
Wed 07 May 2025
Adam Kay — the magic and misery of doctoring, comedy and fatherhood
After a caesarean section on his labour ward went catastrophically wrong, Adam Kay took a radical inventory of his entire life. CW: traumatic childbirth, eating disorders.
Adam was not far off quali…
00:46:36 |
Tue 06 May 2025
Briana, Max and Freddy: love, trains and mouth music
Briana Blackett was a journalist in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to his name. When Max and his little brother Freddy were both diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, B…
00:52:42 |
Mon 05 May 2025
Encore: breaking the silence around men's mental health
Jonno Seidler with the story of his Dad Ray, a much-loved and successful doctor, who hid his private struggles from the world.
Behind closed doors, Ray Seidler was locked in a herculean fight with …
00:53:00 |
Fri 02 May 2025
Learning from the mighty matriarchs of the animal kingdom
Erna Walraven was one of the first female zookeepers to work at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in the 1980s. Despite practical jokes from her male colleagues, like animal dung in her gumboots, Erna kept her ne…
00:52:03 |
Thu 01 May 2025
Mawunyo's life in love, journalism and hip hop
Mawunyo Gbogbo was raised as a church-going African Australian girl in the sleepy mining town of Muswellbrook, before she grew up to become a hip-hop journalist and a writer (R)
Mawunyo's parents ha…
00:52:18 |
Wed 30 Apr 2025
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