Secrets We Keep
Each season, Secrets We Keep investigates a different Australian secret.
Jailbreak (Season 8): Journalist Tim Elliott details the extraordinary story of Darko Desic, a fugitive who lived for 30 years on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
Lone Actor (Season 7): Joey Watson traces the radicalisation trajectory of the Christchurch terrorist, asking the question - did he really act alone?
By Any Means (Season 6): An investigation into the modern fertility landscape, confronting complex questions about consent, identity and human rights.
Should I Spit? (Season 5): The origin story of the multibillion dollar consumer DNA industry. From police hoping to solve cold murder cases, to one of the most powerful churches in the world, everyone seems to want a piece of what makes you, you.
Pray Harder (Season 4): investigative journalist Richard Baker uncovers the unbelievable and compelling true story of Australia’s oldest and most hard line Pentecostal Church, the Geelong Revival Centre.
Baghdad Nights (Season 3): Richard Baker takes you inside Australia's biggest corruption scandal, finding out how Australia funded a dictator in the lead up to the Iraq War.
Nest of Traitors (Season 2): Joey Watson is pulled into the world of espionage, attempting to track down an Australian spy who turned to work for the enemy during the Cold War.
Shame Lies & Family (Season 1): A mystery photo of Amelia Oberhardt’s mum exposes the practice of shotgun marriages, forced adoption, and quiet abortions carried out in Australia until the 1980s.
- Update frequency
- every 5 days
- Average duration
- 30 minutes
- Episodes
- 75
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
The next Australian secret
Amelia Oberhardt introduces Season 2 of Secrets We Keep - Nest of Traitors. Hosted by Joey Watson, the season investigates another big Australian secret. Launching January 23.
Introducing Nest of Traitors
Three years ago, journalist Joey Watson was pulled into the ultimate spy mystery. During the Cold War, the Australian spy agency ASIO was infiltrated by a Soviet mole. For decades the mole's identity…
Shame, Lies & Family - Bonus - Your Stories
Closed adoptions have affected many Australian families, and no one experience is the same.
In this episode, you'll hear how forced adoptions have affected people from a new perspective - two adopte…
Shame, Lies & Family - Bonus - Finding your family
If you or your family have been affected by forced adoption, it can be daunting to start your journey to find information about your history.
However support is available, and host Amelia Oberhardt …
Shame, Lies & Family - Repeat or repair
In the final episode of the season, Amelia Oberhardt reflects on what she's learnt in the series, and confronts one last stigma - her mother's alcohol dependency.
Support services:
Shame, Lies & Family - The abortion raid
In researching the series, Amelia Oberhardt heard a shocking story about a Queensland abortion raid that showed another side of how women were treated in Australia’s not too distant past.
Amelia fi…
Shame, Lies & Family - Coming home
Leonie Pope was taken from her mother as a baby in 1972, after her mother was coerced into signing forms that gave away her rights. Leonie and her siblings were all taken from their family, and are p…
Shame, Lies & Family - Ghost Kingdom
We’ve been inundated with responses and questions from you, with your stories from the forced adoption era.
Dr Susan Green is a psychologist and adopted person and speaks to Amelia Oberhardt to ans…
Shame, Lies & Family - Where do I come from?
It’s a decade this year since Julia Gillard’s apology to those affected by forced adoption, but there’s still unfinished business. Now, it’s the adoptees picking up the baton and carrying on the figh…
Shame, Lies & Family - In the child’s best interest
At its peak in the early 1970s, almost 200 babies per week were adopted in Australia. It’s impossible to know how many of these adoptions involved coercion, but we do know that it was a time many bel…
Shame, Lies & Family - Moral danger
Young, pregnant, unwed. What happened next is one of the most shameful periods in Australian history. Amelia Oberhardt speaks to two women who experienced a forced adoption – a broad term used to des…
Shame, Lies & Family - Welcome to Cairns
Amelia Oberhardt flies to Cairns to meet the man in the photo, hoping to finally get the answer to a question that has haunted her for over a decade. Who is the baby in the photo?
Knowing what happ…
Shame, Lies & Family - The wake
Standing at her mother’s wake, journalist Amelia Oberhardt is confronted with a photo she’s never seen before - her mum Cecelia as a teenager wearing a wedding ring, accompanied by an unknown husband…
Shame, Lies & Family - Finding Michael
In the aftermath of seeing the photo at the wake, Amelia Oberhardt is on a search to find the man in the photo. Her pursuit leads her down a rabbit hole, into the world of 1960s and 1970s Australia, …
Introducing Shame, Lies & Family
Journalist Amelia Oberhardt thought she knew her mum, until she was confronted by a photo she’d never seen before at her mother’s wake. Seeing this photo sparks a journey into 1950s-1970s Australia, …