Alfred Dreyfus was an officer in the French Army when he was arrested 130 years ago for treason, convicted and sent to Devils Island for 5 years in solitary confinement.  His battle for justice divided the population of France and fascinated people across the globe.  

Santilla Chingaipe tells the stories of the 15 convicts of African descent that came with the first fleet, and the hundreds that followed. How does their story fit in the story of the global slave trade? And what truth is there to the mystical powers of absinthe both in the past and its current form? Is it more myth than magic? Evan Rail investigates. 

Australian-born writer and honorary madrileño Luke Stegemann celebrates the remarkable and under-appreciated Spanish capital of Madrid. And a new exhibition brings medieval women back to life. 

Did you know passports can be ranked, and can be different even within nations?  Patrick Bixby examines the history of passports. Plus what Harry Houdini got up to when he visited Australia. 

Author Henry Savery is credited with being Australia's first novelist, for his work 'Quintus Servinton', but in his new book author and historian Sean Doyle says in fact the first Autralian-born novelist was John Lang. Plus the challenge to save the world's islands and their inhabitants from the triple threat threat of invasive species, sea level rises and global heating.

Insights into some of the hundreds of Australian indigenous languages, which continue to evolve. And what can be learnt from spending a lot of time with a small herd of cows.  

UK poet laureate Simon Armitage reflects on his Yorkshire upbringing, writing great royal deaths and coronations, and his fear and love for nature. Plus, ornithologist Penny Olsen celebrates the historic detection of a population of rare night parrots, in WA's Great Sandy Desert. 

War historian Joan Beaumont makes a pilgrimage to the Indonesian island of Ambon, where hundreds of Australian soldiers died in WWll, and ponders the meaning of connection to past war traumas. Plus, remembering Tadeusz Kosciuszko  - who was he, and why was he so revered? 

Art critic Sebastian Smee on why 1870 was an "annus horribilis" for Paris, but one which produced breathtaking art. Plus, love them or hate them, the humble anchovy has an important place in cuisine around the world. But we're fishing them right out of the seas.  

In the early years of AIDS,  nurses were stigmatised along with their patients. Now, their story has been told. Plus the great Australian poetry hoax, eighty years on.