
Late Night Live - Full program podcast
From razor-sharp analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture, Late Night Live puts you firmly in the big picture.
Latest episodes

Jan 21, 2025 • 54min
Bruce Shapiro on Trump's America Mark ll and a journalist returns to Syria
Regular US commentator Bruce Shapiro in an extended segment to talk inauguration and more. And journalist Dima Khatib was on the first commercial flight back into her home city of Damascus, after the fall of the Assad regime.

Jan 20, 2025 • 54min
Laura Tingle's Canberra, a fishy deal and eucalypts taking over the world
Laura Tingle looks at how the major parties spent their summer as the shadow election campaign takes off. A landmark agreement for workers on Pacific fishing boats. Plus the role of eucalyptus trees in the LA fires, and how they've become an invasive species around the world.

Jan 16, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: Stephen Fry on life, last words and the things he can't do
Stephen Fry reflects on the power of story-telling, how to counter impostor syndrome and the things he absolutely can’t do. Guest: Stephen FryOriginally broadcast: 28 October 2024

Jan 15, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: Can copyright protect Indigenous art, and the downfall of the Maharajas
Since the 1980s, lawyers have used copyright law to protect Indigenous Art, but is it fit for purpose? When India gained its independence, a huge part of the country was ruled by many local princes or Maharajas. How were they convinced to give up their power to join the new Independent India?

Jan 14, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: New Zealand's ethical escort agency, and pen pals across the Iron Curtain
Antonia Murphy recounts her stranger-than-fiction experience, running an ethical escort agency in New Zealand. And historian Alexis Peris uncovers a bundle of letters exchanged between women in the US and the Soviet Union, across the Iron Curtain.

Jan 13, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: Opus Dei and the banks, plus the million-year history of birdsong in Australia
The deep connections between banks and the conservative Catholic order, Opus Dei. Plus how Australia's birds had songs millions of years before they reached Europe, Asia, Africa or the Americas.

Jan 9, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: Wy the Dreyfus Affair still matters
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.

Jan 8, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: Who were Australia's black convicts and the truth about absinthe
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.

Jan 7, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: A biography of Madrid, and the lives of medieval women
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.

Jan 6, 2025 • 54min
LNL Summer: The paradox of passports, plus Harry Houdini's Australian hijinks
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.