Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Emily Kam Kngwarray, from the Utopia community in the Northern Territory, picked up a paintbrush in her 70s for the first time, and now, her work will be exhibited at the Tate in London. A new film has been made about Emily, and will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival – called Emily: I Am Kam.GUEST: Screenwriter and Producer, Danielle Maclean and Producer Anna GrievePRODUCER: Ali Benton

Maori MPs were issued record bans from the New Zealand Parliament recently for their impromptu haka last year protesting a bill to wind back the Treaty of Waitangi. But haka has been pivotal in race relations in Aotearoa before. An event in 1979 at the University of Auckland triggered significant debate and change. Yet the incident was buried until Katie Wolfe helped dig it up to create first a play and now a documentary.  Guest: Katie Wolfe is a New Zealand film and theatre director and her people are Ngāti Mutunga Ngāti Tama, Ngati Toa Rangatira. Her new documentary The Haka Party Incident is screening at the Sydney Film Festival.

Russia and the US have not traditionally been close culturally but there’s a few shifts going on. The Trump administration has a very different relationship and attitude towards Moscow than usual.  And mirroring that is an increased conversion to the very conservative, traditional and some say masculine Russian Orthodox Church in pockets of the US. Journalist Lucy Ash has spent a lot of time reporting from Russia... and found some converts who had even left the US for Russia to deepen their ties.  Lucy noticed a trend in the US for young men but also women converting to Russian Orthodoxy. Guest: Lucy Ash - journalist and author of The Baton and the Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin.

There are not many colonial heroes in Australia's frontier wars, but some emerged after the unprovoked 1838 massacre of at least 28 Wirrayaraay people in northern NSW. They ensured that the perpetrators were identified, and prosecuted.Guest: Mark Tedeschi KC, author of ‘Murder at Myall Creek: the trial that defined a nation’ (Simon & Schuster, 2016)  Producer: Ann Arnold

As protests over immigration raids continue in Los Angeles, why did the Trump administration send in the National Guard, defying Californian authorities? Bruce Shapiro surveys the chaos.Guest: Bruce Shapiro, Contributing Editor for The Nation; Executive Director at the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma

Political philosopher David Runciman sits down with David Marr to discuss why democracy is in such a state of disrepair, and the scintillating idea he has to give our tired old systems a jolt of adrenaline.  

Over the past two centuries, nearly every society has reallocated land ownership and property rights. If humanity is to flourish over the next century, Michael Albertus says we need to entirely rethink our relationship to the soil (or concrete) beneath our feet. GUEST: Michael Albertus, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. PRODUCER: Ali Benton

An anthropologist set out to talk to his fellow Americans, to try and understand why so many fear people who are different to them. Guest: Anand Pandian, author of  ‘Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down’ (Stanford University Press) Producers: Ann Arnold and Jack Schmidt

It’s just over two months since an earthquake hit Myanmar, where more than three thousand people died. Just after the earthquake, the country's Military Junta, declared a temporary ceasefire to help the recovery effort.That ceasefire has now been extended, but the wider concern is China's political agenda in the region.GUEST: Jason Tower, Country Director, United States Institute of PeacePRODUCER: Ali Benton

Laura Spinney, a Paris-based writer and science journalist, delves into the origins of language, particularly the ancient Proto-Indo-European (PIE). She discusses how diverse languages, from English to Sanskrit, share roots in PIE. The conversation highlights language’s vital role in human survival, its connection to storytelling, and how climate change and migration continue to shape linguistic evolution. Spinney also touches on the impact of modern technology on language and the intertwining of language disputes with identity amid conflict.