The former Kings Cross street kid on his time in prison, recovering from an alcohol-induced brain injury, the puppy called Sunny who showed him what love is and how buying car parking spaces set him up for the rest of his life.

Warning: This episode contains sensitive topics and reference to physical violence against women.

John Howard came from a dysfunctional and often violent home in the outer suburbs of Sydney, and when he was able to, he ran away to the dank but promising Kings Cross of the 1960s and 70s.

He would see Abe Saffron having dinner at the local Bourbon & Beefsteak joint and John found himself doing odd jobs for his sex worker friends in exchange for somewhere to sleep.

John was caught up in a horrific assault and in the following years he found himself in jail and then drawn to drinking.

At his lowest point he was rescued by chance by a passing taxi, and taken to hospital to recover from an alcohol-induced brain injury.

As he was recovering, it was a toy poodle puppy called Sunny who showed John what love and affection were — and from there he was able to build his life for the first time.

Further information

You can call the National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence counselling service on 1800-RESPECT or 1800-737-732. 

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. 

It covers topics like homelessness, alcoholism, prison escape, solitary confinement, toy poodles, lesbian separatism, disability support pension, brain injury, Callan Park hospital, Rozelle Hospital, getting sober, quitting alcohol, Kings Cross, street kid, sex workers, drug use, drug addiction, prostitute, Bourbon & Beefsteak, Abe Saffron, The Coconut Grove, doggy poo bags, pooper scoopers, Potts Point.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Kate McClymont is chief investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, she has won 10 Walkley Awards for her work on some of the biggest crime and corruption cases in NSW.

She grew up on a farm in NSW, and during university, funded her start in Sydney by setting up a busking booth in Kings Cross.

Passers-by would pay her to answer a question, have an argument, or verbally abuse them. 

Kate's start in crime reporting came from an early job writing for a gossip column.  

She was instructed to cover a wedding of a family member of known criminal figure, George Freeman.

Kate compared the sequins in the bridal party's outfit to a bullet-proof vest, and received the first of many death threats throughout her career. 

She has exposed the crimes of politician, Eddie Obeid, former Health Services Union boss, Michael Williamson and financial fraudster, Melissa Caddick, among many more.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan and the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.

It explores crime, investigative journalism, newspapers, police, corruption, politicians, Eddie Obeid, Melissa Caddick, fraud, murder, defamation, court cases, police, lawyers, timelines, research, contacts, financial fraud, death threats, award winning journalism, the Sydney Morning Herald, Four Corners, Chris Masters, Sydney, NSW

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

For years, Brendan Cullen was known around Broken Hill as the happy man who ran thousands of ewes across tens of thousands of hectares with a smile. What they didn't see was  the guy crying in a room by himself, drinking himself stupid, thinking he wasn’t providing enough for his family.

Brendan calls himself a ‘glorified shepherd’.

He manages a sheep station outside Broken Hill, a part of the country he loves and knows like the back of his hand.

But Brendan also has another moniker: ‘the desert swimmer’.

A few years ago, he was floored by a cruel bout of depression, the core of which he later understood came from an experience of childhood sexual abuse that he never spoke about.

While recovering, Brendan decided to try to swim the English Channel.

As his swim coach Mike ‘the Tractor’ told him: swimming the channel is straightforward – you get in the water at Dover and keep swimming until you hit something, and that something is France.

The swim is just one of the tools in his 'toolkit' that he uses to stay mentally well and present with his family, and his flock.

Desert Swimmer is written with Paul Mitchell and published by Allen & Unwin.

Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse.

Help and support is always available. You can call or text Lifeline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores rural, remote Australia, men's mental health, mental wellbeing, mental fitness, exercise for mental health, farming, boarding school, childhood sexual abuse, children who abuse other children, fatherhood, access to education, how to ask for help, mental illness, long distance swimming, ocean swimming, farming, sheep, livestock, Menindee, farming families, succession plans, generational farming, family business.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Filmmaker Lynette Wallworth on how nearly dying as a little girl set her on a lifelong path to interrogate out-of-body experiences, spirituality and what really happens to us when we die.

When Lynette was a little girl, she had a near death experience on her grandparents' property.

Her father brought her back from the brink and what she saw and experienced there, on the edge of death, came back with her.

For years, Lynette struggled to talk about what happened so she made paintings and artworks trying to make sense of this experience.

But when she started visiting remote Indigenous communities here in Australia and abroad, in the Amazon, that she finally found some sort of language for describing the scientifically unprovable. 

There, in cultures where out of body experiences are accepted as either spiritual or possible through the use of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and ayahuasca, Lynette stopped feeling weird.

Her latest film investigates how doctors in Melbourne are turning to psychedelic drugs to help ease their terminally ill patients towards death, and in the process learn that "we weren't put on earth to run around in fear".

Edge of Life will be available to stream on Binge from 28 March.

Currently, you can watch it via Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fetch and YouTubel; or organise your own cinema screening via Fan Force.

You can find more information about Lynette and her films at her website.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores death, dying, grief, medical trials, shamans, hallucinogens, science, psychology, psychiatry, acceptance, palliative care, caring for the dying, nursing, art, filmmaking, philosophy, shrooms, magic mushrooms, the immortality key, religion, spiritualty, quacks, health and wellness industry, tripping, epiphanies, film.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

The chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on the chair of spikes which accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't tone down his Italian self for work (R)

During his Suzuki lessons in Turin, Italy, a young Umberto Clerici was sitting up straight on a chair full of spikes, lest his posture slip.

Umberto chose the cello as his instrument, mainly because it wasn’t the violin, which sounded like a cat in a washing machine when played by the older students in his neighbourhood.

Throughout his career playing in orchestras around the world, Umberto has gone to great lengths to let the music filter through him, to embody the meaning behind the notes, to learn what the composer thought or felt.

Today Umberto Clerici is the chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

The act of care and service through food has been incredibly important to Besha Rodell throughout her life, from her first, euphoric experience of a fancy restaurant at age eight, to the aftermath of September 11.

Today Besha is the chief restaurant critic at The Age.

The thrill of a fancy restaurant first imprinted itself on her psyche when she was a girl, treated to dinner at Stephanie's iconic spot in Melbourne.

As a teenager, Besha was transplanted to her mother's native USA and got her first job in hospitality — and found her people — in North Carolina.

A stint in New York followed, where Besha witnessed September 11 in real time.

Eventually Besha started a family with her boyfriend, Ryan, in North Carolina and the family found they were living under the poverty line. 

They got by thanks to a government food voucher program.

Shortly after, Besha's blog posts, written for fun, gained traction and she was given her first assignment in food writing.

Further information

Hunger Like A Thirst is published by HardieGrant.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode covers food, restaurants, restaurant critic, Stephanie's, Stephanie Alexander, Narnia, Melbourne, North Carolina, 9/11, September 11, migrant, not fitting in, government cheese, hospo, acts of service, behind the pass, line cook, pastry chef, methadone, coming off methadone, heroin, addiction, loving an addict, New York Times, food reviewing.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Naomi Mourra grew up as a door-knocking Jehovah's Witness but at 21, she realised Doomsday was not upon her, and left the religion for good.

As a child, Naomi  thought she was going to live forever.

She was told the end of the world was coming, but she would survive the apocalypse and live in paradise for eternity, because she was special.

She spent her youth in Western Sydney, preaching these same beliefs to neighbours, strangers, and classmates because Naomi was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness.

Now, though, she describes herself as the city's only Lebanese, lesbian, ex-Jehovah’s Witness.

Naomi says she “woke up”, and it wasn’t until she realised Armageddon was not actually coming, that she truly started to live.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores religion, Jehovah's Witnesses, dogma, family, Western Sydney, Armageddon, faith, leaving a religion, culture, sexuality, stand up comedy, lesbian, Lebanese culture, apocalypse, school, education, strangers, freedom, neighbours, strangers

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Tony Tan’s parents pinned their hopes on him when they sent him from home in Malaysia to Melbourne to become a white collar professional in the 1970s. There he found “funny smelling cigarettes”, a lovely man called Terry and a destiny he couldn’t escape.

Tony was exposed to deep, rich flavour and the precision of cooking from a young age.

His mother was a chef in Malaysian colonial kitchens and Tony would often accompany her to work, where he would sometimes receive a single golden, dripping roasted potato, or pinch the meat from a leftover kitchen carcass.

He was a precocious child — known as Little Chilli — always wanting to know how certain cooking techniques worked. 

His parents didn’t want him to follow them into the world of food, so they sent him to study at university in Melbourne, with hopes that he would ascend to the world of white collar work on behalf of the family.

He had his first introduction to Lygon Street in the 1970s, and university couldn’t keep him away from the world of food.

Further information

Tony Tan's most recent cook book, Tony Tan's Asian Cooking Class is published by Murdoch Books.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode covers food tours, Kuantan, SBS, Shakahari, Stephanie Alexander, char siu, Tatler's, cooking school, Asian cooking class, roast chicken with soy sauce, recipes, sexual awakening, gay marriage, Trentham, regional Victoria.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

We rarely stop to wonder who invented the wheel, the alphabet or the printing press but so much of what feels fundamental to daily life was once a bold, untested idea, and someone had to think it up first.

In The Shortest History of Innovation, Andrew Leigh traces that long thread of human ingenuity from ancient breakthroughs through to the inventions reshaping our world today like the car, social media and artificial intelligence. 

He also debunks some of the myths about how these things into the word and what happens when they collide with humanity.

The Shortest History of Innovation is published by Black Inc Books.

The executive producer of Conversations is Nicola Harrison

This episode of Conversations explores history, ancient civilisation, the industrial revolution, medical breakthrough, human progress, invention, innovation, human psychology, AI, penicillin, the wheel, cutlery, vaccines, nuclear bomb, nuclear energy, medieval history

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Psychologist Dr Tracey Westerman on her groundbreaking work transforming mental health outcomes for Aboriginal communities (R)

Dr Tracy Westerman grew up in the Pilbara, where suicide and mental health issues have deeply scarred Indigenous communities. So this Nyamal woman decided to do something about it.

Nyamal woman Tracy Westerman grew up in some of the most remote parts of Western Australia, moving from a station to a town called Useless Loop, eventually landing in the mining town of Tom Price.

Tracy, the daughter of an Aboriginal mother and a white father, became the first person educated entirely in Tom Price to go on to University.

When she arrived in Perth, she had never been on a bus or on an escalator, but she was fired up to study psychology.

Tracy wanted to use the skills she learned in the city to deliver practical mental health care to Aboriginal people, and to help entire communities reeling from the impact of suicide and other mental health issues.

Along the way to obtaining her doctorate, Tracy has become a business person, the WA Australian of the year, and she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal.

Her next mission is to build an army of Indigenous psychologists to continue the work she's already started.

Further information

Jilya is published by University of Queensland Press.

You can learn more about Dr Westerman's work here.

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

The iconic folk duo met at an audition for the only country music band at a prestigious jazz school in Boston. They immediately clicked, and joined the rich lineage of Americana artists that stretches back centuries.

In their 20s, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings discovered they had something special when they sang together, a sort of eerie emotional resonance that is usually confined to the blood harmonies produced when siblings sing together.

Ever since they've been making music together which draws on the bluegrass, country and folk traditions they love.

In their historic recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee (which has withstood three tornadoes in the last century), they craft haunting songs about the ugly and beautiful parts of humanity.

For Gill and Dave, the DNA of folk music is something we can all contribute to, and which contributes to all of us.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are currently touring Australia's eastern states. You can find information about where and when they are playing on their website.

Their seventh studio album is called Woodland, named after their indestructible studio.This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores music, recording, career musicians, Woody Guthrie, The Carter Family, Lead Belly, revival folk, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Emmy Lou, Dolly Parton, Southern America, United States, Pete Seeger, Love, relationship, natural disaster, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Odetta, Harry Belafonte, Rhiannon Giddens, banjo, guitar, mandolin, true crime, murder ballad, Revival, Time (The Revelator), Soul Journey, The Harrow & The Harvest, All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone), Grammy Awards, Grammys, songwriting, Coen Brothers, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.