Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Spam may be derided in Western countries but in Asia and the Pacific it's still a beloved staple. It was created by Hormel Foods in 1937 to utilise surplus pork during the Great Depression, and became a staple of the American military diet during both the second world war and the Korean war. It's still loved in places where America had strong military bases like Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, and South Korea, where it is considered a luxury good. Guest: Kelly Spring, food historian, co-presenter of the Hungry Historians podcast and author of ‘SPAM: a global history’ (2025, Reaktion/New South)Producer: Ann Arnold

This week, the Pope will be in Barcelona to officially bless the final tower of La Sagrada Familia, the monumental Catholic basilica, which was 144 years in the making. The blessing will coincide with the centenary of architect Antoni Gaudi’s death.  Against the odds, the exterior of his extraordinary temple is finally complete. New Zealand-born architect, Mark Burry AO, spent nearly 40 years working on Gaudi’s masterpiece, after being recruited in Barcelona as a 22 year old student in 1979. Guest: Professor Mark Burry, Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology's School of Design and Architecture, and Senior Faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. Producer: Jack Schmidt

In 1995, long before the 2001 'Tampa' refugee crisis, a small fishing boat arrived in Darwin, carrying eighteen East Timorese asylum seekers, including a six-month-old baby. The boat's arrival, and the activism of the passengers and their supporters in Australia, tested Australia's relationship with Indonesia in the last years of the Suharto regime.Guests: Vannessa Hearman, Associate professor of history, Curtin University, Perth. Southeast Asia specialist, especially Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Author of ‘The Good Sea: the journey of Tasi Diak and the Politics of Refugee Protection in Australia’ (MUP) Jose da Costa, East Timorese/Australian activist, was on the Tasi Diak voyage, fleeing East Timor. Actor and documentary maker Producer: Ann Arnold

Heroin, cocaine, cannabis and opiates — it’s hard to imagine now, but in 19th-century Australia there were few restrictions on the use of these substances. As social attitudes shifted, so did the law, ushering in an era of prohibition. Yet over the past four decades, Australia has undergone another significant change — rethinking how it responds to illegal drug use and moving towards a harm-minimisation approach.Guest: Des Manderson, Director of the Centre for Law, Arts and Humanities, Australian National University.  High Time: How Australia Changed Its Mind About Illegal Drug Use Producer: Ali Benton 

While Ian Stevenson (1918–2007) was an academic psychiatrist with a strong professional reputation, he became known for researching an unusual topic for a behavioural scientist: the afterlife. Investigating questions such as “Can consciousness exist outside the brain?”, his career spanned more than sixty years. His work remains controversial, sitting at the edge of science, psychology and the unknown. Guest: Jesse Bering, Professor of Psychology and head of the Science Communication program, University of Otago, New Zealand. Author,  The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson Producer: Ali Benton

Elon Musk is tipped to become the world’s first trillionaire when his company SpaceX goes public on the stock exchange as early as next week.  To some, Musk is a genius entrepreneur propelling us towards a science-fiction future. To others, he's a troubled far-right “meme lord”, spouting immigration conspiracies on the Internet.  A new book – entitled ‘Muskism: a guide for the perplexed’ looks beyond the personality to understand Musk as a symptom and an avatar of the disruptive economic and political forces that are shaping this century. Guest: Ben Tarnoff is a writer and technologist, and co-author of Muskism: A guide for the perplexed with Professor of international history Quinn SlobodianProducer: Jack Schmidt

In 2021 UK immigration officers carried out a dawn raid in Kenmure St in the culturally diverse Pollokshields area of Glasgow's Southside.  They arrested two Sikh men who’d been members of the community for ten years, and put them in a van.  But as far as their neighbours were concerned, they’d picked on the wrong people. Over the course of the day 2,000 people surrounded the van in a spontaneous, peaceful sit-in protest. What happened that day has been documented in a new film called “Everybody to Kenmure Street,” which is now showing at the Sydney Film Festival, with upcoming screenings in Melbourne and Castlemaine. Guest: Felipe Bustos Sierra, Director Everybody to Kenmure st plus Tabassum Niamat, Executive Director, Bowling Green Together Community Centre and Kenmure St protesterProducer: Catherine Zengerer

There are many ways to attain endurance and high performance. The ethos of Ethiopian collective running contrasts sharply with the testosterone supplements, and focus on the individual, in last week's Endurance Games. Guest: Michael Crawley, social anthropologist at Durham University, UK. Marathon runner. Co-author, with Geoff Burns, of an article titled The Ethiopian Running Secret, in Aeon Magazine (April 2026), author of ‘Out of thin air: running wisdom and magic from above the clouds in Ethiopia’ (Bloomsbury, 2021) and To the Limit: The Meaning of Endurance from Mexico to the Himalayas (2024)Producer: Ann Arnold

Republican Senators are rebelling against Donald Trump using funds from his settlement of a legal case against the IRS, which is being labelled a slush fund, to compensate individuals claiming political persecution for participation in the January 6 insurrection. Plus, the Democrats have released their Kamala Harris campaign review, but there are lots of details missing..  Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine and Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma. Producer: Catherine Zengerer

A new study shows that insect life on Lord Howe Island has significantly increased since the eradication of invasive rodents in 2019. Experts say invertebrates like native island cockroaches, are vital to the health of the broader island ecosystem.Guest: Maxim Adams, PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, co-lead in a new study with the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, published in Biological InvasionsProducer: Jack Schmidt

When the brutal Assad regime fell in Syria in 2024 it offered an opportunity for the millions of people displaced by the regime to return home – including the so-called ISIS brides. And those who fled to neighbouring Lebanon are now under bombardment by Israel. But with much of Syria destroyed by a civil war what’s left to return to? Guest: Kholoud Helmi, Syrian journalist and Managing Director of Enab Baladi news publications’s Daraya edition Producer: Catherine Zengerer

A new poll published in the Australian Financial Review has Pauline Hanson's One Nation ahead of Labor and the Coalition on primary vote. Meanwhile, the government is persevering with the tax reforms proposed in its budget, including changes to the capital gains tax discount, negative gearing and discretionary trusts. The Treasurer says he's willing to lose some 'political skin' to make housing more affordable, but will some concessions be made for businesses?Guest: Prof. Mark Kenny, Director of the Australian Studies Institute, host of Democracy Sausage podcast

The American Conservation Coalition was formed in 2017 to try to attract younger people to the Republican Party. But the Coalition doesn’t seem to be able to claim any actual outcomes for the environment. Journalist Gaby del Valle spent a three day weekend with this group, at their annual summit, taking part in all their hijinks, and trying to understand: what are conservative environmentalists fighting for? Guest: Gaby del Valle, journalist, wrote about her ACC weekend for Harper's Magazine. She has a book coming out in 2027, about the history of US conservation.Producer: Ann Arnold

While negotiations over a lasting peace deal remain unpredictable, historian and author, John Ghazvinian argues that the past fifty years of hostility between the U.S. and Iran are an exception in the much longer history of relations between the two countries — a history that includes periods of fascination, cooperation, and even mutual admiration.Guest: John Ghazvinian, historian, former journalist and author of America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the PresentProducer: Ali Benton

Just after World War Two, leading figures from Nazi Germany were tried before an International military tribunal for their crimes against humanity - the murder of six million jews. Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, and others, met their fate in Courtroom 600 at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. From defendants to judges, the courtroom was wall to wall men, but women did actually play a role in the proceedings. Author and journalist Natalie Livingstone tells their story in her new book, The Nuremberg Women: At the Trial that Brought the Nazis to JusticeGuest: Natalie Livingstone, author, The Nuremberg Women, At the trial that brought the Nazis to justiceProducer: Ali Benton 

Janine di Giovanni has been a war correspondent for more than thirty years. She's been  shot at, kidnapped and held at gunpoint. She’s written about massacres at Srebrenica, atrocities in Kosovo, the mass killings in Rwanda, and of course Palestine. “I thought I’d seen the worst of humanity,” she wrote on X last year. “I was wrong. Nothing compares to Gaza — or the complicity letting it happen.” When Russia began bombing Ukraine in 2022, di Giovanni decided reporting atrocities was not enough. She wanted perpetrators of war crimes held to account. So she and Ukrainian-born British journalist, Peter Pomerantsev, founded The Reckoning Project, to train journalists to do more than write stories; they gather evidence that can be used to prosecute war crimes. Guest: Janine di Giovanni, war correspondent, CEO and co-founder of The Reckoning ProjectProducer: Catherine Zengerer

Despite mounting pressure at home after his Socialist Party suffered heavy losses in its former Andalusian stronghold, Pedro Sánchez has emerged as one of Europe’s strongest dissenting voices against Donald Trump. He has repeatedly clashed with Washington over issues including the war in Gaza, defence spending and immigration policy.Guest: María Ramírez, journalist and Deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in SpainProducer: Ali Benton 

All eyes are on the Makerfield by-election as Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, puts his reputation on the line. Burnham has thrown his weight behind Labour’s campaign, hoping voters will back his bold political gamble. And Ian Dunt's manifesto on what's wrong with British leadership.Guest: Ian Dunt: iNews columnist and regular LNL commentatorProducer: Ali Benton 

100 years ago, Russian ballerina and global megastar Anna Pavlova toured Australia and New Zealand, filling theatres and newspaper columns wherever she went.  Why was she such a sensation, so far from home? Guest: Emma Sandall, Australian dance artist, writer, and creative producer, contributor to Dance Australia magazineProducer: Jack Schmidt

The Romans were merciless in the way they talked about their rulers. Baldness and body hair, sexual positions and partners, and inebriation and indolence were all fair game. Gossip, far from unimportant to historical study, is in fact its own form of evidence, argues Caillan Davenport, Prof of Ancient History at the Australian National University. Guest: Professor Caillan Davenport, ‘Behind the Emperor’s back: Rumor, gossip, and the making of the Roman Emperors’ (Yale University Press)Producer: Ann Arnold

The victory of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York's mayoral elections has some heralding the arrival of a new 'progressive playbook' for America's political Left. But can this politics work at scale, beyond the liberal cities? Writer and socialist Bhaskar Sunkara, a long time associate of Mamdani, looks at the best ways forward for the left. Guest: Bhaskar Sunkara, American political writer. Founding editor of Jacobin,  president of The Nation magazine, publisher of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and columnist for The Guardian. In Australia hosted by the Search FoundationProducer: Ann Arnold

 Teal independents are reportedly in talks to form a new political party amid voter disillusionment that has sparked the resurgence of Pauline Hanson and One Nation.Guest: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent

Tareq Baconi grew up in Jordan after his family was expelled first from Palestine and then from Lebanon during the civil war. He became an academic and leading expert on Hamas, while coming to terms with being gay man from a devout Christian family. Guest: Tareq Baconi, Hamas expert and author of Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir, published by Hachette. Tareq is in Australia for Sydney Writer's FestivalProducer: Catherine Zengerer

Since the US-Israel war on Iran broke out three months ago, the price of oil has jumped at least fifty percent, causing economic pain around the world. The war has come at a time when many countries were already considering the value of their economic ties with the United States. Ongoing conflict is also putting pressure on budgets, with money being funnelled into defence rather than social measures. So how is this colliding of geo-politics and economics going to play out globally and here in Australia? Satyajit Das says we are heading into an uncertain world. Guest: Satyajit Das, global financial analystProducer: Catherine Zengerer

The common Australian term 'Blind Freddy', as in 'Blind Freddy could see that', spread quickly and comprehensively. But who was Blind Freddy? An author has concluded he was Frederick Pottinger, an Englishman from a notable family who was far from a success as a policeman hunting bushrangers in the NSW colony. Guest: Adrian Mitchell, author of ‘Blind Freddy: the Pottinger Attainment’ (Wakefield Press)Producer: Ann Arnold

John Safran has made a career out of blasphemy and offence. With his gonzo-style journalism he placed a “fatwa” on Rove McManus, streaked naked through Jerusalem streets to “prove God is Jewish”, got baptised and exorcised and squatted in Kanye West’s house. He has interviewed neo-Nazis and white nationalists and insisted on the importance of getting on the record “what goes on in the shadows”. But after the Bondi massacre, Safran is asking himself where offending is simply part of free speech, and where it becomes truly dangerous. His new documentary for SBS explores the notion of offence, and what can and cannot be said in Australia today. ‘Shut Your Big Fat Mouth John Safran’ premieres Sunday 24 May 2026 on SBS and SBS On Demand. Guest: John Safran, satirist, documentary maker, journalist, and author.Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Ahead of November's midterm elections, Republicans are looking to reshape South Carolina's congressional districts, in an effort to create a US House map that could yield a clean sweep. Meanwhile, Trump's polling continues to fall to new lows amid the ongoing war in Iran. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for The Nation, executive director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, was repeatedly warned to evacuate during the war between Israel and Hamas, but chose to remain with his patients. In December 2024, he was arrested by the Israel Defence Forces. Seventeen months later, Amnesty International alleges that Dr. Abu Safiya has been tortured in detention, while the United Nations has called for his release. The IDF, meanwhile, says the doctor has ties to Hamas.Guest: Dr. Guy Shalev, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights IsraelProducer: Ali Benton

All over the world, people are encountering the timeless work of Shakespeare for the first time, thanks to translators who have managed to distil the essence of the great writer. So what goes into maintaining the language, rhythm and puns in other languages and cultures? Daniel Hahn's new book examines how Shakespeare is translated around the world, and how tricky it can be to convey just the right meaning and tone.Guest: Daniel Hahn, author of ‘If This Be Magic - The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation’, published by Allen and Unwin. Daniel Hahn is in Australia for Sydney Writer's FestivalProducer: Catherine Zengerer

In the wake of treasurer Jim Chalmers' budget - and opposition leader Angus Taylor's budget reply - the political battle lines have been drawn over tax. The government will reform negative gearing, the capital gains tax discount and discretionary trusts in an effort to address generational inequity, while Taylor has vowed to index tax brackets to inflation. How are Australians responding to the first substantive tax debate in years? Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS World News

Food traditions are at the core of a culture's history, storytelling and community - but these traditions are continually threatened by conflict, war and displacement. Michael Shaikh celebrates the food and recipes of these war-torn communities around the world, and calls for food culture to be prioritised for protection, alongside other cultural heritage, like monuments and art. Guest: Michael Shaikh, New York-based writer and human rights investigator who worked for twenty years in areas marred by political crisis and armed conflict. Author of 'The last sweet bite: stories and recipes of culinary heritage lost and found' (published by Crown)Producer: Ann ArnoldMichael Shaikh is on tour in Australia in May (find dates here)

Since Federation, there have been 141 royal commissions in Australia into various crises and tragedies. Some have brought about meaningful policy change, while others - like the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody - have been largely sidelined by governments. So what makes a Royal Commission work? Professor of Public Policy Michael Mintrom has studied dozens of commissions to understand how their structure, scope and strategy can determine their success. Guest: Michael Mintrom, Professor of public policy at Monash UniversityProducer: Ali Benton

When Antoinette Lattouf was fighting her own unfair dismissal case against the ABC, she faced some dark moments and intense anxiety. For help and inspiration she turned to other Australian women who had taken on power and prevailed. “Pressed to my chest like a shield,” she says, “their faces, voices and acts of defiance reminded me I was not alone.”  The result is her new book Women Who Win - Celebrating courage, conviction and changes which charts the efforts of women who dared to challenge the status quo. Guest: Antoinette Lattouf, author of Women Who Win - Celebrating courage, conviction and change, published by Penguin; host of the podcast We used to be journos- with Jan Fran for Ette media. Producer: Catherine Zengerer

For the last fifty years Australians have been making their mark at the Cannes film festival. Spearheaded by people like Phillip Adams and David Stratton, Aussies stories from Mad Max to Moulin Rouge, the Piano to Priscilla, have been charming the French and the world. But this year there are no Australian films in competition. So what’s happening to the Australian film industry? And who is championing Aussie films in Cannes today ? Guest: John Doggett-Williams, freelance video journalist and documentary maker Producer: Catherine Zengerer

The King has proceeded with his scheduled speech to open the UK parliament, despite the desperate situation of his Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as Labour MPs revolt against his leadership. But who will launch a challenge? Guest: Ian Dunt, iNews columnist and regular LNL commentatorProducer: Ali Benton 

Hideki Tojo, a senior military officer who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 - 1942, as well as Minister for the Army, had advocated for Japan's alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and for the bombing of Pearl Harbour, which launched Japan into WW2.Guest: Peter Mauch, author of ‘Tojo: The rise and fall of Japan’s most controversial WWII general’ (Harvard University Press), Senior lecturer in Asian history at Western Sydney University. Producer: Ann Arnold

In 1994, Cabramatta MP John Newman was shot dead outside his home in a crime billed as Australia's first political assassination. But could the conviction of Vietnamese refugee Phuong Ngo for Newman's murder be one of Australia's greatest miscarriages of justice? For the first time since the trials, Phuong Ngo tells his story to the award-winning former ABC journalist Debbie Whitmont.Guest: Debbie Whitmont, journalist and author of The Man Who Couldn't Wait: the true story of Australia's first political assassination

Whether it’s Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen or Sudan, journalists reporting on conflict zones across the world, want their stories of human suffering on the front pages. The belief: if that suffering is witnessed and documented, the world will do something about it.Now more than ever, that doesn’t seem to be happening. In her latest essay, journalist Cathy Otten argues the relationship between reported suffering and meaningful change has always been slippery.Guest: Cathy Otten, journalist and visiting assistant Professor of Media Ethics and Journalism at Rutgers University in New Jersey, US. Producer: Ali Benton 

A British nuclear-armed submarine returned home recently after six months submerged, with no fresh air. Its mission is deterrence, with the threat of the worst possible repercussions.Guest: Josh Glancy,  associate editor of The Sunday Times, went aboard the sub when it returned. Producer: Ann Arnold

Anna Henderson looks ahead to the big expectations on Labor to deliver a budget that will appeal to One Nation voters on issues like migration and housing, without alienating Australian home-owners and pushing up inflation. Meanwhile the Liberal party are facing questions about why they preferenced One Nation in the Farrer by-election and whether there could be a coalition with Pauline Hanson's party in the future. Guest: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club DirectorProducer: Catherine Zengerer

When refugee activist and author Mij Tanith was asked to help an Afghan woman and her five daughters escape the Taliban, she hesitated, burned out after years of emotional toil. But once Mij heard her voice over the phone she couldn't say no. The clock was ticking for 'Laila' - not her real name. She had escaped to Iran, but only had 12 months before she would be deported back to Afghanistan, where girls' schools were being bombed. Mij got a group of supporters together through a not-for profit called the Circle of Friends and they set out about raising the $140,000 they would need to get her visa approved, and get Laila and her daughters on a plane and safely housed in Adelaide. Guest: Mij Tanith, playwright, teacher, author of Laila’s Story (Spinifex Press, March 2026) and member of the Circle of Friends Australia refugee support networkProducer: Catherine Zengerer

That power sends men mad, is a rule of politics and of history that goes way way back before Dr Freud. When riding in triumph through Rome, Caesar’s slave stood behind him in the chariot whispering into the Emperor’s ear: “Remember - you are a man.” No one as far as we know, is keeping Donald Trump’s pride in check as he parades through Washington in the back of the Beast. He lives surrounded by sycophants who tell him he is indeed the omnipotent leader he imagines himself to be. Fintan O’Toole’s diagnosis is - that while not mentally ill - Trump is in a broader sense, mad. Guest: Fintan O'Toole, regular contributor to the Irish Times and advising editor to the New York Review of Books.Producer: Ali Benton

Three weeks before the end of WWII, the Germans invited the British to liberate the 60,000 prisoners - mostly Jews - being held at Belsen. But for the starving men, women and children of the camp, many seriously ill with typhus, liberation was not what they imagined or hoped for. The British initially refused to recognise them as Jews, and didn't know what to do with the thousands of displaced people who didn't want to go home. Guest: Nadia Wheatley, historian and author of Strange New World - Belsen's first year of freedom Producer: Catherine Zengerer

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing the prospect of running against a rightwing-centrist super coalition in elections later this year, after two of his biggest political rivals - Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid - combined forces to form the new party Beyachad (Together) -  inviting a third party leader to join them. It's not the first time Bennett and Lapid have worked together, and questions remain about the longevity of their new political merger. Guest: Irris Makler, former Middle East correspondent

After the infamous mutiny on the Bounty the mutineers settled on remote Pitcairn Island. The Pitcairn Island Register is the original record of births, deaths, and marriages from the Bounty and it also records their fate. It dates back to 1790 and has, until now, been kept in the National Maritime Museum in London. Their descendants, now living on Norfolk Island, crowdfunded to have it returned and the Museum agreed their museum could have it on a three year loan. The register doesn't throw much light on what happened to the Tahitian women on the island, but one of their descendants has been discovering their stories via the cloth they weaved from bark.Guests: Helen Mears, Head of Curatorship & Research at Royal Museums Greenwich; plus Dr Pauline Reynolds, Chair, Norfolk Island Museums Trust and descendant of the original Pitcairn inhabitantsProducer: Catherine Zengerer

One of Sydney’s leading community radio stations faces possible closure as early as July, as it works to close a funding gap left by the departure of a key financial backer last year. The situation reflects broader financial pressures across the media sector, where falling advertising revenue, rising operating costs and shifting audience habits are forcing many outlets to cut back or rethink how they operate.Guest: Chris Nash, founding Professor of journalism at Monash University, and member of 2SER working groupGuest: Jon Bisset, CEO of the Community Broadcasting Association of AustraliaProducer: Ali Benton

In another regressive move, the US Supreme Court has made a ruling weakening America's 1965 Voting Rights Act which helped Black and other minority voters to gain stronger representation in places where they form a large minority. Bruce Shapiro says the decision will see an historic fall in Black political representation. Meanwhile FBI Director Kash Patel is following Trump's footsteps in filing a defamation suit against The Atlantic for a story detailing alleged excessive drinking and unexplained absences. Bruce says the courts are becoming 'another vehicle for the Trump circus' in the United States. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine and Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma. Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Conventional perceptions of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture tend to emphasise the purity of white marble surfaces. However, as classicist Mark Bradley argues, this view is fundamentally misleading. In antiquity, statues were not conceived as monochrome objects but were instead richly painted in a wide range of vivid colours.Guest: Mark Bradley, Professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham Producer: Ali Benton

In 2020, North Korea was at a low point. Crippled by COVID border closures, its Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un tried and failed to negotiate sanctions relief. A tearful, apologetic speech at a military rally fuelled speculation that his leadership was in peril. But today, Kim is a resurgent figure, having fostered closer ties with Beijing and Moscow and seen off his internal rivals. With powerful neighbours and a developing nuclear arsenal, Kim appears willing to take more risks in the region. Guest: Dr Jung H. Pak, historian and analyst, former officer with the CIA and the US State Department, author of Becoming Kim Jong UnProducer: Jack Schmidt 

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is on her first official visit to Australia to sign agreements on energy, defence and critical minerals. Takaichi wouldn't take questions from the press, so whether a tax on our LNG exports was discussed remains a mystery. Plus ceremonies across the Northern Territory have paid tribute to Kumanjayi Little Baby, while Alice Springs mourns.Guest: Anna Henderson, SBS World News Chief Political Correspondent | National Press Club DirectorProducer: Catherine Zengerer