Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Steven Scherer has written about his unexpected journey from career high to just trying to make ends meet and provide for his family in a touching essay in which he reflects on the nature of fragility and desperation. 

This week's tweeter has a soft, high-pitched call, and can be found around dense undergrowth in forest, scrub, heath and along creeklines. It's the Red-browed Finch, known to some as the Red-browed Firetail.

Dr Marianne Jauncey works with people many in society dismiss as “lost causes” — drug users in Kings Cross, in inner-city Sydney. But far from acting the martyr, she approaches her work and her clients with optimism, passion and genuine respect. She is the first to admit how much she has learned from the people who come through the doors of the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre each day.Guest: Dr Marianne Jauncey, Medical Director at Uniting's Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that the following program contains names of people who have died.“It seems certain some human voices can work magic, and I don’t know whether it’s their timbre, their range, or the way they harmonise and surprise… It’s a gift they’re given and, if all goes for the best and we are lucky, pass on to the rest of us.” These are the words of Kim Scott, from the introduction of Rivers Flow: Reflections on the songs of Archie Roach & Ruby Hunter that was recently published by Fremantle Press.This is the fourth book in the series, following anthologies on the music of Paul Kelly, Nick Cave, and Kylie Minogue. This edition brings together 23 First Nations writers from across Australia to share stories, personal reflections, and poems that resonate with the music and significant cultural legacy of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter.The editor of Rivers Flow Casey Mulder joins us to discuss this special anthology.Guest: Casey Mulder, Ballardong Noongar educator, writer; Director of First Nations Writing and Programs at the Centre for Stories in Boorloo (Perth), and the editor of Rivers Flow.

In what is perhaps the biggest news in TV comedy of the year - maybe in forty years - earlier this month, a brand new episode of The Muppet Show was released. The Muppet Show was Jim Henson’s star-studded vaudeville variety TV show that ran for 5 seasons over 120 episodes from 1976 to 1981. Now, forty years later, The Muppet Show is back, streaming on Disney Plus, with Seth Rogan as Executive Producer. Revivals are a fraught undertaking though … so was the new Muppet Show any good?  Guest: Craig Shemin, TV show writer, Henson historian and President of The Jim Henson Legacy - the non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving and celebrating Jim Henson's artistry.Craig also wrote “Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson’s First Television Show”

In this episode of Household Names we delve into the history of Breville, a company that many of us are familiar with because of their iconic jaffle makers. The company started out in radios and even produced mine detectors during the Second World War because moving into home goods.

A scientific breakthrough by Colossal Bioscience has seen the 'resurrection' of the dire wolf, a megafauna-hunting wolf species that died out around 10,000 years ago. But is the science being used really the same as 'de-extinction'? And does the very concept of 'de-extinction' undermine efforts to prevent species extinction in the first place?Guest: Dr Christopher Lean, Research Fellow with the Department of Philosophy at Macquarie University, working with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology

Queensland software developer Fraser Tweedale made a Freedom of Information request for the MyGov Code Generator app's code so he could review it, but the government refused. Services Australia said that releasing the code would leave it open to attack. Fraser argues that cybersecurity requires transparency. Having exhausted other avenues, Fraser has crowdfunded legal fees to take Services Australia to the Administrative Review Tribunal, to argue that government applications for punters should be open-source, as 'security by obscurity' has potential to be misused.Guest: Software engineer Fraser Tweedale

Timor Leste has appointed prosecutors to investigate crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military junta against members of the Chin ethnic group, in a test for Timor Leste's commitment to universal jurisdiction.

In the 1960s independent magazine OZ became a cause célèbre when its editors were charged, in the UK and Australia, with obscenity.Edition 4 of OZ magazine is a rare collectors item, valued at $700 by collectors online. One of the founders of OZ himself, Richard Walsh, had been searching for edition 4 far and wide.This missing piece of Richard's collection was finally returned when Jill Bowen read about his search in The Australian … and it just so happened she still had her copy from over 60 years ago.Guest: Jill Bowen, retired journalist

Abraham Kuol spent the first seven years of his life in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. His family came to Australia as refugees, and this year he is Victoria’s Young Australian of the Year. Abraham is an Associate Research Fellow in Criminology at Deakin University, where his research focuses on the post-settlement challenges faced by African Australians, particularly regarding interactions with the justice system. His work with the 2025 Westpac Social Change Fellowship has seen Abraham travel to countries in Europe and the UK to compare their justice responses to those in Victoria.Abraham is also a leader in Melbourne’s African-Australian community. He understands the power that sports have to create positive change, and he mentors at-risk young people in team sports programs. In 2010, Abraham was elected as captain of his primary school, which taught him lessons of service and responsibility that he has carried ever since.Guest: Abraham Kuol - 2026 Young Australian of the Year for Victoria, and Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University

The Magna Carta is one of the world's most famous documents, and Australia has it's own copy from 1297. Libby Melzer recently completed a 10 year project to analyse and conserve this copy of the Great Charter, touching the 700 year old document with the scalpel herself.Libby is the Head of Collection Care at State Library Victoria, and she is giving a talk about the Conservation of the Australian copy of the Magna Carta at the National Library of Australia at 6pm on Tuesday, February 10.Guest: Libby Melzer, Head of Collection Care at State Library Victoria

Straight from Sydney Festival to Melbourne's Art House, Opera for the Dead is a striking contemporary Chinese cyber-opera that blurs ritual, music and technology. Co-creator Mindy Meng Wang reflects on how her personal experience of grief and funeral rites shaped the immersive visual and musical work she developed with sound designer Monica Lim.Guest:Mindy Meng Wang, world-leading guzheng player, composer and co-creator of Opera for the DeadExcerpts from Opera For The Dead rehearsal audio courtesy Mindy Meng Wang and Monica Lim

Mary Penfold was the driving force behind Penfolds wines, which grew from a small vineyard outside Adelaide in the 1850s to the wine-producing powerhouse that we know today.Being a woman in the agriculture sector in the mid-1800s meant that Mary didn't get much recognition for her contribution to running Penfolds. But following the death of her husband she continued to direct production and expansion of the business.Guest: Dr Julie McIntyre, associate professor at the University of Newcastle, specialising in the history of wine production in Australia.

The number of countries planning to relocate their capital cities now also includes Mongolia, where building works are underway on a new capital.

'Good character' as a mitigating factor of sentencing is poised to be abolished in NSW courts. The proposed new bill in NSW parliament relies on the recommendations in the report from the NSW Sentencing Council, but not all members of the council were in agreement. Barrister Felicity Graham explains why she dissented from the council's recommendations and what the unintended consequences of the change might mean for vulnerable defendants. Guest: Felicity Graham, Barrister at Black Chambers

17 months after the revolution that ended the 15 year rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League, Bangladesh goes to a general election on February 12.

Have you ever heard of water cremation? It sounds like a misnomer but it is an increasingly popular way of cremating the dead, which its proponents choose for it's gentle effect on their loved ones, and the environment. The death industry in Australia mostly consists of funeral homes as we’ve known them, but business owners like Luke Cripps have begun to offer new options for grieving Australians.Guest: Luke Cripps is a Director of Alluvium Water Cremations in Tasmania: one of the few businesses in Australia offering the service of water cremation.

This week's mystery caller is a common, aerobatic predator of small insects – the Welcome Swallow.

John Birmingham is perhaps best known for his documentation of the "horror and madness" of Australian share-house living in his 1994 book He Died With A Felafel In His Hand.His book Leviathan: An Unauthorised Biography of Sydney won the Australian National Prize for Non Fiction Award in 2002, and his (self-called) “airport novels” including The Axis of Time series are loved across the world.1989 was an eventful year for John, which set him up for the Felafel book and the successful writing career he has today. He reflects on life in Bjelke-Petersen Queensland, the amount of couches he's slept on, his gonzo stints on the streets of Kings Cross and a Brisbane jail cell, and meeting his wife in the midst of a violent student protest.