Guardian Australia Reads

Three times a week, hear the best of Guardian Australia’s journalism read out loud to you

Reading romance books after heartbreak, finding nostalgia, and living with cancer and Covid

A writer wonders about a happily ever after. Nostalgia rises after years of rapid tech change. And cancer survivors manage treatment during lockdown

04-23
28:02

Taking inspiration from Chrissy Amphlett, Sharon Stone’s stunt double, and a diving superwoman

Meet three Australian women pushing back on the expectations and stereotypes so often placed on them

04-16
27:48

‘I am Bob. Just Bob’: could a Wollongong folk hero have had a Nazi past?

The steel city once knew him as a migrant made good who contributed a great gift to the arts. But one man has been digging into the true identity of Bob Sredersas

04-09
27:33

Leading the charge: road-testing Australia’s EV stations on a 2,800km round trip

What are the pleasures and pitfalls of driving an electric car from Sydney to Melbourne and back? Guardian Australia’s economics correspondent Peter Hannam goes for a test drive. Plus: we hear from a wrestling champ who can’t compete, and about a new island forming in the Pacific

04-02
32:08

Travelling lions, sinking islands and the last video store

These are some of our favourite stories from the Guardian Australia Reads audio library. A lion gets inside a London black cab, a son contemplates the future of his father’s ashes on a sinking island and Melbourne’s last video store resolutely stays open

03-26
29:41

In search of Australia’s elusive treasures

Three stories of mystery this week: on the scent of platypus eggs, tracking Australia’s ‘most beautiful mammals’ and uncovering fabled Aboriginal art 40 years after its disappearance

03-19
26:33

An all-female fight camp, a middle-aged guide to surfing and discovering postpartum rage

Three stories about women at major points in their lives – challenging the stories they’ve been told about themselves. We take on combat sport, brave board burn and experience postpartum fury

03-12
21:44

‘The good fight’: Roebuck Plains Station and its return to Indigenous owners

The Yawuru people have finally had 530,000 hectares of their traditional country returned to them. We also hear suburban tales of electrifying our homes and discovering treasure on council cleanup days

03-05
29:45

Meet the superhumans

For four extraordinary people, superpowers are not beyond the imagination – they are an ordinary reality that they smell, remember and see every day

02-26
30:24

‘Stop and enjoy your life’ – how to rethink work after the pandemic

The pandemic has made us re-evaluate what we took for granted. How have Australians made sense of the value of work, amidst all this change and chaos? We also hear about the digital preservation of a Sydney herbarium, and unlikely discoveries from Alexander Downer’s suitcase

02-19
32:13

Big cats, green sea turtles and 130 different bird species

Three stories take us into the animal kingdom. Meet communities around Australia ‘discovering’ animals on land and sea, both big and small

02-11
24:46

A bank heist, losing the vroom and an endurance swim

In a new format, Guardian Australia Reads presents three of our best features, read to you out loud. In this episode, we hear the stories behind Australia’s biggest bank heist, the (controversial) quiet sounds of electric motorcycles and 10-hour swims across the Channel

02-04
33:36

A day at the beach: sex, sharks and ashes

We take you to the beach and get among the sand and saltwater. Hear four very different stories about memorable moments at the beach. Together they celebrate and remember the feeling of elation – both big and small

01-28
23:00

The English teacher and the Nazis: trove of letters in Melbourne reveals network that saved Jews

Frances and Jan Newell painstakingly uncovered their mother’s role in facilitating the escape of Jews and political dissidents from Berlin to Britain. Head of news Mike Ticher recommends a story that starts with an old leather suitcase

01-22
13:00

Pure heaven, but also hell: my trek to find the Disappearing Tarn

In the mountain by Hobart a lake appears just after heavy rain, then vanishes. Features editor Lucy Clark recommends a story that takes us on a mysterious search

01-20
10:28

Witness K and the ‘outrageous’ spy scandal that failed to shame Australia

Witness K and lawyer Bernard Collaery helped correct what they saw as a gross injustice. Luke Henriques-Gomes introduces Christopher Knaus’ story about espionage, oil fields and diplomatic embarrassment for the Australian government

01-18
17:03

‘We need to be alarmed’: food banks in overdrive as politicians allow Australians to go hungry

Food relief organisations say they are helping more people than ever before. But this is not a good news story. Head of news, Mike Ticher, introduces an investigation into underlying inequality in Australia that predates the Covid crisis

01-15
14:58

‘The right thing to do’: restoring Aboriginal place names key to recognising Indigenous histories

Indigenous communities argue that renaming landscapes should not be limited to removing overtly racist colonial names. Assistant news editor Shelley Hepworth recommends this story about truth-telling

01-13
12:38

When released from prison, Darko Desic faces deportation to a country that no longer exists

Desic turned himself in to police in Sydney 30 years after escaping jail. Ben Doherty explores how his friends and family are pleading for the Australian government to show mercy and let him stay

01-11
15:51

‘My father will go down like the captain of the Titanic’: life on the Pacific’s disappearing islands

Many in the Saposa Islands are wrestling with the dilemma of starting a new life on the mainland or staying to watch their homes vanish. Deputy editor, David Munk, introduces this story

01-08
10:25

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