Guardian Australia Reads

75 Episodes

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

2022-04-2328:021

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

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

2022-04-1627:48

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

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

2022-04-0927:33

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

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

2022-04-0232:08

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

Travelling lions, sinking islands and the last video store

2022-03-2629:41

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

In search of Australia’s elusive treasures

2022-03-1926:33

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

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

2022-03-1221:44

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

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

2022-03-0529:45

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

Meet the superhumans

2022-02-2630:24

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

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

2022-02-1932:13

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

Big cats, green sea turtles and 130 different bird species

2022-02-1124:46

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

A bank heist, losing the vroom and an endurance swim

2022-02-0433:36

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

A day at the beach: sex, sharks and ashes

2022-01-2823:00

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

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

2022-01-2213:001

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

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

2022-01-2010:28

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

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

2022-01-1817:03

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

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

2022-01-1514:58

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

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

2022-01-1312:38

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

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

2022-01-1115:51

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

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

2022-01-0810:25

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

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