Conversations

• How a pair of disobedient missionaries invented Australia's most iconic road trip

  Tens of thousands of 'van lifers' and 'grey nomads' drive around Australia each year. But the iconic road trip has a surprising origin story involving a pair of missionaries, a retired butcher and a gun-slinging mother-daughter duo.David Riley is a pastor and father who was on a lap around Australia with his wife and three children when he heard about the surprising origin story of this great road trip.In 1925, two young men set off from Perth to Darwin in a tiny French car nicknamed 'Bubsie'.They were running an errand for their Church – instructed to set up a Seventh-Day Adventist Missionary outpost in the Northern Territory, then to turn around and come back home.Nevill Westwood and Greg Davies battled flat tires, evil cows, losing their way, leaky fuel tanks, dangerous river crossings and a falling out along the way.With the help of First Nations people and station owners they met along the way, they made it to Darwin.But when they got to Darwin, they just kept going, entering into a race with a retired butcher and a gun-slinging mother-daughter duo to become the first vehicle to circumnavigate Australia.For David, researching and writing the story down became a powerful way to preserve the memories of his own family's lap around Australia, after receiving terrible news.Bubsie and The Boys: The First Journey Around Australia by Car is published by SIGNS.Early next year, Bubsie's sister car, a 102-year-old Citroën, will drive around Australia for the 100th anniversary of the original journey. The trip will be raising money for Canteen and Brain Child. Information about the trip will be online early next year.This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.It explores travel, road trips, Australian history, modern history, motoring history, great global road trips, grey nomads, caravanning, van life, historical records, religion, church, cancer, losing a daughter, brain cancer, grief, driving, driving Western Australia, madman's track, white history, black history.

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• Encore: How Johnathan Thurston became one of the greats

  Despite being a stand-out young player, many NRL clubs initially rejected Johnathan Thurston because they thought he was too small and wiry but he went on to become one of the best rugby league players of all time.Johnathan showed his rare talent for rugby league early on but his parents didn't have the money to help him travel to games.So in his late teens, Johnathan moved to Toowoomba to get a start in rugby league, while working part-time in the butcher’s section of a supermarket.When Johnathan moved to Sydney at 18 to try his luck with the Cantebury Bulldogs, he began to get noticed and by the time he retired in 2018, had won a record 4 Daly M medals. Johnathan Thurston The Autobiography (with James Phelps) is published by Harper Collins.This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.It explores the career of Johnathan Thurston, the NRL, rugby league, sporting talent, growing up in Brisbane, working part time jobs, alcohol, scholarships, NRL clubs, the Canterbury Bulldogs, North Queensland Cowboys, State of Origin, Queensland, Daly M medal, NRL Grand Final,  Queensland Maroons, indigenous Australian, Maori heritage, goal kicker, housing commission, Toowoomba, Indigenous All Star, GOAT 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.

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• How Aunty Rhonda learnt to cry

  Artist, author and Stolen Generations survivor, Rhonda Collard-Spratt, on bush hugs, beehives, emu bumps, and finding peace.Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spratt is a Yamatji-Noongar elder and Stolen Generations survivor who grew up on the Carnarvon Native Mission in Western Australia.As a little girl she would escape from her dormitory into the bush to feel the love and warmth she was missing from her mum.After leaving the mission as a teenager, Rhonda trained as a hairdresser, creating some of the best beehives in Perth.Later in life, she managed to reconnect with her mum and formed a surprising bond with her English stepfather, through music.Rhonda Collard-Spratt's memoir, Alice’s Daughter: Lost Mission Child, was written with Jacki Ferro and published by Aboriginal Studies Press.You can find her children's book series, Spirit of the Dreaming, online in both print and audiobook formats.This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.It explores Aboriginal Australia, black history, colonisation, segregation, assimilation, religion, Christianity, the Native Act, reckoning with Australia's history, the Voice, racism, Indigenous suicide, mental health, medical neglect, art, motherhood, writing, books, memoir, modern Australia, Ipswich, Churches of Christ, Aborigines Mission Board.

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• From democracy to dictatorship and back again—how freedom falls and tyranny takes hold

  Dr James Loxton on how modern democracies can crumble as authoritarian regimes take hold, but also how freedom and democracy can rise again, from the Americas to Europe and into Asia.James grew up in stable Canada, where he spent his summers herding sheep in the middle of forest plantations.As a teenager, he hatched a plan to escape his "rough as guts" bush town and the life of a shepherd, moving to India on his own to finish high school.At an international school in Maharashtra, James' classmates taught him about the world outside of democratic Canada, and he became fascinated by military dictatorships and guerilla insurgencies. Later on, years of living in Latin America showed him firsthand how dictators operated, how they are feared and hated, but also revered and loved by some of the people they control.Now James, and many other political scientists, have their eyes turned to America, watching closely to see how the world's most powerful democracy is changing right before their eyes.Authoritarianism: A Very Short Introduction is published by Oxford University Press.This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, executive producer is Nicola Harrison.It explores Donald Trump, Putin, USA, regime, dictators, ICE, Clinton, Epstein, politics, democracy, Chilean presidential election, Russia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, government, globalisation, Latin American politics, Whitlam, dismissal, divisive politics, left versus right, parliamentary versus presidential forms of government, united kingdom, British colonies, Javier Milei, Venezuela, Argentina, Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, Maduro, elitism, drain the swamp, populism, power for the people, tariffs, Peru, Cuba, straw man, Stalin, Hitler, competitive authoritarianism, substance abuse, addiction, alcoholism, alcoholic mothers, homelessness, losing a mother.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.

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• A bulldog on the ice -- Eric's journey from the South Pole to Outer Space

  Eric Philips has always loved cold weather and from young age became fixated on the idea of polar exploration and following in the footsteps of the adventurers he read about in National Geographic.And he went on to lead gruelling expeditions to the North and South Poles, pushing his body and mind to the limits.Eric also had dreams of travelling into space and had assumed the would be impossible.But while on a ski expedition in Svalbard, he met a crypto billionaire who was planning a trip to space and he later asked Eric to come along.The crew Eric was a part of would go on became the first human spaceflight mission to explore Earth from a polar orbit and fly over the Earth’s polar regions.This episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake, the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.It explores polar exploration, South Pole. North Pole, hypothermia, mental and physical exhaustion, physical endurance, kite skiing, antarctica, large families, drug overdose, Space x, polar orbit, dramatic weight loss, rescue, failureTo 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.

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