Ann Arnold

2 days ago | abc.net.au | David Marr |Ann Arnold

An anthropologist set out to talk to his fellow Americans, to try and understand why so many fear people who are different to them; and why people want to separate themselves, in gated communities and big cars. Guest: Anand Pandian, professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University.

3 days ago | abc.net.au | David Marr |Ann Arnold

The English language, and Sanskrit, have some elements in common. So do Hindustani and Spanish. And Russian and Greek.  They all, it is now becoming clear, evolved from a very early language, known as PIE – Proto-Indo-European. More than half the world's population speak languages stemming from PIE. Guest: Laura Spinney, Paris-based writer and science journalist. Author of ''Proto: how one ancient language went global' (Harper Collins) Producer: Ann ArnoldHistory, Language, Science, Immigration

1 week ago | abc.net.au | David Marr |Ann Arnold

Hollywood actress Merle Oberon was born in poverty in India. To make it in the movies, first in London and then Hollywood, she had to invent a new life story that concealed her race. Her advisors came up with Tasmania as her birth place.

1 week ago | abc.net.au | David Marr |Ann Arnold

It was Franklin Roosevelt who came up with the notion of national security, to persuade Americans to get involved in World War ll. His pitch was that Americans had social security, domestically, under the New Deal. But to keep the world's instability at bay, and protect the 'American way of life', participation in world affairs was necessary.

2 weeks ago | abc.net.au | David Marr |Ann Arnold

May 31 is the due date for a Federal Government decision on granting another 40 years to the controversial North West Shelf gas operations on the Burrup Peninsular in WA. Its operators, Woodside, are also looking to expand their activities in the area, where critics say over 1 million pieces of world-famous rock art could be damaged. Guest: Marian Wilkinson, celebrated investigative journalist, writing a Quarterly Essay on Woodside and its Kimberley operations.