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2 days ago | 
abc.net.au | Nicola Harrison |Meggie Morris |Sarah Kanowski
Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis has achieved a lot in her young life. She is a social researcher at Western Sydney University, she has represented Australia at the United Nations, she advices groups like UNESCO and a couple of years ago she was awarded the NSW Premier's Youth Medal. But for her family, Angelica's greatest achievement is learning to swim as an adult.
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1 week ago | 
abc.net.au | Nicola Harrison |Sarah Kanowski
Justin Heazlewood grew up in Burnie, a coastal town on the North West coast of Tasmania. For years he imagined his hometown as somewhere he had to leave, especially if he was going to be any kind of artist. And there were other, more personal reasons that made staying in Burnie complicated. Justin's Mum has schizophrenia, and growing up he was often forced into the role of being her carer. It was something he did his best to hide from his friends and other people in his life.
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1 week ago | 
abc.net.au | Sarah Kanowski |Nicola Harrison |Meggie Morris
Loribelle Spirovski grew up in the Philippines, with her mum and her extended Filipino family. Her Serbian father, whom she had never met, was in Australia, driving taxis and waiting for the visa that would allow him to bring Loribelle and her mum to join him. Loribelle didn't meet her father until she was 7 years old, and when she saw him for the first time at Manila Airport, she was shocked by how hairy his arms were and the way he smelled just like she did.
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Nicola Harrison |Richard Fidler
Novelist Stella Maria Miles Franklin had an unexpected chapter in her own life after publishing her famous novel My Brilliant Career. In 1903 she became a 'girl stunt reporter', going undercover as a servant. For a year, she lived as a maid in Sydney and Melbourne's wealthy houses and wrote about the humiliations and drudgery in the daily lives of servant girls, or 'slaveys'.
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Nicola Harrison |Alice Moldovan |Richard Fidler
Morris Stuart met his Australian wife, Barbara in London in the 1960s. The pair led a youth group attached to a nearby church, and initially tried to ignore their growing feelings for each other. Morris was a young, Guyanese activist who was descended from African slaves, and wasn’t ready to face the social reality of marrying across racial lines. Morris and Barb fell in love and married several years before the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Nicola Harrison |Richard Fidler
Nature writer, Andrew Darby spent more than 20 years as a Fairfax correspondent based in Tasmania. His stories involved the natural beauty of the bush, including visits to wild places and to the people who protect them, but it was deadline-driven and he couldn’t spend the time he wanted to. In 2017 Andrew was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. He underwent immunotherapy and was given a maximum 18-months to live. It has been eight years since he entered his “second life”.
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Carmel Rooney |Nicola Harrison |Richard Fidler
Anh Nguyen Austen is an academic and community volunteer who grew up in Vietnam in a Catholic family. Anh's childhood was idyllic, with a big extended family and a close friendship with her cousin named Joe. But life for the adults was complicated after the end of the war, and so in the early 1980s, her parents planned a daring escape. Under the noses of the regime, they secretly constructed a boat which they hoped would take them to the Philippines.
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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Sarah Kanowski |Nicola Harrison
VIncent Fantauzzo is one of Australia's most successful portrait artists. For his luminous, photo-realistic paintings he's won the People's Choice Award at the annual Archibald Prize more than any other artist. He's also won the Moran National Portrait Prize twice, once with a painting of his friend, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, and the second time with a painting of his wife, actor Asher Keddie.
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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Carmel Rooney |Alice Moldovan |Nicola Harrison |Richard Fidler
A few weeks ago, some former guests of Conversations, and our two presenters gathered at the Adelaide Town Hall. The event was a live storytelling hour, with the theme 'Mistakes were made', in front of a rapt audience of 800 forgiving souls. Writer and social researcher Rebecca Huntley shared her dramatic foray as a first-time driver. Journalist Rick Morton recounted a story about a run-in between his brother's drug- and alcohol-fuelled friends, with a cameo from the rom-com 'Bridget Jones' Baby'.
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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Nicola Harrison |Sarah Kanowski
Sisters Dorothy and Josie Porter grew up in an interesting and sometimes volatile home on the northern beaches of Sydney in the 1970s. Together with their middle sister Mary, they lived in a world of books, a backyard menagerie of animals, and regular birdwatching excursions. Their father Chester was a well-known lawyer who was sometimes a explosive presence at home. Josie adored her charismatic big sister 'Dod', for her wicked sense of humour, her appetite for life, and her fierce talent.
