Background Briefing Podcasts

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Current affairs investigative journalism: exploring new ideas and analysing society in lively on-the-road documentary style. Primary Format : Other Language : Unknown Also Listed as: City : Unknown State/Province : Unknown Country : Australia Region : OC User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Podcast iTunes Link Text Only listing of Background Briefing Podcasts Methings.com listings of Background Briefing Podcasts If you like this podcast, you might also like:

View the full archive of Background Briefing 2009-11-22 Housing for millions Planning for happy cities, when you´re also jamming in millions more people, is politically tricky. Urban planners say they can make better communities with more people, but the NIMBYs don´t believe it. Like it or not, high density apartment living is around the corner. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-15 Rare earths and China China currently produces about 95% of the world's rare earths, which are metals which are essential to modern living and used all around us every day. In business it´s a volatile mix, with complex political alchemy for every government, including Australia. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-08 One hundred years of spying Britain's secret intelligence service, MI6, has both changed history and been changed by it. Unprecedented access was gained by the BBC World Service to people who ran it, worked for it, and worked against it. Reporter David Whitty. For copyright reasons there will be no podcast or transcript of this program. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-01 Internet piracy Copyright began 300 years ago, but now laws can't cope with the anarchy of new technologies. There's a battle between the law and the 'mashers', from the White House to the Australian Federal Court. Reporter, Oscar McLaren. Image by Omaz Z, file photo. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-25 Indefatigable Chomsky He´s over 80 and has written or contributed to 95 books. At one time he was the most cited living academic, a Vietnam activist and a thorn in the side of Reagan. Today he is also critical of 'the left' with dire warnings. Noam Chomsky is as astute and interesting as ever. Producer, Kirsten Garrett. Recorded at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-18 War criminals in Australia With so many new communities in Australia coming from countries where there have been brutal wars, the likelihood of some people having suspicious backgrounds is high. Australia has no laws to deal with allegations concerning anyone who arrived before 2002. This leads to anxiety and unrest. Reporter, Hagar Cohen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-11 Controlling corruption Out of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, the National Integrity System was born, and is now used by governments and authorities in most countries around the world. The latest is Kurdistan. Corruption, like death and taxes, is inevitable. Ian Townsend explores ways in which it can be managed and minimised. Cartoon by Nicholson from The Australian newspaper: www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-10-04 Who owns the news? It's a question no one has really been able to answer, though many try. A new fight for the answer is breaking out all over the place because readers are getting what they want on the internet, and copying stuff is really easy. Reporter Stan Correy. Download Extra Audio - Sir Keith Murdoch, 4th January 1937 Download MP3 Sir Keith Murdoch is giving a speech at the opening of radio station 3LK in Melbourne. Prime Minister Lyons was in attendance at the opening. This may be the only audio rec ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-09-27 Deer pests Feral deer numbers have exploded in many parts of Australia, and they´re chewing through farms and bushland. Farmers and environmentalists want them declared a pest and professionally culled. But in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania deer are protected for hunters wanting some sport. Tensions are rising. Reporter, Di Martin Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-09-20 The third era of AIDS From Africa and India to Indonesia, government leaders face the reality of a resurgent AIDS epidemic: Men do have sex with men and pass it on to women, and people do inject drugs. But there´s cultural change in law and leadership - not about being nice, but because the treatment tap may turn off, and prevention is better than cure. Reporting from Bali, Stephen Crittenden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-09-13 Gold In this BBC documentary, reporter Nick Rankin explores the impact of gold on people's lives. From brokers to miners and athletes the allure of gold has lasted throughout the millennia but the price of gold can be measured in many ways. Note that there will be no podcast or transcript of this program. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-09-06 Australian Muslim youth Searching for their own identity in a changing world, young Muslims in Australia face a plethora of backyard Imams and internet Sheiks. Many are turning to simplistic and conservative interpretations. The emphasis can be on small rituals rather than the complex and subtle spirituality of Islam. It´s a phenomenon known in many religions. Reporter: Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-30 Global suicide increasing Suicide rates around the world are rising, and rising fastest in rural areas. India, England, Wales, Canada, America and Australia all have alarming statistics. In despairing India, farmers are drinking the pesticides the new monoculture crops are dependent on. Many strategies are being tried to mitigate the phenomenon, and most say help must be at the community level. Reporter Michael Condon. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-23 Rohan and the road to the apocalypse Forty years ago an Australian shearer from Grenfell, gripped by religious mania, set fire to one of the most holy sites in Islam—the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Using new material and exclusive interviews, we show how Denis Rohan's actions started a global Islamic political movement. In the Middle East, Rohan's burning of the Mosque still sparks conspiracy theories and deep anger. Research, Anna Whitfeld. Reporter, Stan Correy. Visit our special online feature site for this story he ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-16 Christopher Hitchens Writer and traveller Christopher Hitchens gives, with both gravity and humour, his take on the 'Axis of Evil'. He talks about why he underwent waterboarding, about what the parrot in North Korea says, about the world's best whisky, and about the country he will next explore (Poland). The talk is from the Commonwealth Club, Silicon Valley. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-09 Limits of power Retired colonel in the US army and historian of international relations, Professor Andrew Bacevich argues that the US should get out of Afghanistan. Producer: Kirsten Garrett Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-08-02 Self inflicted sickness? There are debates and discussion about who should foot the bill if we get sick with something we could have prevented if we had lived a better lifestyle - smoking, drinking while driving, eating too much. It´s tricky territory. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-07-26 Credit rating agencies They have become both critic and chef in the big financial kitchens, but they say they're really journalists and take no responsibility for their advice. CRAs are probably beyond the law, yet governments have said their advice is mandatory. Weird. Reporter: Stanley Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-07-05 Cairo, a divided city The rich are deserting the old city of Cairo and moving to luxurious, Hollywood style, gated communities in the desert, with lush golf courses and artificial lakes. Water is a big issue, as old Cairo is left to the poor and the tourists. Reporter, Hagar Cohen. (This program was originally broadcast on 1st February 2009). Why do the rich people of Cairo want to live like westerners? What are the consequences—will this mean more social unrest? A special Background Briefing video shows ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-07-12 Expanding mental illness Over the decades psychiatrists are finding and re-defining more of the constellation of emotions, reactions, and ups and down of life as mental illness. No surprise, there are pills to make everyone fit the normal template, even some for shyness. Reporter Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website