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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:

Mining Afghanistan As foreign troops withdraw, will foreign miners move in? They’ve known of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth for a century but it hasn’t been safe or easy enough to extract it. Now Western companies, including Australian miners, are behind the geopolitical eight-ball as China and India lock up mining rights. Reporter, Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Occupy: a global moment or a movement? It started with a bang in Wall Street and spread to over a hundred cities worldwide. But, as the novelty wears off, the tent city occupations are facing their own crunch time with the weather, the police and internal disagreements threatening their survival. Reporter, Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The great rural health challenge Rural and remote Australia relies heavily on overseas trained doctors if it can attract a GP at all.  Background Briefing looks at how a town can survive when its medical services start shutting down, how to support what remains, and whether Australia needs to overhaul its policy on overseas trained doctors. Reporter: Di Martin Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Harden Medical Centre Di Martin reports on Harden Medical Centre for Country Hour. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Apology for duplicate podcasts We have just upgraded to a new website, and the move has caused some podcast subscribers to download duplicate mp3s. We apologise for this issue and hope you continue to listen to Radio National podcasts in the future. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-27 Riding the sports betting boom Freedom to advertise and the rise of the mobile app has led to a tripling of sports betting in Australia. The winning odds are now front and centre in the coverage of major sports and you can bet on all kinds of `exotic´ options. So what are the odds on a big corruption scandal or a new generation of problem gamblers? Reporter, Brendan King. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-20 The dark side of diplomacy Are there some people you should never negotiate with—despots, war criminals, terrorists—regardless of the circumstances? Or should you be open to talking to anyone to save lives, by ending war, delivering aid or rescuing hostages? Several prominent negotiators describe their experiences operating on the dark side of diplomacy. Reporter, Lyse Doucet (BBC World Service) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-13 Guns are back Gun clubs report lots of new members, hunting is cool, and handguns are gangland chic. The hundreds of thousands of guns destroyed in buybacks since Port Arthur have been more than replaced by new ones. But guns are highly political and the national system for monitoring gun ownership is a mess. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-11-06 Qantas and the ghost of Workchoices Qantas has opened a new industrial relations battlefront. The Labor government´s Fair Work laws are being put to the test but there are bigger political implications for the Opposition, which is split over whether to re-embrace Workchoices, the IR policy that many believe brought an end to the Howard government. Reporter, Stan Correy Photo: AAP, Miles Godfrey Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-30 Casualties in the war on people smuggling The Australian government wants to smash the people smugglers´ business model and courts around the country are now dealing with hundreds of the accused. But how many of them are just children from Indonesian fishing villages whose families think they´re lost at sea? Reporter, Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-23 Controlling people Is the world´s population out of control? There will be 7 billion people this year and 9 billion by 2050. With demographers, environmentalists and others fearing unsustainable pressure on resources, historian Matthew Connelly goes to India to examine past and present attempts at population control. From the BBC World Service. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-16 A noble cause Producing new medicines to extend lives and reduce suffering is a noble cause. The marketing of those drugs is often ignoble, with the wining and dining of doctors and the use of specialists to spruik the company line. A former industry insider gives a unique insight into the selling techniques of big pharma. Reporter, Ray Moynihan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-09 Amnesty at 50 In its 50 years Amnesty International has revolutionised human rights campaigning and saved lives. It has also been dogged by quarrels, scandals and allegations of political bias. Reporter Matthew Bannister, from the BBC World Service Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-10-02 Boys and the buff culture 'Zyzz' was a ladies man and a puny boy´s dream realised. From skinny teenager to rippling Adonis he epitomised a growing obsession with male body culture. His death had an unexpected impact and has re-opened concerns about steroid use. Reporter, Brendan King. Photo source: Facebook Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-25 The mobile payments push Get ready for the next big app attack, urging you to chop up your credit cards and use your mobile phone. You won´t have to go to a shop, just point the phone at a handily-placed barcode, and you´ve paid! It´s not a phone, it´s a `smart wallet´, and your mobile banker skims off a bit of every transaction. Security? It´s a work in progress. Reporter, Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-18 Don't trust the web The internet is awash with misinformation, manipulated identities, fake reviews, and dishonest comments. Politicians use astroturfing. So do businesses and marketing firms. Beware—it's infecting everyone. Reporter Hagar Cohen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-11 Money for empties Container deposit schemes operate in many parts of the world, in SA, and soon in the NT. Why will some firms go to great lengths to prevent them? Politicians often fear the financial and strategic might of big business - even when it's about who picks up the drink can or the beer bottles. Reporter Di Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-09-04 Nowhere to live Rents are rising even in country towns, and more people are forced into caravan parks, the back rooms of old pubs - or the river bank - even with young children. It can happen to anyone. It will get worse. Various attempts to create more places for people to live at cheap rent are not meeting the need. Reporter Anita Barraud. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-28 Soccer and technology Soccer is the biggest sport in the world and an enormous business. Millions can be lost through a wrong call made by a person with a whistle. Why won´t FIFA allow the technology now common in other sports? The controversy is raging over line ball technology. From the UK, sports reporter Tim Long. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-21 Amos Oz on fanaticism Renowned Israeli writer, poet, activist, and historian Amos Oz talks about the most urgent topic of our time—fanatics on all sides of politics and religion. If the UN agrees to recognise Palestine he hopes Israel will be the first to embrace the decision—and move on from there. The Ervin Graf Memorial Oration at the Shalom Institute. Also Charles Massy talks about the $10 billion collapse of the wool industry in Australia Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-14 Auditing the auditors Where does the buck stop when big banks and corporations, even nations collapse. Who signs off on the books? The auditors or the directors of the board? And who should tell investors when there´s something shifty going on? Who are the auditors answerable to? Reporter, Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-08-07 Murderous Mexico In the first five months of this year, an astonishing l8,500 Mexicans have been murdered -- with very few convictions. In the last five years 66 journalists have been murdered. Mexico is a failed state with corruption, no rule of law, and spin and lies all around -- including in America. The speaker is American non-fiction writer Charles Bowden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-31 50/50 parenting Legislation before the Senate now may take some of the heat out of tragic confusion over shared, or "equal time parenting", and the role of violence in Family Law decision making. Research shows children of high conflict families, forced into equal time, are suffering. Reporter Brendan King. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-24 Water bugs Every year more than 200 people in Queensland get very sick with a nasty, little understood, hard-to-treat type of bacteria. Other states report none. Why? Our water supply is now so complex, things are overlooked. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-17 The Lord Monckton roadshow The Scottish peer Lord Monckton has been raising hell against the carbon tax in barnstorming rallies and public meetings around the country. But just who is Lord Monckton and who are the forces behind him? Chief amongst them a mysterious group called the Galileo Movement and mining magnate and now media player Gina Rinehart. Reporter Wendy Carlisle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-10 Bullying at work It´s tricky territory. No one agrees on one definition, and what is bullying to one person is normal behaviour to another. But who investigates bullying, and is that process working? First-hand accounts from people who believe the system let them down. Reporter: Hagar Cohen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-07-03 Ghosts of Vietnam There are 300,000 Vietnamese still missing in action and their souls haunt the living. Real or metaphorical, these ghosts are disrupting society. Some American veterans calm their own souls by helping to find and properly bury these war dead. BBC World Service documentary. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-26 Digital convergence, connection and confusion It´s coming fast, the digital hub where i-pads talk to mobile phones, computers talk to TVs, TVs have hundreds of apps, and you can choose and change with your magical remote wand. But, big but, who is in charge of customer service for all these devices when something goes phut? Reporter Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-19 The knight of Newcastle Nathan Tinkler is a billionaire and the richest man in Australia under 40. He loves fast horses, fast cars, the Newcastle Knights, and big business deals. He´s held in awe and trepidation - but he won't talk to BB. Nor will most people who know him. So who is he, how did he get so rich, and why will Newcastle rise or fall with him? Reporter Brendan King. Photo: Lucas Dawson Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-12 Who decides how we die? We should be able to choose the way we die by writing an advanced care directive, or appointing someone to make our medical decisions when we can´t. But there´s legal arguments, confusion and arrogance in the way of us going gentle into that good night. Make your wishes clear, tell someone about them, and do it while you´re competent. Reporter Di Martin Photograph: Tom Coull Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-06-05 Preventing cancer One in three cancers are preventable and successful campaigns such as 'Slip Slop Slap' are proof. Lung and bowel cancer are also coming down, and melanoma in children. St. Vincents Institute in Melbourne held a forum to discuss aspects of cancer prevention, including the fact that every $1 used in prevention saves $50 in treatment. Producer, Kirsten Garrett. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-29 Fatigue factor As an entire population we´re losing sleep. Fatigue has become a dangerous side-effect of 24/7 living and nowhere is the danger more acute than in the transportation industry - a frightening number of airline pilots as well as train, truck and car drivers admit to falling asleep on the job. But it´s almost impossible to know how many fatal accidents are caused by fatigue. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Photo: iStockphoto Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-22 Language barriers The compulsory English language test for migrants can make or break their future in Australia. But critics say it is a blunt instrument that can produce odd results. Frustration with the test is mounting and there is evidence of corruption. Reporter, Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-15 Digital revolutionaries under surveillance In Egypt democracy activists called themselves the Facebook revolutionaries, but in China there are fears the social networking sites will be used to spy on dissidents. For governments, social media represent easy access to their citizens, for good or ill. But for digital entrepreneurs, including the odd Russian billionaire, there must be money in it, if they could only find a way. No-one knows where it will go next. Reporter: Stan Correy Extra AudioDownload Audio [13.24 | 6.13MB]Man in t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-08 How politics neglects feelings David Brooks, a leading political analyst for the New York Times and PBS NewsHour, has come to some surprising conclusions after years of observing political life. He says politicians place too much value on reason, and not enough on social relationships, emotion and morality. Politicians can only develop successful policies if they learn the skills of intuition, sympathy and restraint. Also in this program, some analysis from Michael Scheuer, formerly chief of the Bin-laden unit on what m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-05-01 Bess Price: welcome to my world Warlpiri woman Bess Nungarrayi Price gives a personal account of the way violence has ripped apart her family, and others, in Aboriginal communities of Central Australia. Bess and her white husband, Dave, argue passionately for the right of people in these communities to live without the fear of violence, and for children in remote areas to have access to a good quality education. Photo: Ann Arnold Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-24 Medical turf wars Physicians' assistants have joined pharmacists, nurse practitioners and optometrists to say they can do the straightforward, simple, and repetitive work that would take the load off GPs. Patient safety is central to the debate, as the AMA guards its turf. Reporter Brendan King. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-17 Low IQ and in jail Many intellectually disabled people end up in jail. They plead guilty to minor crimes not understanding either social rules or the consequences. Hear the story of Melisa who has an IQ of 57, which is in the lowest l%, and who still faces jail. Reporter Cathy Van Extel. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-10 Church and state Concerns were raised when federal funding for chaplains in schools was introduced. Now some parents have evidence evangelism has seeped into the secular public school system. Others are staunch supporters. The controversy is now headed for the High Court. Reporter Hagar Cohen. Photograph: Andrew Turner Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-04-03 Dementia: into the daylight We´re diagnosing dementia younger, we´re living with it longer, and more Australians will have it in future. How are we to deal with this devastating and costly disease? Like cancer 30 years ago, we prefer not to talk about it. But it needs increasing attention as the dementia epidemic breaks over our health and aged care systems. Reporter: Di Martin Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-27 Taxing mines Australia and Zambia are resource rich countries that both wanted to tax the super profits of mining companies during the world´s biggest commodity boom. Find out why they failed. Reporter: Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-22 Overloaded internet Even silicon valley says the world is overconnected, corporations are overwhelmed, and we´re heading for another global crisis because the internet is now cowboy country, out of control. Internet high priest, historian, and author Bill Davidow says international regulations - or some way of making it all smaller is vital. Producer, Kirsten Garrett. This story was originally broadcast on the 6th March 2011. If you wish to download the audio of this program please go to the original story ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-20 Japan's nuclear crisis As Japan nuclear emergency continues, some food produced near the stricken Fukushima power plant has been found to contain abnormal radiation levels. Radiation traces have also been found in tap water in Tokyo and it´s been detected in the air as far away as eastern Russia and the west coast of the US. What will be the health effects? Does the disaster prove nuclear power is inherently unsafe? Paul Barclay hosts the discussion this week. Photo: AFP Digital Globe Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-13 The boy on Christmas Island Orphaned in the wild sea storm, 9 year old Iranian boy Seena Akhlaqi has become the political pawn of `stop the boats´. Why was a traumatised boy left in an overcrowded detention centre, with substandard care, for over two months? Was it a bungle or a cover-up? Reporter: Wendy Carlisle Photo: Getty images Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-03-06 Overloaded internet Even silicon valley says the world is overconnected, corporations are overwhelmed, and we´re heading for another global crisis because the internet is now cowboy country, out of control. Internet high priest, historian, and author Bill Davidow says international regulations - or some way of making it all smaller is vital. Producer, Kirsten Garrett. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-27 Mismanaging disasters Nature's forces - floods, cyclones, fires and this week the earthquake in Christchurch - won´t stop, yet we still live on flood plains, in the bush, on the beach and in earthquake zones. Rescue services struggle. Communications fail. Insurance companies spread the cost. It comes back to educating the people. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-20 Ugly cigarette packs The world is watching as Australia goes to battle with Big Tobacco over making cigarette packets plainer, uglier and uncool. If legislation gets through here, the EU and other countries will follow. It´s lobbyists vs lawyers, big retailers vs small retailers. And free traders are huffing and puffing. Reporter Hagar Cohen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-15 The Matilda Myth It´s 70 years since the death of Banjo Patterson, and tourists will drive the Banjo Route from Narrambla to Corryong armed with a book of his poems. The Diamantina River, home of the famous billabong, is flowing again after drenching rains...just like in 1894 when the swagman of the story visited the waterhole. The Matilda Myth -- with an interactive website -- takes a look again at the politics and mysteries of these first years of the Labour movement in Australia. Devised and produced b ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-13 Egypt: what now? Special No Background Briefing podcast for February 13th. A special program on Egypt, presented by Fran Kelly is available from the Radio National Breakfast website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-02-06 Julian Assange: The man who played with fire There´s been no proven crime, no one has been brought to trial, but there are death threats, diplomatic panic, and trumped up scandals. Around the globe people are aghast at how their leaders have lied and connived. Wikileaks has all the bizarre stories and cast of a Hollywood spy thriller. Reporter Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-30 Wikipedia at 10 January is the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia to which anyone can contribute and which anyone can edit. But there are problems, and difficulties, such as systemic bias, vandalism, and misuse by some governments. Also, this week, stories from Afghanistan. [Both stories this week are BBC documentaries. No podcast or transcript is available.] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-23 The business of being a boss Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Robert Sutton of the Stanford School of Business is a prolific author and speaker on boss and employee relationships. Hear what he thinks makes a good boss, and how the psychology of how bad bosses and bad employees can be managed. From the Commonwealth Club of California. This program was originally broadcast on the 17th October 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-16 Emergency mental health A clinical psychiatry professor in San Francisco General Hospital discusses the dangers, ethics, frailties and very difficult, sensitive decisions a psychiatrist working on the front line of mental health must deal with. The speaker is Professor Paul R Linde, MD. This program was originally broadcast on 28th March 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-09 The bicycle helmet laws The law here is that cyclists must wear helmets, but in Europe it is not mandatory, and yet it's much safer to cycle. Some say helmets make cycling more dangerous and others that they actually cause brain injury and the law should be repealed. The debate makes climate change look like a walk in the park. This program was originally broadcast on the 19th September 2010. Since the original broadcast of this story the research conducted by Clinical Associate Professor Chris Rissel which clai ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011-01-02 Every man in the village is a liar Megan Stack has won numerous prizes for her front line reporting on many wars, and her observations and experiences form the basis of a book and discussion. Here she concentrates on the hostilities between the West and the Muslim world, but also the complex dynamics within each of those worlds during war. From the Byron Bay Writers Festival. Photograph: Sergei L. Loiko This program was originally broadcast on 26th September 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-26 Space rules the world - UPDATED Transport, banking, food production, social networking, global supply chains, the world economy - would all grind to a halt if the satellite system failed. It´s a fragile system, but also the best place from which to see how fragile the earth is. Australia lags behind. Reporter, Ian Townsend. This program was originally broadcast on 4th April 2010. Europa Launch, Woomera 1966On 24 May 1966 the Europa rocket was launched as part of the ELDO project based in Woomera. Here is the original ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-19 Prevention or cure? Primary school kitchen gardens, behavioural economics and frugal innovation, they´re all important elements in a complex strategy to improve heart health and reduce the obesity epidemic. (From a public forum at the St Vincent´s Institute in Melbourne.) This program was originally broadcast on 13th June 2010. Download Mp3 St Vincent´s Institute Forum 2010: Prevention or cure? Questions from the audience. [26min, 12MB] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-12 The myth of island living There are more islands for sale today than at any other time in recorded history. But the dream of an island paradise is often a myth. Rather than idyllic, they are frequently the settings for border conflict, prisons and broken dreams. The reality of island living is much more like hard work. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-12-05 The airline, the engine maker, the 500 passengers and their lucky escape It´s what keeps aeronautical engineers awake at night - an engine explosion at 30,000 feet. They are rare but the Qantas A380 incident has triggered a fierce debate about the design, maintenance and safety of engines that power the new super jumbos. Reporter, Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-28 The battle of king salmon A local fishing community is pitted against the mining giant, Anglo-American, in a battle for natural resources in Alaska. A mine at the headwaters of a king salmon spawning area could threaten the wild salmon run. Nick Rankin reports from Bristol Bay in Alaska as the fishing frenzy begins. A BBC World Service documentary. For copyright reasons downloadable audio of this program is not available. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-21 Old law, new ways Alcohol, gunja, payback killings and a refusal to go bush - Aboriginal elders in Central Australia are watching the erosion of their traditions and authority. Can customary laws deal with today's problems? Reporter, Chris Bullock. Photo: Michael Coggan Part one of this series can be downloaded from the Making violence men's business story page. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-14 Making violence men's business In Central Australia traditional payback law is corrupted, leading to grog fuelled killings. Suicide has become a payback issue too. For the first time Indigenous men are trying to stop these escalating cycles of violence. Reporter: Chris Bullock Photograph: Jared Menge Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-11-07 Abortion on trial in Queensland The bizarre case of young couple Tegan Leach and Sergei Brennan, who faced jail for procuring an illegal abortion using RU486, ended with the jury returning a resounding 'not guilty'. Now no-one knows what the l9th century abortion law means -- not the church, and certainly not the state. Reporter Wendy Carlisle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-31 Why is James Murdoch so angry? The stars have not been in alignment for the Murdoch empire: a phone hacking scandal threatens its influence in British politics, people won't pay for online content, the pirates have the best digital maps, and the British Library wants to give information away for free. Reporter Stan Correy Photo: Andrew Wong, Reuters Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-24 Walking on water 30% of Australia's water comes from underground, but we don't understand this huge national resource. We're draining some aquifers and overfilling others - with no agreement on what's sustainable - not even amongst the scientists. So what are we willing to sacrifice for fresh fruit and veg? Reporter Di Martin Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-17 The business of being a boss Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Robert Sutton of the Stanford School of Business is a prolific author and speaker on boss and employee relationships. Hear what he thinks makes a good boss, and how the psychology of how bad bosses and bad employees can be managed. From the Commonwealth Club of California. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-10 Dengue epidemic There have been thousands of cases of dengue fever in the Commonwealth Games city of Delhi and more than a dozen confirmed cases of dengue fever in Cairns in recent weeks. As outbreaks are becoming more common is there anything we can do to stop the spread of dengue fever and its favourite carrier, the aedes aegypti mosquito? Or should we be more concerned with other nasty mozzies and the viruses they can transmit? Reporter Ian Townsend. (This report was originally broadcast on the 21st Fe ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-10-03 Trains do it better All political parties agree that trains do it better, but who will make it happen? Meanwhile, thousands of trucks are about to churn up the roads trying to get a huge wheat harvest to city ports, and two million tourists choke Byron Bay with cars. The rest of the world - even France - is joining its regional areas with high speed trains, and it works. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-26 Every man in the village is a liar Megan Stack has won numerous prizes for her front line reporting on many wars, and her observations and experiences form the basis of a book and discussion. Here she concentrates on the hostilities between the West and the Muslim world, but also the complex dynamics within each of those worlds during war. From the Byron Bay Writers Festival. Photograph: Sergei L. Loiko Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-19 The bicycle helmet laws The law here is that cyclists must wear helmets, but in Europe it is not mandatory, and yet it's much safer to cycle. Some say helmets make cycling more dangerous and others that they actually cause brain injury and the law should be repealed. The debate makes climate change look like a walk in the park. Reporter Wendy Carlisle. Photo: Mikael Colville-Andersen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-12 Who will govern Egypt? As the intellectual crucible of middle eastern thought, Egypt remains enormously influential. What happens in Egypt when Hosni Mubarak dies will have global ramifications. The Muslim Brotherhood, the chief of intelligence, high up military men, and Gamal Mubarak, Hosni´s son, are all jostling for power. BBC and Al Jazeera reports. Photo: Andrea Comas, Reuters There will be no podcast or transcript of this program. The podcast for this week will be Ian Townsend's Eureka Award winning progra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-09-05 Church and state in Latin America New technologies, travel and TV have profound implications for the Catholic church in Latin America. Gay rights, human rights, and women's rights - even abortion - are confronting centuries of Catholic thinking and the clergy is slowly being pushed out of politics. Reporter Stephen Crittenden Photo: Tierra del Fuego. A gay Argentine couple celebrate their marriage. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-24 The great native pet debate Marsupial-loving reporter Ian Walker grew up wanting a pet like Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Could encouraging more native mammals as pets be a canny new 'anti-extinction strategy'...or a future disaster to be cleaned up by the RSPCA? What happens when we apply market forces to the concept of extinction? The results may surprise you. This program was originally broadcast on the 11th April 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Election 2010: The result This week Background Briefing is not in the usual form. Instead we have Fran Kelly and Paul Barclay hosting a two hour post election program from 8 am till l0 am. Paul and Fran will be joined by a panel of analysts, commentators and candidates to decipher and dissect the election results. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-15 Culture wars at CSIRO When scientists - who believe passionately in independence, in pure research, and in sharing information - are asked to conform to business plans and commercial-in-confidence clauses, there are bound to be tensions. The CSIRO is going through massive culture change: less pure science, more social science, and industry can wag the tail. Reporter Ian Townsend (Photo Carl Davies, CSIRO) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-08 Freefall: free markets and the sinking of the global economy Economist and Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, talks about the policy mistakes that led to the GFC and the lessons to be drawn from it. The key question is: what will fill the gap in total demand left by the bursting of the bubble? A Centenary Oration from the University of Queensland. Photo by Jeremy Patton. Listen Now to questions for Joseph Stiglitz. Download questions for Joseph Stiglitz. [Duration: 25'37" 12MB] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-01 Hanging by a fibre The Labor government is about to switch on the first leg of its National Broadband Network - super-fast internet that promises to revolutionise Australia's business and social landscape. But if the Coalition wins the election, the NBN will be scrapped - the 43 billion dollar dream that never was. So is Australia's most expensive infrastructure project worth it? Reporter Di Martin Professor Branko Celler demonstrating the home health monitoring unit. [Dur: 4'21" 21MB] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-25 A wide open land As the world´s available farming land shrinks in the face of population growth, climate change and soil degradation, Australia´s vast tracts of land are going to be increasingly important for global food security. Overseas players are already buying up Australian agricultural resources and interest is growing. There are economic benefits but is the sell-off in Australia´s long term interests? Reporter, Stephen Crittenden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-18 Beyond reasonable doubt Despite the built-in appeal process, Australia´s criminal justice system still produces wrongful convictions based on flawed evidence. There are calls for a new review body, independent of the judiciary, to help identify miscarriages of justice. Henry Keogh´s conviction for murder is being put forward as a case in point. Reporter: Hagar Cohen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-11 Energy demand and climate change in the developing world These are the colliding trends that confront India, China and much of the developing world. How do you meet the expectations of hundreds of millions of people currently without electricity, as well as reducing carbon emissions? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-07-04 The spilling fields As we watch the worst environmental disaster in US history unfold, it´s worth comparing with our own gusher in the Timor Sea last year. The Montara well leaked uncontrollably for over 70 days before it exploded in a fireball incinerating the rig. With the findings of a Commission of Inquiry into the Montara spill still locked down by the Gillard government, will we ever know the true environmental impact? Reporter, Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-27 Social media and sentiment mining Businesses and advertisers can already access enormous amounts of personal data on social media sites, from where you live to what you like. The next step is sentiment analysis, where online conversations are mined for words and thoughts, for a commercial advantage. Is this ethical, and could computers really sift sarcasm from enthusiasm? Reporter, Shevonne Hunt. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-20 Gas rush Beneath the rich farming soils of the Darling Downs there´s a gaseous gold mine. Mobile drilling rigs dot the landscape as energy companies rush to secure the next big export contracts - for natural gas. It´s cheaper and cleaner than oil and looks set to supersede coal for making electricity. But farmers fear it will contaminate an even more valuable resource - water. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-13 Prevention or cure? Primary school kitchen gardens, behavioural economics and frugal innovation, they´re all important elements in a complex strategy to improve heart health and reduce the obesity epidemic. (From a public forum at the St Vincent´s Institute in Melbourne.) Download Mp3 St Vincent´s Institute Forum 2010: Prevention or cure? Questions from the audience. [26min, 12MB] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-06-06 Soft power shifts From Hollywood to Harvard, rock´n´roll to rap, American soft power is well understood. But what about Confucianism, or the Peking Opera, Bhangra music and Bollywood? They are part of the soft power emanating from the East, from the emerging superpowers, China and India. Reporter, Philip Dodd of the BBC. (Image of Xi'an treasures at the China Pavillion, Shanghai Expo) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-30 Timber politics Bunnings, Greenpeace, Ikea and the US Congress are part of an unlikely coalition pushing for a ban on illegally logged timber. An Australian DNA test may solve the problem of enforcement but the Rudd government is yet to impose a ban it promised three years ago. Reporter, Stephen Crittenden. Documents PDF document: Letter to Prime Minister Rudd from six members of the US Congress. PDF document: Letter to Prime Minister Rudd from US Senators. PDF document: Joint letter to Minister Burke o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-23 Bitter harvest The National Farmers Federation says another 20,000 pickers are needed to harvest Australia´s crops. Growers complain of fruit rotting on the ground. Backpackers and others are heading to farms on the promise of abundant work, only to find the promises are often empty and it costs them more in rent than they can earn. Reporter, Brendan King. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-16 The privacy paradox Generational change and the power of social media has dramatically altered notions of privacy and as personal data files expand, our lives are going public by default. Will our data footprints strip us bare, or set us free? Reporter, Ian Townsend Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-09 Dust to daylight From the rural backblocks of northern Tasmania, the story of a deadly asbestos legacy, a company promising to open the books on the past, and an ambitious proposal to rid the island of a killer product. Reporter, Di Martin Photo: Rebekah, the asbestos penguin Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-05-02 Whitlam as internationalist Former High Court justice Michael Kirby talks about former prime minister Gough Whitlam´s foreign policy initiatives. The greatest legacy, Kirby says, has been the impact of Whitlam's emphasis on international law. Photograph by Sally Tsoutas, University of Western Sydney Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-25 What is football for? UK soccer fans are angry because the game is now a toy for sugar daddies, oligarchs, oil sheiks and media magnates or treated as just a business. Is the game a public good or a commodity? There´s rebellion in the air that mirrors tensions in society. Reporter, Chris Bullock. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-18 Food fears There´s a public inquiry into food labelling, and it opens a Pandora´s box of very complex issues. Prawns from China can be labelled 'Made in Australia'! Consumers want more and better labelling, but the food industry wants even fewer rules. And global free trade laws mean truth in content could get worse. Reporter Stephen Crittenden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-11 The great native pet debate Marsupial-loving reporter Ian Walker grew up wanting a pet like Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Could encouraging more native mammals as pets be a canny new 'anti-extinction strategy'...or a future disaster to be cleaned up by the RSPCA? What happens when we apply market forces to the concept of extinction? The results may surprise you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-04-04 Space rules the world Transport, banking, food production, social networking, global supply chains, the world economy - would all grind to a halt if the satellite system failed. It´s a fragile system, but also the best place from which to see how fragile the earth is. Australia lags behind. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Europa Launch, Woomera 1966On 24 May 1966 the Europa rocket was launched as part of the ELDO project based in Woomera. Here is the original footage of the lift-off. [Dur: 3'42" 23.5MB] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-03-28 Emergency mental health A clinical psychiatry professor in San Francisco General Hospital discusses the dangers, ethics, frailties and very difficult, sensitive decisions a psychiatrist working on the front line of mental health must deal with. The speaker is Professor Paul R Linde, MD. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-03-21 Maybe Obama can't Perhaps it´s all too hard: Guantanamo, Republican hatred, Afghanistan, the global financial crisis and unemployment. The health bill may just pass and, if so, would make history. Barack Obama is working in a house of cards, many stacked against him. But he can hold it together, says Professor Mark Danner at the Sydney Ideas Forum. Photo by Dominique Nabakov. You can watch this talk on Big Ideas on ABC 1 at 11am on 30 March 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-03-14 Babies at risk? Figures show that the number of babies taken from mothers at birth is rising dramatically, particularly in NSW. Judgements must err on the side of child safety, but there´s concerns some babies are taken needlessly. One couple is suing for $18 million. Reporter Hagar Cohen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-28 Problem pirates of Somalia Many wonder why they are not just shot out of the water on sight, but in fact the merchant cargo ships, the insurers, and the many State navies are also caught in a mesh of overlapping laws of the sea. And countries like Denmark, the EU and the US are at loggerheads about how to handle it all. Reporter, Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-21 Dengue epidemic Mozzies are waiting as each day travellers arrive carrying the dengue virus. They want a sip of blood, and will spread it all about within days. Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, has also arrived, and it bites so viciously, it's called 'the barbecue stopper'. Our changed garden culture suits them perfectly. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-14 The Matilda myth Background Briefing and Hindsight join to explore the historical arguments about the deal of the real swagman, and the dozens of kooky versions, from Harry Belafonte (pretending to be ocker!) to an Indonesian gamelan band. There is a also an interactive website, where you will be able to write your own comments and versions of the story. Reporter Ian Walker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-02-07 The last 10 years The decade since the millenium year has seen fast changes, terrible suffering and a communication revolution. China emerges as a superpower, Iraq and Afghanistan are open sores, Google pushes information frontiers and global warming bedevils political leaders. Reporter, from the BBC, Edward Stourton. (pictured) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-31 On road cycling With a dramatic increase in cycling, comes a plethora of new safety issues on the roads. Doctors, politicians, planners and cyclists agree it will mean changing the way we design, govern and use our roads. Reporter Diane Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-24 Australian Muslim youth Searching for their own identity in a changing world, young Muslims in Australia face a plethora of backyard imams and internet sheikhs. 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 2010-01-17 Assisted death The law in Australia may not have caught up with modern medicine, and doctors and the authorities are caught between a rock and a hard place. So argues Dr Rodney Syme, who refers to himself as a Christian Humanist. He says the current situation for people who are terminally ill and in great pain is a scandal. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-01-10 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 2010-01-03 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 2009-12-27 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 2009-12-20 What made the Romans laugh The oldest collection of jokes in the world, Philogelos: The Laughter Lover, is examined for the light it throws on humour today. Professor in classics at Cambridge University, Mary Beard tells a lot of the jokes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-12-13 Gillard's university reforms Behind closed doors all the vice-chancellors are arguing about which bits of the Bradley Report they like and will agree to take on. Can we fit in 30% more students, with many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds? What will be the mix of regulation and deregulation of universities? Reporter Stephen Crittenden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-12-06 On road cycling With a dramatic increase in cycling, comes a plethora of new safety issues on the roads. Doctors, politicians, planners and cyclists agree it will mean changing the way we design, govern and use our roads. Reporter Diane Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-11-29 Puppy farming Hundreds of thousands of puppies are born every year, and many eventually end up in pounds, where most have to be put down. The vicious cycle involves unregulated breeders, pet stores, dog rescuers -- and the buyers who take in a puppy without thinking it through, then dump it. Reporter: Hagar Cohen. Kelly Kesper Kennels, January 2009This video was filmed at the Kelly Kesper Kennels in Victoria in January 2009 by Animal Liberation Victoria. [Duration: 3'44" 23.3MB] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 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 2009-11-01 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 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 2009-09-06 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 2009-03-08 The other climate debate Wall to wall coverage of carbon trading has eclipsed another scheme aimed at overhauling Australia´s dirty power industry. How to find tens of billions of dollars to get renewable energy to take over from coal power. Is Australia locked into a second best scheme, and why aren´t we following the lead of world leaders in Europe? Reporter Di Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-08 Assisted death The law in Australia may not have caught up with modern medicine, and doctors and the authorities are caught between a rock and a hard place. So argues Dr Rodney Syme, who refers to himself as a Christian Humanist. He says the current situation for people who are terminally ill and in great pain is a scandal. 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 2009-07-19 Who stopped the music? The parlous state of music in public schools means not only are our children missing an important dimension in life, but they miss out on something that promotes brain function and social skills. China and Venezuela understand the value of music very well, and so do Australian parents, but our politicians are tone deaf. Reporter: Stephen Crittenden If you're a member of Facebook and would like to make a comment about this program you can click here. Or you can send your comments to the Bac ... 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 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 2009-06-28 Australia's ocean territory Our ocean territory is greater than our landmass, and one of the biggest in the world. Yet our capacity to explore the deep ocean is smaller than landlocked Bolivia; at a time when the oceans hold the key to climate change. Reporter, Di Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-06-21 Synthetic life and gene mining Not only can we create new life forms, but our own genes are starting to show us all the diseases we're likely to get during our lives. Do we want to know and what are the costs? Reporter: Ian Townsend Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-06-14 The great disruption Paul Gilding has been an activist for sustainability for 35 years, working for NGOs, business and government. He explains why physics and biology have determined that our current model for economic growth is finished, and how the human race will face its biggest challenge ever. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-06-07 Lord Patten of Barnes The Chancellor of Oxford, Lord Patten of Barnes, draws on his experience as a public official – including his time as the last governor of Hong Kong – to talk about politics, public health and the importance of pubs. Recorded at Oxford University. Photograph by Rob Judges. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Landmark Education Landmark Education is a global, for-profit personal training and development company with thousands of supporters. But it has its critics as well. Reporter Hagar Cohen The audio and transcript of this program are now available to download for Australian audiences only. Click on the story page to access the audio. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The enemy in the net We know there are criminals using the net, and also that hackers can infiltrate anyone's computer. At the government level it's not only a murky worry, but has become a battle for who will monitor it all and how we will fight cyberwars. And not everything you hear is true. Reporter Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inventing the third sector There is a charity for every 437 people in Australia, all under the umbrella of the 700,000 not-for-profit organisations. The whole sector, which includes churches, is again debating its future. Reporter, Stephen Crittenden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Remote boom and gloom Many country towns are dying, but mining districts can still have a GDP that makes them the richest place on earth. One town has smoked hams that haven't sold in 40 years, in others the rents are $1000 a week. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-19 What made the Romans laugh The oldest collection of jokes in the world, Philogelos: The Laughter Lover, is examined for the light it throws on humour today. Professor in classics at Cambridge University, Mary Beard tells a lot of the jokes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-12 Zombie banks They look like banks, they walk like banks and they quack like banks, but they´re really the undead. Shells filled with toxic assets. Killing these living dead is probably political suicide because of the collateral damage, but it´s the way to go say leading economists. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-05 The new politics In the UK, conservative policies are like the nanny manifesto, in the USA Obama sounds like a modern Roosevelt. Here, Kevin Rudd is pragmatic and super cautious, and Abbott says the Liberals shouldn´t have relied so much on magic pudding economics. Whither politics? Reporter Andrew West. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-29 MBA: Mostly bloody awful Something happened to management culture decades ago and now being a Master of Business Administration, especially from Harvard, is rather on the nose. MBA, it's being said, can also stand for 'Mediocre but Arrogant', or 'Management by Accident'. Reporter, Stephen Crittenden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-22 Graffiti, art and fear As old as mankind, graffiti can be seen as a cultural expression and a tourist attraction, or as vandalism inducing fear. It can morph into high art, political comment, or territorial border security. Reporter Brendan Trembath. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-15 Conroy's clean feed In the name of protecting children, the government will decree we'll be forbidden to see 'unwanted' and 'inappropriate' things on the web. But exactly what that means is a secret, and the thin end of the censorship wedge. Reporter, Wendy Carlisle. Download Documents Pornography and Teenagers: The Importance of Individual Differences published in Adolescent Medicine, authors Neil Malamuth & Mark Huppin Perceived Effects of Pornography Consumption published in Archives of Sexual Behaviour, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-03-01 Robotic surgery Robotic technology is forging ahead, and there are benefits. But the costs are huge, and there´s not yet evidence that (in prostate cancer surgery for instance) the eventual outcome is much better than before. On the frontier of modern surgery, reporter, Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-22 The media in boom and doom Are business media watchdogs acting in the public interest, or are they merely messengers? To whom does the media owe allegiance when global economic meltdown looms. Reporter, Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-15 Food for the future Free trade and globalisation have changed the sources of food. Regulations are being weakened or disregarded in the pursuit of low prices and more choice. Poor quality kills, and Japan imports 60 per cent of what it needs. Reporter, Bronwyn Herbert. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-02-01 Cairo, a divided city $(document).ready(function(){$("a#videoContainer").click(function(){$.floatbox({fade:true,content:'',before:"Loading content "});flowplayer("bb_video","/rn/scripts/flowplayer/flowplayer-3.0.3.swf",{clip:{url:'http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/backgroundbriefing/cairo.flv',scaling:'fit'},controls:{autoHide:"always"},plugins:{influxis:{url:'/rn/scripts/flowplayer/flowplayer.rtmp-3.0.2.swf',netConnectionUrl:'rtmp://cp44823.edgefcs.net/ondemand/flash/triplej/streams/tv'}}});return ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-01-25 Hendra and the bats Bats carry many of the nasty viruses, even SARS, Ebola, Nipah and Hendra. Scientists think bats may be using these deadly viruses in a war with other species, including horses and man. (This program was originally broadcast on 31st August 2008.) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-01-11 The climate engineers For years it's been one of the science community's great taboos but the idea of global climate control is starting to be openly discussed. Ideas like placing giant mirrors in space or firing sulphur particles into the stratosphere to cool the planet are no longer just in the domain of science fiction. Many scientists now believe the time for these ideas will come. Reporter, Wendy Carlisle (This program was originally broadcast on 6th April 2008.) Read the following articles: Albedo Enh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-01-04 Future of noise Most people rate noise as a bigger problem than rats, drugs, or dog poo. It's highest on the list of citizen complaints, but it's listed low by councils and politicians. But noise can have cultural value too. (This program was originally broadcast on 28th September 2008) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2008-12-28 Bury, burn or compost? There's a boom in funerals around the corner as the Boomers face mortality, but neither cemeteries nor crematoria are eco-friendly. The business of burials is beginning to adapt, and so are their future customers. (This program was originally broadcast on 20th July 2008.) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2008-12-21 Nature's numbers Our economy may fall over, but it's not just about the financial meltdown. Nature is seizing up, and it's costing big bucks. Putting a dollar value on nature might help, but how much is a bacterium in a lake really worth? (This program was originally broadcast on 19th October 2008.) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NSW off the rails Western Sydney is set to have two more cities and, yet again, the state has canned its railway projects. Why will Canberra bail them out? Reporter Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Generation Y and the financial crisis As the financial downturn unfolds, is Generation Y ready? Raised on optimism and generous lines of credit, they're economically exposed in terms of assets and debt. Reporter: Madeleine Genner Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Italian job We get the inside story of how the Italian diaspora was harvested for political votes, and how the little Italies found a way to make - and break - governments in Rome. Reporter: James Panichi Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Intervention: unintended consequences While remote Aboriginal communities are safer, everyday living is more complicated. There's a 600 dollar cab fare to town, and then Centrelink has to approve toys for your kids. Lorena Allam reports from Katherine in the Northern Territory. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crisis for children There's an epidemic of child abuse and it's worst in Queensland. Poverty's fuelling it, but it's sparked by something deeper. To stop it, we need to turn our social policies upside down. Reporter Ian Townsend Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Metals, money and madness The global economic collapse is now seen to be caused by greed and theft. There's a parallel in the looting of metals, especially copper, around the world. Reporter, Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nature's numbers Our economy may fall over, but it's not just about the financial meltdown. Nature is seizing up, and it's costing big bucks. Putting a dollar value on nature might help, but how much is a bacterium in a lake really worth? Reporter: Di Martin Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Politics of water - Maude Barlow Maude Barlow is a water activist from Canada. In a recent talk at Sydney University she explains the virtual water trade and the critical state of water in the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Remittances - flying money About $500 billion flows around the world as migrant workers send money home. It's largely by-passing banks and corporations, even governments, but they all want a slice of the action. Reporter Lorena Allam. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Future of noise Most people rate noise as a bigger problem than rats, drugs, or dog poo. It's highest on the list of citizen complaints, but it's listed low by councils and politicians. But noise can have cultural value too. Hagar Cohen reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Population control Are you worried about the future of the environment, or war, or hordes of refugees? The solution is not to manipulate population growth. Past results have been tragic, and ineffectual. Historian Professor Matthew Connelly of Columbia University proposes some alternatives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cloud computing Google's Chrome, and others, offer easier, smoother, faster servers into their gated internet gardens, where all things are known. It's the Petabyte Age, and there be beasties. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hoons and young troublemakers NSW is creating more space in jails for a growing number of young people. But many of them are only there waiting to go to trial. They may be there for something minor, or may even be innocent. Reporter, Erica Vowles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hendra and the bats Bats carry many of the nasty viruses, even SARS, Ebola, Nipah and Hendra. Scientists think bats may be using these deadly viruses in a war with other species, including horses and man. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Defence and discrimination American security laws based on where a person was born mean some Australians can't work in defence industries in Australia. It's against our laws - but it's like it or lump it. Reporter Lorena Allam. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paying to be permanent A high number of people who get Australian permanent resident visas don't get the skilled jobs they are trained for. And there are scams aplenty in the world of international students looking for any way to stay here. Reporter, Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food futures Prices at the shops may be rising because billions of Indians and Chinese are eating more, and using cars - and it could be that some well funded gamers are playing the commodities market like a casino in cyberspace. Take our quiz. Reporter Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Privatising nature An astonishing six million hectares of Australia—something like the size of Tasmania—is now being privately protected for plants and animals. Hundreds of millions of dollars are involved as schemes spring up around the country. But private conservation faces big challenges. Reporter: Di Martin Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bury, burn or compost? There's a boom in funerals around the corner as the Boomers face mortality, but neither cemeteries nor crematoria are eco-friendly. The business of burials is beginning to adapt, and so are their future customers. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Free trade vs fair trade It's an ideological battle between those who want a fairer, better deal for the poor farmers in the developing world - and those who say the best way to get that is having a world wide free market. There are fault lines in both arguments. Reporter Jane Shields. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The climate engineers For years it's been one of the science community's great taboos but the idea of global climate control is starting to be openly discussed. Ideas like placing giant mirrors in space or firing sulphur particles into the stratosphere to cool the planet are no longer just in the domain of science fiction. Many scientists now believe the time for these ideas will come. Reporter, Wendy Carlisle (This program was originally broadcast on 6th April 2008.) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shareholder activism As corporations collapse while executives are paid huge salary packages, shareholders are taking a greater interest in just how companies are run. But they face a wall of complexity, and legalistic and business jargon which is almost impenetrable. Reporter: Erica Vowles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Slavery in Australia Is it slavery to keep someone working for nothing till they pay off their debt? There are women here kept in sex slavery, and there are also domestic servants, back room workers, and illegals forced into underground labour. The High Court will soon bring down a clarification about what the word "slavery" means, and that will help prosecutions in Australian law. Reporter Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Banking on gas Australia's sitting on some of the biggest natural gas fields in the world - and other energy-starved, ravenous nations are starting to bid for it. Australia will have to do some soul searching about how much we keep for ourselves and who to sell it to. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Private spooks The use of private military companies is now widespread, but now there are also private intelligence organisations working closely with government. Business is booming and the worlds biggest private equity company, Carlyle, has just bought part of the big intelligence company, Booz Allen Hamilton. They're active in Australia, too. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peddling influence and money A new register of some of the biggest "third party" lobbyists and their clients will go some way to making public who has access to government in Canberra. But most lobbying and schmoozing will continue unchecked through old networks, secret meetings, and confidential discussions. Reporter, Erica Vowles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website One family farm Today's generation of farmers is experiencing unrelenting change - climate change, drought, globalisation and plummeting incomes. Many families are finding the pressures too much to bear. Reporter Di Martin grew up in sheep and wheat country, and tells the story of one of her cousins, as he puts his property on the market. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The allergy generation and the EpiPen epidemic Allergies to everything from dust, to cats, to peanuts are hitting young children hard, and doctors don't really understand why or what to do. Long held theories are changing, and there's great confusion. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rugby League: More than just a game One hundred years ago this month, there was social ferment in Australia. Industrial unrest, crime and political changes were widespread giving the working class a new confidence. And in an astonishing series of events and people, football was changing forever. Rugby League was born. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Israel: selling out secularism? The Olmert government is dependent on the support of the extremist, ultra orthodox religious movement in Israel. They now make up 10 per cent of the population, and make no secret of their desire for Israel to become a religiously based state. Reporter Hagar Cohen Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The climate engineers For years it's been one of the science community's great taboos but the idea of global climate control is starting to be openly discussed. Ideas like placing giant mirrors in space or firing sulphur particles into the stratosphere to cool the planet are no longer just in the domain of science fiction. Many scientists now believe the time for these ideas will come. Reporter, Wendy Carlisle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The three trillion dollar war Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, and co-author Linda Bilmes, argue the Iraq war has led directly to America's current economic crisis. The price of a barrel of oil has quadrupled since the war began and the total cost of the invasion is staggering. Stiglitz and Bilmes describe how they came to the figure of three trillion dollars, and how difficult such an estimate is to achieve in the face of the Pentagon's accounting procedures. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Australia's new baby boom An extra 30,000 births a year has caught government by surprise, with immediate and long term consequences. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sports wars While the success of the 27-year-old Australian Institute of Sport has been the envy of other nations, the expertise it has bred is being used against us, and Australia risks falling behind in the sports science arms race. Reporter Ian Townsend Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website After the KGB As the former KGB man Vladimir Putin passes the presidential baton to his nominated successor, the BBC's Martin Sixsmith looks at the remarkable resurgence of the Russian secret service. How did the 'new KGB', the FSB, manage to become so strong, so rich and so deeply entrenched in running the country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sovereign wealth funds As the effects of the subprime credit crunch continue to be felt around the world, the new global investors bailing out Wall Street banks are the sovereign wealth funds. These are the investment vehicles of cashed up Arab and Asian governments which are also buying into the mining boom in Australia. While their money is welcomed, are there political motivations behind the investments? Reporter: Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paying the medical piper Many GPs get regular education over the year, for up to date information on modern medical and prescribing practices. We examine aspects of this education of GPs and how they may be influenced by drug company sponsors. Reporter, Ray Moynihan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Where is the Middle Class? Princeton Professor of Economics Paul Krugman talks about how the New Deal society has been dismantled in America, and the reasons for it. He brings it back to a revival of Southern issues about race being used by the 'Movement Conservatives' to undo various social policies during the present administration. Paul Krugman is also a writer and columnist for the New York Times. (Originally broadcast on 25 November 2007.) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Greenwashing It's not easy being green; Kermit's lament haunts us as we are bombarded with advertising, labels and marketing promising consumers a positive outcome for the environment. How much of it is deceptive and misleading? Reporter Rachel Carbonell. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lost planes, lost men Hundreds of Australian war planes crashed in Queensland, PNG, and the Pacific during WW2. Many haven't been found, and the remains of their crew still lie where they crashed. There's a global trade in souveniring these wrecks, and surprising things are found in the jungles, the mountains and the seas. Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fur families KPMG analyst Bernard Salt says that within a few years 30 percent of people will live alone. The accompanying boom in pets is a looming political reality, and may even become an IR issue. It's good news for the pet food business. Already households spend more on pets than on childcare. Reporter, Wendy Carlisle. (Originally broadcast 28th October 2007) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Your money dot con No one's telling how much of our money is being stolen through the Internet because no one wants us to lose confidence in the system. The banks are making so much money out of it, they prefer to wear the costs or push them down to the customer. In the meantime, everyone has a story and global criminals are stalking our accounts, our phones and our PCs. Reporter: Ian Townsend. (Originally broadcast on 24th June 2007) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Atul Gawande He is a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and has several other prestigious roles in the US health policy and public health system. As well, he's a practising doctor and surgeon, editor, author, and New York Magazine writer. Atul Gawande discusses what makes a good doctor, how hospitals can be improved, and what he has learnt about the imperfect science of medicine. (Originally broadcast 3rd June 2007) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stronger, smarter, nicer humans Professor Julian Savulescu is an eminent ethicist from Oxford University. He believes we should proceed with research into enhancing not only the genetics of fighting disease, but the genetics and pharmacology of improving IQ, behaviour, mood, character and morality. He argues there are immense benefits, not only for individuals, but for society as a whole. Only by knowing, can we prevent the abuses of knowledge. A lecture from the Sydney Ideas series at the University of Sydney. (Originall ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beautiful science Pulitzer prize winning science writer Natalie Angier talks in an inspiring and entertaining way about the basics of science: from the wonders of the cell and bacteria to the mysteries of the night sky and the cultures of chimpanzees, to name a few. Science is in flux as it faces pressures from both faith-based politics in the US, and the push towards privatisation of scientific knowledge through patenting. (Originally broadcast 15th July 2007) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tackling Indonesian terror In a first for the international media, Bali bomber Ali Imron is let out of prison to explain why he's now working to stop terrorism. In this exclusive interview, Ali Imron tells of how he's battling with his radical brothers to prevent further violence. It's just one part of Indonesia's ground breaking and controversial counter terrorism strategy. Reporter: Di Martin. (Originally broadcast 23rd September 2007) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Climate and councils The end of soaring waterfront properties is in sight. Insurers have begun investigating policies to cover plummeting land values as climate change predictions worsen. Inundation is the big worry for coastal councils. It's buyer beware in this legal grey area. Reporter Di Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The marketing of Putin He's manufactured the image, set up the totalitarian theatrics, and stabilised Russia. Now the world will see what Vladimir Putin is really like. Russians who live in Australia like him, write music for him and make special medals. Many have bitter memories of earlier times. Reporter, Wendy Carlisle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trouble with bees Australian bees are doing very nicely. But unless we're careful problems plaguing American hives could turn up here. There are several theories on why colonies are collapsing in the US. Is it because the bees are overworked and poorly managed - or is the bug called varroa destructor the cause of the problems. Quarantine is tight to make sure it doesn't enter Australia as a stowaway. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Where is the Middle Class? Princeton Professor of Economics Paul Krugman talks about how the New Deal society has been dismantled in America, and the reasons for it. He brings it back to a revival of Southern issues about race being used by the 'Movement Conservatives' to undo various social policies during the present adminstration. Paul Krugman is also a writer and columnist for the New York Times. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Testing times for schools There's a new kind of primary school coming -- ready or not. Bigger schools, different ways of learning, more special interest groups in class. Not just the three Rs and computers, but character and your place in society taught in all schools across the country, and a chaplain to help with behaviour and mental health. Reporter: Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Glam reaper It's 20 years since the Grim Reaper campaign, when a hooded, decomposing creature with a scythe bowled down men women and children with Aids. Cases of HIV are rising again, across Australia, and there's about to be a new campaign - The Glam Reaper. Social norms have changed, and the world is more complex. Reporter Jane Shields. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Timor's unpredictable rebel Rebel soldier Alfredo Reinado is young, Australian trained, armed and ready for a fight. From a mountain hideout (where he says he can order pizza and cappuccino) he challenges and mocks East Timorese President Ramos Horta and the government, saying he will die rather than submit himself to the current Timorese justice system. Reporter Chris Bullock met and interviewed Alfredo Reinado in October. Now there is mounting pressure on Alfredo to surrender, and on the government to bring him in, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fur families KPMG analyst Bernard Salt says that within a few years 30 percent of people will live alone. The accompanying boom in pets is a looming political reality, and may even become an IR issue. It's good news for the pet food business. Already households spend more on pets than on childcare. Reporter Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The radioactive rebellion Niger has lots of uranium, and the world wants it. Australian companies are there, pegging out their stakes. There's murder, kidnapping, hijacking and rebellion in a volatile mix of Tuareg tribesmen (and musicians) at war with other ethnic groups and the government of Niger. The government is playing China and America off against each other and there are whispers that al-Qaeda is in there, too. Reporter: Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Exporting Livestock Conditions have improved for the cattle, sheep, and goats Australia sends overseas for slaughter in other countries, but animal welfare groups have continued to keep a close eye on shipments. Recent FOI documents reveal more disturbing facts about the deaths and distress of animals on long journeys. Meanwhile halal abattoirs in Australia are booming, and can't fulfil the demand from Islamic countries for processed halal meat. Reporter: Erica Vowles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mexico: Magnates, monopolies and masses The world's richest man is Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim, and Mexico City has the population of Australia. Mexico is one of the worst countries in the world for wealth disparity. The cultural adjustments for Australians living there can be shocking, delightful, exciting and disturbing and fascinating all at once. Reporter, Michelle Crowther. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bushfire season Across Australia 220,000 volunteer firefighters are ready to protect our lives and property. If we had to pay them for their time, it would cost us something like $2 billion a year, but it's getting harder to attract them, and harder to keep them. Debates rage about hazard reduction burns, about whether people should stay in their houses or just get out, and about insurance levy issues. Reporter Jane Shields. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tackling Indonesian terror In a first for the international media, Bali bomber Ali Imron is let out of prison to explain why he's now working to stop terrorism. In this exclusive interview, Ali Imron tells of how he's battling with his radical brothers to prevent further violence. It's just one part of Indonesia's ground breaking and controversial counter terrorism strategy. Reporter: Di Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Timber, tax and the Tiwis Australia has promised $200 million to Southeast Asia to stop deforestation, but on the rich Tiwi Islands priceless and irreplaceable native forests are cut down and burnt to grow plantation timber for wood chips for Japan. It's really a tax minimisation scheme and Tiwi forests could be worth more to the locals in carbon trading. Reporter: Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website AAA ratings on rates Across Australia, many local councils have invested their money in high yield, but risky investment schemes. Now, with the whole low-doc, subprime world so shaky, they're losing money. Ratepayers want answers, and some councillors who didn't see the writing on the wall are having to explain. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website History of Israel How Israel handles itself in the Middle East is a challenge to Jewish morality, says renowned historian Professor Michael B Oren. Now with the Shalem Centre in Jerusalem, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard and Yale, author of two New York Times best sellers, and a frontline soldier. He presented the Richard Pratt Oration of 2007 on the history of Israel and its moral dilemmas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mentally ill children Can a two year old - or a foetus - show symptoms of bi-polar disorder? In America, they think so, and, of course, there are medications for it. There is no doubt some children develop serious mental illness and need help, but it may be going too far. There is a wide range of normal human temperament, and behaviour. Society tolerates few eccentricities. Reporter Jane Shields. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stronger, smarter, nicer humans Professor Julian Savulescu is an eminent ethicist from Oxford University. He believes we should proceed with research into enhancing not only the genetics of fighting disease, but the genetics and pharmacology of improving IQ, behaviour, mood, character and morality. He argues there are immense benefits, not only for individuals, but for society as a whole. Only by knowing, can we prevent the abuses of knowledge. A lecture from the Sydney Ideas series at the University of Sydney. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Murder most Territorean The Northern Territory murder rate is the highest in Australia - and killings there have particular characteristics. Aboriginal murders are usually straight-forward domestic violence and drunkeness, but many white or Asian murders are particularly macabre and disturbing, leading to speculations that the NT, with its remote places, its oppressive weather, and its frontier mystique attracts more than its share of men who are disturbed, dangerous, and blood curdlingly callow. Reporter Heather ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The rise of VSU From the l920s, it was compulsory for most university students to join the student union. Now it's voluntary, and there's a distinct change in the campus culture and student lifestyle at most universities. The bigger, richer universities are faring best, but the smaller ones are losing their clubs, amenities and services. Reporter: Hagar Cohen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trouble with bees Australian bees are doing very nicely. They are in huge demand here for pollinating local almond orchards and in huge demand overseas because they are disease free. But unless we're careful problems plaguing American hives could turn up here. Colonies are collapsing in the US because the bees are overworked, poorly managed, and have a bug called varroa destructor, which is said to look like a baked bean with fangs. Quarantine is tight to make sure it doesn't enter Australia as a stowaway. R ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sex on the Net Whether adults like it or not, the Internet is where life's at for young people now - friendships, games, school stuff, comedy, adventure and sex. Teenagers are getting used to coming across pornography, and dirty old men. Sometimes they even turn the tables, and play indiscreet games. We don't know enough about the Internet generation - and government filters won't work on the new 3G phones. Reporter: Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beautiful science Pulitzer prize winning science writer Natalie Angier talks in an inspiring and entertaining way about the basics of science: from the wonders of the cell and bacteria to the mysteries of the night sky and the cultures of chimpanzees, to name a few. Science is in flux as it faces pressures from both faith-based politics in the US, and the push towards privatisation of scientific knowledge through patenting. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Animal rights Should animals have rights? Under the law animals are treated as things just as human slaves were treated as things. Is there an argument that the intelligence of some animals means that they deserve more rights than others? Professor Steven Wise teaches animal rights law at Harvard and is speaking here at a conference hosted in May by the University of NSW and Voiceless. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Weeds: Enemy or ally There's an invasion of noxious weeds on the way as the planet heats up and dries out. Invasive plants could flatten Australia's native vegetation, blowing out current costs of about $8 billion a year. Warnings abound that we don't understand these plants - including from people who say that some weeds can do a good job. Reporter Diane Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Your money dot con No one's telling how much of our money is being stolen through the Internet because no one wants us to lose confidence in the system. The banks are making so much money out of it, they prefer to wear the costs or push them down to the customer. In the meantime, everyone has a story and global criminals are stalking our accounts, our phones and our PCs. Reporter: Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Guns and the military For decades questions have been asked about how Defence keeps track of its guns, bullets and rocket launchers. In coming weeks there will be two cases before the courts dealing with allegations of weapons being stolen from the military. The Defence Department is impenetrable on these issues, believing that any public information will be a security risk. Reporter Stan Correy Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Atul Gawande He is a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and has several other prestigious roles in the US health policy and public health system. As well, he's a practising doctor and surgeon, editor, author, and New York Magazine writer. Atul Gawande discusses what makes a good doctor, how hospitals can be improved, and what he has learnt about the imperfect science of medicine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Children of Zimbabwe One third of the entire population of Zimbabwe has fled the violence and terror. The governing elite can send their children overseas to study. Many are in Australia. Even here, some Zimbabweans are afraid, and the global web is running hot with propaganda, fear campaigns, tall tales and true. Reporter Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Politics and the Internet No one really knows if the Internet will be a force for a new kind of democracy, or just another (albeit miraculous) technology. Shifting sands in demography, voter behaviour, and the world wide web, are all challenges for political campaigners. Pitfalls and successes abound. Reporter Sharona Coutts. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dry rivers, high hopes Millions of dollars have been spent on building an enormous irrigation infrastructure on the Murray Darling system. The rivers are dry, and the pumps stand idle, with even the interest on the loans not paid. How did it come to this: greed for water, bad farming, or the drought? Will God answer John Howard's prayers? Reporter Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The law and gambling Who's to blame when gamblers go berserk? Wealthy high roller Harry Kavakas is suing Crown Casino to get back $30 million he says they illegally encouraged him to gamble away. Several more vulnerable gamblers have stolen the millions they eventually lost. How does it get this far, who's responsible, and where does the gambling buck stop? Reporter Damien Carrick. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bad teeth, bad economics About 30,000 hospital admissions every year are for dental problems. The main reason children under five get admitted to hospital is teeth troubles. And now science indicates that bad teeth and gums affects the whole body, and can lead to heart disease. The state of dentistry is costing us plenty. Reporter, Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Iraq: new team, new strategy, new tensions America has a new policy for Iraq: soft power. It's cultural counterinsurgency. Possibly too little too late, it may even be impossible. Americans don't speak the language, and don't understand the many cultures. Reporter: Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Australia's Pacific paradox Canberra's low key intervention in Bougainville has helped shape a peace agreement now used as a model in many parts of the world. Yet its billion dollar state building experiment in the Solomon Islands is running into serious problems. This tale of two Pacific policies investigates Australia's often fraught relations with its nearest neighbours. Reporter, Diane Martin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Privatising Palm Island It's a tropical paradise worth many millions on the open market. The debate is intense about how the indigenous people will fare when new laws allowing privatisation of land open up a different world. Reporter, Ian Townsend. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mentally ill in Queensland Psychiatric consultants in Queensland speak out about gross inadequacies in the mental health system in that State, placing lives at risk. Documents show there have been problems in some regions for decades. Reporter: Heather Stewart. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patient responsibility and self care In the health industry and government circles patient responsibility and self care are the new buzzwords. It's all about getting people out of the expensive end of medical care, and into self care groups much earlier. It may come to mean if you're a smoker, you won't get surgery. Reporter Sharona Coutts. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chesting up for the climate One was a campaigning greenie rock star, the other a silvertailed barrister, businessman, and republican. Now both Peter Garrett and Malcolm Turnbull are in the bear pit of politics, where glamour takes you only so far, and old ways have to be put aside in the contest for power. Reporter: Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Testing the teachers It's a whiteboard jungle out there as educationalists and economists haggle over the surest way to get the best out of our kids. One proposal being considered is more money for teachers whose students get the best test results. The status quo is not an option, and teachers unions are in a difficult position. Reporter: Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Parental alienation The anger and hurt of divorcing parents often spills over into custody and access to children. Accusations of child abuse are defended with claims of lies and alienation using Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) resulting in the accusing parent losing custody. PAS has been discredited in America but there's concern that it's still being used in the Family Courts of Australia. Reporter: Jane Shields Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Freight about to crash As consumers demand more and more 'stuff' the impact on the freight industry will be enormous. The number of trucks on the roads will double in two decades. This will have important implications for traffic, roads, pollution, and energy use. Steve Skinner reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Getting smart: the Access Card The government is bringing in a new national card, called the Access Card. Everyone who uses Medicare, Centrelink, or any government service, will have one. And they're not just normal cards. They have mini-computers inside them that can store data about your name, address and anything else. The government says they're like mp3 players, and big business loves them, but opponents say they're a new version of the Australia Card - an ID card in disguise. And they say that privacy is in peril. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bird flu: risks, laws and rights. Scientists, lawyers, politicians, security forces—everyone's walking a fine line with avian flu, between the rights of the individual and the rights of the wider public. When a pandemic happens each of us will be on our own, as the authorities look at the big picture. Reporter, Ian Townsend. (Originally broadcast 16 July 2006) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coping by cutting The incidence of self-harm is rising and there's a search for understanding and solutions. Princess Di admitted to it. As many as one in five young people are likely to deliberately hurt themselves to release internal tension and pressure. What is it, and how can parents handle it? Reporter, Jane Shields. (Originally broadcast 23 July 2006) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trading quarantine Whatever happened to quarantine? As an island nation, free from many of the pests and diseases that have devastated other parts of the world Australia has always imposed extraordinarily high standards of quarantine. Until now. What has changed at Australia's quarantine service and its policy adviser Biosecurity Australia? What will it do to our food and environment? And why has there been so little debate? (Originally broadcast 23 April 2006) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The greatest gift Donating your body, or the body of a child, to medical research is a great gift to mankind. Most of you can be recycled: your eyes, your skin, your bone or even a little piece of your heart. Now they want to grind your bones for surgical putty. Then, your dead bits will be helping a biotech company's bottomline too. Can altruism and commerce live side-by-side when it comes to giving "the greatest gift of all"? Reporter: Ian Walker. (Originally broadcast on 17th September 2006) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Suez Crisis 1956 Sir Robert Menzies was at the centre of the Suez crisis - one of the great failures of western political history. He was sent into negotiate with Nasser, but behind the scenes the UK, Israel, France and the USA all had other agendas. Were they treating Menzies as a mere tool in their wider game? Reporter Stan Correy. (Originally broadcast on 24th September 2006) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Renovating Muslim Australia It's been a tough year for Australian Muslims. The Hilali controversy has exposed deep divisions in the Sydney Muslim community - between different religious factions, generations and classes. But the younger generation of Muslim leaders is saying it's also a time to renovate - and lay some new foundations. They've asked us to come on-site and watch their backyard blitz, Aussie Muslim style. Reporter: Tom Morton Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Getting smart: the Access Card The government is bringing in a new national card, called the Access Card. Everyone who uses Medicare, Centrelink, or any government service, will have one. And they're not just normal cards. They have mini-computers inside them that can store data about your name, address and anything else. The government says they're like mp3 players, and big business loves them, but opponents say they're a new version of the Australia Card - an ID card in disguise. And they say that privacy is in peril. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Celebrities and Africa Madonna, Angelina and Brad, and countless other rich celebrities seem to be taking the missionary position with small countries such as Malawi. There are suffering children and desperate need all over the world. What is it with Africa? Iman says it's in our DNA and has Gwyneth Paltrow in tribal makeup. Reporter Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Richard Dawkins and God The eminent scientist Richard Dawkins puts forward, in a no holds barred manner, the arguments again religion - be it Muslim, Christian, Jewish or any of the other hundreds of gods across the world and across time. This talk was given in Philadelphia recently. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Private equity - the purest capitalism The business world is agog as the private equity consortiums storm the globe with their trillions, buying and selling and skimming fees. They've been called locusts, barbarians, and gluttons - but it's not illegal and the profits are huge. Reporter, Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Europe in the world Europe, as a union of nations, could emerge as an important force in world affairs. Chris Patten, now Lord Patten of Barnes, is one of the most influential men in Europe and the UK. A leading political analyst, he has 'maintained morality clarity in murky times'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Electric shocks The cost of electricity will soar in coming years - and the biggest culprit is the air conditioner. In South Australia, 90 percent of homes use them. At present, whether you have one or not, your electricity bill is higher because their cost is spread among all electricity users. Reporter: James Panichi. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Perils of peacekeeping It's well known that soldiers can be traumatized by war but peacekeeping can be just as stressful with its own horrors. Australian veterans of the peacekeeping operation in East Timor have taken their own lives, committed crimes, or are living with mental illness. Reporter, Tom Morton. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website America's image abroad America's image and support across the world is low, and it's a concern for big business and policy makers. A panel of young people discuss why this has happened, whether it's justified, and also whether it's important. And, if so, what can be done to fix it. A forum from the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Alternative money spinners They are called herbal medicines, or complementary, or alternative - but many of them are not useful and may be harmful. At the very least you are likely to be wasting money. There are legal ways in which open debate is discouraged. Reporter: Gordon Taylor Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Soul searching about welfare The churches and welfare agencies are finding it uncomfortable to dance to the government's tune. But they need the money. In the case of the Catholic Church, it's dependent on about $500 million it gets to administer government services. Other churches and agencies, too, may draw a line in the sand. Reporter Wendy Carlisle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Suez Crisis 1956 Sir Robert Menzies was at the centre of the Suez crisis - one of the great failures of western political history. He was sent into negotiate with Nasser, but behind the scenes the UK, Israel, France and the USA all had other agendas. Were they treating Menzies as a mere tool in their wider game? Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010-08-29 The flash crash A few months ago the US share market plunged l000 points in a few minutes, and trillions were traded both up and down. What caused it, and can it happen again. Tiny high frequency computer algorithms - or algos - roam the markets, buying and selling in a parallel universe more or less uncontrolled by anyone. Did they go feral, or was it the fat finger of a coked out trader? In September US regulators bring out their findings. Reporter Stan Correy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009-04-26 No podcast because of copyright restrictions Because of copyright restrictions this program is not available as podcast. 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 2009-11-08 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 2010-03-07 What is wrong with the Catholic Church? Not only in Australia, but around the world, the Catholic Church is rocked by news of sex abuse scandals. The vow of celibacy is often blamed, but it is more than that. The Church encourages a kind of adolescence in its priests, a co-dependency, and a terrible and immature loneliness. Reporter, Stephen Crittenden. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website