If You're Listening

Will anything stop Palantir?

Wed, 13 May 2026 15:00:00 -0000

The shadowy U.S. tech company Palantir has had a meteoric rise from complete obscurity to transforming the nature of surveillance forever. Pivotal to that rise is its unorthodox CEO, the philosophising tech-entrepreneur Alex Karp.

As Palantir integrates itself into systems in every facet of life, from Australian supermarkets to the controversial U.S. ICE raids, Alex Karp provides justifications and bold mission statements for his company, citing a laser-focus on maintaining U.S. hegemony across the world. In doing so, he believes Palantir prevents the rise of undemocratic, far-right movements. But is there any line that Palantir won’t cross to assert U.S. superiority? And could they be in danger of undermining the democracy they claim to defend?

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The FBI dug a tunnel under the Russian embassy

Mon, 11 May 2026 15:00:00 -0000

The CIA and the FBI famously weren't talking to each other in the lead-up to 9/11. This is the story of why.

Supervising producer Kara Jensen-McKenna tells Matt about a decades-long secret FBI operation underneath the streets of Washington which ended in one of the most extraordinary betrayals in American intelligence history.

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How did Palantir get so powerful?

Wed, 06 May 2026 15:00:00 -0000

In the aftermath of 9/11, the problem wasn't just intelligence failure; it was information stuck in silos. The FBI and CIA had pieces of the puzzle, but no shared picture. Enter Palantir: a company built on the premise that data, if stitched together properly, could surface threats before they metastasise.

Co-founded by Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, Palantir's early pitch was deceptively simple: give analysts the ability to see connections across messy datasets without compromising privacy.

The arrival of large language models has supercharged what Palantir was already doing: ingesting, structuring, and interrogating enormous amounts of information. The result is a shift from finding needles in haystacks to, arguably, predicting where the needles will land. It's powerful, unsettling, and very on-brand for a company named after an all-seeing stone from Lord of the Rings.

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Matt's producers present the weirdest tales from the basement

Mon, 04 May 2026 15:00:00 -0000

From engineers with god complexes to elite athletes prone to being struck by lightning, Matt’s producers Pat and Adair bring the strangest stories that haven’t made it into a story of If You’re Listening.

You can listen to Matt Bevan's episode of Conversations here

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The unexpected loser of the Iran war

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

For decades now, the tiny gas-rich nation of Qatar has been surviving off the back of its international diplomacy. But now old alliances are falling apart and diplomatic norms are being crushed - is the law of the jungle the only law left?

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How not to cover a radioactive incident

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

In 2003, fire trucks, ambulances and hazmat crews descend on Merewether High School in Newcastle after reports of a radioactive incident. No one is speaking to the media — except a 14-year-old student who’s just been given a mobile phone. Matt Bevan is live on the scene.

Recorded live at Newcastle Writers Festival, Matt revisits a mystery from his past: the bizarre series of events that led to his first ever live radio cross.

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Will the US and Iran make a deal (again)?

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

In the midst of bluffs, empty threats and broken promises, Trump has struggled to find any leverage over the Iranian regime he has declared war on, so why is he so confident he can make a better deal than Obama did back in 2015?

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When will Australia run out of fuel?

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Until now, Australia has been relying on oil that passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war began. But the last tankers to leave the Persian Gulf before the conflict are set to arrive in Australia this week.

It’s not just the domestic situation that is making hair stand on end. The entire global energy market also seems to be losing its mind.

To try and make sense of it all, Matt has enlisted the help of ABC Senior Business Correspondent Carrington Clarke. Carrington also hosts two of the ABC's newest podcasts, ABC Business Daily and Fuelcast.

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How the Iran war exposed Australia's energy mistakes

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

When the Strait of Hormuz closed, global gas prices doubled seemingly overnight. As one of the world’s biggest gas exporters, the spike should have meant a big payday for Australia. Unfortunately, it hasn’t played out like that because Australia has a habit of locking in energy deals that look increasingly out of step with reality. Case in point: our long-term gas agreements with Japan.

In an extremely volatile market, Australia continues to ship gas offshore at low, fixed rates, while Japan on-sells it at a profit. As domestic prices rise and supply tightens, the consequences of this not-so-great deal are landing at home. So how did one of the world’s largest gas exporters end up with so little flexibility?

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Trump’s on-again, off-again negotiations with Iran

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Matt spent a week camping entirely out of internet reception, so Kara does her best to get him up to speed on all the latest of the US-Iran war negotiations. Trump’s been doing most of his negotiation on Truth Social, and so every day is a new… more deranged revelation. Plus your questions about Iran, the price of petrol, and why there aren’t more oil pipelines answered!

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The brutal scam compounds of Myanmar

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Over the past few years, industrial scam compounds have surged throughout Myanmar, buoyed by the resources of powerful criminal networks, and hidden by the chaos of civil war. Occasional raids have uncovered that these compounds are staffed with hundreds of thousands of trafficked workers, kept there by force.

China has financially and militarily supported its neighbour Myanmar for years. But now, as Chinese citizens fall prey to scam kidnappers, China has forced a response. Will it be enough to stop the spread of these compounds?

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Growing up fighting apartheid

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0000

Sisonke Msimang from the new ABC podcast Boycott! joins Matt to share her father’s journey as a revolutionary in the fight against apartheid.

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What happened last time we ran out of oil

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Turn on the tv and you’ll see no shortage of concerned journalists standing at fuel bowsers, shaking their heads at the rising prices. For plenty of young people, the idea that we might have to seriously limit our fuel consumption is unprecedented… But for anyone who lived through the 1970s, it’s all too familiar. So why did Donald Trump start this war?

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When Iraq accidentally bombed a U.S. warship

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

In 1987 the USS Stark became the first U.S. ship sunk by missile fire since World War II. The missiles were fired by Iraq, America’s ally at the time, who claim they did it by mistake.

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We were warned about the Strait of Hormuz

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

While governments scramble to find a way around the Strait of Hormuz, a pipeline sits half-finished in the desert that would have solved the problem. So why was it never completed?

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Why Iran is building their own internet

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

As we’ve been looking into Iran over this month, we’ve had a lot of trouble finding out what is really happening on the ground. That’s due to the concerted and deliberate internet shutdowns carried out by the Iranian regime. And this isn’t the first time the internet has been shut down for Iranian users. It’s happened many times before.

Today, Matt speaks with Deakin University PhD candidate Amin Naeeni, who has not only spent years researching Iran’s system of digital control — but has also experienced it firsthand.

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Iran is running out of water

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Water is the lifeblood of all civilisations. In Iran, the water is drying up. That disappearance is becoming impossible to ignore, and after decades of mismanagement, the country’s water system is approaching a breaking point. Rivers that once crossed the Iranian plateau are drying to threads; aquifers are collapsing; lakes have retreated into salt flats.

The roots of the crisis stretch from the modernisation projects of the Shah to the Islamic Republic’s own industrial ambitions: dams, steel plants, and the cultivation of water-thirsty crops, all of which aren’t ideal pursuits for a country that is largely arid. The result is a slow-moving environmental emergency now pressing into politics, daily life, and the stability of the regime itself.

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Life inside the Iranian Revolution

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Author Saeed Fassaie shares his story of witnessing the Iranian revolutionary first-hand, from being a political fugitive, to a soldier, to building a new life in Australia.

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Who is Trump really fighting in Iran?

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

There’s a persistent fantasy in Washington that regimes are like light bulbs: smash the fixture, screw in a new one, problem solved. The reality in Iran is closer to a tangled electrical grid that’s been growing since 1979. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps isn’t just a military unit; it’s a sprawling ecosystem. It runs companies, shapes politics, and embeds itself deep in the economic and social life of the country.

Which is why the idea that Trump could simply bomb the leadership and “decapitate” the regime misunderstands what the system actually is. It isn’t a pyramid with a single point at the top, take out one commander and another steps forward. For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic has been preparing its successors. So what’s Trump’s plan for long-term stability?

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert says Trump might be stuck in Iran

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert spent over 800 days in an Iranian prison interrogated by the Revolutionary Guard, and got into plenty of arguments while she was there.

Kylie returns to the pod to share with Matt what she learnt about the group, what she makes of the latest in the Iran war, and where Australia should go from here.

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Trump thinks he can switch off the Iran War

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump once warned against endless wars. Now, he’s launched a strike killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many Iranian leadership figures, so what’s changed? Has Trump decided the Iranian regime’s threats are all talk?

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Making sense of Trump’s attack on Iran

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Matt and Kara answer your questions about the the unfolding situation in the Middle East.

Who are the contenders for new leadership, how will this attack impact the global oil trade and does Donald Trump actually have a master plan?

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Where did Epstein’s money come from?

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Where did Jeffrey Epstein get his vast fortune from? Of all the questions surrounding this labyrinthine saga, the source of Epstein’s millions has been one of the most enduring, with the least available evidence.

Now, the deposition of billionaire businessman Les Wexner has provided a potential answer - Epstein simply scammed rich clients who didn’t know any better. Could the truth be so straightforward? And can we take Wexner at his word?

If you're interested in seeing the If You're Listening live show in Newcastle you can buy tickets here: https://www.newcastlewritersfestival.org.au/events/if-youre-listening-declassified/

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The Epstein Q&A our lawyers approved

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Matt and Kara try to answer your questions about the Epstein files without being sued... with only limited redactions.

They get into the consequences for the Royal family, whether Epstein could possibly be “Q”, and whether they’ve changed their view on the claim Epstein was a Mossad agent.

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Epstein’s ghost is haunting the UK

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

A dark Epstein storm cloud is settling in over Europe — and it’s drifting straight across Westminster. As the newly released Epstein files reach London, Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure from within his own ranks, accused of knowing more than he’s let on.

Meanwhile, Lord Mandelson’s long-rumored association with Epstein is now headline material, raising questions about how deep the connections really go. In the UK, proximity to Epstein is proving politically lethal, even when guilt isn’t proven.

But across the Atlantic, in the United States it’s barely a footnote. So what happens when the same revelations shake two democracies, but only one starts to crumble?

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The time an astronaut said they weren't coming back

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Space travel is a serious physical and mental challenge by all accounts. But what happens when an astronaut goes rogue mid-flight?

Matt is joined by Fiona Pepper, co-host of the Science Friction podcast, to discuss a weird story the team stumbled across when researching flights leading up to the 1986 Challenger disaster.

You can listen to The Challenger Legacy, the latest season of the Science Friction podcast, here, or wherever you get your podcasts

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How Epstein and QAnon blew up the justice system

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

When news first broke of a billionaire sex offender with a private island… the story didn’t erupt through traditional media — instead it circulated through online message boards like 4chan. What began as internet trolling and fragmented rumour became fuel for something much bigger.

The Epstein case fed directly into the rise of QAnon, a conspiracy movement built on the belief that a hidden elite was operating above the law. Now, after years of pressure and public obsession, millions of Epstein-related documents have been released by the U.S. government.

The Epstein Files have exposed networks, associations, and uncomfortable truths. But instead of restoring trust in institutions, they’ve underscored how fragile that trust has become.

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There Will Be Mud (again)

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

That's right, we're talking soil again. Is there a field of Ukranian chernozem soil sitting in rural New South Wales? Producer Pat joins Matt to finally find an answer.

Plus, rumours of a chernozem black market… is it true, or just a dirty lie?

Thanks to the New South Wales Soil Knowledge Network!

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Stephen Miller: Edgelord in Chief

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

For a long time, no matter which party was in power - the US government has operated within pretty defined guardrails… that is, until Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term. The bold new direction is largely due to people like Stephen Miller: Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff and the key driver behind his immigration policy.

Stephen Miller has spent his entire political career working hard to systematically dismantle and destroy the guardrails that keep the US government in check. So who is this dude? How did he rise to such a position of power? And is there anything that can get in his way?

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Pod Save America on the endless escalation of Trump

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Jon Lovett has been following the daily minutia of U.S. politics for a decade on his podcast Pod Save America. Ahead of their Australian tour, Jon joined Matt for a wide-ranging chat on how to deal with Trump, and whether the U.S. has a few lessons to learn from the Australian political system.

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Steven Pinker thinks we’re worried about the wrong things

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Matt is joined by psychologist and science writer Steven Pinker to discuss doomsday predictions, climate anxiety, and how best to split the balance between pessimistic fatalism and naïve optimism when considering the future.

Listen to the full 1959 'Letters to the Unborn'

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04 Black Swans | Countdown to Doomsday

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

In the midst of the Cold War, it was a very real fear that a nuclear winter would obliterate life as we know it. Now, fortunately, that never happened.

But ironically fast forward to 2026 and the sense of dread of a nuclear war has been replaced by the impending threat of climate change, or being overrun by our AI overlords. So are we destined to feel doomed?

This is the final episode of Black Swans a four-part series by If You're Listening.

67 years ago, the ABC recorded a collection of predictions about the future—the one we’re living in now, in 2026. Their forecasts are truly extraordinary - Intergalactic super speed travel, future pod houses, Nuclear fallout, but strangely all of them are wrong. In Black Swans, host Matt Bevan gets to the bottom of why we’ve always been so bad at predicting the future.

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Did a 1981 book correctly predict the future?

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Matt and Kara discuss the book that inspired the Black Swan series… but didn’t make it into the final cut! Can experts, soothsayers, and psychics really predict what’s going to happen?

This episode is connected to Black Swans, a four-part series by If You’re Listening

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03 Black Swans | Burning Hill

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

In 1959 a flight to London took days and cost half a year’s average salary. But things were changing rapidly. The invention of the Concorde meant that you could fly from Adelaide to London in just under seven hours. Travel was getting faster and many expected we’d be routinely zipping around the world and travelling to other planets in no time. But now, aside from planes, most of our transport is not much faster than it was back then, so why are we still so slow?

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The city that ten beers built

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Matt and Kara delve deeper into the story of town planner Alex Ramsay, and the bizarre deal he struck to purchase the land that would become Elizabeth, SA.

This episode is connected to episode two of the Black Swans series, all concerning predictions of Australia's future, and how we got it so wrong.

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02 Black Swans | The Australian Dream

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

In the 1950s three quarters of Australians were homeowners, most lived on a quarter-acre block, with a mortgage that could be covered with one income while someone stayed at home to look after the children. Nowadays, house prices have sky rocketed and younger generations largely feel locked out. So where did it all go wrong?

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01 Black Swans | The Population Bomb

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Until recently people were scared our planet would be outstripped by the weight of a colossal population. Experts feared that by 2026, there would be so many people that we would be starved of resources, and eat ourselves to death. Ironically we now find ourselves in a world where we’re not scared about having too many babies, but rather too few. So what happened?

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Matt got lost on his way to the costume department

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0000

Kara and Matt take you behind the scenes of putting the series together, and how hard it is to find an iron when you need one.

The Black Swans series kicks off this Thursday 8th January on podcast, and hits television on Saturday 10th January.

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Trump’s playbook for Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 07:00:00 -0000

In a post on Truth Social, US President Trump announced that he had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, and that the pair would face drug charges in New York. The legality of this seizure is certainly questionable, but surprisingly, an operation like this is not entirely unprecedented.

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NEOM: The world's dumbest megaproject

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0000

The massive infrastructure project NEOM sits in the Saudi Arabian desert, and the jewel in its crown is The Line, a futuristic city which looks insane. The AI-generated ads depict a car-free city, for 9 million people housed between two mirrors, stretching along the desert. Despite promises of millions of residents by 2030, the project has been scaled back by 98 per cent. The Line will be more like a dot. So what the hell happened? And was it all just a scam?

This episode was originally broadcast in September 2024

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What's the deal with fluoride?

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Putting fluoride in drinking water has often been called one of the most successful public health measures in human history. But since the very beginning of fluoridation programs in the 1940s, it’s been plagued by misinformation and furious opposition.

Now with Robert F Kennedy Jr at the helm of the US Department of Health, the Trump Administration is leading the charge to get states to ban the use of fluoride in water - and he’s succeeded in Utah and Florida. So when did this anti-fluoride scepticism kick off? And can it be stopped?

This episode was originally broadcast in June 2025

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How good are Australia’s gun laws really?

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Australians are very proud of our gun laws, and we have good reason to be. The laws are world famous and frequently referenced in the wake of almost every mass shooting in the United States. And yet, we have now seen two men terrorise Australia’s Jewish community at a Hanukkah event at Bondi beach with legally-owned high-powered guns.

Despite almost universal support for stricter gun control, there are more guns in Australia now than there were before the famous gun laws were introduced.

So, what are the specifics of Australia's laws? Are they really as water-tight as we all like to believe? And if they are about to change what will that actually accomplish?

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24 hours after the Bondi shooting

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 09:03:00 -0000

On Sunday the 14th of December, two men; a father and son, used a range of firearms to attack a large Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach playground. At least 16 people were killed, including one of the two gunmen, and a ten year old girl.

It was Australia’s worst ever terrorist attack, and its second-deadliest mass shooting. The local and global Jewish community are horrified and frightened, by the events.

Australia is in shock, it’s left people wondering what could have been done to prevent this attack, and what needs to be done now.

Perry Duffin is the Sydney Morning Herald’s senior crime reporter, and has broken multiple stories about the seemingly escalating violence and anti-Semitism in Sydney. For the last 24 hours - virtually without sleeping - he’s been covering the early investigations into the events in Bondi.

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Why is Venezuela falling apart?

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0000

During a 15 minute phone call, US President Donald Trump offered the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro safe passage for him and his family to the country of their choice, if they left Venezuela immediately. The deal seems to have fallen through and now Maduro is in hiding, and for the last few weeks, Maduro has reportedly slept in a different house every night. So why is the country with the most proven oil reserves on the planet enduring an economic meltdown that is so grave the President is now on the run?

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This robot will shoot you and steal your wife

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0000

We have always been obsessed with stories about killer robots. But where do stories about malevolent machines with a mind of their own originate? Matt and Kara dig into the archives and discover an English robot called Alpha who; according to newspapers at the time, “became more man than machine” and “fired a gun at its inventor” in front of a packed room of terrified onlookers in Brighton, England in 1932.

The terrifying story was covered widely, and audiences flocked from all over to see the killer robot. But it turns out that’s not how the story went at all…

Read the Ogden Standard Examiner story from 1932: https://www.scribd.com/document/35924338/1932-Oct-23-Ogden-Standard-Examiner-Ogden-City-UTRead the Time article from 1934: https://time.com/archive/6819850/science-robot/Watch Alpha at Macy's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiiq0V9QRJ4

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Where’s my robot butler?

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Tech bros are racing to develop the first mass-produced humanoid. But despite billions of dollars in investment, these robots require a great deal of human intervention. So, why has creating a humanoid proven so difficult?

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Is internet piracy making a comeback, me hearties?

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 15:00:00 -0000

You wouldn't steal a podcast!

After meeting the founder of Sweden's Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge, we decided to take a closer look at the world of piracy (on the internet, not the high seas).

Matt chats with If You're Listening producer Adair Sheppard about the rise and fall of The Pirate Bay, the kinds of angry letters you'll get for stealing fonts, and whether piracy is making a comeback.

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Is China’s plan to invade Taiwan inevitable?

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Currently, as many as 5000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan. Many of Taiwan’s allies are concerned that these spies, along with the increasing frequency of military demonstrations in the South China Sea, indicate Beijing may invade and force the "reunification" of China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that while he won’t rule out force, he would prefer a peaceful unification of the two territories. But what exactly does it mean to “peacefully” take a country that doesn’t want to be taken?

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The time Andrew Denton tried to hire a bounty hunter

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

In the early 90s, Australia’s most wanted fugitive was Christopher Skase. He was hiding on the Spanish island of Mallorca, to avoid the corporate crime charges that had been piling up against him back in Australia.

In today's episode, Mark Humphries tells Matt about the bizarre attempts to bring Skase back to Australia, including one involving bounty hunters and TV personality Andrew Denton.

Mark is the host of Skase: Fall of a Tycoon available here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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The truth about China’s social credit scores

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

For the last decade or so, there’s been a lot of talk about how the Chinese government uses technology to issue social credit scores to its citizens. There was even that episode of Black Mirror that everyone still talks about.

Every time a Western government tries to increase its control over the internet, we hear that this is the beginning of a slippery slope that leads to jaywalkers being prevented from using vending machines. But does this dystopian AI powered surveillance system actually even exist?

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maTt and kaRa address yoUr conspiracy THeory

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Get ready as Matt and Kara address a whole lot more listener questions. All things from Elon Musk’s impending trillionaire status to the mystery of the missing If You’re Listening episode. Soil also once again gets a mention of course.

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So you’ve robbed the Louvre… now what?

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

On the 19th of October at 9:30am, two thieves parked a truck at the Louvre. They carved a hole in the window, climbed into the gallery, smashed two display cases, and made off with 88 million euros worth of crown jewels. It was all over in eight minutes.

It turns out robbing the Louvre isn’t as hard as you might think. Many of the security cameras are outdated, and 249 rooms in the gallery have no cameras at all… the trouble all starts after the robbery, when you have to figure out what to do with your loot next.

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Was the CIA involved in Whitlam's dismissal?

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

On 11 November 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was sacked by Governor-General Sir John Kerr. For the past 50 years, people have speculated about the motives behind Kerr’s unprecedented decision — could there have been interference from outside Australia? Today, we’re getting to the bottom of the CIA conspiracy theory that’s dogged Whitlam’s dismissal for decades. Matt talks to The Eleventh producer and award-winning journalist Ninah Kopel about possible American meddling in this most infamous of Australian incidents.

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Can we afford to power AI?

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

In the last decade, the number of data centres worldwide has doubled. As the tech bros spend big to render AI an irreplaceable part of our everyday lives, the energy and water required is truly eye-watering.

Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and Meta have already seen their cumulative emissions rise by 72% in the last five years, and given the direction AI is headed, it’s likely that our AI footprint today is the smallest it will ever be. Hundreds of millions of people are using AI every day - and that number is growing fast, but is a world with widely available AI actually sustainable?

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This town ain't big enough for two dog puppets

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 14:00:00 -0000

This episode is about a lawsuit between two puppet dogs. What more do you need?

This past week we’ve been waist-deep in the dot com boom of the 90s, in particular the meteoric rise and fall of one company called pets.com. It was during this time that supervising producer Kara Jensen-Mackinnon came across a very strange court case between two fictional dogs - the case of the Pets.com sock puppet vs. Triumph the Insult Comic Doc.

You can watch Trumph's press conference in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLqT9TSfceg

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Is the AI bubble too big to burst?

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

There are no salary caps when it comes to securing the future brains of AI researchers. Mark Zuckerberg recently paid a 24 year old $250 million to come work at Meta. OpenAI gave thousands of employees bonus cheques for millions of dollars. AI developer salaries are rising 32% annually, but just how high can these pay packets go?

The AI bubble is now four times the size of the dot com bubble at it’s peak, and when that bubble burst billions were wiped off the stock market, so could AI be hurtling towards a similar fate?

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The people have spoken and they love mud

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Today Matt and Kara are answering your questions, mostly about Trump and mud. They talk about whether Trump could serve a third term, if the rest of the world could just ignore the US, and ask for your help solving a mystery about the soil in the rural NSW town of Nimmitabel. Plus, Matt has a very exciting announcement.

Got a question you want us to answer next time? Email ifyourelistening@abc.net.au

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Sizing up the Gaza rebuild

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

On October 8, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement and signed the first phase of the deal. The ceasefire covered the return of all living Israeli hostages as well as the liberation of 2000 Palestinians who had been detained in prisons.

What isn’t mentioned in the ceasefire agreement is what happens to Gaza when the fighting is over. Is it possible to rebuild a city that has been almost entirely destroyed, and perhaps more importantly who is going to pay for it?

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The balloon that started the US Air Force

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

So, Matt has found a shiny new rabbit hole to get lost in and this time it's balloons. More specifically spy balloons. This is a story about a man with a fabulous moustache who called himself Professor, who was accused of being the devil in the American Civil War and ended up becoming a spy in a big balloon, triggering the creation of the US Air Force.

Matt joins Marc Fennell on his podcast, No One Saw it Coming to talk about the early days of aerial espionage and why you should never ask a man in a balloon where he's going.

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What happens if Trump takes over the Federal Reserve?

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

US President Donald Trump has set his sights on the Federal Reserve, his unprecedented threat to fire the Fed Chair Jerome Powell and replace him with someone more willing to lower interest rates sent financial markets into a tailspin.

It’s taken decades to build robust, independent central banks that people trust to fight inflation and keep the economy on track. But now a generation of populist leaders are threatening to undo that important work. So what will that mean for the global economy?

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The time the US Navy teamed up with the Mafia

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Yes you read that right. It's a wild story from the latest series of No One Saw it Coming, a show about people, objects, and accidents that changed the course of history. Today, Marc Fennell joins Matt Bevan to chat about this unlikely alliance. Set during WWII, it’s a story about boats bursting into flame, mobsters with marvellous names, and the curious team-ups that come about in a country at war.

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Weighing up Ozempic

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

This episode originally aired in September 2023.

For a century, society has bullied and shamed people into trying to lose weight, without much result. Is the century-long search for a weight loss drug finally over? A seemingly accidental discovery by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, people are hailing semaglutide (known as Ozempic or Wegovy) as a miracle weight loss drug — but it comes at a cost.

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The Montana Mountain King and a conspiracy to clone

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Last year, environment reporter Peter de Kruijff stumbled on the case of 81-year-old rancher Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, who was sentenced to six months in jail for a truly bizarre crime. He orchestrated an elaborate, multi-country conspiracy to smuggle the tissue of a rare bighorn sheep into the U.S. and clone it.

Today, Matt chats to Peter about this outlandish plot. They also get into Barbra Streisand’s cloned dogs, and that video of Putin and Xi talking about organ transplants.

Jack’s story inspired the new series of ABC’s Science Friction podcast, Artificial Evolution, which is all about cloning and genetic technology. All episodes are available now on the ABC Listen app.

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How dodgy data sent China's economy off course

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:00:00 -0000

This episode originally aired in August 2023.

How do you plan for a country when you don’t even know how many people live there? That’s the problem China faced after decades of dodgy population data and the One Child Policy. No longer the world's largest country, China's population is shrinking, its property sector is faltering, and its economy is feeling the strain.

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Florida Man Invades Venezuela

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

While working on last Thursday’s episode, Matt had the very sad but familiar experience of cutting one of his favourite parts out of the script.

It’s the bizarre story of a group of American mercenaries who tried to invade Venezuela and collect the $15 million reward offered by the U.S. Justice Department for capturing President Nicolás Maduro.

Matt chats with If You’re Listening producer Adair Sheppard about the doomed plot and the man behind it, a former Green Beret from Florida named Jordan Goudreau.

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Why Trump is blowing up boats off Venezuela

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

The U.S. military has now attacked three boats off the coast of Venezuela in as many weeks. On the surface, it’s hard to see exactly what the administration is hoping to gain out of this. But when you look at it in a historical context, it makes a lot more sense. This follows a playbook the United States used 35 years ago to topple a Central American dictator they had decided they didn’t like. So what happened last time? And should Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro be watching his back?

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This can't be good for our brains

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

It’s been almost two weeks since we woke up to the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. If you were online that morning, you probably saw rolling updates, speculation, conspiracy theories, and graphic footage — all before breakfast.

But it hasn’t always been like this. When Abraham Zapruder filmed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the public didn’t see those 26 seconds of film for many years. That delay fuelled decades of fascination and conspiracy.

Today, Matt Bevan and Supervising Producer Kara Jensen-McKinnon discuss the Zapruder Film and how the way we experience big news events has changed.

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Charlie Kirk’s murder sparks calls for revenge

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

In the days since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the internet has been awash with conflicting information about the assassin’s ideological motivations. Until recently, most people understood that political violence in America tends not to be organised, but one idea has galvanised many of those on the right: “they are trying to get us”.

Just minutes after the shooting, US President Donald Trump and his allies called for revenge on what they call “left-wing extremists”. There is no evidence of an organised left wing militia trying to take down the Trump Administration, but is a crackdown on anti-Trump groups now inevitable?

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The Kurdish Fox and the Strawberry

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

While researching our last episode on the bizarre wave of Iran-banked anti-semitic attacks in Australia and around the world, Matt ended up somewhere unexpected… Swedish TikTok. He was intrigued (and baffled) by a viral sound from a gangster known as the Kurdish Fox that blew up in late 2023.

To help him understand this meme, Matt got in touch with the journalist who broke the story and released this now-apparently-iconic audio to the public. Kim Malmgren is a crime reporter for Swedish Newspaper Expressen and hosts the Swedish-language true crime podcast Krimrummet. What starts as a conversation about a meme leads to a bigger story about Sweden’s growing problem with gang violence, tracing the Kurdish Fox’s rise, his war with the fearsome Strawberry, and the teenage "child soldiers" caught in the crossfire.

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Iran’s global network of goons

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

There has been a spike in antisemitic attacks around the world, but there was something off about the ones happening here in Australia. The graffiti had Israel spelled wrong and they were committed largely by people with no clear ideological motivation. For many, the slapdash nature of these attacks raised a serious question about who was really behind them.

Recently ASIO revealed that at least some of these attacks were coordinated and financed by Iran to intimidate and destablise their enemies. It turns out, Iran has spent the last few years bankrolling low level attacks just like this all over the world so is this a signal of Iran’s strength or a weakening regime?

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Matt has been stuck in the mud for seven years

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

There’s a story Matt’s been trying to tell on If You’re Listening almost since day one. It’s about the agriculture, soil and water of Ukraine, and he thinks it’s fascinating. Over the years he's tried to write it into episode after episode, only for it to be cut out by four separate producers.

Today, Matt attempts to convince Supervising Producer Kara Jensen-Mackinnon (and hopefully you, too) on his obsession with the jet-black soil that’s altered the course of wars from WWII to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Maps referenced in the episode:

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Is Putin a master manipulator or a very smart guy?

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump once said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day. Well, it’s now been over 200 days and he’s finally admitted that it might be a little more complicated than he originally thought.

The man he’s sent to broker this important peace deal is his best bud Steve Witkoff, a lawyer turned billionaire real estate developer turned peace negotiator. In the last few months, Witkoff has had a number of top-secret peace meetings with Vladimir Putin.

Unfortunately we don’t know what happened in those meetings, and it now appears that Witkoff didn’t know what was happening in those meetings either.

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Who is the cigar-toting, moustachioed-American named Gunslinger?

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0000

In 1999, a young American called Robert Bogucki dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert in remote northern Australia. In 2022, Erin Parke became obsessed with this story and the media circus surrounding it. It's a tale that spans three decades, two continents and a bizarre cast of characters: from booty-wearing bloodhounds, to a cigar-chomping, moustachioed American named Garrison ‘Gunslinger’ St Clair.

Matt chats to Erin about her quest to uncover the truth about the mysterious Gunslinger. From his colourful past of fraud and rumours of international espionage, he was larger than life and, as it turned out, too good to be true.

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The Art of the Peace Deal

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

It’s no secret that Donald Trump has his sights set on a Nobel Peace Prize. He already claims to have brokered peace in a number of conflicts around the world - and is now planning ceasefire talks for Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine. So how does Trump intend to bring lasting peace to these decades-long conflicts?

Well, he’s tasked his best bud and former real estate tycoon, Steve Witkoff with the job. Unfortunately, Witkoff doesn’t really have any credentials for negotiating peace… but he is very good at golf and for Trump that’s all that matters.

CORRECTION: In this episode we state that “Armenians are mostly catholic”, and that is incorrect, the vast majority of Armenians are Christian and are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

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Does the Chinese Embassy look tacky?

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

When Palestinian statehood is recognised at the UN General Assembly in September, a small office tucked away in a residential street in Canberra will become the official embassy of Palestine.

This office is near many other embassies in the nation’s capital - some similarly unassuming, while others are incredible ornate architectural feats complete with gardens and water features. On a recent work trip to Canberra, Matt and producer Kara strolled around the Canberra suburbs judging the architectural merits of some of our nation’s great embassies.

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The blueprint for Palestine

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Australia, the UK, France and Canada intend to recognise Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly in September. But what does that actually mean?

Well Timor Leste, the small island nation 500km off the coast of Australia was recognised as a state back in 2002 after years of Indonesian occupation and violence, and might offer us a glimpse into what the future looks like for Palestinians.

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Kara drags Matt back down the rabbit hole

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

After an entire week looking into the Oslo Accords, we still had a residual urge to find out more about Mona Juul and Terje Rod Larsen, the Norwegian couple who were instrumental in brokering that landmark agreement.

We were reading about the Broadway play about their work, reading about the movie adaptation... and then suddenly, unexpectedly, Kara plunged into a rabbit hole. A very unexpected, but oddly familiar one…it involves a trip to Mongolia, a former Australian Prime Minister, and Mona and Terje.

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How Middle East peace plans were hatched in the Norwegian woods

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Even the most seasoned negotiators can’t agree on how to bring peace to the Middle East. Everyone agrees that - on a personal level - it’s a problem too big, too old and too entrenched for them to even have an impact on. Except Mona and Terje.

Norwegians Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen looked at this extremely complicated conflict and said “we can fix this”.

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The nurse on death row in Yemen

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Getting accused of murder is never a good thing. But, hypothetically if you are going to get accused of murder, it’s generally for the best that it’s not somewhere like Houthi-controlled Yemen - a part of the world that barely has a functioning justice system.

This is the reality for Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse who has been convicted of murder and is currently awaiting trial in a Yemeni prison. The question is now whether she’ll be executed for her crimes or whether the victim’s family will accept a blood money payment to spare her life.

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Are the MAGA podcasters right about Epstein?

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

The internet is flooded with hour-long podcasts about what really happened to Jeffrey Epstein. Until recently, two of the most high profile Epstein conspiracy truthers were MAGA podcasters, Dan Bongino and Kash Patel. But that all changed when they joined the FBI.

In the last few months, Bongino and Patel have done a complete 180, and are now saying there’s nothing to see… So are they telling the truth about the so-called Epstein files? Or has the deep state got to them too?

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Australia's most dangerous home-grown conspiracy theory

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0000

So Jeffery Epstein probably wasn’t a Mossad spy. But online conspiracies like this pop up closer to home too. Could Israeli intelligence have been involved in Australia’s most traumatic mass shooting? There are people who think so. In this bonus episode of If You’re Listening, Matt is joined by Conspiracy Nation author Cam Wilson, who breaks down the pervasive PA96 conspiracy about the Port Arthur massacre.

Cam Wilson and Ariel Bogle's book Conspiracy Nation is out now.

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Was Jeffrey Epstein a Mossad agent?

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:00:00 -0000

The Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole has opened into a cavernous rabbit abyss and it seems no one is safe. Conspiracy theorists and right-wing podcasters are following a particularly spicy lead: that Epstein was actually Israeli intelligence.

It explains the curious circumstances around his death, the suppression of his so-called client list, and why Donald Trump seems keen to bury the story entirely. But where did the Mossad rumours come from and are they all just an elaborate smoke screen?

If you're in Canberra and interested in coming to our live show on the 21st of August at the Canberra Theatre Centre you can buy tickets here: https://canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/if-youre-listening-live-25/

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How to avoid abduction by a Mossad honeypot

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Forty years ago, a man named Mordecai Vanunu came very close to exposing Israel’s secret nuclear enrichment facility in a bible group in the heart of Sydney. But before he could speak to journalists, he was lured to Rome by a beguiling blonde named Cindy. In this bonus episode of If You’re Listening we take a closer look at “Cindy” the mysterious Mossad honeypot who abducted Vanunu and changed the course of his life forever.

If you're interested in watching Stanley Hanin's tyre company advertisement you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-zCM_8APc0

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Israel’s not-so-secret nuclear weapons

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 15:00:00 -0000

It’s widely accepted that Israel has nuclear weapons.

How many? Well, it’s impossible to know because to this day the Israeli government has never officially confirmed or denied that it possesses a nuclear arsenal at all, instead it maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity”.

In truly one of the most extraordinary stories we’ve told on this show - we get to the bottom of how Israel hides its nukes, how we found out about them, and why the global community seems to be fine with it.

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How Ayatollah Khomeini changed Iran

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:00:00 -0000

With Iran still in the news, we thought we would revisit the man who created the regime that so many in the Israeli and American political establishments would love to topple: Ayatollah Khomeini. This is the man who came back from 16 years in exile to be the Supreme Leader of Iran’s fundamentalist Islamic regime and overthrew the 2500 year old monarchy.

This episode was originally published on the 22nd February 2024.

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How a cancer diagnosis ended the US-Iran relationship

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Before Iran was the Islamic theocracy it is today, it was a monarchy for two and a half thousand years. The last Shah or king of Iran was overthrown in 1979.

In this episode of If You're Listening we hear about the Shah’s battle with cancer that resulted in a Shakespearean tragedy that brought about the end of the Iranian monarchy and shaped the Middle East conflict we see today.

This episode was originally published on the 15th February 2024.

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Has the US busted Iran’s nuclear bomb plans?

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:00:00 -0000

The chaotic 12 days of the Israel-Iran war ended with the United States dropping bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities, then quickly brokering a ceasefire.

But there are still many questions about the conflict: Has Iran really been mere months away from building a bomb for the last fifteen years, as Israel claims? Did the US’s strikes bust all plans for an Iranian nuke? And what does an American bowling alley company have to do with Tehran’s nuclear program? That’s this week on If You’re Listening.

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Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert on the bombing of Iran’s Evin prison

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Israel recently bombed Iran’s notorious Evin prison, a place that Dr Kylie Moore Gilbert came to know all too well. The political scientist and author was imprisoned in Iran for 804 days and eventually released in a prisoner swap in November 2020.

In this chat with Matt Bevan, Kylie talks about solitary confinement, Iranian cheetahs, how her first cellmate was a spy, and why the regime is cracking down on dissidents right now.

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Why Israel's drones have changed the future of war

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

For the last century, since the rise of mechanised and then nuclear warfare, defence budgets are designed to stop big existential attacks. Ships, planes, submarines.

But cheap, retail store level technology - drones - have changed the game in the conflicts involving Ukraine and Israel. There’s no real way to immunise against a drone swarm that’s been smuggled into your country and hidden in a truck.

These covert attacks are relatively cheap to deploy and incredibly effective. Like the nuclear bomb, the machine gun, and the crossbow - drones mean the traditional way we fight wars is finished.

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Can the US Air Force bust Matt’s studio bunker?

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

The United States has dropped some very large bombs on Iran, inserting itself into what we are currently calling the Israel-Iran War, despite Donald Trump saying just days earlier that he was going to spend two weeks thinking about it.

The bombs they dropped managed to destroy or at least severely damage a nuclear facility buried 90 metres underground. Which kind of makes Matt’s studio basement bunker superfluous.

So what’s next? Matt is joined by Emma Shortis, Director of the Australia Institute’s International and Security Affairs Program and host of podcast and book After America to chat about what this means for the Middle East, and whether Australia will get pulled into the conflict.

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Have ICE protests cracked Trump?

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

There is violence on the streets of America as anti-ICE protesters push back hard against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.

In the early months of the Trump presidency it seemed like everything was going his way but now that’s changing and fast as his executive orders are challenged in the courts.

When it comes to stopping mass deportations Americans are learning that protests can actually work. These protesters aren’t backing down… but neither is Trump so what does that mean for undocumented immigrants across the country and the future of the Trump Administration’s deportation plans?

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Will any Prime Minister “Love Actually” Donald Trump?

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

It’s been a manic week in global politics. Trump and Musk have officially broken up, Americans have taken to the streets to protest ICE deportations… oh and we’re seemingly on the brink of a nuclear war in the Middle East!

To take stock of these rapidly deteriorating news stories, Matt Bevan talks to Dr Emma Shortis, Director of the Australia Institute’s International Security Affairs Program, author and host of the podcast After America.

If you have a burning question for Emma or Matt send it to ifyourelistening@abc.net.au and we’ll answer it on next week’s show!

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Trump and Elon's honeymoon is over

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

In news that will surprise no one, the big beautiful bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has finally come to an end.

Over the last week, there's been a dramatic shift in Trump's presidency - he's publicly fighting with his former First buddy, judges are overruling his executive orders and there are protests in the streets of LA.

As we pass 100 days of the Trump administration, everything is changing fast and understanding the gravity of this moment is vital.

So for the next two episodes, we’re going to take a look at what led to this sudden shift - Trump's summer of discontent. How it started and what it means for the future of the administration.

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Skunk oil and the butcher girl

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

While investigating the history of fluoride, Matt Bevan stumbled upon a regional newspaper insert from the 1940s called Modern Weekly News Magazine. And let’s just say that the content was ... rather unique.

In this bonus episode of If You’re Listening Matt swaps articles with supervising producer Kara Jensen-Mackinnon from the quirky pages of Modern Weekly News Magazine.

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RFK Jr v Fluoride

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

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How a world leader kept a secret from 1.4 billion people

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:00:00 -0000

A little trivia question for you... is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi married?

He’s gotta be, right? World leaders do tend to be married, and someone like Modi probably is. But, picture him at a big rally does he have a spouse there with him? You can't can you?

Well, it turns out Narendra Modu is married and his carefully crafted image of a bachelor was up-ended when it emerged that he had a wife who had been kept secret for decades.

In this bonus episode of If You’re Listening Matt chats to Avani Dias who dove into this story as part of her work on the podcast series Looking for Modi.

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Why Pakistan fights India

Wed, 28 May 2025 15:00:00 -0000

India and Pakistan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire, but tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations are still running high. There are factions in both governments that think a war might be a good thing for them politically.

The old saying goes that most nations have an army, whereas Pakistan is a place where the army has a nation. So will nationalistic rhetoric from Pakistan’s military lead an inevitable escalation into all-out war?

This is the second episode in a two-part series where we take a look at both sides: India and Pakistan. Why they want to fight, and what they have to lose.

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Why India fights Pakistan

Wed, 21 May 2025 15:00:00 -0000

After a brief moment where two nuclear powers looked to be on the verge of war, India and Pakistan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire. But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says it’s not an end to hostilities, just a pause.

The scary thing is - there are factions in both governments that think a war might be a good thing for them politically. So why is that and will it inevitably lead to a deadly conflict?

Over the next two episodes, we’re going to take a look at both sides: India and then Pakistan. Why they want to fight, and what they have to lose.

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Howard Lutnick and The Gates of Hell

Tue, 20 May 2025 08:15:00 -0000

When two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers on September 11 2001 Howard Lutnick lost 658 of his colleagues. It was a tragedy of unthinkable proportions which we covered in last week’s episode. But Howard Lutnick lost something else that day and Matt can’t stop thinking about it.

In this bonus episode of If You’re Listening we take a look at the most famous sculptor since Michelangelo; Auguste Rodin, and his work, “The Gates of Hell” which was on the 101st floor of the North Tower that day, and hasn’t been seen since.

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The man betting big on Trump's tariffs

Wed, 14 May 2025 15:00:00 -0000

The man behind Trump’s trade war is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his backstory is extraordinary. He’s been a hero, he’s been a villain, he’s been a sympathetic figure and also one of the most hated men in America - and all of that is even before he attached himself to Donald Trump.

Over the last few months, gambling with tariffs has caused economic chaos and sent global markets into a tailspin… but Howard Lutnick is clearly all in. So why is the Commerce Secretary so reckless when it comes to the future of America’s economy?

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Australia vs the Internet: Conservative kill screen

Wed, 07 May 2025 15:00:00 -0000

Just a few months ago Elon Musk was heralded as a political kingmaker when he had a hand in helping Donald Trump win the US election. Musk has since meddled in the politics of the UK, Germany, Spain and elsewhere but has struggled to convert his political prowess into victories for his chosen Conservative parties. I

n fact, being in any way similar to Trump or Musk has been a dead weight around the ankle of political campaigns over the last few months.

It was clear the DOGE dynamism had officially worn off when federal elections in Canada and Australia saw both conservative parties lose by a landslide…

Given that Musk and the other tech bro billionaires have so much influence over how we communicate... why are they seemingly struggling to actually influence our politics?

If you're around Newcastle on the 18th of May, come along to the live show of If You're Listening at the Young People's Theatre - tickets available here: https://yptninc.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/149193

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Australia vs the Internet: Misinformation overload

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0000

To scroll through social media during an election campaign in 2025 is to experience some of the worst misinformation. But an online soup of bots spouting partisan talking points wasn’t inevitable, even in recent years.

After the 2016 election of US President Donald Trump and UK vote for Brexit, it was clear that online platforms like Facebook and Twitter were used to target voters with misinformation and disrupt political discourse enough to sway elections. As a result, the social media giants really tried to crack down on harmful content spreading online…or at least they pretended to.

But in the last year or so, they’ve almost completely given up… and the vast digital sea of misinformation has become more dangerous than ever.

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Australia vs the Internet: RIP your newsfeed

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0000

When US President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, the world’s three wealthiest people stood right behind him, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. All own massive online platforms. These tech billionaires are now major political players in their own right, but for the last 15 years the platforms they control have shaped political debate, changed how people feel about their governments and gathered information on voters that tells politicians which buttons to push.

The Australian government has attempted to force the social media giants to pay for the news that they profit from and that worked… for a little while. But in the last year the broligarchs have torn up those contracts and are embracing a brave new newsless world – which isn’t great news for Australia’s upcoming federal election.

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The secret weapon that changed war forever

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0000

In the middle of the 1800s, the Confederate army built a stealth vessel that could travel undetected underwater to give them the military edge over the Union...so did it work and how has it impacted military innovation since?

In this special episode of If You’re Listening, Matt Bevan sits down with Marc Fennell to talk about his new ABC RN show, “No One Saw It Coming”.

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Australia vs the Internet

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 23:00:00 -0000

You’re not losing your mind, the internet is different now.

The 2025 Australian federal election will be the first in a decade where news isn’t readily available on social media, and there’s no effort to fact check or moderate what is there. The billionaires behind the major tech platforms aren’t just background characters in politics anymore; they’re centre stage, making decisions around misinformation, bankrolling candidates, generating content that aligns with their own ideology and broadcasting it to the masses.

Not only has the fight against misinformation online been lost, sometimes social media feels entirely divorced from reality. While the United States government has been incapable of regulating the tech giants, and now seems to have been taken over by them, Australia has made multiple attempts to push back.

In this series from If You’re Listening, Australia vs the Internet looks at Australia’s attempts to rein in big tech, and how it's shaping the Australian election.

First episode drops Thursday 24th April.

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How Japan dodged a global housing crisis

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 16:00:00 -0000

Australia’s housing market is in the midst of a crisis that feels like it will never be solved and now housing is one of the major battlefields of the upcoming federal election.

In this episode of If You’re Listening originally published last year we head to Japan, where 30 years ago, houses were the most expensive in the world.

Today home ownership in Tokyo is comparatively affordable with plenty of housing stock up for grabs – so how did they achieve this massive turnaround? And is it something we could do here in Australia?

This episode was originally published on the 28th March 2024

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Can Tesla survive Trump and Elon's bromance?

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0000

It has not been a good year so far for Elon Musk’s car company Tesla. Stocks are plummeting and sales are falling even faster as people around the world who are opposed to his involvement in the Trump Administration boycott the company.

That’s been accompanied by arson and vandalism at Tesla dealerships around the world. But this isn’t the first time that a company has come under sustained attack for its connections to a Presidential administration.

For three decades, one of America’s biggest beer companies was subject to a boycott because of the conservative views of the family that owned it.

How did that turn out? And what does it tell us about what’s in store for Tesla?

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Why is Trump suddenly obsessed with rare earths?

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump is talking about rare earth elements like they are magic rings with the power to unlock world domination.

The US President is on the brink of signing a multi-billion dollar deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that would give the US access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals in exchange for financial security and continued military support in the war with Russia. Rare earths are critical for manufacturing electronics, batteries, magnets, and military weapons.

But are these rare earth elements actually as rare and valuable as Trump has been led to believe?

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SkEn86RIsOk?si=-APXjdvpRF5RAeM0

And if you're a Newcastle fan come see If You're Listening live with Matt Bevan on Sunday 6th April at 4pm at the Conservatorium of music concert hall - Tickets are free! Find out more: https://www.newcastlewritersfestival.org.au/events/if-youre-listening-live/

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Why France isn’t counting on Trump

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump’s sudden shift on Ukraine has come as a massive shock to most countries in America’s orbit. European leaders who have long banked their national security on US military protection are beginning to lose confidence in their most powerful ally. But there is one American ally that has been planning for this potential eventuality for decades.

France has long been sceptical of how much America can be trusted and now they may be the only safe refuge for countries looking for new security guarantees. So how did they see this about-face coming? And what capacity does Paris have to be the new security guarantor for global democracy?

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Russia, Trump is listening

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Since he took office, Donald Trump has made a lot of decisions that fly in the face of traditional US foreign policy. He’s left Ukraine high and dry, he’s abandoning Europe, he’s slapped tariffs on America’s allies, and he’s floated the idea of seizing new territory in Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.

And the big one: President Trump seems to have a great deal of time and respect for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

So what’s the deal with Putin and Trump - is what we’re witnessing now just the beginning of their grand plans for a new world order? And what hints can we get on how things might unfold from a conference that happened 80 years ago between US president Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a little town called Yalta?

This week on If You’re Listening, will Putin’s dream of an emboldened Soviet sphere come true?

And if you're a Newcastle fan come see If You're Listening live with Matt Bevan on Sunday 4th April at 4pm at the Conservatorium of music concert hall - Tickets are free! Find out more: https://www.newcastlewritersfestival.org.au/events/if-youre-listening-live/

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Who will say no to President Trump this time?

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 14:00:00 -0000

In the United States, there are laws constraining the President’s power. The Attorney General and everyone who works at the Department of Justice aren’t meant to just do whatever the President tells them; they’re in charge of enforcing the law, whatever it is.

So what will they do when enforcing the law doesn’t align with Donald Trump’s policies?

In Trump’s first term, the Attorneys General and Justice Department staff prioritised the law over Trump’s desires, because that’s how democracies work. Is there any chance that will happen this time?

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How Trump is sending the FBI back to the 1960s

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign he declared that the Justice Department and the FBI were weaponised against him.

Now that he’s US President, he’s making huge changes to both, putting loyal supporters in charge.

Over two episodes, If You’re Listening looks at the massive transformation underway in the US federal criminal justice system, starting with the appointment of Kash Patel as Director of the FBI.

For almost 50 years, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover used the bureau as a political weapon, and successive Presidents let him.

The 50 years since his death have seen the FBI aim for independence from the President. Now, with Patel’s appointment, that work is at risk of being undone, with potentially terrifying consequences.

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What Elon’s DOGE cuts are really about

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Billionaire Elon Musk is at the helm of US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, established to slash massive amounts of government spending as fast as possible.

In just weeks they’ve dismantled agencies, cancelled programs and attempted to lay off tens of thousands of government workers.

Everyone agrees that the US government is a mess, that it’s spending more than it earns and something should be done. And yet, there are mass protests across America against what Musk is doing.

This week on If You’re Listening, can DOGE do what Musk and Trump say it will do?

Adelaide, check out the full podfest program, including shows from Not Stupid and All in the Mind: https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/podfest/

Newcastle you can find details for our live show on April 6 here: https://www.newcastlewritersfestival.org.au/events/if-youre-listening-live/

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Where Trump’s plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza came from

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:00:00 -0000

When US President Donald Trump announced his plan for America to take over the Gaza Strip, everyone was stunned. That includes the man standing next to him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Trump says everyone he’s spoken to loves the idea. But who has he spoken to? In his first term as president, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner led efforts to broker peace in the region, and his approach makes this latest announcement make a lot more sense.

This week on If You’re Listening, how Kushner and Trump turned geopolitics into property development.

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Can Trump bully Panama into giving back its canal?

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump started his presidency by picking a fight with Colombia. The US threatened its Central American neighbour with massive tariffs if it didn't accept planes full of handcuffed deportees.

Colombia backed down — and that has serious implications for the rest of the region. President Trump is gearing up for negotiations over deportations and his new favourite issue, ownership of the Panama Canal.

This week on If You're Listening, can one of the most divided, violent and vulnerable parts of the world find a way to fight back against President Trump's agenda?

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Will Trump's tariffs make America expensive again?

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 14:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump has liked the idea of tariffs for a long time, since before his first term as president. Now that he’s back in office he’s using them to do all sorts of things — threaten other countries, crack down on drug importation and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

He’s starting with a 25 per cent tax on imports from Canada and Mexico, a move that would have huge implications for America’s economy and its relationship with its closest neighbours.

President Trump is promising it’s just the beginning, and that this won’t make goods more expensive for Americans. It’s been a long time since most developed countries have used tariffs in this way, but there is one US ally with a recent memory of something like it.

In this episode of If You’re Listening, what can we understand about tariffs from Australia’s recent past?

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Putin or the EU? Georgia's big fight

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 14:00:00 -0000

The people of Georgia are in the streets of Tbilisi, protesting the ruling party’s recent election win. At the heart of the fight is whether the country should appease Vladimir Putin, or oppose him.

For years Georgia was moving closer to the European Union, but the war in Ukraine changed everything. Now, billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgia Dream party are betting on a relationship with Putin, hoping to save the country from a fate similar to Ukraine’s.

Today on If You’re Listening, the story of a democracy at the crossroads of the West and the East, fighting over whether to be afraid of Vladimir Putin or not.

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The serious ramifications of Hunter Biden’s pardon

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 15:00:00 -0000

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Hunter Biden has been a main character in far-right conspiracy theories for years, and Donald Trump’s associates have spent significant effort searching for proof that could lead to his prosecution. In the end, Hunter reportedly provided the only evidence that has mattered: a laptop full of terribly embarrassing and potentially incriminating material. The story of how that laptop found its way to Trump’s favourite lawyer Rudy Giuliani is almost too bizarre to believe. But the Biden family story has been improbably tragic for decades, and it was those tragedies that have seemingly steered the outgoing president to pardon his son despite the very real cost to his own reputation, and the country.

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Will Netanyahu ever face court for alleged war crimes?

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 14:00:00 -0000

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The International Criminal Court in The Hague wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

But international justice works differently to other forms of justice — it relies on everyone opting in. More than 20 years into its existence the court is yet to convict any world leaders of anything. As the first fugitive from the ICC who is also an ally to Western countries like Australia and France, this case is one that could make or break the court itself.

So what does that mean for Netanyahu and his allies? And what does it mean for the idea that there are some crimes that go beyond borders, committed against humanity itself.

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Could Russia turn off the whole internet?

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 14:00:00 -0000

A Chinese-owned cargo ship called the Yi Peng 3 is sitting idle in Danish waters, after undersea internet cables were cut in the Baltic Sea. European officials have cried sabotage.

It’s not the first time something like this has happened; similar events have seen cables cut in other parts of the ocean. There’s serious concern that China and Russia are planning more of these attacks, and the way the internet is set up, it wouldn’t take many of them to cause serious problems.

So how vulnerable is the internet to undersea sabotage? And if a big global conflict were to break out, would the cables be the first casualty?

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America's Last Election 6: How Trump’s banishment led to his comeback

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 14:00:00 -0000

After January 6, many who had stuck by Donald Trump through his presidency condemned his denial of the election, and his failure to stop the attack on the Capitol.

Banished to Mar-a-Lago the former president was banned from major social media platforms, driving his messages and MAGA community underground, into a parallel online world.

That response by big tech to the violence of January 6 was designed to stop it happening again.

Instead, it found Donald Trump powerful allies, and fostered his comeback, one that would send him all the way back to the White House.

This is the final episode of America's Last Election. We'll be back next week with an episode about something completely different. If you liked the series, please share it around.

Editor's note: In this episode, host Matt Bevan states that the Biden administration found itself in a "lose-lose situation" when it came to prosecuting Donald Trump.

While the position of Attorney General is appointed by the President, and sits within their cabinet, decisions over particular prosecutions are traditionally made without the President's input.

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America’s Last Election 5: Trump demands loyalty

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:00:00 -0000

Over the last four episodes we’ve told the story of Donald Trump’s denial of the 2020 election result. It’s a period of time many thought would disqualify him from another run for US president.

Now, exactly four years later Trump is preparing to head back to the White House after a significant election win against Kamala Harris, and the way his last presidency ended has shaped his campaign.

January 6th and the events that led up to it alienated many moderate actors in Trump’s orbit, and unless they’re brought back into the fold, this presidency is set to look very different to his last.

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Hello America: Chess at the White House

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 03:15:00 -0000

It’s Matt Bevan’s last 24 hours in Washington DC, and he’s leaving a very different place to the one he arrived in. Donald Trump is going to be president again, and in the United States, people from across the political spectrum are figuring out exactly what that looks like.

Matt sits down with ABC Global Affairs Reporter John Lyons in sunny Lafayette Park to chat about the potential geopolitical impacts of a second Trump term and how world leaders are already scrambling to get Trump on the phone to strike a deal.

This episode was produced by Kara Jensen-Mackinnon and Jess O'Callaghan.

This is the final Hello America bonus episode of If You’re Listening, thanks for coming along for the ride. The next episode of America’s Last Election will drop next Thursday morning.

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US Results: Coffee with extra Trump

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 19:15:00 -0000

In this update from Washington DC, Matt Bevan is filling in as host for ABC News Daily to bring you an early morning update on all the events from overnight Australian time.

In a spectacular victory, Donald Trump has secured the US election to become the 47th President of the United States.

Matt is joined on the ground by Emma Shortis from The Australia Institute to explain where the Democrats went wrong and the Republicans went right - and what a more emboldened Trump with the support of the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court means for America.

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Hello America: Trump’s path back to the presidency

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0000

As the night goes on, and key states in the US presidential election are called for Donald Trump, it's becoming harder to see a way that Kamala Harris wins the White House.

Matt Bevan shares his view from a Washington rooftop on election night, where ABC News is covering the results. He reflects on the Harris and Trump campaigns, and what a second Trump presidency could look like.

Matt will be back in this podcast feed on Thursday morning hosting a special episode of ABC News Daily, speaking with Dr Emma Shortis from the Australia Institute.

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Hello America: Queuing for Kamala Harris

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:00:00 -0000

It's election day in America! But in the dying hours of Monday night (and the campaigns), Matt Bevan took a train to Pennsylvania to stand in queue for a massive Lady Gaga concert — Kamala Harris's final event before election day.

Luckily, you can get the speeches online. What you can't get is the vibe, which was apparent speaking to supporters in this kilometres-long queue.

On the train ride home Matt and Dr Emma Shortis from The Australia Institute decide the Democrats' election-eve vibe was: things seem good for Kamala Harris ... nobody jinx it.

We'll be back on Wednesday evening with an election-night update.

Read Matt on ABC News: When do polls close and when will we know the result of the US election?

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Hello America: Two trains and seven swing states

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0000

It's election eve in America, and Matt Bevan is in Washington DC. How did he get there? By train, from Detroit, where he took in the fall foliage from the comfort of his tiny bunk bed, and talked politics over breakfast with a fellow train-devotee named Bill.

But neither Kamala Harris or Donald Trump is taking the slow train to election day -- both campaigns have whirlwind 24 hours planned, hitting the swing states key to winning the White House. Donald Trump is ending years of campaigning with a late-night rally that looks to soothe his superstitious mind, and Kamala Harris is throwing a massive garden party in Philadelphia. Speaking of which, Matt has another train to catch ...

This episode was produced by Kara Jensen Mackinnon and Jess O'Callaghan. Catch Matt across the ABC's election coverage on ABC TV, ABC NewsRadio and digital platforms, including this one; we'll drop a bonus episode when results start to shape up on Wednesday evening AEDT.

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America’s Last Election 4: Pardon the riot

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 14:00:00 -0000

Eight months before January 6, a very similar mob stormed a different government building. Armed men, furious about an extension of COVID lockdowns, stormed the state Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan.

It was a precursor to the march on the Capitol in Washington DC, with chants, signs and even protesters in common. But among some of the men in Michigan that day, a plot was brewing that was more sinister. It shows just how insidious and dangerous the lies spreading among Donald Trump’s supporters can be.

If he wins, Trump has vowed to pardon those people convicted of crimes on January 6—what signal could such immunity send?

We've released this episode of America's Last Election early, so you can listen before election day. The video of this podcast episode will be released on Saturday morning as usual.

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Hello America: Watching Trump from the bleachers

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 04:00:00 -0000

With only days until the election both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are zigzagging across the United States holding rallies to shore up support. At a Trump rally in the suburbs of Detroit, Matt Bevan chatted to a whole lot of fans waiting in line about why they're voting for Trump and what happens if the election doesn't go his way. He and Insiders host David Speers debriefed in the car ride back to the city.

If You're Listening's Hello America bonus episodes are produced by Kara Jensen Mackinnon and Jess O'Callaghan. Episode 4 of America's Last Election will drop early on Tuesday morning AEDT.

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Hello America: Trump or Treat

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:15:00 -0000

It’s Halloween in America, and with the countdown on to election day, things are getting spooky. In downtown Detroit, Matt Bevan meets early voters, trick-or-treaters, and samples local delicacies — thanks to everyone who emailed with tips. Keep them coming, Washington DC is next: ifyourelistening@abc.net.au

And as mentioned in the episode, if you have a question about the US election or our series America’s Last Election, email it through in the next few days. Matt will be kicking off election week by answering your questions in a live blog on ABC News Monday November 4, from 7AM AEDT.

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America’s Last Election 3: Trump's plan to reject results

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:00:00 -0000

In the United States, presidential elections rely on thousands of actual people coming together to scrutinise and then certify the results. That’s what will happen next week, when polls close on the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. So what would happen if they just refused to certify a result, for political reasons?

In 2020, exactly this scenario played out, in an extraordinarily tense meeting room in Detroit, Michigan. In the four years since, Trump’s supporters have worked hard to try and replicate this roadblock around the country.

In this third episode of America’s Last Election, If You’re Listening looks at what that could mean for election day 2024, and the weeks that follow.

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Hello America: Lost in Lansing

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 05:30:00 -0000

On the road in Michigan, Matt Bevan heads to the state's political capital of Lansing. There, he meets a swing voter named David who is all in on Trump, navigates the labyrinth that is the state Capitol building, and samples local delicacies on the I-96.

Former top Trump advisor Steve Bannon is out of prison, and vowing to do what he can to help the Trump campaign win days out from the election, but the car radio is abuzz with a different story — the impact of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's jokes on Puerto Rican voters in key swing states.

Episode 3 of America's Last Election will drop on Thursday morning.

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Hello America: Motorcade in Michigan

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 05:30:00 -0000

Matt Bevan is on the ground in Michigan, Detroit, a key swing state in next week’s US presidential election. There are some things you just don’t get when you’re telling a story from your basement in Newcastle: candid chats with Republican voters on the plane, for one. Vice presidential motorcades screaming past you on the highway for another. Follow Matt as he travels through America in the lead up to election day, and hear from the people he meets along the way.

Episode 3 of America's Last Election will drop on Thursday morning.

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America’s Last Election 2: The fake elector plot

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 14:00:00 -0000

After the 2020 election, Donald Trump searched desperately for any theory that would allow him to retain control of the White House. On Christmas Eve, his team called a constitutional lawyer named John Eastman, who gave them something to work with. Eastman’s theory relied on Vice President Mike Pence playing along.

In this second episode of America’s Last Election, If You’re Listening looks at the theory the riot on January 6 was based on, and why Trump’s supporters thought it might work.

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America’s Last Election 1: The big lie

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 14:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump did not win the 2020 presidential election. But if you watched his speech on election night, you wouldn’t come away with that understanding. ‘Frankly,’ he said ‘We did win this election.’

In the months that followed, the story backing up that claim warped and changed, but at its core was a big lie about a supercomputer called ‘The Hammer’, an imaginary software called ‘Scorecard’, and a man with a long history of fooling the US government.

And now Donald Trump is on the ballot again. Over five episodes, If You’re Listening looks at the transition period after the 2020 election, and what it tells us about the plan in 2024.

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How close did President Trump get to nuclear war?

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 14:00:00 -0000

Within months of becoming US president in 2017, Donald Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury”. Soon afterwards, he would tear up a nuclear deal with Iran and bring the US to the brink of war. And yet that war never came. This is the story of how Donald Trump resisted temptation and kept the peace.

This is a repeat episode, it was first broadcast on September 21, 2020. You can hear the rest of that series on our website or in our podcast feed: America, If You’re Listening.

News audio used in this episode comes from: Arirang News, Inside Edition, CNN, ABC America, Democracy Now, Fox News, CBS, ABC News, and France 24.

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Is AI a threat to humans?

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 15:00:00 -0000

The world's most famous artificial intelligence company, OpenAI — the creator of ChatGPT — was set up to create a superintelligent AI, while at the same time safeguarding humanity from an omnipotent robot overlord which could enslave us all.

So is an AI apocalypse possible, and with wunderkind CEO Sam Altman in charge, will OpenAI be able to protect us from its own robots?

This is a repeat episode. It was first broadcast on November 30, 2023. You can watch this episode now on YouTube.

We'll be back with new episodes from October 17.

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Can India and China bury the hatchet?

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 15:00:00 -0000

After years of tension, diplomatic cold shoulders, and mountain skirmishes, both India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping appear to be looking for ways their nations can be friends again.

So what’s changed between the world’s two most populous countries? And what would a closer relationship between India and China mean for the rest of us?

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How US YouTubers were paid to spread Putin’s propaganda

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:00:00 -0000

This month, the US Justice Department unsealed an indictment of two Russian state media employees. It alleges that they were funnelling millions of dollars into the pockets of American YouTubers, known for their contrarian viewpoints and controversial takes on the war in Ukraine. The YouTubers say they are victims of a criminal scheme and did not know they were being paid by Russia. But it’s not the first time that something like this has happened. There’s a long history of foreign adversaries covertly paying Americans to spread fake news to other Americans—it’s a move right out of Nazi Germany’s propaganda playbook.

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The sci-fi Saudi city that might be a scam

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 15:00:00 -0000

The massive infrastructure project NEOM sits in the Saudi Arabian desert, and the jewel in its crown is The Line, a futuristic city which looks insane. The AI-generated ads depict a car-free city, for 9 million people, housed between two mirrors. Despite promises of millions of residents by 2030, the project has been scaled back by 98 per cent. The Line will be more like a dot. So what the hell happened? And was it all just a scam?

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How Ukraine called Putin’s nuclear bluff

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Russia defends its enormous borders with the threat of nuclear war. It’s this threat that has long stopped Ukraine and its allies from attacking Russia on its home turf—there are ‘red lines’ that can’t be crossed without nuclear retaliation. Yet Ukraine just invaded Russian sovereign territory and still, no nukes. Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears to be calling Vladimir Putin’s bluff. It seems the ‘red lines’ were done in red pencil, not red pen. So how does this reshape the war, and what does it mean for Putin?

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Why Hezbollah is attacking Israel in the Golan Heights

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 15:00:00 -0000

It’s a dangerous moment for the Middle East. Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire over the weekend, including attacks on a pretty unique pocket of farmland — an Israeli-annexed area called the Golan Heights. In 2019 then-President Donald Trump broke with the rest of the international community and recognised it as part of Israel. There’s even an Israeli settlement named after him. Now, the world is watching the Golan Heights closely, fearful that fighting there could escalate and become a massive regional conflict.

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Could calling Trump 'weird' lead the Democrats to victory?

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 15:00:00 -0000

A shift is on display at the Democratic National Convention—from fear of Donald Trump to mocking him. After years of arguing Trump is dangerous, the Democratic pick for Vice President Tim Walz is changing the party’s attack strategy, calling their opponents 'weird'. This potential path to victory is not seen as very presidential. But could it work?

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How Israel changed the way it assassinates enemies

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 15:00:00 -0000

In the early hours of July 31 this year, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran. It's presumed Israel was behind the killing, with reports detailing a complex operation by its spy agency Mossad. So if it was Israel that did this, why did they do it in such an extraordinary manner, and in Iran of all places? The answer tells us a lot about the complex political situation Israel finds itself in, where it feels the need for revenge, but only in a way that doesn’t alienate its allies.

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The truth about Kamala Harris’s time as ‘border czar’

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Since Kamala Harris became his opponent in the race for US president, Donald Trump has argued that she is responsible for a migrant crisis. He says President Joe Biden named her the ‘border czar’, in charge of dealing with the unprecedented number of people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border. It’s a policy area that the Trump campaign hopes will win him the election in November. So what’s real, and what’s fake, when it comes to Kamala Harris and the US border?

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How Kamala went from unelectable to unopposed

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Kamala Harris is the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for President of the United States. But four years ago, she didn’t even make it to the first primary vote. They needed to pick someone who would beat Donald Trump, and Harris just wasn’t ‘electable’ enough. Whatever that means. So if she wasn’t electable then, is she electable now?

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Will Biden leaving send the Democrats into chaos?

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 05:00:00 -0000

After weeks of speculation and acrimony, President Joe Biden has abandoned his bid for re-election, and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris to be his successor.

This scenario has happened once before - late in the election cycle, a President bailed out and tried to hand over power to their Vice President. The subsequent chaos at the 1968 Democratic convention is legendary, and is something the party will be desperate to avoid in 2024.

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How America was primed for Trump shooting conspiracies

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 15:00:00 -0000

When 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at former-President Donald Trump on July 13, the American public was ready with conspiracy theories explaining how and why he did it.

And that shouldn’t come as a shock. Most Americans think President John F Kennedy was assassinated as part of a conspiracy, either by the US Government, Cubans, or the Mafia.

They’re primed to believe their government is keeping secrets from them—because it is.

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Who Broke Britain: What took Labour so long?

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Last week, the UK Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory.

In the past four episodes we've detailed the chaos, ineptitude and hubris of the Conservative Party during their time in office.

So you might be thinking, what took the Labour Party so long to get elected?

On the final episode of our Who Broke Britain series, how Labour went to war with itself — over policy, factions, personalities, Brexit, and anti-Semitism.

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Who Broke Britain 4: Stop the boats

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 15:00:00 -0000

The UK election is being held today and polls indicate the Conservative Party will lose in a landslide.

One of the key policies the government is running on is a version of Australia's offshore immigration detention policy, which was launched by prime minister John Howard in the lead-up to the 2001 election.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's two year fight over this policy has not only been a colossal failure, it will likely drag the Tories down with it.

So as the UK decides on their next Prime Minister, we're asking, who really broke Britain?

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Who Broke Britain 3: The NHS in crisis

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Britain's National Health Service was in crisis when COVID arrived in the UK.

After years of increasing demand and flatlining funding, the NHS was deeply broken.

One Chancellor called the NHS "the closest thing the English people have to a religion", so how was it left to fall into disrepair, on the edge of collapse, right as a catastrophic pandemic hit?

This is part 3 of our series, Who Broke Britain.

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Who Broke Britain 2: The Brexit gamble

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:00:00 -0000

British Prime Minister David Cameron took a colossal gamble when he called for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union.

Instead, he brought about Brexit and sent the country into three years of chaos.

Cameron was certain his side — Remain — would win. How did he get it so wrong?

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Who Broke Britain 1 A promise to cut everything

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 15:00:00 -0000

When the UK Conservative Party won the election in 2010, they took a butcher's knife to the budget.

David Cameron's money-man George Osborne — the young heir to a wallpaper fortune — had a big plan called "austerity," but it put the country on a journey to total chaos.

This is the first episode in a four-part series called Who Broke Britain.

It's about the past 14 years of Conservative Party leadership, all the way up to the general election that's happening next month.

London was once the largest city on Earth — capital of a global empire larger than any other in the history of the world.

Even as recently as 17 years ago, Britons were the richest people in any of the world's large economies.

Since then, they've gone backwards, more than any other large economy.

Britain feels broken. So, who broke it?

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Not Stupid: Trump's guilty. What does that mean?

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 15:00:00 -0000

We're still on a break from our regularly scheduled programming but don't worry, we're hard at work.

Next week we'll be launching a four-part series leading up to the UK election called Who Broke Britain?

The country that was once the centre of the world's greatest empire now seems a lot smaller, and in many ways — broken.

So — who broke it?

Until then, check out the latest ABC podcast Not Stupid, from our colleagues in ABC News.

It's hosted by Jeremy Fernandez and Julia Baird, and this week they're diving into Trump's guilty conviction and whether we should raise the minimum age for social media.

You can subscribe to it on the Listen app.

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Why is China so obsessed with Taiwan?

Wed, 29 May 2024 15:00:00 -0000

The island of Taiwan, just off the coast of China, is shaping up as the most likely spark for the next global conflict.

China's president Xi Jinping wants to claim all the territory he thinks belongs to China, without triggering a nuclear war.

It's a century-old civil war, which has been frozen in place for decades.

It's an almost unimaginably dangerous situation, and one mistake could lead to catastrophe.

This is a repeat episode. It was first broadcast on the 6th July, 2021 as part of the China, If You're Listening series.

If you want to listen to the whole series you can find it here, or scroll back in your podcast feed.

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The brutal and bloody career of Iranian President Raisi

Wed, 22 May 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Earlier this week the President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in bad weather.

Raisi was a phenomenally important figure in Middle Eastern politics — not just Iran's President, but the likely next Supreme Leader of Iran.

He got there through acts of extreme brutality, showing his willingness to do anything to defend the Iranian status quo.

How did Ebrahim Raisi become the heir-apparent to the Iranian Supreme Leadership, and what could happen now he's gone?

Listen to our other episodes about Iran:

Iran, Israel and the calculus of revenge

The Ayatollah who dreamed of an Iranian caliphate

How the Shah's cancer led to Iran's rift with the US

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Should we treat domestic violence like we treat terrorism?

Wed, 15 May 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Australia's first domestic violence shelter Elsie opened in the 1970s, and researchers have been analysing the problem ever since.

In the last three decades more than 1,500 women have been killed by intimate partners in Australia and we're still no closer to finding out why.

Campaigner Rosie Batty has compared domestic violence to terrorism, and called for similar levels of funding.

Is that comparison extreme, or is it the best way to get us closer to fixing the problem?

*EDITOR'S NOTE: This episode incorrectly states that Luke Batty was 14 years old at the time of his death. He was 11 years old when he died.

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The man who destroyed his life to try to put Trump in jail

Wed, 08 May 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Michael Cohen is the star witness in the Trump 'hush-money' trial.

He was once Trump's personal attorney and said he would "take a bullet" for his boss, but then everything changed.

He has served years in prison for lying, tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

But he thinks everything he's gone through will be worth it if he can take Trump down.

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Is Brisbane repeating the Olympic mistakes of the past

Wed, 01 May 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Plans for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are not going well.

It's a political quagmire, with plans for billion-dollar stadium upgrades or massive new venues being thrown around like confetti.

There are concerns that Brisbane is going to blow its budget.

Fifty years ago, the 1976 Montreal Olympics suffered a financial disaster so massive it nearly heralded the end of the Olympic Games.

Is Brisbane repeating the mistakes of the past?

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Could Benjamin Netanyahu go to jail?

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

He is doing everything he can to stay in office, because if he holds office, he can't be thrown in jail.

Sound familiar? It's a bit like Donald Trump's situation in the United States.

But Netanyahu's case has an old-school flavour. It's a fierce battle between media tycoons, and it even involves Australian media nepo baby James Packer.

It's a rollicking tale. But with a military campaign against Gaza and tensions with Iran rising, it could also change the fate of the war in the Middle East.

For more on Benjamin Netanyahu's history, check out this episode: Can Israel rescue the hostages?

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Looking for Modi 07 | One billion voters

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 18:00:00 -0000

Narenda Modi loves to promote India's status as the largest democracy in the world, and experts agree that the country's elections are free and fair for all. Modi is now an unbackable favourite to win a third term as Prime Minister in the weeks ahead, with polls suggesting he is heading for another victory. So why is he so sensitive to criticism, and aggressive in pursuing his detractors? In this final episode, Avani learns of the consequences of her own reporting on Modi after so many months searching for the truth.

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Iran, Israel and the calculus of revenge

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Iran and Israel are caught in a cycle of revenge.

On April Fools' Day, there was a huge escalation in the conflict when an Israeli air strike killed 16 people, including two Iranian Generals.

Two weeks later, the skies over Israel lit up with a counterattack.

It might seem like in this conflict, anything goes, but each response and retaliation is a calculated move.

Israel knew the attack was coming and almost every drone and missile was intercepted.

So, when the game of chess begins, how does it end?

Last time the revenge cycle started to turn, Donald Trump was in the White House, and the wheel only stopped because of a tragic mistake.

This time, Israel's response could change the trajectory of the conflict in the Middle East.

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Looking for Modi 06 | Modi and the money

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 18:00:00 -0000

Lifting Indians out of poverty lies at the core of Narendra Modi's wildly popular political strategy. And it's worked: during his Prime Ministership, India has risen from the tenth largest economy in the world to the fifth. But this rising tide has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor in India, and has raised questions about Modi's ties to business leaders who have turned the nation's rise to their own advantage.

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Why do people hate wind farms? — Live

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 15:00:00 -0000

People don't like wind farms. They say they're bad for wildlife, they affect property values and they create pollution.

But are any of these claims true?

Today, the wind farm debate and how it nearly tore the small Australian community of King Island apart.

This episode of If You're Listening is a live recording from the Newcastle Writers Festival.

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Looking for Modi 05 | The riots

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 18:00:00 -0000

In 2002, Narendra Modi's carefully crafted political story was rocked by a series of deadly attacks in his home state of Gujarat, where he was the highly popular Chief Minister. Thousands were killed in a wave of riots that lasted for three days and became a major national scandal.

Modi's role in the violence has been heavily contested in the decades since, but he has never been able to shake the association in the minds of some Indians. How did he manage to survive such a high-profile catastrophe, and what is the legacy of those terrifying riots today?

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Duterte vs Marcos: The feud that might tear the Philippines apart

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 14:00:00 -0000

The Duterte and Marcos families are the Montagues and Capulets of the Philippines.

They are, depending on who you ask, the country's most famous statesmen, thieves, murderers or heroes.

They have tussled for power for nearly 60 years, and now there are talks of secession splitting the country in two.

Could this family feud literally tear the Philippines apart?

Want to watch Matt present If You're Listening live from the Newcastle Writers Festival this Sunday, April 7? A stream will be posted to this channel on YouTube

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Looking for Modi 04 | When holy politics turn violent

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 17:00:00 -0000

In January 2024, Narendra Modi travelled to the northern Indian town of Ayodhya to attend the consecration of a Hindu temple with a very contested history. The site had previously been occupied by a 500-year-old mosque, and had become a focal point of broader disputes between India's Hindu and Muslim communities.

That fight over one hill in Ayodhya resulted in a demolition, mass protests and deadly retaliations across India. It also gave Modi a cause he could champion throughout his rapid political rise.

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How Japan opted out of a global housing crisis

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Australia’s housing market is, like many places in the Western world, in the midst of a crisis that feels like it will never be solved. Owning a property in an Australian city has only drifted further out of reach for most Australians in the last decade, and there are very few practical solutions on offer. Is it possible to actually unpick this situation?

Japan offers a useful example. Thirty years ago, property in Tokyo was the most expensive in the world. Today, home ownership in that same city is comparatively affordable, with plenty of available stock on the market. How was this massive turnaround achieved, and how can other countries learn from the Japanese model?

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Looking for Modi 03 | Modi and the Swami

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 17:00:00 -0000

When Narendra Modi left home, it wasn't to begin a career in politics. He wanted to be a monk. Modi's teenaged pilgrimage would take him across India, following the trail of his country's most influential religious leader. It was a journey that would ultimately steer him towards politics, and lay the foundation for some of his most popular and controversial philosophies.

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Kate Middleton and the 100-year history of fake photos

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:00:00 -0000

The Princess of Wales has barely been seen since Christmas and everyone is asking, where is Kate?

The Royal Family released a photo meant to squash the rumours, but when it became obvious it had been photoshopped, the speculation just got worse.

Fake photos are everywhere, and there's a long history of people doctoring them, from photocopying to photoshopping, to straight up AI.

But is there a time coming where we won't be able to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake?

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Looking for Modi 02 | The abandoned wife

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:00:00 -0000

For most politicians, the image of a stable marriage and a happy family is a crucial part of their pitch to voters. But in India, being single is a selling point: leaders want to show that they are dedicated only to their country. Narendra Modi's carefully crafted image of a bachelor was up-ended when it emerged that he had a wife who had been kept secret for decades.

Since this scandal broke, Modi's estranged wife has barely been seen or spoken to the media. In this episode, we're going to find her.

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Why does Putin bother holding elections?

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 15:00:00 -0000

Russia is in the midst of an election, but we already know Vladimir Putin will win. He always wins.

So why does Russia bother holding elections? What’s the point?

Putin learned a lesson many years ago about the illusion of democracy, and it’s one he has never forgotten.

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Looking For Modi 01 | Humble beginnings

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 17:00:00 -0000

Every Tuesday for the next seven weeks, we'll be dropping an extra episode from a new ABC podcast into the If You're Listening feed. Looking for Modi, hosted by the ABC's South Asia correspondent Avani Dias, examines the life and political career of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. It's a fascinating show that we think you might enjoy. Matt will be back with another episode on Thursday.

Narendra Modi's rise from poverty-stricken childhood has been a major appeal throughout his political career. He tells ordinary Indians that he is just like them, and that his life is proof of India's egalitarian democracy. But in truth, some of the central elements of his own biography are disputed. What do we really know about his origin story, and how did his time spent with a volunteer right wing organisation many view as a paramilitary group influence his politics?

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How China hires hackers

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:00:00 -0000

The police arrested and interrogated Andrew after he was set up by hackers.

Now we know how Chinese spies pull it off.

An unprecedented leak of data from Chinese company i-Soon has cracked open the black box, revealing the secrets of China's cyber espionage operations.

Correction: When Andrew Phelan was taken in for questioning by Victoria Police, he was never chargedSubscribe to If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app.

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Is Donald Trump running out of money?

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 14:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump was ordered to pay a $463.9 million fine for lying to banks about how rich he is.

He's also facing at least five other cases that could cost him millions more in legal fees and fines.

And this is all happening as he tries to run for president again — and political campaigns ain't cheap.

So the question is: Can Donald Trump make it to election day without running out of money?

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The Ayatollah who dreamed of an Iranian caliphate

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 14:00:00 -0000

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was a revolutionary leader with a revolutionary idea.

In just 10 years as Supreme Leader, Iran became a global pariah; virtually friendless in the international community.

Yet when he died, millions of Iranians hysterically grieved his death.

In today's episode, how Ayatollah Khomeini changed the course of Middle Eastern history, and how his ideas are still affecting us today.

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How the Shah's cancer led to Iran's rift with the US

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 14:00:00 -0000

In 1974, the Shah of Iran was diagnosed with cancer.

It led to a Shakespearean tragedy that brought about the end of the Iranian monarchy and shaped the Middle East conflict we're seeing today.

As open warfare between the US and Iran becomes more and more likely by the day, it's worth remembering that it all started with something tiny — a small lump in the spleen of one man.

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How Houthi rebels are embarrassing the world's biggest navy

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 14:00:00 -0000

The Red Sea is the most trafficked trade route in the world, and now the US Navy and a group of militant Houthi rebels are going to war over it.

The Houthis are attacking ships it says are linked to Israel and its allies; America is desperately trying to stop them. I mean, America might not get directly involved in the Israel-Gaza conflict, but you bet they'll protect their trade routes.

The stakes couldn't be higher — if the US can't prove they have this under control, plenty of other groups around the world might decide to try their hand at blocking global trade as well.

Editor's note: This introduction has been edited to clarify that not only Israeli ships have been targeted in Houthi attacks.

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Can Zelenskyy get the world to care about Ukraine again?

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 14:00:00 -0000

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a new problem. As well as fighting Russia, he also has to fight Israel and Hamas for the world's attention.

The shift in attention to Gaza has already meant Ukraine has lost crucial support.

The question is — can Zelenskyy get the world to care about Ukraine again? And if not, what will that mean for the war?

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What is China's "panda diplomacy"?

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 14:00:00 -0000

China's pandas are not just pandas. They're diplomats.

You're friendly to China? You get a panda. You criticise China? You get no pandas.

In recent years China has been hostile toward the West, with the most literal symbol of their displeasure being the withdrawal of their pandas from zoos around the world.

And yet, Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to be having a change of heart.

This may indicate something very important — a return to a more peaceful relationship with the West.

But why? And why are pandas the key to understanding it?

Please participate in our listener survey!

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Can OpenAI save us from a robot apocalypse?

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 14:00:00 -0000

But last week the company fell into chaos. OpenAI fired its wunderkind CEO Sam Altman.

Just days later, under intense pressure, Sam Altman was put back in charge and the entire board was booted.

So is an AI apocalypse possible, and with Altman back in charge, will OpenAI be able to protect us from its own robots?

Please participate in our listener survey!

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China's play to win the heart of the Pacific

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 14:00:00 -0000

China is using cash to try and shore up support in the Pacific.

In Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital, they just built most of the venues in the Pacific Games precinct.

And China is not alone. Like a geopolitical version of The Bachelor, China, Taiwan, Australia and the United States are all trying desperately to win Honiara's heart.

This tussle has caused panic in Taipei and Canberra, anger in Beijing and Washington, and actual violence in the Solomons.

It's hard to think of a more perfect example of trouble in paradise.

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How North Korea makes a fortune stealing crypto

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 14:00:00 -0000

As international sanctions have cut into North Korea's ability to import and export things, they've become desperate for cash.

They've been running crazy schemes to get it — smuggling, stealing, lying, cheating, swashbuckling — but that's nothing compared to what they make from stealing cryptocurrency.

In fact, most of their foreign currency now comes from stolen crypto.

So, can anything be done to stop the world's first nuclear-armed crypto bro, Kim Jong-un?

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Can Israel rescue the hostages?

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 14:00:00 -0000

The Israeli hostages Hamas took back on October 7th still have not been rescued.

The 1976 Entebbe rescue mission is legendary and gave Israel a reputation — they get hostages back no matter what.

Now this reputation is putting enormous pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rescue the hostages again.

The question is — can he?

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Who is Hezbollah, the group backing Hamas?

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 14:00:00 -0000

While Israel tries to defeat Hamas, they also have to worry about a much more dangerous paramilitary group on their northern border: Hezbollah.

The express purpose of Hezbollah, which formed 40 years ago, is also to eradicate Israel.

It would be a nightmare for Israel if Hezbollah swings in and backs Hamas up.

So where did Hezbollah form, why do they hate Israel, and what hand did Israel have in their creation?

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How did Hamas catch Israel by surprise?

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 14:00:00 -0000

The Israeli Government has one of the most well-resourced intelligence communities in the world, specifically tasked with preventing attacks from Hamas.

So how did it fail to detect an operation that involved months of planning, meetings in multiple countries, and thousands of militants?

This is part two in our series on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

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How a quadriplegic charity worker became the founder of Hamas

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 14:00:00 -0000

Last week, Hamas burst out of the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, killing at least 1,400 people, the vast majority of them Israeli civilians.

But Hamas' origins go back decades, to its founder Ahmed Yassin.

How did a disabled refugee from Gaza become one of the most influential men in Palestine?

And how did he take Hamas from obscurity to wresting control of the Gaza Strip?

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The ridiculous assassination plot that sent Haiti into chaos

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 14:00:00 -0000

In 2021, a doctor from Florida met with a group of men to plan the overthrow of the Haitian President.

The plot triggered a series of events which led to the President's death, the almost total collapse of the government, and the rise of mob rule in Haiti.

So why is Kenya now being sent in to save the day?

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Should Elon Musk have stopped Ukraine attacking Russia?

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 14:00:00 -0000

In September last year, Elon Musk refused to let the Ukrainian military use his Starlink satellites to attack Russia.

Musk jumped on Twitter and posted “Starlink is meant for peaceful use only”.

So how did we get into a situation where Elon Musk gets to personally decide whether a Ukrainian military operation succeeds or fails?

And was he justified in refusing to help?

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The assassination that broke the bond between Canada and India

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 15:00:00 -0000

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in Vancouver in June.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has just come out saying the Indian Government assassinated him.

India is, of course, denying it.

So who was Niijar? Why would anyone — much less the Indian Government — want to kill him?

And is there more to this story than meets the eye?

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Why Modi picked a fight over India's true name

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 16:00:00 -0000

When world leaders received their invitations to the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi, everyone got a bit of a surprise. It referred to Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of Bharat, not India.

The debate over the naming of India stretches back nearly 80 years, and tells an important story about the country's history.

And Modi's new push for a change in the constitution is just the latest in a series of political fights centred on race, religion and unity in India.

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The race to build a petrol station on the moon

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 15:00:00 -0000

The US, Russia, China and India are all sending missions to the moon — and all to its totally unexplored south pole.

Why? Well, in order to make the next giant leap, we need to build a petrol station on the moon.

How a discovery made a century ago will allow us to use the moon as a stepping stone to explore the solar system.

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Is the century-long search for a weight loss drug over?

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 15:00:00 -0000

For a century society has bullied and shamed people into trying to lose weight, without much result.

Now, a seemingly accidental discovery by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk may be the first weight loss drug that actually works.

People are hailing semaglutide, marketed under the names Ozempic or Wegovy, as a miracle weight loss drug — but it comes at a cost.

One clear winner is the Danish economy, as semaglutide has shot Novo Nordisk into the stratosphere as the most valuable company in all of Europe.

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China cooked its population data. Now its economy is in crisis

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 15:00:00 -0000

China's economy is struggling. Similar things are happening across Asia but in China it's happening extremely fast.

And a big part of the reason why is the disastrous One Child Policy and years of dodgy population data.

How can you make plans for a country when you don't know how many people you have?

Now the population is going backward, the property sector is faltering, and China is in a world of trouble.

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Why is Russia meddling in West Africa?

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 15:00:00 -0000

While everyone has their eyes on the war in Ukraine, West Africa is threatening to break out into war.

There's been a seemingly unstoppable wave of coups washing along the edge of the Sahara, gaining strength each time.

After the recent military coup in Niger, locals were seen chanting "down with France" and "long live Putin".

What are France and Russia doing in West Africa? And could they end up in a proxy war?

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How microchip-maker TSMC became the world's most important company

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 15:00:00 -0000

Microchips are in your car, your microwave — there might even be one in your kettle. They run everything.

And the best microchips are made by TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

TSMC chips have put Western tech companies and militaries streets ahead of China, and China is not happy about it.

TSMC is so important, that the world could go to war over it.

Find more If You're Listening on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tC3u8NEqU8&t

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The decision that saved Australia from Argentina's 100 per cent inflation nightmare

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 15:00:00 -0000

Inflation in Argentina is at 100 per cent. The government is printing money fast and locals are spending in US dollars because the peso is so unreliable. The economy is like a rollercoaster.

It might be tempting to think, "they're different over there", but here's the thing: they're kind of not. Argentina — one of the wealthiest countries in the world — was once uncomfortably similar to Australia. Until it totally lost control of its own economy.

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How a bunch of boxes might land Trump in prison

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 15:00:00 -0000

Donald Trump has been charged with trying and failing to delete CCTV evidence of farcical, and allegedly criminal behaviour.

It's just the latest charge in the case against the former president over his… interesting decision to take classified documents with him when he left the White House.

Could it land him in jail? We tell the story of how Trump got into this predicament, and his plan to get out of it.

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How "General Armageddon" and a bromance almost brought down Vladimir Putin

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 15:00:00 -0000

A bromance is a powerful thing. Lennon and McCartney. Holmes and Watson. Gilbert and Sullivan. Han and Chewy. But occasionally a bromance can nearly get you killed.

A month ago the entire world watched transfixed as a former chef named Yevgeny Prigozhin marched with his private army on Moscow. At the core of this mutiny is a bromance between Prigozhin and a guy you've probably never heard of — General Sergei Surovikin.

Prigozhin assumed his friend Surovikin would back him up, but he flaked, and now both men are missing. So how did Prigozhin's bromance with Surovikin nearly bring down the Russian Government? And what's the punishment for even thinking about trying to roll Vladimir Putin?

We now make a video version of If You're Listening! Check us out on YouTube and iView.

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INTRODUCING | If You're Listening

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 15:00:00 -0000

If You're Listening is back, and better than ever. Same espionage, same corruptions, same scandals, but more often.

Not only will we be in your feed every Thursday, we'll also cover a different story each week. And if you prefer to watch rather than listen, we're also making videos for iView and YouTube.

Episode one drops Thursday, 27th July.

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RUSSIA | S07 E6 - How will the war against Ukraine end?

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:01:00 -0000

After ten months of war, a few likely outcomes of the war in Ukraine are emerging.

A win for Vladimir Putin. A win for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A bitter frozen conflict.

Neither Putin or Zelenskyy will sign a peace agreement and admit defeat.

But what if Putin’s regime ends?

Guests:

Dr Paul Dibb - Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at ANU; Former Director of the Australian Joint Intelligence Organisation
Lieutenant General (retired) Ben Hodges - former commanding general of the US Army in Europe
Dr Mykhailo Minakov - Philosopher; Editor in Chief of Focus Ukraine blog from the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center
Michael Bociurkiw - Global Affairs Analyst and former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
Philip Short - Former BBC Moscow Correspondent; Author of Putin: His Life and Times
Professor Daniel Treisman, University of California, Los Angeles, co-author “Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century”

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RUSSIA | S07 E5 - Has Putin finally pushed the Russian people too far?

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 14:01:00 -0000

Protest is not allowed inside Russia.

There was little resistance from the Russian people to the invasion of Ukraine, and those who didn’t like it simply left.

But Vladimir Putin has made a decree that has caused discord across Russia. Has he finally pushed his people too far?

Guests:

Zoya Sheftalovich - Contributing editor for POLITICO
Dr Christina Ezrahi - Historian; author of Swans of the Kremlin and Dancing for Stalin
Denis Volkov - Director - Levada Centre, Moscow
Dr Yevgenia Albats - Chief Editor of The New Times
Dr Mykhailo Minakov - Philosopher; Editor in Chief of Focus Ukraine blog from the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center

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RUSSIA | S07 E4 - Undersea sabotage? The mysterious pipe blasts

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 14:01:00 -0000

On 26 September, a series of underwater explosions destroyed a cluster of natural gas pipelines on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

The pipes were designed to deliver gas directly from Russia to Germany, and the explosions exacerbated the already dire energy crisis in Europe.

Everyone agrees it was sabotage, but nobody can agree on who did it.

Today: the mystery of the Baltic Sea bubbles, and the story of how Germany’s plan for peace-through-capitalism blew up in their face.

Featuring:

Dr James Henderson - Chairman of the Gas Research Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
Michael Bociurkiw - Global Affairs Analyst and former spokesperson for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe

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RUSSIA | S07 E3 - Why it’s hard to fight when you don’t know why

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 14:01:00 -0000

What does war look like on the ground, for the soldiers who go off to fight? What’s it like to be sent into the muddy confusion of a battlefield, asked to lay down your life for your country?

In this episode: two soldiers. A Ukrainian in his 50s and a Russian in his 20s. One of them is still on the battlefield. The other fought for a week, and is now serving a 15 year prison sentence.

These two stories explain a lot about how Russia messed this up, and how Ukraine was far stronger than anyone realised.

Guests:

Isabella Higgins - ABC News Europe Correspondent
Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop - ABC News Investigative Reporter
Taras Rodtseyvich - Ukrainian Territorial Defence Volunteer; IT Manager
Dr Paul Dibb - Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at ANU; Former Director of the Australian Joint Intelligence Organisation
Zoya Sheftalovich - contributing editor for POLITICO
POW interview audio courtesy of Volodymyr Zolkin

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RUSSIA S07 E2 | Zelensky's big call: run away or stay to fight

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 14:01:00 -0000

Vladimir Putin's plan for a three day takeover of Ukraine relied on a quick strike to take out Volodymyr Zelenskyy - to kill him, to capture him, or to make him flee.

Putin assumed that Zelenskyy was weak, but on the very first day of the invasion, two events showed that Putin was wrong, and led to the transformation of a man into a symbol of defiance against Russian tyranny.

Guests:

Simon Shuster - Reporter for Time Magazine; author of an upcoming biography of Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Zoya Sheftalovich - contributing editor for POLITICO
Philip Short - Former BBC Moscow Correspondent; Author of Putin: His Life and Times
Dr Paul Dibb - Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at ANU; Former Director of the Australian Joint Intelligence Organisation
POW interview audio courtesy of Volodymyr Zolkin

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RUSSIA | S07 E1 - How war weakened strongman Putin

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 14:00:00 -0000

For 20 years the Russian President Vladimir Putin was happy to lurk in the shadows, trying and occasionally succeeding to manipulate the rest of the world into doing what he wanted them to do.

But this year he chucked that out the window.

His invasion of Ukraine has turned global security and the global economy upside down. In this episode we ask, why did he do it?

Guests:

Philip Short - Former BBC Moscow Correspondent; Author of Putin: His Life and Times
Dr Yevgenia Albats - Chief Editor of The New Times
Dr Mykhailo Minakov - Philosopher; Editor in Chief of Focus Ukraine blog from the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center
Dr Paul Dibb - Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at ANU; Former Director of the Australian Joint Intelligence Organisation
Simon Shuster - Reporter for Time Magazine; author of an upcoming biography of Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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RUSSIA | 07 INTRODUCING Russia, If You're Listening series seven

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 14:01:00 -0000

In the seventh season of If You're Listening, we tell the story of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Will Putin fulfil his dream of expanding the Russian empire, or has he made the biggest mistake of his life? Episode 1 drops Wednesday November 9!

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E8 - The 49-year-old energy prophecy that is finally coming true

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 18:01:00 -0000

Australia is now in a race to build enough renewable energy to replace our coal fired power stations before they close.

We’re in this situation because of a series of ignored warnings and missed opportunities over the last five decades.

Now, experts are telling us that the transition to a decarbonised economy presents a big opportunity for Australia. The question is - can we grasp it?

Guests:

Dr Alan Finkel - Commonwealth government energy advisor and former Australian Chief Scientist

Alison Reeve - Deputy Program Director of Energy and Climate at the Grattan Institute; former Commonwealth energy policy advisor; author of the National Hydrogen Plan

Dr Kerry Schott - Independent chair of the Energy Security Board

Scott Hamilton - Australia-German Energy Transition Hub & former energy policy advisor to federal and Victorian governments

Dr Ross Garnaut - Economist, Author of Superpower: Australia's Low Carbon Opportunity

Dr Marcia Langton - Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne

Robert Hill - former Federal Environment Minister

Dr Graeme Pearman - Former Chief of Atmospheric Research, CSIRO

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E7 - The countdown on coal fired power

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 18:01:00 -0000

Over the last five years, politicians in Australia and around the world have regularly tried to blame renewable energy whenever something goes wrong with our electricity supply.

But lately whenever something catastrophic has happened to our energy supply, it’s been old technology at fault.

This is the story of a series of disasters that show how the system we’ve always relied on to deliver electricity is faltering.

Guests:Dr Alan Finkel - Commonwealth government energy advisor and former Australian Chief Scientist

Wendy Farmer - Latrobe Valley resident and founder of “Voices of the Valley”

Alison Reeve - Deputy Program Director of Energy and Climate at the Grattan Institute; former Commonwealth energy policy advisor; author of the National Hydrogen Plan

Darren Chester - Federal MP for Gippsland

Dr Kerry Schott - Independent chair of the Energy Security Board

Scott Hamilton - Australia-German Energy Transition Hub & former energy policy advisor to federal and Victorian governments

Ian Macfarlane - Chief Executive of Queensland Resources Council & former federal resources minister

Graham Richardson - Former Federal Environment Minister

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E6 - Can we keep digging for energy?

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 17:01:00 -0000

Australia has always found energy underground - digging up coal, gas and uranium.

As climate change begins to change the way we get our power, our leaders regularly argue that we can keep on digging for power while also saving the planet.

But do nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage, and gas fired power have a role to play in the future?

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E5 - What we missed while we were knifing PMs

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 17:01:00 -0000

For more than a decade, Australian politicians have discovered - the hard way - that climate policy is a dangerous game.

But as the Federal Parliament tore itself apart, the rest of the world moved on, finding new ways to understand the effects of climate change, and deal with it.

This is the story of how Australia fell behind the rest of the world, and why we might finally be ready to catch up.

Guests:

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E4 - The decade when climate change became a culture war

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:01:00 -0000

In 1997, the debate over climate change in Australia was relatively civil.

The question was not whether climate change was happening, but what should be done about it?

In the following decade, Australia’s mining industry polluted the debate with misinformation.

This is the story of how Australia's understanding of this vital issue went backwards.

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E3 - How long will the world want our coal?

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 17:01:00 -0000

Australia intends to keep exporting coal for as long as there are countries willing to buy it.

Miners have grand dreams of establishing new coal regions in Queensland to supply coal to the power stations and steel mills of India.

But how much longer will India, and our other big coal customers, keep needing it?

Guests:

Neelima Jain, Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies

Mika Ohbayashi, Director of the Renewable Energy Institute, Tokyo

Mary Delahunty, Head of Impact at Hesta

Ian Macfarlane, Chief Executive of Queensland Resources Council & former federal resources minister

Dr Judith Brett - Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University, author of the Quarterly Essay The Coal Curse

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E2 - How we became addicted to coal

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 17:00:00 -0000

Australia’s second-oldest city, Newcastle, was built around a single resource - coal.

Since then, Australia has come to rely on coal for its prosperity. Our industries grew around the cheap energy it provided, and our global trade balance relies on its export.

But now, that has to end. The question is - what will happen to Australia, and its coal communities - when it does?

Guests:

Professor John Maynard, Emeritus Professor, Indigenous Education and Research, University of Newcastle

Dr Judith Brett - Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University, author of the Quarterly Essay The Coal Curse

Julie Baird - Director of Newcastle Museum

Stephen Galilee - CEO of the NSW Minerals Council

Scott Hamilton, Australia-German Energy Transition Hub & former energy policy advisor to federal and Victorian governments

Wendy Farmer - Voices of the Valley

Darren Chester - Federal Nationals Member for Gippsland

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AUSTRALIA | S06 E1 - The legacy of our first decisions on climate change

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 17:00:00 -0000

In 1987, scientists gathered in Melbourne for a landmark conference where they discussed, for the first time, the effects climate change might have on Australia.

In the decade after that, two decisions were made by federal governments - one Liberal, and one Labor - which have shaped the climate debate in this country ever since.

Australia, If You’re Listening will look at why Australia’s found it so hard to tackle climate change since then, and what that means for the future.

Guests:Dr Graeme Pearman - Former Chief of Atmospheric Research, CSIRO

Graham Richardson - former Federal Environment Minister

Ros Kelly - former Federal Environment Minister

Robert Hill - former Federal Environment Minister

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INTRODUCING Season Six | Australia, If You're Listening

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:01:00 -0000

The sixth season of If You’re Listening tells the story of Australia’s turbulent history with climate change, and what that means for the future.

As we approach a federal election where climate and energy is a key battleground, this 8 episode series will examine how Australia wasted decades fighting change, instead of capitalising on it.

Episode 1 launches on February 23.

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CHINA | S05 06 - Are the 'drums of war' beating over Taiwan?

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 18:01:00 -0000

For months commentators and politicians in Australia have been talking about one of the most frightening topics imaginable — a war between the United States and China over the island of Taiwan.

It's the last frozen remnant of a hundred year old Civil War — two governments both claiming to be the legitimate rulers of China, separated by 100 miles of ocean.

In this episode, we explain the bizarre story which led to the current tension, and look at what might happen next.

Guests:

Katherine Wei, Taiwan Correspondent, The Straits Times

Malcolm Turnbull, former Australian Prime Minister

Dr Helen Sham-ho OAM, first Chinese-born MP in an Australian parliament

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CHINA | S05 05 - Chinese students: Commodity or opportunity?

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 18:01:00 -0000

When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the shutdown of travel from China, it shone a harsh light on the way Australia treats Chinese students who come here to study.

Some feel isolated and discriminated against, others feel they are being treated as "cash cows" by a university sector desperate for their fees.

Can we do better? And can we handle it when problems arise inside the bubble we have created around Chinese students?

Guests:

Dr Fran Martin, associate Professor & Reader in Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne

Catriona Jackson, CEO, Universities Australia

Yaqiu Wang, researcher, Human Rights Watch

'Yuki', former University of Adelaide student

Jane Poon, Australia-Hong Kong Link

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CHINA | S05 04 - Huawei and the new technology cold war

Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:01:00 -0000

From humble beginnings in a tiny town whose name means "deep drainage ditch", electrical engineer Ren Zhengfei grew his company Huawei into a global technology giant, delivering competitive telecommunications equipment at low prices.

But when Australia accused Huawei of being a security risk, a snowball began to roll which led to arrests, hostages being taken, and pure white hot fury in Beijing.

This is the story of how a decision made in the midst of a Prime Ministerial spill may lead to a new technology cold war.

Guests:

Sue-Lin Wong, China correspondent, The Economist and co-author of The Beijing Bureau: 25 Australian Correspondents Reporting China's Rise

Malcolm Turnbull, former Australian Prime Minister

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CHINA | S05 03 - The iron chain between Australia and China

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 18:01:00 -0000

When China rolled out their trade sanctions regime against Australia to try and punish us for a litany of perceived insults, the trade of one commodity was conspicuously left untouched.

China's desperate need to stimulate economic growth through construction has left them with an insatiable appetite for Australian iron ore.

In this episode, we look at the incredible things they've built using our most valuable resource, and what might happen if they decide to stop buying it.

Guests:

Dinny McMahon, author of China's Great Wall of Debt: Shadow Banks, Ghost Cities, Massive Loans and the End of the Chinese Miracle

Dr Feng Chongyi, Associate Professor in China Studies, University of Technology, Sydney

Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime Minister

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CHINA | S05 Bonus episode - The story behind Bob Hawke’s mysterious Tiananmen Cable

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:01:00 -0000

In 1989, five days after tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in Beijing and brutally ended weeks of protests, the then prime minister Bob Hawke gave a horrifying description of what Australia thought happened.

But where did the account come from? And what did it get wrong?

Over the past three months China, If You're Listening investigated the source of this description and found it was a previously undisclosed diplomatic cable from the Australian Embassy in Beijing, which subsequently had key details retracted.

This is a bonus episode, produced with our friends at The Signal — a daily ABC News podcast.

Guests:

Blanche d'Alpuget, biographer and wife of late former prime minister Bob Hawke

Richard Rigby, Emeritus Professor of the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra

Craig Emerson, former advisor to Bob Hawke, and cabinet minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments

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CHINA | S05 02 - How Tiananmen is being repeated in Xinjiang

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 18:01:00 -0000

For decades Australia has taken the approach that when it comes to China; we can criticise their human rights record without risking our trading relationship.

We told China we disapproved of their crackdown on students at Tiananmen Square in 1989, but continued to sell them iron ore.

Xi Jinping has made it clear that the arrangement has now changed, as he simultaneously takes the lessons Beijing learned at Tiananmen, and applies them to a crackdown on Muslims in his country's far west.

Guests:

Rose Tang, 1989 Tiananmen Square protester

Alim Osman, president, Uyghur Association of Victoria

Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime Minister

Yaqiu Wang, researcher, Human Rights Watch

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CHINA | S05 01 - Xi Jinping: The 'Man of Destiny'

Mon, 31 May 2021 18:01:00 -0000

At first glance, Chinese President Xi Jinping's life story seems simple. His father was a high-ranking Chinese government official, and opened doors for his son, who rose even higher.

But his rise to become the most powerful Chinese leader since Chairman Mao Zedong seems far more unlikely when you find out what Mao's policies did to Xi's family during his childhood.

In this episode we tell the story of Xi's — from its terrifying beginning to mysterious end — and ask if he is the catalyst for the deterioration of relations between China and Australia.

Guest:

Dr Joseph Torigian, expert on Chinese elite politics, American University

Dr Feng Chongyi — Associate Professor in China Studies — University of Technology, Sydney

Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime Minister

Louisa Lim, author of The People's Republic of Amnesia and co-host of The Little Red Podcast

Dr Helen Sham-ho OAM, first Chinese-born MP in an Australian Parliament

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INTRODUCING Season Five | China, If You’re Listening

Mon, 24 May 2021 18:00:00 -0000

A podcast about how the relationship between Australia and China came to the verge of collapse.

Not long ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping was regularly having warm, friendly chats with Australia's Prime Ministers.

Now, he won't even take our phone calls, trade is being blocked, and Australian politicians are talking about preparations for war.

Episode 1 coming on the 1st of June.

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