Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Before 24-hour news, Washington’s most powerful journalists got their scoops over dinner — with generals, senators and senior officials. These invitation-only gatherings created a privileged pipeline between the press and the people running America’s Cold War. Guest: Kathryn McGarr, Associate Professor at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Madison, Wisconsin. Producer: Ali Benton

As Australia grapples with a surging illicit tobacco trade, the Coalition and One Nation have called for a substantial cut to Australia's tax on legal tobacco. Professor of Public Health Becky Freeman says the tobacco industry continues to wield significant political influence. Guest: Professor Becky Freeman, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

Europe is a land of legendary rivers. For centuries, they've fed cities, transported great armies and powered modern industry. But this summer, after a series of exceptional heatwaves, the Rhine, Danube, Loire and Po have all shrunk to record lows. Ben Coates, author of a 2019 book about the Rhine, discusses what the drying up of Europe’s rivers means for the continent and its future. Guest: Ben Coates, journalist and columnist based in the Netherlands. Ben is the author of The Rhine: following Europe's greatest river from Amsterdam to the Alps His article about Europe's dying rivers is here Producers: Ann Arnold and Julie Street

Since AI started being used by journalists in newsrooms around the world, there have been a number of high-profile publications that have made some rather embarrassing mistakes. Some have misquoted political leaders because AI simply made up and attributed statements to politicians who never said those words. Malicious actors are setting up fake news websites for AI to capture when it sweeps the internet for information. AI is also being used to generate fake videos that are alarmingly difficult to detect. Europe has just released an AI Act in an attempt to regulate what is being produced by big tech companies - and they don't like it. So as the ABC rolls out Anthropic's AI tool, Claude, and is about to trial the use of AI to help write digital news articles based on radio bulletins , LNL looks at whether AI is a tool that will give journalists super powers, or a slippery slope to AI slop at best, and dangerous misinformation at worst. Guest: Liz Corbin, Director of News, European Broadcasting Union Producer: Catherine Zengerer

During the Cold War, the US had 17 military bases across Greenland. Most were eventually abandoned, but now Washington wants to get its hands back on one. Narsarsuaq is a former American air base in the south, where historian Ole Guldager has documented the history of the American military presence. Guest: Ole Guldager, historian, curator at Narsarsuaq Air Base Museum, and author, Americans in Greenland in World War Two Producer: Ali Benton

Nearly a thousand trees are being cut down in Adelaide's heritage listed parklands to make way for a re-developed golf course and the MotoGP motorcycle race . A federal court case is underway , challenging the removal of certain trees due to both their heritage value and their significance to local Indigenous people. A parliamentary inquiry is also underway after more than 43,000 people signed a petition opposing the developments and thousands took to the streets of Adelaide, calling on the Premier to 'stop the chop'. But Peter Malinauskas is pushing ahead with the plans, citing the economic development opportunities they bring to the state. Some analysts are suggesting the SA government's aim is in fact to appeal to One Nation voters in Labor seats. Guest: Greg Mackie, Former CEO, SA History Trust, former Adelaide City Councillor Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Bruce Shapiro reflects on the life of American feminist icon Gloria Steinem, and how many of the things she fought for are now under attack. As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has said he would be offended if Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends the commemoration at Ground Zero, in what Bruce says is a reflection of the legacy of Islamophobia resulting from the terrorist attack. Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with The Nation magazine and Director of the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma Producer: Catherine Zengerer

The idea that everything in nature is interconnected comes largely from the German philosopher, geographer, naturalist and explorer, Alexander von Humboldt. After a scientific expedition to the Americas at the turn of the 19th century, Humboldt came to realise that nature existed in interconnected ecological zones, and that humans were not nature’s overloads, but part of nature itself, something which profoundly challenged religious beliefs about man’s place in the world. His observations were published in five volumes called Kosmos, a scientific work which would have a significant influence on evolutionary thinkers like Charles Darwin, and would ultimately kick off the ecology movement. Guest: Dalia Nassar , Professor of Philosophy at The University of Sydney, author of Romantic Empiricism – nature, art and ecology from Herder to Humboldt, published by Oxford University Press, and host, The Wednesday Society podcast Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Four years on, Giorgia Meloni has done what few Italian leaders manage: stay in power. But has her right-wing revolution really materialised — and how secure is her grip ahead of the 2027 election? Guest: Lorenzo Pregliasco, Political analyst, Adjunct Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Producer: Ali Benton

Anna Henderson discusses the political impact on the government of falling house prices, whether One Nation's superannuation policy is a vote winner and the response to Nationals' leader Matt Canavan's statement on the so-called 'feminisation of the curriculum'. Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS

For 80 years (1848-1928), the Queensland Native Mounted Police operated as a paramilitary force on Australia's frontier, with Aboriginal troopers under white command dispatched to suppress Indigenous resistance. The new book, Buried, shares the findings of a four-year project to locate, record and excavate the campsites of the Mounted Police, painting a more detailed picture of their activities - both violent and mundane. Guest: Heather Burke, Professor of Archaeology at Flinders University, co-author of Buried: Archaeology, frontier conflict and the Queensland Native Mounted Police (Sydney University Press), with co-authors Lynley A Wallis; and Bryce Barker

The quest to create enjoyable, successful lab-grown meat has been pursued over the past decade or two, by entrepreneurs around the globe who can see the potential for big rewards. But they have not, so far, been able to create the desired product. A reporter dives into the world of meat cells and venture capitalists. Guest: Erin Somers, writer, essayist, critic and novelist. Author of 'Where's the beef', the cover story of the September edition of Harper's Magazine. Producer: Ann Arnold

Amidst the chaos of the Khmer Rouge genocide and Cambodia’s civil war, a new crime wave emerged. Sacred temples across Cambodia were looted by smugglers and priceless treasures of the Khmer Empire were trafficked into the hands of elite collectors. At the centre of it all was a British expat named Douglas Latchford, aka “Dynamite Doug.” A new book explores how Latchford orchestrated one of history’s most brutal cultural heists, flooding the international art market with stolen antiquities from the Killing Fields. Guest: Matthew Campbell, reporter and editor for Bloomberg Businessweek. Author of The Man Who Stole the Gods: A True Story of War, Obsession and a Global Art Conspiracy Producer: Julie Street

Rogue corporations commit terrible harms. They kill, addict and ruin on a huge scale - and often get away with it. A new book 'Corporate harms: a horror story' draws on the horror genre to highlight the dual horrors of corporate malfeasance: the harms done, and the harms multiplied when the law fails to address them. Guest: Penny Crofts, Professor of Law at UTS, co-author with Dr Honni van Rijswijk of Corporate harms: a horror story

Lesbia Harford was one of the first women to graduate as a lawyer from Melbourne University in the First World War, but followed her socialist ideals by working as a machinist in a factory. She went on to become one of the first female trade union leaders in Australia and a leader in the anti-war, anti-conscription movement. All the time she wrote poetry, mostly about love for both men and women, but also about the conditions for workers and the impact of war. Lesbia's poems were frank and fearless, and startlingly modern - a far leap from the flowery, archaic forms of the time. Her work was largely unpublished during her short lifetime, or for years after, but those who discovered her found her work profoundly relatable. “Lesbia’s was a radical poetry of everyday life, accessible but intellectually sumptuous, and quite unlike what anyone else was writing,” says academic and author, Jeff Sparrow, who has written the first full biography of her life. Guest: Jeff Sparrow, author, ‘ Somewhere Here the Future's Hid - the Extraordinary Life of Lesbia Harford’ published by Monash University Publishing Producer: Catherine Zengerer

A bloody reshuffle for Britain’s Conservatives — is Kemi Badenoch taking the party further to the right? Andy Burnham faces his first week back in parliament as Prime Minister, and the UK turns up the pressure on Israel over its plans to expand West Bank settlements. Guest Ian Dunt: iNews columnist and regular LNL commentator Producer: Ali Benton

We all carry GPS technology around in our pockets. But there’s a lot more to the 'Global Positioning System' than meets the eye. GPS was originally conceived as a military product, one designed to drop enormously powerful bombs with staggering precision. It now underwrites everything from rideshares to traffic light systems, international banking and supply chains. Our over-reliance on it makes us incredibly vulnerable. Guest: Katherine Dunn, journalist and author. Her new book is Little Blue Dot: How the Global Positioning System Shaped the Modern World Producer: Julie Street

In October, the citizens of Alberta will vote in a referendum to decide whether the province should proceed with a process to separate from the federation of Canada. The vote exposes fractures in one of the world's most stable federations, but is there any real prospect of secession, anytime soon? Guest: Andrea Lawlor, Associate Professor in political science, McMaster University, Ontario Producer: Jack Schmidt

Anna Henderson discusses One Nation's historic win in Western Australia, securing its first lower house seat in the state for candidate Luke Herdegen., and what the latest polling shows about the issues One Nation voters care about most. Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS

Early last century, Alice Duncan-Kemp grew up on a remote Queensland cattle station. Later she would write down her childhood memories of learning from Aboriginal women and men at home on their own Country. Historian and writer Tom Griffiths examines - and corroborates - Alice's revelatory encounters. Guest: Tom Griffiths, author of 'Alice's dreaming' (2026)