Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Australia's Indigenous Desert Alliance has been named a finalist in The Earthshot Prize for their work protecting desert habitat across 270 million hectares. The alliance of 70 Indigenous ranger groups has one of the world's leading cultural burning programs and supports threatened species including the Great Desert skink, bilby and night parrot. The Earthshot Prize was founded by Prince William in 2020 to recognise initiatives that find solutions to the planet's greatest environmental challenges. Guest: Samantha Murray, CEO Indigenous Desert Alliance.

Next week, world leaders will meet at UN Headquarters in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Leaders like Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Anthony Albanese are set to speak, against a backdrop of an increasingly sidelined and underfunded UN. Topics are likely to range from AI to climate change to conflict in the Middle East to preparing for the next pandemic.

Paul Keating's ambition was to liberate Australia from our remaining attachments to Britain, achieve reconciliation, and reorient the nation in the Asian region. After unprecedented access to the former prime minister's papers, and a series of interviews, James Curran explores Keating's long-term vision for Australia.

The former prime minister Kevin Rudd has warned that there is an urgent need for intergovernmental regulation of AI. Ahead of next week's meeting in Washington between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, what could a set of guardrails look like, and how would both the US and China be involved?

Come from Away is a musical which tells the story of nearly 7,000 airline passengers who were stranded in the small Canadian town of Gander, Newfoundland, after the September 11 attacks. This week The New York Times dubbed it "the most enduring piece of 9/11 art." As part of our coverage of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we spoke with the Canadian husband and wife who co-wrote the musical.

In the latest Quarterly Essay, one of Australia's leading public intellectuals tries to make sense of what's happening through a philosophical prism. In particular, he looks at the crisis of liberalism, a collection of ideas which has shaped politics and society since the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century.

This week, an Anthropic researcher resigned over concerns that the technology could kill us all by the end of the decade. As AI developers weighed in supporting his prediction, many are asking if AI power is rapidly slipping out of human hands. Meanwhile in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese introduced a draft digital duty of care bill that would allow social media users to opt out of the algorithm. As courts and governments across the globe try to wrestle back control of the algorithm, is Meta finally facing a global reckoning?

Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks, their impact continues to be felt in New York, across America and around the world. To mark the anniversary, we spoke with Lawrence Wright, whose acclaimed book The Looming Tower traces the rise of al-Qaeda and the events that culminated in the attacks.

Get ready, another season of 'nest-flix' is beginning. Melbourne's peregrine falcon camera is back, meaning people can watch a live feed of a peregrine falcon nest, high up in the city's CBD.

There are seats up for grabs at one of the world's most important tables, and Australia is putting up its hand to join. At the United Nations later this month, Anthony Albanese will be spearheading an attempt to join the Security Council for a two-year term that would begin in 2029. The last time Australia was on the council was between 2013 and 2014.

When politicians make announcements wearing hi-vis and hard hats they are making a terrible miscalculation about who Australian voters really are, says one of Australia's great journalists George Megalogenis. Three major shocks have redefined the Australian electorate, and yet for decades politics has failed to keep up, with both major parties operating on outdated assumptions.

At the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Palau this week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced $600 million to combat drug trafficking. The deal promises increased aerial surveillance across the Pacific, improved maritime capability, and additional training and support for police. As crime and HIV spirals out of control in countries like Fiji, will the investment be enough to squash the rapidly escalating illicit trade?

Germany has blamed the Kremlin for attempting a drone attack at Leipzig airport last month targeting a Ukrainian plane. The heads of NATO and the European Commission have warned Russia is growing increasingly reckless and vowed to respond to a dangerous "new normal."

What's the first sweet thing you remember eating? Comedian Jennifer Wong is a keen observer of Australia's changing tastes, and she's found that starting a conversation with food quickly leads it to surprising and profound places. She joins Nick to share her best last things.

The rise of One Nation has been one of the biggest political stories in Australia this year. But who exactly are the people behind the surging polling numbers? This week, a survey of 1,014 One Nation supporters shed some light on the kind of people getting on board with the party. One finding was 91 per cent believed the country is heading in the wrong direction. For all voters, this is 62 per cent. The survey was run by pollster John Utting and Labor strategist Bruce Hawker.

There was sad news this week from Nashville, Tennessee, the home of the undisputed Queen of Country, Dolly Parton. Regular listeners will know that we were big Dolly fans, in fact we tried to get her to come on the show on July 4th, to mark America’s 250th birthday. We did that partly because in the disunited states of America, she was a unifying figure. We’ve been looking back on an extraordinary American life, in her words, and in her songs.

An Australian start-up company has been developing a drag-reducing adhesive film for use on aircraft which helps reduce fuel and lower emissions. And it was all inspired by a shark.

The US has launched a campaign to cripple Iran's economy by cutting off its remaining economic lifelines. The Treasury sanctioned more than 60 entities, including Chinese firms, but fell short of placing more forceful sanctions directly on China.

Washington and Ottawa are locked in a tariff tit-for-tat after trade talks collapsed earlier this week. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are potentially at stake on both sides of the border.

Nepal and Tibet are still reeling from the catastrophic flash floods that hit the Himalaya region earlier this week. The images coming from the disaster have been shocking: Bridges swept away, highways destroyed, entire villages engulfed by torrents of mud and water. As more details of the disaster continue to emerge, we speak with a journalist on the ground there.