Saturday Extra - Separate Stories Podcast

Some of the world’s busiest ports have been hit with Covid closures and recently in Los Angeles between 70 and 80 container vessels were sitting off the coast waiting to unload. 

A recent investigation sheds light on the Covid-related waste crisis plaguing countries across Southeast Asia, and hints at a growing global scourge. Plus, as some Australian states cross the vaccination threshold required to re-open, what might we learn from Singapore’s own experience of living with Covid-19?

Catherine Fisher, author of Sound Citizens: Australian Women Broadcasters Claim their Voice, 1923–1956 explores how a cohort of professional women broadcasters, activists and politicians used radio to improve women’s status in Australia from the introduction of radio in 1923 until the introduction of television in 1956.

After listener feedback on the challenge of navigating a world where everything is now done via a smartphone 'app', we get some practical advice on where you can go for help with building digital skills and, most urgently, getting your digital vaccination certificate. Guest: Jess Wilson, CEO of Good Things Foundation Australia. Important information Good Things Foundation Australia helpline: 1300 795 897 Be Connected (free online courses): www.beconnected.esafety.gov.au Advice on getting proof of COVID-19 vaccination: www.servicesaustralia.gov.au

It’s a tough time to assume the leadership of any organisation, let alone the country’s first charity - the Benevolent Society.   During the pandemic the Benevolent society has been forced to significantly its practitioners assist Australia's most vulnerable citizens.

It’s rare that something is experienced by the whole world at the same time, but that’s what’s happening with this pandemic. Professor of Globalisation at Oxford University, Ian Goldin, joins us to argue this a unique opportunity to push governments to do things differently and usher in a new era.

Allan Gyngell, former diplomat and author of the newly updated Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942, reflects on the significance of the trilateral AUKUS agreement and the challenges it throws up for Australian foreign policy going forward.

Gladys Berejiklian has resigned on Friday morning, hours after the Independent Commission Against Corruption announced she was being investigated by the corruption watchdog.

How has Australia changed the Pacific and how has the Pacific, in turn, changed Australia? Australia's relationship with the region, spanning the continental shifts of 5 million years ago to now and pressing issues of climate change, is the subject of a new book by historian Ian Hoskins.

As the Chinese Communist Party gears up for 20th Party Congress in 2022, Beijing is implementing sweeping changes across a host of industries and parts of society. Is there a common motive, a ‘red thread’, running through these changes? And what do they suggest about where China might be heading, as geopolitical tensions in the region continue to mount?

House prices are almost 20 percent higher than at the start of the pandemic and show few signs of plateauing.  Interest rates are forecast to stay low and Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe, says we need to look at structural reform to address the issue.   So what can be done to improve the lot of Millennials and Generation Y in their struggle to break into an increasingly expensive housing market?

More than one million children globally have lost a parent to COVID-19. We look at the situation these children face in India and the United States, and whether there are lessons from the HIV/AIDS epidemic that can be applied to help them lead healthy lives.

About seven million Australian low literacy -meaning they're often not able to read a text message, decipher the destination of a train or bus, or to use the internet.   A new three part documentary series by SBS "Lost for Words" follows eight brave Australians taking on a life-changing opportunity to transform their lives in an intensive nine-week adult literacy program.

After a year of political instability, Lebanon is experiencing one of the worst economic crises in modern history. Dwindling supplies of fuel and medicine have pushed the country's health system to the edge of collapse. Joao Martins, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) head of mission in Lebanon, discusses the situation and his concerns for sustaining essential health care services in the country.

For more than 16 years German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been at the very heart of European and world politics.  As she readies to depart politics we take a look at the legacy she leaves behind – and who will lead Germany into the future.   

The Hunter region in New South Wales is of course famously a coal hub, but the writing is on the wall for coal, though that may take decades to happen. However, already some of the region’s businesses are already preparing for that shift, led by global supply chain moves towards zero emission production.

It's the biggest strategic decision by an Australian government since the ANZUS Treaty in 1951, and it will have ramifications that last for generations. How is the announcement of the AUKUS trilateral partnership likely to play out in domestic politics, as we head towards a federal election?

Roger Federer has played tennis at the top level into his late 30s, is loved worldwide and considered a genial gentleman of the game. What's the secret to his endurance, and what sets him apart from other players?

Two decades after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the memories of those terrible events still loom large in the national psyche. On the 20th anniversary of September 11, three American commentators from across the political spectrum reflect on the cultural legacy of September 11, and the lasting impacts it has had on the United States.

Last Friday, Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga announced that he will not seek re-election as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) later this month, which will effectively end his tenure in the top job after only one year. Why is he stepping down and what will this abrupt decision mean for politics in Japan?