ABC New South Wales |  The Conversation Hour

The Conversation Hour

Host of Conversations Richard Fidler

On The Conversation Hour, you'll get to know great Australians and international guests as they share their life stories with Richard Fidler. The Conversation Hour is your opportunity to enjoy a good conversation.

Our latest innovation is a podcast of the current program which you can subscribe to it via an RSS feed. If you want to subscribe to the podcast, you need to copy and paste the link below into your podcasting application.

http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/conversations/conversationspodcast.xml

This podcast allows you to hear the latest show in a downloadable, quality format. For help, check out our Podcasting page.

Do you know a good storyteller? They don't have to be famous, just an ordinary person with an extraordinary tale. Send us your suggestions here

Latest Conversations

Stories from the Driver's Seat [22/02/2008]
Taxi drivers see the best and worst of us, they see the meanness, the infidelities and the poor personal hygiene, and the occasional act of kindness.   [ more ]

Lyn Lusi [21/02/2008]
There's a war going on right now that most people probably haven't even heard of. It's being called Africa's World War and it's happening right in the heart of the continent in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire.
  [ more ]

Mick, Sarah and Ian - The stakes are high for problem gamblers [20/02/2008]
It can start so innocently. You had a little bet on the Melbourne Cup and lost. Or you overspent a little on the pokies. You tell yourself 'I won't do it next time'. But the fact is that for some people what starts out as a harmless dabble in gambling can grow into an obsession.   [ more ]

Joelle Kabamba and Donna McDonald [19/02/2008]
Joelle Kabamba was born into a comfortably well-off family Africa. Her father was a respected academic - until he was thrown into prison for his political beliefs. He escaped with his family, and Joelle arrived at Sydney airport as a bewildered and frightened teenager. Now she's a school chaplain, keeping an eye out for kids who suffer the way she once did.   [ more ]

John Butler and Dr Scott Miller [18/02/2008]
The John Butler Trio emerged from Western Australia in the late 1990s to become one of the most successful blues and roots bands in Australia today.   [ more ]

Leigh Matthews - AFL Coach [15/02/2008]
Leigh Matthews has a statue in his likeness in front of the MCG. As an outstanding player for Hawthorn, he coached Collingwood to a very emotional grand final victory and was voted the best AFL player of the 20th century.   [ more ]

Jim and Darryl, and Dr Wendell Rosevear [14/02/2008]
Dealing with emotions - it's of the most difficult issues faced by men in our culture.   [ more ]

Musician Kev Carmody [13/02/2008]
For Kev Carmody, it's been a long journey from his childhood mustering cattle on the Darling Downs to where he is now a kind of beloved elder statesman of music in Australia. Kev is sometimes called 'the Australian Bob Dylan', and he can count revered artists like Paul Kelly and the Waifs among his many fans.   [ more ]

Rome, the USA superpower of the Ancient World - Cullen Murphy [12/02/2008]
Think of the original superpower in the world and chances are you'll think of Ancient Rome.   [ more ]

Anthropology and African Gorillas - Annette Henderson [11/02/2008]
Annette Henderson went to Africa with her husband on holiday in the 1970s - and ended up living and working in a jungle camp with orphaned gorillas!   [ more ]

Caring for the Homeless - Jeff and Alina Gambin [08/02/2008]
Jeff Gambin's story is the stuff of legends. Years ago he was a very succesful restaurateur in Sydney, but one cold winter's night he sat down on a bench in Martin Place and an incident with a homeless man changed his life.   [ more ]

Seismologist Mike Turnbull [07/02/2008]
Have you ever lived through an earth tremor? That weird moment when the whole house just wobbles a bit leaving you deeply worried before it settles down again? After all, it was an earthquake deep under the Indian Ocean that created the 2004 tsunami. If you can imaging a violent collision of gigantic shelves of rock and earth in that deep dark place you can understand why events like these are so interesting.   [ more ]

Anthony Warlow and Shanaka Fernando [06/02/2008]
Anthony Warlow is back in his role as 'The Phantom of the Opera'.   [ more ]

Mark Corcoran [05/02/2008]
Mark Corcoran is the new host of foreign correspondent on ABCTV.   [ more ]

Writers Lynn Santer & Victoria Findlay [04/02/2008]
Alby Mangels blazed a trail through town halls all over Australia in the 1980s with his wildlife documentaries, going into the wild with an extremely attractive woman at his side and tussling with exotic beasts. Lynn Santer has also tussled with Alby Mangels. She's written the man's biography and is now his firm friend.
  [ more ]

This Grey Man is on a mission to save children [01/02/2008]
'The Grey Man' is a military term used by covert action forces. It means someone who operates under the radar, someone who blends into the background.   [ more ]

Professor Beth Woods and Pastor Debbie Hill [31/01/2008]
Professor Beth Woods is jokingly known as the queen of rice for the world. As the Executive Director, Research and Development Strategy Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, she has recently been appointed as the World Chair of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). For a sense of just how important that job is, nearly 2.5 billion people depend on rice every day. If there's a flood or a drought it can mean famine, political instability and widespread misery.   [ more ]

Educator Paul Thomson [30/01/2008]
Paul Thomson is an inspirational educator. He has fought many a fight with the Education Department, which is why he ended up setting up his own school, with the support of parents and other teachers. He believes the most important thing for a teacher or a principal is their philosophy, "you have to have, within yourself, rules you will never break. I was lucky enough to stand on the shoulders of a few giants who taught me how to think in a philosophical way. Not to have the right answers all the time but at least to look for them. (To have) a philosophy which recognises and values above all else the rights of a child."   [ more ]

Naturalist Steve Wilson [29/01/2008]
Steve Wilson has one of those passionate enthusiasms that's taken him to the most beautiful and remote places on earth. And his passion is snakes. And lizards. And exotic insects.   [ more ]

Tim Flannery and Tania Major [23/01/2008]
Tim Flannery is one of Australia's most important scientists and 2007 Australian of the Year. His career has seen him range from the dinosaur fields of Victoria, to the helm of the South Australian Museum, to the most remote corners of Papua New Guinea.
Tania was 2007 Young Australian of the Year but first came to public attention several years ago as the youngest person ever elected to ATSIC. She is a Kokoberra woman from Kowanyama on the west coast of Cape York.   [ more ]

Former journalist Vic Alhadeff [22/01/2008]
Vic Alhadeff is the current chief executive officer of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies and an outspoken supporter of Israel.   [ more ]

Everyday Hero Paul Wenck [21/01/2008]
Paul Wenck is a former soldier who has seen the sharp end of combat.   [ more ]

Subscribe to podcast [27/12/2007]
Each day, a podcast of Conversations is made available - you can subscribe to the podcast via an RSS feed. If you want to subscribe to the podcast, you need to copy and paste the link below into your podcasting application.

http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/conversations/conversationspodcast.xml

This podcast allows you to hear the latest show in a downloadable, quality format. For help, check out our Podcasting page.   [ more ]

The Conversation Hour [27/12/2007]
On the Conversation Hour, you'll get to know great Australians and and international guests as they share their life stories with Richard Fidler. The Conversation Hour is your opportunity to enjoy a good conversation.

Each day, a podcast of Conversations is made available - you can subscribe to the podcast via an RSS feed. If you want to subscribe to the podcast, you need to copy and paste the link below into your podcasting application.

http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/conversations/conversationspodcast.xml

This podcast allows you to hear the latest show in a downloadable, quality format. For help, check out our Podcasting page.

Do you know a good storyteller? They don't have to be famous, just an ordinary person with an extraordinary tale. Send us your suggestions here.   [ more ]

Doctor Jeffrey Masson [14/12/2007]
Doctor Jeffrey Masson grew up in Los Angeles mixing with the elite of Hollywood. His parents were ardent followers of British mystic Paul Brunton and it was at Brunton's urging that Jeffrey went to Harvard to study Sanskrit.   [ more ]

Former resistance fighter Claudio Silva [13/12/2007]
Born in Chile to extremely poor parents, Claudio Silva used to run away to the the mountains for days at a time to escape being picked on by his parents and siblings.   [ more ]

Music manager Simon Napier-Bell [12/12/2007]
Born in London in 1939, Simon Napier-Bell is best known for managing bands such as The Yardbirds, John's Children, Marc Bolan, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Japan and Wham!.   [ more ]

Judith Brett and Hedley Thomas [11/12/2007]
Professor Judith Brett is an academic who teaches politics at La Trobe University and has written several books on the history of the Australian Liberal Party. Hedley Thomas is a journalist with The Australian who began his career as a copy boy with the Gold Coast Bulletin.   [ more ]

Animal trainer Ian Bostock [10/12/2007]
Ian Bostock's father Ron taught him to break in horses when he was just a kid and nowadays it is said that there's not an animal he can't train.   [ more ]

Matt Hoyle, John Harms and Andrew Stafford [07/12/2007]
Matt Hoyle is a photographer who has worked for Rolling Stone and the Las Angeles Times. In the summer of 2006 he decided to shoot a series on people who believe they have had paranormal experiences.   [ more ]

Author Christopher Koch [06/12/2007]
Tasmanian born author Christopher Koch is most famously the author of 'The Year of Living Dangerously' and 'Highways to a War'.   [ more ]

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh [05/12/2007]
Born in Warwick in 1960, Anna Bligh and her family then moved to the Gold Coast where she attended Miami State High School. She then studied a Bachelor of Arts in social sciences at the University of Queensland.   [ more ]

Singer songwriter Sara Storer [04/12/2007]
Sara Storer grew up in north-western Victoria where her parents were wheat farmers. She later moved to Melbourne and studied teaching before moving to the Northern Territory.   [ more ]

Author Ian Rankin [03/12/2007]
Scottish-born author Ian Rankin started out as a child writing songs for his imaginary band. This turned into poetry which he won awards for, and he eventually started writing novels while he should have been studying for his PhD in English literature.   [ more ]

Graeme Murphy and John Buchanan [30/11/2007]
Graeme Murphy has always known how to make dance a beautiful and compelling experience.   [ more ]

Domestic violence survivors Ilsa, Helen and Anne [29/11/2007]
Ilsa, Helen and Anne all have different stories to tell, but they share important thing - they have all lived through an abusive relationship with men who became violent.   [ more ]

Stephen Dando Collins and Jana Wendt [28/11/2007]
Stephen Dando Collins is an author who has done his own research on the Rum Rebelion and unearthed a completely different story.   [ more ]

Camel lover Dianne Zischke [27/11/2007]
Dianne Zischke loves and adores camels.   [ more ]

Singer-songwriter Missy Higgins [26/11/2007]
  [ more ]

Julian Morrow, Dom Knight and Craig Reucassell [23/11/2007]
Julian Morrow, Dom Knight and Craig Reucassell are all members of ABC TV's hit program The Chaser.   [ more ]

Football player Andrew Johns [15/11/2007]
Andrew Johns is a man who loves reading, cooking and is trying to live with a disorder that takes him through powerful mood swings.   [ more ]

Writer Ben Elton [14/11/2007]
Ben Elton is one of the most important standup comedians of his generation. He's the co-writer of The Young Ones and Blackadder and he's written successful plays, West End musicals and best selling books.   [ more ]

Entertainer Michael Palin [13/11/2007]
Michael Palin is a man with an iron stomach, nerves of steel and a gleam in his eye. If he'd joined the military, it's very likely that the British empire would still be standing today.   [ more ]

Ken Follett and Suzanna Clarke [07/11/2007]
Ken Follett is one of the world's most popular authors.   [ more ]

Musician John Cale [06/11/2007]
John Cale came out of Wales with a classical music education, and went to New York where he formed the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed.   [ more ]

Author Joe Bageant [05/11/2007]
Joe Bagent is an authentic voice from 'redneck America'.   [ more ]

Billy Birmingham and Robyn Butler [02/11/2007]
Billy Birmingham is a man who's been described as a deadset comedy genius though some might just call him a trouble-maker.   [ more ]

Astronomer Fred Watson [01/11/2007]
Fred Watson is a professor, a doctor and the astronomer in charge at the Ango-Australian Observatory at Coonabarabran in New South Wales.   [ more ]

Entrepreneur Gerry Harvey [31/10/2007]
Gerry Harvey got his start early, selling vacuum cleaners and fridges door to door.   [ more ]

Ambulance officer Paul Featherstone [29/10/2007]
Paul Featherstone was the ambulance officer who sat with Stuart Diver for 12 hours until he was freed from his concrete tomb after the Thredbo disaster. He was also there at Beaconsfield when Todd Russell and Brandt Webb were trapped underground in a mine. Paul has seen floods, bushfires, tsunami's and terror attacks. He was won the Ambulance service's highest bravery award twice and bronze, silver and gold medals from the Humane Society.   [ more ]

Forensic archaeologist Kerrie Grant [25/10/2007]
Kerrie Grant works as a forensic archaeologist.   [ more ]

PETA vice president Dan Matthews [24/10/2007]
Dan Matthews is the senior vice president of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.   [ more ]

Body donation program co-ordinator Leo Brown [23/10/2007]
Have you thought about donating your body to science?   [ more ]

Spinal injury advocate Tony South [22/10/2007]
Tony South's life changed when he was shot at the age of nine.   [ more ]

RecLink founder Peter Cullen [18/10/2007]
Peter Cullen helped to found an organization called RecLink which helps to re-introduce sport and recreation to some of the most marginalised people in Australia.   [ more ]

Singer-songwriters Vikki Thorn and Donna Simpson [17/10/2007]
Sisters Vikki Thorn and Donna Simpson, along with Josh Cunningham, form the band you know as The Waifs.   [ more ]

Cyclist Lorian Graham [16/10/2007]
Lorian Graham is a national road cycling champion and three years ago she was thought to be a certainty for the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.   [ more ]

Indigenous education advocate Chris Sarra [15/10/2007]
Chris Sarra was the first Aboriginal principal at Cherbourg State School in Queensland.   [ more ]

Ghada Karmi and Michael Noad [12/10/2007]
Dr Ghada Karmi was born in Palestine and then had to feel with her family when it became Israel.   [ more ]

Rick Stein and Kostya Tszyu [11/10/2007]
Rick Stein is one of the original TV celebrity chefs.   [ more ]

Singer-songwriter Clare Bowditch [10/10/2007]
In just one year Australian singer-songwriter Clare Bowditch has written a new album, won an ARIA for Best Female Artist and given birth to twin baby boys.   [ more ]

Former diplomat Bruce Haigh [09/10/2007]
Former diplomat Bruce Haigh spent years in some of the world's hotspots where he saw and did some extraordinary things.   [ more ]

Last Updated: 25/09/2007 10:51:00 AM AEDT

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