Late Night Live — Full program podcast

One of US President Donald Trump's first executive orders was to declare there are only two genders and to ban transgender women from participating in female sports. Trans poet and comedian Alok Vaid-Menon says people need to not only have compassion for transgender people, but for the people who are trying to deny their existence. And they're getting their message out through humour. Alok's show Biology is on Youtube. GUEST: Alok Vaid-Menon - comedian, poet and performance artist  PRODUCER: Catherine Zengerer *This show originally aired on 27 February 2025

A new history of the union movement in Australia looks at those often left out of the picture: migrants, women, Indigenous Australians and LGBTQIA+ people. Plus, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp and his historical autopsy of why societies collapse.

Journalist Omar El Akkad examines what he sees as the moral contradictions of the West in the face of the Gaza war. And historian Margaret Peacock traces the history of radio propaganda in the Middle East from 1940-1960. 

Political reporter Tom McIlroy tells the story of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles - the vast paint-splattered canvas, controversially acquired by the Whitlam government for Australia's new National Gallery in 1975. Plus, historian Sarah Gold McBride on 19th Century America's fixation on head and facial hair - believed to connote class and character.

David Marr is joined by Laura Tingle, Hannah Ferguson and Craig Reucassel to review the monumental year of 2025 - including its weirdest moments - and ask where Australia finds itself as another year looms.  Guests: Laura Tingle, Global Affairs Editor, ABC (formerly Political Editor, 7.30) Hannah Ferguson, founder of Cheek Media, co host of Big Small Talk Craig Reucassel, presenter of ABC Radio Sydney 702 Breakfast Producer: Catherine Zengerer