Sunday Extra - Full program podcast

The morning after the federal election in New Zealand, foreign correspondent Anna Fifield unpacks the preliminary election results. Dame Barbara Cartland is the world's third best-selling author, who has sold more than 750 million copies of her 723 books. Matthew Sweet has covered her fascinating life in a new biography. Margaret Simons on “the tumultuous story of how the ABC remade itself for the digital age, revealing the big personalities and controversial decisions behind its transformation". Plus, on the Year that Made Me, Ryan Holiday, the college dropout who brought stoicism to the masses, and town criers from across the nation gather in regional Victoria.

The leaderless student movement taking over Serbia's government, how Matt Brown turned conversations in his barber shop into a movement to stop domestic violence, and this Halloween marks the 100th anniversary of the untimely demise of escape artist Harry Houdini. Extra Intrigue with Jeremy Dicker talks Venezuela's election and Anthropic's IPO, and on The Year That Made Me, Dr Rose McGready: global authority on maternal malaria and 2026 ACT Australian of the Year.

With Israel days away from their first national election since the 2023 October 7 terrorist attacks, how will the hostage families vote? In Germany, the Bundestag held a heated debate on whether it should make a national apology to Namibia for crimes during its colonial era. The story of sickle cell anaemia, caused by a genetic mutation originating in sub-saharan Africa - is so interesting that Kevin Davies has written a biography of the disease. As the US midterms approach, social media misinformation campaigns are targeting voters, and they affect us in Australia, too. Plus, the second Boyer Lecture by associate professor Louisa Lim, the Shot on Sh!t Film Festival dedicated to non-professional cameras, and on The Year That Made Me, star of Bollywood and Playschool, Nicholas Brown.

Will the new African Credit Rating Agency level the playing field for the world's poorest nations? What is next for Nepal after August's devastating floods? In the wake of the death of lab worker at a Russian anti-plague institute, should we be worried about lab leaks? And ethical hacker Freakyclown shares lessons from his decades of experience robbing banks (legally). Plus on The Year That Made Me, defence lawyer turned playwright Suzie Miller on the year she didn't think she'd survive.

Raygun on her doco Breaking Badly, Dr Karl Deisseroth on winning the Nobel Prize for Medicine, and nonagenarian comic, Liz Hicklin on her play Sylvia Plath Stole My Boyfriend. Plus, Papua's melting glaciers, the complexity of keeping time on the moon, and the story of vaudeville sensation Harry Burrell aka Platypus Man. And on The Year That Made Me, photojournalist Lorrie Graham reflects on her five decade career.