Category: Shows
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#1509 Where Are The Women?
“I cannot believe you’ve put a woman on the radio like this. You know that women get their periods and then don’t make as much sense as men. You’ve made a massive mistake.” Why aren’t there more women on the radio? It’s a debate that’s been raging for as long as radio has existed. Is…
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#1508 A Way With Words
Some things are harder to say than others. The most important things to say, messages you really want to get across, can be boring and complicated. Or you might not feel comfortable saying them at all. There are people all over Australia learning to express themselves using poetry -and not the kind you learned in…
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#1507 Legal Walls
Access to the law is something it’s easy to take for granted – if there’s an injustice, if you are wronged, we’re taught to believe that the law has the ability to make that wrong right again. In 1977, the lack of affordable legal service options for disadvantaged and marginalised people led to the opening…
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#1506 Best Practice
A lot of us trust our doctors to make us healthy, or at least to cure our illnesses. But can they make us happy? According to the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health, one in two Australians will experience a mental health disorder at some point in their lives. Research organisations and support networks like…
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#1505 Baby Teeth
It’s wobbling, and you can’t help but push at it with your tongue, making it bend gum-ward so the gnarled roots scratch at the inside of your mouth. It’ll be out soon, and you’ll put it next to your pillow and wake up the next morning to find a single gold coin in it’s place.…
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#1504 Portrait of a Policy
Caitlin Doyle-Markwick meets 3 men who are living on some of the 29, 564 bridging visas issued since 2011, when the then Labor government announced that asylum seekers would increasingly be placed in the community while their claims were processed. Initially welcomed by refugee supporters because of the harmful psychological effects of long-term detention, Caitlin discovers…
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#1503 Turn Your Back
Murrumu Last year, All the Best contributor Selena Shannon sat down with a man who formally renounced his Australian citizenship. Under the UN’s convention against statelessness, governments cannot allow this to happen, and so a desire to cancel your only citizenship is not legal or recognised in Australia. But Murrumu may just have found…
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#1502 No Pets Allowed
This week on All the Best – people who own pets in circumstances you might not expect. Man’s Best Friend More families is Australia have a dog than any other pet. Step outside and you’ll probably hear one, if not from your backyard then from someone else’s. But what happens if there’s a religious law on…
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#1501 Islands
The weather is warm, the sky is blue, and you have to go back to work. Look, we agree, it sucks. This week we’ll try and drag the holiday out a bit longer, and take you on an island holiday. Three, in fact. We’ll take you south to South-Western Victoria, to a tall, flat island…
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#1444 What Is Cool?
What defines “cool”? Is pop music cool? Or vintage vinyl? Is wearing grandma’s doily as a reworked cardigan cool? Or is that daggy? What makes something cool, and who decides when its time is over? When you were little, the answers to these questions were easy. Obvious, even. You knew with so much certainty that…
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#1443 Christmas Again
Back in 2011 ghost of All The Best past Eliza Sarlos and her partner hashed out what Christmas would look like for their brand new family, right here on the show. We decided to check back in – when does the tree go up? What goes on it? Importantly, does their little boy leave a…
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#1442 In The Air
You walk down the aisle, trying not to whack anyone in the head with your carry on, dodging elbows hoisting things into the overhead locker, receiving passive aggressive glares when you pause to check your seat number. You take your seat, mad that you got the window because you won’t be able to get out…
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#1441 The Best Spag Bol
The last mandarin you peeled in the high school library. Sticky date pudding in the oven when you come home after a long time away. Hot fish and chips on a cold blustery day. Bacon sticky with maple syrup on your birthday. The tastes and smells of food are so entwined with our memories. You…
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#1440 The Future is Now
All the Best producer Joel Carnegie got strapped into a bionic ear, which, to be honest, we thought was still part of the future instead of part of the present. That got us thinking – what else seems to be firmly in the future, with flying cars and space highways? What stuff exists that makes…
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#1439 West Writers Group
West Writers Group is a collective of writers from diverse backgrounds who currently live, work or have other established links to Melbourne’s West. It is a collective that will amplify the stories and voices of Melbourne’s West. For the past few months All the Best producers have teamed up with some of the West Writers…
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#1438 Grief Part 2
Most of us will grieve for someone or something at some point in our lives, but it’s strange and hard to talk about. Feelings of grief are hard to think about, let alone say out loud. This week on All the Best, you’ll be hearing part two of our exploration of Grief. We’re hitting the…
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#1437 Grief Part 1
Most of us will grieve for someone or something at some point in our lives, but it’s strange and hard to talk about. Feelings of grief are hard to think about, let alone say out loud. This week on All the Best, you’ll be hearing part one of our exploration of grief. We’ll be treading…
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#1436 Blowing the Whistle
This week we work our way through the government’s changes to national security legislation, and zero in on one change that passed earlier this month – Section 35P of the ASIO Act. The change makes it illegal to disclose information about something called a ‘Special Intelligence Operation’ by ASIO. The problem for journalists is, these operations are…
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#1435 In the End
Frank Herbert was an American Science Fiction writer who died in 1986 and he famously said ‘There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.’ But that place can be frustrating. You know that feeling of finishing a really good story? You’ve been living in this other world for so…
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#1434 Up With The Birds
This is what we want you to do. We want you to google ‘Bird jizz’. Make sure you include the word ‘bird’. Turns out bird watchers, twitchers, breeders, and birders can be in such a separate world to the rest of us that they use the word jizz to describe ‘the overall impression of a…
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#1433 I’ve Seen You Around
The guy on the corner wearing a pirate hat. The man who says everything twice. The small, tanned smiling man who walks everywhere. The dancing man. The woman with long grey hair who plays piano. The eleven year old who busks as a statue. The shoe shiner. The barber who sings. Every town and city…
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#1432 Borrowing Sugar
There’s a lot of mythology around neighbours. A good neighbour can turn into a very convenient friend, one who lends you a cup of sugar when you run out mid-bake, or who’ll water your plants when you’re out of town. Then there are the neighbours who are a pair of eyes over a back fence,…
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#1431 Cities You’ll Never See On Screen
“If we are going to create a better future for ourselves the people who are going to show us how to do it are those people who are working in the crazy spaces.” New York, LA, Tokyo. We see cities destroyed all the time in film, TV and in books. But how often does the…
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#1430 Everyday
There are some things we do day after day after day. This episode of All the Best is all about those things. We have stories about waking up, going to work, singing quietly on the commute. Stories about the every day things that can make someone happy – and how they change over time. And…
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#1429 Underground
In this episode, we’re going underground, with secrets, subcultures and subversive publishing. We meet River, one of the elusive Shoplifters of Tumblr, and hear stories of Oz Magazine from Jim Anderson. The Shoplifters of Tumblr The internet has meant that even the most underground of movements, most clandestine of activities, are now made to be…
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#1428 The Hardest Thing
“The hard work we do here replicates the discipline and the routine we carry out throughout the day the weeks the months and years. If this is the hardest thing you do today, well, you’re going to have a good day.” Redfern is home to the oldest indigenous sports club in Australia. The Redfern All…
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#1427 Open House
This week on All the Best we’re getting involved and doing some exploring, heading into some of the unseen and forgotten parts of Melbourne with Open House. For one day a year, people are invited to become tourists in their own city and buildings that are usually just part of the landscape, something you pass…
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#1426 How Are You Still Alive?
Today we’re asking: How Are You Still Alive? You’ll hear stories of near misses, close shaves and fortunate lives. People who were unlucky, and then lucky. People who throw themselves from high places, and kids who get lost in the wilderness. People who risked their lives just by being born. If it wasn’t wild, I…
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#1425 Mixed Tape Memoirs Live at EWF
This episode is about that song. You know the one. You hear it, and no matter where you are, or who you’re with, you’re transported to a time when you were so in love that you seemed drunk. The song you know that still makes you feel like a lovesick teenager every time you hear it.…
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#1424 Outing Disability
“I actually got sick about six weeks after we got together, that became quite difficult…” “…But I think we’ve run the gambit through just about everything. The positives that come out of that is that we have an incredibly strong relationship and an incredibly good relationship as separate to the MS.” The photography exhibition ‘Outing Disability’ was…
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#1423 Fire
Is there anything better than huddling around a fire in winter? Holding the palms of your hands just far enough away from a flickering flame that it doesn’t ignite? Fires have comforted, protected, scared and destroyed for thousands of years. We suspect they’ve inspired stories for just as long, including the tales we’re telling on…
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#1422 By Train
Find your seat, settle in, and listen to the creak of those sleeper beams, the rattling of carriages. This week, we’re taking a train ride, on tracks that crisscross the globe. We go on an adventure along the Trans Siberian railway, chat to passengers as they stare out the window at the Nullarbor, and wait…
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#1921 Only a Whale
Look out off the east coast at the moment and you’ll likely see them – whales. Come whale watching with us, on the edge of cliffs in Sydney, in 1850s Byron Bay, from the decks of the First Fleet and in a Melbourne theatre. But remember, all you’re looking at is big, sea dwelling mammals…
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#1420 Independence
We don’t get given our independence one day, with a haircut or along with the lease of our first rental house. It happens over time, and we fall in and out of it in complicated ways. That’s what this episode of All the Best is about. The fine line between independence and dependence. Between knowing…
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![#1419 Love + [Complication]](https://allthebestradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/love-pic-by-face2face.jpg)
#1419 Love + [Complication]
Love stories are hard to avoid – they’re woven through pop songs, the plots of films and every TV show. Often they’re presented as complicated, but how often do we stop and think about the complications in each other’s love stories? Today we bring you two. They’re familiar in their cups or tea and their…
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#1418 Amazing Babes – Live at EWF
Inspired by Eliza Sarlos’s picture book Amazing Babes, the Emerging Writers’ Festival invited an incredible line up of writers to tell stories about the women who have inspired them, in their writing and their lives. It was a night to be inspired and celebrate the women who made us who we are. Here, we share some…
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#1417 Human
This week, All the Best is telling stories about what it means to be human. Humans being excellent or awful to other humans, realising someone is only human, or that someone we idolise is human after all. Humans making mistakes and making things better. We also hear two stories more told at our Sydney Writers’…
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#1416 That Girl
“I didn’t want to be That Girl Who Had An Abortion, because I’m not… When you look at the statistics, there are many of those girls” We have so many conversations about abortion, but most of the time they’re abstract and political, they’re not about the lived experiences and choices of women who’ve terminated…
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#1415 Human – Live from the Sydney Writers’ Festival
You know, and we know, that the best stories are about people. On May 22 we invited five of our favourite people to tell us a story at the Sydney Writers’ Festival Club. Realising somebody is human after all, or that they’re only human. Humans being awful to each other, or excellent to each other. Cats acting…
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#1414 A Fear Of…
All the Best asks you to reveal your fears – the more irrational the better. Some of them are born out of lessons learnt and childhood disasters, and others come seemingly out of nowhere. You guys fear a lot of stuff. Blind dates, small holes, eggs, mannequins, speeding fines, frogs, neck-touching, technical difficulties, the Mad…
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#1413 Harvest Festival
Nestled in between the houses, roads and busy day to day life of inner suburban Melbourne is a little slice of nature and simple living. This week, All the Best gets up at the crack of dawn when the roosters are crowing and spends the day at CERES Harvest Festival, in Melbourne’s East Brunswick. Seita…
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#1412 Squeezing the System
Ever think about where your $10 t-shirt came from? On the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, All The Best brings you stories from the supply chain. Sumi Abedin is twenty years old. She was a garment worker at the Tazreen Fashions factory, and jumped from the building the day it…
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#1411 Morwell
Back in February one of the coal mines in Morwell caught fire. The entire town was covered in ash. Residents were told to evacuate, the council was giving out masks while the rest of the state worried that they would lose power. Now, the fires are under control but its left the local community in…
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#1410 Are You Family
This week, we bring you two very different stories about family. Kate Montague speaks to the memory man, who gave up life in the corporate world to collect elderly people’s stories as a keepsake for their families. Zoe Ferguson speaks to older people in the LGBTI community, about their identity as they get older and the…
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#1409 Faith
You know the old rule – it’s impolite to talk about politics or religion. This week on All the Best, we break it, bringing you stories of faith. We ask people brazenly about their beliefs and take a look at a church without a religion. Michael was joined in the studio by Elizabeth Redman, and…
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#1408 Did I Ever Tell You?
All grandparents have stories they tell over and over again. The time your mum was late to school. The time your uncle got his toe broken in a sliding door. The time you were really scared of an emu. But what about the stories they don’t tell us? The lifetime of stories they think we…
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#1406 These Women
Everyone can tell the story of an awesome woman. A mother, grandma, sister, friend, or teacher. This year International Women’s Day is celebrating women who inspire change, and today All the Best tells the stories of awesome women doing this in all sorts of ways. From a celebrant to a beekeeper, a journalist to young…
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#1405 Endangered Jobs
Technology is taking all the jobs. It’s hard to avoid articles and opinions about the end of video stores, of newspapers, of the humble bookshop. This week, we went looking for a few of those endangered jobs – a man giving a heartfelt eulogy for his bookstore, and a mother suddenly made redundant. We hear…
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#1404 Bravery
There are many different ways to be brave. In fiction, stories of bravery are told as grand gestures and epic battles – these three stories are about real, everyday bravery, the kind we find in our friends and family. A text message from a friend, a soldier standing by his daughter, and a band who…
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#1403 The Most Important Thing
Schools are made for learning, and everyone can name a few things they learnt in school. This episode is about the opposite. We asked a bunch of people “What’s the most important thing school never taught you?” The stories we heard in response feature a whole range of answers including taxes, testicles, failure, continents, conviction,…
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#1402 Adaptation
Fires, floods, melting ice and strange weather patterns. The effects of climate change can already be seen in a lot of ways, from the way someone farms, to the way a house is built, to the place someone parks their car to drink a coffee and look out over the ocean. In this episode, we…
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#1401 Prime (feat. Voiceworks)
All the Best’s Melbourne Collective teams up with literary magazine Voiceworks to bring you stories from their latest, ‘Prime’. A man spends his days feeding his favourite tiny shark, Hashbrown, and never asking why. A scientist insists on a future where old age is eradicated. One poet wonders who is haunting his house and another…
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#1348 Old & New
We are ending the year celebrating the people we love. From lovers to grandparents we hope you enjoy these stories. Love Songs We all know the deep, maddening love of the silver screen too well. Those characters that laugh, cry, sing, dance and can’t live without their lovers! But if you’re madly in…
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#1346 Summer Postcards
‘If you take 2 more steps, you’ll find what you’ve been looking for…. A little bit of magic.’ The Wormhole There is a point at North Steyne where the cracks in the rock get bigger and more rugged. This is the point where many head back believing there is nothing more to find. But,…
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#1345 …Vs The Establishment
What would you stand up and fight for? Small Fry ‘ A warm man cannot understand a cold man’. Barrister and Mediator Robin Margo was an activist during apartheid in South Africa. He wanted to change the regime and fight for equality for all South Africans. He campaigned alongside many passionate people. However, it was…
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#1344 XOXO
‘Love’ has been the inspiration of great works since the beginning of time. Join us for stories of Love. XOXO Love Sick They met. They fell in love. As life together grew and time went on Tobhi and Dan began to think about marriage. But the final steps to getting engaged were not quite…
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#1343 At Your Service
Psychopathic bosses, jobs from hell, call centre nightmares… Welcome to ‘At Your Service’. Fred/ Jack For many of us, we think about ways that we could make improvements to our little corner of the world. This is a story about a real council in Sydney, a real swimming pool and one man’s quest to take on…
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# 1342 Spooked?!
‘Beware. Something dark is lurking at the end of this hall….’ A Japanese Ghost Story It was meant to be a relaxing trip to an old Japanese resort, but something happened that changed Meiko for good. Her daughter Satsuki explains why Meiko sleeps with the lights on. Producer: Pip Rasmussen. Music Credits: Ribs by…
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#1341 Slammin’- Pt. 2
A hungry crowd, passionate poets, and a night of lyricism. Welcome to Slammin’ Part 2. The NSW finalists graced the stage at the Wharf Theatre to battle it out for their chance to go on to the National Poetry Slam Final and win prizes and prestige to support their career. Slammin’ Part 2…
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#1340 Slammin’ – Pt.1
Welcome to the NSW Poetry Slam Final! Poets from all over NSW came together to battle it out to make it into the national finals and be crowned champion slam poet of 2013. Luka Lesson MC’d the night and the Wharf Theatre in The Rocks was packed to capacity. The Word Travels Festival and the…
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# 1339 Claiming Body
The female form is a glorious thing. This episode we want to share stories about the female form as art, canvas, biology and sex. Claiming Body Megan Oliver is a tattoo artist at one of the leading tattoo studio’s in the country. She has over 20 years of experience in Australia and overseas.…
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# 1338 Spring Break
Spring Break never looked so good! Tropical paradise, steaming jungles, volcanoes, desire, lust & love. Island Love Can fantasy’s ever live up to reality? Will that dream island holiday produce that dreamy island lover? Giordana Caputo teamed up with Writer Christopher Allery to capture some of the moments they shared on their ‘fantasy…
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# 1337 The Art of Sound
This week we take you into the world of artists who use sound as their medium. Shifting Reality Francisco Lopez is one of the world’s leading Sound Artists. He has been creating art for over 30 years. His background in Biology and Ecology has taken him all over the world for research projects.…
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# 1336 Glory Box
When you hear ‘Glory Box’ what do you think of? Come with us to explore alternatives to the traditional interpretation of ‘Glory Box’. Three Men & Two Boxes Did you think glory boxes had gone out of fashion? Did you think they were a thing of the past? Traditionally glory boxes were used…
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#1335 Mama, Guns & Jungle Fever
Romance, Love, Shot guns, Cigarettes, Nudity, Guns ‘n’Roses…. This episode we encounter stories where romance has taken people off the beaten track and into bizarre situations. We also get into the mind of Miles Merrill, a spoken word poet as he speaks about his experience and his poetry. My Mothers Date Sarah Low had…
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#1334 Natural Composition
Nature has inspired Art since the beginning of time. This episode we bring you stories inspired by nature and inspired for nature in the creation of music and art. From the sensual mating of machines in the wild, to a musician’s love of permaculture, you’ll find an array of tales to provoke your imagination…
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# 1333 Crossing Oceans
This episode we follow the stories of people who have crossed the ocean in search of a new home, a new beginning or adventure. These stories will takes us from Africa to Australia, to Chile and Afghanistan. From Africa, Home Erin Rosenberg moved from South Africa with her family in 2005. In…
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#1332 The Sister & Mum
This episode we meet some extraordinary individuals who have mastered the art of giving. From welcoming children into your family to looking after the vulnerable in society, these individuals have a huge capacity to love. In our first story we meet Lesley Flanders, a foster mum who has welcomed over 40 children into her home…
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#1331 Seeking Asylum
‘Stop the boats’ has become a war-cry. It’s used in political debate, campaigns and the media. And yet, the more we look at ‘Asylum Seekers’ as a political issue, the more we become desensitized to what it actually means for people to be seeking asylum. Beyond the political spin and statistics are real people with…
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#1330 Sex, Drugs & Politics
Women with power, that’s the way we like it! From local government to the world of competitive pole dancing, this episode takes you into the lives of two women and their careers in politics. They work hard and fight hard to get things done. Pole Position Pole dancing champion Zahra Stardust, speaks with Liam…
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#1329 On the Road
Everyone likes adventure and the long roads of Australia, that stretch thousands of kilometres through changing landscapes, can offer the perfect place for adventure and discovery. And whatever the reason you’re on the road; love, adventure, escape, you’re bound to make some pretty amazing discoveries in this big ‘ol country. This episode we hear the…
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#1328 Strangers on the Street
‘A stranger is just someone you haven’t met yet.’ Everyday we pass by people we don’t know. How does our behaviour change when we don’t know someone and we have no personal responsibility for their safety or wellbeing? Pip Rasmussen explores the Bystander Effect and how it plays out with strangers on the street.…
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#1327 Imagination….
“Imagination is the golden-eyed monster that never sleeps. It must be fed; it cannot be ignored.” -Patricia A McKillip- Imagination allows us to feel, see and experience beyond our actual reality. It can be a source of joy and inspiration, terror and anguish and everything in between. What is happening in our brains when we…
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#1326 The Spoken Word
‘Spoken Word’ as a cultural movement grew from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1960’s. It graced Australia’s shores soon after and developed it’s own unique style and voice here. The movement continues to change and develop to this day, as performers, poets, musicians, writers…. experiment with words, sound and expression. In this episode we meet Tug Dumbly,…
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#1325 Nerds & Laughter
This episode All the Best takes you to the Nerd Star Comedy Gala held in Sydney, where comics and academics joined forces in a night of laughter and intellect. Jazz Twemlow reflects on the effects of drinking, time travel and ladies fashion after a big night out in Kings Cross and the ‘Planet Hunter’, astronomer…
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#1324 Tell Me a Story
Tell Me a Story is a live story telling event based in Sydney. We joined Tell Me a Story at their event in June to bring you stories all about ‘Home’. Our storytellers Esther Carroll, Dina Petrakis and Candy Royalle all took to the stage to share what ‘Home’ means to them. Esther Caroll recounts…
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#1323 Mad Science
Giving not Taking With only 5 litres of blood in our body, you’d think it would be in our best interest to keep all of that inside….you’d think. Producer Michael Kermode travels to Woy Woy, just north of Sydney to learn more about a very natural therapy making a comeback. Since it’s days of glory…
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# 1322 The Settlement
Redfern is a diverse inner-city suburb of Sydney, renowned for its strong Aboriginal community. ‘The Block’ has been a hub of political activism with a vibrant community spirit, but in the last decade Redfern has seen huge changes because of it’s proximity to the city centre. Housing prices have sky-rocketed and it seems like every week there is a new trendy…
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#1321 Pot of Gold
What would you do if you won $12,000 on Deal or No Deal? All the Best presents the story of one man who spent his gameshow winnings on the purchase of camels, in order to find a rather metaphysical Pot of Gold: a bit of adventure in his life. Armed with three friends, three camels…
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#1320 Radio with Pictures 3
All the Best presents the last instalment of stories straight from the Sydney Opera House. A Palestinian intellectual and a painter’s love story is interrupted by the politics of Israel and Palestine, and a yet unpublished fantasy story by John Birmingham is brought to life in a very quirky radio play. The Demons of Buttcracke County John…
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#1319 Radio with Pictures 2
All the Best brings you more brilliant stories from Radio with Pictures. Triple J’s Nina Las Vegas unexpectedly finds a cultural connection with Kim Kardashian, Anna Barnes speaks of the experience of losing something that’s been with you your whole life; and Lawrence Leung’s unexpected friendship with a grand old man. The First Thing You…
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#1318 Radio with Pictures 1
All the Best sends this straight from the Sydney Opera House: a sonic adventure from Radio with Pictures. The theme is ‘Filling in the Blanks’, and this episode features a disorienting ride through earthquake-torn Japan; and an excerpt from ‘The Burial’, a haunting novel about one of Australia’s only female bushrangers. The inaugural Radio With…
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#1317 Postcards from Reconciliation
Just in time for National Reconciliation Week, and in co-production with Redfern Community Centre, All the Best presents Postcards from Reconciliation. A man sends a postcard home about his lover: a proud man of the Bundjalung Nation, a historical postcard raises uncomfortable questions about a famous colonial figure and a Gumbangiir woman’s postcard is a…
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#1316 America (feat. The Lifted Brow)
All the Best ventures beyond our big brown land to the home of the free and the land of the brave. Beneath the joyful strains of the Star-Spangled Banner, the idea of America is pitted against its realities. We’re looking at the United States through a decidedly Aussie lens, and neither Lana Del Rey, nor…
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#1315 Love is a Minefield
All the Best creeps ’round the minefield of that crazy little thing called Love! A student-lecturer relationship ends in a drunken duel; a piano teacher and her teenage protégé move from scales to scandal, and a fan’s stalking on social media becomes really creepy when she decides online interaction just isn’t enough. Episode produced by…
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#1314 These Walls Have Ears: Infamous
All the Best shares stories about the most revered, the most feared and the most famous of characters from Australia’s first penal colony in The Rocks, Sydney. Come inside a real-life windmill constructed in The Rocks Square, and join a packed audience hearing live stories, poems and audio movies about Aboriginal warrior Pemulwuy, bare-knuckle boxer…
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#1313 These Walls Have Ears: My Place
Inspired by the much-loved Australian children’s book My Place, All the Best runs back through the history of one place, The Rocks, Sydney, to the colonial characters that lived on and interacted with the land after British settlement. The country, traditionally cared for the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, underwent a radical transformation in…
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#1312 These Walls Have Ears: The Artists
Australia’s first colonial creatives probably didn’t think of themselves as artists. Mostly, they were just trying to get by. All the Best listened for secret histories from Australia’s first penal colony in The Rocks, Sydney. The result was These Walls Have Ears, a live event and radio project supported by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.…
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#1311 Atom Bombs in the Suburbs
It was 1982. HIV/AIDS was creeping into Australia and neither the gay community nor the government knew how to beat it, or even what it was. One man decided to fight against the death toll and the rising hysteria, backed by a motto: ‘Don’t Mourn, Organise’. All the Best shares a sliver of little-known Australian…
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#1310 Just Keep Swimming
24 Hours. 1 pool. 620 bodies. 2485.8kms. Dive in and join All the Best in a marathon against the clock, all to raise money and awareness of Multiple Sclerosis. Over the course of one day, a swimmer tells her story: from life’s darkest moments to a kind of success she’d never even dreamed of. Find…
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#1309 What’s in a Name?
(With apologies to Shakespeare.) All the Best shares two stories about the power of names. A refugee from Afghanistan arrives in Australia and changes his name — twice. And the so-called Political Friendship Group in Canberra, which works towards equality for LGBTI Australians, is the setting for a rare story of bipartisan cooperation in these politically-troubled…
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#1308 Everyone Needs Music II
An Australian is on her way to Mali, in West Africa, for her dream adventure trip: to attend the Festival in the Desert. But the musicians have already fled. Escaping war and violence, the nomadic Tuareg musicians have crossed the border to Burkina Faso. In the desolate refugee camps, despite hunger and homelessness, their music…
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#1307 Everyone Needs Music I (feat. The Lifted Brow)
All the Best presents literary mag The Lifted Brow in musical form: featuring Woody Allen and, of course, his clarinet. And when two stroke victims find their ability to speak severely affected, a speech pathologist with a penchant for singing tries an unorthodox method to help their recovery. BrainWaves Spread around the city of Newcastle, NSW, were a number…
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#1306 Fight Club Vol. 2
All the Best jumps back into the fray — and this time the fight takes place in hearts and minds, in beds and cancer wards. A share house turns into a battleground when an army of bed bugs invades, and two lovers face themselves and each other when multiple sclerosis and cancer enter their lives.…
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#1305 Science Fiction Theatre
All the Best presents science fiction pulp in sound. Extraterrestrial life forms arrive uninvited, space travel gets in the way of an intergalactic romance and a puppy trainer gets more than he bargained for when the dog starts talking back. See Me After Class Take a lonely dog trainer, a puppy school, and the most…
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#1304 Fight Club Vol. 1
All the Best doesn’t go looking for the fight; the fight comes to us. A night on the Gold Coast during Schoolies starts in a Penthouse apartment and ends with violence and jail; and a girl’s whip is transformed from performance object to weapon when domestic violence stares her in the face in Darwin. A Night…
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#1303 Who Da Man?
All the Best brings you stories that turn masculinity on its head. Alpha males are taught a lesson by beta males in the Army Reserves, an aggressive, alcoholic father finds himself on the wrong end of a shotgun, and a man finds out how to monetise his beard on the Internet. Beards, And the Men Who…
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#1302 Beyond the Comfort Zone II
All the Best stays out on a limb, beyond the comfort zone. We go to the middle of Jakarta’s devastating floods, where flood victims give our disaster tourists a taste of their own medicine. And a granddaughter who hasn’t seen her Nan in five years makes an emotional journey to the nursing home where her…
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#1301 Beyond the Comfort Zone I
All the Best returns to your airwaves for 2013 with a series of stories about people confronting out-of-the-ordinary life events. Two All the Best producers turn to fiction to tell personal truths about cancer, family and love. And we welcome back Zahra Stardust, a guest on the show last year, who was supposed to appear…