Conversations: Our Evolving World

About Conversations: Our Evolving World

Great minds making sense of our fast-changing world. Guests including Cheng Lei (A Memoir of Freedom), Jonathan Haidt (The Anxious Generation) and Brolga Barns (The Kangaroo Sanctuary) sit down with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski. In this collection, we’ve reached back into the rich Conversations archive and curated a selection of episodes where our guests speak about lived experiences relating to science & technology, democracy, war, survival and adaptive skills, generational differences and more. To binge more great episodes of Conversations with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, explore the program's archives in the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll find hundreds of thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians and celebrities.

Publisher

ABC Australia

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

17 Jan 2012

Latest episode

18 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

56 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   18 Sept 2026

   The radical history of personal computing—looms, coding, beige boxes and AI

   Mel Huang Buntine on how computers started entering our homes, and the beige box of a machine that changed her own life. Personal computers are so ubiquitous now, it's hard to imagine a time when computers were inaccessible to everyday people. For decades, computers were the size of rooms, and they were used for specialist tasks like processing large data sets for researchers, or sending men to the moon. But by the 1980s computers had become smaller and more affordable, and people started bringing them into their homes. From this point on, how everyday people interacted with technology changed forever. Mel Huang Buntine is a designer and technologist who was gifted her first computer as a tween in 1990s Melbourne. Mel lived in a multigenerational home with her mother, her grandparents and her great-grandmother, all of whom had escaped the Cambodian genocide as refugees. They couldn't understand why Mel was obsessed with this machine, but it completely opened up Mel's world and changed her life. Now with anxiety growing around AI, surveillance and mega tech companies, Mel is trying to get people to understand the history of computers and how they work. She hopes this will give back to people a sense of agency over machines, rather than feeling powerless to the opacity of algorithms and large language models. Radical Computing is exhibiting at the National Communication Museum in Melbourne from 19 September 2026, until 21February 2027. This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. It explores technology, artificial intelligence, Facebook, Instagram, social media, coding, making a website, HTML, CSS, PS5, playstation, games console, computer games, desktop games, Apple iOs 27, Mac, Macbook, Mac versus PC, IBM, Commodore 64, Steam Frame, iPhone, smartphone, dumb phone, Steve Jobs, Jack Tramiel, computer race, home appliances, toy market, super computers, science and technology, future of computers, techno optimist, tech subculture, Demoscene, hackers, jailbreak phone, crack software, pirated software, Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, ChatGPT, Claude, Anthropic, Zuckerberg. To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

2. 

   4 Sept 2026

   From the Nazis to the Stasi, how ordinary citizens live through extraordinary times

   Historian Katja Hoyer was born in 1985, under the old regime of the GDR and grew up in the 1990s, watching many former East Germans struggle in the years after reunification. Learning about the Nazi era was a big part of her education but Katja left school feeling unsatisfied about what she’d been taught about the period when the Nazis rose to power. She knew about all the big political moments, but not much about the lives of ordinary Germans and how they responded to the dramatic changes that unfolded around all around them. So Katja the historian traced the lives of residents in the town of Weimar from 1919 to 1939 to examine how a cultural hub of democracy transformed into a Nazi stronghold. Further information Weimar: Life of the Edge of Catastrophe is published by Penguin. Katja's earlier book is Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 Learn more about Katja Hoyer on her website This episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake and the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison. It explores German history, the rise of the Nazis, Weimar, the Weimar Republic, Adolf Hitler, the Stasi, secret police, the Berlin Wall, Communism, Fascism, World War II, East Germany, the GDR, democracy, Jewish persecution, Buchenwald, concentration camps, Carl Weirich, Nazi era history, the rise of the Nazis. To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

3. 

   19 Aug 2026

   The three shocks that changed Australia

   Political journalist, George Megalogenis has mapped key areas in our population, workforce and geopolitical standing in recent decades, and looks at how these shifts are impacting our collective political future. For the first time since Federation, Australia’s population is mostly made up of migrants and their children. Professional women have now replaced men doing blue collar jobs as the largest segment of the workforce. And on the world scale, Australia can no longer rely on our traditional allies or trading partners. These three elements have already changed the political landscape in our country, and this will only continue as time goes on. Further information Three Shocks: Who we are becoming in the 21st Century is published by Penguin Random House. This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan and the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. It covers auspol, populism, John Howard, Paul Keating, Harold Holt, Pauline Hanson, One Nation, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Western Australia, parliament, teals, Higgins, Bennelong, Chinese-Australians, Peter Costello, First Nations, Federation, convicts, migration, White Australia policy, one parent born overseas, census, data, graphs, data journalism and Prime Ministers. To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Contact Conversations: Our Evolving World

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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