Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

Amidst the chaos of the Khmer Rouge genocide and Cambodia’s civil war, a new crime wave emerged. Sacred temples across Cambodia were looted by smugglers and priceless treasures of the Khmer Empire were trafficked into the hands of elite collectors. At the centre of it all was a British expat named Douglas Latchford, aka “Dynamite Doug.” A new book explores how Latchford orchestrated one of history’s most brutal cultural heists, flooding the international art market with stolen antiquities from the Killing Fields. Guest: Matthew Campbell, reporter and editor for Bloomberg Businessweek. Author of The Man Who Stole the Gods: A True Story of War, Obsession and a Global Art ConspiracyProducer: Julie Street

Lesbia Harford was one of the first women to graduate as a lawyer from Melbourne University in the First World War, but followed her socialist ideals by working as a machinist in a factory. She went on to become one of the first female trade union leaders in Australia and a leader in the anti-war, anti-conscription movement. All the time she wrote poetry, mostly about love for both men and women, but also about the conditions for workers and the impact of war. Lesbia's poems were frank and fearless, and startlingly modern - a far leap from the flowery, archaic forms of the time. Her work was largely unpublished during her short lifetime, or for years after, but those who discovered her found her work profoundly relatable. “Lesbia’s was a radical poetry of everyday life, accessible but intellectually sumptuous, and quite unlike what anyone else was writing,” says academic and author, Jeff Sparrow, who has written the first full biography of her life. Guest: Jeff Sparrow, author, ‘Somewhere Here the Future's Hid - the Extraordinary Life of Lesbia Harford’ published by Monash University PublishingProducer: Catherine Zengerer

We all carry GPS technology around in our pockets. But there’s a lot more to the 'Global Positioning System' than meets the eye. GPS was originally conceived as a military product, one designed to drop enormously powerful bombs with staggering precision. It now underwrites everything from rideshares to traffic light systems, international banking and supply chains. Our over-reliance on it makes us incredibly vulnerable.Guest: Katherine Dunn, journalist and author. Her new book is Little Blue Dot: How the Global Positioning System Shaped the Modern WorldProducer: Julie Street

Anna Henderson discusses One Nation's historic win in Western Australia, securing its first lower house seat in the state for candidate Luke Herdegen., and what the latest polling shows about the issues One Nation voters care about most. Guest: Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS

The wealth and power of American elders was epitomised in the US 2024 election, with Joe Biden vs Donald Trump. But elder power spreads beyond political leadership, and is preventing the US from becoming as forward thinking and economically successful as it could be, our guest argues.Guest: Samuel Moyn, the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. Author of 'Gerontocracy in America: how the old are hoarding power and wealth, and what to do about it' (Macmillan, 2026) Producer: Ann Arnold

In May 1841, French sea captain Augustin Lucas arrived in Sydney with the first camera ever seen in colonial Australia. A new book offers a comprehensive study of photography's arrival, and its implication in the colonial project. Guest: Elisa DeCourcy, writer and curator, author of Early Photography in Colonial Australia, Melbourne University PressProducer: Jack SchmidtThis program originally aired in November 2025

Our regular commentator on US politics explains why American cattle producers have a beef with President Trump. Many of them Trump supporters, they feel betrayed after he announced on Friday that he was lifting tariffs on imported ground beef.Guest: Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for the Nation; executive director of the Global Centre for Journalism and Trauma

Israel's Ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman has defended the IDF probe into the death of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, which recently cleared soldiers of any criminal liability for the deadly 2024 strike on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza. Newman's defence of the report prompted UN commissioner Chris Sidoti to call for him to be returned to Israel. David Marr discusses Newman's role with veteran Israel correspondent Irris Makler, plus they look ahead to the political challenges facing Benjamin Netanyahu as he heads into an election. Guest: Irris Makler, freelance journalist, veteran Jerusalem correspondent

Until the mid-20th century the Wyndham Native Hospital, on the far north coast of Western Australia, was an apartheid institution where Indigenous men, women and children were imprisoned, left untreated and subjected to experimental treatments without their knowledge and against their will.Guest: Annabel (A.M.) Stafford, former journalist, teacher, author of 'The wanted and the unwanted' (MUP)Producer: Ann Arnold

The Cambridge Five have gone down in history as the most notorious spies of the 20th century. For seventeen years, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Donald Maclean and John Cairncross got away with leaking top-secret British intelligence to the Soviet Union with disastrous consequences. Now a new book, drawing on recently declassified files, debunks some enduring myths about them.Guest: Antonia Senior, author of Stalin's Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire Producer: Julie Street

From Shogun era Japan to the techno bunkers of 90s Berlin, people across time and cultures have always looked to let loose at night. Guest: Imogen Willetts, author of 'Up All Night: A History of Going Out'Producer: Ali Benton

Ian Dunt examines the fallout from the death of Cambridge academic Jason Arday. And Nigel Farage’s Clacton by election victory - what does it say about his political fortunes? Plus an update on the Andy Burnham 'bounce'. Is it still happening?Guest: Ian Dunt, iNews columnist and regular LNL commentatorProducer: Ali Benton

Jordan has been trying to maintain neutrality in the Middle East war, but with a pre-existing military agreement with the US, that is proving increasingly difficult. After Iran sent missile strikes into Jordan recently, prominent Jordanian citzens have been urging the government to shore up sovereignty and neutrality.Guest: Nabih Bulos, Middle East bureau chief for the Los Angeles TimesProducer: Ann Arnold