When journalist Michael Visontay was going through his parents papers during COVID, he found a document that sent him on a journey back to his parents homeland of Hungary and to the heady world of rare book selling in 1920s New York looking for the Noble Fragments - pages from the highly valuable Gutenberg bibles.

Guest: Michael Visontay, journalist and author of Noble Fragments (Scribe)

After Japan's recent election, there are now 73 women in the lower house of parliament. While this is the highest number yet, it still is only 15%. Japan ranks 118 out of 146 countries when it comes to gender equality. Why do women in such a wealthy and highly educated country still struggle to get into positions of power in Japan?

Guest: Freelance journalist and activist, Chie Matsumoto

The Conservative Party has elected its new leader, the combative 44 year old MP Kemi Badenoch. Meanwhile, the government's latest budget indicates a significant shift in approach to tax and revenue. 

Guest: Ian Dunt, Columnist for “i” news and co-host of the Origin Story podcast.  

Since announcing his retirement in 2022 Shaun Micallef has made two new television series and written a new book of short stories and poetry. So when will he really retire? And when does he think comedy is no longer funny? 

Guest: Shaun Micallef, comedian and author of “Slivers, shards and skerricks – a one man anthology by Australia’s most intelligent and handsome renaissance man,” published by Affirm press. 

As Labor heads into election campaigning mode Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced Labor will cut student debt, but Bernard Keane says unless we fix housing young people still face huge disadvantage in Australia. 

Guest: Bernard Keane, political editor, Crikey

A trove of letters discovered in Moscow shows that dialogue between warring populations, and even civil disagreement, are possible. Guest: historian Alexis Peri

Upon discovering that sex work is decriminalised in New Zealand, Antonia Murphy decided to build her own business: an ethical escort agency called The Bach. 

Journalist Evan Rail investigates the lucrative market for vintage "pre ban" bottles of absinthe, from before WWI. Most bottles are genuine, but some are fake. 

In 1788 there were at least fifteen convicts of African descent on board the First Fleet, and hundreds more followed.

Who were they, and how were the Black convicts transported to Australia linked to the slave trade?

Guest: Santilla Chingaipe, author of Black Convicts: How slavery shaped Australia.

Why would some of our 'Old Stone Age' ancestors have climbed into deep, black caves in Northern Spain, about 18,000 years ago, and created art in the dark? 

Guest: Izzy (Isobel) Wisher, palaeolithic cave art researcher, Aarhus University, Copenhagen