Conversations

Environmental journalist, Michael Dulaney looks at viruses and bacteria that can move between bats, horses, seals, pigs, voles and even polar bears, and the conditions that lead to human infection.
These diseases are known as zoonoses.
Michael says climate change, urban sprawl, animal farming and even homelessness contribute to wild animals coming into ever closer contact with people, leading these illnesses to move from creatures to us.
To understand how this process works, Michael has researched the volunteers dedicating their lives to conservation. 
He has camped out on a freezing Victorian night to try to catch ducks with a net shot from a cannon, to test them for bird flu. 
He has gone frog hunting in the jungles of Indonesia, and he’s visited a suburban Melbourne apartment where a dedicated citizen gives up her master bedroom to a collection of injured flying foxes, while she sleeps in the spare room.
Michael also explains how the curious case of Trench Fever fits into the zoonotic puzzle. It was found first in Edmonton, Canada in 2022, when patients developed a serious heart condition after they were given organs donated by homeless victims of the opioid crisis.
Further information
Sentinels: When diseases spread between animals and humans is published by Scribe.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
This episode covers H5N1 bird flu, covid-19, pandemic, lockdown, flu, cat flu, swine flu, hendra virus, horse racing, horse trainer, fly by night bat clinic, Werribee poo ponds, necropsy, chicken farms, disease-proof pigs, PRRS, CRISPR, vaccines, vaccination, smallpox, pox virus, borealpox and northern red-backed vole.
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.

Colleen Gwynne led the investigation into the murder of the British backpacker and eventually confronted his killer in prison.
In 2001, Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were ambushed on a remote stretch of road in the outback and Peter was shot dead.
Colleen was working as a cop in Alice Springs when she was asked to take over the complex murder case.
With help from the F.B.I, her work saw Bradley John Murdoch arrested and charged.
She confronted him in prison, and refused to be intimidated, despite his intense aggression towards her.
Murdoch was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in 2025.
After leaving the police force, Colleen took up another challenging job.
She became the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, tasked with protecting vulnerable children.
Colleen's own story mean she brings a unique understanding to the work.
This episode was first broadcast in 2018 
The producer was Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

Nikki Goldstein was in a coma in the ICU at St Vincent's Hospital when she first 'met' Rabbi Eli Schlanger. When she woke, the pair embarked together on a project to share the wisdom, compassion and universality of several Jewish teachings.
Although they were from very different worlds, when Nikki gained consciousness and met Rabbi Eli properly the two became fast friends.
Then, they started writing a book together - based on the deep and expansive conversations they began having about hope, personal growth, spirituality and modern life.
Rabbi Eli wanted Nikki's help to share seven ancient Jewish guidelines on living a good life, which he believed could be helpful to anyone, Jewish or not, who was looking for a way to live in a world that feels increasingly chaotic.
While Nikki and Rabbi Eli didn't agree on everything all the time, they did both believe these teachings to be universal in their compassion and wisdom.
The pair had just recorded their last conversation for the project in December last year, when Rabbi Eli was one of 15 people killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack.
Nikki decided to honour his memory by finishing their book alone.
Conversations with My Rabbi is published by HarperCollins.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores religion, faith, modern living, disconnection, hope, radical empathy, togetherness, multiculturalism, learning from others, spiritual, family, near-death experiences, autoimmune disease, anti-Semitism, terrorism, grief, tragedy, suffering, meaning of life, spiritual teachings, friendship, prayer, meditation, Judaism, secularism.
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.

Gardening Australia's Hannah Moloney on the heartwarming and heartbreaking reasons humans continue to lovingly tend to their gardens — for healing, beauty and joy.
For thousands of years, tending to a garden or a small farm meant human survival. 
But now, with massive commercial farms, genetically modified crops, refrigerated freight and modern irrigation, we don't need to tend to our own gardens to survive.
So why, then, do so many of us still lovingly plant, water and cultivate flowers, fruits and vegetables? Or watch 'lawn porn' to relax?
It's a question that Hannah Moloney has asked thousands of gardeners from around the world.
Hannah is a permaculture educator, landscape designer and the Tasmanian presenter for ABC TV's Gardening Australia. 
Gardening is in Hannah's blood, having grown up in a herb nursery run by her green-thumbed father in the Brisbane suburbs.
For Hannah, gardening remains a lifeline, a way to bond with her family and a joyful act of protest.
Why We Garden is published by Simon & Schuster.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores gardening, hobbies, outdoor activities, mental health, grief gardening, why we like being outdoors, gardening as meditation, the beauty of our gardens, Australian native gardens, vegetable patches, how to grow your own vegetables, fruit trees, family origin stories, losing a parent, pregnancy, motherhood, postpartum depression, gardening for healing, creative inspiration, human history, horticulture, climate change, global warming, food scarcity, food supply, drought, flood, famine, Costa Georgiadis, green thumb, meditation.
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.

Zenith Virago was a married mother of two, when she left her family to begin again as a lesbian.  Then she found a new path as a death walker, helping people navigate their life's end. 
Zenith grew up in England, and she was still at school when she fell in love with another student. 
At seventeen, she married Richard, Head Boy of the local Comprehensive school. 
They had two children, Jodie and Todd.
Then at 24, Zenith had a realisation about who she really was. She left her husband and children to begin a new life as a lesbian in New Zealand,
Eventually she arrived in Byron Bay, where she met a community of people who inspired her.
One day, Zenith's dear friend Sylvia died unexpectedly doing yoga in her garden. Rather than outsourcing to the funeral industry, Sylvia's loved ones took over her funeral and cremation themselves.
This experience launched a new path for Zenith, and she became a ‘death walker’, helping people navigate the end of life with reverence and calm.
In the midst of her new chapter, the death of a former lover brought her third son Tane back into her life unexpectedly.
Further information
Original broadcast February 2019
Learn about Zenith Virago's Natural Death Care Centre
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