Shows / Background Briefing
Background Briefing
Background Briefing is the ABC's flagship investigative journalism podcast. Its award-winning investigations and documentaries expose cover-ups, corruption, real-life mysteries, whistleblowing, crime, fraud and miscarriages of justice — often before these stories receive mainstream attention. The Background Briefing podcast brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear, told by trusted reporters across Australia. This Australian podcast makes investigative journalism bingeable…
Episodes
- Background Briefing
Money for empties
Container deposit schemes operate in many parts of the world, in SA, and soon in the NT. Why will some firms go to great lengths to prevent them? Politicians…
- Background Briefing
Money for empties
Container deposit schemes operate in many parts of the world, in SA, and soon in the NT. Why will some firms go to great lengths to prevent them? Politicians…
- Background Briefing
Nowhere to live
Rents are rising even in country towns, and more people are forced into caravan parks, the back rooms of old pubs - or the river bank - even with young…
- Background Briefing
Soccer and technology
Soccer is the biggest sport in the world and an enormous business. Millions can be lost through a wrong call made by a person with a whistle. Why won't FIFA…
- Background Briefing
Amos Oz on fanaticism
Renowned Israeli writer, poet, activist, and historian Amos Oz talks about the most urgent topic of our time—fanatics on all sides of politics and religion. If…
- Background Briefing
Auditing the auditors
Where does the buck stop when big banks and corporations, even nations collapse. Who signs off on the books? The auditors or the directors of the board? And…
- Background Briefing
Murderous Mexico
In the first five months of this year, an astonishing 18,500 Mexicans have been murdered - with very few convictions. In the last five years 66 journalists…
- Background Briefing
50/50 parenting
Legislation before the Senate now may take some of the heat out of tragic confusion over shared, or 'equal time parenting', and the role of violence in Family…
- Background Briefing
Water bugs
Every year more than 200 people in Queensland get very sick with a nasty, little understood, hard-to-treat type of bacteria. Other states report none. Why? Our…
- Background Briefing
The Lord Monckton roadshow
The Scottish peer Lord Monckton has been raising hell against the carbon tax in barnstorming rallies and public meetings around the country. But just who is…
- Background Briefing
Bullying at work
It's tricky territory. No one agrees on one definition, and what is bullying to one person is normal behaviour to another. But who investigates bullying, and…
- Background Briefing
Ghosts of Vietnam
There are 300,000 Vietnamese still missing in action and their souls haunt the living. Real or metaphorical, these ghosts are disrupting society. Some American…
- Background Briefing
Digital convergence, connection and confusion
It's coming fast, the digital hub where i-pads talk to mobile phones, computers talk to TVs, TVs have hundreds of apps, and you can choose and change with your…
- Background Briefing
The knight of Newcastle
Nathan Tinkler is a billionaire and the richest man in Australia under 40. He loves fast horses, fast cars, the Newcastle Knights, and big business deals. He's…
- Background Briefing
A dignified death: who decides how we die?
We should be able to choose the way we die by writing an advanced care directive, or appointing someone to make our medical decisions when we can't. But…
- Background Briefing
Preventing cancer
One in three cancers are preventable and successful campaigns such as 'Slip Slop Slap' are proof. Lung and bowel cancer rates are coming down, also melanoma in…
- Background Briefing
Fatigue factor
As an entire population we're losing sleep. Fatigue has become a dangerous side-effect of 24/7 living and nowhere is the danger more acute than in the…
- Background Briefing
Language barriers
The compulsory English language test for migrants can make or break their future in Australia. But critics say it is a blunt instrument that can produce odd…
- Background Briefing
Digital revolutionaries under surveillance
In Egypt democracy activists called themselves the Facebook revolutionaries, but in China there are fears the social networking sites will be used to spy on…
- Background Briefing
How politics neglects feelings
David Brooks, a leading political analyst for the New York Times and PBS NewsHour, has come to some surprising conclusions after years of observing political…
- Background Briefing
Bess Price: welcome to my world
Warlpiri woman Bess Nungarrayi Price gives a personal account of the way violence has ripped apart her family, and others, in Aboriginal communities of Central…
- Background Briefing
Medical turf wars
Physicians' assistants have joined pharmacists, nurse practitioners and optometrists to say they can do the straightforward, simple, and repetitive work that…
- Background Briefing
Low IQ and in jail
Many intellectually disabled people end up in jail. They plead guilty to minor crimes not understanding either social rules or the consequences. Hear the story…
- Background Briefing
Church and state
Concerns were raised when federal funding for chaplains in schools was introduced. Now some parents have evidence evangelism has seeped into the secular public…
- Background Briefing
Dementia: into the daylight
We're diagnosing dementia younger, we're living with it longer, and more Australians will have it in future. How are we to deal with this devastating and…
- Background Briefing
Taxing mines
Australia and Zambia are resource rich countries that both wanted to tax the super profits of mining companies during the world's biggest commodity boom. Find…
- Background Briefing
Overloaded internet
Even silicon valley says the world is overconnected, corporations are overwhelmed, and we're heading for another global crisis because the internet is now…
- Background Briefing
Japan's nuclear crisis
As Japan's nuclear emergency continues, some food produced near the stricken Fukushima power plant has been found to contain abnormal radiation levels…
- Background Briefing
The boy on Christmas Island
Orphaned in the wild sea storm, nine-year-old Iranian boy Seena Akhlaqi has become the political pawn of 'stop the boats'. Why was a traumatised boy left in an…
- Background Briefing
Overloaded internet
Even silicon valley says the world is overconnected, corporations are overwhelmed, and we're heading for another global crisis because the internet is now…
- Background Briefing
Mismanaging disasters
Nature's forces - floods, cyclones, fires and this week the earthquake in Christchurch - won't stop, yet we still live on flood plains, in the bush, on the…
- Background Briefing
Ugly cigarette packs
Story update: The High Court has rejected the challenge made by tobacco companies to the plain packing laws.
- Background Briefing
The Matilda Myth
It's 70 years since the death of Banjo Patterson, and tourists will drive the Banjo Route from Narrambla to Corryong armed with a book of his poems.
- Background Briefing
Egypt: what now?
Because of extraordinary events in Cairo, Background Briefing this Sunday will be a live-to-air program,
- Background Briefing
Julian Assange: The man who played with fire
Alleged leaker Bradley Manning is having his day in court and Foreign Minister Bob Carr says Julian Assange is “no concern of ours”. In 2011 Wendy Carlisle…
- Background Briefing
Wikipedia at 10
January is the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia to which anyone can contribute and which anyone can edit. But there are problems, and…
- Background Briefing
The business of being a boss
Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Robert Sutton of the Stanford School of Business is a prolific author and speaker on boss and employee…
- Background Briefing
Emergency mental health
A clinical psychiatry professor in San Francisco General Hospital discusses the dangers, ethics, frailties and very difficult, sensitive decisions a…
- Background Briefing
The bicycle helmet laws
The law here is that cyclists must wear helmets, but in Europe it is not mandatory, and yet it's much safer to cycle. Some say helmets make cycling more…
- Background Briefing
Every man in the village is a liar
Megan Stack has won numerous prizes for her front line reporting on many wars, and her observations and experiences form the basis of a book and discussion…
- Background Briefing
Space rules the world
Transport, banking, food production, social networking, global supply chains, the world economy - would all grind to a halt if the satellite system failed…
- Background Briefing
Prevention or cure?
Primary school kitchen gardens, behavioural economics and frugal innovation, they're all important elements in a complex strategy to improve heart health and…
- Background Briefing
The myth of island living
There are more islands for sale today than at any other time in recorded history. But the dream of an island paradise is often a myth. Rather than idyllic…
- Background Briefing
The airline, the engine maker, the 500 passengers and their lucky escape
It's what keeps aeronautical engineers awake at night - an engine explosion at 30,000 feet. They are rare but the Qantas A380 incident has triggered a fierce…
- Background Briefing
The battle of king salmon
A local fishing community is pitted against the mining giant, Anglo-American, in a battle for natural resources in Alaska. A mine at the headwaters of a king…
- Background Briefing
Old law, new ways
Alcohol, gunja, payback killings and a refusal to go bush - Aboriginal elders in Central Australia are watching the erosion of their traditions and authority…
- Background Briefing
Making violence men's business
In Central Australia traditional payback law is corrupted, leading to grog fuelled killings. Suicide has become a payback issue too. For the first time…
- Background Briefing
Abortion on trial in Queensland
The bizarre case of young couple Tegan Leach and Sergei Brennan, who faced jail for procuring an illegal abortion using RU486, ended with the jury returning a…
- Background Briefing
Why is James Murdoch so angry?
The hacking scandal won't go away for the Murdoch family. This program looked at the issues getting James Murdoch angry including piracy and the British…
- Background Briefing
Walking on water
30% of Australia's water comes from underground, but we don't understand this huge national resource. We're draining some aquifers and overfilling others -…
- Background Briefing
The business of being a boss
Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Robert Sutton of the Stanford School of Business is a prolific author and speaker on boss and employee…
- Background Briefing
Dengue epidemic
There have been thousands of cases of dengue fever in the Commonwealth Games city of Delhi and more than a dozen confirmed cases of dengue fever in Cairns in…
- Background Briefing
Trains do it better
All political parties agree that trains do it better, but who will make it happen? Meanwhile, thousands of trucks are about to churn up the roads trying to get…
- Background Briefing
Every man in the village is a liar
Megan Stack has won numerous prizes for her front line reporting on many wars, and her observations and experiences form the basis of a book and discussion…
- Background Briefing
The bicycle helmet laws
The law here is that cyclists must wear helmets, but in Europe it is not mandatory, and yet it's much safer to cycle. Some say helmets make cycling more…
- Background Briefing
Who will govern Egypt?
As the intellectual crucible of middle eastern thought, Egypt remains enormously influential. What happens in Egypt when Hosni Mubarak dies will have global…
- Background Briefing
Church and state in Latin America
New technologies, travel and TV have profound implications for the Catholic church in Latin America. Gay rights, human rights, and women's rights - even…
- Background Briefing
The flash crash
A few months ago the US share market plunged l000 points in a few minutes, and trillions were traded both up and down. What caused it, and can it happen again…
- Background Briefing
The great native pet debate
Marsupial-loving reporter Ian Walker grew up wanting a pet like Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Could encouraging more native mammals as pets be a canny new…
- Background Briefing
Election 2010: The result
This week Background Briefing is not in the usual form. Instead we have Fran Kelly and Paul Barclay hosting a two hour post election program from 8 am till l0…