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 BriefingThe tiny device that can cause huge pain
It's one of the most effective forms of contraception available.
Background BriefingIs the AFLW ready for Tiwi magic?
AFL superstars like Cyril Rioli and Michael Long forged their talents there.
Background BriefingA far-right troll's journey from an Ipswich bedroom to global infamy
Note: this episode was originally broadcast in July 2021 and it contains explicit language and confronting themes.
Background BriefingIs getting quality care at medicinal cannabis clinics just pot luck?
When Jordan wanted to treat his insomnia, he turned to an experimental therapy: medicinal cannabis.
Background BriefingFaulty Towers 02 | 'The scummiest landlord in the state'
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following program contains references to a deceased Indigenous Australian.
Background BriefingFaulty Towers 01 | The birdman of Surry Hills
From piles of rubbish to leaking sewers, rats, and gas leaks.
Background BriefingMeet the teens at the frontline of organised crime
There's a violent territorial dispute between rival gangs in Sydney’s west.
Background BriefingInside the climate activists’ plan to shut down Australia
When protesters disrupted one of Australia’s largest container facilities, the NSW Government responded with new broad-sweeping laws that carried 2 year jail…
Background BriefingWhat happened to the Saudi sisters?
The mysterious discovery of the Alsehli sisters, who were found dead in a Sydney flat after more than a month, has shocked Australians. But who are they? What…
- Background Briefing
What happened to the Saudi sisters?
A special investigation by Rachael Brown and Mahmood Fazal into the shocking deaths of two women in Sydney's inner west.
Background BriefingThe billion dollar industry helping students cheat
When the pandemic pushed university assessments out of the exam room and into the bedroom, many Australian students turned to powerful new allies to help them…
Background BriefingWho's developing the wilderness?
There's a big nature tourism project about to take off in New South Wales, but many locals aren't all that happy about it. Reporter Mayeta Clark investigates…
Background BriefingThe artisan farmers taking on Victoria's meat regulator
Victoria is marketed as an exciting culinary destination. But organic farmers say they're facing draconian rules that prevent consumers from accessing the…
Background BriefingThe fight for control over Black births
Worried about racial inequities in the health system, First Nations women are fighting for culturally safe birth options. But as Quandamooka woman Carly…
Background BriefingWill any koalas be left in Australia's east by 2050?
Being one of Australia’s cutest animals hasn’t prevented its slide towards extinction. Reporter Rachael Brown investigates what is being done to try to curb…
Background BriefingWhat goes on inside Australia's first long COVID clinic?
Thousands of Australians are finding they still feel ill several months after contracting coronavirus. They're experiencing a new and little understood…
Background BriefingKidnapping the Gods | Part 2
Precious artefacts looted from Cambodia and Thailand made their way into prominent collections here in Australia, and around the world. In the second and final…
- Background Briefing
Kidnapping the Gods
Many ancient Cambodian artefacts arrived in Australia during the 1960s and 1970s, when the south east Asian country was in turmoil. Mario Christodoulou…
Background BriefingThe teachers are not alright
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged schools across the country like never before, but it's also shone a light on existing issues within the profession such as…
- Background Briefing
Why Queensland's sex workers say the law puts their lives at risk
Many states have repealed tough laws that put sex workers at risk of prosecution. But so far, Queensland hasn't followed suit. Now, the state government is…
- Background Briefing
The 'holy grail' of IVF that went wrong
IVF has grown into a huge industry, with companies competing to provide fertility services. But in the quest to innovate and gain an edge, one Australian…
- Background Briefing
When the floodwater goes, what's next?
Reporter Geoff Thompson followed several residents of Lismore as they tried to recover from February's monster flood in Northern NSW. But before they'd…
- Background Briefing
The mums accused of poisoning their kids
An almost unimaginable crime: two women accused of poisoning their own children at the same Sydney hospital. Both were charged and spent years separated from…
- Background Briefing
The end of Australia's biggest coal fired power plant
Jim works in the control room at Eraring Power Station, where one quarter of NSW's power is produced. But Jim and his 450 colleagues have recently found out…
- Background Briefing
The quiet drug crisis you haven't heard about
Prison authorities know that drugs are constantly finding their way into our prisons. But the most commonly detected drug is one you might never have heard of…
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The scientists questioning a serial murder case
She was convicted of killing her four children nearly two decades ago. But new scientific evidence has come to light, leading some of Australia’s most…
- Background Briefing
Inside aged care's Omicron chaos
This wave of coronavirus caused more Australians to die in aged care homes than any variant before it. This time we had vaccines and we had time to prepare…
- Background Briefing
Catching a Fugitive | Part 2
Charles Batham has been in hiding for years, and after two narrow escapes the trail goes cold. Then, reporter Erin Parke gets a tip-off that that brings the…
- Background Briefing
Catching a fugitive | part 1
A tall, eccentric Englishman with a secret double life flees Australia. For nine years he remains on the run. What he doesn't know is that two Australian women…
- Background Briefing
The boss you can't escape from
Why a part of our workforce is afraid to speak up, even if their lodgings have bedbugs, it's hard to get a shower, or their pay is getting docked by random…
- Background Briefing
How COVID chokes a hospital
For months the NSW government assured the public that its hospitals were coping through the pandemic. But frontline staff are now speaking out about the barely…
- Background Briefing
The kids who broke out of detention
What children experienced inside Tasmania's youth detention centre for a long time remained out of sight, out of mind. But as Mahmood Fazal discovered, the…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: Her name was Mhelody Bruno
She died in tragic circumstances, but it seems that the public, her family, even the court may not have been given the full story. Elise Kinsella investigates…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: A far-right troll's journey from an Ipswich bedroom to global infamy
A young Australian far-right troll was known to his online fans as 'Catboy Kami'. Thousands followed his 'edgy' videos where he targeted children online with a…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: The hidden park of last resort
It’s one of the last affordable caravan parks near Sydney's CBD where people can actually make a home. Many of the residents were driven here in one of life's…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: 'The ghosts are not silent'
An awkward Christmas lunch conversation sends reporter Sam Carmody on a search for answers about his family history. The stories he finds out about are so…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: The death Uber Eats disowned
Relatives of a dead food delivery rider say he was at work when a truck hit him. Uber Eats says he wasn’t. Patrick Begley investigates. This is a repeat of a…
- Background Briefing
Summer Season: The place where people mysteriously disappear
Warren Meyer was a keen bushwalker who always came prepared for a hike. When he vanished in the wild terrain of the Yarra Ranges, police were baffled. Ashlynne…
- Background Briefing
The giant wind farms clearing Queensland bush
There’s growing community backlash over the locations chosen for a number of massive new windfarm projects in Northern Queensland. And as Mayeta Clark…
- Background Briefing
The infiltrator who helped hatch a terror plot
A young Melbourne man got ten years' jail after attempting to buy a gun in preparation for a possible terrorist attack. Now his family is speaking publicly for…
- Background Briefing
The biggest financial scandal you've never heard of
It's been celebrated as Australia's "millionaires' factory". But Macquarie Bank is now caught up in the mother of all tax investigations. Reporter Mario…
- Background Briefing
Boom time in carbon farming country
Graziers are discovering there's millions to be made from their flat red earth. Taxpayers are funding billions to reduce the nation's carbon footprint…
- Background Briefing
The hidden terror that's splitting people's identities
Reporter Tracey Shelton spent years as a correspondent giving a voice to people in war zones who'd experienced trauma. When she returned to Australia, she was…
- Background Briefing
Vulnerable, unvaxxed, and running out of time
These people were supposed to be near the front of the queue for Covid vaccines. But in Yarrabah, an Aboriginal community near Cairns, local doctors are still…
- Background Briefing
How a conspiracy and a question led to 18 years jail
He was sentenced for a crime that shocked Australia: the terrorist plot to attack Sydney's Holsworthy barracks. But Nayef el Sayed's family are still confused…
- Background Briefing
Untouchable Assets | Part 3
As government investigators close in, Asiaciti realises it hasn't been keeping a close watch on some of its risky clients. In this series finale, Mario…
- Background Briefing
Untouchable Assets | Part 2
A rock concert ticket scalper and a controversial entrepreneur turn to Asiaciti for assistance. Using products from Graeme Briggs' company, they lock away…
- Background Briefing
Untouchable Assets | Part 1
Graeme Briggs enjoys rugby, collecting Japanese fountain pens, and looking after other people's money. The problem for Graeme and his company Asiaciti is that…
- Background Briefing
The scientists and shamans of psychedelic retreats
There's a landmark project underway in Melbourne to find out whether psilocybin - the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms - can be used to improve…
- Background Briefing
The Sydney security expert helping Afghan journalists escape
Geoff Thompson follows the dangerous journeys of three Afghan journalists as they attempt to flee the Taliban. Two of them succeed with the help of an…
- Background Briefing
'The ghosts are not silent'
An awkward Christmas lunch conversation sends reporter Sam Carmody on a search for answers about his family history. The stories he finds out about are so…
- Background Briefing
What it's like to face terrorism charges
Since the September 11 attacks, Australia has enacted a staggering number of laws to counter the threat of terrorism. Over one hundred people have been charged…
- Background Briefing
Inside the epicentre of Australia's Delta outbreak
As COVID-19 cases surged in Sydney's south-west City of Fairfield, the government enforced tougher restrictions on residents there. But as Geoff Thompson…
- Background Briefing
Reality TV's reckoning
Reality shows are a central pillar of the television industry, but for the people who appear on them, the productions can be a gateway to years of mental…
- Background Briefing
A far-right troll's journey from an Ipswich bedroom to global infamy
A young Australian far-right troll was known to his online fans as 'Catboy Kami'. Thousands followed his 'edgy' videos where he targeted children online with a…
- Background Briefing
Myanmar: The Spring Revolution
In Myanmar, after a military coup in February this year, mass protests were met with brutal force. Borders were shut, the internet was blocked and it is…
- Background Briefing
Unmasking Monsters
Bob Montgomery was one of Australia's most famous psychologists.But he was hiding a dark secret.Josh Robertson has the story of how he got away with it for so…
- Background Briefing
Her name was Mhelody Bruno
She died in tragic circumstances, but it seems that the public, her family, even the court may not have been given the full story. Elise Kinsella investigates…
- Background Briefing
The death Uber Eats disowned
Relatives of a dead food delivery rider say he was at work when a truck hit him. Uber Eats says he wasn’t. Patrick Begley investigates
- Background Briefing
The death Uber Eats disowned
Relatives of a dead food delivery rider say he was at work when a truck hit him. Uber Eats says he wasn’t. Patrick Begley investigates