In 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed Beth and then herself. Vivienne’s body was never found.

But Vikki Petraitis wasn’t convinced. The official line didn’t explain all the evidence, and it certainly didn’t seem like the behaviour of a mother with two small boys. Fascinated by both the case and the bias it revealed in investigators, Petraitis wrote her first true-crime book about the murder, with Paul Daley, and decades later made a podcast on the case. Both brought new evidence and testimony to light, and asked questions that were not asked at the time.

To mark the fortieth anniversary of Beth’s murder and Vivienne’s vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened all those years ago, and why.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Vikki Petraitis about why she has returned to this forty-year-old cold case, about her insights into the Philip island community, and why she is not convinced that the police investigation had reached a reasonable conclusion.

Debra Dank had long been desperate to paint a fuller picture of her family, to add flesh to the name-bones and the few precious stories she possessed. Debra had been aware of her father's five siblings, some of whom had died before she could come to know them, but there were always whispers and gaps and silences. Her parents had experiences that affected how Debra grew up, but hers seemed to be one of the very few Aboriginal families who had escaped having children stolen, who had viewed this horror from a seemingly safer distance. What Debra discovered would shatter everything she thought she knew about her family and her past. The information she uncovered revealed that her paternal grandmother had given birth to ten children. Four had been taken from her.

Ankami is written from the perspective of those left behind, those who search always for the faces of stolen and lost Aboriginal children, now known only through a few cruel, thoughtless words written by a violent pastoral manager and a paternalistic colonial administrator, a footnote in a yellowed letter.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Debra Dank about the culture of silence she faced in uncovering her family history, the memories she relied on to tell this story and those she was compelled to imagine in the absence of the family she never knew, and the inadequacy of Australian standard english in describing, expressing and communicating Aboriginal culture and the words she invents to address that problem.

As a seventeen-year-old officer Aaron Tait was deployed to a war in the Middle East. Far Horizons is the story of what happened next. From war zones to slums, Aaron Tait has travelled to and worked in more than 70 countries across the globe as a military officer, humanitarian and social entrepreneur, and now writes to help people live deliberate lives filled with purpose.

Far Horizons is a globe-spanning coming-of-age memoir of a fighter turned peace-seeker on a vibrant journey of transformation, adventure and love, set against backdrops of the Iraq War, Africa and the world beyond. Fresh and introspective, it will lead you to exploring not only the far corners of the world but also the uncharted aspects of yourself.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Aaron Tait about the physical and psychological challenges he faced in training as a military officer and as part of a non-compliant boarding unit in the Persian Gulf, how he was morally challenged by his experiences of war and what he did about it, and how the love of his life led him to live and work in Kenya and Tanzania in search of redemption

When rebellious Ruby is bequeathed her late grandfather’s personal letters, she is pulled from peacetime 1973 Australia, to 1917 World War 1 France. Without identification or any way home, she sets out to right a wrong that has broken her family for generations. She meets her young grandfather, an Australian soldier, who has a secret family – a French wife and daughter. Ruby is the only person who knows the true danger they are in, and sets out to rewrite her family’s past. A local resistance fighter Henri, with secrets of his own, is the only person who can help her. As they navigate dangerous terrain, Ruby is torn between the love of this mysterious hero, and the life she left behind.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Vicki Bennett about the enduring power of the hand-written letter, how the letter can facilitate communication across time and generations, and her deep personal and family connection to this story.

Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keeps their little world safe. And he's working in spectacular surroundings - the fierce Tasman Sea, the dense beech forest, the dark, cold swamps, the snowy Southern Alps.

But then his much-loved predecessor, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet through his head. He'd been looking into a disturbing murder-suicide from 1978: the parents' bodies were found, but not their daughter's. Suspecting a darker truth, Matt is certain the answers can't be too far away in this close-knit community. How does former forest service ranger Liam, with his gang links, fit into the story? What about Joe, the alcoholic hermit whose knowledge and intelligence seem so at odds with his appearance and lifestyle?

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Chris Blake about the wild west coast of the South Island of New Zealand as the perfect setting for a dark and bloody crime thriller, how Senior Constable Matt Buchanan might have has escaped his demons, and the challenges for Chris Blake as both a serving police officer and an award-winning novelist.

When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help remedy the situation and ended up transforming Australian history in ways he could never have imagined.

In 'Looking from the North', Reynolds again turns Australian history on its axis with an exploration of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Reynolds tells the stories of the European, Chinese, Japanese and Pacific Islander people who were vital to the settlement of the north. Along with the experience of First Nations peoples, from employment on stations and as native police to the land rights and homelands movements,

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Henry Reynolds about how the the colonisation of Australia's north was very different to the south, how there has never truly been a 'white Australia' in this part of this continent, and why the implications of the Australian Federal government's white paper Our North, Our Future of a decade ago may be contrary to Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007.

Overnight, Seka Torlak’s life as a regular teenager is upended as Srebrenica, her once peaceful town, falls under siege and she faces starvation, shelling, and sniper attacks. When desperately needed antibiotics and food disappear and are sold on the black market, Seka vows to investigate the corruption and bring the culprits to justice.

As the war ravages Srebrenica, Seka's resilience is tested as she navigates the harsh realities of war. Yet, amidst the devastation, she finds a glimmer of hope as her relationship with Ramo blossoms from friendship to love. But as she fights for justice and love the brutal war threatens to tear everything apart.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Amra Pajalic about the complex Balkan history behind this story, Amra's own experience of living in Bosnia, and how historical fiction has the power to tell the stories of real people amidst the brutal realities of war.

Retired academic Martin Pottinger's romantic aspirations for the delectable head of his former university's archaeology department, Professor Mary Blake, seem about to be realised. If only he could devise a plan to manage the demands of his eccentric elderly mother, Edwina.Recently bereaved Grace Cavendish spends her days helping out at All Souls Church, making it her mission to drown out the Reverend Rod's tone-deaf hymn-singing and give each funeral recipient a hearty send-off. Yet the peace she craves remains elusive despite the comforts offered by psychic medium Rhondda and her eight-year-old son, Hudson. When Martin and Grace meet and bond at an All Souls service, they unwittingly set off a chain of events with far-reaching consequences. They become funeral crashers. But who could have predicted that crashing funerals might have such life-changing and life-affirming outcomes?

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Joanna Nell about how funerals are not just a stage in the grieving process, her career in aged care and advocacy for ageing positively, and creating stories and characters that reflect the realities of later life.