Best Centre For Advancing Journalism Podcasts (2025)

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Interviewed by an Algorithm 15:51

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1d ago15:51

15:51

First, Artificial Intelligence took our jobs. Now, it's deciding how we're recruited into the ones that are left. For today's episode, Sarah Jensz discusses her reporting on this new—and barely regulated—industry practice. She also speaks with legal experts, including Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay, who is pushing for urgent reforms to c…

1
The Grassroots Fight Against Seismic Blasting 20:23

8d ago20:23

20:23

Thousands of Little Penguins nest along the southwest coast of Victoria, but their colonies are constantly threatened by energy companies pushing to conduct seismic surveys. Fearing these shockwaves could devastate local marine life, citizen scientist Carli Reeve rallied her community to protect them. Her grassroots campaign ultimately forced the p…

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Memorial Landscapes 19:49

14d ago19:49

19:49

Nature is like a time capsule. The cyclical rhythm of healthy ecosystems can outlast entire civilisations. This week on The Yarn, two environmental stories take us back to postwar Germany and prehistoric Australia. We hear how fragile ecosystems have stood the test of time — and what’s at stake if we lose them forever. These audio documentaries wer…

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Distraction: Game On Or Game Over 17:25

29d ago17:25

17:25

Whether powered by pixels or pure imagination, gaming offers players a way to forget the outside world. But when the stakes become real, is it really just a game? This week on The Yarn, we’re bringing you stories about the comforts and consequences of gaming, how it helps some players cope, and how it can leave others more drained than when they lo…

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Man Up: The Rise and Rise of China’s Manosphere 36:22

1M ago36:22

36:22

In the latest in our series on belief, we’re examining the emergence of incels in the world’s largest manosphere. China’s growing incel community is fuelled by state-approved nationalism and simple demographics—by one estimate, 30 million Chinese men won’t find a life partner. To find out why so many Chinese men believe that women are the source of…

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Distraction: Escapism 22:33

1M ago22:33

22:33

For the third episode of Distraction, we explore the psychological benefits of hobbies — and investigate whether leisure time is divided equally. Featuring stories produced by Elliot Rodriguez, Molly Frew, James Worsfold, and Sarah Jensz. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.By Centre for Advancing Journalism

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Distraction: Tech Overload 21:20

2M ago21:20

21:20

They say that if something is free online, then you’re the product. So are we controlling technology, or is it controlling us? This week on The Yarn, we’re bringing you stories from both sides of the spectrum. From the dangers of social media addiction, to harnessing technology as a tool for good. Featuring stories by Brandon Kearns, Ellen Cutler, …

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Distraction: Finding Focus 22:46

2M ago22:46

22:46

The first episode of our Distraction series is about wayward attention and the struggle to focus. This week, our producers navigate ADHD, limit screentime, and question whether the solution to distracting technology can come from technology itself. This series was made in collaboration with the Science Gallery for their new exhibition, which is ope…

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Karma Chameleon: The CCP turns to Buddhism 49:27

2M ago49:27

49:27

Continuing our series on belief in China, we look at the revival of Buddhism, which is being embraced by citizens and the Chinese state. While temple visits increase, the state is funding temples and martial arts academies from Nepal to Tanzania. As Xi Jinping extols Buddhism with Chinese characteristics, the Chinese state is leveraging Buddhism di…

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The Garbage Time of History: Is China Still Marxist? 41:44

3M ago41:44

41:44

In the latest in our series on belief, we’re looking at China’s official belief system—Marxism. In recent years, netizens have argued China has entered the ‘garbage time’ of history, a phrase borrowed from the dying minutes of a basketball game, which now references a crisis of trust in the Communist Party and its official ideology. To ask whether …

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Journalism Against Autocracy: Mikhail Zygar’s AN Smith Lecture 41:29

4M ago41:29

41:29

Exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar says the Russia-Ukraine war is far from over. He believes Vladimir Putin is prolonging the conflict to fuel propaganda and silence critics. This week on The Yarn, we’re sharing Zygar’s 2025 AN Smith Lecture—Journalism Against Autocracy. Addressing a sold-out audience at Melbourne University, Zygar recounts co…

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News Bites: Amplifying Untold Stories 17:14

4M ago17:14

17:14

Who do you think of when you think of an Australian pioneer? Maybe Fanny Finch, the first woman to vote in Australia, who was also a woman of colour. Or perhaps Rosaleen Norton, also known as the Witch of King's Cross. These are the trailblazers whose stories Dr Corey Martin is telling in her podcast, Maiden Australia. In this episode of News Bites…

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Voters' Voices: Election Post-Mortem 13:24

5M ago13:24

13:24

It’s been called “a win for the ages”. Anthony Albanese is Australia’s first prime minster to win consecutive terms in more than two decades. His landslide victory has left the Coalition reeling, especially in major cities like Melbourne. For the final episode of Voters’ Voices, we’re focusing on Melbourne’s swing towards Labor. We’re also revisiti…

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Voters’ Voices: Marginal Melbourne 18:56

5M ago18:56

18:56

Ahead of Australia's federal election on May 3rd, we’re bringing you another episode of Voters’ Voices. This week we're focusing on Marginal Melbourne — the city’s most tightly-contested electorates. Our reporters investigated the seats on a knife’s-edge this year and the hot-button issues that could decide their futures. Featuring pieces by Ruby P…

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Voters’ Voices: Demographic Divides 17:31

5M ago17:31

17:31

Last week, we focused on young, disaffected voters ahead of the federal election on May 3rd. For episode two of Voter’s Voices, our reporters zoomed out. They went to a broader mix of voters, from retirees to small business owners. They found values were front of mind this year – like political honesty and social and environmental concerns. Featuri…

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Voters’ Voices: Generation Now 16:36

5M ago16:36

16:36

Ahead of Australia's federal election on May 3rd, we're launching a new series — Voters’ Voices. Episode one is all about what young voters really care about. Gen Z and millennial voters will outnumber baby boomers for the first time this year. It’s being called a cost-of-living election and our reporters investigated whether that’s true.They learn…

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Visa Victory: A Family’s Fight Against Ableism 13:06

6M ago13:06

13:06

After more than a decade apart, a disabled 14 year old in Indonesia will be reunited with his parents in Australia. Despite being born in Melbourne, Jonathan Lumintang was later denied residency due to his cerebral palsy. A ministerial intervention has allowed him to stay — but other families aren’t as lucky. Our student Kristian Oka Prasetyadi rep…

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A War Cry From Wieambilla 27:11

6M ago27:11

27:11

Australia's first ever Christian terrorist attack — that's how Queensland police classified the 2022 mass shooting in the rural township of Wieambilla. This week, producer Kirralee Nicolle revisits the incident in detail. She explores how Christian fundamentalism can turn deadly, especially in tandem with online conspiracies and mental illness. Thi…

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China on the Couch: Xi Jinping's Psy-boom 48:02

6M ago48:02

48:02

In our third episode on beliefs and ideologies, we explore China’s newfound enthusiasm for psychiatry. Counselling was only registered as a profession in 2001 yet has seen a massive boom under Xi Jinping. The psy-boom is such that even party branch meetings are doing mindfulness exercises, and practitioners are trying to indigenise counselling prac…

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Angling for Defence Contracts at Fisherman’s Bend 17:14

6M ago17:14

17:14

Today we're focusing on the ties between the University of Melbourne and weapons manufacturers. While the University has downplayed these ties, our reporter James Costa has found it’s still pursuing new defence partnerships. In particular, the university is spruiking its forthcoming inner-city campus at Fisherman's Bend. The University’s behaviour …

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Three Years of News Bites 20:57

6M ago20:57

20:57

We’re continuing our centenary celebrations by revisiting highlights from our News Bites series. Over the last three years, we’ve featured more than 40 of Australia’s top journalism experts. These include newspaper editors, podcasters, war journalists, and our very own staff. Today you’ll hear some of their top tips for aspiring journalists, from m…

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The Yarn at 100 22:39

7M ago22:39

22:39

Today marks the 100th episode of our award-winning student podcast, The Yarn. In the three years since we started, we’ve featured work from 151 emerging journalists and won the Climate Award at the Australian Podcast Awards. To celebrate our centenary, we’re revisiting the highlights from our environmental reporting. From the centre of a bee swam t…

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News Bites: Journalism Survival Guide 29:52

7M ago29:52

29:52

Intimidated, lucky, chaotic: this is the emotional rollercoaster of the first days working in a newsroom. This episode is our survival guide to starting out in journalism, as delivered by three of our graduates. Gwen Liu from the Ballarat Courier, Harry Sekulich from the Daily Aus, and freelancer Wing Kuang speak to Senior Tutor Bernadette Nunn abo…

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Let's Get Spiritual: State, Digital Spirituality and Feng Shui in China 46:54

8M ago46:54

46:54

To welcome the Year of the Snake, we’re launching a new series looking at belief in China. Young Chinese people are increasingly turning to spirituality - even online manifestations of it - and feng shui, in this moment of high unemployment and economic stress. For a Party guided by materialism, this spike in spiritual interest presents a dilemma: …

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Sisters doing it for themselves? Marriage Refusal and Little Milk Puppies 44:27

9M ago44:27

44:27

China is in the grip of a gender war. While government officials are texting and even cold calling women to urge them have children, the fertility rate continues to drop. Better educated and often better paid their male peers, many urban Chinese women are simply choosing not to marry. To discuss the growing female backlash to the Party’s pro-natal …

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Give me Maw: China's Craze for the Cocaine of the Seas 42:48

10M ago42:48

42:48

Few outside the Chinese wedding banquet circuit have heard of fish maw, a flavourless, unappetising-looking swim bladder found in bony fish. In dried form, a kilo from the right species goes for around $150,000 on the world market, double the price of a kilogram of cocaine. The most prized maw is found in one of the remotest corners of the planet, …

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Uncurated: DONATIONS 9:06

10M ago9:06

9:06

The Baillieu Library is the largest library here at the University of Melbourne. Walking through the library, the shelves are filled with books on everything from philosophy and history, to science and computing, all from a Western Eurocentric perspective. But the library also holds one of the largest collections of Rare East Asian books and materi…

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Special Report: US Election Postmortem 15:25

10M ago15:25

15:25

After President-elect Donald Trump's landslide win and a federal election looming, Australian politicians have lessons to learn from the US election. The Yarn spoke to two US political analysts, on different sides of the political aisle, to get a breakdown of the Republicans' success. Tim Lynch is a professor of American politics at the University …

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Uncurated: COLLECTORS 17:07

11M ago17:07

17:07

The Harry Brookes Allen Museum is one of many collections at the University of Melbourne. The University has collected artefacts that has contributed to a wealth of knowledge that is vital to Melbourne, Australia and the world. But the way University scholars collected these artefacts was not always done in an ethical way. Reporter Haoyue Deng lear…

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The Centre of the Vortex: Survivors' Notes from Hong Kong Writers 40:30

11M ago40:30

40:30

Writers from Hong Kong face a Kafkaesque decision in the years since draconian security legislation was imposed on the city: to stay and be subject to intense censorship, or to write freely from exile. In this episode, Louisa speaks to two award-winning authors who have chosen different paths. Lau Yeewa is still living in Hong Kong; her book Tongue…

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Uncurated: COUNTRY 19:13

11M ago19:13

19:13

What would Australia look like if we had monkeys swinging around our cities? In the late 19th Century, a number of associations called “acclimatisation societies” sprung up across Australia with the goal of bringing familiar plants and animals to what the British colonists saw as an impoverished landscape. This episode explores the massive ecologic…

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Uncurated: STONES 18:32

11M ago18:32

18:32

The Old Quadrangle is one of the most photographed spots on the University of Melbourne campus, with students and tourists alike posing under its iconic archways. The romantic European architecture feels like you've been transported to the set of Hogwarts, but did you know that the stones used to create this effect were stolen from Indigenous lands…

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Uncurated: REMAINS 18:39

12M ago18:39

18:39

Between the 1800s to1950s, anthropologists at the University of Melbourne were digging up burial sites of First Nations ancestors who had been laid to rest and collecting, rather stealing, their bodies. And while some of these human remains were returned to land and reburied, one collection remained hidden away at the university in a storage room u…

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Introducing Uncurated Season 3 2:24

12M ago2:24

2:24

On the surface, the University of Melbourne is a historical spectacle – with its grand arches, stone facades, echoing hallways, and the chimes of the old clocktower. But this university is also home to many secrets, from human remains unearthed on university grounds, to its role in nuclear testing on Indigenous lands. In an eight-part series, stude…

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Special Criminal Zones: China’s Pig Butchers Pivot to the West 48:05

12M ago48:05

48:05

In our third episode on pig butchering scams, we explore the origins of the Chinese criminal syndicates that enslave people from at least 66 different countries. We examine the institutions supporting this appalling business, from the Thai military to cryptocurrencies, Burmese border guard forces to special economic zones. And the marks for these s…

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News Bites: Threats to Journalism with Silvia Montaña-Niño 25:47

12M ago25:47

25:47

This week, we're bringing you another episode of News Bites, a series of live interviews about the craft of journalism. Today’s guest is Silvia Montaña-Niño. Silvia is a new CAJ lecturer and was a journalist at El Espectador, one of Columbia’s most important newspapers. At the start of her career, Columbia was besieged by guerilla warfare and death…

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News Bites: Racing the Clock with Dr Caroline James-Garrod 25:06

1y ago25:06

25:06

Today’s News Bites guest is journalist and CAJ Lecturer Dr Caroline James-Garrod. Caroline got her start as a cadet at Leader Community Newspapers in Melbourne. Since then, she’s had an expansive career working across the country and abroad. She’s also seen major industry upheavals, from the rise of the 24/7 online news cycle to the era of mass job…

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News Bites: Journalism in Times of Crisis with Khalid Amiri 30:15

1y ago30:15

30:15

This week, we're bringing you another episode of News Bites, a series of live interviews about the craft of journalism. Today’s guest is Khalid Amiri, who was a prominent news presenter for the Afghan state broadcaster RTA. He’s known for his courageous reporting and outspoken criticism of the Taliban. After Kabul fell in August 2021, Khalid and hi…

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Sci-Fi: Myths and Monsters 14:31

1y ago14:31

14:31

In Victorian London, a persistent rumour spread of a murderer who could leap between the city’s alleyways to avoid detection. Newspapers called him spring-heeled jack—one of the first ever urban legends. He wasn’t real, but the fears that inspired him were. Fears of rapidly changing urban spaces and the upheavals of industrialization. This week, we…

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Cognitive hazing: The Disinformation War on Taiwan? 44:22

1y ago44:22

44:22

Taiwan is ground zero for cognitive warfare, with the island subject to more disinformation than any other democracy. The targets are political candidates, media outlets, even boy bands. The threat is so serious that Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice recently set up a Cognitive Warfare Research Center. To explore this war for Taiwanese minds, Louisa and…

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Sci-Fi: New Frontiers 15:18

1y ago15:18

15:18

A decade before the global internet even existed, William Gibson coined the term "cyberspace". He was describing a realm of pure information in his 1983 novel Neuromancer. The story unfolds in a future where data flows form the arteries of an interconnected world. It’s one of many inventions that appeared in novels and films years before they mater…

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Sci-Fi: Technology's Toll 14:45

1y ago14:45

14:45

Back in the 13th Century, a catastrophic eruption in Indonesia ushered in a “volcanic winter”. Sulfur smothered the sky, causing crop failure and famine as far away as Europe. Almost 800 years later, geoengineers are considering replicating this effect on purpose. The theory goes that plumes of aerosols could shield us from the sun and combat clima…

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Sci-Fi: Alternate Realities 17:53

1y ago17:53

17:53

When we think of navigation, we imagine satellite imagery mapping our world with laser-point precision. But not all maps are for navigating reality. "World building” describes the mapping of entire fictional realms. Think the vast continent of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings, or the expansive galaxies of Star Trek. But it doesn’t end there. It ca…

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Sci-Fi: Post-Human 13:32

1y ago13:32

13:32

2030. That’s the date renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil says humans could merge with machines and achieve immortality. He's is a disciple of transhumanism — a movement aiming to cheat death through technological innovations. We might not get there by 2030, but this week, we’re bringing you stories about the breakthroughs paving the way. Stories about …

1
News Bites: Protect, not Punish 32:02

1y ago32:02

32:02

For Australian whistleblowers, the truth often comes at price. The Human Rights Law Centre says federal whistleblowing laws have failed to protect a single person since their inception, and those who speak out risk exorbitant fines or even jail time. Today, you’ll hear from a panel of experts who say reforms are long overdue: Kieran Pender (an expe…

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The Pig Butcher’s Payroll: Inside a Romance Scam 49:18

1y ago49:18

49:18

After our last episode on an online romance scam operating out of Palau we were contacted by Neo Lu, who was trafficked to work in an online scam camp on the Myanmar-Thailand border, the victim of a $US3 trillion global criminal industry. He joins Louisa and Graeme to offer jaw-dropping detail on life inside a scam centre, the mechanics of pig butc…

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Fraud Factories and Pig Butchery: Chinese Triads go Pacific 46:33

1+ y ago46:33

46:33

Chinese triads have been making a Pacific play, notably in the tiny nation of Palau. There a notorious triad boss - nicknamed Broken Tooth - reinvented himself as a CCP-linked businessman trying to set up a 'gangster-themed' casino, while police busted a Chinese 'fraud factory'. In Palau, this scam scheme was linked to businessmen touting United Fr…

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News Bites: Dylan Bird on Building a Career in Audio 29:32

1+ y ago29:32

29:32

Today we're returning to our News Bites series which spotlights the work of staff and students at the Centre for Advancing Journalism. This week’s guest is podcaster, PhD candidate, and former journalism student Dylan Bird. You might recognise his voice from Triple R’s Future Perfect program, which Dylan hosts. He also works behind the scenes on th…

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A Stalled Deal to End the Encampment 13:53

1+ y ago13:53

13:53

24 hours after announcing a partial victory, the pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Melbourne is still intact and students are still occupying the Arts West building. It’s not what they were anticipating yesterday. During a press conference last night, a pro-Palestine spokesperson said the university had agreed to a deal that could end t…

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How Protesters Occupied Arts West 11:05

1+ y ago11:05

11:05

On Wednesday, dozens of pro-Palestine protesters occupied the University of Melbourne’s Arts West building. They say this sit-in will last until they are either forcibly removed or their demands are met. They’re calling for the divestment of university funds from weapons manufacturers. The university has threatened those involved with severe conseq…