Joanna Nilson became a political scandal when her old Facebook posts were sent to the media while she was standing for the Greens in the Victorian State election. When and what can we forgive and forget?

Daily Telegraph journalist Sharri Markson won the 2018 Kennedy Prize for Journalist of the Year her story exposing the Barnaby Joyce affair. The only problem is that the entire story had already been published by David Donovan at Independent Australia, months before. We speak to David about this and the other massive stories he's broken online, his independence enabling him to print the entire truth.

Netflix greatest villain Ken Kratz confesses all of his sins, and then lays out, once again, a very compelling case against Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey. He also has some interesting new questions for the makers of Making a Murderer.

I've never paid much attention to reality tv stars or to social media influencers, but there's always been something about Tully Smythe, aka Instagram's @tee_smythe, that I've found compelling.  There's always seemed to be a depth there, but I never knew why.  Now I do.  Tully was 15 and the eldest of 3 kids when her mother was diagnosed with dementia.  To this day, the family employs various strategies to cope with the disease. 

A couple of weeks ago my sister Sherri said to me, "I reckon my friend Lynne would be a good nitty gritty.  She’s in a wheel chair, and she’s very prepared to tell the story of how she ended up in it."  Quite simply, I dare you to hear this story and not feel like a complete wimp by the time it’s over.  The thing about Lynne though, is that she’s obviously been a bad arse since the day she was born.  This ep features beautiful traditional Tibetan music from my friend Tenzin Choegyel and...

The creator and star of Please Like Me, Josh Thomas ruminates on everything from ADD medication to moving his dog to America and his fears for the outcome of the stupid Same Sex Marriage survey.

Paul Weeks was one of the 227 passengers onboard MH370 when it disappeared.  Danica weeks is his wife, and she talks about her life before and since the mystery began.

Sri Lankan/Australian comedian Dilruk is living his dream, making people laugh and working with his idols.  He's found the key to maintaining gratitude, but like many of us, he has a few personal obstacles he struggles to overcome.

We're back!  After a long break to focus on my other podcast, Australian True Crime, it's time to have some interesting conversations about other things, and what a place to start - suburban ghost busting with the big, beautiful, brash personality that is Jody Turner.  Be warned, Jody's ghost hunting requires a lot of swearing!

What happens at the end of life when cancer finally catches up? For Julia Watson there was a wonderful feeling of being overwhelmed with love. Humanitarian, mature age student, published author, mother and wife Julia passed away on Sunday 18th December 2016. In January of 2015 she was given 6 to 9 months to live, which she managed to stretch out into almost two joy-filled years. Listen to Meshel Laurie speak to Julia from her bedside in a touching conversation about life, love and family,...

Let’s talk about the very thing we like to talk about the least. From why we need to teach our kids about it, to what makes a nice death and what happens in your final days. Through conversations with a palliative care nurse who has seen many a last breath and has some eerie ghost stories to share, and a woman who runs ‘death cafés’, Meshel Laurie explores the guts and glory of death. We can’t avoid it (despite our best efforts) so let’s talk about it. Show notes With thanks to Jenni from The...

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses sexual abuse, mental illness and suicide. From the age of 11, Manny Waks was groomed for sex. The Jewish activist was brought up in an Orthodox-Jewish community and routinely abused. When he was 17, Manny became a whistle-blower on childhood sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community. He speaks to Meshel about the effects of his pursuit for justice on his family, plus his exile from Australia and his struggle to keep fighting through the...

Last time we heard from Luke Williams, he was talking about that time he moved in with junkies to research addiction to crystal meth. Now he's back with Meshel for Part Two, to talk about his experiences with and as a money boy in Pattaya Thailand, the sex capital of the world, and how he started having sex for money when he was completing his law degree in Melbourne. Luke Williams is a freelance journalist and author of The Ice Age: a journey into crystal meth addiction.  Leave comments on...

Twenty years on, the case of JonBenet Ramsey's murder remains unsolved. Her mother, Patsy, died in 2006. Now John Ramsey, and his son Burke, are possibly the only two people alive who know what happened to this 6-year old. My interview with John Ramsey goes deep. Into the night when it all unfolded. Into his memories of Jon-Benet as a normal little girl.  To memories of Patsy, and how this mother, and wife, ever managed to move on with her life. How he has no doubt in his mind that there was...

When Luke Williams moved in with junkies to research addiction to crystal meth, he had no idea it would go so wrong. He became an addict himself, and his story became one of psychosis, delusions of grandeur, and murderous plots. From the true frontline of the crystal meth epidemic, Luke Williams shares stories from the throes of addiction and his attempts to reconstruct reality. This is part one of the interview with Luke. Look out for part two, which delves into Luke’s experience in Pattaya...

What makes a murderer? Ask Emily Webb. The true crime writer has been fascinated with murder since she was a kid, and now, she spends her days inside libraries, researching the stories of missing persons and strange deaths. From the woman who chopped her husband's head off and cooked it in a pot, to a nurse whose shift was dubbed "the death shift", she's written for years about the chilling dark heart of Australia. We delve deep into the stories that shocked a nation, the still unsolved...

Atypical anorexia nervosa. Bulimia nervosa. Binge-eating disorder. Purging disorder. Night-eating syndrome.No matter what name you put on it, says Meshel Laurie, everyone with an eating disorder is fighting the same demons. They're just using different tools. On this episode of Nitty Gritty Committee, Meshel talks to a woman who battled debilitating anorexia. J was in denial until she received a call from a surgeon that made her realise: 'this is going to kill you.'  Leave comments on...

UPDATE: Brendan Dassey, the teenage "accomplice" of convicted murderer Steven Avery has had his conviction overturned. Dassey, who was a 17-year-old with learning difficulties at the time of his imprisonment, must now be re-tried or walk free within 90 days.  On the back of this news, Meshel checks in with Ken Kratz, the "villian" of the Making a Murderer documentary. Ken Kratz, the prosecutor who convinced a jury to find Steven Avery guilty of the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. Kratz,...

Have you heard of gay conversion therapy?It's the thriving industry built around the idea that you can "cure" people of their sexuality. There are hundreds of testimonials online from people who say they once were gay and are now very grateful that that is no longer the case.We don’t hear much about gay conversion therapy in Australia, but it’s definitley happening here. In fact, a friend of mine, Anthony, a comedian and producer, has his own story with gay conversion, right here in...

You might have heard of David Icke. He is a former British football player, a BBC presenter, and arguably the world's most famous conspiracy theorist. He calls himself a full time investigator into who, or what, is really controlling the world. He has written 20 books. And he has some pretty incredible theories about what is really going on in the world. Like that the moon is a hollowed-out alien space station and that Hillary Clinton is actually half reptilian. So take a deep breath. Relax....

How do you find 'the one'? You can't. They don't exist, and in fact, you will inevitably marry the wrong person. But, it doesn't spell disaster. Alain de Botton, the Swiss-born, British-based philosopher, says we've been sold a lie about romance and love. He says love is a skill we need to learn; not an essence of life that just 'happens'. In this chat, we talk about what it means to love, how to love better, and question everything we believe to be true about love, romance, marriage, and...

Is rape ever funny? Can you ever joke about violence and abuse? Are there good rape jokes and bad rape jokes? Those are the questions Meshel Laurie wants answered, and in the process, she speaks to Ray Badran, the comedian who was at the centre of a storm about exactly that earlier this year, when a heckling incident at his comedy show went viral.  Leave comments on Meshel's facebook pageAnd her twitter is hereThanks to Ray Badran and Peter Blankeron and Rhys Nicholson. Please leave a review...