Rn Drive - Separate Stories Podcast

The United Nations refugee agency says the world has reached a dramatic new milestone with more than 100 million people or one per cent of the population displaced worldwide. Another way of putting it is if displaced persons were a country it would be the world's 14th most populous.

Imagine you're midway through your career and you've just been told you will lose your job and you will have to re-skill and re-train for perhaps an entirely different profession or industry. That is the reality facing two-thousand workers at the biggest coal mine in the NSW Hunter Valley because mining giant BHP has failed to find a buyer for its Mt Arthur operation.

Representation is everything, it validates people and their experiences. So what happens when a large part of a country's population don’t see themselves reflected in society? Arabs represent almost 21% of Israelis but there are still very few Arab-Israeli journalists in the newsroom. Haaretz, one of Israel’s major newspapers, is trying to change that. In the Drawing Room, Noa Landau, the deputy editor-in-chief of Haaretz talks about the new initiative she's founded, Haaretz 21, that will give a voice to Arab-Israel writers.

In the past month, hundreds of people from Sri Lanka have attempted a perilous boat journey to Australia, in a bid to escape the country’s worst economic crisis in over seventy years. According to Colombo-based human rights lawyer, Lakshan Dias, the wave of desperate asylum seekers isn’t going to stop any time soon. 

The Federal Court has approved Blackstone's $8.9billion takeover of the troubled casino operator Crown Resorts. The decision was the final hurdle in the approvals process, following Blackstone getting the greenlight from Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

Are there any words that literally drive you bonkers? The English language has plenty of 'contranyms' which is a word with two opposing meanings. Linguist Professor Kate Burridge explores the history and proves that the evolution of meanings is nothing new.

Minimum wage earners say that an extra $40 a week isn't enough to improve their circumstances. ACOSS agrees saying when levelled with the inflation rate, low income workers will still be left behind. While the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says today's decision, coupled with the increase to the superannuation guarantee, will cost businesses nearly $8 billion a year

The energy market operator has taken the extraordinary step to suspend the whole National Electricity Market, with New South Wales again on alert for potential blackouts as supply struggles to keep pace with demand. AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman says it made the decision to intervene to create greater visibility of supply and demand.

Across installations, sculptures, and performance, food is front and centre in Elizabeth Willing's art. Her new body of work, Forced Rhubarb, features hand-printed and embroidered linens, but also a large, looping floorwork made from brightly coloured sherbet-filled straws. In the Drawing Room, Elizabeth talks about her own relationship with food, the surprising power of yeast, and how high-end dining compares to a gallery.

There were thousands of cameras rolling the day Americans raided the Capitol building in Washington D.C. as windows were smashed, barricades pushed over, crowds poured through doors and politicians were locked in the House Chamber as security officials guarded the entrance, guns drawn. All these images and videos taken by protesters, the media, police and horrified onlookers have provided crucial evidence for the House committee hearings. But the focus on Day Two of the hearings has been on the days leading up to the riots as Donald Trump intensified his claims that the election was stolen.

There's a hidden epidemic of men’s mental health issues because they go quietly undiscovered until it’s too late. Two thirds of Australians who take their own lives each year are men. Within that percentage, 18 to 25 year olds have the highest rates of suicide. This week is men’s health week - the theme is ‘building healthy environments for men and boys’. What does a healthy environment look like? And how can men access those spaces? Content warning: this story might be disturbing for some listeners. If this raises difficult issues for you or someone you know, which requires help, you can call lifeline on 13 11 14 or MensLine on 1300 78 99 78

With Australians now more likely to travel to Bali and Fiji, how do the islands that line the coast of the Great Barrier Reef of Queensland entice visitors back?

It's a moment immediately etched into Australian sporting folklore - how Australia's substituted goalkeeper saved the nation's bid to make the World Cup in Qatar. It was a moment which rivalled John Aloisi's famous penalty from 2005, a strike which has spawned five consecutive Socceroos World Cup appearances.

If you're a woman in the workforce, you're likely earning about 260 dollars a week LESS than your male counterparts. The NSW Government has pledged to spend five billion dollars on the childcare sector over the next 10 years in a bid to close the 14 per cent wage gap and get more women into the workforce and senior positions.

The energy market operator - AEMO - has issued a second blackout warning in as many days for Queensland and New South Wales tonight, with fears demand could outstrip energy supply.

What would you do if you had one of the most dangerous men in the world handcuffed in a room and, for 20 minutes, it was just you and him? That's the starting point of a new play, where two highway patrol officers accidentally arrest a powerful drug lord for speeding away from the jail he'd just broken out of. Twenty Minutes With The Devil is based on real life events around the capture of El Chapo. In the Drawing Room, playwrights and legal professors Desmond Manderson and Luis Gomez Romero talk about their approach to the stage.

A new investigation questions whether Guide Dogs Victoria's services have gone backwards as their taxpayer funding has gone up. The investigation comes after their former CEO Karen Hayes resigned after publicly endorsing a political candidate and breached charity and not-for-profit regulations.

In a perfect storm of geopolitical events, freezing temperatures, unscheduled outages at coal-fired power stations, and no room for quick government intervention, Australia is facing its worst energy crisis in 50 years. Many Australians are turning to solar to generate their own power. But does switching to solar right now mean you won’t feel the burn of soaring energy prices?

Behind the fanfare of of national pride and elite competition, hides a group of people who for them, the tournament is quite literally do-or-die. They are the migrant workers forced to work under perilous conditions and 50 degree heat, to ensure the playing facilities in Qatar are ready in time for kick off. 

SMH columnist Andrew Hornery has apologised after issuing what’s been described as an ultimatum to actor Rebel Wilson for a comment about her new, same-sex relationship. Dr Kerryn Phelps reflects on her experience of being ‘outed’ by a Sydney tabloid 24 years ago.