Late Night Live — Full program podcast

Isabel Allende has sold more than 80 million books, drawing on a life shaped by exile, political upheaval and personal tragedy. Now, in her eighties, she reflects on the art of storytelling, the power of imagination and why she believes stories matter in an age of rising authoritarianism. Plus, Louise Adler and Bishop George Browning examine the impact of the Israel-Palestine conflict on Australian society and politics, which is the subject of the Manning Clark and Dymphna Clark Lecture they will jointly deliver on 17 November, 2026. 
Guests: 
Isabel Allende, writer
Louise Adler, former publisher, former Adelaide Writers’ Week Director and member of the Jewish Council of Australia’s Advisory Committee.
Bishop George Browning - Anglican Bishop of Canberra Goulburn (retired), former President and now Patron of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), Patron of Palestinian Christians in Australia, patron of Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center.
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The arrival of the telephone changed the world. In the USA,  the first country to rapidly commercialise everyday phone usage, one company dominated that rollout: Bell. Alexander Graham Bell, while not the sole inventor of the phone, led its development, and secured the patent. Plus, writer Simon Miraudo, unearths cinema’s lost history, from films destroyed in fires to entire works erased from existence.
Guests:
James Gleick, science writer and historian, Author of 'The Telephone: A New History' (Picador)
Simon Miraudo, writer and film critic.
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Our regular UK political commentator Ian Dunt on why his country should temper its reaction to the US midterm results. How a dispute over which judges dominate a court could determine who rules Poland. And the world's rock arches are precious, but inevitably, will fall. 
Guests: 
Ian Dunt, columnist with i-news, co-host of the Origin Story podcast
Bartosz Brzesinski, senior reporter for Politico Europe
Jeffrey Moore, hiker, and Professor of Geology and Physics, University of Utah
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Israel's opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has been asked to form the next government, putting an end to Benjamin Netanyahu's long political dominance. The former army chief now faces the task of assembling a governing coalition and navigating Israel's deep political divisions. Plus, Professor Richard Dawkins reflects on fifty years since writing The Selfish Gene, where developments in artificial intelligence might take us, and whether he's at risk of a death-bed conversion to believing in god. 
Guests:
Irris Makler, veteran Israel correspondent
Professor Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and author 
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The newly-published 20th annual Scanlon Foundation report into Australia's social cohesion has found that more and more Australians are feeling pessimistic about the future, amid growing financial pressures. But social cohesion remains fairly robust, with most Australia broadly supportive of immigration. Plus, the former Australian soldier and military strategist Professor David Kilcullen considers when (if ever) it is justified for a nation to intervene in the affairs of another - with troops, money or force.
Guests:
Dr James O'Donnell, demographer at ANU; lead investigator, Scanlon Foundation
Dr David Kilcullen, Professor of War Studies at the University of New South Wales; Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, and CEO of the geopolitical risk analysis firm Cordillera Applications Group
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