
Show Notes
A Conservation Champion for Cheetham by Sandra Wilson Bernie McCarrick, a former Parks Victoria ranger and site manager of Cheetham Saltworks, reflects on his role in transforming a former industrial site into a thriving wetland ecosystem. Alongside insights from Dr Mike Weston, the story reveals how careful water management and decades of on-the-ground knowledge sustain critical bird habitats. Produced by: Sandra Wilson Supervising Producer: Sarah Mashman.
Key’s Matchstick Grasshopper by Ruijie Tang In this story, the matchstick grasshopper’s grand comeback. Following efforts led by Ary Hoffman to rediscover and protect the matchstick grasshopper — a species thought to have disappeared from Victoria after decades of habitat loss — his team draws on historical records and fieldwork to track the insect to a surviving population and begin the delicate process of rebuilding its numbers through conservation and translocation. Produced by: JJ Tang Supervising Producer: Thomas Phillips Special thanks to Louisa Lim.
Water Trial by Renate Millonig Amid a devastating algal bloom along South Australia’s coast, Renate shares a haunting poem capturing the grief of witnessing mass marine death. “ In every breath we share, in every drop we drink.” Written and Read by: Renate Millonig Recorded by: Mel Bakewell.
All The Best Credits Host: Gabriella Accaria Executive Producer: Melanie Bakewell Programming & Community Coordinator: Catarina Fraga Matos Production Manager: Kwame Slusher Community Coordinator: Patrick McKenzie Mixed & Compiled: Emma Higgins Theme Music composed by Shining Bird Special shout-out to all our volunteers
Protest_Zara_Day_22-03-2009.wav by eraylik -- https://freesound.org/s/69954/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from All The Best
"...as an act of justice doing and expressing how much I care for them, and I guess also the sacredness of all life in witnessing and experiencing multiple genocides and affrontations of, like, what's happening on these lands I think navigating grief as an act of love maybe gave me a sense of autonomy and being able to move through with a, with a bit more grace and not letting it subsume me all of the time." - Shareeka Helaluddin
There is this Tolstoy quote from Anna Karenina, "All Happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." I've always struggled with this binary. This idea of happiness or unhappiness as somehow being fixed states. No nuance. I think real families, ones outside Russian fiction, exist on a more complex spectrum.
This week we are featuring our first story from our Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship 2026! More than 15 Years ago, Jesse Cox co-developed an incredible audio narrative program on fbi.radio called All The Best. JCAF is an audio mentorship program, pretty one-of-a-kind, championing the kind of work and spirit our show's co-founder upheld and honouring his legacy.
Sooooo ... the best way to think of this episode is a bit like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. But instead of there being a bereaved scientist obsessed with resurrection, we have a monster of a story stuck together from different audio body parts made by audio makers from all over the world. Our Programming and Community Coordinator Catarina Fraga Matos breaks down the way the audio corpse works: