Show Notes
The death of a Russian lab worker at an anti-plague research institute earlier this month has raised fresh concerns about the global implications of lab leaks. Initial local reporting suggested that the worker died of pneumonic plague following a lab accident, but Russian health authorities deny this, and the official cause of death remains unknown. Alison Young has reported on the Russian incident for Healthbeat and is the author of the 2023 book Pandora’s Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk which recounts Alison’s more than a decade of work as investigative reporter “revealing shocking safety breaches at prestigious U.S. laboratories”. Guest: Alison Young, author of Pandora’s Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk, and the senior national reporter at Healthbeat.
More from Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast
This week's mystery caller migrates from southeast Asia to feed over our summer wetlands – the Whiskered Tern.
Suzie Miller is one of the world’s most influential contemporary playwrights. In The Year That Made Me, Suzie publicly shares for the first time why 1995 was a year she didn't think she would survive, and why it changed the course of her life. A former lawyer who has a degree in science and grew up in a working class family in St Kilda, Suzie's theatrical works have been staged in fifty different countries, including on London's West End and New York’s Broadway. Productions of her legal blockbuster Prima Facie picked up Olivier and Tony awards, and a recorded performance of Jodie Comer in the one-woman show was viewed by over 1.5 million people in cinemas and online. Suzie’s new play Strong is the New Pretty, about the birth of women’s AFL, is touring the country, and her new novel Inter Alia - based on her hit legal play - has just come out via Pan Macmillan. Guest: Playwright Suzie Miller.
FC aka Freakyclown has spent 3 decades breaking into banks and secure government locations, and he gave a keynote address at Melbourne's CyberCon 2026 on Friday. FC is an ethical hacker, who works for organisations that want him to reveal their security weaknesses to them. He's the co-founder of cyber security company Cygenta, former Head of Offensive Cyber Research at defence contractor Raytheon, and the author of the book “How I Rob Banks (and Other Such Places)” Guest: FC aka Freakyclown, ethical hacker, co-founder of Cygenta, and author.
Six weeks after flash flooding hurtled through northern Nepal, the government has concluded it's search and rescue mission for the thousands of people still missing. But as the government begins the slow process of recovery, how will it support and restore the lives of the 32,000 displaced Nepali who are mourning the loss of homes, livelihoods and loved ones? Guest: Kunda Dixit, publisher and former editor of Nepali Times and chair of of the Centre For Investigative Journalism Nepal
This month the African Union launched the Africa Credit Rating Agency. The continent's first ratings agency aims to level the playing field for banks, companies, sovereign wealth funds and other institutions seeking to access credit. Africa is generally seen as a riskier lending prospect than other parts of the developing world and that means borrowers face much higher costs to access credit. The result is that major projects requiring financing often do not get off the ground because the debt is too expensive. Guest: Dr Raymond Gilpin, chief economist and head of the strategy, analysis, and research team at the Regional Bureau for Africa at the United Nations Development Programme.