The Morning Edition

The protests that have been spreading across Iran for weeks have been growing more violent. Video footage showed and eye witnesses described security forces opening fire on protesters, while reports from human rights agencies say the death toll is in the thousands .
But could these protests tip over into a counter-revolution? Might Iran’s brutal Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kham...

While firefighters in Victoria battle devastating bush fires that have destroyed homes and livestock, at the other end of the country, Queenslanders were bracing for floods from ex-tropical cyclone Koji.

Today, David Bowman, a professor of pyrogeography and fire science at the University of Tasmania, on what causes this climate whiplash and how our changing climate is worsening our extreme weather.

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On the first day of the new year, Donald Trump wrote on his social platform Truth Social, what he wanted for 2026. And I quote, “Peace, peace on earth”. 

Two days later, Trump invaded Venezuela. And now, the American president is threatening to invade at least four other countries. 

Today, Bruce Wolpe, senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre, and a former congressional staffer, on whether Trump&...

We’re on a break over summer, our dear chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal is probably off to a yoga retreat somewhere in Bali, and we return at the end of January for another fun-filled year of Inside Politics.

Well, we can’t ignore the impact that Donald Trump had on domestic politics last year and for this episode, we return to a point in time when most of the press pack was obsessed with whether Anthony Albane...

Hi, it’s Samantha Selinger-Morris here, and I’m the host of The Morning Edition. We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns on Monday.

In August, two police officers were shot and killed at a property in Victoria’s high country and suspected murderer, Dezi Freeman, went on the run. Now, more than four months later, he is still missing. 

In this episode, associa...

We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns next week.

Last May, the incumbent Labor government swept to power while the Liberal Party suffered an election wipeout, with women voters, in particular, shunning the party.

In this episode, recorded just after the election result, political and international editor Peter Hartcher traces the Liberals’ surprising history of embracing t...

Hi, it’s Samantha Selinger-Morris here, and I’m the host of The Morning Edition. We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns next week.

With the tragic death of a wellness influencer after the birth of her child at home in Melbourne, the practice of freebirthing was thrust into the spotlight last year.

In this episode, senior writer Wendy Tuohy takes us through the nuances...

Today we’re heading back to a court in Melbourne with crime writer Chris Vedelago. It was the day when one of the last remaining figures from the city’s gangland war, Tony Mokbel, was released on bail thanks to a legal scandal like no other. 

Mokbel had convictions quashed over the so-called ‘Lawyer X’ saga and since this episode was aired, he was freed from prison. 

We’re bringing you the be...

Happy New Year.

We’re on a break over summer - lucky us - before we return at the end of January for another year of Inside Politics.

Today, we’re returning to an episode recorded in the wake of the divisive ‘March for Australia’ protests, which became the vehicle for a hodgepodge of causes, including immigration, an issue that would lead to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s sacking from the frontbench. 

Remember how there was a federal election?

In this episode, we return to Anthony Albanese's astonishing landslide victory in May with former chief political correspondent David Crowe and senior economics correspondent Shane Wright.

Crowe and Wright reflect on how history-making the win was, and what Albanese will do with his mandate.

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Today, we return to a good news story as we kick off a new year. The fame of Robert Irwin, the son of ‘crocodile hunter’ Steve Irwin, was supercharged recently when he won one of America's top reality television shows, Dancing with the Stars.

Our culture editor-at-large Michael Idato delves into the Irwin family empire and how Robert Irwin’s brand of “nice” won over America.

And we hope you have a...

As we say goodbye to 2025, we can only hope we also see an end to the swirling chaos of multiple wars that raged across the world, and in the case of the Israel-Gaza conflict, fractured so much of our society.

Today we return to a special episode with British barrister and human rights lawyer Phillipe Sands, who defended Palestine at the International Court of Justice, on how to retain compassion and integrity in our fragmented wor...

A tax on tobacco seemed like a great idea to deter smokers and raise revenue. 

But, as the price of cigarettes soared, major criminal organisations saw an opening, and began to pump cheap, illegal cigarettes into Australia. 

And violence came along with it as warring gangs fought for control of the trade in our major cities. 

Today, with your Morning Edition team on a summer break, we return to an episode with senior...

Hi and Merry Christmas!

Your Inside Politics team is on a little hiatus over summer before we return at the end of January.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy some of our favourite episodes of the year, starting with a trip down memory lane to election night with our former chief political correspondent David Crowe before he passed the baton to BFF of the podcast Paul Sakkal.

Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/

...

We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns mid-January.

It was another big year for the human headline that was U.S President Donald Trump, and political and international editor Peter Hartcher was an essential listen each week on our podcast as we tried to make sense of it all.

This episode was recorded in May, just as Trump was poised to introduce what he called his ‘big beau...

We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns mid-January. 

Well, the mushroom murders was the criminal case of the year and in this episode, we take you inside the court on the day Erin Patterson was sentenced to life imprisonment. 

Patterson received a triple-murder conviction for the now infamous lunch of beef wellington that a jury trial found she laced with death cap mush...

We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns mid-January. 

Today, we return to an episode recorded in October with senior columnist Jacqueline Maley, when more torrid tales emerged of the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and his connection to sex offender and disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein.

When this was recorded, the royal had just been stripped of his Duke of Yor...

Hi, it’s Samantha Selinger-Morris here, the host of The Morning Edition. We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns mid-January. 

This one is about Belle Gibson. 

One of the original wellness influencers, Gibson claimed to have healed herself from terminal cancer through healthy eating. The problem was, she never had cancer. 

This episode was recorded shortly bef...

In this bonus episode of Inside Politics, former primer minister Tony Abbott joins host Jacqueline Maley and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal.

Abbott has penned a new book, Australia: A History, describing a more positive view of our past. He also discusses the current political and cultural challenges facing the Liberal Party, as well as reflectin...