From the outside, the study of anthropology might seem obscure and irrelevant, but editor-at-large, US of the Financial Times, Gillian Tett, argues that the skills she learned at university, and studying marriage rituals in Soviet Tajikistan, have helped her predict and understand the 2008 financial crash, the rise of Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in sustainable investing and the digital economy.

Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

From the Amazon jungle to Amazon.com, does anthropology hold the key to making sense of our world?

Ahead of the National’s party room meeting on Sunday we explore the views of rural and regional communities on net zero targets. Guest: Gabrielle Chan - Guardian Australia’s rural and regional editor and author of “Rusted off - Why country Australia is fed up”

Do the regions want tougher climate action?

In a rapid escalation of outsourcing work, the Australian Government spent more than a billion dollars with top consultancy firms last year.  Instead, should this have been spent employing thousands more public servants? 

Why is the public service outsourcing so much of its work?

An important part of the transition to a low carbon future is to improve the sustainability of new and existing housing. While Australia has been a world leader in improving the sustainability of its commercial buildings, the residential transition has lagged.

Tackling Transitions: Sustainable Housing

In the wake of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, analyst James Dorsey argues that questions about the reliability of the US as a security guarantor, and doubts about another powerful external ally taking its place, are driving some surprising efforts by Gulf states to dial down regional tensions and put sectarianism on the backburner.

Gulf relations shift in the wake of US withdrawal from Afghanistan

You'll have plenty to keep you entertained and informed this October with great recommendations from Dr Lauren Richardson, ANU's Department of International Relations and Director of the ANU Japan Institute; and Bill Wyman, American journalist and former assistant managing editor at NPR, and former arts editor of Salon.

The Pick - what to read, watch and listen to

You’ve heard of the Cambridge Five spies but there was another spy, perhaps even more daring and damaging to western interests.  Author and Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper joins us to talk about his new book The Happy Traitor: Spies, Lies and Exile in Russia that tells the extraordinary story of George Blake.

George Blake: Spies, Lies and Russian Exile

Over the past few weeks, Afghan refugees evacuated to Australia after the recent Taliban takeover have emerged from hotel quarantine. We speak to Mr Nazari, one of the refugees re-settling in Australia and Cath Scarth, CEO of AMES Australia, which is assisting Afghan refugees as they begin to chart their new lives.

Afghan refugees begin their new lives in Australia

Some of the world’s busiest ports have been hit with Covid closures and recently in Los Angeles between 70 and 80 container vessels were sitting off the coast waiting to unload. 

Will global supply chain troubles hit Australian consumers ahead of the holidays?

A recent investigation sheds light on the Covid-related waste crisis plaguing countries across Southeast Asia, and hints at a growing global scourge. Plus, as some Australian states cross the vaccination threshold required to re-open, what might we learn from Singapore’s own experience of living with Covid-19?

Southeast Asia's growing Covid waste crisis

Catherine Fisher, author of Sound Citizens: Australian Women Broadcasters Claim their Voice, 1923–1956 explores how a cohort of professional women broadcasters, activists and politicians used radio to improve women’s status in Australia from the introduction of radio in 1923 until the introduction of television in 1956.

Radio as a tool of Australian female empowerment

After listener feedback on the challenge of navigating a world where everything is now done via a smartphone 'app', we get some practical advice on where you can go for help with building digital skills and, most urgently, getting your digital vaccination certificate. Guest: Jess Wilson, CEO of Good Things Foundation Australia. Important information Good Things Foundation Australia helpline: 1300 795 897 Be Connected (free online courses): www.beconnected.esafety.gov.au Advice on getting proof of COVID-19 vaccination: www.servicesaustralia.gov.au

Moving from analogue to apps: where you can go to build your digital skills

It’s a tough time to assume the leadership of any organisation, let alone the country’s first charity - the Benevolent Society.   During the pandemic the Benevolent society has been forced to significantly its practitioners assist Australia's most vulnerable citizens.

How to transform Australia’s oldest charitable organisation in the midst of a pandemic?

It’s rare that something is experienced by the whole world at the same time, but that’s what’s happening with this pandemic. Professor of Globalisation at Oxford University, Ian Goldin, joins us to argue this a unique opportunity to push governments to do things differently and usher in a new era.

Ian Goldin: The pandemic as an opportunity?

Allan Gyngell, former diplomat and author of the newly updated Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942, reflects on the significance of the trilateral AUKUS agreement and the challenges it throws up for Australian foreign policy going forward.

Allan Gyngell on AUKUS and Australia's diplomatic challenges

With a focus on international politics and business, Geraldine Doogue talks to expert commentators about the things that matter to Australians.

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Saturday Extra - Separate stories podcast

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