ABC Australia
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Incisive analysis, fearless debates and nightly surprises. Explore the serious, the strange and the profound with David Marr.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
David Marr makes political power legible through extended interviews that test public claims, institutional decisions and the assumptions beneath them.
David Marr turns public affairs into sustained, pointed conversation, moving from Australian institutions and British politics to American presidential power and European political conflict.
Robo-debt meets presidential pardons, and your 'hang on, how is that allowed?' gets an airing.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Memes, power, and common knowledge are handled with dry clarity.
Late Night Live ties a Trump meme stunt to Steven Pinker’s idea of common knowledge and turns it into a sharp look at how politics moves through irony, spectacle, and shared assumptions.
A careful, historically minded review that frames Gaza through chronology and context rather than a single break.
Late Night Live uses David Marr's conversation with Julie Norman to set October 7 inside a longer Gaza history, not as a clean break from what came before.
War, batteries, and ancient settlement, handled with breadth more than tight focus.
Late Night Live ranges from the war on Iran to batteries and the first settlement of Sahul, with David Meyer bringing in Gideon Levy to talk through why the conflict is being fought and what the destruction across the region is meant to achieve.
A segmented but sturdy hour that moves from politics in Canberra to France and on to the mafia.
Late Night Live stays lively as it moves from Canberra with Anna Henderson to Sophie Pedder on France, Emmanuel Macron, and the war in Lebanon, then into a look at how mafias are still surviving and flourishing.
Canberra politics, Middle East conflict, and Margaret Merrilees, with dry late-night energy.
Late Night Live ranges from Canberra politics to the war in the Middle East, then on to Margaret Merrilees, and that sweep gives the hour a wide field of view.
A brisk hour that moves from Canberra politics to Hong Kong liberty and a star-listening astronomer.
Late Night Live opens with an extraordinary week in Canberra, then turns to Hong Kong, where Jimmy Lai's sentencing becomes a way into a wider argument about liberty nearly 30 years after the handover. After that, it moves to Belgian astronomer Dr.
A dry, forceful political hour that turns a UN succession fight into a question of authority.
Late Night Live shifts from Canberra into a broader argument about power, institutions, and who gets to sit inside them. The Helen Clark interview carries the hour: it is pointed on the UN's gender imbalance, alert to great power pressure, and blunt about how a woman…
From Winnie the Pooh's centenary to Tucker Carlson's orbit of power, the hour keeps two different moods in play.
Late Night Live moves from a centenary nod to Winnie the Pooh into a hard edged talk with Tucker Carlson, and the shift gives the hour a useful pulse. The Carlson interview has the sharper bite.
Calm reporting for complicated public questions.
Libertarian politics with the filter off.
Late Night Live uses Julie Norman’s Gaza, the Dream and the Nightmare to trace Gaza from a prosperous city with trade links to Beirut and Cairo to a territory shaped by the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 war.
David Marr opens the program from Gadigal Land in Sydney and turns to Canberra with Anna Henderson.
Late Night Live begins with Ian Dunt and the Epstein papers.
David Meyer opens from Gadigal Land in Sydney with Gideon Levy of Haaretz on why the war against Iran is being fought, as Israel, the United States, and Iran keep striking across the region.
David Marr interviews Peter Mayers from the Scanlon Foundation about the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility scheme affecting 32,000+ workers from Pacific islands.
Political analysts examine Australia's fractured opposition, Indonesia security treaty significance, and institutional failures within the National Anti-Corruption Commission, questioning whether formal agreements and oversight bodies can function without political will.
David Marr interviews SBS Chief Political Correspondent Anna Henderson on Australian politics, followed by conversation with former NZ PM Helen Clark on UN leadership.
David Marr interviews legal journalist Richard Ackland on the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, covering definition controversies and legal hurdles, followed by a discussion with Rebecca Hubbard on the new High Seas Biodiversity Treaty and its global implications, and concluding with Mark Farrow on transcribing Douglas Mawson's Australian diaries.
David Marr interviews UK journalist Ian Dunt in person, exploring his background, journalistic philosophy, and analysis of contemporary UK politics, including Brexit, immigration, populism, and the contrasts between British and Australian societal outlooks.
David Marr opens with a nod to library affection before marking the 200th birthday of the State Library of New South Wales.
The programme begins with the politics of online spectacle.
David Marr opens with the Nationals and then moves to the war in the Middle East.
David Marr opens with Donald Trump and the pardoning power, then turns to the National Anti-Corruption Commission's robo-debt decision and Jeffrey Watson, SC's criticism of it, before finishing with Ian Dunt on Keir Starmer's decision to let US fighter planes use UK bases to pursue the forever war with Iran.
David Meyer opens with Australian screen production.
Late Night Live opens with Tucker Carlson.
Bruce Shapiro says Donald Trump’s State of the Union was a “desperate throw” at a moment when his poll numbers were falling among independents, Latino voters, young voters, and Republicans worried about the fall.
This episode of Late Night Live explores the intersection of guns and religion in white evangelical America with journalist Bill Cole, and examines corporate influence on science regarding glyphosate safety with historian Naomi Oreskes.
Canberra comes first.
David Marr opens Late Night Live with Anna Henderson on South Australia’s election result, where One Nation benefited from Liberal scandals, a 23% swing in MacKillop, and Corey Bernardi’s move from the Liberals to One Nation.
David Marr opens with three linked subjects on Late Night Live: gambling’s $31 billion annual cost to Australians, Cuba’s worsening crisis under U.S.
Late Night Live pairs Peter Mares’s report on PALM with Ronan McRae’s argument that gay rights now face a political backlash.
Late Night Live with David Marr opens with Antony Beevor on Rasputin, starting from Tsarevich Alexei's haemophilia and Alexandra's conviction that the Siberian holy man could calm her son.
Late Night Live begins with David Marr framing Operation Epic Fury, the renewed bombing of Iran, and then moves to Anna Henderson in Canberra and Bruce Shapiro in the United States.
Bob Carr talks to David Marr on Late Night Live about Bring Back Yesterday, his memoir of Helena Carr's sudden death in Vienna and the life they built from a meeting in Tahiti in January 1971.
Bruce Shapiro says U.S.-Iran communication is already happening through intermediaries, while the Trump administration faces rising oil prices, pressure for an exit strategy, and a split with Israel over goals in the conflict.
David Marr hosts a political talk show covering Trump's support among gay conservatives and the destruction of Middle Eastern cultural heritage.
A nightly podcast featuring incisive analysis, fearless debates, and a poetry reading, exploring serious and profound topics.
David Marr discusses Jeff Bezos's acquisition of the Washington Post and the challenges of reviving the paper, then teases a segment on Daniel Defoe's secret life as a spy.
This episode of Late Night Live covers US political analysis with Bruce Shapiro, India's antibiotic resistance crisis, and the life of bark painter Peter Marawanga.
David Marr interviews historian Henry Reynolds about his career and new book 'Looking from the North'.
David Marr interviews veteran political insider John Menardieu about his life lessons from politics, business, and media.
An interview with nature writer Robert McFarlane about rivers being legally recognized as living beings and the global rights of nature movement.
The episode examines the role of radio in post-war Middle East politics and discusses a moral reckoning regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict.
David Marr interviews Simon Winchester about his book on the history and cultural significance of wind.
David Marr interviews Shadow Education Minister Julian Leeser about the Liberal Party's current views on the 1975 dismissal of Gough Whitlam.