Avsnitt
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For generations of Australians, Powderfinger songs are tied to first loves, long drives, share houses, break-ups and summers that still feel close enough to touch.
They were written by people, played by a band, and carried by listeners into their own lives.
Now, that music has been found inside the machinery of artificial intelligence, harvested into vast datasets without permission and without payment.
At the same time, the federal government is fending off whistleblower claims of a “dirty deal” with tech giants that would give AI access to Australian music and art in exchange for billion dollar investments
Today, Bernard Fanning on what happens when machines are trained on our songs, and who gets to tell Australian stories, us or AI.
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Guest: Bernard Fanning
Photo: bernardfanning.com
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It’s been one year since Kumanjayi Walker’s family gathered in the Central Australian community of Yuendumu, to hear the findings of a coronial inquest into his death.
Kumanjayi Walker, a 19 year old Warlpiri-Luritja man, when he was shot and killed by former constable Zachary Rolfe in 2019.
In 2022, Zachary Rolfe was found not guilty of Kumanjayi Walker’s murder, but his family has always maintained that Rolfe’s racism played a role in Walker’s death – something the coroner said couldn’t be ruled out.
Today, we’re bringing you an episode recorded just after the inquest, with investigative journalist Kate Wild – whose book, The Red House, examines Kumanjayi Walker’s death and how the racist culture of the Northern Territory Police enabled Zachary Rolfe to act with impunity.This episode was originally published in July 2025.
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Guest: Investigative journalist and author of The Red House, Kate Wild
Photo: AAP Image/Aaron Bunch
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Pauline Hanson went to the National Press Club with a party polling like a threat to the old order. Then she had to explain what that party was actually for.
Since her appearance, One Nation’s federal support has slipped. The speech, with its talk of monoculture and its familiar targets – migration, the ABC and renewables – gave voters a clearer look at the movement behind the momentum.
But the story doesn’t end there.
In Victoria, where the state election is now months away, One Nation is polling better than the Labor government. And now, Hanson’s message is being carried by a loud cast of celebrity sympathisers.
Today, founder and CEO of Cheek Media Hannah Ferguson on what happens when One Nation is no longer just a protest vote, and how the Liberals and the Greens have struggled to take advantage of an electorate clearly in the mood for change.
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Guest: Cheek Media founder Hannah Ferguson
Photo: Instagram @karlstefanovic_
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Donald Trump returned to the White House promising to make America the crypto capital of the world, despite having once dismissed Bitcoin as “not money” and warned it was “based on thin air” in a 2019 tweet.
In his first year back in office, Trump has set that scepticism aside as it has become clear crypto presents an extraordinary business opportunity.
A new financial disclosure hints at just how lucrative those ventures have become, with Trump disclosing more than $1.4 billion USD in income from family crypto ventures last year, raising questions about how far a president can go in turning public office into a money-making machine.
Today, journalist and research director for Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project, Zach Everson, on Donald Trump’s crypto empire and the new frontier of political corruption in America.
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Guest: Journalist and research director for Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project, Zach Everson
Photo: AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
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The temperatures were so high that roads melted and tram tracks buckled. Some locals even resorted to sleeping in parks and caves to escape the heat.
And at the epicentre of the European heatwave? Paris – which recorded its hottest day in history.
It’s where Australian author and climate activist Sarah Wilson has called home for the past few years.
Today, Sarah speaks with 7am from Paris, on the heatwave that’s ravaged Europe and what it tells us about how humanity will need to adapt to the extreme conditions to come.
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Guest: Author and journalist Sarah Wilson
Photo: EPA/ANTONIO BAT
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They were some of the biggest stage productions in the country, starring some of the biggest names in the biz. But in the space of just two weeks, Beetlejuice and Waitress: The Musical have had their tours cut short, leaving the cast and crew devastated.
Now, stars like Nat Bass are sounding the alarm as the industry struggles to stay afloat amid rising costs and slumping ticket sales.
Today, arts executive John Glenn on the crisis threatening the future of theatre and live shows, and what can be done to save the industry.
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Guest: CEO of AANT Centre, John Glenn
Photo: waitressthemusical.com.au
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For decades, the Dollarmites program turned schoolchildren into customers.
The controversial scheme, now axed, gave Australia’s biggest bank access to kids, classrooms and their cash under the guise of teaching financial literacy.
Now it’s happening again.
A new report has found the country’s biggest fossil fuel companies are using the same strategy – with multimillion-dollar programs and sponsorships targeting millions of Australian children.
Today, Comms Declare founder Belinda Noble on how the tentacles of big coal, oil, and gas are reaching into Australian classrooms and manipulating students.
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Guest: Comms Declare founder, Belinda Noble
Photo: Comms Declare
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KPMG is one of the biggest, wealthiest and most powerful consulting firms in the country – auditing and advising everything from major companies to governments.
It is trusted with some of the most sensitive information in Australia. Now that trust is at the centre of a major scandal.
A whistleblower raised concerns that confidential client information was being used to chase new work. What followed has forced out senior leaders, exposed the treatment of the person who spoke up, and raised bigger questions about the firms governments have come to rely on to do the work once done inside the public service.
Today, ABC business reporter Daniel Ziffer on KPMG, the scandal inside one of the Big Four consulting firms, and why the fallout reaches far beyond one company.If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
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Guest: ABC business reporter Daniel Ziffer
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
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When the teal independents swept through Liberal heartland, their pitch was simple: they were not like the major parties.
They were community-backed, locally accountable, and free to vote how they wanted.
Now, two of the best-known teals – Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender – are forming a political party. They say Community Strong Australia is a home for the politically homeless: people who want climate action, integrity, sensible economic management and a pro-business agenda.
But can you build a party out of independents without sacrificing what voters liked about them in the first place?
Today, independent MP Zali Steggall, on why the teals are becoming a party – and whether they can hold the centre as Australian politics becomes more divided.
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Guest: Community Strong Australia MP Zali Steggall
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia – like many countries – saw protesters take the streets.
They weren’t just protesting lockdowns, they were rallying around a tangle of fears and conspiracies.
Those threads fused into a broader worldview that pulled people down a pipeline and built a small industry of influencers.
Today, Conspiracy Nation authors Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilson on the conspiracy pipeline: how it works, who benefits, and where it’s heading now.
This is part one of a two-part series that was originally published in August 2025.
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Guest: Authors of Conspiracy Nation, Cam Wilson and Ariel Bogle
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It’s easy to dismiss conspiracy theories as fringe or imported.
But conspiratorial ideas are gaining traction with everyday Australians – about one in three endorse at least one conspiracy belief.
They’re also being echoed by people in power, and have spilled into real-world violence.
Today, Conspiracy Nation authors Cam Wilson and Ariel Bogle on how conspiracies leap from the fringe to the mainstream – including all the way to Parliament house.
This is part two of a two-part series that was originally published in August 2025.
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Guest: Authors of Conspiracy Nation, Cam Wilson and Ariel Bogle
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Pauline Hanson’s call for Australia to become a monoculture was meant to draw a line around national identity. Instead, it opened up a new split inside the Liberal Party.
This week, the idea left Opposition Leader Angus Taylor looking bewildered, unable to say clearly where he stood on multiculturalism.
Andrew Hastie took the opposite approach in navigating the challenge presented by One Nation, launching a full frontal assault on One Nation from inside the Coalition party room.
And as the right fights over Hanson’s rise, a new party from two teal independents is trying to offer voters another way out.
Today, news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden, on a week of conservative confusion, One Nation pressure, and the teal independents trying to turn disillusionment into votes.
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Guest: news.com.au political editor Samantha Maiden
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
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Karl Stefanovic has spent decades as one of the most recognisable faces on Australian television.
A household name from the largely inoffensive world of breakfast television.
Now, that multi-million dollar career at Nine is officially over, after Stefanovic published an interview with Tommy Robinson, a British far-right activist with a long criminal history, who has built a large following based on hate-driven rhetoric towards Muslims, immigrants, the changing face of Britain; and on the claim that he’s being silenced by the establishment.
But the fall out from the podcast, including his split with Nine, may have worked in Stefanovic’s favour as he tries to forge a new career in outrage podcasting.
Today, Crikey’s media reporter Daanyal Saeed on Karl Stefanovic, the interview that ended his time at nine, and the audience he may have been chasing all along.
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Guest: Crikey media reporter Daanyal Saeed
Photo: The Karl Stefanovic Show
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Bird flu has reached mainland Australia – with cases first confirmed in WA and now South Australia.
The strain, detected in three seabirds, is H5N1 – a deadly form of the virus that has swept through wild birds overseas, forced farmers to slaughter millions of chickens, spread to mammals, and, in the United States, infected dairy cows and farm workers.
Authorities in Australia say the risk to the public is low – but for wildlife, an outbreak could be devastating.
Experts fear it could become the tipping point for species already endangered or close to extinction.
Today, CEO of the Invasive Species Council Jack Gough, on the race to stop bird flu becoming a wildlife disaster in Australia.
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Guest: CEO of the Invasive Species Council, Jack Gough
Photo: PR Handout/Lori-Ann Shibish, Esperance Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary.
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Amid the seismic political shift currently underway in this country, there’s been one party missing from the conversation: the Greens.
And it’s curious, because the conditions that have seen One Nation rise – frustration with the major parties, a slip in living standards, appetite for change – should suit the Greens and their anti-establishment politics.
So why are they lost in the political wilderness?
Today, former Greens MP and Green Institute Executive Director Max Chandler-Mather on whether the Greens can mount a comeback and tap into the progressive version of Pauline’s populist politics.If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
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Guest: Former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
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The Prime Minister of the UK Keir Starmer has announced his resignation – meaning Britain is preparing for its seventh leader in just ten years.
Starmer, who won in a landslide victory for the Labor party only two years ago, has been haemorrhaging support from the public and the party for months.
The man likely to replace him: Andy Burnham.
Today - host of the News Agents Emily Maitlis on Starmer’s downfall, who Burnham is, and how he’s poised to take power.
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Guest: Host of The News Agents Emily Maitlis
Photo: AP Photo/Thomas Krych
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In Western Australia, police have just started trialling technology that can identify people as they walk past.
A marked police van will scan faces outside major events, cross-checking them against a watchlist of people wanted by authorities. Police say it’s targeted and that innocent people have nothing to fear. But once this kind of surveillance is switched on, the question becomes how far it spreads, and who decides when it stops.
Today, UNSW cyber security expert Professor Richard Buckland, on the scope creep of live facial recognition technology, and the danger of normalising police powers before the public understands them.
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Guest: UNSW cyber security expert Professor Richard Buckland
Photo: WA Police
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Anti-abortion activists say it was the most successful pro-life campaign in Australia - last week a bill to overturn abortion access after 25 weeks was voted through the upper house of South Australia’s parliament.
It didn’t make it through the lower house, but women's advocates are still sounding the alarm amid a growing push against reproductive rights - led, in part, by One Nation.
Pauline Hanson, once a supporter of a woman’s right to choose, has changed her tune, as her colleague Malcolm Roberts pushes for the party to adopt a blanket abortion ban.
Today, writer, peer-support worker, and reproductive health advocate Hannah Bambra
on the local and international forces looking wind back abortion access in AustraliaIf you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
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Guest: Writer & reproductive health advocate Hannah Bambra
Photo: AAP Image/Dean Lewins
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In 2017, billionaire businessman Sanjeev Gupta rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration, becoming known as the “saviour of steel”.
There was hope in this small South Australian town that steelmaking – and the thousands of jobs tied to it – would survive. But since then, Gupta has lost control, the South Australian government has forced the steelworks into administration, and taxpayers are now underwriting the rescue to the tune of $2.4 billion.
Now, the sale of the steelworks is in its final stages, but the question of whether Whyalla becomes the green steel town politicians promised, or whether public money is being used to keep an ageing steelworks alive, remains.
Today, investigative journalist and former host of the ABC’s Media Watch Paul Barry, on the billionaire who brought Whyalla to the brink – and what it would really take to save the town.
This episode was originally published in January, 2025.
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Guest: Investigative journalist and former host of the ABC’s Media Watch Paul Barry
Photo: AAP Image/David Mariuz
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This week, Pauline Hanson took to the National Press Club stage with a greatest hits collection of the grievances that have fueled her political career.
Immigration. Multiculturalism. Trans rights. Indigenous Australians. The “political elite”. The changing face of the country.
The backlash from the government, sections of the community and commentariat was immediate.
But that may no longer be enough. For years, Hanson has survived controversies that would have ended most political careers. And as One Nation support grows, one thing is becoming more evident: we are now entering a political era where outrage carries no penalty. Where the shock of what politicians say matters less than the anger they channel.
Today, columnist Sean Kelly on Hanson’s resurgence, the opportunities it creates for politicians of every persuasion, and what becomes possible when voters decide the old political order is broken.
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Guest: Former Labor advisor and The Age & SMH columnist, Sean Kelly
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
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- Visa fler
