A special full-length interview with Kim Ghattas of the BBC and The Financial Times about her new book Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unravelled Culture, Religion and Collective Memory in the Middle East. The Emmy Award-winning journalist explains how the Saudis and the Iranians have competed for the hearts, beliefs and money of the Muslim world in the 40 years since the 1979 revolution in Iran. She explains how both countries radicalised Islam in places where it had traditionally been more open and pluralist, such as Egypt, Lebanon and Pakistan.

If coronavirus is like a war, what else can erupt under the fog of war? And, we will take you to one of the most densely packed places in the world where the Christian aid group World Vision is trying to coral the virus. Also, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz looks at one of the casualties of the COVID-19 outbreak - the deepening inequality within and between nations.

An Aboriginal group has installed a caretaker to protect a forest near South Australia's Port Lincoln from an escalating spate of wood thefts.

Believe it or not … a Formula 1 car can be driven by someone just using their brain. We consider the neurogeneration: people who in the future are likely to be using some kind of brain-powered technology to do their job or to extend their knowledge. But we don’t leave the past behind, there’s also a peek into the brain collection of Cornell University.

Design and creativity really can work together. We talk with a design critic and a product design educator who both have an interest in toys - their history, and how they’re created and assessed in the real world. Get your blocks ready to play along. 

There are too many video conferencing apps. So this week on Download This Show, which is the least worst? Plus, how well is Australian internet holding up to our socially isolated future? And, how are streaming services responding to us all being stuck in the house? Guests: Tegan Jones, Editor, Gizmodo @Tegan_Writes and Seamus Byrne, writer, broadcaster of tech, future, gaming and digital culture @seamus This is an updated version of our episode

This week on DTS, exams in the age of isolation and why students are up in arms about privacy. Plus, the Australian government will compel Google and Facebook to pay local media outlets for content, but exactly what will that look like? And how social media giants are stopping illegal gatherings. Guests: Ariel Bogle, online technology reporter, ABC Science @arielbogle + Seamus Byrne, writer and broadcaster of tech, future, gaming, and digital culture @seamus

Singapore and South Korea – partly because of their experience with previous corona virus outbreaks – have managed this pandemic without locking people in their homes or shutting down their economies. How did they do it?

For over 60 years the World Health Organisation has been the pre-eminent international health organisation but questions have been asked about its response to several infectious diseases. This is the story of the WHO, its strengths and its failings. Episode first aired 1 March 2015

ABC North Coast resident arts reviewer, Jeanti St Clair looks at the Northern Rivers Portrait Prize.

ABC North Coast resident arts reviewer Jeanti St Clair looks at the latest music and theatre to hit the region

The Fremantle Candidate is a finely crafted look at one of Australia's great political heroes, says ABC 720 cultural correspondent Victoria Laurie

As LGBT people grow old, they can become particularly vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness. Simone de Beauvoir had a keen appreciation of the challenges of ageing – “old age exposes the failure of our entire civilisation” – so can we find resources in her brand of existentialism that address some of the issues raised by LGBT elders?

Artificial intelligence is helping us to make all sorts of decisions these days, and this can be hugely useful. But if we outsource our moral intuition to AI, do we risk becoming morally de-skilled?

We're told that COVID-19 is an unprecedented event, one that's upended all our old certainties — so it's perhaps strange that we're thinking about it in very familiar ways. Considering the history, the politics and the ethics of COVID-19 can reveal fascinating and uncomfortable insights about ourselves and our society.

Compromises and working within Putin's Russia and the current state of COVID-19.

New legislation in Cambodia is feared to further restrict human rights in the country.

PNG was already battling dangerous infectious diseases — tuberculosis and HIV. Now it has to fight coronavirus as well. Incredibly, so far there are only seven known cases of Covid-19 in the whole country, and no known deaths.

Australia and India, as former British colonies, had much in common, and could have forged a strong relationship for their mutual benefit. But Australia's White Australia policy, and India's determination to leave the Empire and become a Republic, stymied the friendship.

What to read, watch and listen to in the month of May to broaden your world.

Retail giant Amazon has profited from the virus-related online shopping boom - but that boom has also exposed the company's flaws - and led to a high profile resignation.

A thought provoking examination of our relationship with whales and the environment.

Renowned sailor Jon Sanders blames a "huge, confused swell" for the sinking his yacht off the coast of WA.

Space exploration has given us conveniences such as smartphone cameras, memory foam mattresses and satellite navigation, but it also boosts the economy.

The coral haven of the Houtman Abrolhos island chain off the coast of WA has been officially listed as a national park, with plans to protect the area and make it more accessible to tourists.

For many West Australians the beach forms the foundation of their lifestyle, but the oceanfront dream is under threat for many in Perth and towns up and down the coast.

Port Beach's Coast pub and surf life saving rooms should be moved and some Rottnest Island holiday bungalows should be pushed back from the beach in the long term, a report into WA coastal erosion hotspots says.

Two men are charged with trying to smuggle more than a tonne of cocaine and ecstasy into WA, after their yacht hit a reef and they were found on an island in the Houtman Abrolhos allegedly hiding the drugs with seaweed.

Large numbers of Chinese tourists are flocking to the pink lake near Port Gregory in Western Australia, but has it become a victim of its own popularity?

Jayden Whyte tried to get help twice on the day he died. Now he is being remembered through a striking grassroots project that could help others before it's too late.

Australia's biggest grain handler and a global infrastructure giant reach agreement on the use of WA's rail freight network, but farmers' hopes this will lead to fewer trucks transporting grain may be dashed.

The SANFL bans Casey McElroy from playing in the first six games of next year's Limestone Coast Women's Football League season after she took to the field for a men's reserves team.

Recycler Brad Scott is using his Robe studio to convert used plastics into everyday items like bowls, doorknobs and cheeseboards.

The export market for raw leather and sheepskin has plummeted as competition from synthetics and a lack of demand has left exporters with stockpiles of almost worthless skins.

South Australia's forestry industry says it's struggling to secure enough water licences to expand, warning that if growers plant forests interstate instead, jobs and investment will follow.

One of Australia's most notorious paedophiles has applied for parole, but South Australia is considering whether the former magistrate should be indefinitely detained behind bars.

Brooke Littlewood was facing a two-month wait for a regional psychologist when she decided to create a series of beer coasters for others who may be struggling.

A senior Corrections executive and a plasterer appear in court following an ICAC investigation, with the pair accused of corruption offences relating to a planned $150 million upgrade of South Australia's biggest prison.

Livestock handlers are concerned about safety regulators around the country understanding the hazards of handling livestock, after SafeWork SA mishandled an investigation into a saleyard fault.