Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast ABC listen

Hugh Mackay is one of Australia's leading social psychologist who examines our society today and asks timely and urgent questions about its future in his new book The Way We Are : Lessons from a lifetime of listening - published by Allen and Unwin.

The Pacific has the world’s lowest rate of women’s representation in Parliament. What can be done to solve this deeply entrenched problem and how might gender quotas play a role? 

Guests:

Pionie Boso is the program manager at the Women’s Rights Action Movement in the Solomon Islands. In 2011, she was awarded an International Women of Courage Award for her work in tackling domestic violence.  

Dr Theresa Meki is a Pacific Research Fellow with the ANU’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

How did an unknown Marxist scholar sell half a million copies of a book about degrowth communism in his homeland of Japan? And why is a complete transformation of our economic life necessary to save the planet?  

Guest: Kohei Saito is an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, and the youngest-ever winner of the Deutscher Memorial Prize for scholarship in the Marxist tradition. His book is Slow Down: How degrowth communism can save the earth (Hachette Australia). 

At a time when US security feels less assured, should Japan and Australia be forging stronger ties? Japanese author, playwright and translator Roger Pulvers says that while defence is an important arm of our relationship, we should also lean into our shared cultural and commercial interests. 

Adventurer Robyn Davidson's new memoir brings us the story of her nomadic life of constant travel and reveals an unquenchable curiosity about different ways of seeing the world.

Unfinished Woman is published by Bloomsbury

Mexico has filed a case against Ecuador in the International Court of Justice, accusing it of violating diplomatic rights after it raided their embassy to arrest former Vice-President, Jorge Glas. Ecuador has filed a counter-claim saying Mexico is interfering in Ecuadorian sovereignty. So what rights does a nation state have to prosecute people accused of corruption and abuses of power? Is diplomatic asylum being abused in order to avoid being held to account? And when are corruption allegations being misused for political purposes? 

Guest: Eduardo Bohórquez, Executive Director of Transparencia Mexicana – the Mexico Chapter of Transparency International.