If You're Listening
The world is on fire. There's a coup. Inflation is through the roof, and AI is taking our jobs. What does it all mean? Each week, Matt Bevan explains the biggest story in world news while hiding in his basement from assassins and authoritarian regimes.
Recent episodes include an exploration of the relationship between India and China, a closer look at the Saudi Arabian city of NEOM, the conflict in the Middle East, the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, and Ukraine's incursions into Vladimir Putin's Russia. Matt Bevan draws connections between stories from the past and the events of the present to help listeners understand world news and international affairs.
The podcast also features series about big moments in world news; previous series have focused on the United States presidential election, the United Kingdom's 14 years of Conservative Party leadership, Donald Trump's relationship with Russia, Donald Trump's presidency and promise to Make America Great Again, the Mueller Report, Vladimir Putin's scheme to destroy western democracies, how the relationship between Australia and China came to the verge of collapse, and Australia's turbulent history with climate change.
There's a new episode of If You're Listening every Thursday.
Recent episodes include an exploration of the relationship between India and China, a closer look at the Saudi Arabian city of NEOM, the conflict in the Middle East, the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, and Ukraine's incursions into Vladimir Putin's Russia. Matt Bevan draws connections between stories from the past and the events of the present to help listeners understand world news and international affairs.
The podcast also features series about big moments in world news; previous series have focused on the United States presidential election, the United Kingdom's 14 years of Conservative Party leadership, Donald Trump's relationship with Russia, Donald Trump's presidency and promise to Make America Great Again, the Mueller Report, Vladimir Putin's scheme to destroy western democracies, how the relationship between Australia and China came to the verge of collapse, and Australia's turbulent history with climate change.
There's a new episode of If You're Listening every Thursday.
Episodes (53)
Iran’s global network of goons
There has been a spike in antisemitic attacks around the world, but there was something off about the ones happening here in Australia. The graffiti had Israel spelled wrong and they were committed...
Matt has been stuck in the mud for seven years
There’s a story Matt’s been trying to tell on If You’re Listening almost since day one. It’s about the agriculture, soil and water of Ukraine, and he thinks it’s fascinating. Over the years he's tried...
Is Putin a master manipulator or a very smart guy?
Donald Trump once said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day. Well, it’s now been over 200 days and he’s finally admitted that it might be a little more complicated than he...
Who is the cigar-toting, moustachioed-American named Gunslinger?
In 1999, a young American called Robert Bogucki dumped his bicycle and walked out into the Great Sandy Desert in remote northern Australia. In 2022, Erin Parke became obsessed with this story and the...
The Art of the Peace Deal
It’s no secret that Donald Trump has his sights set on a Nobel Peace Prize. He already claims to have brokered peace in a number of conflicts around the world - and is now planning ceasefire talks for...
Does the Chinese Embassy look tacky?
When Palestinian statehood is recognised at the UN General Assembly in September, a small office tucked away in a residential street in Canberra will become the official embassy of Palestine. This...
The blueprint for Palestine
Australia, the UK, France and Canada intend to recognise Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly in September. But what does that actually mean? Well Timor Leste, the small island nation 500km...
Kara drags Matt back down the rabbit hole
After an entire week looking into the Oslo Accords, we still had a residual urge to find out more about Mona Juul and Terje Rod Larsen, the Norwegian couple who were instrumental in brokering that...
How Middle East peace plans were hatched in the Norwegian woods
Even the most seasoned negotiators can’t agree on how to bring peace to the Middle East. Everyone agrees that - on a personal level - it’s a problem too big, too old and too entrenched for them to...
The nurse on death row in Yemen
Getting accused of murder is never a good thing. But, hypothetically if you are going to get accused of murder, it’s generally for the best that it’s not somewhere like Houthi-controlled Yemen - a...
Are the MAGA podcasters right about Epstein?
The internet is flooded with hour-long podcasts about what really happened to Jeffrey Epstein. Until recently, two of the most high profile Epstein conspiracy truthers were MAGA podcasters, Dan...
Australia's most dangerous home-grown conspiracy theory
So Jeffery Epstein probably wasn’t a Mossad spy. But online conspiracies like this pop up closer to home too. Could Israeli intelligence have been involved in Australia’s most traumatic mass shooting?...
Was Jeffrey Epstein a Mossad agent?
The Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole has opened into a cavernous rabbit abyss and it seems no one is safe. Conspiracy theorists and right-wing podcasters are following a particularly spicy lead: that...
How to avoid abduction by a Mossad honeypot
Forty years ago, a man named Mordecai Vanunu came very close to exposing Israel’s secret nuclear enrichment facility in a bible group in the heart of Sydney. But before he could speak to journalists,...
Israel’s not-so-secret nuclear weapons
It’s widely accepted that Israel has nuclear weapons. How many? Well, it’s impossible to know because to this day the Israeli government has never officially confirmed or denied that it possesses a...
How Ayatollah Khomeini changed Iran
With Iran still in the news, we thought we would revisit the man who created the regime that so many in the Israeli and American political establishments would love to topple: Ayatollah Khomeini. This...
How a cancer diagnosis ended the US-Iran relationship
Before Iran was the Islamic theocracy it is today, it was a monarchy for two and a half thousand years. The last Shah or king of Iran was overthrown in 1979. In this episode of If You're Listening we...
Has the US busted Iran’s nuclear bomb plans?
The chaotic 12 days of the Israel-Iran war ended with the United States dropping bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities, then quickly brokering a ceasefire. But there are still many questions about the...
Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert on the bombing of Iran’s Evin prison
Israel recently bombed Iran’s notorious Evin prison, a place that Dr Kylie Moore Gilbert came to know all too well. The political scientist and author was imprisoned in Iran for 804 days and...
Why Israel's drones have changed the future of war
For the last century, since the rise of mechanised and then nuclear warfare, defence budgets are designed to stop big existential attacks. Ships, planes, submarines.But cheap, retail store level...
Can the US Air Force bust Matt’s studio bunker?
The United States has dropped some very large bombs on Iran, inserting itself into what we are currently calling the Israel-Iran War, despite Donald Trump saying just days earlier that he was going to...
Have ICE protests cracked Trump?
There is violence on the streets of America as anti-ICE protesters push back hard against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. In the early months of the Trump presidency it seemed like...
Will any Prime Minister “Love Actually” Donald Trump?
It’s been a manic week in global politics. Trump and Musk have officially broken up, Americans have taken to the streets to protest ICE deportations… oh and we’re seemingly on the brink of a nuclear...
Trump and Elon's honeymoon is over
In news that will surprise no one, the big beautiful bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has finally come to an end. Over the last week, there's been a dramatic shift in Trump's presidency -...
Skunk oil and the butcher girl
While investigating the history of fluoride, Matt Bevan stumbled upon a regional newspaper insert from the 1940s called Modern Weekly News Magazine. And let’s just say that the content was ... rather...
RFK Jr v Fluoride
Putting fluoride in drinking water has often been called one of the most successful public health measures in human history. But since the very beginning of fluoridation programs in the 1940s, it’s...
How a world leader kept a secret from 1.4 billion people
A little trivia question for you... is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi married?He’s gotta be, right? World leaders do tend to be married, and someone like Modi probably is. But, picture him at a...
Why Pakistan fights India
India and Pakistan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire, but tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations are still running high. There are factions in both governments that think a war might be a...
Why India fights Pakistan
After a brief moment where two nuclear powers looked to be on the verge of war, India and Pakistan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire. But Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says it’s not an end to...
Howard Lutnick and The Gates of Hell
When two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers on September 11 2001 Howard Lutnick lost 658 of his colleagues. It was a tragedy of unthinkable proportions which we covered in last week’s...
The man betting big on Trump's tariffs
The man behind Trump’s trade war is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his backstory is extraordinary. He’s been a hero, he’s been a villain, he’s been a sympathetic figure and also one of the most...
Australia vs the Internet: Conservative kill screen
Just a few months ago Elon Musk was heralded as a political kingmaker when he had a hand in helping Donald Trump win the US election. Musk has since meddled in the politics of the UK, Germany, Spain...
Australia vs the Internet: Misinformation overload
To scroll through social media during an election campaign in 2025 is to experience some of the worst misinformation. But an online soup of bots spouting partisan talking points wasn’t inevitable,...
Australia vs the Internet: RIP your newsfeed
When US President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, the world’s three wealthiest people stood right behind him, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. All own massive online platforms....
The secret weapon that changed war forever
In the middle of the 1800s, the Confederate army built a stealth vessel that could travel undetected underwater to give them the military edge over the Union...so did it work and how has it impacted...
Australia vs the Internet
You’re not losing your mind, the internet is different now. The 2025 Australian federal election will be the first in a decade where news isn’t readily available on social media, and there’s no effort...
How Japan dodged a global housing crisis
Australia’s housing market is in the midst of a crisis that feels like it will never be solved and now housing is one of the major battlefields of the upcoming federal election. In this episode of If...
Can Tesla survive Trump and Elon's bromance?
It has not been a good year so far for Elon Musk’s car company Tesla. Stocks are plummeting and sales are falling even faster as people around the world who are opposed to his involvement in the Trump...
Why is Trump suddenly obsessed with rare earths?
Donald Trump is talking about rare earth elements like they are magic rings with the power to unlock world domination. The US President is on the brink of signing a multi-billion dollar deal with...
Why France isn’t counting on Trump
Donald Trump’s sudden shift on Ukraine has come as a massive shock to most countries in America’s orbit. European leaders who have long banked their national security on US military protection are...
Russia, Trump is listening
Since he took office, Donald Trump has made a lot of decisions that fly in the face of traditional US foreign policy. He’s left Ukraine high and dry, he’s abandoning Europe, he’s slapped tariffs on...
Who will say no to President Trump this time?
In the United States, there are laws constraining the President’s power. The Attorney General and everyone who works at the Department of Justice aren’t meant to just do whatever the President tells...
How Trump is sending the FBI back to the 1960s
Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign he declared that the Justice Department and the FBI were weaponised against him. Now that he’s US President, he’s making huge changes to both, putting loyal...
What Elon’s DOGE cuts are really about
Billionaire Elon Musk is at the helm of US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, established to slash massive amounts of government spending as fast as possible. In just weeks...
Where Trump’s plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza came from
When US President Donald Trump announced his plan for America to take over the Gaza Strip, everyone was stunned. That includes the man standing next to him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
Can Trump bully Panama into giving back its canal?
Donald Trump started his presidency by picking a fight with Colombia. The US threatened its Central American neighbour with massive tariffs if it didn't accept planes full of handcuffed...
Will Trump's tariffs make America expensive again?
Donald Trump has liked the idea of tariffs for a long time, since before his first term as president. Now that he’s back in office he’s using them to do all sorts of things — threaten other countries,...
Putin or the EU? Georgia's big fight
The people of Georgia are in the streets of Tbilisi, protesting the ruling party’s recent election win. At the heart of the fight is whether the country should appease Vladimir Putin, or oppose...
The serious ramifications of Hunter Biden’s pardon
We want to know what you think of the show so we can make it better in 2025! Give us your feedback here: https://forms.office.com/r/w0hT5fzuxgHunter Biden has been a main character in far-right...
Will Netanyahu ever face court for alleged war crimes?
We want to know what you think of the show so we can make it better in 2025! Give us your feedback here: https://forms.office.com/r/w0hT5fzuxgThe International Criminal Court in The Hague wants...
Could Russia turn off the whole internet?
A Chinese-owned cargo ship called the Yi Peng 3 is sitting idle in Danish waters, after undersea internet cables were cut in the Baltic Sea. European officials have cried sabotage. It’s not the first...
America's Last Election 6: How Trump’s banishment led to his comeback
After January 6, many who had stuck by Donald Trump through his presidency condemned his denial of the election, and his failure to stop the attack on the Capitol. Banished to Mar-a-Lago the former...
America’s Last Election 5: Trump demands loyalty
Over the last four episodes we’ve told the story of Donald Trump’s denial of the 2020 election result. It’s a period of time many thought would disqualify him from another run for US president. Now,...
About this Podcast
Copyright
Copyright 2025, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved.
Language
en
Categories
News, Politics