Radio Eye - Special Features
Double Life
Thirty-six righteous beings, the lamed vav tzaddikim, keep the world turning, according to Jewish tradition. If they didn't exist there would be greater strife in the world than there already is, yet we don't even know who they are.
Radio producer Natalie Kestecher speaks to rabbis, mystics, scholars, and to photographer Todd Weinstein (see gallery) about the idea and, while it appears that it can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, Natalie finds that she is seeing these beings in the most unlikely places. [find out more...]
The Writers Train
Last year the Northern Territory Writers’ Centre sent six Australian writers, from different parts of the country and representing various genres, on a train trip through the centre of Australia on the famous Ghan. The Ghan is one of the world's great rail journeys, traversing the arid interior and linking the wild lands of the tropical north with the ordered farmlands of the temperate south. Along for the ride were producers Tony Collins and Carmel Young who documented the journey and made the two-part Radio Eye series The Writers Train. [find out more...]
The Search for Edna Lavilla
In 1942 Edna Lavilla Haynes died from a backyard abortion. She was thirty-five years old with five children, two of them illegitimate. After her death the children lost contact and Edna was never mentioned again.
[find out more and listen to the program...]
Ways of Walking Country
Sean O'Brien meets six very different walkers with very different attitudes towards the Australian environment. They all spend a lot of time in it, thinking about it and about the big issues of life. They include an ecologist, an adventurer, an Indigenous guide and an artist. They talk about the ground-up view of the Blue Mountains, the Simpson desert and Lake Mungo. Extra audio, slideshows and image galleries are available in this special feature. [find out more...]
Pacific Footsteps
Pacific Footsteps is a co-production between ABC Radio National and the BBC World Service marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. It presents snapshots of the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Northern Mariana Islands, four countries in which Americans, Australians, Japanese and indigenous people fought and suffered great hardship during World War Two. [find out more...]
War And Peace
War And Peace is a four part series from Radio Eye on how the trauma of war affects individuals, families and communities. As Australians, we might all rejoice, for we live in a peaceful country. Certainly it's true that the nation has not been at war since 1945, but can we really say that we are at peace? In fact, Australians have been fighting, or at least involved, in various wars, police actions and peacekeeping operations under one international aegis or another more or less continuously since the end of World War 2. [find out more...]
The Real Far East
New opportunities and pressures are bringing dramatic change to the outer reaches of Russia. Throughout the Soviet period, the Russian Far East remained largely inaccessible. It is a physically remote and strategically critical region, populated by a mix of exiles, immigrants and military personnel. The decline in Russian military spending, the collapse of state supported industries and the corruption of local administrations and a parlous economy combine to make life in Russia's 'Wild East' far from easy. The region is in flux. [find out more...]
Children Of Heaven
In 'Children of Heaven' Tony Barrell visits Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan to see how traditional Asian family values survive in communities which share the common and controversial heritage of Confucianism. A fifth program in the series is available exclusively online. [find out more...]
Crime and Punishment
Law and order is one of the hottest issues of our times. It can make or break governments, fill our prisons like never before, put more police on the street, and cause people to sleep less comfortably at night. So who wins and loses from the law and order debate? Take a journey with Radio Eye to the suburbs where fear of crime is rife, into the jails where gangs rule and the victims of the new hard line approach - the mentally ill - languish in ever greater numbers. [find out more...]
