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Program: If You're Listening

Presented by

Matt Bevan

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.

Airs on ABC Radio National at 2.30pm Thursday.

Episodes

Sorted by latest

Will Xi Jinping cross the Taiwan Strait?

For decades, Beijing has pursued a simple strategy towards Taiwan: the carrot and the stick. The stick comes in the form of military drills, missile launches, and increasingly aggressive displays of force designed to remind Taiwan of China's power.

Published: Thu 11 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Thu 11 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 25 minutes

How Peking Duck and Moutai changed the world

Modern China has used ceremonial banquets to resolve diplomatic disputes for decades - but there's often a message hidden within. ABC reporter Bang Xiao gives Matt the meaning behind the meal. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app.

Published: Tue 9 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Tue 9 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 22 minutes 33 seconds

Taiwan’s violent, messy, beautiful democracy

A fistfight erupts in Taiwan's parliament. Punches fly as two rivals find themselves at the centre of the chaos. On one side is Chen Shui-bian, a member of Taiwan’s progressive DPP who became Taiwan's first president from outside the long-ruling KMT.

Published: Thu 4 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Thu 4 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 27 minutes

Was Taiwan's Olympic champion sabotaged?

To this day, international recognition of Taiwan is a fraught issue - with only a handful of countries affirming their claim of statehood.

Published: Tue 2 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Tue 2 Jun 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 19 minutes 17 seconds

Taiwan’s 100 year fight for freedom

For decades, Taiwan has existed in political limbo: claimed by China, governed separately, and shaped by a history far more complicated than most people realise.

Published: Thu 28 May 2026 at 1:00am

Thu 28 May 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 25 minutes

The secret techbro city of the future

A team of tech billionaires and venture capitalists have proposed a city that promises to revive the American Dream. But secret landgrabs, legal disputes, and good old reliable NIMBYism stands in their way.

Published: Tue 26 May 2026 at 1:00am

Tue 26 May 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 23 minutes 29 seconds

Trump and Xi Jinping’s deadly game of chess

The world watched Donald Trump and Xi Jinping sit across from each other in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last week. Two leaders with radically different foreign policy styles but the same conviction: that the future belongs to the bold.

Published: Thu 21 May 2026 at 1:00am

Thu 21 May 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 26 minutes

What is Palantir doing in Australia?

Palantir has hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts with Australian federal and state governments. The ABC's national AI reporter Cam Wilson joins Matt to share the details. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app.

Published: Tue 19 May 2026 at 1:00am

Tue 19 May 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 19 minutes 44 seconds

Will anything stop Palantir?

The shadowy U.S. tech company Palantir has had a meteoric rise from complete obscurity to transforming the nature of surveillance forever. Pivotal to that rise is its unorthodox CEO, the philosophising tech-entrepreneur Alex Karp.

Published: Thu 14 May 2026 at 1:00am

Thu 14 May 2026 at 1:00am

by Kara Jensen-Mackinnon

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 23 minutes 30 seconds

The FBI dug a tunnel under the Russian embassy

The CIA and the FBI famously weren't talking to each other in the lead-up to 9/11. This is the story of why.

Published: Tue 12 May 2026 at 1:00am

Tue 12 May 2026 at 1:00am

Podcast artwork for If You're Listening: illustrations of a globe, tank, missile, and buildings on a red background.

Duration: 24 minutes

Season Seven: Russia, If You're Listening

RUSSIA | S07 E1 - How war weakened strongman Putin

For 20 years the Russian President Vladimir Putin was happy to lurk in the shadows, trying and occasionally succeeding to manipulate the rest of the world into doing what he wanted them to do. But this year he chucked that out the window.

A composite image of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Duration: 34 minutes 9 seconds

Published: Wed 16 Nov 2022 at 9:21am

Wed 16 Nov 2022 at 9:21am

RUSSIA S07 E2 | Zelensky's big call: run away or stay to fight

Vladimir Putin's plan for a three day takeover of Ukraine relied on a quick strike to take out Volodymyr Zelenskyy - to kill him, to capture him, or to make him flee.

Man in khaki t-shirt speaks to soldiers.

Duration: 34 minutes 4 seconds

Published: Wed 16 Nov 2022 at 9:20am

Wed 16 Nov 2022 at 9:20am

RUSSIA | S07 E3 - Why it’s hard to fight when you don’t know why

What does war look like on the ground, for the soldiers who go off to fight? What’s it like to be sent into the muddy confusion of a battlefield, asked to lay down your life for your country?

A man in a khaki Tshirt and camouflage reclines on a piece of military equipment

Duration: 33 minutes 20 seconds

Published: Tue 22 Nov 2022 at 3:57pm

Tue 22 Nov 2022 at 3:57pm

RUSSIA | S07 E4 - Undersea sabotage? The mysterious pipe blasts

On 26 September, a series of underwater explosions destroyed a cluster of natural gas pipelines on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

a circle o white water in the baltic sea with a cloudy sky and a ship in the background

Duration: 34 minutes 21 seconds

Published: Tue 29 Nov 2022 at 1:47pm

Tue 29 Nov 2022 at 1:47pm

Season Six: Australia, If You're Listening

INTRODUCING Season Six | Australia, If You're Listening

The sixth season of If You’re Listening tells the story of Australia’s turbulent history with climate change, and what that means for the future.

Published: Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:40pm

Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:40pm

by Matthew Bevan

AUSTRALIA | S06 E1 - The legacy of our first decisions on climate change

In 1987, scientists gathered in Melbourne for a landmark conference where they discussed, for the first time, the effects climate change might have on Australia.

Duration: 35 minutes 29 seconds

Published: Tue 26 Apr 2022 at 4:30pm

Tue 26 Apr 2022 at 4:30pm

by Matthew Bevan

AUSTRALIA | S06 E2 - How we became addicted to coal

Australia’s second-oldest city, Newcastle, was built around a single resource - coal.

Duration: 35 minutes 20 seconds

Published: Thu 28 Apr 2022 at 1:43pm

Thu 28 Apr 2022 at 1:43pm

by Matthew Bevan

AUSTRALIA | S06 E3 - How long will the world want our coal?

Australia intends to keep exporting coal for as long as there are countries willing to buy it. Miners have grand dreams of establishing new coal regions in Queensland to supply coal to the power stations and steel mills of India.

Duration: 35 minutes 46 seconds

Published: Tue 26 Apr 2022 at 4:31pm

Tue 26 Apr 2022 at 4:31pm

by Matthew Bevan

Season Five: China, If You're Listening

INTRODUCING Season Five | China, If You’re Listening

A podcast about how the relationship between Australia and China came to the verge of collapse. Not long ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping was regularly having warm, friendly chats with Australia's Prime Ministers.

Duration: 2 minutes 7 seconds

Published: Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:39pm

Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:39pm

by Matthew Bevan

CHINA | S05 01 - Xi Jinping: The 'Man of Destiny'

At first glance, Chinese President Xi Jinping's life story seems simple. His father was a high-ranking Chinese government official, and opened doors for his son, who rose even higher.

Xi Jinping

Duration: 34 minutes 38 seconds

Published: Mon 21 Jun 2021 at 3:21pm

Mon 21 Jun 2021 at 3:21pm

by Matthew Bevan

CHINA | S05 02 - How Tiananmen is being repeated in Xinjiang

For decades Australia has taken the approach that when it comes to China; we can criticise their human rights record without risking our trading relationship.

Chinese troops patrol a major road in Beijing just days after the Tiananmen massacre.

Duration: 37 minutes 17 seconds

Published: Mon 21 Jun 2021 at 3:21pm

Mon 21 Jun 2021 at 3:21pm

by Matthew Bevan

CHINA | S05 Bonus episode - The story behind Bob Hawke’s mysterious Tiananmen Cable

In 1989, five days after tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in Beijing and brutally ended weeks of protests, the then prime minister Bob Hawke gave a horrifying description of what Australia thought happened.

A man stands in front of a row of tanks

Duration: 17 minutes 15 seconds

Published: Mon 21 Jun 2021 at 3:21pm

Mon 21 Jun 2021 at 3:21pm

by Matthew Bevan

Season Four: America, If You're Listening

INTRODUCING Season Four | America, If You're Listening

The 2020 US Presidential election is shaping up to be a historical moment. Voters are deciding if the America of the last four years is the one they want to live in in the future.

Duration: 2 minutes 17 seconds

Published: Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:41pm

Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:41pm

by Matthew Bevan

AMERICA | S04 01 - What a hurricane taught Trump about being president

Hurricane Maria smashed through Puerto Rico in 2017, destroying everything in its wake. What did the worst American natural disaster in decades teach Donald Trump about how to be president?

Donald Trump throws paper towel rolls into a crowd of people.

Duration: 27 minutes 45 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:34pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:34pm

by Matthew Bevan

AMERICA | S04 02 - The surprising story of how Donald Trump took on the NRA

The most powerful gun lobby group in the United States was brought to the edge of collapse. And right at that moment, Donald Trump vowed to do something about mass shootings.

Donald Trump NRA

Duration: 28 minutes 59 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:36pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:36pm

by Matthew Bevan

AMERICA | S04 03 - How close did Trump get to nuclear war?

Within months of taking office, Donald Trump threatened North Korea with "fire and fury". Soon afterwards, he would tear up a nuclear deal with Iran and bring the US to the brink of war. And yet that war never came.

Donald Trump gestures to a chair as he and Kim Jong-un prepare to sign a document.

Duration: 32 minutes 40 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:36pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:36pm

by Matthew Bevan

Season Three: Russia, If You're Listening

INTRODUCING Season Three | Putin vs The World

The Russian campaign to meddle in the 2016 US Election was only part of President Vladimir Putin's big plan.

Duration: 4 minutes 13 seconds

Published: Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:28pm

Wed 14 Dec 2022 at 3:28pm

by Matthew Bevan

RUSSIA | S03 01 - A cold, wet day in Salisbury

The residents of the sleepy English town of Salisbury woke up one morning to find their town in chaos. Russian agents had attempted to assassinate a traitor with a terrifying weapon, in a brazen chemical attack on British soil.

Investigators in chemical hazmat suits walk next to a police tent.

Duration: 18 minutes 43 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:18pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:18pm

by Matthew Bevan

RUSSIA | S03 02 - From spymaster to president

Russian President Vladimir Putin came to power declaring he would kill his terrorist enemies, even if they were in the toilet at the time.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin rides a horse, shirtless, in southern Siberia's Tuva region

Duration: 20 minutes 24 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:18pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:18pm

by Matthew Bevan

RUSSIA | S03 03 - How to spin a war

When is an invasion not an invasion? When Putin's propaganda machine is involved, sowing false narratives, confusion and fear.

Armed man patrols Ukraine's Simferopol airport

Duration: 21 minutes 17 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:20pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 1:20pm

by Matthew Bevan

Season Two: Russia, If You're Listening

RUSSIA | S02 01 - Trump's best day ever

After 22 months Mueller's report has dropped. But it hasn't been made public - yet. US Attorney General Bill Barr has the report in his hot hands - and according to him - Mueller found no evidence of collusion. But who is Bill Barr?

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his wife Ann leave St John's Episcopal Church.

Duration: 17 minutes 42 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:51pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:51pm

by Matthew Bevan

RUSSIA | S02 02 - Maria Butina: Russian in the NRA

An undercover Australian journalist from Al Jazeera spent three years inside the National Rifle Association of America. He wasn't the only one trying figure it out. Simultaneously, a Russian secret agent was trying to infiltrate the NRA.

US pro-gun advocate Maria Butina has been charged in the US for conspiracy.

Duration: 18 minutes 52 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:52pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:52pm

by Matthew Bevan

RUSSIA | S02 03 - Rob Goldstone: 'I regret all of it'

Affable Englishman Rob Goldstone was literally in the room for the infamous Trump Tower Meeting, and he was with Donald Trump the weekend of the mythical "pee tape".

A picture of British publicist, music manager, and former tabloid journalist Rob Goldstone outside a building in Washington DC

Duration: 19 minutes 31 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:53pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:53pm

by Matthew Bevan

RUSSIA | S02 04 - Sergey Kislyak: The radioactive ambassador

Everyone who meets Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak ends up in deep trouble. But what if that was the point?

Donald Trump stands in the centre of the white house talking to Sergey Lavrov and Sergei Kislyak

Duration: 17 minutes 54 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:55pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:55pm

by Matthew Bevan

Season One: Russia, If You're Listening

RUSSIA | S01 01 - Donald Trump: A Russian love affair

Donald Trump has always claimed he has "nothing to do with Russia" but is that true? What if Trump was caught in a Russian web, long before he even considered a career in politics?

Donald Trump at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention.

Duration: 11 minutes 50 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:20pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:20pm

RUSSIA | S01 02 - Vladimir Putin: The man with a grudge

The spy from St Petersburg and the lawyer from Chicago. Why does Russia's president have such a deep and abiding hatred for Hillary Clinton? This is the second episode of Russia, If You're Listening.

Vladimir Putin stands in the snow.

Duration: 11 minutes 49 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:21pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:21pm

by Matt Bevan

RUSSIA | S01 03 - The Oligarchs: Money and power

The oligarchs hold the power and the money in Russia. So who are they and why does your average Russian billionaire care about who sits in The White House? This is the third episode of Russia, If You're Listening.

A series of large buildings with golden domes

Duration: 14 minutes 5 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:23pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:23pm

by Matthew Bevan

RUSSIA | S01 04 - George Papadopoulos: The coffee boy

George Papadopoulos is the first known link between the Trump campaign and Russia. Just how close was the so-called coffee boy George Papadopoulos to Russian spies offering dirt on Hillary Clinton?

Paul Manafort's former aide George Papadopoulos holding a briefcase.

Duration: 18 minutes 43 seconds

Published: Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:24pm

Thu 20 May 2021 at 12:24pm

by Matthew Bevan

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