Conversations

The act of care and service through food has been incredibly important to Besha Rodell throughout her life, from her first, euphoric experience of a fancy restaurant at age eight, to the aftermath of September 11.
Today Besha is the chief restaurant critic at The Age.
The thrill of a fancy restaurant first imprinted itself on her psyche when she was a girl, treated to dinner at Stephanie's iconic spot in Melbourne.
As a teenager, Besha was transplanted to her mother's native USA and got her first job in hospitality — and found her people — in North Carolina.
A stint in New York followed, where Besha witnessed September 11 in real time.
Eventually Besha started a family with her boyfriend, Ryan, in North Carolina and the family found they were living under the poverty line. 
They got by thanks to a government food voucher program.
Shortly after, Besha's blog posts, written for fun, gained traction and she was given her first assignment in food writing.
Further information
Hunger Like A Thirst is published by HardieGrant.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
This episode covers food, restaurants, restaurant critic, Stephanie's, Stephanie Alexander, Narnia, Melbourne, North Carolina, 9/11, September 11, migrant, not fitting in, government cheese, hospo, acts of service, behind the pass, line cook, pastry chef, methadone, coming off methadone, heroin, addiction, loving an addict, New York Times, food reviewing.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Besha Rodell started her career in hospitality waitressing in North Carolina. The act of care and service through food has been incredibly important throughout her life, from her first, euphoric experience of a fancy restaurant at age eight, to the aftermath of September 11.
Today Besha Rodell is the chief restaurant critic at The Age.
The thrill of a fancy restaurant first imprinted itself on her psyche when she was a girl, treated to dinner at Stephanie's iconic spot in Melbourne.
As a teenager, Besha was transplanted to her mother's native USA and got her first job in hospitality — and found her people — in North Carolina.
A stint in New York followed, where Besha witnessed September 11 in real time.
Eventually Besha started a family with her boyfriend, Ryan, in North Carolina and the family found they were living under the poverty line. 
They got by thanks to a government food voucher program.
Shortly after, Besha's blog posts, written for fun, gained traction and she was given her first assignment in food writing.
Further information
Hunger Like A Thirst is published by HardieGrant.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
This episode covers food, restaurants, restaurant critic, Stephanie's, Stephanie Alexander, Narnia, Melbourne, North Carolina, 9/11, September 11, migrant, not fitting in, government cheese, hospo, acts of service, behind the pass, line cook, pastry chef, methadone, coming off methadone, heroin, addiction, loving an addict, New York Times, food reviewing.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Naomi Mourra grew up as a door-knocking Jehovah's Witness but at 21, she realised Doomsday was not upon her, and left the religion for good.
As a child, Naomi  thought she was going to live forever.
She was told the end of the world was coming, but she would survive the apocalypse and live in paradise for eternity, because she was special.
She spent her youth in Western Sydney, preaching these same beliefs to neighbours, strangers, and classmates because Naomi was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness.
Now, though, she describes herself as the city's only Lebanese, lesbian, ex-Jehovah’s Witness.
Naomi says she “woke up”, and it wasn’t until she realised Armageddon was not actually coming, that she truly started to live.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.
It explores religion, Jehovah's Witnesses, dogma, family, Western Sydney, Armageddon, faith, leaving a religion, culture, sexuality, stand up comedy, lesbian, Lebanese culture, apocalypse, school, education, strangers, freedom, neighbours, strangers
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Tony Tan’s parents pinned their hopes on him when they sent him from home in Malaysia to Melbourne to become a white collar professional in the 1970s. There he found “funny smelling cigarettes”, a lovely man called Terry and a destiny he couldn’t escape.
Tony was exposed to deep, rich flavour and the precision of cooking from a young age.
His mother was a chef in Malaysian colonial kitchens and Tony would often accompany her to work, where he would sometimes receive a single golden, dripping roasted potato, or pinch the meat from a leftover kitchen carcass.
He was a precocious child — known as Little Chilli — always wanting to know how certain cooking techniques worked. 
His parents didn’t want him to follow them into the world of food, so they sent him to study at university in Melbourne, with hopes that he would ascend to the world of white collar work on behalf of the family.
He had his first introduction to Lygon Street in the 1970s, and university couldn’t keep him away from the world of food.
Further information
Tony Tan's most recent cook book, Tony Tan's Asian Cooking Class is published by Murdoch Books.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
This episode covers food tours, Kuantan, SBS, Shakahari, Stephanie Alexander, char siu, Tatler's, cooking school, Asian cooking class, roast chicken with soy sauce, recipes, sexual awakening, gay marriage, Trentham, regional Victoria.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

We rarely stop to wonder who invented the wheel, the alphabet or the printing press but so much of what feels fundamental to daily life was once a bold, untested idea, and someone had to think it up first.
In The Shortest History of Innovation, Andrew Leigh traces that long thread of human ingenuity from ancient breakthroughs through to the inventions reshaping our world today like the car, social media and artificial intelligence. 
He also debunks some of the myths about how these things into the word and what happens when they collide with humanity.
The Shortest History of Innovation is published by Black Inc Books.
The executive producer of Conversations is Nicola Harrison
This episode of Conversations explores history, ancient civilisation, the industrial revolution, medical breakthrough, human progress, invention, innovation, human psychology, AI, penicillin, the wheel, cutlery, vaccines, nuclear bomb, nuclear energy, medieval history
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.