Warren Entsch served in Australia's federal parliament for almost three decades. He worked with half a dozen Prime Ministers and witnessed the passage of some of the nation's greatest shifts in social and economic policy.

He was an entrenched backbencher with an outsized influence and outsized opinions. He stood against enraged gun owners in his own community after the Port Arthur massacre, he brushed off demands to scrap mentions of climate change from Great Barrier Reef health reports. But most famously, he stared down a Prime Minister and much of his own party to change Australia's marriage laws, a key moment of defiance that catalysed the legalisation of gay marriage.

Mr Entsch attracted a fair share of criticism and controversy during his career and many have disagreed with facets of his conduct as a member of parliament. But tellers of history must not neglect the background of the endeavour to correct Australia's last great legal inequality, and the role Mr Entsch played in that crusade.

Anna Middleton was elected as the Division 7 councillor to Cairns Regional Council in 2024 as an unaligned and independent candidate with a low budget, grassroots effort, beating other candidates with more cash and more recognisable names. Since her election, she has leant on the expertise of industry professionals, scientists and experienced public servants to guide her decisions in the council chamber — an evidence-based approach that has won and lost voter sympathy in equal measure, and caused her to clash with the emotional and idealised decisions of other influential people in Queensland’s political landscape.

Bronwyn Opie is the director of the Cairns and Far North Environment Centre, a leading Queensland advocacy organisation for climate change action and ecological conservation.

Adam Stephen is a journalist and radio presenter who has hosted ABC Queensland's regional Drive radio program for twelve years, a weekday show now broadcast to three-quarters of Australia's second largest and third most populous state.

Atlantis is an artist whose story is equal parts amazing and terrifying. Just listen, ok.

Martin is a zoologist and ecologist based in Cairns, Far North Queensland, as well as a tour guide that has led wildlife tours in places such as Antarctica and Africa. On this episode, Martin and I speak about Australian ecology and biodiversity, the impacts of climate change on Australia’s natural habitats, Martin’s work as a zoologist around the world and the time he got drunk with Sir David Attenborough.

Remember Mike Atkinson from Alone Australia? Are you among the millions who have you seen his super fun and fascinating videos on how to adventure better?

Well, now Far North Queenslanders have the chance to meet him in person.

Mike is bringing his film Modern Day Castaway to Cairns on the 17th of July.

For everyone else, check out this bonus How Good are Humans episode where I catch up on everything Mike has been up to since we last spoke.

To walk into Coles or Woolworths is a step into a foreign land. Row upon row, aisle upon aisle, an abundance of food, will sit before our eyes. Some, maybe most of it, has been grown or produced in Australia, but nearly all of did not originate here. Its native lands are across the seas.

Before 1788, Australia was a nation with its own food sustaining a continent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples. Then the colonisation of foreign plants and animals cleared out native produce until bush tucker, as it has come to be known, became little more than a gimmick that grew out in "woop woop". Barely any native foods are consumed by modern Australians. Barely any of it is known. Some, like the lean kangaroo and gamey goanna, stand in plain view not as food but as amusing decorations on the landscape.

Some people have made it their mission to guide our focus toward and change our perspectives of Australian foods. One of them, perhaps the top example, is Samatha Martin, also known as the Bush Tukka Woman.

So slide some lemon myrtle boomer tail between ya teeth and get stuck into this juicy podcast episode all about real Australian foods.