We’re tackling one of the most fraught (and often avoided) conversations in Australian agriculture: farm succession.

As families return from summer break and set their goals for the year ahead, reporter Ben Westcott joins host Rebecca Jones to unpack why passing on the family farm has become so complex, emotionally charged and financially risky. With soaring land values, ageing farmers and siblings pulling in different directions, succession planning is no longer something that can wait. What happens when it does… and what should families be doing now?

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Australia’s political year has opened amid deepening domestic and global tensions. One Nation is now surging in polls, underscoring the erosion of support for traditional parties as cost-of-living pressures and cultural divides reshape the political landscape.

In this episode, Bloomberg’s new Canberra correspondent James Mayger joins the podcast to unpack the fallout from the Bondi attacks, the passage of gun and hate-speech laws through a divided Senate, and how global instability — from US politics to China and Taiwan — is feeding into Australia’s domestic debate and shaping the year ahead.

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The mining sector kicked off 2026 with a bang as Rio Tinto and Glencore confirmed early-stage talks that could create the world’s biggest mining company. In this episode, host Chris Bourke is joined by Bloomberg’s Asia-Pacific head of commodities, Clara Ferreira Marques, to unpack why the deal is back on the table, what’s changed since talks first surfaced last year, and whether the “most obvious” merger in mining can actually get done.

They dig into the race for copper at record prices, the cultural and regulatory hurdles standing in the way, and what a tie-up would mean for rivals like BHP. From coal and China to scale, strategy and leadership, the conversation explores why mining’s long-anticipated M&A wave may finally be taking shape.

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