The 9pm Space Dust of Disappointment with Dr Alice Gorman and Rami Mandow

Left: Dr Alice Gorman. (Photo: Simon Royal/ABC) Right: Rami Mandow. (Photo: Supplied; Post-processing: Stilgherrian). Not the best ALT text, I know, but yeah a white women and a man "of Middle-Eastern appearance".
Left: Dr Alice Gorman. (Photo: Simon Royal/ABC) Right: Rami Mandow. (Photo: Supplied; Post-processing: Stilgherrian).

The US has confirmed that it has weapons in space, although it hasn’t explained what kind. So let’s do an episode on space with space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk and astrophysicist Rami Mandow. What a shallow excuse!

Continue reading “The 9pm Space Dust of Disappointment with Dr Alice Gorman and Rami Mandow”

The 9pm Smoke and Durianomics with Erin Cook

A white woman with her long brown hair tied back wears a yellow and black top, sunglasses, and a smile like the Mona Lisa. Behind her stretches out a view of a tropical landscape and, eventually, the ocean. It’s Erin Cook!
Erin Cook enjoying the clear air of South-East Asia, at least at the time of recording. (Photo: Supplied).

This is the first episode of the Spring Series 2026, and we’re kicking things off with one of our more popular guests, journalist Erin Cook, who covers South-East Asia. Today we’re talking about the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and more.

Continue reading “The 9pm Smoke and Durianomics with Erin Cook”

The 9pm Sweet Times with Carol Duncan OAM

Two white people mug for the camera, the image full of orange tones as the afternoon sunlight streams into a pub’s front bar. On the left is a bloke with short greying hair and glasses. That’s Stilgherrian. On the right, looking taller because she’s standing, is a smiling woman with kind, intelligent eyes. That’s Carol Duncan. Behind them, a poster says there’s Joker Poker on Fridays.
Stilgherrian and Carol Duncan enjoy a Saturday afternoon at The Grand Hotel, Newcastle, on 4 July 2026. (Photo: Carol Duncan).

A few weeks ago I went to Newcastle, the Australian one, and spent some time chatting with the voice of Newcastle herself, Carol Duncan OAM. She was ABC Radio’s morning presenter for quite some years, then she was a city councillor, and she does a lot of other things too.

Continue reading “The 9pm Sweet Times with Carol Duncan OAM”

The 9pm Half-time Bingo Card Update 2026 with Snarky Platypus

Photograph of an old-fashioned bingo card from Milton Bradley Company against a background of wooden bingo stamps stained with red ink, and in the top right corner an inset showing a platypus.
Main image by Rudonni via Pixabay. Foreground bingo card originally by Milton Bradley Company, photo by Abby Hendrickson under under a CC-BY 2.0 Generic license. Platypus inset photo by Taronga Conservation Society Australia / Chris Wheeler. Digital composition by Stilgherrian.

Back at the start of the year, my good friend Snarky Platypus and I created a bingo card for 2026. A set of 25 things that might happen. Well, we’re half-way through the year, so let’s see how we went.

Continue reading “The 9pm Half-time Bingo Card Update 2026 with Snarky Platypus”

The 9pm Not Quite All of the Trains with David Feng

A Chinese man in short-sleeved shirt stands on a railways station platform on a bright sunny day. Behind him stands a very shiny modern train in white, blue, red, and grey livery, with a legend in Lao script.
David Feng stands in front of a high-speed train of the Laos–China Railway in 2023. (Photo: Supplied)

I like trains. Do you like trains? I hope so, because today we’re talking about trains. There’s a strong focus on China and on high-speed trains, and our guest on the internet from Beijing is Chinese-Swiss international rail visionary, it says on his YouTube channel, David Feng.

Continue reading “The 9pm Not Quite All of the Trains with David Feng”