Podcast · News

Big Small Talk

by LiSTNR · English · News

The big and the small – all in one place. Because loving pop culture doesn’t mean you don’t understand politics. Tuesdays we unpack the headlines you need to know. Thursdays we talk to the people you want to hear from on the topics you care about. And every month, we deep the stories from the

New episodes: Daily
Typical length: 53 min
Latest: 13 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026 · 58 minNew

Olivia Dean, US Execution Livestream & Selma Blair Arrest

Hello hello! If you had any doubt before, you can now say for certain that we are living in a dystopian hellhole because the U.S. has announced it will livestream the execution of a prisoner on death row. Hannah talks about how this announcement, and the recent failed execution of Christa Pike, has sparked universal outrage from all sides of politics. Then, Sarah explains why Olivia Dean is being sued for allegedly copying Bill Withers’ classic hit ‘Just the Two of Us’. And the whole debacle has us asking – is it possible for anything in music, fashion or art to feel…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

7 Oct 2026 · 49 min
How Well Do You Understand Your Hormones? With Dominique Elissa
We spend years learning about our bodies through trial and error because no one ever really taught us how our hormones work. Model, founder of Selfdom and creator of the bestselling gratitude journals, Dominique Elissa returns to the pod this week to discuss her new journal 'Flow State' and why understanding your hormones has completely changed the way she lives. From the four phases of the menstrual cycle and learning to work with your body instead of against it, to her fertility journey and now expecting her first baby, Dominique has an honest conversation about reconnecting with your body…
6 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
The Cornell 7, Pete Davidson & Greens New Leader
Prosecutors have reopened an investigation into an alleged rape at Cornell University after public outrage and mounting questions over how the case was handled. Then, the New York Times has decided the best TV shows of the 21st century and naturally, we have thoughts.Back home, the Greens have a new leader, but the result has exposed some pretty major divisions within the party. Plus, has the internet officially changed its mind on Pete Davidson? He’s opening up about his famous exes, his confrontations with Kanye West and why he has an issue with female content creators. And former…
1 Oct 2026 · 25 min
Daisy Edgar-Jones & Esmé Creed-Miles: Big Sister Advice
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles on in studio with us? Consider this Sarah’s pinch-me moment. The girls join us to talk about their new film, Sense and Sensibility, which by the way, is perfect cinema. You’ll know Daisy of course from the cult classic, Normal People, as well as Where the Crawdads Sing, Fresh and Twisters, and Esmé from Hanna, The Doll Factory and Silver Haze. Together we're talking Jane Austen, big sister energy and why a story written more than 200 years ago still understands our dating lives so well. From sibling-order theory and family…
29 Sep 2026 · 42 min
Watergate: Nixon, Vietnam & The Pentagon Papers PART TWO
Richard Nixon wins re-election in one of the biggest landslides in American history. Less than two years later, he becomes the first and only U.S. president to resign. So, how did it all fall apart? In Part Two, we get into Nixon’s growing paranoia, the creation of CREEP, the increasingly unhinged schemes of the people around him, and the break-in at the Watergate complex that started the unraveling. We take you inside what actually happened that night, before following the investigation, the secret White House tapes and the cover-up that ultimately reached all the way to the…
29 Sep 2026 · 35 min
Watergate: Nixon, Vietnam & The Pentagon Papers PART ONE
Welcome back to Big Talk! It’s the political scandal so infamous that, 50 years later, we’re still adding “gate” to the end of every controversy. But Watergate didn’t begin with a break-in. In Part One, we’re going back to Richard Nixon’s rise to power, the lies America was told about the Vietnam War, the explosive leak of the Pentagon Papers, and the increasingly secretive White House determined to stop its secrets getting out. This is how we got to Watergate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
29 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
Taylor Swift’s Encore, OpenAI Hacks Medicare & The VMAs
AUDIENCE SURVEY LINK HERE!!!! THANK YOU ILY: https://forms.gle/dc9iXh7BEwntMuiW9 On the show this week, OpenAI hacked a Medicare portal months ago, and we’re only just hearing about it now. So… how did that happen? Then, Taylor Swift has released new music. Of course, she’s the biggest pop star in the world, so we HAVE to deep it, but if you’re not in the mood to psychoanalyse Taylor with us, you can always skip ahead. Plus, looksmaxxing influencer Braden Peters, otherwise known as Clavicular, has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl. We then unpack…
23 Sep 2026 · 56 min
Trial By TikTok With Amber Heard's Lawyer, Jen Robinson
This week, Sarah sits down with renowned human rights and media lawyer Jen Robinson, whose career has taken her from Julian Assange’s legal team and the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal to representing Amber Heard. Jen unpacks how defamation laws can be weaponised to silence women, survivors and journalists, and the enormous legal and financial risk that can come with telling your story. We also get into the rise of trial by TikTok: how viral clips, algorithms and bot campaigns can distort high-profile court cases, what Jen witnessed during the Depp v Heard saga, and why we should be far…
22 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
Lena Dunham's Surrogacy, Channing Tatum & Joanna Howe
Hey BSTies! On the show this week – anti-abortion activist Dr Joanna Howe and her husband James have come under fire after he said that he doesn’t “do consent”. Then, the girls unpack Lena Dunham’s announcement that she has become a mum via surrogacy. Is it ever okay to pay someone to carry your child? Plus – Labor and One Nation announce migration crackdowns, Channing Tatum allegedly has a burner account (!?), the latest on Macklemore and Ed Sheeran, and how to hold on to hope with the UN General Assembly’s Be Hope campaign. AUDIENCE SURVEY LINK…
16 Sep 2026 · 47 min
How Do You Build A Beauty Empire In 2026? With Conserving Beauty
The beauty industry is worth more than $450 billion globally. So what actually makes us buy one product over another? Sarah sits down with Natassia Nicolao, founder and CEO of Conserving Beauty, to unpack what it really takes to build a beauty brand in an industry obsessed with virality, celebrity launches, dupes and the next “must-have” product. From creating the world’s first dissolving makeup wipe to getting stocked in MECCA, Natassia reveals how science and sustainability became her competitive edge, why 12-year-olds are suddenly using actives, and just how much of a…
16 Sep 2026 · 1 hr
Macklemore, Sydney Sweeney & Trumps 5K Promise
This week, Donald Trump is promising every American adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms - yes, really. Then, NFL star Aaron Rodgers has opened up about his breakup with actress Shailene Woodley and revealed the wild request she made before they got married, which has somehow only made the internet like her more. We’re also getting into a former Anthropic employee who quit because he believes AI could help kill humanity, and what the people leading these companies are saying about that risk. Plus, Macklemore was asked to leave Ed Sheeran’s tour after saying “Free…
15 Sep 2026 · 2 min
We’re Running 24 Hours Late
For the first time in almost three years, your Tuesday episode is running a day late! A perfect storm of sickness, international travel and terrible timing has thrown us slightly off course — so Sarah is jumping into your feeds with a tiny update. The good news: we’ll be back TOMORROW (Wednesday) at 5pm with a VERY big Big Small Talk. And trust us, there is a lot to talk about this week. Thanks for bearing with us xx Big Small Talk Instagram Sarah-Jane's Instagram Hannah's Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
9 Sep 2026 · 34 min
Are You Ready to Fix Your Feed? With Chanel Contos
Our friend Chanel Contos is on the podcast, and she’s casually changing Australia again! Chanel is the activist behind Teach Us Consent, the campaign that helped change consent education in Australian schools. Now, she’s coming for our algorithms with Fix Our Feeds - which, huge news, just got the green light from the Australian Government this week. We recorded this chat before that happened, on the eve of Chanel’s National Press Club address. We talk about what it was actually like becoming the face of the consent movement. Then of course, we discuss how algorithms have…
8 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Earle Meets World, Lindsay Clancy & The 'Feminisation' of Schools
Nationals leader Matt Canavan is blaming the ‘feminisation’ of schools, consent education, and female teachers for the online radicalisation of young men, and Hannah is… not impressed. She unpacks his controversial comments, why we need to stop blaming women for the actions of men, and the latest push to finally regulate social media algorithms + fix our feeds. Then, Sarah dives into Alix Earle’s new reality tv show, Earle Meets World. She unpacks the BTS drama with Alex Cooper, the Ashley Dupree scandal, and answers the all-important question: do the Earles have…
2 Sep 2026 · 46 min
What Do You Do When Life Falls Apart? With Gretta Ray
At some point, you'll probably face what we on the pod call a Diabolical Quarter -- a time in your life when everything falls apart and you just can't catch a break. Singer-songwriter Gretta Ray knows about these seasons of life all too well. Just 48 hours after moving to London -- ready to take next big leap in her career -- Gretta ended up in hospital and diagnosed with a life-threatening condition. Then came a break up, a flight home to Australia, and a long recovery process. So, we wanted to ask Gretta: what do you do when shit really hits the fan? How do you rebuild from that? Gretta's…
1 Sep 2026 · 58 min
Olivia Rodrigo's Festival, Dolly Parton & Meta's $17b Settlement
Guyyssss Olivia Rodrigo threw a festival raising money for women’s health, safety and reproductive rights and THE WORLD IS HEALING. Sarah kicks off this episode talking all things Daisy Chain Festival – Stevie Nicks’ appearance, the whopping $20 million donation, and the way a 23-year-old pop star is building a legacy that goes way beyond her music. Hannah then breaks down Meta’s historic $17 billion legal settlement, and the company’s promise to combat teen social media addiction on Instagram and Facebook. But is this really the public win they are making it…
26 Aug 2026 · 34 min
How To Fight Back with Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina
There’s a good chance that you’ve heard of Pussy Riot – the punk band from Russia that has made global headlines for speaking out against Vladimir Putin. Maria Alyokhina was just 23 years old when she joined the group and, consequently, became Putin's political prisoner. She was arrested and jailed multiple times for her activism over the years. But in 2022, she hatched a plan. She dressed up as a food delivery driver and, with the help of her friends, fled the country. Maria is one of the bravest people we will ever speak to. So, given the state of the world right now, we…
25 Aug 2026 · 46 min
Pauline Hanson & the Rise of One Nation PART TWO
We are back for part two of our series on Pauline Hanson, and things are not looking good. It’s 2003, the authorities have come knocking, and Pauline is staring down a criminal trial. In our final episode, we track Hanson’s return to parliament and meteoric rise in popularity. Her reality television rebrand, her We ask ourselves: how do we make sense of Pauline Hanson? Is there a One Nation without her? Can you build a movement on anger? And what happens when the major parties stop speaking to a chunk of the country. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
25 Aug 2026 · 49 min
Pauline Hanson & the Rise of One Nation PART ONE
As whispers of the next federal election swirl, one name keeps coming up: Pauline Hanson. Hanson and her party are rapidly rising in popularity. Polling over the last few weeks suggests that the next election might come down to a race between Labor versus One Nation. So – who is Pauline Hanson? And how did we get here? In this two-part series, we talk about the rise, the fall, and resurrection of Pauline Hanson. Her days as a fish and chip shop owner, the letter that got her sacked from the Liberal Party, the criminal trial that put her behind bars, her Dancing with the Stars…
25 Aug 2026 · 56 min
Lindsay Clancy's Trial, The Sydney Swans & VMA 2026 Snubs
Sarah kicks us off with a breakdown of the Lindsay Clancy trial unfolding in the US right now - who she is, what happened, the evidence we’ve heard in court and the reality of trial by TikTok. Hannah then talks through the latest developments in the Sydney Swans scandal, with multiple players now stood down from the club, plus the powerful show of support for the Swans women’s team over the weekend. Plus, the girls unpack the VMA nominations (Olivia Rodrigo snubbed?!), the latest changes to the NDIS, and finally… what the hell is going on with KATSEYE? Big Small Talk…
19 Aug 2026 · 35 min
What Career Advice Should We Stop Giving Women? With Pip Northeast
Pip Northeast is the breakout star of Netflix’s My Brilliant Career, currently one of the Top 10 shows in the world. But forget everything you’ve been told about getting ahead at work. After chatting about taking on one of Australia’s most iconic stories - and the woman behind it all, Miles Franklin, we put the career advice we’ve all been fed to the test. Should you really “lean in”? Do you actually need a mentor? Can you be in love and have a career? Pip gives us her verdict on the best, worst and most outdated career advice, with insights into her own…
18 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
Hayden Panettiere, Phoebe Gates & One Nation 'Gayest' Party
First up, Hannah takes us through reports that three teenage boys from one of Sydney’s most expensive private boys schools – The Scots College – were arrested on charges of sexual assault. She also talks about Victoria Police’s investigation into the Sydney Swans. Sarah dives into the business scandal that could see Bill Gates’ 23-year-old daughter go to prison. A fashion tech startup, a billionaire nepo baby, and a bunch of celebrity investors? Sounds like the making of a Netflix series. Plus, AOC freezes her eggs, the world mourns Hayden Panettiere, what…
12 Aug 2026 · 54 min
Do We Need To Pop The AI Bubble? With Cory Doctorow
Everyone has an opinion on AI. Some say it's the inevitable future. Others think it'll take our jobs, fuel misinformation, and hand even more power to Big Tech and billionaires. This week, Sarah sits down with bestselling author, technologist and journalist Cory Doctorow to unpack whether AI really is the future or just a wildly overhyped tech bubble. They also dive into Cory's theory of the "reverse centaur", why bosses and billionaires are so obsessed with AI, why he believes it's one of the dumbest financial investments of our time, and where Australia fits into the global AI race. Cory…
11 Aug 2026 · 53 min
Open AI Hosts Influencer Retreat, Sydney Towle & The Celebs Are In LOVE
First up, Hannah unpacks the ABC’s apology to Gina Rinehart over comments made during its new Gen Z-coded show, Race Around the World. What’s really upsetting people here – the fact the public broadcaster said sorry OR who it is saying sorry to? Sarah talks about the OpenAI luxury influencer brand trip (yep you read that right). The theme? Eco-friendly summer camp. Think farm-to-table meals, beekeeping, and cognitive dissonance. The girls how TikToker Sydney Towle changed the way we see cancer, and why Abdul El-Sayed’s monumental Michigan Senate nom could shake-up the…
5 Aug 2026 · 39 min
Do Men Find Party Girls Intimidating? With Lucy and Nikki
When did women become expected to grow out of having fun? This week, Sarah is joined by Happy Hour hosts Lucy & Nikki to chat about dating as a party girl, whether men are intimidated by fun, successful women, being on the apps and why your friendships shouldn't disappear just because you're in a relationship. Sarah-Jane Instagram Big Small Talk Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
4 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
Ariana Grande, AI goes rogue & Nara Smith is NOT a Trad Wife
BSTies – it’s been a week! Sarah talks about Ariana Grande’s new album (which has sparked intense online debate around her appearance), as well as her decision to step away from public life. The girls chat about why we need to be careful in these conversations concerning Ariana’s body and health, but also about the dangers of collective silence. Hannah dives into how a rogue OpenAI escaped its container and hacked another company. And just a few days later, Anthropic (the company behind Claude) revealed that THEIR model had done the same thing three times. Yay. Plus,…
29 Jul 2026 · 42 min
Why Is There Moral Panic Around Sex? With Dr Esme Louise James
This week, Sarah sits down with historian, author and educator Dr Esme Louise James , creator of Kinky History, to explore the fascinating history of sex, desire and shame. Esme explains how many of the things we consider "new" or "unnatural" have actually existed for millennia, and how our modern attitudes towards sex have been shaped by history, religion, medicine, law and power. They also discuss Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated film The Odyssey , and why Esme believes it stripped away the complexity of its female characters and sanitised the role sex played in Homer's original…
28 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 29 min
The Last Romanovs: The Story of Anastasia PART ONE
If you grew up watching Anastasia, chances are you believed there was always a chance the youngest Romanov princess escaped. But the true story behind one of history's most enduring mysteries is even more extraordinary than the film. In this special two-part crossover with Ainslie Harvey's The Hot History Podcast , Sarah is joined by historian and host Ainslie to uncover the true story behind the world's most famous grand duchess. Together, they explore the rise and fall of the Romanov dynasty, Rasputin's influence, the Russian Revolution, the family's final days, and the mystery that…
28 Jul 2026 · 42 min
The Last Romanovs: The Story of Anastasia PART TWO
The mystery isn't over !!! In part two of our VERY special The Hot History Podcast crossover, we unravel the century-long question that captivated the world: did Princess Anastasia really survive? From the famous imposters and Soviet cover-ups to the discovery of the Romanovs' remains, DNA testing with Prince Philip, and the family's surprising legacy under Vladimir Putin, we separate fact from fiction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
28 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
Hannah Ferguson Runs Against the PM, The Odyssey & Matty Healy's Wedding
It's good to be back!! Hannah has officially announced she's running against the Prime Minister at the next federal election. The girls chat about what she'll be campaigning for, why she's doing it, how she's feeling, and what it means for the podcast. Sarah dives into the film everyone can't stop talking about, The Odyssey, unpacking how it was made, why Christopher Nolan insisted on shooting it for IMAX and his refusal to use CGI or AI. Hannah then unpacks Pauline Hanson's comments on domestic violence, which sparked widespread backlash, before breaking down the bizarre moment Barnaby…

About Big Small Talk

Big Small Talk is a English news podcast from LiSTNR. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: LiSTNR
Language: English
Category: News
New episodes: Daily
Typical length: 53 min
Latest episode: 13 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1701358863
Rights: 2026 LiSTNR - Text, image, music and sound comprising this podcast are owned by or licensed to SCA. By accessing, communicating or using this podcast, you…

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