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★★★★★

4.5

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203 reviews

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The world is on fire. There's a coup. Inflation is through the roof, and AI is taking our jobs. What does it all mean? Each week, Matt Bevan explains the biggest story in world news while hiding in his basement from assassins and authoritarian regimes. Recent episodes include an exploration of the relationship between India and China, a closer look at the Saudi Arabian city of NEOM, the conflict in the Middle East, the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, and Ukraine's incursions into Vladimir Putin's Russia. Matt Bevan draws connections between stories from the past and the events of the present to help listeners understand world news and international affairs. The podcast also features series about big moments in world news; previous series have focused on the United States presidential election, the United Kingdom's 14 years of Conservative Party leadership, Donald Trump's relationship with Russia, Donald Trump's presidency and promise to Make America Great Again, the Mueller Report, Vladimir Putin's scheme to destroy western democracies, how the relationship between Australia and China came to the verge of collapse, and Australia's turbulent history with climate change. There's a new episode of If You're Listening every Thursday.

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The race to put nuclear power on the Moon

2026/11/11

China and Russia have teamed up to put nuclear power on the Moon by 2036. NASA says they’ll get there first, by 2030. The current space race has echoes of the Cold War, with the rush on both sides posing a risk to the rest of us hanging out down here underneath them. Whoever wins the nuclear moon race will control the gateway to space, with all of its strategic advantage and resources. EDITORS NOTE: We made an error in describing how steam turbines work in an earlier version of this episode. We fixed it for this version. There is no need to keep dunking on Matt on social media Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC

Does Trump's midterm wipeout spell the end for MAGA?

2026/11/09

The Democrats swept the US midterms, winning control of both the House and the Senate. So what happens now? In this bonus episode of If You’re Listening, Matt Bevan answers more of your US midterms questions with Dr Emma Shortis, Director of the International and Security Affairs Program at the Australia Institute. They look at which campaigns stood out, how Donald Trump has reacted to the results, and whether the Democrats can end the war in Iran. They also tackle the push to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Epstein files, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and whether this is the end of MAGA. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC

The dirty trick that couldn’t save Trump’s midterms

2026/11/05

After Democrats declared a landslide win in the midterms, a narrative quickly formed online: Republicans’ aggressive redistricting strategy had spectacularly backfired…but the reality is more complicated. Years ago, Donald Trump pushed Texas Republicans to redraw their electoral map specifically to blunt the kind of wave that just hit them, and it worked exactly as designed, just not enough to survive a landslide. This time the strategy didn’t win them the election, but it meaningfully softened the damage, even as their own aggressive redistricting triggered a counter-gerrymander from Democrats that cost them ground elsewhere. So did the plan really fail, or did it just stop a landslide from being even bigger? Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC

Matt answers your US midterms questions live(ish)

2026/11/04

The US midterm results are still coming in, but already, the Democrats have won the US House of Representatives and the Senate in a landslide. Surprisingly, in an interview on Fox News, Donald Trump said he will accept the results, saying the Democrats have “some good people” who “fought hard”, and that the Republicans lost because voters “didn’t like the candidates”. We did our first live stream on our brand new YouTube channel to watch the US midterm results come in live and take viewer questions, we had over 5300 people tune in from all over the world! So here are some of our favourite questions. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC

What’s actually at stake for Trump at the midterms?

2026/11/02

It's US midterms eve, and since Matt hasn’t actually travelled to the US this election cycle, he's called up Four Corners reporter Mark Willacy. Mark has spent the last few weeks travelling across America, talking to voters and experts, including former FBI director James Comey and former CIA director John Brennan. Mark and Matt talk about why some Republicans are bracing for a bad night, whether Donald Trump could interfere in the vote, and what a forecast Democratic win in Congress, and possibly the Senate, could mean for the next two years. Watch Matt’s midterms livestream on the If You’re Listening YouTube channel at 3pm AEDT tomorrow: https://youtube.com/live/bgmZfIZD0aU Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC

Israel’s October 7 inquiry hinges on this election

2026/10/28

In 2018, Israeli intelligence obtained a Hamas planning document outlining almost exactly how the October 7 attack would unfold. A more detailed version followed in 2022, and Egypt and the UAE both delivered direct warnings in the weeks before the attack. None of it stopped what Israelis call the worst single day in the country’s history. More than 1100 days later, Israel still hasn’t opened an independent inquiry into the attack, and Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for one. His rival Gadi Eisenkot has promised to launch one immediately if he wins. So will Israel get a proper reckoning with October 7? It all comes down to a single election. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC

The Bananas in Pyjamas’ doomed trip to Moscow

2026/10/26

In 1998, the Bananas in Pyjamas visited Moscow as part of a promotional tour. Things did not go to plan. Today, Eric Campbell, the ABC’s Russia correspondent at the time, joins Matt to try to piece together what really happened. Eric also talks about meeting Boris Yeltsin in a broom cupboard, the changing face of Russian media, and why Russian politicians took aim at Peppa Pig. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC

Lenin's WWII goo adventure

2026/10/24

Surprise! We're popping in on a Sunday to answer your questions, many of which were about goo and the Canadian state of Alberta this month. Kara also tells Matt an incredible story from Russia during World War II — the Weekend at Bernie's-style odyssey that kept Vladimir Lenin's corpse safe. We're going to do this regularly, so if you have questions for Matt and Kara send them through as emails or voice notes, to [email protected]. And to ask Matt questions live as the US midterm election results roll in on November 4 at 3PM AEDT, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@IfYoureListeningABC Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app.

Is Trump going to bomb the bond market?

2026/10/21

Donald Trump recently said that if his treasury secretary can’t get bond yields down, the next move might be the military. It sounds absurd, but the US bond market is the quiet foundation underneath almost every price in the global economy, from your mortgage to a company’s loan. When investors lose faith in a government’s ability to manage its money, as happened under the UK’s Liz Truss in 2022, bond yields spike, and borrowing gets more expensive for everyone, instantly. Trump’s tariffs, his war in Iran and his promised $5,000 dividend cheques have investors nervous all over again, and bond yields are climbing. Unlike Liz Truss, Trump has nobody above him to sack him over it. So who actually pays when the bond market loses faith in Donald Trump? Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

My name is Inigo Jones. Prepare for rain.

2026/10/19

Before we knew about El Niño, La Niña and the other patterns scientists now use to make long-range weather forecasts, there were men like Inigo Jones, whose prediction methods owed more to astronomy than to meteorology. Farmers, construction companies and brides-to-be all turned to these unorthodox weathermen, who charted the cycles of the planets and the spots on the surface of the sun. Today, producer Jess O’Callaghan tells Matt about the wild west of weather forecasting, before we really knew how to do it. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

The apocalyptic El Niño we didn't see coming

2026/10/14

Toxic smoke haze is blanketing Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, after weeks of fires in Indonesia. In central Chile, flash flooding has trapped people on their roofs, and already Australia’s spring is unusually hot. Scientists have confirmed it’s an El Niño year, and it’s expected to be one of the worst on record, tipping the odds for these extreme weather events. But we haven’t always had this warning — in 1982 there was a whole heap of apocalyptic weather, and no unifying theory to bring it all together. That “super El Niño” would totally change how we think about forecasting the weather. Now climate change threatens to send us back to the 1980s. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

A day out at the Hezbollah theme park

2026/10/12

Over recent decades, Hezbollah has become deeply embedded in southern Lebanon. It runs everything from hospitals and schools to infrastructure projects, and even has its own theme park. Naturally, when an email landed in our inbox from listener Alex who’s actually been to that theme park, we wanted to know every detail. So Matt gave him a call. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Putin's billion-dollar quest for immortality

2026/10/07

A hot mic caught Putin telling Xi that organ transplants could bring immortality. It's not just talk, and it's not new either: Russian leaders have spent nearly a century chasing eternal life, with some genuinely bizarre results. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

The US-Canada border fight over a pig

2026/10/05

With tensions between Donald Trump and Mark Carney heating up, it's the perfect excuse to revisit another time things got tense on the US-Canadian border… back before Canada was Canada. In June 1859, on a small island wedged between what's now Washington State and Vancouver Island, an American farmer raised his rifle at a pig that kept eating his potatoes, and pulled the trigger. Within weeks, that one dead pig had brought the United States and the British Empire to the brink of war. It became known as the Pig War. No One Saw It Coming host Marc Fennell tells Matt how it all played out, and why it took the German Kaiser to settle it. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Can AI predict the future?

2026/09/30

The US-Israel war with Iran. The UK leadership kerfuffle. Who’d finish the top of the ladder in the AFL. At the start of 2026 none of these things would have felt all that predictable. But as Matt experiments with AI stuck in the recent past, he finds computers have gotten good at predicting certain kinds of futures — and he investigates what that means for us, and for Donald Trump. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app. Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Podcast reviews

Read If You're Listening podcast reviews

4.5 out of 5

203 reviews

★★★☆☆

I’m bisexual (i think) 🩷💜💙 2026/10/21

To neb8407

That, that rap, that is absolutinly-tootinly is epic.

★★★★★

dancing gal 🌼🌷✨💐 2026/04/28

Amazing!

This series is amazing! Easy to understand AND talks about the real deal! As an Aussie living in the US, this is such a nice way to connect with cultu...

★★★★★

Zorgor 2026/04/16

Excellent show!

I love this show! As an American, I am in equal parts baffled and delighted that you take such an interest in American news and events. This gives me ...

★★★★★

Trotsky hated Stalin 2026/03/01

Love it!

As an American who finds that most media outlets and news channels are biased towards conservative propaganda this podcast truly is amazing. Matt can ...

★☆☆☆☆

Neb8047 2026/02/23

Headache

Podcast deleted Phone yeeted Holy water needed

★★★★★

AllyL96 2025/08/04

A different perspective

As a Brit living in the US, it is refreshing to hear things from a different point of view and to listen to good and entertaining journalism. I’m gl...

★★★★★

Oaktown_Rocco! 2025/06/05

Stories that need to be heard

Really enjoy this podcast. Aussies genuinely working on making America great again

★☆☆☆☆

paddymats 2025/03/21

If YOU’RE listening.

Pathetic You’re a long way away to be so knowledgeable about Trump and US politics. Nothing original just mouthing the party line. I don’t think you’...

★☆☆☆☆

Original_Owl 2024/11/12

FAR Left Rhetoric

I consider myself left of center and even for me this podcast is so far left, rationality is questioned. I’m also not American but even I’m taken abac...

★★★★★

sciencepyar 2024/10/19

Great host, great content

Very enjoyable, informative podcast

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