Program: Background Briefing

Background Briefing brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear.

Airs Sunday at 9am Repeated: Sunday 11pm and Tuesday 2pm

Episodes

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04 Agents of Influence | The powerbroker unseated by ‘traitors’

This week, reporter Annika Blau gets the inside story of a union powerbroker’s rise, and the people who risked it all to stop her

Published: 15h agoFri 16 May 2025 at 7:00pm

Duration: 37 minutes 20 seconds

03 Agents of Influence | The man whose name is all over Sydney

Take a stroll around Sydney and you'll find his name on many venerated buildings. But this man, a 101-year-old billionaire, has also created machines that risk ruining their users' lives.

Published: 9 May 2025Fri 9 May 2025 at 7:00pm

Duration: 42 minutes 9 seconds

02 Agents of Influence | The Billionaire's New Sport

A former oil tycoon has just bought the streaming rights to Australia’s great homegrown sports, the AFL and NRL. This week, reporter Marty Smiley investigates one of the richest men in the world - who is Len Blavatnik?

Published: 2 May 2025Fri 2 May 2025 at 7:00pm

Duration: 41 minutes 51 seconds

01 Agents of Influence | The PM's secret strategists

Millennial content makers can influence election outcomes from their home studios. After witnessing the power of podcasts in the US election, our political leaders are lining up to get a piece of the action.

Published: 17 Apr 2025Thu 17 Apr 2025 at 7:00pm

Duration: 36 minutes 16 seconds

Introducing... Agents of Influence

They're not household names. But they wield serious power under the radar.

Published: 16 Apr 2025Wed 16 Apr 2025 at 1:00am

Duration: 37 seconds

Long Reads | How deepfakes, nudes and teen misogyny have changed growing up

This week, Bri Lee investigates tech-assisted gendered abuse by schoolboys against their peers and teachers.

Published: 11 Apr 2025Fri 11 Apr 2025 at 7:00pm

Duration: 22 minutes 23 seconds

Long Read | The church’s disappearing women

Three decades after the first ordinations of women to the Anglican priesthood, women are still struggling to reach leadership — and now the congregation is changing too.

Published: 4 Apr 2025Fri 4 Apr 2025 at 6:00pm

Duration: 20 minutes 37 seconds

05 The Invisible Killer | Did police miss a murder?

A court found that Garry Davis injected three victims with lethal doses of insulin during a 48 hour period. But what if there was another victim? Is it possible police failed to collect crucial evidence to prove someone else had also been killed?

Published: 13 Mar 2025Thu 13 Mar 2025 at 6:00pm

Duration: 40 minutes 43 seconds

04 The Invisible Killer | Under the bed

When reporter Anne Connolly discovers that Garry Davis had a collection of strange items under his bed, it changes the course of her investigation, and raises new fears about the true scale of his crimes.

Published: 4 Mar 2025Tue 4 Mar 2025 at 6:00pm

Duration: 34 minutes 32 seconds

03 The Invisible Killer | Reasonable Doubt

Garry Davis has now been convicted of murdering two residents at SummitCare and attempting to murder a third. But all the evidence against him is circumstantial. Is it possible someone else could have been responsible for the insulin injections?

Published: 21 Feb 2025Fri 21 Feb 2025 at 6:00pm

Duration: 42 minutes 16 seconds

Features

澳洲富豪家族如何改写他们的赌博机印记

莱恩·安斯沃斯通过角子机建立了一个帝国——这种设备永远改变了赌博。过去几十年里，他悄悄将注意力和权力转向了慈善事业。

Len Ainsworth poses for a portrait at a table in a dark room with poker machines behind him.

Published: ThuThu 15 May 2025 at 1:14pm

How one of Australia's richest families is rewriting its pokies legacy

Len Ainsworth built an empire on poker machines — devices that changed gambling forever. Over the last few decades, he's quietly shifted his attention, and power, towards philanthropy.

Published: MonMon 12 May 2025 at 12:53amby Maddison Connaughton

Australia's best sports rights in the hands of a Soviet-born, former oil tycoon

He lives opposite British royalty. He's on Ukraine's sanctions list. His company is backed by Saudi petrodollars. Now he's taking over from Rupert Murdoch as the new owner of Foxtel.

Published: ThuThu 15 May 2025 at 7:14amby Marty Smiley

Betoota Talks, Labor listens: the firm quietly running the PM's podcast election strategy

The prime minister has appeared on many podcasts this year to make his case for re-election. It turns out the firm quietly facilitating these appearances was a left-field choice.

Published: 17 Apr 2025Thu 17 Apr 2025 at 5:47amby Tynan King

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