Background Briefing
Hosted by ABC Australia
About this Show
Background Briefing is the ABC's flagship investigative journalism podcast. Its award-winning investigations and documentaries expose cover-ups, corruption, real-life mysteries, whistleblowing, crime, fraud and miscarriages of justice — often before these stories receive mainstream attention.
The Background Briefing podcast brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear, told by trusted reporters across Australia.
This Australian podcast makes investigative journalism bingeable. From scams and fraud to schooling and health scandals, tech and social media digs, police exposes and various unsolved cases, each episode of the Background Briefing podcast is a must-listen.
Recent series include:
Hometown Boys exposed how a terrible crime fractured a local community around a local football club.
The Invisible Killer: a forensic investigation into unexplained deaths in aged care after a doctor makes an unusual discovery.
The Favourite: how a schoolyard secret stayed hidden for years.
Stop and Search, which uncovered the mechanics of power and police accountability.
Before and After investigated medical hype, telehealth, body image, cosmetic procedures and consumer risk.
Beef: how small feuds escalate into serious disputes.
Latest Episodes
01 The Unbreakable Cult | Hands on
When Serge Benhayon had a spiritual epiphany sitting on the toilet nearly 30 years ago, he says he became possessed with all the knowledge of the universe.
INTRODUCING... The Unbreakable Cult
Serge Benhayon has been leading a cult out of the Byron Bay hinterland — just south of the Queensland border — for more than a decade. He was found by a jury to be a charlatan who swindles cancer patients. Yet every time he comes under attack, his followers close ranks around hi...
03 Dark Menace | Operation Queenstown
Before police raided Mark Dennis’s Sydney terrace, two tradies saw something inside that left them rattled. At the front door, a doormat told visitors to “come back with a warrant”. But it was what covered the interior walls that stayed with them for years.
02 Dark Menace | What Happened At Sunrise
As the founder of a famous Cambodian orphanage rubbed shoulders with Hollywood stars, like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, a Sydney barrister was quietly becoming one of the charity's most powerful backers. To staff, Mark Dennis SC was “the big boss”. Few dared to question him. Ev...
01 Dark Menace | The Chairman's Secrets
He was a silk at Sydney's most prestigious criminal defence chambers. And the former chairman of a celebrated charity protecting vulnerable children, where some called him "godfather". But he went by the alias of "Dark Menace" — and was allegedly hiding a sinister double life. W...
INTRODUCING — Dark Menace
When police raided a terrace in Sydney's inner west, they found an iPad with a note: if this device connects to the internet, its contents will delete. That house belonged to one of Sydney's top criminal barristers. A driven man who moved through courtrooms and corridors of pow...
03 'This Bloody Machine' | The Empty Chapel
It would be a game changer if it happened. But the challenges facing a proposed proton cancer treatment centre in Sydney are stacking up. It begs the question: why are an unpaid volunteer and private developer stepping in to provide a life-saving cancer treatment that Australian...
02 'This Bloody Machine' | The Other Plan
The public plans for a half-a-billion-dollar Sydney development have proton therapy all over them. But they're not the only set. As Australian families continue to fly overseas to get the life-saving treatment their children need, new questions arise about whether it's going to ...
01 'This Bloody Machine' | Jewel in the Crown
Sue Bleasel is running out of time. Her life's work has been to bring a life-saving proton therapy machine to Australia. But with construction about to start, big questions remain.
TRAILER – Introducing 'This Bloody Machine'
It's a plan so good that everyone wants to believe it. Bring a life-saving cancer machine to Australia so desperate families don't have to travel overseas for treatment. But the plan keeps failing. The latest idea is to build a half-billion-dollar health science precinct in the ...
Long Read | The Girl Who Vanished From Her Bed: Part Two
A missing child, the botched police investigation case, and the aunt who never stopped asking why — this is part two of Maddison Connaughton's long read investigation into the disappearance of schoolgirl Eloise Worledge.
Long Read | The Girl Who Vanished From Her Bed: Part One
Could new leads solve one of Australia’s most haunting cold cases, the disappearance of Eloise Worledge? This is part one of Maddison Connaughton's investigation, a collaboration with ABC Long Read.
Beef | Battle for the Blue Zones 2
You may have heard the strange story about the man who cheated death. Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and given just months to live, he moved home to die in peace on the idyllic Greek island of Ikaria. But he didn't die. He lived for decades, and his miraculous recovery beca...
Beef | Battle for the Blue Zones
You've heard there are these enchanted places around the world where people often live past 100, thanks to lifestyles the rest of us envy. They're called Blue Zones, and over two decades the idea has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry that sells you their secrets of longe...
The dark reality of Australia's AI dream factory
It’s been billed “the Netflix of AI.” A little-known Australian startup running an online service, boasting more than 20 million users worldwide. It promises to bring your fantasies to life with realistic AI companions you design and control. What reporter Josh Robertson discove...