This week across ABC Radio National, we celebrate history, politics and the enduring power of song.
 

It's been 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen, and to celebrate, The Book Show has launched a special series, called Dear Jane, all about her life and legacy. On the first episode, available now, academic and Austen fanatic Devoney Looser joins Claire Nichols to bust myths about the iconic author and discuss how her work has shaped literature, love stories, and our moral imagination.
 

On The Law Report, Damien Carrick continues Radio National's coverage of the 50th anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam government. From constitutional crisis to political theatre, the program revisits that extraordinary day in November, 1975 and the legal questions that still haunt Australian democracy.
 

And on The Music Show's special series, Cover Story, Australian Crawl's "Reckless" gets a spin. Four decades after it first charted, the song remains one of Australia's most recognisable anthems, and this episode traces its legacy through a mix of covers, memories and insights from the artists who've kept it alive.

We're celebrating Jane Austen's 250th birthday with Dear Jane, a brand new series about her life, her books and her legacy.

The dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by Governor-General Sir John Kerr exposed and tested the architecture of Australia's constitution. What does it mean for us today?

In 1983, as the Manly Ferry made its way to Circular Quay, James Reyne and Australian Crawl recorded Reckless (Don't Be So…), a song that's since become an Australian classic.

The writing of Australian history has tended to focus on the south-eastern corner of the continent, but the story of colonisation north of the Tropic of Capricorn paints a vastly different picture.

In 2018, a Chinese scientist made an announcement that shocked the world — and landed him years in prison.

There's been a backlash against over-consumption, so why do we still go wild at Christmas? And how can we untangle ourselves from the cycle of holiday spending?