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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.

If You're Listening

Today Matt and Kara are answering your questions, mostly about Trump and mud. They talk about whether Trump could serve a third term, if the rest of the world could just ignore the US, and ask for your help solving a mystery about the soil in the rural NSW town of Nimmitabel. Plus, Matt has a very exciting announcement.

Got a question you want us to answer next time? Email ifyourelistening@abc.net.au

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

The people have spoken and they love mud

On October 8, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement and signed the first phase of the deal. The ceasefire covered the return of all living Israeli hostages as well as the liberation of 2000 Palestinians who had been detained in prisons. 

What isn’t mentioned in the ceasefire agreement is what happens to Gaza when the fighting is over. Is it possible to rebuild a city that has been almost entirely destroyed, and perhaps more importantly who is going to pay for it? 

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Sizing up the Gaza rebuild

So, Matt has found a shiny new rabbit hole to get lost in and this time it's balloons. More specifically spy balloons. This is a story about a man with a fabulous moustache who called himself Professor, who was accused of being the devil in the American Civil War and ended up becoming a spy in a big balloon, triggering the creation of the US Air Force. 

Matt joins Marc Fennell on his podcast, No One Saw it Coming to talk about the early days of aerial espionage and why you should never ask a man in a balloon where he's going. 

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

The balloon that started the US Air Force

US President Donald Trump has set his sights on the Federal Reserve, his unprecedented threat to fire the Fed Chair Jerome Powell and replace him with someone more willing to lower interest rates sent financial markets into a tailspin. 

It’s taken decades to build robust, independent central banks that people trust to fight inflation and keep the economy on track. But now a generation of populist leaders are threatening to undo that important work. So what will that mean for the global economy? 

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

What happens if Trump takes over the Federal Reserve?

Yes you read that right. It's a wild story from the latest series of No One Saw it Coming, a show about people, objects, and accidents that changed the course of history. Today, Marc Fennell joins Matt Bevan to chat about this unlikely alliance. Set during WWII, it’s a story about boats bursting into flame, mobsters with marvellous names, and the curious team-ups that come about in a country at war. 

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

The time the US Navy teamed up with the Mafia

This episode originally aired in September 2023.

For a century, society has bullied and shamed people into trying to lose weight, without much result. Is the century-long search for a weight loss drug finally over? A seemingly accidental discovery by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, people are hailing semaglutide (known as Ozempic or Wegovy) as a miracle weight loss drug — but it comes at a cost.

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Weighing up Ozempic

Last year, environment reporter Peter de Kruijff stumbled on the case of 81-year-old rancher Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, who was sentenced to six months in jail for a truly bizarre crime. He orchestrated an elaborate, multi-country conspiracy to smuggle the tissue of a rare bighorn sheep into the U.S. and clone it.

Today, Matt chats to Peter about this outlandish plot. They also get into Barbra Streisand’s cloned dogs, and that video of Putin and Xi talking about organ transplants.

Jack’s story inspired the new series of ABC’s Science Friction podcast, Artificial Evolution, which is all about cloning and genetic technology. All episodes are available now on the ABC Listen app.

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

The Montana Mountain King and a conspiracy to clone

This episode originally aired in August 2023.

How do you plan for a country when you don’t even know how many people live there? That’s the problem China faced after decades of dodgy population data and the One Child Policy. No longer the world's largest country, China's population is shrinking, its property sector is faltering, and its economy is feeling the strain.

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

How dodgy data sent China's economy off course

While working on last Thursday’s episode, Matt had the very sad but familiar experience of cutting one of his favourite parts out of the script.

It’s the bizarre story of a group of American mercenaries who tried to invade Venezuela and collect the $15 million reward offered by the U.S. Justice Department for capturing President Nicolás Maduro.

Matt chats with If You’re Listening producer Adair Sheppard about the doomed plot and the man behind it, a former Green Beret from Florida named Jordan Goudreau.

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Florida Man Invades Venezuela

The U.S. military has now attacked three boats off the coast of Venezuela in as many weeks. On the surface, it’s hard to see exactly what the administration is hoping to gain out of this. But when you look at it in a historical context, it makes a lot more sense. This follows a playbook the United States used 35 years ago to topple a Central American dictator they had decided they didn’t like. So what happened last time? And should Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro be watching his back?

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Why Trump is blowing up boats off Venezuela

This month, the US Justice Department unsealed an indictment of two Russian state media employees. It alleges that they were funnelling millions of dollars into the pockets of American YouTubers, known for their contrarian viewpoints and controversial takes on the war in Ukraine. The YouTubers say they are victims of a criminal scheme and did not know they were being paid by Russia. But it’s not the first time that something like this has happened. There’s a long history of foreign adversaries covertly paying Americans to spread fake news to other Americans—it’s a move right out of Nazi Germany’s propaganda playbook.

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Check out our series on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6XNK55tc3x8?si=LfMKtmTckpSzSGHO

How US YouTubers were paid to spread Putin’s propaganda

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