The Context with John Barron - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
Smoking
John Barron takes a deeper look at key issues. First up, the decades-long battle against smoking has seen millions quit, but more than one in 10 adults still smoke. Is vaping part of the solution or a whole new problem?
Watergate
As hearings continue into Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his election defeat, John Barron looks back 50 years to the perhaps the greatest scandal in political history, Watergate. Pioneering journalist Elizabeth Drew and Nixon impeachment inquiry lawyer William Weld discuss the similarities and differences between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon.
ABC 90 Years
As the ABC celebrates 90 years on air, John Barron looks at the national broadcaster's news coverage over the past nine decades. John speaks to two iconic ABC journalists about what's changed and what's remained the same.
Roe v Wade
The US Supreme Court has stripped Americans wanting to terminate a pregnancy of the constitutional right to do so. John Barron looks at the history, legal reforms, ethical debates and practical limitations in Australia.
Home Ownership - Dream or Nightmare?
As interest rates go up again, John Barron looks at if the Great Australian Dream of owning your own home has actually become a nightmare. Plus what do tulips have to do with crypto-currencies?
Are We Addicted to Gambling?
Are we a nation of gamblers? John Barron speaks with Australia's top experts on poker machines, gambling and addiction. Plus are we seeing the return of the Cold War or something potentially more deadly?
Modern Marriage in Australia
Around two thousand couples get married in Australia every week. John Barron takes a look at modern marriage and divorce. Plus is there any danger of polio returning to Australia?
Should Humans Return to the Moon?
NASA plans to return to the moon in 2025. It's been 50 years since man last landed on the lunar surface so why go back now? Plus John asks a leading infectious diseases expert when will the COVID pandemic end.
Recently Updated Shows
Malcolm in the Middle
In the words of They Might Be Giants' rollicking Grammy-winning theme song, "life is unfair." The inventive and wholly original sitcom Malcolm in the Middle has been honored with a Peabody Award and Emmys for directing and writing, but if life was fair, it would have earned an Emmy for Best Comedy Series, not to mention statuettes for its pitch-perfect cast. With his perpetual "yes, me worry" expression, Frankie Muniz instantly earns audience empathy as Malcolm, whose chances for a normal life are thwarted not only by his genius IQ, but also by his outrageously dysfunctional family: Lois, his obsessive, control-freak mother; Hal, his loving but ineffectual father; Francis, his eldest brother waging his own private war at military school; middle brother Reese, a delinquent savant; and Dewey, the put-upon youngest. As Malcolm observes at one point, "This family may be rude, loud and gross, and have no shame whatsoever, but with them you know where you stand."
The Ark
The Ark takes place 100 years in the future when planetary colonization missions have begun as a necessity to help secure the survival of the human race. The first of these missions on a spacecraft known as Ark One encounters a catastrophic event causing massive destruction and loss of life. With more than a year left to go before reaching their target planet, a lack of life-sustaining supplies and loss of leadership, the remaining crew must become the best versions of themselves to stay on course and survive.
Revival
Revival is set on one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin when the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story as the "revived" appear and act just like they once were. When local Officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she's left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.
