Features, explainers and long-form stories from across Australia.
Few mysteries have held the public’s imagination the way Amelia Earhart’s last flight has. Nearly nine decades after she and navigator Fred Noonan vanished over the Pacific on July 2, 1937, the official story still competes with a tangle of alternative theories (U.S. National Archives (federal record keeper)). Born: July 24, 1897, Atchison, Kansas · … Read more
If you’ve stumbled onto an Orville Peck video, the first thing you probably did was stare — at the fringe, at the shadow, at a voice that doesn’t sound like the usual country radio crop. That reaction is the point. Peck built one of country music’s most recognizable personas on a dare: hold back your … Read more
If you know the name Paige Spiranac, it’s probably from an Instagram clip, a golf broadcast, or a headline about her personal life. The biography behind the feed is more conventional than the image suggests: she played Division I college golf, married golf instructor Steven Tinoco in 2018, and confirmed in March 2022 that the … Read more
It takes a certain kind of nerve for a drama-school graduate to say yes to William Shakespeare. In 2017, Laurie Davidson did exactly that, starring as a young Shakespeare in TNT’s Will (South China Morning Post (news outlet)). Since then he has built a quiet, selective run across streaming and cable, from The Sandman to … Read more
Walk into any conversation about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and one name keeps showing up: Chloe Bennet. She played Daisy Johnson for seven seasons, but her own story—born Chloe Wang in Chicago, changing her surname to improve her casting odds, and navigating Hollywood as a Chinese-American woman—is just as compelling. Real name: Chloe Wang · Born: … Read more
Forgiveness after a public assassination is rare enough to stop you mid-scroll. That is what happened on September 21, 2025, when Erika Kirk stood at the memorial for her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and told the man accused of killing him, “That man … I forgive him.” Assassination date: September 10, 2025 (Associated Press … Read more
Five centuries after his death, Christopher Columbus still manages to spark arguments at dinner tables and in city council chambers. He was the navigator who connected two worlds that had been apart for thousands of years, yet he was also a colonial governor who faced arrest for his treatment of the people he claimed to … Read more
Few actors get remembered for a horror cult classic, a war miniseries, and a prime-time cartoon — Scott Grimes has all three on his résumé. He has voiced Steve Smith on American Dad! since 2005 (Fandango biography (filmography database)), and along the way he has released albums, played a doctor on ER, and co-founded a … Read more
Two men share the name Robert Smith — one is the iconic frontman of The Cure, the other a billionaire private equity mogul. This article pulls apart their music, their money, and the feuds that keep one of their names in the tabloids. Age of Robert Smith (musician): 65 (born April 21, 1959) · Age … Read more
Most players don’t get to choose the ending of their career, but Luke Hodge came close — leaving Hawthorn in 2017 to help build something younger at Brisbane. From No. 1 draft pick in 2001 to 346 senior games and a 2024 Hall of Fame induction, his path is the kind of career the AFL … Read more