Male humpback whales sing to each other, and when they do - over the course of a season - a favourite “hit song” emerges. Each whale passes it along, until all the humpback males in the Southern Ocean sing it.

But humpback whales aren’t just amazing creatures, capable of tenderness, and rivalries. They’ve also managed one of Australia’s great comebacks - they numbered less than 100 on the east coast in the 1960s, and now there’s about 40,000 of them.

Today, environment and climate reporter Caitlin Fitzsimmons on why they’re thriving, while other whales are critically endangered. And whether new information about threats to whales might inform the government’s environmental policies.

Credit:
David Attenborough/Netflix 'Our Planet'

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The dramatic shakeout from the general election continued this week, this time from the left wing of Australian politics, with WA Greens senator Dorinda Cox defecting to Labor.
It was a coup for a triumphant Prime Minister.
But will the PM live to regret his new recruit? What does Senator Cox’s defection mean for the much-depleted Greens party? And how does it fit with the PM’s recent approval of the extension of a giant fossil fuel project off the West Australian coast?
Chief Political Correspondent Paul Sakkal, and Chief Political Commentator James Massola join host Jacqueline Maley.

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Most of us have, for so long, lived under the shadow of American exports, that we’d be hard-pressed to choose which was the most intrusive. Hollywood rom-coms? Halloween? J.Lo?

That list might have been relevant a couple of weeks ago. But now America’s biggest export is Donald Trump’s MAGA mindset, according to international and political editor, Peter Hartcher.

Today, he joins 'The Morning Edition' to discuss Trump’s hidden announcement, last week about a new level of American interference, globally, not seen since the end of the Cold War. And how it will impact how America changes other countries for years to come.

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