Close-up portrait of Carl Smith wearing glasses with tortoiseshell frames, smiling, and dressed in a black shirt against a plain white background.

Award-winning radio documentaries, podcasts, and online features.

Co-host of the popular children’s ethics podcast Short & Curly.

Author, educator, researcher, and PhD Candidate.

About

14 years experience making radio shows and podcasts for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)’s Radio National, BBC, RNZ, WNYC, CBC, ABC Radio Australia, Monocle, and more.

Plus in-depth multimedia science journalism for ABC Science - latest stories here.

10 years experience presenting children’s shows, including Behind the News, Pickle, Minibeast Heroes, and the popular ethics podcast Short & Curly.

Tutor, lecturer and sessional academic in journalism and podcasting, PhD Candidate at the University of Queensland.

Award-winning science reporting, including a Walkley Award for Long-form Journalism, a Eureka Prize for Science Journalism, a Covering Climate Now Award, and a Deep Dive Grant from the Pulitzer Centre.

Co-Editor of the Best Australian Science Writing 2024 book.

Science Journalists Association of Australia’s Vice President.

2025-2026 European Journalism Fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Two people exploring a rocky beach near a large striped cliff walls, one holding a camera or phone and the other standing with a backpack, during daytime.

Podcast host

  • 'Pacific Scientific' podcast - ABC Radio Australia

    Creator of the award-winning series taking you deep into the Pacific region to meet the scientists living and breathing research.

    Person underwater holding snorkel mask close to the camera, with arm extended and body behind, in clear blue water.

  • 'Strange Frontiers' podcast - ABC Radio National

    Host of the series taking you to unusual and remarkable places where science happens.

    A man wearing a striped beanie and blue outdoor jacket standing in front of snowy mountains and forested landscape in the background.

  • 'Short & Curly' podcast - ABC Kids & Family

    Co-host of Short & Curly, making philosophy and ethics easy, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

Storytelling with sound

  • A man with a prosthetic arm bent over and holding a green ball with his prosthetic hand.

    Bionic Bodies - ABC 'Science Show'

    Sight for the blind, hearing for the deaf, a body with functionality restored. These are the promises of bionics.

    In this Walkley Award-winning series, Bionic Bodies, Carl Smith examines the emerging field of artificial body parts.

  • Person snorkeling underwater near a large rock formation.

    Searching for awe, when you've never felt it - ABC 'All in the Mind'

    Have you ever experienced the feeling of awe?

    Today we follow one person's attempt at finding awe when she's never felt it before.

  • The Apocalypse - ABC 'Science Friction'

    Science Friction's three-part series, The Apocalypse, interrogating three dramatic natural events that could catastrophically change life as we know it.

  • Patient Zero - ABC Radio National

    Senior Producer for the Eureka Prize-winning series Patient Zero, tracing historical disease outbreaks back to their source.

Field reporting, decoding complex content

  • Click-Sick - ABC 'Science Friction'

    Series Producer of Click-Sick, which hunts down the sources, considers the harms, and shines a spotlight on fake health claims.

  • Surgeons and medical staff performing a surgery in an operating room.

    Chimeras in Medicine - ABC 'Health Report'

    At the cutting edge of medical science, humans and animals are being combined. Hear how in this two-part series.

    A finalist for the 2022 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism.

  • A room filled with vintage computer technology and circuit boards, including an oscilloscope, analysis equipment, and a cash register.

    Electronic Music's Origin Story - ABC 'Sum of All Parts'

    Where and when did a digital computer play music for the first time? The surprising story of how Australia’s first computer started singing.

    Listen here.

  • Older man with white hair kneeling on dry soil, inspecting or working on a piece of equipment nearby, with a field and trees in the background under a clear blue sky.

    Energy Futures - ABC 'Science Show'

    In Energy Futures, Carl Smith examines Australia’s energy options beyond fossil fuels.

    How do hydro, nuclear, solar, wind, ocean, and other alternatives stack up?

  • A young girl in vintage clothing sits on a stool, looking into a scientific microscope positioned on a desk with a brick base, in a room with a window and blinds.

    Forgotten women of Australian computing - ABC 'Science Friction'

    Hear about the women in Australian computing who were nearly left out of the history books.

    A finalist for the 2020 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism.

  • Close-up of a human eye with visible iris, eyelashes, and reflected outdoor scene.

    The Mind's Eye - ABC 'All in the Mind'

    Neurologists believe roughly 2 per cent of people can't conjure an image in their mind's eye.

    But is it really so important?

    Listen here.

  • A rat in a cage with leaves, seen through the metal bars of the cage.

    Trouble in Paradise - BBC 'The Chase'

    How scientists are trying to eradicate rats and mosquitoes threatening French Polynesia. Listen here.

    A co-production for The BBC’s Discovery and ABC’s Off Track.

  • Person wearing a black glove holding a small fossil, on a beach excavation site with dirt ground.

    Frothin' on Fossils - ABC 'Science Show'

    Hidden in the cliffs of Victoria’s Surf Coast, are clues to an ancient whale mystery.

    Listen here.

Feature writing and photography