Every year, 49,000 Australians are reported missing — most are found within weeks. 2,800 are not. True-crime author and Australian Missing Persons Register founder Nicole Morris sits down with Luke Bona to tell the stories behind the numbers: a crossbow murder on Sydney's northern beaches, the still-unsolved 2001 disappearance of Janine Vaughan, the 1978 case of Trudy Adams that stopped a generation of girls hitchhiking, and the hundreds of unidentified bodies still sitting in Australian morgues today.

Channel Seven's UK bureau chief Ben Downie joins live from London to unpack the tragic academic scandal dominating British headlines — a Cambridge professor's resignation, and his death days later, and the very real question of who's to blame. Former National Party leader David Littleproud breaks down NSW's sweeping new gun laws in the wake of the Bondi attack, and weighs in on Pauline Hanson's latest Mardi Gras comments.

Then it's Truckie Tuesday with Rod Hanafi: a national truckers' apprenticeship push, the extraordinary story of driver-advocate Sharon Horne, and a live legal fight with Hughes Law over a trucking company shut down overnight.

Guests: Nicole Morris (author, Australian Missing Persons Register) · Ben Downie (Channel Seven, UK) · David Littleproud MP · Rod Hannifey (Truckie Tuesday) · Sharon Horne · Belinda Hughes (Hughes Law)

⚠ Content warning: this episode discusses real missing-persons cases, murder and abduction (non-graphic, historical), a recent death by suicide, and gun violence in a policy context. Listener discretion advised.

00:00:00 Welcome to episode 134

00:01:43 Luke's off to Vietnam

00:05:09 Coming up this episode

00:11:49 Pauline Hanson wants to scrap compulsory super

00:16:20 Sam Pang wins the Gold Logie

00:17:13 NSW's gun buyback begins

00:18:33 Listener mail

00:24:23 Ben Downie live from London

00:44:28 Nicole Morris — Australia's missing

00:45:06 49,000 go missing a year. 2,800 stay missing

00:45:33 Peter Rolfe and the murder of Stephen Dempsey

00:51:22 Janine Vaughan — missing since 2001

00:55:49 Trudy Adams — the disappearance that ended a generation's hitchhiking

01:00:59 Hundreds of unidentified bodies in Australian morgues

01:04:24 Christopher "Mr Rentokil" Flannery and Australia's hitmen

01:17:58 David Littleproud on NSW's new gun laws

01:28:44 Pauline Hanson on Mardi Gras

01:37:39 Truckie Tuesday begins

01:45:20 An angry driver's voicemail

01:50:06 Sharon Horne — trucking's mental health advocate

01:51:12 The crash that changed everything

02:15:08 Belinda Hughes — a trucking company shut down overnight

02:23:19 Rod's rant of the week

02:26:02 Sign-off

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