A much-loved actor, and some of our uncomfortable history

A fascinating and wide-ranging chat today, with award-winning author Alice Pung joining Jon Faine as co-host for the Conversation Hour.

You'll know and love actor Jay Laga'aia from many television roles, from Water Rats and Home and Away, to Star Wars and his continuing role on Playschool. Today he chatted about a career that's bridged those very different worlds, from drama to soapies to children's television.

Jay's new children's DVD is called I Can Play Anything.

And Dr David Bird, joined them, an independent historian based in Melbourne. His new book takes an unconventional look at our pre-war history; it's the story of extreme-right nationalists and Nazi supporters in Australia before World War Two.

David shared some of the radical and unthinkable propositions made by those attracted to Nazi ideology, including the idea of a "white dreaming", a kind of Nazi dreamtime borrowing aspects of indigenous mythology. Strange, unsettling, but true.

Nazi Dreamtime is out now.