For years, Brendan Cullen was known around Broken Hill as the happy man who ran thousands of ewes across tens of thousands of hectares with a smile. What they didn't see was the guy crying in a room by himself, drinking himself stupid, thinking he wasn't providing enough for his family.
Filmmaker Lynette Wallworth on how nearly dying as a little girl set her on a lifelong path to interrogate out-of-body experiences, spirituality and what really happens to us when we die. When Lynette was a little girl, she had a near death experience on her grandparents' property. Her father brought her back from the brink and what she saw and experienced there, on the edge of death, came back with her. For years, Lynette struggled to talk about what happened so she made paintings and artworks ...
The chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on the chair of spikes which accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't tone down his Italian self for work (R) During his Suzuki lessons in Turin, Italy, a young Umberto Clerici was sitting up straight on a chair full of spikes, lest his posture slip. Umberto chose the cello as his instrument, mainly because it wasn’t the violin, which sounded like a cat in a washing machine when played by the older students in his neighbour...
The act of care and service through food has been incredibly important to Besha Rodell throughout her life, from her first, euphoric experience of a fancy restaurant at age eight, to the aftermath of September 11. Today Besha is the chief restaurant critic at The Age. The thrill of a fancy restaurant first imprinted itself on her psyche when she was a girl, treated to dinner at Stephanie's iconic spot in Melbourne. As a teenager, Besha was transplanted to her mother's native USA and got her firs...
Naomi Mourra grew up as a door-knocking Jehovah's Witness but at 21, she realised Doomsday was not upon her, and left the religion for good. As a child, Naomi thought she was going to live forever. She was told the end of the world was coming, but she would survive the apocalypse and live in paradise for eternity, because she was special. She spent her youth in Western Sydney, preaching these same beliefs to neighbours, strangers, and classmates because Naomi was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. N...
Tony Tan’s parents pinned their hopes on him when they sent him from home in Malaysia to Melbourne to become a white collar professional in the 1970s. There he found “funny smelling cigarettes”, a lovely man called Terry and a destiny he couldn’t escape. Tony was exposed to deep, rich flavour and the precision of cooking from a young age. His mother was a chef in Malaysian colonial kitchens and Tony would often accompany her to work, where he would sometimes receive a single golden, dripping roa...
We rarely stop to wonder who invented the wheel, the alphabet or the printing press but so much of what feels fundamental to daily life was once a bold, untested idea, and someone had to think it up first. In The Shortest History of Innovation, Andrew Leigh traces that long thread of human ingenuity from ancient breakthroughs through to the inventions reshaping our world today like the car, social media and artificial intelligence. He also debunks some of the myths about how these things into th...
Psychologist Dr Tracey Westerman on her groundbreaking work transforming mental health outcomes for Aboriginal communities (R) Dr Tracy Westerman grew up in the Pilbara, where suicide and mental health issues have deeply scarred Indigenous communities. So this Nyamal woman decided to do something about it. Nyamal woman Tracy Westerman grew up in some of the most remote parts of Western Australia, moving from a station to a town called Useless Loop, eventually landing in the mining town of Tom Pr...
The iconic folk duo met at an audition for the only country music band at a prestigious jazz school in Boston. They immediately clicked, and joined the rich lineage of Americana artists that stretches back centuries. In their 20s, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings discovered they had something special when they sang together, a sort of eerie emotional resonance that is usually confined to the blood harmonies produced when siblings sing together. Ever since they've been making music together which...
Growing up, John Marsden found school incredibly difficult and, as a teenager, spent time in hospital after a breakdown. This difficult early life profoundly shaped his work as a writer and educator of young people. With the help of a therapist, he began to recover, but it took him many years to find his place in the world. Eventually he studied teaching, then in his mid-thirties John began to write. John wrote over 40 best-selling novels for young adults and used his profits to buy bushland on ...
Dan Richards delves into the multifaceted realm of night-time, sharing his own brush with death on a Swiss mountain and a treacherous ferry journey. He meets essential night workers, from charity outreach teams supporting the homeless to nurses and new parents navigating sleepless nights. The episode highlights the often-unacknowledged service and resilience found in the dark hours.
The legendary surfer has grieved the deaths of her adoptive mother, stepmother and birth mother. Only later in life did she realise her drive to win came from a place of loss, and Layne needed to look inward to find her place off the podium. Layne is a legendary surfer who is the first person ever to win six consecutive world titles. Since her childhood spent on Sydney's Northern Beaches, Layne has loved being in the water but it wasn't until later in life that she realised her relentless drive ...
After a painful divorce, Charlotte Ree began to piece her broken heart back together by cooking for her neighbours (R) Charlotte Ree grew up in a family full of love, but with its own particular challenges. Her mum struggled with mental illness, which meant Charlotte grew up very quickly. Charlotte met the man who would become her husband when she was 19. Within a few years, they married, but money became a major source of pain in the relationship. One night on a boat, Charlotte realised her mar...
Philosopher and writer Eamon Evans on humanity's relentless and impossible pursuit of happiness through materialism, social media and self help, and why the kindest and best people have been 'crushed by life' a couple of times. Eamon started to think more deeply about happiness and contentment in his 20s, after a bout of serious depression. He realised that trying to be happy all the time was paradoxically making him miserable, and says that's true for most of us in this modern world. Eamon bega...
Judy grew up on a farm in north-east Victoria. When she was seventeen, a family tragedy saw her thrust into life as a farmer for the first time. Being a young farmer led her into local politics, and eventually into a burgeoning friendship with a lanky, much-loved local politician named Tim Fischer. On their first date, Tim took Judy to the Tocumwal Debutant Ball, and it was a disaster. But despite the age difference, the two of them eventually fell in love and started a family. When their first ...
The world's leading eucalyptus expert, Professor Steve Hopper, on what science and culture say about these spectacular trees, and how Noongar elders in WA's South West led his 'second education' in botany. Australia is one of the richest places on earth when it comes to botanical biodiversity. Tens of thousands of species of trees and flowers have developed over millions of years of isolation. But perhaps the most iconic of all native flora is the humble eucalyptus. From Queensland's ancient rai...
UK writer Zadie Smith became a world-wide sensation with the publication of her first novel White Teeth when she was 24. Now aged 50, she's bringing her trademark intelligence and wit to the subject of midlife. Her latest work is Dead and Alive, a new book of essays, where she writes about black British history, paintings, politics, our online lives and getting older. She also talks about up growing in North West London and where she's returned to live with her own family. Zadie will be in Austr...
Jessica Kirkness with the story of her grandparents, who both grew up profoundly deaf in a hearing world, and how she navigated the space in between sound and silence. (R) Jessica grew up in the outer suburbs with a big extended family, with her grandparents living right next door. Her grandparents, Melvyn and Phyllis, were affectionate, kind and wise and Jessica often spent more time after school in their house than her own. But their house was distinctly different. The doorbell never rang, the...
Saul Eslake grew up knowing he was adopted. For many years he knew nothing about his biological parents, but when he adopted his own children, he began the search for his birth family.What he discovered in his adoption file revealed a very complicated story, and It took him more than two decades to unravel the mystery. En route, he discovered a confected newspaper scandal, a story of British pilots at an orgy, and a complicated divorce. Then years on, he experienced the joy of meeting the siblin...
Dave Pearson runs Bite Club, a support service for anyone who has survived a shark attack. Dave’s own brush with death came in 2011, when a three-metre-long bull shark almost took his arm. (R) Dave lived that day, but it’s what happened during his recovery that he didn’t see coming. Dave Pearson was with his mates on the NSW Mid North Coast back in 2011, and couldn’t get in the water fast enough to try out his brand new surfboard. He’d caught a few waves when he was slammed by what felt like a f...
In 2007, Vicki McAuley's husband Andrew set off from Tasmania in a kayak, aiming to become the first person to paddle to New Zealand, but a month later authorities received a distress call and then his kayak was found with no sign of Andrew. Vicki and their little son Finn, were waiting with friends and family for Andrew at Milford Sound when the devastating news came through.Further information Vicki McAuley's book Solo was published in 2010. The documentary about Andrew's attempt is also calle...
Debra Richardson joined the police at age 18 in the 1980s, working undercover as a prostitute and surviving the Russell Street bombing. Years later, she met her foster son, Yuri, who had also survived disaster. Deb and her family met Yuri after they agreed to care for one of the many children brought to Australia for short-term stays following the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Decades later, a journey to help that foster son, now living in a war zone, ended up helping Deb in ways she never expe...
From Wollongong to London, via Alice Springs, this is writer Nikki Gemmell on her deeply romantic life, and how she defied expectations to become a famous author. (R) Nikki grew up the daughter of a coalminer father who thought writers were a burden on society, while her mum taught Nikki that only success was worthy of love. So Nikki went above and beyond to prove her beloved father wrong, and to get the attention of her mother through her achievements, publishing 20 books in the process, includ...
Professor George Williams was uninterested in school, instead spending his time melting down lead to sell to a nearby scrap yard. Then a special primary school teacher gave him permanent detention, which changed his life. Growing up in Sydney, he was the rebellious child of a single mum who worked in a fruit shop to support the family. George was so disruptive at primary school that no teacher wanted him in class. At first he was flabbergasted at the unfairness of this punishment, but with this ...
Brisbane teacher and author, Sita Walker on the strong, religious matriarchs who have helped her weather the storm of family tragedy, divorce and the beauty of a new love. Sita grew up in Toowoomba in Queensland, descended from five powerful women — three aunts, her grandmother and her mum. They were Baha’i women who came to Australia via Iran and India. Tragedy struck the family when Sita was a child, and her matriarchs descended on the home — to cook, clean, and comfort. Sita always saw hersel...
Rob Hirst, the former drummer for the band Midnight Oil has died at age 70. In 2018 Sarah sat down with Rob for a wide-ranging conversation about music, nature and reconnecting with family (R)
Melissa Lucashenko grew up on the outskirts of Brisbane, where her Aboriginal mother grew plants and her Russian father built an improbable number of sheds in the backyard. (R) Melissa worked as a motorcycle detailer, a house painter, a prison advocate, and a game show contestant before finding her way as a writer. Her novel, Edenglassie, imagines life in colonial Brisbane in the 1850s. In it, she tells the story of the Aboriginal warrior Dundalli who was the last man to be publicly executed in ...
Kate Rowe's life has been full of wild adventures and hard living. But when she found sobriety, Kate discovered something big about herself. CW: This story contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault and some strong language. Please take care when listening. Ever since she stepped off the boat at Circular Quay as a 20-something 10-pound Pom, Kate has run fearlessly toward outrageous adventure. As a young woman Kate travelled around Australia picking tobacco, hitchhiking and som...
Aaron Tait was 18 when he went to war after September 11. His dad's guidance had set Aaron up with the grit he would need as a military officer, but it took him many years to forgive himself for his role in the war. Aaron comes from a long line of Navy men, and all through his childhood he was waiting until it was his turn to get stuck into life at sea. After basic officer training, Aaron moved through the harsh Navy’s Ship’s Divers course. Then, following September 11 he went to war in the Pers...
Hostage negotiation isn't at all like what you see in Hollywood blockbusters. There is no lying, no promise-making, not even any names. Vince Hurley has only one task—trying to make a deep, human connection with a complete stranger. Content Warning: this episode of Conversations contains strong language and descriptions of violent crime. Vince Hurley is a criminologist at Macquarie University and a passionate advocate for ending violence against women. He brings nearly three decades of policing ...
