Lewis Hobba grew up idolising Triple J. But despite being chosen as Triple J’s drive-time co-host by the age of 30, and being selected by Andrew Denton as one of Australia’s most creative and talented young performers for the show Hungry Beast, Lewis never felt like he succeeded in anything. In this Vulnerabilitea House, Lewis tells Hugh, Ryan and Josh what it was like behind the scenes for him during this time and how he dealt with crippling anxiety on a daily basis until eventually...
Oct 22, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Season 5Ep. 40
As Australian of the Year, Taryn Brumfitt is making a massive impact on an issue that effects people everywhere… BODY IMAGE. Not only is Taryn a body image campaigner, she’s also a documentarian, having made two docos encouraging us to EMBRACE our bodies, not matter what they look like. We highly recommend you watch them - links below. In this Academy of Imperfection, Taryn talks with Hugh, Ryan and Josh about her own body image journey, including a vulnerable Before & After ima...
Oct 15, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Season 5Ep. 39
Tim Minchin is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician, poet, composer, and songwriter. He’s probably best known for his music, his comedy, and well… his ‘Matilda: The Musical’… but has it really all been “luck”? Tim talks with Hugh, Ryan and Josh about so many different things in this fascinating chat about art and creativity, family, free-will, success, failure and the importance of taking life one level at a time. For tickets to Tim's new sh...
Oct 08, 2023•2 hr 46 min•Season 5Ep. 38
If you know, you know. And if you do know, you’re just as bonkers excited as we are. Buuut if you don’t know, that’s totally fine too. Those that were able to make it along to our Live On Stage show this year were treated to the debut performance of a song, written and performed by our very own Josh van Cuylenburg. But this song was not without context. In Season 3 Josh shared a vulnerable story from 13 years ago that resulted in him losing the confidence to realise his lifelon...
Oct 04, 2023•18 min•Season 5Ep. 37
Eastern Arrernte and Gurindji singer/songwriter Dan Sultan is a 5-time ARIA Award winner and respected stalwart of the Australian music industry. But alongside his creative achievements, is Dan’s struggle with addiction. Dan talks with Hugh, Ryan and Josh about everything from the adversity he’s faced on and off the stage, to the joy he now gets from his young family, and his ongoing love of creativity. To purchase or listen to Dan's new album, Dan Sultan, follow this link: https://b...
Oct 01, 2023•54 min•Season 5Ep. 36
For Jack, it’s progress, not perfection when it comes to his battle with gambling addiction. This one is a slightly different episode for The Imperfects. Jack isn’t a celebrity, or an expert. But he is a person with imperfections, just like everyone else. And Jack has been kind enough to share his all-too-familiar story with Hugh, Ryan and Josh. Jack discusses his crippling battle with sports gambling, his experience at rehab, and how he was finally able to escape his life of keeping...
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 5Ep. 35
Dr Emily is back - and once again proving why she is increasingly becoming the most popular person on The Imperfects. This Emisode is all about a fundamental part of Positive Psychology… the beautiful idea that OTHER PEOPLE MATTER. Now, you’re probably thinking… of course other people matter, right? Seems pretty obvious. But here, Dr Emily explains what it is about ‘other people’, that matters so much, and how much it relates to our never-ending search for that el...
Sep 24, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 34
To only say that Brooke Blurton was on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, would not only be a crime to Show Notes, but a huge disservice to you. As Hugh, Ryan and Josh quickly discover, that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what makes Brooke the inspiring, resilient, game-changing, youth-working, breath of fresh air that she is. While Brooke does touch on her Bachelor and Bachelorette experiences (and why she decided to do it), what makes this Vulnerabilitea House truly special is the s...
Sep 17, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 5Ep. 33
Penny Moodie first shared her OCD story on The Imperfects in 2020. Since then, we and she have been flooded with incredible feedback from OCD sufferers who finally felt seen. Now Penny is back because she’s written an incredible book about OCD called The Joy Thief and it’s out now (link below). In this beautifully moving episode, Penny talks openly with Hugh, Ryan and Josh about some of the confronting moments from her book. The reason Penny calls OCD ‘the joy thief’ is b...
Sep 13, 2023•46 min•Season 5Ep. 32
Food is such a mystery. Well, I mean, it’s the stuff we eat when we’re hungry, we know that much. But there are so many mysterious things ABOUT food. Like… What actually are healthy foods? What are good fats? Is meat good for you? Is orange juice really that bad? And can food truly be as effective as medicine? Professor Tim Spector has done all the research, written books (link below) and is one of the world’s top 100 most cited scientists. Tim really knows about food an...
Sep 10, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 31
Whether it was Family Feud or whether it was the weather, Grant Denyer has been a larger than life fixture on Australian TV for 25 years. But it hasn’t all been big smiles and Gold Logies. In this raw and vulnerable chat with the most joyous man on the telly, Grant opens up about his past dependence on the pain medication (OxyContin) that he needed after suffering a serious injury that broke his back. He tells Hugh, Ryan and Josh how that dependence not only jeopardised his career, but his...
Sep 03, 2023•2 hr 41 min•Season 5Ep. 30
Monica. Chandler. Rachel. Ross. Phoebe. Joey. We all love Friends. But what about friendSHIPS? Why are our friendships so important to us? In this episode, Dr Emily explains everything - our different types of friends, why they matter SO much, and what it is about someone that makes us like them? (Spoiler alert: it’s got nothing to do with how impressive they are) To listen to Will McMahon's Imperfects episode, follow this link: https://bit.ly/3E9qfxF To listen to 360's Imperfects ep...
Aug 27, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 29
Myf Warhurst is an icon. An Australian icon. Everyone, we have an icon on our podcast. From Spicks & Specks to Triple J, and Eurovision to Bluey… oh and doing a whole show about menopause… HER menopause… Australia has LOVED Myf Warhurst for a long, long time. You might even think it’s impossible to love her more, well just wait until you hear her honesty and vulnerability in this Vulnerabilitea House. Myf talks about the anxiety that comes with her line of work, ho...
Aug 20, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 28
For 20 years, Osher Günsberg has been one of Australia’s most famous and successful TV/radio/podcast personalities. Since hosting the wildly popular Australian Idol, to handing out roses on The Bachelor (and SO MUCH in between), there aren’t many showbiz stories that rival Osher’s sustained success. But if we’ve learned anything on this podcast, behind every perfect story is an imperfect reality. And as you’ll hear in this honest chat with Hugh, Ryan and Josh, ...
Aug 13, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Season 5Ep. 27
While our guest might humbly refer to his heroics as “that thing in Thailand”, it was in fact far more significant… In 2018, the world was gripped by the terrifying story of thirteen boys who were miraculously saved from inside a Thai cave. Maybe you’ve seen one of the billion docos made about it, or the Hollywood film directed by Ron Howard. As you probably already know, the most miraculous part was HOW these boys were saved, thanks in large part to today’s guest,...
Aug 06, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 26
The phrase, “That’s triggering” or “I’m triggered”, has become more and more common. And while people are triggered by an event, or a topic, or even a scene in a TV show, what does it truly mean to be ‘triggered’? And should we really be avoiding triggering topics, or should we be exposing ourselves to them? In this extremely helpful episode, Dr Emily goes deep on triggers. She explains to Hugh, Ryan and Josh what it means to actually be ‘tri...
Jul 30, 2023•49 min•Season 5Ep. 25
Christie Whelan Browne is one of the funniest (and most talented) people in Australia. If you know, you know. She’s won multiple awards and done everything from stage and musical theatre, to TV drama and comedy… and most recently Dancing with the Stars. But it’s her journey, before the #MeToo movement (and continues today) that’s making the biggest impact. Christie has rarely spoken so openly about her very public and tumultuous experience through the courts, in the medi...
Jul 23, 2023•2 hr 32 min•Season 5Ep. 24
Laura Henshaw has achieved a lot. Not only is she an author, law graduate and podcaster, but she is the CEO and co-founder of the wildly popular and successful health & fitness app, KIC - which she started and still runs with friend, and former Imperfects guest, Steph Claire-Smith. But behind her success, Laura still worries what people think of her. And in this Vulnerabilitea House, she vulnerably tells Hugh, Ryan and Josh where this comes from and how this anxiety continues to crop up for ...
Jul 16, 2023•49 min•Season 5Ep. 23
Other than being a Clinical Psychologist (with a child specialisation), Dr James van Cuylenburg is not only Hugh and Josh’s cousin, but in Hugh’s opinion, he’s the greatest piano player in the world - which provides zero context for this incredible episode. James covers so much in this 90 minutes that it’s almost impossible to sum up here. Everything from the development of our kids today, screentime issues, the cost of ambition, the importance of self-compassion and Jame...
Jul 09, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Season 5Ep. 22
What do you do when you’re stressed? Watch the telly? Scroll the innuhnet? Fix yourself a stiff VB on the rocks? We all feel stressed and burned out from time to time. It’s unfortunately a reality of life. But double-unfortunately, most of us don’t know how to correctly deal with it. And that’s why Dr Emily is here to help! In this extremely practical episode, Dr Emily explains the science behind WHY we get stressed. But more importantly, she tells us what we can do to al...
Jul 02, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 21
You might remember Penny Moodie from her first appearance on The Imperfects when she talked about her own experience with OCD. Link below if you don’t! Well, Penny is back to talk about something else; her marriage with Hugh. Or, more specifically, and far less click-baity, the mental load in her marriage with Hugh. “The mental load” is the cognitive effort that’s required to juggle the often invisible labour of running a household. Something that Penny noticed was becomi...
Jun 25, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 20
If you live in Sydney, you probably know Wippa. He’s on NOVA every morning with Fitzy and Kate Ritchie (or 6-7pm in the rest of the country), but he's also a veteran of Australian radio, having been on air for 20 years, making his start in Port Augusta before moving to Perth, then Melbourne and now Sydney. Wippa and Ryan have been great friends for a long time. They even co-hosted the NOVA drive show for two years with Monty Dimond in 2009 and 2010. During this time, Wippa went through one...
Jun 18, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 19
We all want to be successful. But what is ‘success’? And what if we’ve been thinking about it in the wrong way? Enter Kemi Nekvapil… back for the second time on The Imperfects! Kemi has worked in the wellness industry for 25 years and holistic leadership for 10 years. She is a mother, a wife, an endurance athlete, a gardener, an author with three books, and a certified Dare To Lead facilitator having trained personally with the one and only Brené Brown! In this Ac...
Jun 11, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 18
This is Pt2 of our chat with award-winning chef and owner of Melbourne restaurant, Attica. Go back and listen to Pt 1 if you haven’t yet. It’s a doozy. As the second part, this is a double-doozy… or a... twoozy… I guess. In this episode, Ben explains how he managed to build empathy amongst the staff at Attica through something he created called Staff Speeches. He also shares a harrowing bullying story from his childhood when his mother saved him from certain catastrophe...
Jun 04, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Originally from New Zealand, Ben Shewry is the head chef and owner of Melbourne-based restaurant Attica - the highly respected restaurant that has been included in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants numerous times. Ben’s chat with Hugh, Ryan and Josh was so big and so special, it needed to be split across 2 big and special episodes. In this first big and special part, they talk about what makes Attica such a unique place, how he approaches his work, and how he deals with the anxiety tha...
May 28, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 5Ep. 16
We’ve spent about four and a half years on this podcast telling you why we’re all imperfect. But on this episode, Dr Emily actually explains why trying to be PERFECT is… well… really bad. And not only why it’s really bad, but why perfectionism’s mere existence is stealing all the good from our lives. Take it away Dr Emily……… PSYCHOLOGIST! To learn more about Lynn Lyon's work around anxiety and perfectionism, follow this link: https://www...
May 21, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 15
If you don’t know comedy sketch group Aunty Donna, then take a moment, open your local internet browser and watch their incredible stuff for a bit (some of it is linked below). Then come back and listen to this episode with Aunty Donna's, Broden Kelly. In this Vulnerabilitea House, Broden talks about his own and Aunty Donna’s creative process, and how it’s evolved over the years while working together on stage and on the telly. But at the heart of this conversation, is Broden&r...
May 14, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Emma Murray is the high-performance mindset coach for the Richmond Football Club and Mum to four children. As the founder of High-Performance Mindfulness - a company that uses mindfulness, psychology and meditation to help people perform at their best - Emma works with elite athletes, corporate executives, students and actors. In this very practical and vulnerable episode, Emma explains how high-performance mindfulness has not only helped her clients, but also helped her when in 2016, her son Wi...
May 07, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 13
This extremely raw and revealing episode with Australian rapper 360 is all about authenticity. 10 years ago, 360 (Matt Colwell) was one of the most successful and respected artists in Australia. His songs and albums went multi-platinum, he was winning prestigious ARIA and APRA awards and his enormous tours sold out nationally. But what no one knew at the time, is he was simultaneously battling an addiction that nearly took his life. Here, with Hugh, Ryan and Josh, 360 tells the whole story, incl...
Apr 30, 2023•2 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 12
We all get angry. Some of us show our anger and some of us suppress it, but at the end of the day, we’re all susceptible to being angry. In this episode, Dr Emily goes into the many aspects of anger - how it can show up in our lives, how it affects us and the people around us, and of course, what we can do about it. If you liked this episode, you might be interested in book recommendation, When the Body Says No, The Hidden Cost of Stress, by Dr Gabor Mate: https://bit.ly/3NcTFQS To view re...
Apr 23, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 11
