Conversations

Latest Episodes:

How Geraldine Brooks learned how to live again through grief Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

Writer Geraldine Brooks on love, grief and letting go after her husband died in a shocking and unexpected way.

In 2019, Australian writer Geraldine Brooks was forced into a world of practicalities when her beloved husband, Tony, collapsed on the street in the United States and died.

She had to immediately manage finances and family life, organise a funeral and work out what had happened for Tony to so suddenly and unexpectedly die.

As time went by, Geraldine realised she had never let herself properly grieve his loss and the loss of their imagined future together.

So she rented a shack on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait to face what had happened, to reflect on their big, itinerant life together, and to finally feel peace again.

This episode of Conversations explores grief, grieving a loved one, death, how to cope with an unexpected death, marriage, death of a spouse, letting go, origin stories, love stories, relationships, writing, books, America, Australia, politics, journalism, war correspondence, Syria, Israel, Iran, Palestine.

Memorial Days is published by Penguin Random House.

Singing for her life: Camille O'Sullivan on Ireland and her dearly departed friends Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

It took a catastrophic car accident for the singer and actress to leave a decorated career in architecture and focus on her artistic ambitions, including a tribute show to her friends Sinead O'Connor, and Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.

Irish-French singer and performer Camille O’Sullivan grew up in County Cork, with her Irish father and French mother.

Although she sang throughout her youth, she was persuaded to become an architect and went on to win awards for her work.

But after she nearly lost her life in a harrowing car crash, she decided she had to be honest with herself and become the singer she always wanted to be.

Camille has brought her unique voice to the songs of Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Nick Cave and Radiohead.

In her newest show, she’s honouring two late Irish singers who were her friends: Sinead O’Connor and Shane MacGowan from The Pogues.

This episode of Conversations touches on epic life stories, origin stories, Ireland, Irish singing, Jacques Brel, friendship, songwriting, poetry, and performing.

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Finding my dad, and myself — unravelling a family's secret Mar 04, 2025

Show notes

Lindsey Fidler’s quest to find her biological father started with jazz and an American Air Force Base. It ended with a trip to the U.S. through a disastrous free flights promotion run by the British division of Hoover Vacuums.

Sociologist Lindsey Fidler’s parents met and married in the 1960s in East Anglia, United Kingdom.

They would go to jazz clubs and socialise with the men from the American Air Force base nearby.

Lindsey’s father was known as The Typewriter King because he could fix any typewriter in the area.

He had contracts to repair machines on the nearby base, and even in London, where he was responsible for some of the Royal typewriters.

This was the world Lindsey knew — the one she was born into.

However, she was always separated from it somehow.

Adults behaved strangely around her, and she felt she didn’t fit in.

She was 22 when her parents sat her down and told her why.

This episode of Conversations touches on biological fathers, family secrets, secrets we keep, epic life stories, belonging, identity, race, infidelity, siblings, affairs, being mixed race, blended families, biological parents, step parents, sociology, finding dad, personal stories, origin stories, typewriters, jazz, U.S. military, motherhood and self.

Encore: Let them ring — Paul Livingston on making a great big noise Feb 28, 2025

Show notes

Paul is a musician, author and performer best known for his comedic alter-ego, Flacco. In recent years he's joined an eclectic band of people who ring the bells at his local church tower in inner Sydney (R)

Paul is a musician, author and performer best known for his comedic alter-ego, Flacco.

In recent years he's joined an eclectic band of people who ring the bells together at their local church tower in inner Sydney.

Every week Paul and his fellow bellringers climb high into the tower where they stand in a circle and create a beautiful noise that ripples across the city.

He's also been working as a hospital volunteer, listening to and writing down the stories of people at the end of their lives, after his own brush with mortality.

This episode of Conversations touches on comedy, death and dying, caring, being a carer, cancer, palliative care, biography, volunteering, bell ringing, churches, ringing bells and personal stories.

Transforming trauma with Dr Gabor Maté Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

The renowned physician discusses the role of trauma in our lives, showing up as addiction, chronic disease and mental illness — and how recognising his own led to true healing.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversation podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Dr Gabor Maté was born in Budapest to a Jewish family, just before Nazi tanks rolled into the city.

His mother risked handing him to a stranger on the street to try and get him to safety.

Many years later, after establishing himself as a successful physician in Canada, Gabor looked at the problems in his work and marriage and wondered if they were linked to that early trauma.

He uses his own experiences as the test case for the effects of trauma on the body and is now internationally renowned for arguing that trauma casts a long shadow in our lives, showing up in addiction, ADHD, chronic disease and mental illness.

Gabor argues that realising the impact of trauma of all kinds allows for real healing — as has happened in his own life.

Dr Gabor Maté's new book written with Daniel Maté is called The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture and is published by Penguin Random House.

This episode of Conversations deals with trauma, early childhood trauma, mental illness, addiction, ADHD, chronic illness, epic life stories, origin stories, healing, autoimmune disease, and therapy.

My Moroccan matrescence Feb 26, 2025

Show notes

When Nadia Mahjouri travelled to Marrakech with her four-month-old baby to find her long lost father, she also underwent the process of matrescence — becoming a new version of herself as a mother.

Nadia Mahjouri is a Moroccan-Australian author and counsellor.

Growing up in Launceston, Tasmania, Nadia didn’t know anyone else who had her height, dark skin and curly hair.

She knew her father was Moroccan, but that was the extent of the information she had about him.

When she had her first baby at 21, Nadia decided to go to Morocco to try to find him.

All she had was her family name, a photo of her parents on their wedding day, and the name of a suburb in Marrakech.

Nadia's journey to Morocco intersected with the process of inhabiting a new role in her life — mother.

Nadia's book Half Truth is published by Penguin Random House.

This episode of Conversations focuses on family dynamics, epic life story, grief, fatherlessness, matrescence, motherhood, personal stories, origin stories, ancestry, Morocco, Tasmania and becoming a mum.

Nadia's book Half Truth is published by Penguin Random House.

Gus Worland on the men who made him and Australia's male suicide epidemic Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

Two of the most important men to Gus Worland departed his life in shocking and unexpected ways. Gus' grief led him to dig deeper into what it means to be a strong man and re-frame vulnerability as something powerful.

TV and radio host Gus Worland grew up with some deeply rooted ideas about what it meant to be a man and a good bloke.

When Gus was just 10 years old, his father left the family home for reasons Gus didn't understand or even know about until many years later.

Then, when Gus was an adult, the role model who had filled the gap left by his father also disappeared.

All the unresolved grief he felt prompted Gus to almost spontaneously open up one morning on his radio program on Triple M.

What began as an impulsive moment of vulnerability turned into a national conversation, and led Gus to dig deeper into his own understanding of what it means to be a strong man.

Content warning: this episode of Conversations discusses suicide and mental health issues.

If you or anyone you know needs help there is always someone available at:

Lifeline on 13 11 14
Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36
MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978

This episode of Conversations explores sexuality, fatherhood, parenting, love, homosexuality, male suicide epidemic, masculinity, vulnerability, honesty, origin stories, opening up, seeking help, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, speaking up, mateship, friendship, the Grill Team, mental fitness, coming out stories.

Further information

You can learn more about Gus' work in suicide prevention at the Gotcha4Life Foundation here.

Boys Do Cry is published by Penguin.

Encore: Brigitte and the seven peaks Feb 21, 2025

Show notes

Brigitte Muir's dream to climb the seven highest mountains on each of the seven continents took much longer and cost her more than she expected, but she also discovered more about herself than she could have imagined (R)

Brigitte Muir fell in love with the outdoors and adventure as a teenager in Belgium.

Initially she was exhilarated by going caving, deep in the earth, and then rock-climbing, until she made her way closer and closer to the heavens and became a mountaineer.

In her thirties Brigitte became fixated on a big dream — to climb the seven highest mountains on each of the seven continents.

To achieve what she set out to do, she pushed her mind and her body to their limits, and was even left for dead near the summit of Mount Everest.

Brigitte lost loved ones along the way, but also found some unexpected truths about herself.

This episode of Conversations explores epic adventures, explorers, expeditions, extreme conditions, the Himalayas, Nepal, the lives of Sherpas, grief, death, natural disasters, avalanches, nearth death experiences.

David Whyte on writing poetry the world loves Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

For poet David Whyte, the power of poetry lies in its unmatched ability to meditate and focus on what's right in front of us -- whether it's a mountain, a loved one, or our own reflection. He explains how one line of poetry is enough to change your life.

David grew up amongst the moors and fields of West Yorkshire, with an English father and an Irish mother who had a gift for lyricism and language.

He started writing poems at just seven years old, but it wasn't until he was working as a guide in the Galapagos Islands that David truly understood what poetry was and what it could do for us.

A near-death experience there prepared him for life as a poet by teaching him to pay attention to what lay right in front of him at any given time.

Since then, David has written hundreds of poems loved by the world, recited as often at weddings and funerals as they are on less auspicious occasions.

This episode of Conversations explores literature, language, prose, philosophy, epic stories, nature, marine biology, zoology, near death experiences, mortality, grief, love, origin stories, adventure, Charles Darwin, Ted Hughes, William Blake, Bronte sisters, Carl Jung

David has written and published several collections of poems and essays. His latest is Consolations II, published by Canongate.

Translating adolescence and speaking Teenage Girl Feb 19, 2025

Show notes

When Dannielle Miller became a teacher, she was given the classes no one else could handle. She was given a whistle on her first day, to call for help. She didn’t need it — in fact, she had something in common with some of her students.

Dannielle Miller is the CEO of Enlighten Education and Director of Education for Women's Community Shelter.

As a young teacher, fresh from university, Dannielle was given a class of vulnerable students no other teacher could handle in a Western Sydney school.

Dannielle took to these students immediately, and found they responded to her with trust and affection.

Dannielle shared a certain understanding with her students —as a child, she saw domestic abuse and gaslighting in her house.

When she was very small, Dannielle was burned in a shocking attack.

The care she received following her burn has stayed with Dannielle and has informed her resilience, which she now uses to shepherd teenage girls and boys through one of life's most challenging times.

This episode of Conversations touches on epic life stories, origin stories, domestic violence, family violence, respectful relationships, teenage girls, teenage boys, teens, adolescence, burns, women's shelters.

Further information

Learn more about Enlighten Education here.

Read about the Walk The Talk respectful relationships program for Women's Community Shelters here