Conversations

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A Sri Lankan hotel, a Harlem nightclub and orgasm-induced amnesia — Dasha Ross' epic adventures Oct 10, 2024

Show notes

Dasha Ross' most epic adventures were chartered with her larger-than-life husband John Pinder, including the time they managed a beachside hotel in Sri Lanka. Things did not go as planned.

Dasha Ross has lived a life full of adventures, from nude modelling in Sydney and making films in Brazil, to renovating a nightclub in Harlem with a baby on her hip.

But Dasha's biggest adventures were with her beloved husband John Pinder, including the time the two of them took up a surprising offer to revamp and manage a beachside hotel in Sri Lanka.

Things did not go as planned as they battled typhoons, demanding guests and a meddling, possibly murderous, manager.

This episode of Conversations explores epic adventures, cancer, the death of a loved one, grief, travel, Sri Lanka, Harlem, New York City, film production, journalism, film making, Brazil, marriage, amnesia, brain conditions, medical enigmas.

Prostate cancer, testosterone and Tim Baker's masculinity Oct 09, 2024

Show notes

When surf writer Tim Baker was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer, he had no idea how the hormones which saved his life would fundamentally change his experience of being a man (R).

Surf writer Tim Baker was in his early fifties when he was riding a very good wave in his life.

He had a job he loved as a surfing writer, a beautiful family, and he lived within walking distance of the beach.

But on a work trip to Los Angeles, Tim began to need to use the 'rest room' a lot more than usual.

Back in Australia, he went to see his doctor, then an oncologist who gave him some terrible news. He had Stage 4 prostate cancer and it had spread to his bones.

Tim has written a candid account of living with cancer, and some of the grim and rarely spoken about side effects of his life-saving hormone therapy; effects which have profoundly changed his identity and his relationships.

This episode of Conversations explores cancer, prostate cancer, testosterone, hormone treatment, surfing, masculinity, mortality, books, writing, manhood, aging, bone cancer, fatherhood, big waves, middle age.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and how Penny loosened its anxiety-inducing grip Oct 08, 2024

Show notes

Penny Moodie grew up consumed by catastrophic thoughts and developed habits to try to ward off impending doom. It turned out she had been living with obsessive-compulsive disorder. (R)

Penny Moodie grew up consumed by catastrophic thoughts and ideas - that her parents would die in a car crash, that her mother was not really her mother, or that she had somehow contracted HIV aids.

It's not unusual for children to worry about their parents and their own safety, but for Penny these anxieties went much further.

She thought she could ward off catastrophes by doing specific things, by developing compulsive behaviours and routines.

It turns out, Penny had been living obsessive compulsive disorder for more than 30 years before she was diagnosed.

Only recently has Penny been able to understand what she's truly afraid of, to discard her constant state of anxiety and to finally take joy in the simple pleasures of life.

This episode of Conversations explores mental health, mental illness, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, generalised anxiety disorder, OCD, late diagnosis, neurodiversity, behavioural disorder, therapy, habits, building good habits, simple joys.

Melbourne's seedy underbelly and the gangsters who run the joint Oct 07, 2024

Show notes

They're violent and scary, some of them are madmen and others are convicted killers, but the gangsters who control organised crime syndicates in Melbourne are mostly just stupid, according to veteran crime reporter John Silvester.

Veteran crime reporter John Silvester has been covering gangland wars, armed robberies and serial killers in Melbourne for almost half a century.

Over that time, the city has changed dramatically from a big town, where organised crime was isolated to suburbia, to a 24/7 global city with global city problems.

But one thing has stayed the same—the type of characters who run the seedy underbelly of Melbourne city.

Some of them are madmen, some are murderers, but according to John, most of them are too stupid to stop their egos getting involved in their business.

And so every 20 years, the same cycle of territory wars and gangland violence starts again.

John's latest book, Dark City, is published by Pan Macmillan

This episode of Conversations explores Melbourne, organised crime, gangs, mafia, triads, yakuza, underbelly, police, cops, serial killers, true crime, drugs, fatherhood, writing, books, Chopper Read, Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel.

Play School's Noni Hazlehurst — Australia's TV mum Oct 04, 2024

Show notes

Beloved Australian actor, Noni Hazlehurst looks back on her life on stage and screen.

Noni Hazlehurst has been on Australian TV screens and theatres for nearly 50 years.

She comes from a long line of performers.

Noni's parents met while they were part of a touring Variety act in the UK, and her great grandfather was a famous child trapeze artist.

Keeping children company on Playschool was one of her best known roles, which she had for 24 years.

In Noni’s day, Playschool was recorded in one take, unless one of the presenters swore or was bitten by a rabbit.

This episode focuses on motherhood, acting, stage, screen, actors, Playschool, Better Homes and Gardens, vocation, life calling, trapeze, variety act, family, the Blue Mountains, characters, pretend, make-believe.

How not to be a d***head with country music singer Kasey Chambers Oct 03, 2024

Show notes

The country music star remembers a childhood spent roaming the Nullarbor Plain, and the number one lesson she learned from her father.

Kasey Chambers started singing around the campfire as a little girl.

She and her family spent much of the year camping on the Nullarbor Plain, where her dad would hunt for foxes and rabbits.

Kasey and her brother Nash had a free range childhood, and went to sleep to the sound of their father's rifle as he worked through the night.

Singing came naturally to Kasey, and she loved all the old country classics, as well as some Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen.

Kasey has spent her life making music and connecting with audiences. It’s what she believes she was put on the earth to do.

This episode of Conversations touches on motherhood, family, country music, Kasey Chambers, singing, songwriting, nature, childhood, parenting, co-parenting, divorce, re-partnering, gentle parenting, making music, recording music, guitar, banjo, mandolin, Slim Dusty, Tamworth Country Music Festival.

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.

Embracing wilderness and wildness with Gina Chick Oct 02, 2024

Show notes

Gina Chick, the winner of Alone Australia on her life as a creative, outrageous, nature-loving misfit who grew up to live through great depths of love, and grief (CW: discusses the death of a child).

In 2023, Gina Chick spent 67 days by herself, in the wilderness of Tasmania’s West Coast, surviving on worms, fish, and one unlucky wallaby.

After those 67 days, Gina became the first-ever winner of a reality show on SBS called Alone Australia, but her approach to the competition was very different from the other contestants.

For Gina, the wild was not an enemy to be overcome but a place with no hierarchy, where she feels completely herself.

It’s always been that way, since she was a 'weird' little girl with a rare affinity with birds and nature.

As an adult, Gina spent years inside Sydney’s queer club scene and working for an all-girl security firm, but life changed completely for Gina when she became a mother herself.

This episode of Conversations explores motherhood, parenting, reality television, Alone Australia, winner of Alone, hunting, survival, did Gina catch the wallaby? adoption, adoptees, Kiama, South Coast NSW, ADHD, birds, neurodiversity, bad boyfriends, debt, sexually transmitted debt, scent, pheromones, younger men, Oxford Street, survival, nightclubs, podium dancing, synaesthesia, breast cancer.

Shakespeare's stories aren't boring — we are teaching them wrong way Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Irish journalist and author, Fintan O'Toole on how the Victorians changed the meaning of Shakespeare's plays, and how we can bring them back to life.

Fintan O'Toole is an Irish journalist and author who writes on politics and history for the New York Review of Books and the Irish Times.

He wants to change the way we think about Shakespeare's plays, because the way many of us are introduced to Shakespeare is wrong and boring.

Fintan says Shakespeare’s work is wrongly presented as a delivery system for simple moral instruction — a hangover from the Victorian era, which wanted to turn Shakespeare into a form of "mental muesli".

According to Fintan, the genius of Shakespeare is that his characters keep escaping narrow moral categories, just as people do in real life.

This episode of Conversations deals with Shakespeare's epic plays, life, death, betrayal, history, kings, royalty, motherhood, fatherhood, grief, life processes, making meaning of life and morality, Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet.

How Tolstoy and Chekhov schooled George Saunders on life's great lessons Sep 30, 2024

Show notes

Writer George Saunders on how famous short stories by writers like Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Gogol are like miniature models of the world and how they can teach us to transcend our own limitations. (R)

For many years, author George Saunders taught a writing masterclass in upstate New York, in which he introduced students to the stories of the great Russian authors.

Conversations with his students about writers like Tolstoy and Chekhov have given George some of the happiest moments of his life.

George thinks the short stories written by these literary giants are like miniature models of the world—they show us what it's like to get lost in the snow on a winter's night, and how it feels to swim in a pond in the rain.

He says they can reveal so much to us about how we should live in this world and what we might want from the world and the humans in it.

This episode of Conversations discusses books, writing, literature, Russian literature, tertiary education, human connection, personal development, personal growth, Anna Karenina, epic books, origin stories, Steven Colbert's favourite author, the creative process, how to write, how to become a writer.

The unexpected plot twist: how a solo hiker stayed alive after shattering her pelvis in Joshua Tree National Park Sep 27, 2024

Show notes

Claire Nelson hadn't told anyone where she was going, and her phone lost signal shortly into her hike. As an experienced bushwalker, she never dreamed an adventure would turn out like this. (R)

Claire Nelson was hiking alone in Joshua Tree National Park in 2018, when she slipped on a stack of boulders and fell 25 feet to the ground.

The impact shattered Claire’s pelvis, and she couldn’t even raise herself on her elbows, let alone stand.

She could reach her phone, but in the middle of the Californian desert it was out of range.

Looking at the maps she'd downloaded, Claire realised she'd walked way off the trail, so there was no chance of another hiker coming by.

Day after day, Claire lay on her back in the scorching sun hoping she could last long enough for someone to realise she was missing.

This episode of Conversations touches on mothers, mountains, epic stories, deserts, hiking, solo adventuring, catastrophe, wilderness, big nature, injuries, Joshua Tree National Park, survival, rattlesnakes, coyotes, travel in the USA, travel insurance.

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