Conversations

Latest Episodes:

The unexpected plot twist: the story of how suicide survivor Oceane, who became a beloved midwife Sep 26, 2024

Show notes

At the age of 18, Oceane Campbell tried to take her own life. She survived and fought her way back into life, becoming a midwife and a mother of three (CW: discussion of suicide, please take care when listening). (R)

Oceane Campbell has been very close with the raw stuff of life.

She's a midwife and a mother, so she's seen and experienced the power of birth many times over.

She has also been very close to death. At the age of 18, Oceane tried to take her own life.

After she survived, she began a painstaking climb back into living.

Oceane also slowly rebuilt her relationship with her mother, Cecile, and a few years ago they wrote a memoir of what had happened together.

As an adult, Oceane met and married her wife Sarah and retrained as a midwife.

She and Sarah now have three children of their own.

Recently Oceane was named as Newcastle's Woman of the Year for her work in midwifery and her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community.

This conversation mentions family dynamics, families, mothers, origin stories, mothering, midwifery, self harm, life and death.

Content warning: Please take care when listening as this conversation mentions suicide and sexual assault.

Help is always available.

If you need to talk, 24/7 crisis support is available from Lifeline by calling 13 11 14.

You can also text with them and chat online with counsellors here

The unexpected plot twist: The story of Toni Jordan's lucky life Sep 25, 2024

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Toni Jordan grew up working in a T.A.B. with her cyclonic mother, and going to the greyhound races. Then she grew up to become a best-selling novelist. (R)

Toni Jordan is a best-selling novelist.

But she didn't grow up in a house full of books.

Her mum ran a T.A.B. and her dad trained greyhounds for a living.

Toni's mum was hardworking and hilarious, but she could also be hard to live with.

All her life, Toni felt she had to look out for her mum.

But after Marg became a grandmother, Toni began to admire her in new ways.

This conversation talks about gambling, money, family dynamics, origin stories, parenting, mental health, writing, film, domestic violence and relationships.

Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion about domestic violence and self harm.

The unexpected plot twist: The tech nerd who changed course to help the homeless Sep 24, 2024

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Jon Owen's mum enrolled him in a computer science degree at University - expecting him to build a flourishing career; which he did. It just wasn't the one that everyone expected. (R)

Jon Owen came to Australia as a small child.

He survived playground racism at school, and became a high achiever.

His family expected him to excel at school and university and go on to a flourishing career.

And that's exactly what he did — in a way that nobody could have predicted.

Jon was near the end of his computer science degree when he chose a life of 'intentional downward mobility'.

He began working with the homeless, the addicted and the disenfranchised, and living with them too.

Today he's the Pastor and CEO at Sydney's Wayside Chapel in Kings' Cross.

This story is about family of origin, ancestry, life stories, disadvantage, drug use, children, faith, charity, social work, refugees, asylum seekers, Christianity, Jesus, family stories, family life, homelessness, caring, love, and downward mobility

The unexpected plot twist: From the David Jones food hall to Opera Australia Sep 23, 2024

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After a stint being homeless and living in his car, Stephen Smith was working at David Jones Food Hall when one of his colleagues noticed his remarkable singing voice. A few years later, he became a tenor on the operatic world stage (R)

An odyssey across Australia — how 11,000 sheep were walked from Victoria into the outback Sep 20, 2024

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In 1882, thousands of sheep set off from a property in Western Victoria. Their destination was a huge station in the Northern Territory, land which a sheep had never set foot on. To get there, these animals and their drover battled drought, flood, famine and doubt.

Tom Guthrie is a winemaker and sheep farmer in Western Victoria, and is a descendent in a long line of enterprising farmers.

Almost 150 years ago, after surviving shipwrecks, fires and floods, Tom's ambitious great grandfather sent 11,000 sheep by foot to unseen land in the Northern Territory.

The journey took 16 months, and the sheep were led almost 3,500km by their drover, through drought, flood and famine.

It became the longest sheep drive in Australian history.

In recent years, Tom has had to call on his family's grit and resilience to get through the most unimaginable tragedy for a parent -- the loss of a child.

This episode of Conversations deals with family history, ancestry, farming, books, death of a child, Australiana, winemaking, colonisation, grief, fatherhood, death and the loss of a child.

Antibiotic resistant superbugs and how to fight them Sep 19, 2024

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Professor Ian Henderson has spent his career searching for new treatments in the fight against antibiotic resistance superbugs

A life spent making — ‘Mr Millimetre’s’ memories with master maker Jeffrey Broadfield Sep 18, 2024

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Jeffrey Broadfield has made building his life. It has taken him around the world, and given him a place to belong.

Jeffrey Broadfield is a master maker who builds houses to his clients’ wishes and quirks, using carpentry to turn recycled Australian hardwood into dream homes.

It’s a craft Jeffrey says is dying.

He grew up in Griffith, NSW, where he learned to swim in the irrigation channel and entice next door’s chooks over into his house to play.

When he left school at 16, Jeffrey became interested in fitting and turning, but on the boring train ride to a factory job interview, a well-worn tie changed the course of his life.

This episode of Conversations covers bespoke, custom craftsmanship, an epic life story, families, travel, architecture, marriage, nature, theatre.

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.

Fish sperm sausages, and eyeball icecream: the Josh Niland story Sep 17, 2024

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From using fish eyes in ice cream, and not wasting the liver, to creating recipes with fish sperm, chef Josh Niland on his mission to revolutionise how we cook and eat fish. (R)

Chef Josh Niland is devoted to changing ideas about how we cook and eat fish in the Western world.

He believes that rather than eating just the fillet, we should aim to eat the whole fish, as we do nose-to-tail with animals. At his restaurants, he cooks with fish eyeballs, fish livers, fish heads, and milt (fish sperm).

A big part of Josh's philosophy is about making fishing more sustainable. He says fishers risk their lives every, so we're duty-bound to use as much of the catch as we can.

Josh's approach is winning him acclaim around the world. At 30, he won an award that is considered the Oscars of food writing, the James Beard Award, for his first book, The Whole Fish Cookbook.

His passion has its roots in his childhood and his own origin story. At 8 years old, Josh fell terribly ill, and during a long convalescence, realised exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up.

Today, Josh has several restaurants of his own.

This conversation discusses family of origin, family, ancestry, parenting, origin stories, personal stories, reflection, memoir, life story, exploration and family dynamics

The architects of ancient Arabia – speaking to the sky Sep 16, 2024

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The deserts of Saudi Arabia are still holding on to many ancient secrets, hidden inside burial tombs and mysterious monumental structures called mustatils. Dr Hugh Thomas is on an archaeological mission to solve some of these mysteries.

Hugh Thomas is an archaeologist who is fascinated by ancient mortuary practices and the secrets still hidden in the deserts of Saudi Arabia.

In the north west of the country, thousands of mysterious rectangular structures, built in the fifth millennium, are still standing.

They are monumental structures, up to 600m long, built from walls of rock and best viewed from the sky, where the chambers in which ritualistic killings took place, are clear. But who or what exactly motivated these ancient architects to build such things is not yet clear.

And crisscrossing the landscape around them are kilometres of pathways called 'funerary avenues' -- routes carved out by people and herds, punctuated by burial tombs that look like jewellery from the air.

This episode of Conversations explores ancient history, deep time, epic discoveries, the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, death and archaeology.

The epic highs and lows of Ji's life on the trampoline Sep 13, 2024

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Ji Wallace was at the top of his career as a gymnast and acrobat when a terrible injury and surprising diagnosis brought him back down to earth, temporarily.

Ji was an energetic, only child growing up on a bush block in suburban Brisbane when his parents brought home a trampoline to keep him occupied.

Ji took to it so quickly, he learnt how to flip by that afternoon, and was a national champion in gymnastics just a couple of years later.

He managed to make a career out of bouncing around, representing Australia at the Olympics and then joining Cirque Du Soleil as an acrobat.

But a terrible injury, and then the news that he was HIV positive, set Ji on a different course, although he didn't let it keep him grounded.

This episode of Conversations explores elite athletes, gymnastics, the Olympics, Brisbane 2032, parenting, coming out, the queer community, LGBT issues, andHIV and AIDS.

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