Conversations

How to keep living when life falls apart

When Robin Bailey’s husband and father of their three boys died by suicide, she had to figure out the best way to help her children work through their grief while also ma

Encore: Inside the minds of the fish who sleep, have friends, and know it's the weekend

Dr Culum Brown's work on fish cognition has proven fish have long memories, sharks have friends, and sting rays know it's the weekend. Dr Culum Brown is a leading resear

How I decentred men and fell in love with my friends instead of another f*ckboy

Broadcaster and author Dee Salmin on how her parents' epic love story and dramatic relationship shaped her understanding of love and men; and how she eventually found hea

A little girl with a life split in three — how Mimi made it [PART II]

Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophr

A little girl with a life split in three — how Mimi made it [PART I]

Mimi Kwa tells her family’s saga, featuring her dad — the thirty-second child of a wealthy Chinese silk trader, and her mum, who survived decades of undiagnosed schizophr

Mick Fanning on surfing, punching a great white shark, and losing three brothers

Mick won three world surfing titles, and famously fought off a great white shark in South Africa. But his life out of the water has been threaded through with devastating

Encore: A family story of growing up poor in Outback Queensland

Journalist Rick Morton on how his mum raised three children in poverty and the class disparities in Australia. Rick's family come from the vast country of Outback Queens

My poo transplant, ayahuasca trip and other wellness quests

Judith Lucy is one of Australia's most loved comedians. Recently after years of tummy troubles, burnout, and a complicated relationship with alcohol, she began her missio

Encore: Why I became a teacher at the school where I was bullied

A portrait of one teacher and his class as they journey through the ups and downs of a school year. Brendan James Murrary has been a high school teacher for more than te

Richard Glover on the strange, hilarious and heartbreaking rules of Australian parenting

The instructions found in endorsed baby books over the last century could be, with hindsight, bizarre or cruel. And were most often given by “experts” with no children of

Monica McInerney's five year rollercoaster ride

The author on the diagnosis that floored her and the gifts that got her through harrowing treatment — including a cat named Nicholas. The Australian-Irish author was las

Encore: The pilot shot down by enemy fire and how he survived

RAF pilot Frank Dell parachuted into Nazi occupied Holland after his plane was hit by cannon fire and with the aid of courageous Dutch families and resistance fighters he

Magda's mum, the tragic secret, and the moment of grace

When Magda Szubanski discovered what had happened to her mum as a child, she began to see her in an entirely new light (CW: discussion of sexual abuse, please take care w

Encore: The Olympic swim coach who spat on a silver medal, and how it changed him

Laurie Lawrence's obsession with winning Gold started when he was a small boy growing up above the Tobruk Pool in Townsville. When he became a coach, he had an epiphany a

Caring for my fiercely strong-willed father

Kim Huynh on his family's remarkable journey from Vietnam to Australia. And taking on the role of carer for his fiercely strong-willed father, Thiet. Kim grew up in Canb

Stories from our elders: how Jane Fonda changed her life in her third act

The legendary actress Jane Fonda on her activism, her hair epiphanies and why older women are often fearless. Jane has lived her entire life in the public eye, as the da

Remembering Angry Anderson: rock n' roll animal and incurable romantic

Iconic Australian musician, actor, youth advocate and charity ambassador Angry Anderson has died at the age of 79. Angry spent 50 years in the music industry with his le

Stories from our Elders: My passionate friendship with a rebel poet

Alison Hoddinot was one of the first Australian women to study at Oxford University, but one of her lecturers, J.R.R Tolkein, refused to take on a woman PhD student.  Al

Stories from our Elders: the chef who taught 37,000 Australians how to cook

Elizabeth Chong didn't cook her first meal until she was a newlywed. Six decades later, the owner of a cooking school specialising in Chinese cuisine, she had taught more

Stories from our Elders: Bryan Brown's road from Bankstown to Hollywood

Bryan Brown has played more than 80 roles on stage and screen. Raised in working-class Sydney, his talent, hard work, and unmistakable presence have been his ticket to th