If These Trees Could Talk

60 years and still more questions than answers. In 1966, hundreds of students and teachers at Westall High School in Melbourne, Australia, looked up — and sixty years later, we're still asking what they saw. The Westall UFO encounter remains one of Australia's most extraordinary unexplained mass sightings. Shannon and Megan head back to 6 April 1966 as their spectacularly unqualified alter egos, S...

What might we learn if we listened to young people a little more? If We Listened gives young people the microphone - because sometimes the people we spend so much time teaching have something to teach us too. They have opinions, experiences, questions and wisdom worth hearing. In our first conversation, we meet a group of incredible boys living with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). But this isn't a...

What happens after you survive? For much of Ruth Carroll’s life, survival was simply part of everyday existence. Childhood sexual abuse, an abduction at knifepoint and an abusive marriage shaped not only what Ruth experienced, but the way she understood love, trust and safety. But getting out was only the beginning. In this deeply personal conversation, Ruth joins Shannon from New Jersey to talk a...

On 29 January 2009, four-year-old Darcey Freeman should have been starting her first day of school. Instead, Australia witnessed one of its most devastating acts of family violence. In this reflective episode, we look beyond the headlines to explore the psychology of anger, resentment and emotional responsibility. Rather than asking how could this happen?, we ask a different question: What happens...

This week's episode is a little different. No guest. No big story. Just an honest conversation. Over the last few months, I've spent a lot of time exploring what growth really looks like. We've talked about success, what waits on the other side of saying no, and finding the courage to build a life around what truly matters. Then I realised... I wasn't taking my own advice. Somewhere along the way,...

For years, I measured my life against a definition of success that never seemed to fit. I celebrated other people's achievements with ease, yet struggled to recognise my own. It wasn't until I chose Growth as my word for the year that I began asking a different question: What if success isn't about becoming someone new, but remembering who you've always been? Inpired by Megan's 'Diary Of' episode,...

Neil the Seal has captured hearts across Australia—but behind the viral photos is one of the ocean's most extraordinary wild animals. In this episode, Shannon sits down with Marine Ecologist and southern elephant seal expert Dr Clive McMahon to uncover the science behind Australia's most famous seal. With decades of research spanning Macquarie Island and the Southern Ocean, Dr McMahon has dedicate...

As NAIDOC Week draws to a close, we continue our conversation with Aunty Brenda Matthews. In this second and concluding chapter, the focus shifts from what was taken to what has been reclaimed. Brenda reflects on finding her identity, reconnecting with culture, embracing forgiveness, and transforming a painful past into a life dedicated to healing, education and hope. Together, Megan and Shannon e...

As NAIDOC Week begins, Megan and Shannon sit down with Aunty Brenda Matthews—proud Wiradjuri woman, author, filmmaker, speaker and survivor of the Stolen Generations—to share the deeply personal story behind one of Australia's most painful chapters. Taken from her family as a young child, Brenda grew up between two worlds, carrying questions of identity, belonging and truth that would shape the co...

Ghost mushrooms seem almost impossible. Tiny fungi glowing in the darkness of the Australian bush, creating one of nature's most extraordinary natural spectacles. But as scientist and fungal educator Karen Livesay explains, the real story is even more fascinating than the glow itself. After joining one of Karen's Glenrock Ghost Fungus Tours, Shannon and Megan sit down with her to explore the hidde...

In this episode of What Would They Say, Shannon sits down with Doug and McKenna, the father and sister of Riley, a young man whose life ended in suicide. Together, they share not only the story of Riley's death, but more importantly, the story of his life - the person he was, the love he inspired, and the profound impact his absence continues to have on those who knew him best. In the year followi...

Memory, belonging, and learning to live where love still echoes. In Part 2 of Shannon’s conversation with Racheal Rye, the focus shifts from grief itself to the places grief inhabits. After losing her children Christian, Hannah and Ben, Racheal found herself navigating not only profound loss, but the spaces that held it. Homes, rooms, routines, landscapes and everyday objects became intertwined wi...

In this deeply personal episode, Shannon sits down with her close friend Racheal for a conversation about grief and the unimaginable experience of losing a child. Rachel has lost three of her children — Christian, Hannah and Benjamin — each in different circumstances, at different times in her life. Through her story, we explore what grief asks of a person, what it means to breathe when that feels...

What happens when we step beyond what feels safe?  In this episode, Shannon and Megan explore the invisible boundaries that shape our lives and the quiet ways our worlds can shrink when comfort becomes our default setting. Drawing on experiences from the recent If These Trees Could Heal retreat, where women stepped into cold water, breathwork, vulnerability and self-discovery, alongside Shannon's...

A few episodes ago, Megan and Shannon found themselves stuck on a question that felt far bigger than either of them expected… Why is it so easy to encourage other people to chase the things they love… but when it comes to ourselves, it feels layered with fear, guilt, responsibility, and the quiet belief that maybe we’re asking for too much? So Shannon decided to sit down with someone who has spent...

You probably know the name Malcolm Naden. But do you know theirs? This episode revisits one of Australia’s most widely known manhunts—but not in the way it’s usually told. While the search through the New South Wales bush became the story many remember, this was never really about the man or the hunt. It was always about the lives that were lost. We centre the stories of Lateesha Nolan and Kristy...

In Part 2 of this conversation with Sarah Bignell, we move beyond the encounters themselves and into what happens after they’re shared. Because seeing something is one thing… saying it out loud is something else entirely. Drawing on years of speaking with witnesses, Sarah shares the emotional weight these experiences can carry—how silence, skepticism, and ridicule shape the way people hold their s...

In this episode of If These Trees Could Talk, Shannon sits down with Sarah Bignell, host of Yowie Central, to explore the growing body of firsthand Yowie encounter stories across Australia—and the deeper questions they raise. After years of speaking with witnesses, Sarah has heard hundreds of accounts from everyday people. While each story is unique, patterns begin to emerge: similar descriptions,...

In this deeply personal episode of What Would They Say, we step into Megan's real-time experiment - one that questions not just alcohol, but the habits we rarely examine. This is not a rock-bottom story. There are no dramatic turning points or life-altering consequences. Instead, it’s the story of a “grey area” drinker - someone whose relationship with alcohol looks normal on the surface, but no l...

Ghosts, legends, and an unsolved murder Norah Head is known for its lighthouse, but the coastline holds more than just light. We dive into the haunting legend of Jenny Dixon Beach, the mysterious hitchhiker of Wilfred Barrett Drive, and the real-life unsolved murder of Grace and Kathleen Holmes. In this episode, we separate local folklore from the chilling truths that remain along the Central Coas...

Becoming your own role model through honesty, lived experience, and survival.  Laurie Edmundson is helping reshape how we understand borderline personality disorder (BPD) — not as something to fear, but as something to understand. In this episode, Laurie shares how her journey from stigma to advocacy has created space for “super feelers” to see their emotions differently — not as a flaw, but as a...

A small town. A quiet cottage. And something that refused to be explained.  In 1921, the small town of Guyra became the centre of one of Australia’s most famous poltergeist cases. Stones smashed through windows, objects moved, and police, reporters and locals gathered around a quiet cottage — watching something they couldn’t explain. In this episode Shannon and Megan step into the story as it unfo...

What happens when full-time travel pushes you beyond your comfort zone?  In this episode, Australian van life creators Daniel and Elyse (Quittin’ & Trippin’) step into an experience that challenges everything they thought they knew about comfort, freedom, and living on the road. This honest conversation goes beyond travel Australia content—it explores what full-time van life really asks of you...

When the Thing You Resist Becomes Exactly What You Need  There are moments we almost walk away from. The quiet no. The hesitation. The resistance we trust without questioning. And yet… sometimes those are the very moments that hold something we didn’t realise we needed. In this episode, we step into one of those almost-no’s and what unfolded is not just a reflection on that time, but an exploratio...

A Survivor Story About Grooming, Trauma, and Healing    In this powerful and deeply personal conversation, Shannon speaks with writer, poet and advocate Kat Mackay about surviving grooming, sexual assault, and the long journey of healing after trauma. Kat lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder and throughout the episode refers to themselves using “we” and “us.” This reflects the way their inter...