If I Only Knew

This week Fred comes to the pod dissatisfied with an experience he had a restaurant, and wanting to know whether he's justified in leaving the first bad review on their website. We have a conversation about how young people use online reviews to inform their purchasing decisions, and about how online reviews work. This is a great episode to learn more about how to judge reliable reviews, and to ma...

With an election year coming up in Australia, Fred and Matt have a chat about what voting means to young Australians and how different generations value voting differently. While this is a familiar topic, we get some interesting insights into how political analytics makes every vote important and they share some important tips and tricks for young voters casting an informed ballet that represents...

We're back in the new year with more exciting intergenerational podcasts. This week we kick off with a chat about the ever-present new years resolutions. Do young people continue to practise these resolutions and what do they look like? Moreover, why are so many resolutions not achieved, and how can we better approach making resolutions to ensure they hit harder?

This week Fred and Matt take a short look at some youth slang and chat about why linguistic creativity is so popular among young people. This episode packs a lot into 10 minutes, as we think about some examples of new youth slang, the importance it can play in identity, and how older generations can navigate these new terms.

This week Fred and Matt reflect on the numerous protests over the last few years and think about the role young people have played in them. Fred was struck by the fact that he would never have joined a protest as a child, and so we think about what might have changed that has brought more young people into this traditional form of civic activism. We consider the motives for youth activism and the...

This week Matt and Fred are joined by their excellent researcher Nicola to shed some light on Taylor Swifts smash re-release of 'All Too Well'. This song, short-film, and the wider rerelease of her album Red has taken youth culture by storm, spreading spreading across platforms like TikTok and dominating music charts. But 'All Too Well' tells a potentially controversial story. Rumoured to be based...

Today is International Men's Day, and following our podcast's pattern of engaging with a variety of social and cultural events Fred and Matt take some time to think about what health and lifestyle mean for men. We take a look at what men's health might mean for different people, and how it's changed over time across two different generations. Matt and Fred bring their own experiences of seeking ph...

This week Matt shares the positive experiences he's found cultivating a community online through the hobby of gaming. While the negative experiences of people on the internet are often the focus of discussion, it can also serve as a great place to grow existing connections and develop new ones. Tune in to hear about the ways gaming can cultivate existing friendships by providing a space for commun...

This week Fred and Matt begrudgingly consider the social context behind the hit TV show 'Squid Game', or as we call it, 'calamari'. Inspired by its recent viral success, Fred wants to know what takes a typical show and turns it into a global TV phenomenon. Is there more to this process than just great Television? While we certainly don't have all the answers, we investigate the importance of the r...

This week Fred and Matt chat about the proliferation of simplistic or incorrect information about psychology on social media platforms like TikTok. Inspired by videos that pathologise listeners and deliver diagnoses without proper basis, this episode grapples with the consequences of democratising communication through the internet. We have praised the disruptive influence of technology on this po...

This week Fred introduces us to the psychological concept of Reactance Theory, that describes some people who hate being told what to do so much that they will act against their best interests to resist authority. We apply this theory to civil disruptions around the AFL grand final and to recent protests in Melbourne to ask why some of these event happen despite measure to limit the spread of COVI...

This week Fred and Matt have a bit of a theoretical, philosophical discussion about how people actually make moral decisions. Matt brought this topic up based on an essay he's been writing for university, and Fred is keen to offer the insights he's learnt over his many years of working with people. Join us for some ethical philosophy, and some fascinating case studies from Fred's experience. We me...

This week Fred and Matt chat about a bit of a light-hearted topic as Fred reveals he can't stand watching horror movies. It just so happens that Matt also isn't a fan, so this week we're chatting about what might attract people to the horror genre of films, how it might have changed over time, and some of the psychology behind different horror films. This is a topic we aren't experts on, so if any...

This week Fred and Matt take a look at a somewhat unusual topic but one that yields a very interesting conversation: the brief attempt to ban sexually explicit content from the platform OnlyFans. In late August OnlyFans announced that they would be banning sexually explicit content from the platform because of challenges they were facing securing relationships with financial institutions. This is...

This week Fred and Matt have a short ethical discussion prompted by some real world news that has been frustrating Fred. During a global pandemic, what is a government's responsibilities to its citizens, and in what circumstances should citizens be facilitated to come back to Australia? Should citizens with roots in other countries be allowed to make full use of Australian social programs, should...

This week Fred and Matt approach one of our more difficult topics on this podcast, as we talk about current events in Afghanistan amidst the Taliban take-over. In particular, we want to use our platform for inter-generational discussion on how young people have reacted to events in Afghanistan. This is a serious topic for a lot of people, so we want to investigate some of the history of Afghanista...

This week we've got another mini episode for you as Fred and Matt frantically search for entertainment during lockdown. Books are a great source of information, and both our hosts are avid readers, so we talk about how reading has changed over the last 30 years, what might keep people away from reading, and what some of our favourite books are. Join us this week to share in some book recommendatio...

This week we've got a great episode on the recent discussion around Brittney Spears's conservatorship. We aren't experts on Brittney's personal circumstances, nor are we die-hard fans, but her experiences before the law and media can tell us a lot about how power, society, and wellbeing interact in the world. Tune in to learn about conservatorships, Australia and the USA, and the influence of the...

This week Fred and Matt chat about an issue with a changing face. Fred thinks 'misinformation' is a fancy word for just lying, and given how much its use has grown over the last 5 years this provides an important and interesting topic of discussion. How are people convinced by misinformation, what does it look like and what can we do about it? These are all important ideas we try to get to the hea...

This week on If I Only Knew Fred has given Matt some homework to watch the movie 'A Clockwork Orange'. This movie was once banned, and thought of as pushing many social boundaries, but it has lost much of its shock-value to a modern audience. So if A Clockwork Orange is no longer considered deviant art, what kind of art shocks the modern conscious, and what are the consequences of this?

This week we bring you an exciting episode where we interview two special guests: Harrison and Allana. Fred reached out to an online cosplay community and these two brave souls answered the call to shed light on all things cosplay Join us this week to learn about this unique community that's been gaining more mainstream traction recently, and discover some of the challenges and opportunities it pr...

This week we've got another short episode for you as Australia looks to be descending once more into COVID restrictions. There's plenty of talk about COVID around, but we want to focus on the anxiety such an ephemeral danger can cause, especially in young people. How does 'COVID anxiety' manifest and are there any good strategies to try and overcome it? Will we ever be able to plan for the future...

This week Matt and Fred have a short chat about using a person's preferred pronouns when speaking with them. Although there has been substantial controversy over this idea in the last decade, Matt thinks about the way we address people simply shows whether we respect them and Fred brings his experience as a psychologist to highlight the importance of making people feel welcome. The language we use...

This bite-sized episode of If I Only Knew is a reaction to the return of spreading lockdowns in Australia. Despite the fact that it feels like Australia had the virus under control, it looks like we're back to some significant national cases across the country. Fred and Matt talk the importance of learning your lesson over time, and the need to ensure we break out of this COVID cycle. While we are...

This episode Matt and Fred do something a little different by investigating the themes of comedian Bo Burnham's recent Netflix special 'Inside'. This show has made waves among some young communities and Matt suggested Fred give it a watch to get an insight into young people. We discuss why this 'comedy' special might resonate with so many young people, the significance of some of its darker themes...