Conversations: Health & Resilience

Neurosurgeon Brindha Shivalingam says it is a privilege to go into someone’s brain and repair the body's most vital organ. She didn’t expect to become the patient in 2019

Hana Assafiri was a child bride in her teens when she fought her way free of her violent husband. Then she built a new life helping other marginalised women (CW: the conversation discusses physical and sexual violence against women)

Keri Kitay with the story of her devoted, outgoing mum Terry, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease at 54 years old

How headmistress Manisha Gazula radically (and controversially) transformed the literacy, and life, outcomes for her students at Marsden Road Public School

Football tragic Andy Paschalidis was in his 50s when a dear friend and fellow player died during an over-35s soccer game. The tragedy altered the course of his life   

Shaun Christie-David's parents came to Australia fleeing civil war in Sri Lanka. By age 13, he knew he wanted to be a banker. But life inside the world of money and Maseratis was nothing like he'd imagined Shaun Christie-David's family migrated to Australia during the Sri Lankan civil war. The family's three sons grew up in a house full of home-cooked food and love, with dishes like 48-hour Mudcra...

When Pauline McGrath's husband David was diagnosed with a brain tumour, she supported him as he chose a different path to death (CW: discussion of death and dying)

Dr Jayashri Kulkarni on her Indian-Australian upbringing and her groundbreaking research into women's hormones and mental health To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversation 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,...

Pauline Menzcer is one of the legends of Australian surfing, but even after leaving Hawaii as the 1993 World Champion she had to wait for the recognition she deserved. Pauline Menczer was once the best surfer in the world, fighting it out to be crowned world champion in Hawaii in 1993.  Out of the water, it was a different story. Pauline had battled the crippling pain of rheumatoid arthritis since...

Mick O'Regan met his feisty and brilliant wife Jo for the first time on a work brigade in Nicaragua. They fell in love and had a beautiful baby boy. Then quite unexpectedly, when Jo was in her 50s, Mick became her carer

How Jodie went from skateboarding in her home town of Albany to become a world surfing champion, frothing all the way. When Jodie Cooper was growing up the kids in her hometown of Albany in Western Australia raised money to build one of the world's first-ever skate parks. They named it the Snake Run, and a talented young Jodie shone on the track. Once she discovered surfing at the age of 16, she w...

In 1966, Martin was 10 years old when he was sent to a Catholic Boarding school in North-West Tasmania. Decades later, he began his own reckoning with what had happened at the school (CW: discusses sexual abuse) Martin Flanagan is a much-loved sports writer who wrote about AFL for many years for The Age newspaper. At the age of 10, Martin was sent away to a Catholic boy's boarding school in North...

Toni Jordan grew up working in a TAB and going to the greyhound races. Then she grew up to become a best-selling novelist

When Cynthia Banham survived the unthinkable, she had to reinvent herself, with the support of her family, and the kindness of the Sydney Swans AFL team

Ray Seidler was a brilliant doctor and a family man, whose secret struggle with depression ultimately claimed his life. Now his son Jonathan is helping to change the story when it comes to his own mental illness (CW: mentions suicide, drug use)  When Ray Seidler would walk through the streets of Kings Cross, everyone wanted to stop and have a chat - from homeless people, to sex workers, film actor...

Dai Le tells the story of her family fleeing Saigon and travelling across 2 oceans to make it to Australia, and how a sense of fairness drew her into public life 

Professor Kelvin Kong is one of Australia's leading ENT surgeons. The proud Worimi man changes the course of children's lives by looking inside their ears.

Surfing writer Tim Baker on how the hormones which saved his life after a cancer diagnosis fundamentally changed his experience of being a man

Ben Bravery tells the story of his childhood in Logan, Queensland, how he went from a career at KFC to studying male satin bowerbirds and why being a patient led him to study medicine

Mawunyo Gbogbo grew up in a church-going Ghanaian-Australian family in the mining town of Muswellbrook, NSW. As a young woman she grabbed the chance to further her media career in New York City at the Bible of Hip Hop, The Source

Briana Blackett was a journalist working in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to his name. When Max was diagnosed with autism, and in time her second son Freddy was too, she left Doha to begin an entirely different life

Tony spent three decades in and out of jail for property crimes and safecracking. When he joined an unusual club inside Hobart's Risdon Prison, he found his voice for the first time. Then a few years ago, on a fishing trawler far out to sea, he began the painful process of changing his life Tony Bull grew up across the road from Hobart's Risdon Prison. As child he started running with a crowd of b...

Clinical pain neuroscientist Dr Tasha Stanton explains her studies into the power of the mind when it comes to coping with injury and illness. Clinical pain neuroscientist, Dr Tasha Stanton works with people who experience chronic and crushing pain at the University of South Australia. Typically, her patients suffer from osteo-arthritis and back pain. Tasha says that far from being only the result...

When Kim Crotty was locked up in Dartmoor prison for growing marijuana, his two young sons were bereft. He began writing bedtime stories for them from his cell, as a way to reach them

Much-loved broadcaster and writer Wendy was born with a cleft lip and palate, into a struggling family. As a young journalist she saw an anarchic cabaret show which changed the course of her life Wendy has enjoyed huge success over four decades as a comedian, tv host, a radio presenter and the author of many books for children and adults. She’s come a very long way from her origins in country Vict...