Beyond Distracted

In this episode of Beyond Distracted, Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke chat with former AFL player Heath Shaw about life with ADHD – from being labelled the "naughty kid" at school to finding structure, purpose and success in elite sport.     Heath reflects on being diagnosed in Year 8, long before ADHD was widely understood, and shares how routines, exercise, football and self-awareness have shaped...

In this episode of Beyond Distracted , Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke chat with neurodivergent creator Jo Dunham (better known online as MyFavouriteJo ), whose funny, sharply observant content about ADHD and autism has built a community of hundreds of thousands of followers.   Jo shares her own experience of knowing she was different from a young age, despite being seen as a "gifted" student. The...

Money is one of those areas where we're expected to just "have it together" as adults – but for many people with ADHD, it's not that simple.     In this episode of Beyond Distracted , hosts Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke sit down with Tina Mathams – money educator and author of ADHD Money – to explore what actually works when it comes to managing your finances as a person with ADHD.     Through he...

In high-performing environments, there's a huge focus on performance, productivity and leadership – but far less on how we accommodate and support people whose brains work differently.     In this episode of Beyond Distracted, hosts Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke sit down with Ani Møller – a former executive director turned ADHD and leadership coach – for a conversation that reframes what high per...

In this episode of Beyond Distracted, hosts Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke sit down with Nat Bartsch – a triple ARIA-nominated pianist, composer and neurodiversity advocate whose work spans classical, jazz and ambient music.   Nat often felt different, but it wasn't until her late 30s, during the pandemic, that she discovered she is both ADHD and autistic. Rather than being a confronting moment, t...

Today's guest has reframed ADHD as being 'wired for interest" – and is on a mission to help others understand their unique brains. In this episode of Beyond Distracted, hosts Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke chat to ADHD coach, speaker and mother Caroline Beresford about her late diagnosis, how ADHD contributed to her varied career, and how she's turned her diagnosis into a positive by helping other...

What if your brain was wired for a different kind of orbit?   In this episode of Beyond Distracted, hosts Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke sit down with astrophysicist, science communicator and IncludeHer founder Dr Kat Ross to explore neurodiversity, adult diagnosis, and learning in ways that support an ADHD brain.   Kat shares her experience of receiving an adult ADHD diagnosis and her anger at th...

What if the thing you've been calling self-sabotage was never that at all?   In this episode of Beyond Distracted, psychologists Anthony Brown and   Meagan Cooke are joined by Connor M. Greene – ADHD coach, psychosis support specialist and the author of ADHD Explained – to talk about adult diagnosis, self-blame, and what changes when you finally understand your brain.   Connor shares his journey t...

In this conversation, Joanne Seymon from Kaiko Fidgets opens up about the messy and beautiful reality of living and working with ADHD. From the early days of creating sensory tools for her son Kai to running a business that supports thousands of neurodivergent people, Jo shares what it's like to balance creativity, chaos and compassion. We talk about imposter syndrome, the freedom that comes from...

What if being completely alone in the wilderness was not terrifying… but restorative? In this episode of Beyond Distracted, hosts Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke sit down with Krzysztof Wojtkowski, winner of Alone Australia Season 2, to explore what 64 days in the remote wilderness of Aotearoa New Zealand revealed about ADHD, masking, hyperfocus, and what it really means to feel at home in your own...

What happens when you finally have language for your life? In this episode of Beyond Distracted, psychologists Anthony Brown and Meagan Cooke are joined by Dr Oli Meredith – an AuDHD academic, public health researcher, and mindfulness practitioner – for a deeply human conversation about late diagnosis, grief, validation, and what it means to stop hiding. Oli shares her journey to an ADHD diagnosis...

We often hear well-meaning advice from neurotypical voices about how neurodiverse people can live happy and successful lives. As psychologists with lived experience of neurodiversity we often wonder: would the advice be different if it came from neurodiverse people? In Beyond Distracted , we interview neurodiverse people who have found success in their fields not by masking who they are, but by em...