Big Stuff With Danielle Colley

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Have you ever completely lost your cool with your kid and then spent the next hour feeling like the worst parent alive? Family therapist and author of The Perfect Parent Trap, Lisa Taylor, has spent 25 years sitting across from families in crisis — and what she'll tell you is that in almost every single case, the child is not the problem. I...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text In this episode, Danielle sits down with double ARIA Award-winning musician, Elana Stone, to explore what it really means to build a sustainable creative life when the entire economic system has shifted underneath you.  Twenty years into a career what looks successful from the outside - international tours, collaborations with incredible artists...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text What happens when a Muay Thai champion decides the real fight isn't in the ring—it's saving boys from the stereotypes that are killing them? Richie Hardcore knows exactly what happens when boys grow up watching men solve problems with fists and bottles. His father's severe alcoholism and the family violence that came with it could...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text What happens when a tipsy joke about not being fun anymore cracks a marriage wide open? A few weeks ago, I sat across from my husband at a café and told him he could leave. Not in anger - in complete pragmatic calm. These are my kids, this is my circus, you don't have to be here. If you want long lunches, freedom, a life without constant te...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Looking for love makes you vulnerable. And vulnerability? That's where shame lives. Kylee Dennis knows this better than most. When her mum got love scammed after 25 years of being single, the thing that hurt more than the money lost was watching her carry the shame of it—too embarrassed to ask for help, too mortified to admit she'd wan...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Your body's keeping secrets from you. Not because it wants to hide things, but because you've been taught to ignore, shove down, and repress experiences, thoughts, and feelings you haven't had the time or resources to handle. That knot in your stomach when you say yes but mean no? Your body remembers. The exhaustion you can't...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text "Everything happens for a reason" - sometimes those words feel like a punch in the gut when you're drowning in grief, fear, or anger. But what if there's a different way to look at life's hardest moments that doesn't feel like toxic positivity? In this Big Stuff summer series episode, host Danielle Colley weaves tog...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text A listener wrote in feeling completely torn apart by the weight of expectations. Family expectations, societal expectations, and the brutal “shoulds” we place on ourselves. In this How Are You Really? episode of Big Stuff , Danielle unpacks what it costs us when we say yes to someone else’s vision… and no to our own. Whether your dream is travel...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Jordana Borensztajn, a comedian, communication expert and mentalist, joins the show to share how her most humiliating moments became the fuel for her career. From bombing so badly on a cruise ship that an elderly passenger told her to get off while she was still at sea, to being escorted off Facebook’s campus in a giant Like costume, Jordana rev...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text In this deeply personal episode recorded only weeks after her mother’s death through voluntary assisted dying, Danielle shares the raw reality of grief, far beyond the familiar sadness people expect. She opens up about dissociation at work events, emotional numbness, and the biological impact of loss on the brain and body, from the amygdala to t...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text In this powerful episode divorce coach and founder of Women's Divorce Academy, Carolyn Tate, shares the heartbreaking yet inspiring journey of supporting her son Connor through a life-threatening crisis that ultimately revealed his truth which changed their lives forever.  Carolyn and host, Danielle Colley, explore the reality of parenting...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text What happens when you stop apologising for your choices with one tiny word?  Lisa Schweighoffer went from saying "I'm just a stay-at-home mom" to co-founding Boost Lab, the irreverent skincare brand that's disrupting beauty by refusing to take itself too seriously. In this raw conversation, Lisa shares how just one single wor...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Trigger warning: Episode discusses death, grief and choosing to die.  This is part two of a series. If you haven't listened to Episode 12 where I first introduced you to my mum Carolyn and her decision to pursue voluntary assisted death, start there. On the 11th October, we threw my mum the living wake of the century. It was supposed to be...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Two months before her wedding, Dr. Phoebe Rogers, a clinical psychologist and couples therapist and she was having secret panic attacks.  Every time she pictured herself saying “I do,” she imagined herself bolting from the altar instead. She almost went through with it anyway, because sometimes the voice whispering “at least someone loves you” c...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text What happens when the thing you've built your entire life around suddenly disappears? Cooper Chapman was a top 100 professional surfer living what looked like the dream, traveling the world, sponsored by major brands, representing his country since age 14. But beneath the surface, his self-worth was being affected on a deeper level. Every c...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text A listener’s raw confession stopped me in my tracks: “I know I’m not worthy because I fuck up.” She’s paying off $100K in debt, thriving at work, and being an amazing mom yet she wouldn’t let her daughters speak to themselves the way she speaks to herself. In this episode, we unpack the cruelest lie we tell ourselves: that self-worth needs to be...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Danielle’s beloved mother, Carolyn Colley, has lived with multiple sclerosis for 35 years. Now facing imminent respiratory and renal failure, she's been granted voluntary assisted death in New South Wales and she's happier than she's been in years.  Not because she’s given up, but because after decades of being in surrender to her...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text When Andy Whitfield died at 39 from cancer, his widow Vashti faced an impossible question: How do you survive profound loss while raising two young children alone? In this deeply honest conversation about grief, solo parenting, and personal transformation, Vashti Whitfield shares how she turned devastating loss into meaningful legacy work. Vasht...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Does it ever feel like you’re the only one doing the emotional work in your relationship? This episode dives into the emotional labor imbalance that shows up when one partner is growing, healing, and evolving — while the other stays the same. This is the personal growth gap that can leave you feeling like you’re in a one-sided relationship or sl...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text This powerful episode features Preston O'Brien, a men's mental health advocate and founder of Every Sunday Motorcycle Collective (so you don’t kill yourself between Monday and Saturday) and The Triumphant Man. He’s sharing his journey from childhood sexual abuse survivor to drug dealer to advocate for doing the big work that allows dee...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Casey Beros had interviewed hundreds of medical experts and built her career teaching people how to navigate healthcare. But when her father was diagnosed with terminal mesothelioma (asbestos cancer), all her professional expertise meant nothing when she was sobbing in a hospital corridor at 2 AM. In this raw and powerful conversation, Casey sha...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text Three years ago I thought I was losing my mind—snappy with my family, flat in my business, and waking up with zero desire to face the day. What I didn’t know then was that perimenopause had turned up the volume on something I’d been living with all along: ADHD. In this episode of Big Stuff , I share the real story of how I finally got diagnosed...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text What would you do if offered the adventure of a lifetime - knowing you could never come home again? Dr. Dianne McGrath said yes. Out of 200,000 applicants worldwide, she made it to the final 100 candidates for Mars One - a one-way mission to colonize Mars. For eight years, Dianne prepared to leave Earth forever, knowing she'd never see her...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text If you're hiding in your car in a supermarket car park stealing five minutes of peace, this How Are You Really? episode is just for you. Welcome to what Danielle is calling "The Sausage Mincer of Midlife" - that brutal life stage where you're finally winning at work just as your teenagers turn feral and your parents need more...

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a text What do you do when you have a burning dream, two kids depending on you, and absolutely no safety net? You ship it anyway. Jessica Mudditt knows a thing or two about backing yourself when the stakes are high. As a journalist who spent a decade navigating international media across London, Bangladesh, and Myanmar—including being the only foreign...