Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

When your kids become parents, it's like deja vu. You've weathered these same toddler tantrums, right through to the teenage rebellions. It's just your grandchildren testing boundaries this time not your kids. But it's probably testing you too — and despite your best intentions, eventually you're going to put your foot in it. You're only human. This episode explores how to navigate this new phase...

This week, the Aunties share their advice with a listener who wants a sleep divorce — the trick is convincing her partner it'll be better for their sex life. Plenty of couples sleep in separate beds and maintain their intimacy and connection, so how do you get past the stigma?

It's time to talk about the mental load — that invisible, unpaid form of labour that keeps a household running.  When it comes to two-parent families, research shows women do 50 per cent more housework than men, and double the amount of caring duties.  But the mental load is about more than juggling the significant burden of daily life admin. So what would it look like if that was equally shared? 

On Tuesday night in New York one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons sold for $71 million. The skeleton, nicknamed Gus, is from the Late Cretaceous period and is approximately 67 million years old. The buyer of Gus has not yet been disclosed, but it begs the question: should any one person own an item like this?

The federal government's setting up an Office of AI to lay out some ground rules for companies that want to build centres in Australia.  In Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's words, it's about "shaping the future, rather than letting the future shape us".  Broadly Australians are getting on board, with more than 13.6 million Australians regularly using AI tools. But there are pockets of resistance...

Imagine being told, every day, that today could be the day the world ends. That was the message drilled into Bek Condello for as long as she could remember. Raised in a strict doomsday church, Bek has written about her experience growing up, and how leaving her community led her to rebuild her entire life. 

No matter how old you are, making friends is tricky business. But at least in your youth, you had the time to get to know someone slowly, at school or university, where a relationship can build naturally. With the daily demands of adult life, even if you have enough in common with people you see at pilates, school drop-off or work, it's hard to find the time to road-test that relationship. So with...

Gayle is looking for love again in her 40s. She spent some time scouring the dating apps, but now she's ditched them in an effort to find someone offline. Well, kind of offline. She's also documenting her journey on social media.  So what is the best way to find a new relationship in mid-life, are people having more success offline than on — or are we just evolving past dating apps?

If you go by the generational stereotypes of disgruntled and disaffected youth, it's easy to assume that young people don't care about anything, and simply aren't interested in politics or what's happening around them. But you'd be wrong. According to new research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies, it's not that young people are disengaged - they're actually just engaging in differen...

Is there one task on your to-do list that keeps you up at night? It takes up a lot of mental headspace and you could just do it, but for some reason you just… don't. One option for getting through this struggle is holding a "getting stuff done" party, where people get together with their reports, taxes, forms and tick off the collective tasks as a group. But why do we need these and how do they wo...

News of Sam Neill's sudden death, at the age of 78, has been felt right around the world. He gave so many unforgettable performances, from Jurassic Park and The Piano to Peaky Blinders, but away from the cameras, he found his greatest peace on his beloved farm New Zealand. He's being remembered not just an extraordinary actor, but a beautiful person whose warmth, wit, and talent touched millions.

There's a critical lack of affordable housing options across the board, and data suggests older women — who typically retire with less in savings and superannuation than men — are particularly vulnerable. The number of older women experiencing homelessness has more than doubled in the last eight years. It's a complex problem, and there's no silver bullet. But one potential solution aimed at the "m...

Last week on the program, Life Matters discussed the rise of smart glasses and the ethical quandaries they present in terms of privacy.  But for some users, these accessories offer more than convenience or street cred. For people with low or no vision, using smart glasses as an accessibility aid can be life-changing.

There are more than 100,000 children currently in some form of kinship care in Australia, and it's estimated more than half of those providing that care are grandparents. It's a family dynamic born out of a stark reality — when a parent can no longer look after their child, either a family member steps up or that child enters the formal out-of-home care system. And so the relationship shifts. In t...

When the love of your life is down on one knee, offering you a diamond ring, divorce is probably the last thing on your mind. But it's estimated that around 1 in 3 marriages in Australia will end that way, so what do you do with the ring after the person who gave it to you is no longer in the picture? Consider the divorce ring: take that piece of jewellery and turn it into something new. 

Has the rise of AI got you worried about how secure your job is? Do you feel like you lack the skills to take a leap and chase work you really love? Pulling yourself out of a career slump is hard work, but it's worth looking at the bigger picture. Because chances are your knowledge, experience and human skills could be transferred to any number of meaningful jobs out there. So how do you figure ou...

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye … this week the Aunties share some advice for a listener in hot water after a dogsitting disaster.

Morris Gleitzman is no stranger to spinning stories that capture a child's imagination. And to the prolific Australian author's delight, his love of stories is genetic — it's a passion his two grandsons have had from the start, spending many nights staying up way past bedtime lost in a fantastical tale with their grandpa.  All throughout July, you'll meet prominent Australians through the eyes of...

Women over 55 are the fastest growing cohort experiencing homelessness in Australia. Women have been pushed to seek alternative living arrangements, something like a share house, but with systems in place to help iron out the challenges of living with strangers. The system is called a homeshare, and new research shows how this has worked for women in Queensland, with similar projects popping up in...

When you're shaping the minds of the next generation, how do you bring truth-telling that encompasses 65,000 years of Indigenous people's history into the here and now?

If talking about money makes you squirm, you might want to think twice before you open an account with the bank of mum and dad. Despite the increasing number of people relying on cash assistance from their family to get into the property market, we haven't figured out how to talk to each other about the strings attached to the cash. New research from the University of Newcastle is highlighting the...

If you were running a car for eight hours a day straight without stopping, eventually you would run out of petrol and the car would break down.  The same can be said for our bodies and minds, so taking effective breaks at work should be a priority.  The trick is knowing how to take restorative breaks and build them into your day.

For some it is their dream holiday destination, but for others it's just home.  So how does it feel to live in a place where the streets are always crowded with tourists snapping photos?  Some UNESCO world heritage sites are so overwhelmed by visitors, they're asking to be removed from the list as they struggle with the feeling of living in a museum. So, if locals are asking you not to go, do you...

You might start to notice some specific letters next to seafood dishes when you're next at a restaurant or ordering fish and chips. From July 1 all venues and outlets that sell ready-to-eat seafood will be required to have country of origin labels. This move is aimed at promoting local industry and giving consumers more information about where their food comes from, but will it work?

The federal government's long-awaited gambling ad reforms are on the way. While there's pushback from all sides already, the legislation broadly aims to minimise children's exposure to gambling advertising through sport.  Sports betting is now the fastest-growing form of gambling in the country. Around 1 in 10 Australian men have placed a bet on a race or a game.  Experts say that's no coincidence...