Death and Donuts

Daniel Erasmus has been searching for truth, beauty and goodness, his entire life. He’s tried almost everything under the sun, from partying hard, hooking up with women, to traveling. Not satisfied, and looking for something deeper, he turned to religion, from nominal protestant Christianity, he became a religious Jew, is now married to an Iranian Muslim, and has two young children. More recently...

My mum, Julie James, was a very troubled teenager. One night some of her friends forced the drug LSD into her mouth and she began to have hallucinations of hell. The next morning she wanted to end her life but a prayer said in desperation was her first step in a 50 year journey filled with sacrificial love, joy and peace. "

Bill West stopped practising his Catholic Faith as he moved from school to full-time work. While backpacking through Asia, as a young man, he got terribly sick, and with the prospect of death, in desperation, he asked God for help. He got better and when he returned home to Australia, he re-connected with his Catholic Faith. Decades later, still working as a journalist, he decided to do a deep div...

Desmond Kon was dead for close to 30 minutes before being resuscitated. During this short period of bodily death, Desmond had a ‘Near Death Experience’ where he endured a long period of purification and was then invited by some souls to go with them to ‘another place’. He also talks about his time in the military, his conversion to Catholicism and shares some wisdom on beauty.

Rohan Viswalingham has appeared twice on the podcast, in Season 1, Episode 9 and 12. He is a close friend from ABC News and I had the good fortune of becoming his Godfather a few years ago. In a crazy turn of events, Rohan recently resigned from the ABC and has started a novitiate with a community of Benedictine monks! After his vision of Christ, explained in S1 E12, Rohan went to Lisieux, in Fran...

Michelle and Michael Punch are in their early 30s, are happily married and have three children. But not so long ago, while they were at university and dating, Michelle considered herself an atheist who found happiness in things like clubbing and drinking while Michael, apart from his sexual relationship with Michelle, didn't mind dabbling with porn. But a trip overseas revealed to them that authen...

James Tran hails from the south-west of Sydney. He lost his way in his teens with wild parties, philandering, and the like. One night, after another crazy time, James entered the darkness of his bedroom with a gnawing sense of inner emptiness. He pondered, 'what if there's no God, no love, and this sinking feeling continues to grow forever?' After a plea from the bottom of his heart, he quickly en...

Atheist turned Catholic priest, Fr Sam Fancourt, shares some observations he's made in his first five years as a Catholic cleric. He also touches on his dealings with Jessica Van Leeuwen, a young mother of six, who sadly lost her life after battling brain cancer. Notes: More on Jessica Van Leeuwen - https://opusdei.org/en-nz/article/embracing-the-cross-of-cancer-jessica-ven-leeuwen/

Margaret has ten children. Tragically three have died, two from abortion and one from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Heartache led her to gambling on poker machines. Due to her addiction she and her family had to sell their home. Her gambling continued and they lost a second home. In desperation she turned to the Logos, to Christ, in the Eucharist. After persistent prayer, in tears, things b...

In Season 1 Episode 9, Choosing not to hit rock bottom , Rohan Viswalingham shared how, through Buddhist meditation retreats, reading books and some lifestyle changes, he was able to preserve his life. He was then drawn to the Logos and was baptised as a Catholic Christian. But a 'piece to the puzzle of life' was still missing for Rohan, until one day, something 'trippy' happened, on a silent retr...

Our guest from Episode 5, The Banking Executive and The Demon, Eddy Borovnjak, passed away recently from cancer. He was young and leaves behind a young family. In the interview from episode 5 we only got halfway through his story. Here is the second half of his journey to the Logos. We start with a brief summary from episode 5. In this episode, Eddy talks about things that were revealed to him abo...

Leia Egan is 22-years-old and the eldest of four children. She was very close to her siblings, especially because her mother, Jenni, suffered for many years from alcoholism. Then within a few years Leia lost two of her siblings. Her sister Ellie died after a drawn out struggle with a brain tumour while her brother Zack died suddenly and unexpectedly from a sinus infection. Leia was left grief stri...

After coming to the conclusion that his life was hopeless in his early 20s, Rohan became a hedonist. He focused on flooding his body with sex, drugs and alcohol. But he realised he was on a bad trajectory when he woke up one morning, not at home, but at ABC News, his place of work, after another big night out. Something had to change...

Daniel Skinner is a student studying philosophy at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia. For a few of his teenage years he was a fired up new atheist and nihilist. But one day he was listening to the Joe Rogan Experience where Rogan interviewed Jordan Peterson who said 'nihilism is cowardice'. This, amongst other things, threw Dan into an existential crisis.

Eddy Borovnjak was living the dream. Married with kids and making the big bucks as a banking executive in Sydney. Sadly a few bad habits soon turned into vices. He felt he was a burden on his family and decided to kill himself.  Before doing so he made a simple act of humility, then something extraordinary occurred. This is only the beginning of Eddy's epic journey to the Logos.

In his 20s Mike Greenwell was married, an alcoholic, a compulsive gambler and a drug user. Some nights he would come home so drunk he would wet the bed. He began blaming his wife for many of the problems he caused. Today Mike admits that if it wasn't for good people sticking by him, especially his wife, he would be dead like many of his friends who suffered with various addictions. All these wonde...

James Parker was left orphaned at birth, was sexually abused in primary and secondary school, struggled with porn and alcohol addiction, had a happy long term same sex relationship at university, is now married to a woman and has a beautiful daughter. Confused? Listen to this episode where James explains in detail this journey and what he learnt.

When I first started working with Jarryd at ABC News, he wanted to live alone so he could maximise pleasure. He was playing 6-8 hours of video games a day, watching porn regularly, eating what he felt like and had a superficial view on sex and relationships.  After many years of searching he's decided to become a Catholic Christian. In this podcast you will hear Jarryd speak about all the twists a...

Fr Sam Fancourt hails from a small town called Taranaki on the North Island of New Zealand. He woke up one morning somewhere in Auckland, probably after another boozy night, and while lying in bed began questioning if drugs and friends with benefits were the answers to life’s biggest questions. He concluded then and there that there had to be more and began an epic search for true love.