Don't Be Caught Dead

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What if the future of end-of-life care doesn't lie in hospitals, but within our communities? In this episode, I sit down with Professor Samar Aoun AM, internationally recognised palliative care researcher, Founder and Chair of Compassionate Communities Australia, and one of Australia's leading voices in grief, bereavement and public heal...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Six babies are stillborn in Australia every day. Two babies die within their first 28 days of life, and a miscarriage occurs every three and a half minutes. Yet despite how common pregnancy and baby loss is, it remains one of society’s most misunderstood and least talked about experiences. In this episode, I sit down with Larissa Reinboth, artist,...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) When I first discovered Tinky’s tiny installations hidden throughout Melbourne’s laneways, I was instantly captivated. What looked like a whimsical miniature scene often revealed something much deeper: sharp observation, dark humour, storytelling, and a unique way of seeing the world. In this episode, I sit down with Melbourne-based artist Tinky,...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) When we talk about death, we often focus on what happens after someone dies. But what if we also talked about how we support the people left behind? In this episode, I’m joined by Robyn O’Connell, an experienced funeral celebrant, grief educator, author, speaker, and founder of the Rebecca Jane Foundation. For more than two decades, Robyn has help...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What would you do if you were given a second chance at life? And then a third? For documentary photographer Andrew Chapman, surviving two life-saving transplants has given him a perspective few people ever experience. Rather than turning away from mortality, Andrew has spent decades documenting it, capturing the realities of organ donation, transp...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Jean Kittson has spent a lifetime making Australians laugh, but behind the humour is a deeply personal and confronting exploration of death, dying, grief, and the aged care system. In this episode, I sit down with comedian, author, speaker, and Patron of Palliative Care Nurses Australia, Jean Kittson, to talk about how her own fear and avoidance o...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) In this episode, I’m joined by photographer and visual storyteller Julian Kingma, whose work has captured some of Australia’s most intimate and human stories across decades of journalism, portraiture, publishing, and documentary photography. But it was his deeply personal project The Power of Choice that drew me to his work. Through portraits and...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What happens when a veteran crime journalist revisits one of Australia’s most haunting unsolved murders? In this episode, I sit down with Andrew Rule, one of Australia’s most respected crime reporters and storytellers, to talk about the unsolved murders of Margaret and Seana Tapp. Andrew shares what first drew him to the case decades ago, the trou...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) In this episode, I’m joined by Travis Hamilton, a visionary entrepreneur, ‘recovering banker’, and co-founder of Candour Funerals. After decades working in international finance and navigating addiction, trauma, and two near-death experiences, Travis found himself pulled toward purpose-led work centered around mortality, consciousness, and meaning...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) I’ve had many conversations about death, grief, and what it means to be prepared… but this one felt different. Barry Du Bois is someone many Australians know from television. A builder, presenter, and now a powerful mental health advocate. But beyond the public image, Barry carries a deeply personal story shaped by cancer, loss, resilience, and a...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) There are moments in life that divide everything into before and after… this conversation with Emily Mir holds one of those stories. Emily is a mother, storyteller, and advocate whose life was forever shaped by the stillbirth of her son, Gilbert, at full term. What she shares is not just the heartbreak of that day, but the reality of what comes af...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) If I had my time again, I wouldn’t leave her there… I would have brought her home. In this episode, I sit down with Annie Caulfield, a Brisbane-based death care practitioner and founder of Grassroots Death Care. Annie’s work is centred around helping families reconnect with death in a way that feels more personal, supported, and deeply human. This...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Trigger Warning: This episode includes conversations around suicide, trauma, and grief. Please listen with care. — I’ve sat in many conversations around death… but this one stayed with me in a different way. Today, I’m speaking with Todd Maguire, a former undercover police officer who spent decades on the frontline of humanity’s darkest moments. F...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Have you ever thought about what it really means to live well… and how often we’re told that “more” is the answer? More things. More experiences. More consumption. But what if that’s not it at all? In this episode, I’m joined by Annie Raser-Rowland, writer, horticulturalist, and co-author of The Art of Frugal Hedonism. Together, we explore a diffe...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) In this episode, I’m speaking with Kathie Shearer, a funeral celebrant for over 20 years who has supported families through some of life’s most emotional moments. We explore what truly matters at the end of life, and what people actually remember. Kathie shares that it’s not the achievements or milestones, but the memories, the relationships, and...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) In this episode, I’m speaking with John Malouff, psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of New England. John has spent much of his career researching procrastination, self-regulation, and the science of why people avoid the very tasks that could make their lives easier. And that includes one of the most important tasks many of us p...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) There are some losses we never officially acknowledge. Not the kind that comes with a funeral, flowers, or a clear ending. But the kind that quietly reshapes a life. A diagnosis. A caregiving role. A sudden accident. A future that no longer looks the way we thought it would. In this episode, I speak with Linda Rowley, a wellbeing consultant, coach...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What happens to your brain after you die? In this episode, I speak with Professor Greg Sutherland, Director of the New South Wales Brain Tissue Resource Centre. Greg leads one of Australia’s postmortem brain banks and works at the forefront of research into Alzheimer’s Disease and Alcohol Use Disorder. We talk about what a brain bank really is and...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Theresa Flavin was diagnosed with younger-onset Alzheimer’s Disease at 47. What followed was not just a medical journey, but a profound reckoning with how unprepared our systems are for people living with dementia. In this deeply moving and confronting conversation, Theresa shares what it felt like to be dismissed, unheard and effectively “managed...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What happens when the person you thought embodied “success” dies in a way that completely unravels your definition of it? That’s where this conversation with Penny Locaso begins. Penny is a behavioural scientist and leadership coach, but this episode is not corporate theory. We talk about suicide, unanswered questions, grief that doesn’t follow a...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Imagine a gay man planning his own funeral, only for his family to swoop in on the day and try to rewrite everything – that's the raw, heartbreaking reality one of Bronte Price's clients faced, and he had to advocate fiercely for his wishes.  In this episode, I chat with Bronte Price, a.k.a. “your gay celebrant,” Australia's trailbl...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) Ever wondered what it's really like to stare death in the face – not just your own, but the sudden, shattering loss of a child to suicide? In this raw and honest chat, I sit down with Christine Pedley, a grief counsellor, death doula, and author who's turned her deepest pain into a lifeline for others. If you've ever felt lost in th...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) In this episode of Don’t Be Caught Dead, I sit down with Reverend Amy Firth — interfaith minister, funeral director, and spiritual counsellor — to talk about her incredible journey through grief, loss, and finding her calling in end-of-life care. From training in London with the One Spirit Interfaith Foundation, to returning to the Blue Mountains...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) What do you give the love of your life as a final birthday gift when they only have days left? That's the tender moment Reverend Jim Colville shares with us in this powerful chat. It's an act of love that perfectly sums up Jim's radical, non-judgemental approach to life, death, and dying. Jim, the man who started Colony 47 in Hobart...

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text :-) In this episode, I have the absolute pleasure of chatting with Dr. Annetta Mallon, a leading expert in grief loss education and end-of-life care. With over three decades of experience as a psychotherapist, Annetta dives deep into the complexities of grief, loss, and the importance of personal storytelling. We explore the multifaceted roles of an e...