Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

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...

Smart glasses — like dumb glasses with added computing power — have been around for well over a decade, without ever reaching broad commercial success in Australia. But this time the tech's had an AI injection, and can not only snap pictures of what's around you, but synthesise what you're looking at and explain it back to you. It's not only the technical capacity that's advancing, companies like...

This month Life Matters is bringing you The Grandparent Trap series, charting the rewards and responsibilities of modern grandparenting.  Throughout the series you'll meet a side of prominent Australians you don't always get to see, like Ray Martin, or simply "Mondo" to his grandchildren. Ray's grandparenting style is hands on and he wouldn't have it any other way, in fact when he transforms into...

Grandparents are more enmeshed in their grandchildren's lives than ever, but close to three in five say their grandparenting style doesn't always match what's expected of them.  The reality is grandparenting in 2026 can be intense. And while the rewards are rich there are responsibilities you maybe never saw coming.  So every week in July, Life Matters is exploring what it is to be a modern grandp...

Financial pressure is the leading stressor affecting mental health for almost half of Australians, according to new data from Beyond Blue.  It can affect every facet of our lives, and can be particularly hard on relationships So if this you're someone who's struggling to stay on top of things, what can you do about it?

When a loved one dies, everyone around them grieves differently. For some, it means getting back into the swing of regular life as soon as possible. This week, the Aunties offer their wisdom to a listener who's feeling sensitive about how quickly their dad has moved on after losing the love of his life. 

When you're asked to speak at a friend's wedding, do you seize up with panic, or embrace your moment on the microphone? Confidence can help us in a whole range of ways — and the lack of it can be really challenging.  It can show up in your career, your relationships, the way you parent, and help you through the curveballs of daily life. So is confidence something you can cultivate? Does faking it...

On Saturday morning thousands of people will wake up at 4am to watch the Socceroos and for many it may be the only game they watch this year. If you get swept up in the height of a competition and only support a team once every four years, is that really support?  How do you balance loyalty in barracking for your team as a virtue against being carried away with tribalism?

Neil is an internet sensation. He's a 1,000-kilogram juvenile elephant seal who's been charming Tasmanian locals and online fans around the world for years. His regular midwinter haul-outs have brought him onto land and in close contact with humans and our built environment. But as Neil grows bigger, so too do the risks. So how can humans better manage the situation so that Neil's pilgrimages don'...

If you go by the calendar, we're about three weeks into Australia's ski season. But if you look outside at most of the country's alpine resorts you'll see that the snow didn't get the memo. Australia's snowfall has been in long term decline for decades now, and it's something that the towns, people and businesses on the frontline of Australia's winter economy have been grappling with for years. So...

Remember when paying for TV meant skipping ads? That was the big promise of subscription television, and later, streaming. But these days, if you avoid the ads, increasingly you have to pay even more. It's a practice that's landed Amazon in court, with the ACCC alleging the company relied on unfair contract terms to introduce ads to Prime Video after customers had already signed up.  Amazon is rev...

As the old saying goes, nothing in this world is certain, except death and taxes. Whether it be a long time from now, or sooner than we think, it's a fact of life that we're all going to die. But what happens between now and then is up to you.  So how might embracing that fact change the way you spend the rest of your days?

Most of us have a stand-out moment from a family holiday that is one of our most cherished memories. You also probably remember a trip that turned into a complete disaster with the whole family screaming at each other.  So what are the benefits of a family holiday and how do you make the most out of the time away?

There's growing evidence that autism presents differently in girls and women, which means it often goes unrecognised until significantly later in life. For many women, the realisation lands when they're parenting a child through neurodivergence and starting to notice similar traits in themselves. So how does it feel to spend decades thinking you're just the odd one out, struggling with things that...

In June alone, two major Australian theatre productions, Beetlejuice and Waitress, closed early. So what's really going on in Australian theatre, and why are big productions struggling — are we, the audience, part of the problem?

On July 5, the world will celebrate the 30th birthday of Dolly the sheep — the first mammal ever cloned from an adult cell. It was a landmark moment in the world of science that triggered international discussions about the ethics of cloning. Thirty years on, what are our perceptions of cloning and the legacy of Dolly the sheep?