Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

Ten years ago, Facebook updated its platform to introduce new ways to interact with posts you were seeing in your feed.  Alongside the humble thumbs-up, a range of smiley face emojis offered a one-click shortcut to express love, surprise, sadness, and the most powerful emotion of all: anger.  In the years since, it seems our online appetite for anger has only grown, with algorithms amplifying 60-s...

From pop culture milestones to forgotten parts of the city you love — there's a Facebook page for that. Whether it's a page sharing memories of music and art from a beloved decade, or old buildings from a town you used to live in, the internet loves a bit of nostalgia because we love it too.  These pages are little pockets of nice in an online world that can get pretty ugly, but they're also perfo...

You can probably think of at least five things at work that are kind of related to your job, but in reality become distractions that keep you from achieving what you need to do.  As constant emails, notifications and all the other tasks of your workday build up, this accumulation has been given a new name: "thoughtload".How do we recognise our "thoughtload" and process it so we can get the most ou...

We share a lot of life's milestones with our friends. Remember the year of 21st birthdays? Then the season of weddings, babies, mortgages. Most of us make friends with people around our own age, and we bond over the things we're all navigating at the same stage of life. But there's something valuable in friendships that span generations, too. Friends who are decades older or younger than you bring...

Last year Australians lost more than $2 billion to scams, and while the number of victims has fallen, the total combined losses has risen. The federal government has announced its plans to claw back some of that money, introducing an automatic reimbursement scheme for scam victims with verified losses up to $3,000. So could this help stop cyber criminals from taking off with your hard-earned cash?

Earlier this year, lawyer, educator and advocate Adair Donaldson was confronted with unimaginable loss. His son Oliver, the youngest of four boys, died suddenly. He was 19. As Adair navigates the grief that has followed, he's found himself reflecting on fatherhood. These reflections have taken the form of a series of letters — deeply personal, generous letters — to the fathers of boys.

Part of being a good friend is providing a sympathetic ear, but what do you do if you think they need professional help? It can be hard to be there for a friend when they keep circling the same issues and aren't tracking well. What are the signs you need to look for and how do you start the conversation without crossing a line?

Hiking is a a great way to see the world and get active, but there are real risks involved that require careful consideration and planning.  So when Tourism Australia described the Western Arthurs Traverse in Tasmania as a great place to "boost your step count", it received some criticism for perhaps underselling the difficulty of the Grade 5 track.  How do we strike the balance between promoting...

NASA has announced the next big step in its Artemis program: they're going to build a home base for astronauts, on the Moon. It'll take until at least 2032 before the base can support a "sustained human presence", and even then, it'll be trained astronauts living and working there. But does this take us one step closer to a future where everyday humans are living somewhere other than Earth? And if...

Australia's social media ban has been in place for six months — with mixed reports on its success.  For teens managing to bypass the ban, they're still swimming in the same addictive stream of harmful content.  But could we change the way these algorithms work, and make social media a better place for everyone? 

This week the Aunties give some advice to a listener worried that her friend is being scammed by a romantic suitor.  If you suspect something is too good to be true, how do you burst the bubble of someone when they're finally happy after years of being unlucky in love?

The odds are, gambling is part of your life or the life of someone you know. Three in four Australian adults spend money on gambling in a typical year, and two in five of us gamble at least once a week. So do you know when it's time to talk your mates about gambling and the harms it can bring?

The federal government has announced a major overhaul of the unemployment system that it says is ill equipped to support many of the people who rely on it. The plan is to change the way support is provided to people depending on their needs, rather than the current one-size-fits all approach. So does this sound like a fairer system? And will it actually help people find meaningful worker faster?

Each year the Queensland government allows up to 190 tonnes of coral to be harvested and exported from the Great Barrier Reef. Coral fishery members say it is a highly regulated industry which operates within the rules and well under the limit.  However, the Australian Marine Conservation Society is calling for a phase-out of live coral harvesting by the end of 2028.  Is it something of concern? A...

New data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority shows that in 2025, only 37 per cent of year 10 students were proficient in digital skills. So if the kids can't even keep up with this newfangled techy world — what hope do the rest of us have?

Have you ever noticed that some of Australia's most iconic events sound almost completely made up? From Winton's dunny derby, to Port Lincoln's championship tuna toss, there seems to be an event for just about everyone.  While they can sound delightfully absurd from the outside, these quirky festivals tell us something deeper about regional Australia.  Often times, the novelty comes from a communi...

The average person spends around 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime. That's a lot of time to spend somewhere if you're not happy. So how do you know if it's time to leave? And when it comes to quitting, the when and how requires some thought.

Sustainability has been a fashion buzzword for well over a decade. But the controversial sale of ethical fashion brand Everlane to fast-fashion giant Shein has many shoppers asking whether sustainable clothing can make for financially sustainable businesses.  So if ethical fashion has become just another marketing trend, does this change the way you shop?

Recently the Federal Court ruled that Coles had intentionally misled customers with its "down down" discounts. It decided the process of inflating the price of a product and then lowering it to a price still higher than the original was not a fair representation of a discount. What role do discounts play in marketing and what does this decision mean for upcoming cases against other businesses?

For many parents, hearing the phrase "remote learning" triggers flashbacks to the pandemic-induced chaos of working from home with school-aged kids. But long before 2020, a different kind of innovation brought education to some of the most remote communities in Australia.  This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Alice Springs School of the Air, the first of its kind in the world. While times a...

A range of economic indicators paint a picture of Australians becoming stuck. Stuck in one job, in one city, in a place where the risks of trying something new are just too great.  Even the great Australian dream of owning your own home can come with its own kind of "golden handcuffs", tying people to one version of their life. So what's driving this inertia, and is there anything you can do about...

What would you do if you found a fossil or artefact? Twenty-three species of dinosaur have been discovered in Australia and 70 per cent of those were found by the public. It can happen to anyone and pretty much anywhere, so do you know what the next steps are?

Imagine being caught in a cycle where every 29 days, you transform into an angry, weepy, out-of-control mess. Then suddenly, it passes. You forget the depths of that low and feel almost completely normal. Until the cycle starts again. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a major depressive disorder affecting between 2 to 8 per cent of people who menstruate. In the lead-up to their period, people wit...

Recent research suggests social anxiety is on the rise. Beyond the usual feelings around making awkward small talk, many people are struggling to socialise at work, meet new friends or even leave their own house. It's estimated that around one in 10 Australians will experience social anxiety at some point in their lifetime, and younger people are particularly vulnerable.  So have we lost the abili...

When you're parenting small children, sleep can feel like a battleground. So when one person takes a night off, how late is too late to stay out?  The Aunties weigh in on a sensitive debate, and share some advice on navigating sleep envy and resentment.