The ConFab with Michael G

Send us Fan Mail Cal Bruton is well-known to basketball fans around the country as a player and coach who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of the game in Australia.   He founded the Bruton Basketball Foundation to help young people develop not just basketball skills but also the skills they need to succeed in life. The Basketball Lessons 4Life program mentors disadvantaged a...

Send us Fan Mail Jack Carty is an award-winning songwriter, musician, author, and graphic designer.  Jack developed a lifelong compulsion to create that has since seen him become one of the country’s most respected independent voices. It is a path that has taken him around the world: touring his critically acclaimed indie-folk music across the UK, Europe, North America, and New Zealand. With a car...

Send us Fan Mail When  Rolf  was confronted with how differently cardiac patients were treated in rural and remote Australia, he decided to do something about it. He designed and launched the first Heart of Australia mobile ‘Heart Trucks’ to visit remote communities.  Heart of Australia provides equitable access to specialist healthcare services and testing in rural, remote, and First Nations comm...

Send us Fan Mail Cheryl has been instrumental in driving volunteer engagement and championing the important work that volunteers perform on the Sunshine Coast.   Cheryl is the current chair/president of Healthy Ageing Partnerships, which aims to empower older Australians to make informed decisions about their health through knowledge sharing.    Cheryl’s contribution to community service and dedic...

Send us Fan Mail Philip attended The University of Sydney where he was awarded First Class Honours in his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1999. He is currently practicing plastic surgery in Canberra.  Dr Rome has a strong sense of social justice and has visited Nepal to lead a volunteer surgical mission (burns reconstruction) ten times over the past 13 years. Join me on the ConFab with Michael...

Send us Fan Mail Leah is currently the Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection.  Leah is also the 2025 SA Australian of the Year. Leah is one of Australia’s foremost child protection experts, who has worked nationally and internationally with government and non-government organisations in establishing and implementing child protection reforms. Join me on the ConFab with Michael G to...

Send us Fan Mail Tonight, my guest is Linda a potter who I meet at the Haigh markets on a Sunday morning.  I was impressed by her pottery skills and way Linda captured Australian flora and fauna in her pottery.  Her other passion is education and providing young minds with knowledge and inspiring a learning environment. Tonight, we will have an opportunity to get to know her life story and passion...

Send us Fan Mail Cait Lin 凱琳 (Caitlin Magee) is a bilingual Australian- Taiwanese singer-songwriter based in Taipei, blending soul, R&B and jazz into emotionally rich, genre-fluid songs. A jazz-trained vocalist and ICRT radio host, she’s known for her warm tone and lyrical honesty.   Her debut EP GRADIENTS explores themes of self-renewal, presence, and vulnerability—produced across Taiwan an...

Send us Fan Mail Peter is a world-renowned sport and exercise physician who has played a leading role in the development of sports medicine both in Australia and internationally. More recently Peter has become a passionate advocate of improving nutrition particularly in those with chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes. Peter is also the founding partner of Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre in...

Send us Fan Mail Hayley Price has always been a storyteller. Throughout her life, she has told her story through songs as the principal songwriter in several bands, most recently Adventures With Alice, whose songs feature in many of her books. As well as winning an IndieBRAG Medallion, Hayley's debut novel, The Vermilion Ribbon, received an Honorary Mention in the BookFest Awards for LGBTQ Fa...

Send us Fan Mail Luke previously worked as the physiotherapist for the Geelong Football Club (while being a Western Bulldogs supporter, giving him a good understanding of a dual narrative).  He has long been a lover of books and writing, and has three novels in a drawer, but when COVID-19 hit, he decided that it was time to take his shot.  He won the 2021 Bellarine Writers Competition short story...

Send us Fan Mail On a number of occasions prior to 2017 Hannah wanted to donate some of her pre-loved baby items to local charities. Often the charities most likely to need these items were unable to accept donations due to a lack of both space and resources to sort, clean, safety check and store items. This meant that many valuable and needed pre-loved items weren’t able to be passed on to women...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Matera is an Italian-Australian guitarist, rock journalist and author. In addition to a solo career, Joe is the guitarist in the Sweden-based rock band Rough Rockers, and was formerly the lead guitarist of Australian famous pop rock band Geisha between 2007 and 2010.   Joe is also well known as a rock journalist, having published over 600 articles since 1999. He writes for mag...

Send us Fan Mail CEO Sunita Kotnala has been named the 2025 Canberra Citizen of the Year. Tinkering has been a lifelong hobby for Sunita Kotnala, who grew up crafting driftwood and blocks of wood into furniture for fun. When she became bored of her dining room table, instead of buying a new one, Ms Kotnala took out her tools and transformed it. Women’s Shed Canberra runs hands-on home repair and m...

Send us Fan Mail My guest on the ConFab with Michael G is a multiple woodwinds specialist Jim "J" Geddes.  Jim has been touring the world being featured in groups such as the "World Famous Harry James Orchestra" to large Tony-Award winning Broadway shows such as "Ave Q" and "In The Heights." “J” has also played in countless American rock, swing and funk grou...

Send us Fan Mail Brother Thomas Oliver (Olly) Pickett AM co-founded Wheelchairs For Kids in 1996 to provide adjustable wheelchairs and occupational therapy expertise for children in developing countries, free of charge.   Since then, more than 60,000 custom-built wheelchairs have been gifted to children in over 80 countries.   With over 250 retiree workshop volunteers, Wheelchairs For Kids is one...

Send us Fan Mail Dr Suzanne Packer is a pediatrician and child advocate who was the 2019 Senior Australian of the Year. Since starting her career as a paediatrician in 1972, she has worked tirelessly to advocate for the rights of children. Sue has been a leader in child abuse prevention and treatment and a champion of the importance of early childhood environments for the developing brain.  Sus ha...

Send us Fan Mail As a young person, Corey developed a love of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects but found little encouragement for Aboriginal people to pursue careers in STEM.  A key reason was that regional and remote schools were often critically under-resourced, and their students did not receive the same learning experiences as students in urban areas. In 2018 Co...

Send us Fan Mail Jo  is a Green member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and was elected in 2020. Jo is a lawyer, writer, artist and businesswoman who has lived in Ginninderra for most of her life. Jo is strongly committed to urgent action on climate change and understands that we don’t have a moment to lose. As a child, Jo was concerned about climate change but assumed that by the time she grew up...

Send us Fan Mail Starting as a cadet volunteer while still in primary school, for more than 50 years Val has dedicated her life to St John Ambulance. She’s one of the Australian Capital Territory’s longest-serving volunteers and, year after year, she still dedicates more hours than any other volunteer. In 2020, Val faced her biggest challenge yet as a St John Ambulance volunteer – first with the ‘...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jones a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and Herald-Sun Aria finalist is a brilliant young tenor who has performed with the Australia Opera company (AOC) and several other Australian Opera companies.   He won the Green Room Award for his portrayal of David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Opera Australia. He was nominated for a Helpmann Award for this same r...

Send us Fan Mail THIS A VERY EARLY EPISODE OF THE CONFAB WITH MICHAEL G AND THE NARRATIVE AND STYLE REFLECTS THE EARLY RECORDINGS OF THE CONVERSATIONS. Corinne moved to the Highlands over 25 years ago where she started a new job painting French provincial. Opening in late 2023, Corinne Dany Studios has fast become a hub of creativity and a wonderful art community of 7 artists and an ever growing s...

Send us Fan Mail Fenja a former archaeologist is an inspirational artist who creates hand-printed artworks that are inspired by the beautiful nature that surrounds her, and from a background of working as an archaeologist and palaeo-ecologist across various Australian regions. She has created unique prints on paper and on porcelain, using (and experimenting with) a variety of printmaking technique...

Send us Fan Mail Peter is the senior artist of Duruga Aboriginal Art which was founded as a way to share the world's oldest culture through Art.  It also promotes the art from some of Australia's Koori artists (east coast of Australia). Mabarraa Peter Kafer is a proud D'harawahl man, born in Newcastle ( NSW) and a proud Saltwater man. He lives in Port Stephens NSW. He gets his inspi...

Send us Fan Mail Maura is an author, playwright and filmmaker based in Canberra. This includes tackling youth mental health themes, Maura’s acclaimed play, Fragments, is now an award-winning web series.  Maura enjoys writing creative non-fiction for children.  She has won the 2018 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards and several overseas honours Maura also visits schools and libraries as a guest read...