Young Blood - Men’s Mental Health

Half Fijian and half Australian, Alipate 'Bobby' Carlile grew up in Victoria confused about where he fit in... With no obvious cultural group to belong to, he felt like he was missing something; and he went looking for it in footy. From the moment he stepped on the field he started to gain the identity he longed for. As part of the team, it didn't matter what his background was, it only mattered t...

There's a misconception that people only get depression when something terrible happens to them... But for some depression slowly takes hold for no obvious reason at all. What would you do if all the experiences and people that have always brought you joy suddenly didn't anymore? How would your view of yourself start to change if every inconvenience that never used to bother you started to cause o...

How are you meant to respond when someone tells you they're having suicidal thoughts? This isn't something that was taught in school and it can be an understandably intimidating and even overwhelming to confront. There's no one size fits all solution when dealing with these situations but there are ways you can approach it that will make that person feel like you're really there for them, and as J...

Ben O'Toole was the victim of a coward punch attack that left him minutes away from permanent brain damage and death. He's one of many young men whose lives have been changed forever by the split second decision of another to use extreme violence - turning a night on the town into a tragedy. To the amazement of his surgeon, Ben eventually recovered from his shocking head injuries and was so deeply...

*Strong Language Warning* The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows... and neither is Zane Munro. But he is as genuine as they come. The West Auckland native never met his birth father and grew up putting on the tough guy front as he struggled to define his identity. Charging into young adulthood, Zane moved away from everyone he knew and found himself very much alone. He rapidly developed addicti...

Most of us are having a harder time than usual being happy right now and it can feel like that’s largely out of our control. But as my guest Dr Happy says, we shouldn’t rule out happiness, even with the odds against us. Dr Tim sharp is the man in positive psychology. He’s got a PHD and is the Chief Happiness Officer of the Happiness Institute, which he founded. That makes him him an internationall...

In late February, Joe Patterson had just landed in an overseas country ready to start the next chapter of his life. Nothing could've prepared him for what came next... Just a few weeks later he was coughing up blood and gasping for air, quarantined alone in a room the size of a prison cell, battling the full force of Coronavirus after a mercy dash home. Joe got as sick as he's ever been, quarantin...

Tom Cronin is a world renowned meditation master and exactly the kind of guy you want to hear words of wisdom from when facing an unprecedented global catastrophe. Everywhere you turn there are triggers for anxiety, stress, pain and more reasons to be fearful and uncertain than you're likely to have ever had before. The last thing many of us are at the moment is calm and that's perfectly natural w...

In 2011 Luke Adamson was a Lance Corporal in the Australian Army serving as a Combat Engineer on a tour of Afghanistan. That's when he died... While on patrol, Luke suddenly collapsed from what doctors could only describe as an anxiety induced heart attack. He flat lined for more than two minutes but miraculously survived. From that day on he was never the same. Luke returned home suffering from p...

Thousands of Australia's volunteer firefighters put their lives on the line to defend our communities this summer, battling relentlessly through one of the worst bushfire seasons the country has endured. It's hard not to be awestruck by the bravery and selflessness of these men and women and many might question what compels them to voluntarily put themselves in danger to protect others. The way se...

Para-rowers Jed Altschwager and Will Smith are on the cusp of being selected for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. It's the lofty peak of a gruelling journey that neither imagined they'd have a very real chance to reach. Jed's world was turned upside down when he lost his leg in a workplace accident in 2015 and made the decision to take on life like never before. Will has been visually impaired since bi...

Romance ain't dead but it can be tricky and according to love expert Jane Donovan young men these days need all the advice they can get... Luckily she's here to help! Putting a much needed woman's touch on this Valentine's Day episode, Jane is our guide through the murky waters of modern dating and into the world of relationships. She has the answers to what we need to do to find the love we deser...

Zaine Schmidt is one of the hundreds of thousands of Australians living life on the autism spectrum. As a child, he was diagnosed with a high functioning form of the disorder known as Asperger's syndrome. The developmental disability has had a profound impact on Zaine's daily life, making him a target for bullies through his schooling days and leaving him feeling like he's never going to fit in. H...

Mike Worsman is a journalist and filmmaker who's dedicated his career to the pursuit of happiness. He's the founder of 'A Million Smiles' a project based on collecting video footage and photos of all the smiles worn by people around the world and the positive stories behind them. Mike has a burning passion for following the light in the darkness and finding a silver lining in even the most dire ci...

Arman Abrahimzadeh is co-founder of the Zahra Foundation and has helped to change the lives of many women and children escaping domestic violence. He and his sisters set up the foundation after decades spent living in an abusive home under their father's violent tyrannical rule, which tragically ended with the brutal public murder of their mother Zahra in 2010. Now a married man himself, Arman has...

Lachie Stuart is the kind of man we need. He's a men's coach on a mission to get blokes believing in themselves and putting in the work physically, mentally and spiritually to become who they want to be. That's why he founded 'The Man That Can Project', a podcast and movement all about empowering men to be the best versions of themselves. Lachie's mission is aligned with ours at Young Blood and I...

In an instant, Charles Brice's life changed forever when a motorbike accident shattered his spine and left him a quadriplegic. The now 29 year old was 19 when he was told he'd never walk again. His isn't a story of a miracle recovery, but it is one of incredible grit and heart. In October, Charles handcycled 300 kilometres from the site of his accident to Adelaide, where he now lives alone and wor...

When Mark Kelly's long time girlfriend dumped him in his early twenties his world was turned upside down and he didn't know what to do. The young man who'd always been active and happy suddenly spiraled into major depression, withdrawing from friends and drinking till he blacked out to cope. Mark avoided addressing his declining mental health for as long as he could, convincing himself he'd never...

Brock Bentley is a passionate videographer who hadn't even made it to his twenties when his dreams suddenly came true. He found himself touring the world alongside Timmy Trumpet, one of the biggest names in EDM. The whirlwind adventure lead Brock to more than 40 countries, some of which he stayed in for less than 24 hours. He worked all day and night perfecting his craft and churning out endless v...

Sammy King is now a Peer Support Worker at Australia's leading youth mental health organisation, Headspace. The same group that helped him come to grips with a crippling anxiety disorder just a few years ago. Sammy was a master of masking his true feelings and convincing those around him that he was the happy go lucky, life of the party guy, who wasn't rattled by anything. But the reality couldn't...

Chance Ndume's story is one the world needs to hear and one that will blow your mind. His young life has been haunted by trauma since running for his life from militia who wanted him dead...and his troubles were only just beginning. Chance is a refugee from the Congo who hasn't seen his family since he was 9. He's had the world on his shoulders with everything against him, enduring suffering that...

All jokes aside, Mick Dwyer has been through the wringer. He's performed on the international comedy festival circuit for well over a decade, drinking and gambling away most of his career before wising up and getting sober. Now he's older and wiser and not afraid to paint a vivid picture of just how ugly life got, feeding the beast of his rampant addictions. Mickey is a cracker bloke with a big he...

They don't come tougher than Hugo Toovey. At just 27 he's endured more suffering than most will in their lifetime. He put his budding career as an army officer on hold to battle testicular cancer and won, only to be struck down by bowel cancer 5 years later. But despite all that, he's still standing and he's not one to complain or see the glass half empty. Instead he's deadset on doing everything...

Hundreds of thousands of Australian men identify as homosexual and many more still hide it... Zane Dean and Brandon Symes are two good friends who've had quite different journeys towards defining themselves as young gay men. They visited the studio together to lay it all out for us, covering the full spectrum of gay life from the anxiety of coming out to the beauty of learning to love yourself and...

@markmattiazzocoach is a personal trainer and online health coach, dedicated to making people fitter and healthier from the inside out. He's a vocal advocate for the need to take care of our minds and bodies and approach fitness for the right reasons. But that hasn't always been a priority, it's a lesson Mark learned the hard way after abusing steroids, spiralling out of control and bringing himse...