Moment of Truth

With special guest:

• Prof Mark McKenna
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

In the Quarterly Essay Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future Professor Mark McKenna presents a significant contribution to the general debate and he is our respected guest in today’s program. At a time when Australians are searching for their national identity on Anzac Day and there is talk of a Republic once again Professor McKenna asks why has a dispute arisen regarding Australia Day?

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Tell No One

With special guest:

• Brendan Watkins
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

The title of this book Tell No One has an ominous ring to it. We can imagine sex offenders threatening their victims should the story ever get out. As Brendan discovered there may also be another reason for this instruction involving a power imbalance.

Brendan knew at a young age that he had been adopted but when he started looking for his biological parents he did not know if his conception may have resulted from a sexual offence or young love or something else. One thing that kept driving Brendan was his desire to know the truth wherever that may lead.

The first part of his story was surprising. His mother had been 27 when Brendan was born so she was not the teenager in trouble who adopts out her child under pressure from her family. Then the shock of finding out that his mother had been a nun, a bride of Christ. Having made this discovery Brendan was mightily disappointed when the Catholic agency acting as intermediary advised that his mother said they must never meet.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Black Pearls

With special guests:

• Colin & Paul Tatz
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

This program is dedicated to the memory of Professor Colin Tatz.

Black Pearls: The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame is a celebratory book about the earth shattering sporting performances of our Aboriginal and Islander Australians since the arrival of the white man in 1788.

This handsome work is presented by the Aboriginal Studies Press. As our guest Colin Tatz explains, the book is also a Hall of Fame that unlike bricks and mortar halls can be on display in our own homes and carried around with us.

With its beautiful pictures and stories about its 276 members covering 36 sports this is a project that began in the Bi-Centenary year of 1988 after Colin spoke to some communities about the absence of recognition for these sports stars.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Don’t Dream It’s Over

With special guest:

• Jeff Apter
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Jeff Apter has written the definitive story of Neil Finn, one of the Finns, including some remarkable things about this Kiwi icon we claim as an Aussie.

Neil first appeared in our consciousness as a freaky member of the band Split Enz. He was the one up front singing I Got You which he also wrote. The band was not a one hit wonder but there were tensions among the members particularly between Neil and the leader of the band, his brother Tim, which cut short the life of the band.

Ultimately Tim gave his brother good advice, go and form your own band and this led to Crowded House arriving and taking over the world record charts.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Fathers Reaching Out

With special guest:

• Mark Williams
  … in conversation with Bill Kable
  

Our guest in today’s program is Mark Williams who has been awarded “Inspirational Father of the Year” at the Pride of Britain awards. This is impressive enough but it also shows how far he has come since the birth of his son Ethan in 2004.

Both Mark and his wife Michelle suffered crippling anxiety after the birth and Mark hit rock bottom when he began to experience suicidal thoughts. And yet the reason for the torrent of negative emotions and spiralling depression had less to do with their son than the mental health issues that were confronting them. In hindsight Mark recognises that he had experienced a condition long recognised in mothers, that of post-natal depression.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Driftwood The Musical

With special guest:

• Tania de Jong AM
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Something unusual for listeners today. Our guest is Tania de Jong who tells us about a new production called Driftwood The Musical. Tania happens to be the creator and producer of Driftwood The Musical as well as being one of the stars on stage. For her choice of song we have the special pleasure of bringing you a song Tania wrote and performed herself.

The story of Driftwood concerns Tania’s grandparents who survived Nazi atrocities in Vienna and eventually became artistic treasures in their adopted country Australia.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

The Power of Good People

With special guest:

• Para Paheer
  … in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson

Para Paheer was five years old when civil war between Tamils and the Sinhalese government started in Sri Lanka and continued for the next twenty six years. At the time Para did not know that the causes went back to 1830 when the Tamil people were imported to Sri Lanka to work on the plantations in conditions that were not far off slavery. Para had spent his childhood in poverty by Australian standards but when the war began conditions got even harder. Survival required courage, ingenuity and in Para’s case the kindness of strangers.

The inspiring part of Para’s story, as told in The Power of Good People: Surviving the Sri Lankan Civil War, is that he describes accurately and fully some of the horrors he witnessed and experienced personally yet he can focus his attention on the good things that people he has met along the way have done for him and his family.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Is There Anything Good About Men?

With special guest:

• Prof Roy F. Baumeister
  …in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson
  

Something we have always wanted to know but never been game to ask.

This book’s title Is There Anything Good About Men? How Cultures Flourish by Exploiting Men leads on to a whole range of surprises. We often accept without questioning that women are better networkers than men and that women are better at multi-tasking but is this supported in the research? At a practical level will women succeed in the current push for much more representation on the Boards of major companies?

Professor Roy Baumeister has examined human behaviour as our culture developed. This culture brings humans enormous advantages not available to other primates. You just have to think of us being able to shop at supermarkets, sleep in a warm bed every night and being able to find out on our computers everything ever learned in human history.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Help! My Son Hates School

With special guest:

• Janet Allison
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

After listening to this show many men will be wishing that they could have had Janet Allison as their teacher in years gone by. Janet speaks to us from Portland Oregon in the USA where she has founded the organisation Boys Alive! to benefit teachers and children in the education process. Janet’s warm style is engaging and inspiring.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

The First Casualty

With special guest:

• Peter Greste
  …in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson
  

Our guest is Peter Greste who in the last two decades of reporting has journeyed through wars in some of the world’s most dangerous countries but does not describe himself as a serious risk taker. Over the years he has developed another sense of when he needs to take extra precautions for his own safety giving his family a certain degree of comfort. In any event there has always been an understanding that foreign correspondents are seen as outsiders which presents a way out of sticky situations.

When Peter arrived in Egypt in 2013 he had never been arrested for anything and he was planning to be in the country for three weeks doing what he called “vanilla journalism” meaning nothing controversial. All that changed after the dreaded knock on the door when a group of heavy set men shovelled him backwards and started searching the room for evidence of something, anything, they could accuse him with.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

On Our Doorstep

With special guest:

• Craig Collie
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

The threat of invasion was very real to the Australian people in World War II. Within families decisions were made to kill wives and daughters rather than leave them to be raped and murdered by a ruthless invader.

Our guest today is Craig Collie who has explored what was really going on in 1942. What were the leaders of Australia, Great Britain and the USA doing about the threat? How real was the threat from Japan anyway?

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

The Secret of Half-Arsed Parenting

With special guest:

• Dr Susie O’Brien
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

There is a toasted sandwich in the cover picture of her book and that leads our guest Dr Susie O’Brien to tell us that a toasted sandwich is a quite acceptable dinner alternative. This is the world of Susie O’Brien where parents can escape all that guilt about not being the best parent in the world and just start enjoying their children.

In Susie O’Brien’s new book The Secret of Half-Arsed Parenting we get an insight that is fun. It is also comforting to know that the conclusions are drawn from research all around the world. And most parents will find sections where they have to say to themselves ‘No doubt about it, that resembles me.’

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

From the Ruck

With special guest:

• Gordon Bray AM
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Our guest today is part of a select group of legends. Peter FitzSimons has described Gordon Bray as ‘more than a sporting icon’, Gordon is no less than ‘the soundtrack of our sporting lives’.

The Voice of Rugby joins us today after a career of over 50 years describing major sporting events on a variety of radio and TV stations. And yet despite being front and centre for all that time we do not know so much about Gordon himself.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

The Dust of Uruzgan

With special guest:

• Fred Smith
  …in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson

It is difficult to categorise Fred Smith. After completing University qualifications he became a diplomat but he is also a musician who has made “seven or eight” albums. When a diplomatic position in Afghanistan became available he decided to apply against some professional advice because he looked on it as a type of therapy. So after being selected to represent Australia in this beautiful but troubled land it was off to Kabul with guitar in hand.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Astronaut Father

With special guest:

• Terry Virts
  …in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson

In today’s show we reach for the heavens.

Our guest is Terry Virts an American Air Force Colonel and test pilot who was selected by NASA to be an Astronaut in 2000 and subsequently made his first flight into space as the pilot of space shuttle Endeavour STS 130. In 2014 Terry launched into space again from Baikonur, Kazakhstan to ride to the International Space Shuttle where he was to be the Commander and he stayed on the station for 200 days.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

SHTUM

With special guest:

• Jem Lester
  …in conversation with Bill Kable
  

In this program we cross to London to discuss with author Jem Lester his novel SHTUM. For anyone who has missed the British television shows and is not sure what “shtum” means Jem tells us that it means “silent or uncommunicative”. That is what a loving father may face when he has a child with profound autism.

The book SHTUM won the 2013 PFD/City University Prize for Fiction but in writing the book Jem tells us he draws on his own experiences having raised a boy now nearly 16 who is profoundly autistic.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Sam’s Best Shot

With special guest:

• Dr James Best
  …in conversation with Bill Kable
  

How many Dads will walk away from their jobs for six months, sell their home and then travel to the wilds of Africa in the hope that it will be good for their son?

We like to think most Dads would do it. Today we get to speak to Dr James Best who did exactly that with his 14 year old son Sam. Sam said he went away as a boy and came back as a person summing up what his parents had hoped for when they embarked on this adventure.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

From Poppy with Love

With special guest:

• Rev Dr John Killinger
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

In today’s program we are invited into the usually private world of conversations between a grandparent and his grandchildren. Strangely we can get the message very clearly from the other side of the world but the grandchildren themselves are completely unaware of the one way conversations in the letters written to them, letters that are so tender, thoughtful, wise and loving.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

The Equal Parent Presumption

With special guest:

• Dr Edward Kruk
  …in conversation with Bill Kable
  

Our guest today has produced a book of 167 pages, The Equal Parent Presumption: Social Justice in the Legal Determination of Parenting after Divorce, that should be required reading for everyone who works in the space of parenting after divorce; and that includes judges who routinely make sole parenting orders, psychologists who offer family therapy, and all the other institutions that influence family relationships.

The trouble really arises because although there is a mantra of acting “in the best interest of the child” this becomes a discretionary assessment by a judge who has no training in the area of child development or family dynamics and furthermore the Judge takes no interest in reviewing the outcome of the decision. Dr Kruk invites us to take the child’s position.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...

Are Fathers Important for Adolescents?

With special guest:

• Dr William (Bill) Fabricius
  …in conversation with Bill Kable
  

Most studies in the area of children and families concentrate on the influence of mothers. Fathers are understudied in this area. For this reason we welcome the results of a paper on the role of fathers and we have the opportunity today to speak with one of its lead authors, Associate Professor Dr William Fabricius who joins us from New York. The title of the paper is Effects of the Inter-Parental Relationship on Adolescents’ Emotional Security and Adjustment: The Important Role of Fathers.

Podcast (mp3)

Click to read more ...