The Resilience Project

With special guest:

• Hugh van Cuylenburg
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

When Hugh van Cuylenburg went to India as a volunteer teacher he did not expect to be on the receiving end of the learning process. At first reluctant to even be in India he soon found that he was learning from his students how to develop the psychological foundation for success in all educational and physical pursuits.

Hugh’s trip finished up being full of surprises. He was surrounded by so much poverty yet there was also happiness and contentment. Working on his observations Hugh was able to develop The Resilience Project for application in Australia and backed up his approach with technical qualifications obtained by completing a Master’s Degree at University.

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Why First-Borns Rule the World ...

With special guest:

• Michael Grose
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Everybody knows where they fit in their family. But what effect does that position have on our lives? Today we get to hear about the significance of that positioning in the family constellation.

Our guest Michael Grose has inspired, informed and entertained audiences around the world. He has a passion for spreading the word about the profound impact of birth order on individuals, families, schools, workplaces and communities. One example we hear about today is what Michael calls The Prince Harry effect. On the world scene the differences between the first-born Prince William and the later born Prince Harry are extreme.

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Defying the Enemy Within

With special guest:

• Joe Williams
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

When his father presented his South Sydney first grade rugby league jersey to Joe Williams it was a special moment. When Joe went straight into the ranks of professional boxers without any need for an apprenticeship as an amateur it was another special moment. Off the sporting field Joe is an established speaker on the circuit in Australia and the USA. So what could possibly be wrong?

We learn in this fascinating discussion that behind all the achievements Joe was battling serious mental illness from a young age. There were inner voices crowding out his thoughts and trying to drag him down. Joe admits that these voices denied him the satisfaction of reaching his true sporting potential but he is now on a course that he sees as more important.

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Accidental Weatherman

With special guest:

• Sam Mac
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

This show is not for anyone expecting to hear a TV weatherman in the mould of Alan Wilkie.

Sam Mac has forged a new role for himself in the Sunrise program where he goes around Australia looking for interesting people, interesting towns in fact anything that will give his morning viewers a lift. Naturally Sam will pass on the essential weather information such as do you need to get your umbrella but he will not go into the detailed meteorological analysis behind that decision mainly because he is not a meteorologist.

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The Kindness Revolution

With special guest:

• Hugh Mackay AO
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

When we looked forward to 2021 we also looked back on the disaster of the national bushfires season of 2019/20. That changed us but we did not expect the floods and then the ongoing impact of Covid 19.

Our guest today is Hugh Mackay who has been listening to what the community thinks and says for over 60 years as the country’s pre-eminent social researcher. Hugh draws on this immense experience to see where the community is now and what comes next.

It may turn out that The Kindness Revolution is Hugh’s last non-fiction book to grace our book shelves so we should all listen up. In his usual articulate way Hugh sees that the horrors of 2020 and 2021 have in fact set the scene for a kindness revolution.

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Far from Home

With special guest:

• Rosie Ayliffe
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

All Hell broke loose on that night in 2016.

When we speak with Rosie Ayliffe about her new book Far from Home we hear firsthand how her loving 20 year old daughter Mia was put in harm’s way in a backpacker hostel. We hear how Mia and another backpacker who tried to protect her were both killed by another resident in the middle of a psychotic episode. What made it even worse is that Rosie was far away on the other side of the world in England when this nightmare unfolded. Rosie’s dreams of a future life involving her daughter Mia were gone.

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Behind Dark Eyes

With special guest:

• Jeff Apter
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Everyone remembers Jon English with those raccoon eyes and tall thin frame contributing to a very distinctive appearance.

Jon English had regular appearances in so many different forms of entertainment. He was a rock singer, a star of live musicals, a romantic star of acclaimed television series, and at all times a rascal. In between those activities he wrote sensitive music and became an entrepreneur.

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Secret & Special

With special guest:

• Dr Will Davies
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Will Davies has been on the program before, bringing us inside stories from The Great War.

Today we get to discuss Will’s new book Secret and Special. We hear about a boys’ own adventure story that started at a beautiful part of Sydney and which took our adventurers on a dangerous trip to Singapore harbour. They were on a night mission to put limpet mines on some ships in port. The unsuspecting Japanese occupiers of Singapore never knew what hit them.

The difference from most adventure stories is that this is all true and draws on the meticulous research of Dr Davies that we have come to expect.

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Lifespan

With special guest:

• David Sinclair PhD AO
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To is a visionary book in a fast moving field. In fact when we talk to Dr David Sinclair for today’s program we discover that there have been some amazing developments in the scientific research of aging even since the book was written.

The immediate response of some people to aging research is that death at a certain age is the natural order of things. Perhaps you might hear that someone has had a look at old age and now does not want to lengthen this time in that person’s life. But would we want to go back to the time not so long ago when life expectancy was more like 40 than the current 80? What if by controlling aging we could reduce rather than extend time spent in total dependency in a nursing home?

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The High-Conflict Co-Parenting Survival Guide

With special guest:

• Megan Hunter
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Megan Hunter is the co-author with Andrea Larochelle of a new book The High-Conflict Co-Parenting Survival Guide with the sub-title Reclaim Your Life One Week at a Time.

Perhaps this book would not be necessary if everyone followed the recommendations contained in Megan’s earlier book Dating Radar: Why Your Brain Says Yes to “The One” Who Will Make Your Life Hell. However as Megan writes in Week 1 you cannot unconsciously or consciously rewrite history in an attempt to save yourself (and your kids) from the present circumstance. It is what it is.

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The Father Hood

With special guest:

• Luke Benedictus
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Professor Richard Fletcher says it’s the most exciting time in history to be a dad. But there is an old problem of where does that modern dad get his riding instructions.

Our guest today is Luke Benedictus who like so many others was faced with this problem. So Luke got together with two mates, Jeremy Macvean and Andrew McUtchen, to set up The Fatherhood, a new destination for modern dads.

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A Better Death

With special guest:

• Dr Ranjana Srivastava
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Most people in our society try to avoid death and taxes. But at least in the case of our mortality it is a universal experience, a bookend of our life, part of being human.

Our guest today is Dr Ranjana Srivastava OAM who is an Oncologist working in the public hospital sector of Victoria. Ranjana packs into her daily life being a doctor, an award winning author, a journalist and also a family life with her husband and three children.

Yet her professional life as a cancer specialist revolves around dealing with a deadly disease, cancer. It often falls to her to pass on the unimaginable news that the person in front of her has limited time to live. Some doctors can’t imagine themselves doing this because they want to help heal a condition. Other doctors can’t imagine doing anything else and for this they have a special type of courage.

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A Long Path to Freedom

With special guest:

• Jeff McMullen
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Our guest today is Jeff McMullen, a household name in Australia after his many years on television for both the ABC and Channel 9. For more than 20 years Jeff has campaigned for the Indigenous people in Australia and other countries.

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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.

Gordon tells us of his difficult upbringing after his father died when he was only 9 years old. As one of four children Gordon did his best to ease the burden for his mother who was left to provide for them with the significant assistance of Legacy. The story then is that Gordon made the most of every opportunity that came his way and he has some amazing stories to tell us now as he looks back on that fabled career.

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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.’

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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?

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High Adventure

With special guest:

• Mike Allsop
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Mike Allsop was worried that marriage would spell the end of the adventurous life he had been living. He also had experienced a difficult family upbringing himself. So when he met the love of his life he certainly did not rush into that long walk down the aisle. But these days he has the “full disaster” with his wife Wendy and three beautiful children. And there are lessons to be learned from Mike’s progress that we can all appreciate.

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Malcolm Young

With special guest:

• Jeff Apter
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Malcolm was a younger brother of George Young guitarist and songwriter with The Easybeats. Music was definitely in the family but in such a fickle industry could lightning strike twice after the enormous success of brother George?

The Young family story starts in an economically deprived part of Scotland. Then seven of the eight members of the family became Ten Pound Poms and settled in a migrant hostel in Australia. One of the elder children continued to work as a musician in Europe.

After years of playing guitar in his bedroom Malcolm joined a band and later agreed to let Angus in, recognising at that early stage the genius of his younger brother. It was his sister who came up with the name for the band and that was never changed. It is arguable that their choice of music style never changed either, always driving rock’n’roll.

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How to Raise a Man

With special guest:

• Megan De Beyer
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Something many of us wonder about from time to time is what turns a boy into a man. With the title of Megan de Beyer’s new book being How to Raise a Man there was no hiding from this question and Megan dives straight in.

And then there is the most common issue for parents raising young men - how to get more than a grunt in lieu of conversation. In these Covid restricted times as we are forced to spend more time at home this question become even more important. The best approach is to treat this time as a challenge rather than a threat and Megan has lots of suggestions on making this time productive. In brief Megan encourages us to look at ourselves more in this dynamic relationship rather than trying to fix something in our young men.

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FLY

With special guest:

• Jai Hobbs
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Covid 19 is just one more hurdle for our young people coming out of school. They already have to face up to serious competition to progress in a chosen career. If they can get through University they face a HECS debt and what about the housing market.

Our guest today Jai Hobbs decided to do something practical to help the young people get on top of all that. With his wife Marlies, Jai has written a manual called FLY which stands for financially literate youth. This is what he is striving for.

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