Human Cogs Podcast

“How many kids do you have?”

It’s a question asked so casually, often as part of small talk. Yet, for those who dreamed of parenthood but find themselves childless, these four words can land with a heavy blow.

Today’s guest, Kelly Donougher, is a successful interior designer and founder of 13 Interiors, with design studios in Perth and Melbourne. But behind her professional success lies a deeply pe...

How often do you think about worst case scenarios? Contemplate fate or imagine catastrophes or run the gamut of ‘what ifs?’ 

The reality is that none of us really know what’s coming down the life pipes next … as famed author Joan Didion wrote “Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You can sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”

For Pete Conroy, that instant came on the m...

Don Watson has spent a lifetime listening closely - to the language of politics, power, persuasion and all the spaces in between.

A historian, author and master of the written word, he is perhaps best known as the speechwriter behind some of Australia’s most unforgettable words - including the iconic Redfern Speech, delivered by then-Prime Minister Paul Keating in 1992. It remains one of this country’s most raw an...

Politics is the stuff of Shakespeare.

Acts of revenge, personal sabotage, falls from grace and epic power struggles have always pushed politicians in and out of public favour.

As Australia heads toward a federal election, in our own political landscape we see the high drama of campaign theatre play out against the global backdrop and twisted plot of an increasingly shaky world order. 

Do you still have faith in our democracy a...

Annus horribilis is a Latin phrase that means "horrible year". It’s the antithesis of annus mirabilis which means "wonderful year".

Of course years don’t exist in those binaries but we all know that some years are better than others: some are defined by greatness, and others we just can’t wait to see the back of.

As this episode goes to air, Mads shares what this past year has been like for her, marred by deep grief and a few morta...

Stan Grant is a man of remarkable intellect, profound story and deep faith.

On a late winter's afternoon recently, I meet Stan in a moment when he is on a difficult journey through a kind of lament - deeply contemplating the three big disciplines that have steeled his extraordinary life and work - physics, philosophy and theology.

Stan says since the Voice to Parliament Referendum he’s been taking time to take stock,...

When you think of a health retreat, I wonder what thoughts and feelings come to mind? Yoga with a monk on a mountain, people healing their deepest wounds around grief, illness or weight issues, or perhaps it’s images of Nicole Kidman in 9 Perfect Strangers as depicted in the book and movie?

I’ve attended countless retreats in Australia and overseas, and every time I have made one or two changes that have catalysed bigger shifts in ...

If you’ve turned on the radio lately, have you ever sat back to listen to who’s telling the stories? Current data shows that only 27 per cent of radio hosts are women, female experts are quoted just 34 per cent of the time and - here’s the clanger - NINETY PER CENT of radio voices of people aged over 45 are in fact - men. Yep. NINETY per cent.

Why is that? What’s going on? And how does this skew attitudes and perpetuate gendered in...

It was the poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou who once said ‘there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you’.

Stories are what help us make sense of the world around us and of ourselves, of great tragedies and fates and fortunes, of buried histories and mysteries, of the untold secrets and human essence of things.

Journalist Corrie Perkin was born with stories in her blood. Her father, Graham Perkin - t...

Being a young person in your 20s is a complicated and challenging time. Whether you’re living through this decade of your life now, or you’re a parent to a twenty something, you likely already know that the 20s are the most uncertain decade of life.

In this episode, we talk to the always compassionate and wise Dr Meg Jay, a developmental clinical psychologist, who is on faculty at the University of Virginia and maintains a private ...

Grace Tame is a name that needs little introduction, but that doesn’t mean you know Grace - or indeed her story - on her own terms. 

Catapulted into the spotlight as 'Australian of the Year' in 2021, Grace stepped squarely into the public eye and became a powerful catalyst for a tidal wave of conversation, action and policy change for survivor-victims of sexual abuse across Australia. 

Finally, this was a chance for Grace Tame to f...

Over the Summer I spent countless hours deep in the pages of a remarkable book called Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. The book is written by the very entertaining scholar, researcher and poet Cat Bohannon, and it's making very big waves across the world right now.

The book is an epic story and sweeping scientific exploration that starts with mammals 200 million years ago and moves forward throug...

When you google Catherine Mahoney, the first thing it says is Andrew John’s ex-wife. But as I know nothing about the NRL or his career as one of Australia’s biggest sports stars, this isn’t what led me to invite Cath to join us on Human Cogs.

Cath is an ex-publicist, writer, podcaster, talented creative, and had me rollicking on the floor with laughter when we first met two years ago. Her warm, funny and relatable 2022 memoir Curre...

How are you going with the state of the world right now?

Wars and violence continue to rage, hate and abuse fill social media feeds, and an escalation of ideological conflict is causing uncertainty and division in our politics, in our communities and at our dinner tables.

It can make you lose a little faith in the world ... wonder if humanity will be ok, whether we can actually save ourselves from ourselves.

Until you remem...

“Affairs are a little like childbirth. Someone is always having one somewhere, usually right under the nose of a spouse because nobody knows everything that happens inside a marriage, not even the people in it.” 

Award-winning author and journalist Kate Legge has chronicled social and political affairs and other people’s stories since the 1980s. But Kate’s latest book - an unflinchingly honest and raw memoir called 'Infidelity and ...

We’re all familiar with the idea of mindfulness and leadership and most of us would have some preconceived ideas about what each of these terms mean. So what happens when the two constructs collide at the deepest level? And what does mindful leadership mean for the leader, the team, the organisation and the bottom line?

Michael Bunting is a keynote speaker, best-selling author, researcher, facilitator and co-founder of the Awakened...

Over recent weeks we’ve all watched and listened to the debate over 'The Voice to Parliament' play out in the media, at dinner tables and in the public sphere.

Conversations have caught fire and it seems that a lot of confusion has got in the way of the facts. 

This is partly because right-wing hardliners have deliberately launched misinformation and disinformation to seed fear, cloud issues and inflame political debate. But also b...

A quick google search shows that almost 8 hundred million people have searched for the term resilience and close to 5 hundred million have searched for the term grief. However, far less frequently, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, have the two concepts collided.

Dr Lucy Hone is a best-selling author, speaker and award-winning academic researcher with a gift for translating complex science into practical tools. Regarded as a thoug...

Kerri Sackville is a writer and columnist for Sunday Life magazine in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. She’s also the author of five books, including her most recent, The Secret Life of You – How a Bit of Alone Time Can Change your Life, Relationships, and Maybe the World! 

Now, those listeners who know me well, know that even though I’m endlessly curious, I am not a voracious reader of books, and although I own thousands of ...