How Good Are Humans

When an economy has a lot of potential to grow, but is also stalked by a fair risk of stall and decline, it takes experienced thought leaders, regional development experts and policy wonks to gently, or firmly, guide decision makers to steer the economic vehicle into the correct lane.

Professor Hurriyet Babacan is such a person, and has the resumé, intellect and drive to lay social and economic development plans at the feet of gover...

For more than 40 years Brian Cassey has watched suffering, tragedy, hope, elation and thrill through a few curved glass elements, waiting for moments of greatest importance and nearest perfect illumination to manifest. When they do, he stamps them into history via a 35mm grouping of pixels. The next morning, the moments are tossed onto your doorstep where you unfurl them in the calm of your home. Meanwhile, Brian is still at the ep...

In a slow week, Dr Ebbie Swemmer examines the skins of dozens of patients, performs many surgeries and saves people from the horrible fate of melanomas and other aggressive skin cancers. In a busy week, he is run off his feet, often as the only skin care option for thousands of remote Queenslanders. In a year he sees up to 10,000 patients from outback towns. He extends the hours of his practice to fit more people into his diary and...

On episode 52 of the podcast, I speak with Assistant Commissioner Brett Schafferius and Sergeant Lyall McKelvie from the Far North Queensland police district about several police and crime topics. Brett and Lyall have a combined six decades of police experience across multiple disciplines, and have seen about as much as a policing career can offer.
We spoke about the police response to recent, horrific events in the state, how ...

Jill Boltz is a two-time Olympian, Commonwealth Games medalist and former world record holder in two athletics distances. She is now devoting her time to training future generations of athletes in the outer regions of Queensland where talented kids typically have not had a fair go. On this episode we spoke about her own Olympic journey and how she is readying those who have a chance of representing Australia at the 2032 Brisbane Ol...

The How Good are Humans podcast recently published its 50th episode.

To celebrate, we have chosen the top 15 moments from the first 50 episodes and ranked them here in this special episode of the podcast that looks back on an awesome group of humans with truly inspiring stories to share.

Warning, this episode contains distressing material and topics such as suicide and sexual assault. Support can be found by calling Lifeline on 13 11...

Shai Ager leads the largest wildlife rescue organisation in Queensland. She and her team have rescued and relocated almost 1000 macropods (kangaroos and wallabies) in conditions that even environmental scientists said were impossible. She personally cares for dozens of wild animals at her own property, consults locally and interstate, and is sent around the country to rescue the most delicate animals and the rarest species in highl...

Three decades ago, Suellen Maunder was using her own furniture as stage props for the productions of what was then thought of as a radical, audacious and in-your-face theatre company. As an actor and director, Suellen and her co-boundary pushers have challenged audiences in regional Australia to see beyond the facades of their own towns and traditional beliefs. Now the JUTE Theatre Company, of which she is the founder and CEO, is r...

Lucy Graham is going deep into the subarctic wilderness, alone. Bears, storms and isolation will be her frenemies for three months. So why is she doing this? For fun? Sure. To challenge her adventurous spirit? Absolutely. What about for a cause even greater, beyond just herself?

For years Lucy has lived with pain, drop-you-to-your-knees pain. She previously kayaked more than 2000km along the Canadian coast, suffering in her body eve...

Tracey Hannah is one of the best downhill mountain bikers of all time. As one of the most extreme sports in the world, downhill MTB is replete with stories of catastrophic injuries. Tracey has suffered more than her fair share. But that did not stop her from becoming an eleven-time national champion as well as a world champion in both the junior and elite categories. She literally won a national title with a femur that was still fr...

Dr Narayan Gopalkrishnan has made an impact on some of the toughest problems challenging some of the most impoverished communities across the world. Now, the James Cook University professor and leader within Far North Queensland's social enterprise sector is putting the case to government to properly address and fix Northern Australia's most intractable social and economic issues while strengthening the region's econ...

Rob Hodge possibly has the largest heart in Far North Queensland, and he is applying it and his street smarts to keeping troubled kids out of prison and giving them a shot a life, which many of them are born without.
As the youngest of 21 children born into poverty in New Zealand, Rob quickly became familiar with the hard life. He was kicked out of every school in the country's North Island. His family were connected to ga...

Barney Swan is an adventurer and entrepreneur who has trekked to the South Pole three times before the age of 30 and is now regenerating a 527-acre patch of the Daintree Rainforest while building a replicable polyculture model that encapsulates and protects the strength of biodiversity, is economically viable and is pliable to cultural needs.
The goal of his organisation, Climate Force, is to plant more than 450,000 trees from ...

Building mountain biking trails can completely transform a city. 
In one Tasmanian case, new trails turned a town that history almost forgot into an economic victory and happiness mecca.
Glen Jacobs is the brains behind those trails as well as many others in the most picturesque parts of the world.
On this episode of the podcast, Glen speaks about how he designs trails, where he’s currently building them and their town-...

What do housing supply, commute times, obesity rates, water shortages, neighbourhood crime, tempers, leisure, culture, thermometer readings, employment opportunities and your nearest ice cream shop all have in common?
Answer: they are all affected by how your city or town is designed.
If the experts aren't consulted, then your social and economic outcomes are affected, perhaps irreversibly. 
On this episode of the ...

More than two decades ago a Cairns citizen would have needed to travel hundreds, maybe thousands, of kilometres to receive certain medical treatment residents of other cities could access locally.
Much of that reality has now changed thanks in large part to the mammoth efforts of a plucky and enterprising Far North Queensland charity, and its army of donors and volunteers.
Over two decades the Far North Queensland Hospital ...

Ever thought about running a marathon? What about an ultramarathon (distances often above 300km)?
Just running one of those events in a lifetime would be an epic achievement, right? Well, yes, of course. 
But what about running six of them inside 12 months, setting a world record in the process? What about hallucinating a bear eating you mid-stride while wheezing through early-stage pneumonia? What about running the equival...

Sarah Grainer and her family have cared for more than one hundred foster children over two decades. Some children have required just one weekend of respite, while others have stayed in the Grainers' home for years. Some children arrived with notice. At other times, Sarah has received a call a midnight from government departments seeking her help to take on a child immediately. She is among scores of kind and selfless humans in...