The choice I never had

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:
• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au

Saina grew up in Iran as a trans woman in a society that offered no space for her identity. At six, she was forced into an all-boys school; for 29 years she hid who she was from her family. To a...

The angel I wished for

Vi Do grew up in extreme poverty in rural Vietnam, watching his father sicken and become unable to work. At 14, he left for Hanoi to survive on the streets as a shoeshine boy, hiding money in his clothes and avoiding gangs. A young Australian teacher named Michael found him, offered him food and English lessons, and for the first time, told him he was smart and good. That moment shifted how Vi saw himself. He...

The weight I couldn't carry alone

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses addiction & recovery and grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:

• SMART Recovery Australia (addiction): smartrecoveryaustralia.com.au

• ReachOut: au.reachout.com

• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au

• GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au

Duncan grew ...

I knew I was going away

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses addiction & recovery and trauma & healing, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:

• SMART Recovery Australia (addiction): smartrecoveryaustralia.com.au

• ReachOut: au.reachout.com

• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au

• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeli...

Coming out cost me a job

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide, abuse, addiction, grief, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:

• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au

Christine spent her early career hiding her sexuality while building a life as a mental health clinician, nursing in hospitals and communities across Australia. In her twenti...

The castle with 1000 rooms

Sarah Rowan grew up in South Carolina's Bible Belt in a loving but restrictive Christian environment. She was told she could be anything except gay. For decades, she buried her identity under achievement, perfectionism, and faith, eventually developing debilitating rheumatoid arthritis by age 30 from the inflammation of unprocessed trauma. At 38, she could no longer hide. She left her marriage with nothing...

The birds are still tweeting

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses addiction & recovery, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• SMART Recovery Australia (addiction): smartrecoveryaustralia.com.au

• ReachOut: au.reachout.com

Luis grew up as a Jehovah's Witness in a household marked by his mother's severe mental health challenges, physical disability, and dom...

I didn't want to die with the wrong name

At our hero's request, we've withheld their name and identifying details to protect their privacy.

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation and domestic & family violence, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• Blue Knot Foundatio...

The mantra that rewired my life

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation and trauma & healing, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au

• 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au

• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 ...

The story I had to share

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide, grief, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au

Sarah Rosse spent her career as a high-functioning professional in human services, confident in her ability to help others navigate mental health crises. In October 2023, her 16-year-ol...

ADHD in women is one of the most missed diagnoses in adult mental health, and for three professional women, understanding why took decades.

This is Too Much, Not Enough: Late Diagnosis of ADHD in Women, a live online panel from Kintsugi Heroes' Our Stories Matter series. Three women share what it's really like to get a late ADHD diagnosis as an adult, including the relief of finally understanding your own mind and the grief of every...

The 20-year fog

Karl grew up in apartheid South Africa in a wealthy but emotionally distant Austrian-South African family, experiencing what he now understands as complex trauma rooted in his mother's narcissism and his father's clinical detachment. For decades he dissociated, unaware he was queer until his late twenties when he met a partner and came out to indifference from his family. He moved to London at 27, then Australia, but...

The light in the tunnel

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses mental health & wellbeing, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au

John left school at 15 written off as a slow learner, worked manual jobs, and felt trapped. An art teacher gave him a chance on an art course despite his inability to draw...

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses addiction & recovery and trauma & healing, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• SMART Recovery Australia (addiction): smartrecoveryaustralia.com.au

• ReachOut: au.reachout.com

• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au

• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au

Holly D...

Jason Blyth: The Gold in the Cracks, How Pain Refines and Purpose Is Built

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation, addiction & recovery and trauma & healing, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au

• 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 73...

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation, which some listeners may find distressing.

If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:

• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au

• 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au

Mahir entered high school as an energetic, curious kid thriving in primary school. By year 10, whis...

Colin Parsons spent decades people-pleasing and chasing externally imposed goals until a move to Luxembourg, the birth of his children, and therapy catalysed a complete reckoning. He took paternal leave in a country that supported it, discovered his gift for genuine human connection through a Chief Happiness Officer role, and later questioned everything: money, marriage, identity, and what it meant to show up authentically. A divor...

Gene Moore grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household where his sexuality was framed as sin. He married, became a pastor, and spent 14 years denying who he was before a near-suicidal crisis forced him out of the closet. After losing his partner Victor to a plane crash in 1994, Gene channelled his grief into studying gay identity and eventually transforming military and police cultures by reframing homophobia not as prejudice a...

EPISODE SUMMARY

Not every journey to purpose is a straight line. For Matt Tulle, it wound through stigma, addiction and some of the darkest corners of mental health — all while growing up queer in rural Queensland.

Matt didn't just survive that journey. He transformed it. Today he works as a peer worker in alcohol and other drugs (AOD) support, walking alongside men who are exactly where he once was. In this honest, gene...