Northern Community's Podcast

In December last year, the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission released updated figures for the cost of serious and organised crime in Australia. The Institute estimates that it cost up to $68.7 billion a year in 2022-2023. "The $68.7 billion cost of serious and organised crime represents more than $2500 for every person in Australia."
While it may be said, ' do...

It can be hard to admit you need some help. We live in a world that celebrates strength, independence and being the master of one’s own destiny. In the words of the song made famous by Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way,” plays out at funerals almost as an anthem of defiance. Sticking it to The Man.

But what if, rather than seeing the need for help in life as a sign of weakness, we saw it as a life-transforming gift to be rec...

Friendship.  Helen Keller wrote that walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.  The power of friendship can be seen in how friends provide unconditional support and acceptance.  Poet Maya Angelou encourages friends “to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud”.  Friends are the family you choose.  True friendships offer a comfortable silence, understanding, and the freedom to be oneself.  Friendship improv...

It is a powerful emotion that plays out in many of our lives. The fear of loss. We can fear losing something or someone, and so we put in measures to protect what we have. We can become suspicious of others and their motivation.
But what if we could overcome this fear of fighting to protect what we have? Could it be that if we do, our open-handed approach could change and shape our lives for the better and be part of something ...

Fear-- it is a primal emotion that we experience. Both natural and necessary to keep us alive - to help us survive. The body responds with sweaty palms, the heart races, and adrenaline surges. But rather than just fight or flight, sometimes we freeze.
The solution to fear, the panacea we seek, is safety and security. And while good and true, what if there was also another way, another option that would see us move from being st...

Born into a family of little note, guided by visions from the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine, this teenager was sent by Charles the 7th to the battlefield as a part of the French relief arm. With Joan’s arrival, holding her banner aloft, hope lifted, and the demoralised French army rallied. The English abandoned their siege, and the French army pursued them, to victory after victory. Later, Charles the 7th wa...

A few months ago, I purchased an e-scooter to give me the option for the 48 clear days a year in Melbourne when it is fine to ride it to work.
But because I want to be around for a while to come, I wear a range of items to protect me from serious injury. Long pants, jacket, gloves and full helmet.
In the 80s, Sid the seagull taught us about sun safety and the importance of slip, slop, and slap.
But what do you do to pro...

The rise of the Alpha Male reportedly has its roots in the 1940’s animal behaviourist writings of Schenkel, particularly around wolf packs and the male lead wolf.
And with the rise of extreme right-leaning influencers, we have Nick Adams as the latest pick for the USA Ambassador to Malaysia, sparking protests in Kuala Lumpur.
But isn’t the whole concept of Paul’s male headship in the home just the Christian version of the a...

Change. It is said that the only person who likes change is a baby in a wet nappy. The reality is that staying the same is comfortable. But the only difference between a rut and a grave is depth.
It has been said to ‘Be the change you want to see in the world. But to be the change, we first must be prepared to change.’ And today, we explore the keys to a life lived well through a life transformed.
A message by David Toscano

There is a whole industry devoted to personal improvement – known as self-help. The self-help industry rests on the idea that individuals can become more by making small personal changes or shifts in thinking – to develop our hearts, our souls, if you like. The reason there is an industry is because this holds some truth to it. But as we will find as we look at the next section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians today, we actually c...

'Just don't seem right somehow that all the good you did,
That people preach, not practise, what you said,
I wonder, if it all died with you, that day on the cross,
And if it just never got raised from the dead.' (Watson)
What would it take for the Maureen Watson's of the world, those who look at the church and see nothing but hypocrisy, to see the risen Christ working in and through the church t...

If you were to travel by car in the 1930s from Sydney city to North Sydney, less than 1 km away, the long way round the harbour – all the way to Parramatta and back along the northern side of the harbour it would have taken 2 hours or more. The Bridge connected the north side of the harbour in ways that car ferries and land roads just couldn’t. Bridges are all about crossing the divide. And that is what we are thinking about this m...

It can happen to the best of us. The inverse proportional nature of our denials, that the older we get, the more we deny and protest our need for glasses, hearing aids, health checks, home help or giving up driving.
And as we push the reminder notices that come in the mail to the side, we convince ourselves that all is OK.
Then a whole new world opens up when we accept that things are not as they should be, perhaps even cou...

Call and response – we see it in so many areas of life. For the jazz musician, one instrument puts out the call, and another instrument in the band provides a response. Or a singer on stage sings a line and points the microphone to the crowd, who respond with the next line.

Then you have the Australian chant that is apparently an adaptation of a 1960s Cornish Oggy, Oggy Oggy. With the Australian call of Aussie and the resp...