Conversations: Health & Resilience

Pauline Menzcer is one of the legends of Australian surfing, but even after leaving Hawaii as the 1993 World Champion she had to wait for the recognition she deserved.Pauline Menczer was once the best surfer in the world, fighting it out to be crowned world champion in Hawaii in 1993. Out of the water, it was a different story.Pauline had battled the crippling pain of rheumatoid arthritis since she was a child. To make ends meet at home and on tour, she would flog jeans and hold garage sales. And she organised strikes among female surfers to protest their treatment.All this, because women professional surfers, even the champions, weren't given nearly as much support or recognition as men.More than three decades later Pauline finally got the kudos and prize money she deserved.Further InformationPauline features in the documentary Girls Can't Surf  by director Christopher NeliusOriginal broadcast October 2022To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

In 1966, Martin was 10 years old when he was sent to a Catholic Boarding school in North-West Tasmania. Decades later, he began his own reckoning with what had happened at the school (CW: discusses sexual abuse)Martin Flanagan is a much-loved sports writer who wrote about AFL for many years for The Age newspaper.At the age of 10, Martin was sent away to a Catholic boy's boarding school in North West Tasmania.Three of the priests on the staff at the time were later sent to prison for sexual crimes they committed against boys in their care, and there have been allegations made against other priests at the school.Martin wasn't a victim of the abuse, but it was a dark shadow that passed very close by.For years he didn't want to think about his time at the school, which he considered a wretched period in an otherwise happy life. But a few years ago, the time came for him to turn to towards this chapter of his story.Further informationThe Empty Honour Board is published by PenguinHelp is always available: Sexual Assault Support Service (Tasmania): 1800 697 8771800 Respect national helpline: 1800 737 732Sexual Assault Counselling Australia: 1800 211 028Bravehearts (support for child sexual abuse survivors): 1800 272 831Laurel House Northern Tasmania: (03) 6334 2740Laurel House North West Tasmania: (03) 6431 9711Blue Knot Foundation: 1300 657 380To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Toni Jordan grew up working in a TAB and going to the greyhound races. Then she grew up to become a best-selling novelist

When Cynthia Banham survived the unthinkable, she had to reinvent herself, with the support of her family, and the kindness of the Sydney Swans AFL team

Ray Seidler was a brilliant doctor and a family man, whose secret struggle with depression ultimately claimed his life. Now his son Jonathan is helping to change the story when it comes to his own mental illness (CW: mentions suicide, drug use) When Ray Seidler would walk through the streets of Kings Cross, everyone wanted to stop and have a chat - from homeless people, to sex workers, film actors and lawyers. Ray was one of Sydney's most loved doctors, and a man of great compassion and charm. He had set up his his practice in the late 1970s and stayed committed to the neighbourhood for the next 35 years.To outsiders, it may have looked as if Ray had a lucky life.He lived in a wealthy area of the city with his beautiful wife and four children and he was the nephew of the famous architect Harry Seidler.But behind closed doors Ray was locked in a herculean struggle with his own mental health. His regular bouts of depression caused him to regularly 'run away' from his own home and family, and eventually led to his suicide. Ray's son Jonno has written about his father's life, and his own mental health diagnosis, which he's been determined not to keep secret.Further informationIt's a Shame about Ray is published by Allen and UnwinPresenter: Sarah KanowskiProducer: Nicola HarrisonExecutive producer: Carmel RooneyTo binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Dai Le tells the story of her family fleeing Saigon and travelling across 2 oceans to make it to Australia, and how a sense of fairness drew her into public life 

Professor Kelvin Kong is one of Australia's leading ENT surgeons. The proud Worimi man changes the course of children's lives by looking inside their ears.

Surfing writer Tim Baker on how the hormones which saved his life after a cancer diagnosis fundamentally changed his experience of being a man

Ben Bravery tells the story of his childhood in Logan, Queensland, how he went from a career at KFC to studying male satin bowerbirds and why being a patient led him to study medicine

Mawunyo Gbogbo grew up in a church-going Ghanaian-Australian family in the mining town of Muswellbrook, NSW. As a young woman she grabbed the chance to further her media career in New York City at the Bible of Hip Hop, The Source

Briana Blackett was a journalist working in Qatar when she realised her baby son Max wasn't responding to his name. When Max was diagnosed with autism, and in time her second son Freddy was too, she left Doha to begin an entirely different life

Tony spent three decades in and out of jail for property crimes and safecracking. When he joined an unusual club inside Hobart's Risdon Prison, he found his voice for the first time. Then a few years ago, on a fishing trawler far out to sea, he began the painful process of changing his lifeTony Bull grew up across the road from Hobart's Risdon Prison.As child he started running with a crowd of boys who stole money for the woodman and the milkman from people's front doorsteps.In late primary school he found himself in trouble with the law for the first time.He was 17 when he first went to jail, in Queensland's Boggo Road after a car chase with the police in Cairns.A year later, he was back in Tasmania, and inside Risdon Prison for the first time.It was a scary experience because he'd heard so many unsettling sounds coming from inside the prison walls when he was a child.In his 20s, Tony joined the Spartan Debating Club inside the jail. The prisoners, including Chopper Read, often debated teams from outside the jail, and their families were sometimes allowed in to watch the debates.Learning to debate changed how Tony used his voice. He eventually became yard boss, a conduit between the prisoners and the Superintendent.Some years later he was out of jail and working on a fishing boat called the 'Diana' when he had a pre-dawn epiphany far out at sea.He realised it was finally time for him to break the cycle of crime and incarceration in his own life.Tony worked incredibly hard to unlearn some of his old habits which had previously led him straight back into jail.Today he lives in his own unit with his beloved dog Princess and runs a home maintenance business.Further informationLearn about the Salvation Army's Beyond the Wire programTo binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Clinical pain neuroscientist Dr Tasha Stanton explains her studies into the power of the mind when it comes to coping with injury and illness.Clinical pain neuroscientist, Dr Tasha Stanton works with people who experience chronic and crushing pain at the University of South Australia.Typically, her patients suffer from osteo-arthritis and back pain.Tasha says that far from being only the result of injury or illness, pain is influenced by many different factors in our lives — emotional turbulence, stressful jobs, or a lack of previous movement.She wants to change the story around pain, and give people back their mobility and their zest for life.She aims to do this by challenging the messages in the brain related to pain and movement.Tasha does this in different ways, one of which involves showing people elongated images of their fingers and knees.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

When Kim Crotty was locked up in Dartmoor prison for growing marijuana, his two young sons were bereft. He began writing bedtime stories for them from his cell, as a way to reach them

Much-loved broadcaster and writer Wendy was born with a cleft lip and palate, into a struggling family. As a young journalist she saw an anarchic cabaret show which changed the course of her lifeWendy has enjoyed huge success over four decades as a comedian, tv host, a radio presenter and the author of many books for children and adults.She’s come a very long way from her origins in country Victoria, where she was born with a double cleft lip and palate.Her family moved from town to town, and for a time, because there was no mum around, Wendy had to be the surrogate mum to her younger siblings.After her talent for writing was spotted by a lecturer at Deakin University, Wendy became a cadet journalist at the Geelong Advertiser.Then she moved to the Sun News-Pictorial, and one night in Melbourne, she was sent to review a cabaret show.It was anarchic and funny and she'd never seen anything like it.Wendy decided to go into comedy herself. She bought records of Joan Rivers, Whoopi Goldberg and Woody Allen, and studied their acts.The first night she stood up at an open mic night for her 5 minute set, she knew it was the perfect role for her.She walked out on stage, the lights hit her, and she thought 'I get to say whatever I want and I get paid and people listen? This is the best deal ever!'Soon she was headlining her own shows at the Melbourne comedy venue the Last Laugh, and her life set off on a completely different path.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Peter Stojanovic was working in a Melbourne meatworks when a spiritual epiphany led him to a new life, working with violent men to help change their thinkingPeter Stojanovic's family fled their tiny town in the former Yugoslavia because of religious persecution.Under the community regime, life was a struggle and after Peter's father became a Christian it became dangerous.Borders were closed to the outside world, but the family hatched a daring plan to escape.After they came to Australia, Peter soon joined the rest of his family working in the meatworks at Altona in Melbourne.But life was pulling him in other directions.After he got the 'spiritual bug' himself, he became a pastor in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, then a marriage counsellor.Now he helps men convicted of Domestic Violence offences by the court to work on changing their behaviour and their thinking.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

An impulse decision to buy a home in the rainforest launches a comedy of errors involving a python in the roof, a half-finished home, an unexpected tax bill and two reality TV shows

After treating a patient named Anna, Sharonne Zaks saw the power relationship with her patients differently. She developed a new branch of dentistry to help care for survivors of sexual assaultSharonne Zaks grew up in a family of dentists, and when she too became a dentist, she developed an empathetic relationship with her patients, never judging them even if they'd avoided the dentist for years.After some years, a patient named Anna profoundly changed Sharonne's understanding of a patient's experience in the dentist's chair.She realised that for those who've been through a sexual assault or trauma, the extreme powerlessness of being treated at the dentist can be highly triggering.Sharonne undertook study into the area, and began a new regime to treat survivors in her own practice.She then began explaining what she'd found about the power dynamic between dentist and patient, to her own profession.Further informationWatch Sharonne's video about finding a dentist you can trustSee all Sharonne's videosTo binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

After two suicides changed her family forever, Jessie Cole returned to Northern NSW to begin again (CW: Suicide references)Jessie grew up in Northern NSW in a rainforest house lovingly built by her parents. They had moved to the hills outside Byron Bay in the 1970s and believed they could remake the world.Jessie’s father had two older daughters from a previous marriage, who visited from Sydney every school holidays.By the time she was eighteen Jessie had lost both her half-sister Zoe, and her father to suicide.Many people in her small community didn't know what to say to her about what had happened, so they avoided the family altogether.Then in her early 20s, Jessie decided to return to the family home in the rainforest.Further informationStaying is published by TextHelp and information are always availableLifeline 13 11 14 24 hour counsellingSANE Australia - helpline, online, forums 1800 187 263Beyondblue - telephone and online counselling 1300 22 4636Suicide Call Back Service - 24 hours -1300 659 467To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Broadcast date:Thursday 17 January 2013

Mountaineer Lincoln Hall made an incredible recovery after being left for dead on Mt Everest