Conversations

• Encore: Aaron Fa’Aoso on his mistakes, heartaches, and lucky breaks

  Aaron was living on the tip of Cape York when he borrowed his uncle’s dinghy to make it to his first acting audition on nearby Thursday Island.He won the role that day in a TV show called Remote Area Nurse, and many other TV series followed, including the crime dramas The Straits and East West 101.He also presented the Torres Strait Island Cooking show, Strait to the Plate, and he was one of the stars of the comedy show Black Comedy.Today Aaron is not just an actor, he's a director and producer as well and as he writes about in his memoir So Far, So Good, there have been many setbacks and some heartbreak on his path to success.Further informationSo Far, So Good is published by Pantera PressThis episode of Conversations explores Cape York, acting, writing, producing, television, film, domestic violence, children, rejection, family, domestic violence protection order, logie awards, masculinity, relationships, racism.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

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• ‘Maximalist power queen’ Em Rusciano on the diagnoses that revealed her

  The singer, podcaster, writer and comedian on living big with neurodivergence, and owning her manic, creative energy.Growing up in Melbourne in the 1980s, Em was a serious young athlete, focused on hurdles, when a high kick up-ended her ambitions.  She was a creative, energetic child who seemed to always be busier than everyone else. As a young, stay-at-home mum, Em appeared on Australian Idol, having never performed on stage before, and this opportunity launched her career in radio.Em and her husband had two more children and she found herself at a loss during COVID lockdowns.Em felt she was drowning, and couldn’t work out why things had always seemed so much harder for her than for those around her.As an adult, Em received two life-changing diagnoses, all while being put through the wringer of perimenopause.Em's book Blood, Sweat and Glitter: A Coming of Middle Age Story is published by Pantera Press.This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.This episode explores ADHD, neurodivergence, autism, diamond creek, emsolation, emsolation extra, outgrown, diagnostic trifecta, Anomalous, podcast, rage against the vagine, covid lockdowns, melbourne lockdowns, DSM 5, neuropsychologist, National Press Club, National Press Club address, impostor syndrome, sensory issues, autistic females, Quinni, Heartbreak High, jumping on the bandwagon, menopause, perimenopause, hormones, hormonal shift, executive function, autistic, hormone treatment, iron deficient, low iron and middle age women.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

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• Telling the future and the past through the palm

  From fairground palmistry to the science of fingerprinting, historian Alison Bashford explores the secrets, history and psychology of the hand.Alison was in a London library when she discovered a ginormous palm print of a gorilla, taken two days after it died at London Zoo in the 1930s.She had no idea whatsoever about why someone had made this mysterious print, or why it had been kept in pristine condition for all these years.Alison plunged into researching the history of the hand, from fairground palm reading to Jungian analysis.She was transported into the magical, scientific and pseudo-scientific attitudes to markings on the body.She encountered Victorian wellness entrepreneurs, how Down Syndrome was first diagnosed in neonates, and celebrity palm readers whose influence reached all the way to former British Prime Minister, William Gladstone.Further informationAlison's book Decoding The Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic is published by The University of Chicago Press.This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.This episode explores gypsies, Roma, palm reading, fortune telling, psychology, psychoanalysis, Charlotte Wolff, Carl Jung, Weimar Germany, Nazi Germany, Brahmin, palmistry, cheiromancy, Cheiro, writing a book, university, Hollywood, 1930s Hollywood, celebrity, Down Syndrome, diagnosis, genetics, eugenics, Lionel Penrose, BBC, simian line, occult, Francis Galton, Ellis Family and British Institute for Mental Science.

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• Cakes, Ottolenghi and the Fire Horse child

  Helen Goh's life story began with a complicated childhood — and blossomed into one about culture, cake and the meaning of life.Helen was born in Malaysia in the year of the Fire Horse. This zodiac birth year was a big threat to the Gohs, and her parents had to make a heartbreaking decision that would affect the family for a generation.The Gohs eventually immigrated to Australia, and Helen went on to sell pharmaceuticals to doctors, before she pursued her honours in psychology.A stint as a cafe owner followed, then Helen went back to basics as a chef's apprentice in Melbourne.She followed her heart to London, and encountered an 'Aladdin's cave' of goodies in a deli in Notting Hill, which was owned by Yotam Ottolenghi.Helen has come to understand the psychological benefits of baking, and now interweaves two of her life's enduring interests.Helen's book Baking and The Meaning of Life is published by Murdoch Books.This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.This episode explores insecure attachment, attachment styles, coherence, purpose and significance in life, so you think horse, Yotam Ottolenghi, Year of the Fire horse, Notting Hill, Helen Goh's chocolate cake, Helen Goh recipes, baking for charity, raising money, bake sales, two careers, how to have two careers, baker, baker and psychologist, studying psychology, lemon curd, Women's Weekly, Malaysia, Nonya, Nyonya, foster child, fostering children, complicated family, raising Jewish boys, sweet, cookbook and cooking. 

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• Encore: Wendy Harmer on overcoming her fractured childhood

  Wendy Harmer has enjoyed huge success over four decades as a comedian, tv host and as a radio presenter.  A long way from her origins in country Victoria, where she was born with a facial disfigurement, into a struggling family.When her mother left, Wendy often had to look after her young siblings.After her talent for writing was spotted by a lecturer at Deakin University, Wendy became a cadet journalist at the Geelong Advertiser.And then Wendy's life was transformed one night in Melbourne when she saw stand-up comedy for the first time and decided to try it 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.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.Further informationWendy's memoir is called Lies My Mirror Told MeThis episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.It explores family, separation, cleft lip and palate, facial surgery, siblings, poverty, alcoholism, physical abuse, journalism, comedy, broadcasting, writing for children, country Victoria, stand up comedy, television, memoir.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, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

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