Conversations

Growing up, John Marsden found school incredibly difficult and, as a teenager, spent time in hospital after a breakdown. This difficult early life profoundly shaped his work as a writer and educator of young people.
With the help of a therapist, he began to recover, but it took him many years to find his place in the world.
Eventually he studied teaching, then in his mid-thirties John began to write.
John wrote over 40 best-selling novels for young adults and used his profits to buy bushland on the edge of Melbourne and open a primary school.
At Candlebark, students call teachers by their first names, and are encouraged to take risks, John also founded a high school called Alice Miller.
In 2024, John Marsden died at the age of 74, this interview was recorded in 2018.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.
it explores education, strict parenting, teaching, all boys private school education, emotional breakdown, psychiatric care, therapy, counselling, studying teaching, writing, writing for young adults, running an independent school, risk taking, being an author, legacy.
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.

Dan Richards investigates the multifaceted realm of night-time. Hear about when he survived a brush with death, a treacherous journey on a Scottish ferry, shadowing a search and rescue team, and the comfort and exquisite agony of new parenthood.
The writer and broadcaster argues that night-time is universal in that everyone goes through it, but there are so many different experiences of the dark.
He has met the many people who work, helping others and doing the invisible organising that keeps our communal world turning while others rest.
Dan says the night is a place of encounters — both magical and disturbing.
Further information
Dan's book Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark is published by Allen & Unwin.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
This episode touches on sleep, covid, COVID, covid-19, hospital, emergency workers, NHS, ICU, frontline workers, search and rescue, dreams, outreach workers, homelessness, moominland, the shipping forecast, BBC, new fatherhood.
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.

The legendary surfer has grieved the deaths of her adoptive mother, stepmother and birth mother. Only later in life did she realise her drive to win came from a place of loss, and Layne needed to look inward to find her place off the podium.
Layne is a legendary surfer who is the first person ever to win six consecutive world titles.
Since her childhood spent on Sydney's Northern Beaches, Layne has loved being in the water but it wasn't until later in life that she realised her relentless drive to win came from a confusion about who she belonged with on land.
Part of her drive to prove her worth and her place came from her experiences of loss.
When Layne was 6 years old, her adopted mother Valerie died. Then, her step-mother Christina died after a long battle with breast cancer.
Twenty years after Layne reconnected with her birth mother, Maggie, she flew to America to be by Maggie's side as she took her last breaths.
Losing three mothers in one lifetime caused Layne to equate motherhood with loss and abandonment. 
But after retiring and learning to slow down, Layne turned inward and finally found herself along the way.
Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of adoption and grief.
Layne's memoir Beneath the Waves was written with Michael Gordon and published in 2009 by Penguin.
Her latest book, Awake Academy, was written with Tess Brouwer and is published by Penguin.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores grief, cancer, death, dying, surfing, pro surfers, Manly, Freshwater, Hawaii, Ken Bradshaw, Kelly Slater, Molly Picklum, Stephanie Gilmore, Kirk Pengilly, love, marriage, stepmother, motherhood, menopause, slowing down, fitness later in life, introspection, awake academy, meditation, beach, ovarian cancer, brain haemorrhage, fatherhood, Tess Brouwer, elite athletes, professional athletes.
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.

After a painful divorce, Charlotte Ree began to piece her broken heart back together by cooking for her neighbours (R)
Charlotte Ree grew up in a family full of love, but with its own particular challenges. 
Her mum struggled with mental illness, which meant Charlotte grew up very quickly.
Charlotte met the man who would become her husband when she was 19. Within a few years, they married, but money became a major source of pain in the relationship.
One night on a boat, Charlotte realised her marriage was over.
Divorce was a devastating turning point for her, and at the same time she found herself living alone in Sydney's lockdown.
Eventually Charlotte decided to find a unique way out of her heartbreak; by cooking for her neighbours.  
Some time later, she also found the courage to look for love again.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.
It explores family history, mental illness, relationships, looking for love, love stories, modern love, divorce, recovering after divorce, cooking, baking, unusual family stories, strange family history, family history, lockdown, Covid lockdown, loneliness, solitude, eating, starvation, nourishment, cooking for one, cooking neighbours, baking cakes, cakes, cake batter, broken heart, mending a broken heart, food as love, finding love after divorce, finding love again, healing from a broken heart, men and women, dating apps, life on the dating apps, strange stories from dating apps, recovery from heartbreak, cooking as a cure for pain, cooking for love, cooking for your life, cooking, mothers, complicated mothers, complicated mother daughter relationships, unconditional love, acceptance, accepting your parents.
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.

Philosopher and writer Eamon Evans on humanity's relentless and impossible pursuit of happiness through materialism, social media and self help, and why the kindest and best people have been 'crushed by life' a couple of times.
Eamon started to think more deeply about happiness and contentment in his 20s, after a bout of serious depression.
He realised that trying to be happy all the time was paradoxically making him miserable, and says that's true for most of us in this modern world.
Eamon began to trace the history of human's infatuation with being happy.
What he found was that the story of humanity was tied up with other pursuits like survival, honour, virtue and discipline until very recently.
Only in the 20th century did people start wanting to stop to smell the roses all the time, but Eamon says a permanent state of happiness impossible and emotionally counterproductive.
In fact, our obsession with being happy is actually making us sad, and on top of that, it's making us sad about the fact that we're sad—a concept called 'meta-unhappiness'.
Eamon acknowledges misery can sometimes be pathological, and it's important that lifesaving progress has been made on creating spaces here people can speak out and seek help.
But in terms of daily, natural feelings of struggle, he says it's better to accept these as a normal part of human life, and look upon seasons of misery as miracles that build character, make us kinder, and more interesting.
The Importance of Being Miserable is published by Simon and Schuster.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris, Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.
It explores advertising, marketing, smart phones, addiction, dopamine, serotonin, Gen Z, glimmers of hope, gratitude, being grateful, how to be grateful, gratitude journal, Buddhism, enlightenment, Mad Men, advertising, capitalism, mental health, mental wellbeing, self help books, religion, industrial revolution, greed, property, wants versus needs.
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.