Humans, being. with Lael Stone

Amantha calls her AI 'Sunny'. She talks to it on the drive to the gym, like she's chatting to a friend. And it has quietly changed how she works, how she writes, and how she gets the thinking out of her own head.
Dr. Amantha Imber is one of the sharpest, most generous humans I know. An organisational psychologist, the founder of Inventium, host of How I Work, the first Australian to win a Thinkers50 Innovation Award, the author of four bestselling books, and her brand new one, The Energy Game, lands in July.
In this episode, we discuss Amantha's burnout year and the tiny experiments that crawled her back, the ones she calls boosts, rest, and protect. Why "fake rest" (Netflix while you scroll) won't fill the bucket. And we talk about the childhood praise imprint that drives so many of us: what if the goal isn't to be more, but to be okay with being ordinary?
We explore:
The pressure we accept being human and thinking we must do it all
The hit-by-a-bus fantasy and what it tells us about how women carry stress
AI as a thought partner, and how Amantha uses it without losing the human bit
What we want for our daughters, and the thinking skills we don't want to outsource
[Recorded January 2026]
About Amantha Imber:
Dr. Amantha Imber is an organisational psychologist and the founder of Inventium, a behaviour-change consultancy that works with companies including Google, Apple and Lego. She also runs Inventium AI, focused on AI capability building inside organisations. Amantha hosts the How I Work podcast (over 6 million downloads) and recently launched a new podcast, How I AI. She is the first Australian to win a Thinkers50 Innovation Award and is the author of four bestselling books, including Time Wise and The Health Habit. Her new book, The Energy Game, is out on 7 July 2026.
Connect with Amantha:
Instagram: @amanthai
Inventium: inventium.com.au
Newsletter: One Percent Better
Podcasts: How I Work, How I AI
Book: The Energy Game (out 7 July 2026)

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Australia’s Kindest Person:
Australia’s Kindest Person is a national campaign created to help shine a light on the people whose kindness has made a real difference in the lives of others. To nominate someone, please visit:
australiaskindestperson.com.au

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

The question I get asked the most by parents is, "Does this work?" So this week I sat down with two of the people most qualified to answer it.
For the better part of two decades, I have been teaching parents to parent differently. To skip the punishments and the rewards. To look behind the behaviour. To make space for big feelings instead of shutting them down. And the whole time, in the back of my mind, has been the quiet question every parent asks themselves... am I getting this right?
My answer was always going to come from my kids. So this episode, I'm joined by two of them, Indi (22) and Tali (18), and we are talking honestly about what it was like growing up in our house. The mistakes I made. The chocolate I tried to bribe Tali with when I was tapped out. The 4am phone call that taught all of us what safe really means. The big feelings that were always welcome, even when I had nothing left.
This is not a polished retrospective. It's messy and tender, the way our family is. We talk about staying true to yourself in a world that wants you to conform, what social media is doing to young people, why the friends pushing the boat hardest are the ones hurting most, and the little life skills that come from a house where no topic is off limits. It's also a love letter from a mum to her children who turned up, told the truth, and did not throw me too far under the bus.
We explore:
Why looking behind the behaviour beats grounding every time
What it actually looks like to repair when you have lost it as a parent
Staying true to yourself when society and social media are pulling the other way
Therapy, aunties, and the village every kid needs around them
Looking at the so-called "bad kid" and asking what is hurting
[Recorded January 2026]
About Indi and Tali Gaal:
Indi is 22, and Tali is 18. They are Lael and Mike's kids, siblings to Ky (25), and the people Lael calls her best work. Both have spent time working with young children and bring that lens, plus their own lived experience of being raised the way they were, into this conversation.

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Australia’s Kindest Person:
Australia’s Kindest Person is a national campaign created to help shine a light on the people whose kindness has made a real difference in the lives of others. To nominate someone, please visit:
australiaskindestperson.com.au

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

There's a version of strength the world rewards – capable, tireless, always fine. And then there's the cost.
Gorgi Coghlan is someone I've adored from the moment we met. She's formidable, warm, wildly accomplished, and the kind of person who makes you feel seen immediately.
We talk about the imprints that drive us – the little girl who worked hard to be seen by a father whose love came through providing, not presence.
We explore:
The hidden cost of being "the strong one"
Internal vs external boundaries - why protecting your own cup is the whole point, not the selfish part
Reconciling with a parent before it's too late, and what it means to carry that love with you
Highly sensitive people: the superpower of reading the room, the cost of being depleted by it, and why Gorgi thinks HSP will be our next big cultural conversation
"I haven't even begun." Gorgi's mantra at 50, and why she went back to drama school, just because she could
Gorgi talks about who's advocating for her. Here is this extraordinary woman – accomplished, giving, deeply loved – and she still needs to hear herself say it out loud. YES. You are allowed to need something. You are allowed to ask for it. Even if – especially if – you've spent a long time being the one who doesn't.
[Recorded January 2026]
About Gorgi Coghlan:
Gorgi Coghlan is a former Year 12 science and biology teacher turned broadcaster, presenter, and performer. She spent over a decade as co-host of The Project and The Circle on Channel Ten, and as a reporter and presenter on the Today Show on Channel Nine. An extraordinary singer, Gorgi performs live with her friend in their show Songbird – and is also now a voice on ABC Radio. She runs a hospitality business with her husband Simon, and is a devoted mum to her teenage daughter Molly.
Connect with Gorgi:
Instagram: @gorgicoghlan
Biz: The Buninyong Hotel
Songbirds: Theatre Royal, Hobart, Jul 5. Tickets

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Australia’s Kindest Person:
Australia’s Kindest Person is a national campaign created to help shine a light on the people whose kindness has made a real difference in the lives of others. To nominate someone, please visit:
australiaskindestperson.com.au

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

"What am I making this mean?" That question might change how you move through conflict with your partner. Because the real work isn't making your partner wrong…it's getting curious about yourself.
I wanted to talk about what makes relationships tricky and what makes them actually work, and in this episode, I share my own story; how I went from completely collapsing whenever Mike got upset, to finally learning how to hold my centre. How we survived the brutal early parenting years when we were both drowning and how post-traumatic stress cracked me open and forced me to do the real work.
Over many years of working with families, I have learned that you can't make your partner do the work. All you can do is do your own, and trust that something shifts when you stop waiting for them to change and start looking at what's yours to heal.
I explore:
Why we unconsciously choose partners who mirror our childhood wounds
How attachment styles (anxious, avoidant, disorganised, secure) show up in your intimate relationship
The power of asking "what am I making this mean?" when you're triggered
What it feels like when your childhood wounds meet your partner's defences
The three paths your relationship can take when one person is doing the work and the other isn't
How coming home to yourself is the greatest gift you can give your relationship and your kids
I keep coming back to the people in relationships right now who are absolutely exhausted. Those who are doing the work, holding the space, trying to communicate better. And I want to say this… the fact that you're asking "what's here for me?" instead of "what's wrong with them?" means you're already transforming your relationship. Maybe not with your partner yet, but definitely with yourself.
[Recorded Online November 2025]
About Lael Stone:
Lael Stone is an educator, counsellor, and author of Own Your Story: Understanding your past to create your future. With over 20 years of experience working with families, Lael helps people understand how their childhood imprints shape their adult lives – and how to do something about it.
Connect with Lael:
Instagram: @laelstone
Website: laelstone.com.au

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

There's a strange kind of comfort in staying exactly where you are – even when that is hurting you. In this episode, I’m talking with clinical psychologist Dr Emily Musgrove, and we discuss why the familiar feels safe even when it isn't, and what it actually takes to find our way back to ourselves.
An imprint I have - from watching the busy women in my family – was that if you're not doing three things at once, you're lazy. That's the thread Emily and I pulled on together. We both grew up watching women just go, go, go – and then spent years unravelling what that cost us. Emily talks about returning from holiday and instantly flipping into doing mode. I talk about the moment I realised my anxiety was actually working for me - keeping me safe from being seen.
Her book Unstuck grew from that reckoning. We talk about secondary gains (the hidden payoff in staying the same), the concept of the near enemy of kindness, what perimenopause might really be releasing in us as women, and the childhood imprints that shape who we become – and who we pass that on to.
We explore:
How to start building compassion when “love yourself” feels like too big a leap - and why Emily starts with the inner critic, not against it
The dinner table analogy that reframes your relationship with your own harsh inner voice
Why empathy and compassion aren’t the same thing - and which one protects people who hold space for others from burning out
Why we unconsciously stay in painful patterns – and the concept of secondary gains that explains more than we’d like to admit
The “near enemy” of kindness - how self-sacrifice quietly masquerades as a virtue
[Recorded Remotely October 2025]
About Dr Emily Musgrove:
Dr Emily Musgrove is a clinical psychologist based in Perth with over a decade of experience helping people find their way back to themselves. She is the beloved resident psychologist on The Imperfects Podcast - where she draws on real conversations to offer evidence-based strategies people can actually use. Her book, Unstuck: A Guide to Finding Your Way Forward to the Life You Want to Live, was released in May 2025.
Connect with Emily:
Website: dremilymusgrove.com
Instagram: @dremilymusgrove
Book: Unstuck (available in print, ebook and audio)

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.