Humans, being. with Lael Stone

Gina Chick was about seven when her whole class was told to walk in a circle. She stepped out of it and walked the other way, on purpose, so she had to look at every single face coming towards her. She’s been walking the other way ever since.
I’ve wanted this conversation for a long time. Gina survived 67 days alone in the Tasmanian wilderness, but that isn’t the part that undoes me. It’s her book, We Are the Stars, which I read and wailed my way through, snot-crying, completely levelled. She writes about her daughter Blaise with a line that has never left me: “because I've said yes to the grief and whatever it asked of me, I've always been bigger than it.” So I asked her how a person learns to turn towards the thing that most of us spend a lifetime running from.
Our conversation gets into the voice of "should" that is never actually ours, about why our culture pathologises discomfort and hands us ten million distractions instead of tools. We talked about five rhythms and the wild life force that dance sets loose, about dancing in the ashes of friends on Oxford Street in the nineties, about hot flushes as a lifetime of squashed rage burning its way out, and about what Gina calls silver feathers. Her belief that women come out the other side of menopause forged, decentred from the male gaze, with no fucks left to give and exactly the right qualifications to lead.
We explore:
Why comparison is a normal part of being human, and where our culture leaves us stranded with it
Grief as the flip side of love, and how feeling every fibre of it let Gina map the shape of her own heart
Why we’re not designed for comfort, and what discomfort is actually inviting us to do
Five rhythms as a way to digest what we cannot think our way out of
[Recorded Online June 2026]
About Gina Chick:
Gina Chick is a rewilding facilitator, five rhythms dance meditation teacher and storyteller who won the first season of Alone Australia after 67 days solo in the Tasmanian wilderness.
She is the founder of Wild Heart, which runs family wilderness camps, vision quests and retreats built around reconnecting with nature as a path to inner authority. Her debut memoir We Are the Stars won the ABIA Matt Richell Award for Best New Writer of the Year and became the first work of non-fiction ever to top the Dymocks Top 101, and is now out in the US with Andrews McMeel. She is currently writing her second book.
Connect with Gina:
Instagram: @gigiamazonia
Website: ginachick.com
Book: We Are The Stars
Wild Heart: wildheart.life
Substack: @therealginachick

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Connect with Humans, being:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @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 are a few F-bombs in our discussion. If you’ve little ones listening nearby, consider headphones!
Em Rusciano knows this: taking care of herself first is a radical punk act. And if you know Em from her music, book, radio, or her gloriously chaotic Instagram, you already know she's never done anything by halves.
Em talks about parenting her 6yr old son, who she describes, with so much love, as a “sixty-year-old cranky super genius”; her family… they’re a “lineage of lunatics” (in the best possible way), the 30 years of friendship with her bestie, screenwriter Michael Lucas; and about dating again in her forties after divorce.
We explore:
The "Diagnostic Trifecta": ADHD at forty-two, autism at forty-three, and perimenopause arriving right on schedule, and why Em is grateful she wasn't diagnosed any sooner
Why everything she creates gets made "for her", the woman lying awake at 2am, wondering what happened to her life
The imprints from her dad and her mum that she's still working to untangle
School, undiagnosed neurodivergence, and what it cost her to be brilliant at the hard stuff / punished for struggling with the easy stuff
Why her darling mate Michael is who she calls the greatest love story of her life
Dating after divorce, and the new rule book she's discovered for choosing instead of waiting to be chosen
[Recorded Online May 2026]
About Em Rusciano:
Em Rusciano is a comedian, singer, author, and podcaster who has spent two decades making Australians laugh, cry, and feel a little less alone. She first came to national attention on Australian Idol in 2004 and has since built a career across radio, stand-up, and television. In 2023, Em delivered an address to the National Press Club on ADHD and her son's autism that shifted the national conversation on neurodivergence. She was diagnosed with ADHD at forty-two and autism at forty-three, alongside the arrival of perimenopause, what she calls her diagnostic trifecta.
Connect with Em:
Website: emrusciano.com
Instagram: @emrusciano
Podcast: Emsolation (with Michael Lucas)
Book: Blood, Sweat and Glitter
Live Tour: Addicted to Love

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

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Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

Joe Williams told me that looking honestly at yourself can be a brutal thing, and then in the same breath he called it the best mirror we can ever hold, because that’s where generational change actually starts.
Joe and I were on the road together for nearly a month touring the doco ‘Seen’, so I got to watch him sit in front of audiences again and again and tell the truth about being a dad. There’s a line of his in the film that gets me every time: that he has to put his hand up, that it haunts him, that there are many years he can't get back.
What I’ve watched him do with that grief is not turn away from it. He gave his kids full permission to say whatever they needed to say in their own interviews, then listened to the whole recording alone in a hotel room in upstate New York the night before a keynote, because he knew he couldn't carry it onto a stage.
We talk about the stories we think define us and who actually gets to define them, about getting sober twenty-one years ago and why he says culture keeps him sober.
We explore:
Who gets to define us, and how differently Joe defines himself now compared with almost everyone he’s ever met
Sitting in lockdown and realising he’d been a father to five kids without being a dad to any of them
Why he now believes a stack of his success came from a place of screaming to be noticed
Country as medicine, the drives out the road not knowing whether he would come back
Dreaming stories as instructions for living rather than pretty picture books on a shelf
[Recorded Online May 2026]
About Joe Williams:
Joe is a Wiradjuri and Wolgalu man, born in Cowra and raised in Wagga Wagga. He played in the National Rugby League for South Sydney, Penrith and Canterbury before switching to professional boxing in 2009, where he became a two-time WBF World Junior Welterweight champion and won a WBC Asia continental title.
Connect with Joe:
Website: joewilliams.com.au
Instagram: @joewilliams_tew
Speaking: The Enemy Within
Book: Defying the Enemy Within

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

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Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

Dr Edna Lekgabe has a name for what happens when a woman becomes a mother. She calls it matrescence, basically puberty 2.0: messy, hormonal, profound, and almost completely unnamed.
Edna’s a Melbourne perinatal psychiatrist whom I have so much respect for. We talk about the developmental earthquake none of us are warned about.
I became a mum at 25 with no idea what was happening to me… the brain rewiring, the threat system switching on. We discuss what happens when birth trauma and matrescence collide, why accepting care is so much harder than giving it. We talked about how the same threat system that protects a newborn also sharpens a mother's boundaries, and get into perimenopause and menopause, and ‘the gold’ Edna says is waiting on the other side. She wants every woman to have a buddy a few steps ahead and behind her, the same way kids get one on their first day of school.
We explore:
What matrescence is, and why Edna calls it "puberty 2.0" for the brain and body
The support networks that help mothers to thrive
What's waiting on the other side of perimenopause and menopause, and nature's amazing design
Dr Edna says the real task of matrescence is learning to accept care. I think about the version of me who once whispered "I don't like this" down the phone to my own mum, and what it would have meant to have a name for it. Whatever quake you're bracing for, I hope this conversation hands you some of that language too.
[Recorded May 2026]
About Dr Edna Lekgabe:
Dr Edna Lekgabe is a perinatal and reproductive psychiatrist based in Melbourne, and founder and clinical director of WARM Health Collective, a psychiatrist-led practice in Collingwood supporting people through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. She also holds a consultant role at The Royal Women's Hospital and sits on Safer Care Victoria's Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity.
Connect with Edna:
Instagram: @drednalekgabe
Website: drednalekgabe.com.au
WARM Health Collective: warmhealthcollective.com.au

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Connect with Humans, being:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Threads: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @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.

—

Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

Friendship, Bec Sparrow says, is a bumper bar on your life. It doesn't stop the hard things from happening – it cushions the impact when they do.
Bec is one of Australia's most trusted voices on teen and tween life - author of seven books, co-host of ABC's Parental as Anything with Maggie Dent, co-founder of Birds of a Feather (Australia's largest online book club for women), and a woman who has spent more than twenty years studying the science and art of friendship. She is also, by her own admission, a deeply introverted person who has had to consciously learn every single skill she teaches.
We explore:
The sense of calling she has carried since her teenage years, and what it actually feels like to be doing the work you're here to do
The pilot light – what Bec says to every parent who is deep in the season of small children and losing themselves
Why Bec models friendship differently now, including the concept of "deep casual hosting" and having people over even when your house is a mess.
The power of apologising and owning your impact when friendships get messy
Why your kids need friends inside school AND outside school – and why having both matters so much when things go sideways
JOT: Join One Thing – Bec's campaign to combat loneliness, and why she believes there are friendships waiting for all of us if we're willing to walk in the door
[Recorded Online April 2026]
About Bec Sparrow:
Rebecca (Bec) Sparrow is one of Australia's most trusted voices on teen and tween life. She's the author of seven books spanning fiction and non-fiction, including the bestselling novel The Girl Most Likely and the teen guide Find Your Tribe. Her most recent book, Out of the Box: A one-stop guide to navigating neurodivergence, was co-authored with journalist Madonna King and published by UQP in 2024. She co-hosts the ABC podcast Parental as Anything: Teens with Maggie Dent, and co-founded Birds of a Feather Book Club - billed as Australia's largest online book club for women - with Jane Sullivan.
Connect with Bec:
Website: rebeccasparrow.com – including a free friendship resources offer: if you're struggling and can't afford her paid resources, email hello@rebeccasparrow.com and mention this podcast. She will send you what you need.
Instagram: @rebeccasparrow72
Facebook: Rebecca Sparrow Writer
Book club: birdsofafeather.com.au
Book: Out of the Box (UQP, 2024) with Madonna King
Podcast: Parental as Anything: Teens (ABC)

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Connect with Humans, being:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @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.