Life Matters - Full program podcast

Around 1 in 5 of us will experience chronic pain. If you've lived through it, you know how terribly draining it can be. But understanding how pain works and what its purpose is can help. Neuroscientist Lorimer Moseley and chronic pain advocate Lauren Richards explain what's happening in our brains when we experience pain, and why that doesn't mean it's all in your head.
When it comes time to downsize, how do you sort the family keepsakes worth holding onto from the sentimental junk? This week Aunties Janty Blair and Lawrence Leung have some advice for listener Lorraine, whose grown-up kids have no interest in storing the boxes of stuff she's held onto for all these years.

Canberra's beloved bus shelters have just been added to the ACT Heritage Registry — but these "concrete monstrosities" weren't always adored. Architecture advocate Izzie White and public art curator Beth Jackson explore how ordinary features can influence the way we interact with our cities.
August marks Family History Month, a chance to dig through the archives and find out how your ancestors lived. So would you know where to start looking? For comedian Luke McGregor, the search took him all the way to Scotland to reconnect with his clan and himself.
We all have a set of moral principles we try to live by, but sometimes other factors get in the way. Not for a Melbourne-based pilot who recently gave up a 40-year aviation career over concerns about climate change. Patrick Stokes explores what it means to live your life entirely according to your virtues.

Sleep has played a crucial role in human evolution, and evolutionary biologist David Samson argues our ability to function on little sleep is actually a superpower. If we look back to traditional hunter-gatherer societies, we can take some insights on how modern humans could stress less about sleep and feel better rested. 
When you're sitting in the chair at the salon or the barber shop, the care you're receiving often goes deeper than beauty therapy. But we don't train hairdressers to deal with trauma. Researchers Hannah McCann and Stacey Page explore the urgent need to better equip the people who become our de facto therapists with the tools to do this heavy emotional labour.
The average person spends around 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime. That's a lot of time to spend somewhere if you're not happy. This Working Life host Lisa Leong explains the classiest way to quit your job, and what to consider before you pull the trigger.

The Australian Census is upon us. Among the questions that statisticians will be keenly poring over is a fairly simple one: what is the person's religion? But answering it isn't always straightforward. For people who grew up religious, but no longer practice, there can still be some cultural attachment to their faith. Social trends researcher Rebecca Huntley and journalist and comedian Sami Shah explore what our religious statistics really say about us. 
Emily Novo had put off seeing the dentist because she was worried about the cost — then she ended up in a hospital emergency department. She's among more than two million Australians who've skipped dental care because they can't afford it. The Australian Dental Association says it's high time we fill the gap.
What happens when your approach to managing money doesn't sync up with your partner's? Psychologist Christine Bagley-Jones talks through how to have the sensitive chats about finances without starting a huge fight.

Helping you figure out all the big stuff in life: relationships, health, money, work and the world.