Conversations – Details, episodes & analysis

While struggling with PTSD, social researcher Rebecca Huntley chose an unconventional and underground path to healing — MDMA therapy.

Rebecca Huntley is well known to many Australians for her formidable intellect and career as a broadcaster, an author and a social researcher.

But despite her impressive public-facing life, in private, Rebecca's trauma from a difficult upbringing refused to leave her.

At 50, she walked the Camino in Italy and realised that after 30 years of therapy, she was still living with a great deal of anger about what had happened to her as a child.

She decided to take a radical step to deal with her PTSD and her suffering. 

She had three sessions of MDMA therapy, delivered by an underground healer. 

The treatment changed Rebecca's life and her view of the world.

This conversation discusses therapy, trauma, psychedelics, drugs, parenting, grief, family, mothers, ancestry, fathers, family dynamics, domestic violence, going no contact, exploration and loss.

When Carolyn Blacklock's passport was confiscated from her in a foreign country she was faced with a scary reality that got wilder at every turn

Carolyn Blacklock's passport was taken from from her at the Port Moresby International Airport when she was trying to get on a plane back to Australia. It was at that moment she realised just how much trouble she was in. 

Carolyn, who had headed up the national power company in Papua New Guinea and worked for the World Back there, had faced charges of corruption after a change in government. 

When the court cleared her of any and all wrongdoing, she thought she would be able to leave the country, but still she was detained or threatened at every turn.

So, Carolyn set about getting herself out of PNG and back to Australia by any means necessary.

What ensued was a wild, nine-day journey travelling in a helicopter, in the boot of a four-wheel drive, in a tiny dinghy and on foot. 

While Carolyn did get herself out of PNG, she desperately misses the country she called home for more than a decade.

Carolyn's story explores escape, adventure, family, regional development, the Pacific, banking, diplomacy, corruption, governance, country Australia, Papua New Guinea, close neighbours, emigration, illegal immigration, politics and foreign affairs.

Kári Gíslason was 18 when he met a mysterious stranger called 'the Pirate' on the Greek island of Corfu. When he fled the island, he left behind a debt he promised to one day repay.

When Kári Gíslason was 18, he came to the island of Corfu as a stony-broke traveller. 

But he quickly found work in a little town: lime washing walls and working as a builder’s labourer.

The man who gave him the work was a mysterious figure known simply as ’the Pirate’.

At first, Kári thought it was a nickname given to him as a comic exaggeration of his former life as a ship’s cook.

But he received warnings from several people to get away from the Pirate.

And when the Pirate said he wanted Kári to sail with him across the Atlantic to deliver unnamed goods to Brazil, Kári began to plot his escape.

Andy McCarthy found passion for solar power as a high school dropout. He began one of Australia's biggest solar businesses, right in the heart of Victoria's coal country. But then a breakdown changed everything for Andy and his family

Andy McCarthy dropped out of high school in year 10. He was a highly energetic kid but found it difficult to latch onto any one thing for long.

Andy was happier out of school, and tried a whole lot of different jobs.

Then at 19, he connected his first solar panel and was suddenly fired up with a jolt of enthusiasm.

He set up a rooftop solar business right in the middle of coal country – in the LaTrobe Valley in Country Victoria.

Setting up a solar panel shop in a place surrounded by some of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power stations was always going to invite scepticism.

But Andy’s drive saw the business grow from a garage operation to one of the biggest employers in the area. 

At the height of his success though, Andy suffered a breakdown that landed him in hospital – and he realised he would have to change, along with the rest of the planet.

Andy's story covers themes of neurodivergence, ADHD, ADD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, climate change, solar power, solar panels, batteries, small business, education, schooling, success, environmental issues, the economy, economic development, regional Australia and industry.

In this two-part series, historian Paul Ham traces how our definition and understanding of the human soul has transformed over thousands of years. Humans have been probing their own invisible inner voice since the Stone Age. But where did the concept of the soul even come from? And is it really what separates the living from the dead?

Historian and writer Paul Ham has traced how our definition and understanding of the human soul has changed over thousands of years.

Human beings have been probing their own inner voice, what it means and how it makes us feel, since the Stone Age.

The human soul has long thought to be an invisible, inner essence that makes each of us distinctively different from the rocks and trees, and which also separates the living from the dead.

But where did it come from? Who invented the concept of the soul? And do we still believe in the soul as inextricably linked to the human spirit?

In this two-part series, Paul investigated first what the pre-modern world called 'the soul'. In this episode, he explores how the concept of the soul disappeared, and became 'the mind' in the modern era.

This episode touches on ancient history, philosophy, neurology, religion, death, epic storytelling, faith, exploration and memory.

Suzie Miller's frugal and free range St Kilda childhood taught her to question almost everything. She grew up to become a trailblazing writer and lawyer (R)

Suzie Miller grew up in St Kilda, and from early in life she had a number of part-time jobs. She became a trailblazing paper girl in her local area, when the role was usually only offered to boys.

As a young woman Suzie trained as a lawyer and began working with homeless teenagers in Sydney’s Kings Cross. She then began to write stories and plays out of the lives she was encountering in court.

She thought these were stories the world needed to hear. And the world sat up and listened.

Suzie’s award winning play Prima Facie, a one woman show about how the legal system treats victims of sexual assault, has received standing ovations from its Sydney premiere to the West End in London and on Broadway in New York.  

The play has since inspired a TV show, a movie and a novel.

Suzie's story covers themes of grief, family, motherhood, memoir, an exploration of the legal system, grief, and reflections on the changing role of women the modern world.

When a devastating injury ended Jack Beaumont's career as a jet fighter pilot, he decided to become a spy, in the French Secret Service.

Jack Beaumont (not his real name) is a former intelligence operative and the author of several spy thrillers.

Jack grew up in a turbulent family in Paris and when he got older he decided to train as a jet fighter pilot with the French Air Force.

During a training dogfight at supersonic speed, Jack suffered a devastating injury that meant he could no longer fly jets, but he still wanted a job steeped in adventure and danger.

So he began piloting covert spy missions, and eventually became a spy with France's secret intelligence service: the DGSE, maintaining up to five secret identities as a time.

While he now lives in a beautiful part of Australia with his wife and family, Jack has struggled to leave behind the extreme hyper vigilance of his early working life.

This conversation discusses family dynamics, adventure, history, global politics, spies, military life and spycraft.

Dog behaviourist Laura Vissaritis uses science and psychology to better understand what our dogs really are telling us and how our behaviour influences theirs (R).

Laura is a dog behaviourist with qualifications in both animal behaviour and human psychology.

Dogs were the first animals to become domesticated, and over the centuries they've evolved from their wolfish origins to become more useful, attentive and appealing to us. 

Laura says that when a dog is displaying 'difficult' behaviours like too much barking, pulling on the lead, or jumping up, the first step in the process is often changing the behaviour of their human. 

She also believes with the increasing tendency in Australia to view our dogs as quasi-people has led to heavy expectations on many dogs, to which they can't always measure up.

This episode of Conversations explores dogs, pets, animal behaviour, animal psychology, fur babies, service dogs, psychology, co-dependence, animal rescue, death, grief and animal welfare.

As a young child, chunks of Brenda Matthews' early memories were missing until her biological mother told her the truth of what happened. Together they are slowly healing

Wiradjuri woman Brenda Matthews was stolen from her family, along with her six siblings, when she was two-years-old.

She came from a loving, hardworking, religious family.

She was fostered by an affectionate white family, and she blended into her new life happily.

After six years of living with them, she was told it was time to return “home” to her biological family — who she didn’t remember at all.

For most of her life, Brenda suppressed her memories of her white parents and their love and care. 

Then, as an adult, she worked up the courage to bring both sides of her family together, so they could all slowly heal.

This episode touches on family history, the Stolen Generations, memoir, life stories, ancestry, modern history, origin stories, personal stories, epic storytelling, reflection, grief, loss, exploration and memory.

The country music star remembers a childhood spent roaming the Nullarbor Plain, and the number one lesson she learned from her father.

Kasey Chambers started singing around the campfire as a little girl.

She and her family spent much of the year camping on the Nullarbor Plain, where her dad would hunt for foxes and rabbits.

Kasey and her brother Nash had a free range childhood, and went to sleep to the sound of their father's rifle as he worked through the night. 

Singing came naturally to Kasey, and she loved all the old country classics, as well as some Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen.

Kasey has spent her life making music and connecting with audiences. It’s what she believes she was put on the earth to do.

This episode of Conversations touches on motherhood, family, country music, Kasey Chambers, singing, songwriting, nature, childhood, parenting, co-parenting, divorce, re-partnering, gentle parenting, making music, recording music, guitar, banjo, mandolin, Slim Dusty, Tamworth Country Music Festival.