All In The Mind

This week, we unpack the appeal of masculinity influencers and the psychological needs they fulfil, like the need for certainty and a sense of purpose. 

Because interestingly, boys and men who consume manosphere content are more optimistic about their futures — but they're also more likely to struggle with their mental health.

We also get advice for parents on how to talk to their kids about some of the more extreme elements of the manosphere (hint: don't lecture, lead with curiosity).

Guests:

Clinical psychologist

Global Director of Research at Movember

Associate Professor, Orygen, The University of Melbourne

Ben Vasiliou

CEO of The Man Cave

More info:

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Five years of unpaid taxes. Homework handed in on the last day of an extension. Some people are champion procrastinators.

Why? And what does task paralysis (sometimes called ADHD paralysis) have to do with it?

Today: the personality traits that make you more prone to procrastination, the types of tasks we're most likely to put off, and what to do if your to-do list sends you into fight-or-flight mode.

This episode first aired in August 2025.

Guests:

EvaHigh school student

Dr Catherine HoulihanClinical psychologistSenior lecturer in clinical psychologyDirector of the UniSC Psychology ClinicUniversity of the Sunshine Coast

Credits:

• Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
• Producer: Rose Kerr
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Sound engineer: Simon Branthwaite

To view the transcript for this episode, head to its original webpage.

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Today, we're making sense of the tips, tricks and treatments that the self-help landscape has to offer.

So whether you're keen to try exposure therapy, tackle your need for validation or restructure your thinking, we'll unpack the psychology so you can improve your life.

Guests:

Dr Jeremy StevensonClinical psychologistCo-author, The 12 Levers: The Complete Psychological Toolkit For Improving Your Life

Credits:

• Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Producer: Rose Kerr
• Sound engineer: Roi Huberman

Related episodes:

• Managing your emotions so they don't manage you
• 'What if I'm a paedophile?' The intrusive thoughts that haunted Uma
• Healing from self-hatred
• The cognitive distortions of a high achiever
• Hypochondria and cyberchondria: the many ways to worry about health
• Facing fears and phobias

As the headlines get scarier, a neuroscientist and an English professor weigh in on some of our big questions about AI.

From cognitive offloading to memory and creativity, we'll examine what AI can offer and what should be kept for human minds.

Sophie Gee and Reuben Rideaux appear in Where's the AI Off Switch? on 4 October, co-presented with The University of Sydney, as part of Curious at the Sydney Opera House.

Guests:

Professor Sophie GeeDepartment of English, Princeton UniversityCo-director, Eleos Collaboration, University of Sydney

Dr Reuben RideauxCognitive neuroscientistSenior Lecturer in the School of PsychologyUniversity of Sydney

Credits:

• Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Producer: Rose Kerr
• Sound engineer: Tegan Nicholls

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Reading is good for you, but fiction has added benefits.

So how does reading work in the brain? Why are stories so impactful? 

And why, in this era of book clubs and booktok, are literacy rates not thriving?

Get your votes in for Radio National's Top 100 Books Countdown before October 1st. 

Guests:

Professor Genevieve McArthurAustralian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy, ACUDirector of Research Translation, Dyslexia SPELD Foundation

Dr Lili YuSenior Lecturer, School of Psychological SciencesMacquarie University Centre for Reading

Dr Raymond MarProfessor of PsychologyYork University

J.A. (Jess) StevensAuthor, A Change of Pace

BecJess' partner

Credits:

• Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
• Reporter/producer: Rose Kerr
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Sound engineer: Tim Jenkins

Resources:

• Reading Writing Hotline 1300 6 555 06
• Literacy for Life Foundation
• Dyslexia SPELD foundation

More information:

• More than 1 in 3 Australian adults are functionally illiterate. How can we fix this?
• The benefits of reading narrative fiction
• A chapter a day: Association of book reading with longevity
• What Chinese can teach us about reading
• Too many students have 'reading anxiety'. New research suggests it is triggered by problems in primary school
• Reading and associations with brain health, cognition, well-being, and mental health

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

How do you know if you have health anxiety?

For mental health nurse Sarah, she had real health concerns, but they were coupled with panic, spiralling worries and late nights googling her symptoms. So how can you tell if your concerns are causing more harm than good?Today, we're demystifying health anxiety. From the impact it has on individuals, to family and friends, to the flow on effects it can have on the medical system. 

And don't worry, there is good news - it is treatable, so we'll explore what to do if you're feeling overwhelmed by health anxiety. 

Guests:

Sarah (pseudonym)Mental health nurse

Professor Jill NewbyClinical psychologistUniversity of New South WalesBlack Dog Institute

Credits:

• Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
• Producer: Rose Kerr
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Sound engineer: Isabella Tropiano

More information/resources:

• CCI Health Anxiety
• This Way Up - Health Anxiety

The Black Dog Institute is doing research on digital treatments for health anxiety. If you're interested in participating, you can find more information here.

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Sally Gould was a couple of years into her dream job as a paramedic when it all started to fall apart.It wasn’t the trauma and injury she was exposed to on shifts that was getting to her. It was everything else - the hours, the nonsense callouts, the bullying.The experience would leave her isolated and thinking of suicide. But she found a way back.Today, an episode for those of you who fear you’re burning out - or have burnt out.We hear about the personality traits that put you at higher risk of burnout, how to protect yourself and getting back on the path back to good health.

Guests:

Sally Gould

Paramedic; Author, Frog: The Secret Diary of a Paramedic

Gordon Parker

Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales

Credits:

• Presenter: Sana Qadar
• Senior Producer: James Bullen
• Producer: Rose Kerr
• Sound Engineer: Tegan Nicholls

More info:

Burnout: A Guide to Identifying Burnout and Pathways to Recovery (Allen & Unwin).

Defining burnout: What is this syndrome and what sets it apart from other labels? (RACGP).

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Meditation sickness, meditation-related adverse effects or meditators in distress – you probably haven't heard these terms, even if you do meditate.

Yet research finds adverse effects occur in half of all meditators. For one in 10, it impairs their functioning or lasts more than a month.

Experts say many people can benefit from meditation, but it can also come with harms.

Today, the second episode of a two-part special on the research into those harms and the personal stories of those who've experienced them. You can hear part one of the series here.

Guests:

Willoughby BrittonAssociate Professor, Brown University Medical School; Director of the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab

Nicholas Van DamAssociate Professor, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences; Director of the Contemplative Studies Center at the University of Melbourne

Willem KuykenProfessor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science, University of Oxford

Jane ReedExperienced adverse effects from meditation and the author of First Telling

SueExperienced adverse effects from meditation

Credits:

• Presenter: Sana Qadar
• Reporter/Producer: Fiona Pepper
• Senior Producer: James Bullen
• Producer: Rose Kerr

Extra info:

• Defining and measuring meditation-related adverse effects in mindfulness-based programs
• The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists
• Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of universal school-based mindfulness training compared with normal school provision in reducing risk of mental health problems and promoting well-being in adolescence: the MYRIAD cluster randomised controlled trial
• Cheetah House

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Meditation has a lot of benefits, but could it also have risks?

Over the past decade, meditation and mindfulness have been promoted to reduce stress and increase relaxation.

But there is another story of meditation that rarely gets told... one that involves anxiety, insomnia — even psychosis.

Today, how one person went from being an evangelical mindfulness meditator, to a leading researcher on the adverse effects of meditation.

Guests:

Willoughby BrittonAssociate professor, Brown University Medical School and director of the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab

Pawan SharmaAssistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Pattan Academy of Health Sciences School of Medicine

Pierce SalgueroProfessor of Asian History and Health Humanities at Penn State University

Credits:

• Presenter: Sana Qadar
• Reporter/producer: Fiona Pepper
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Producer: Rose Kerr

Extra information:

• Defining and measuring meditation-related adverse effects in mindfulness-based programs
• Prevalence and 20-year trends in meditation, yoga, guided imagery and progressive relaxation use among US adults from 2002 to 2022
• Prevalence and predictors of meditation use in Australia and New Zealand: results from a nationally representative survey
• Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy improves polysomnographic and subjective sleep profiles in antidepressant users with sleep complaints
• Meditation-induced psychosis: a narrative review and individual patient data analysis
• Psychiatric Problems Precipitated by Transcendental Meditation
• The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists
• Cheetah House

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Closure can feel like the ultimate solution to help us heal. But is it all it's cracked up to be?

Today, we learn about ambiguous loss — the type of grief that comes without closure. 

We know navigating uncertainty is tricky, so what practical steps can we take to process this kind of loss?

A heads up, this episode touches on some heavy topics around loss and trauma.

Guests:

Carly DoberPsychologist

Dr Pauline BossProfessor emeritus, University of MinnesotaAuthor, Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic Author, Change and Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief

Credits:

• Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
• Senior producer: James Bullen
• Producer: Rose Kerr
• Sound engineer: Roi Huberman

More information:

• The psychology of closure — and why some need it more than others
• Motivated closing of the mind: "seizing" and "freezing"
• Beyond dogmatism: The need for closure as related to religion
• Need for cognitive closure, tolerance for ambiguity, and perfectionism in medical school applicants
• Ambiguous loss

To explore more great episodes from the award-winning psychology podcast All in the Mind with host Sana Qadar, download the ABC Listen app (Australia) or search 'ABC All in the Mind podcast' wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more episodes on mental health, trauma, attachment theory, wellness hacks, and family relationships. You'll also hear interviews with experts like Esther Perel, Billy Garvey and Ethan Kross. All in the Mind is created for ABC's Radio National by specialist journalists and reporters at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.