Conversations: Psychology & Relationships

How a boy from Glasgow named Norman Swirsky grew up to become Australia's most famous doctor

Gordon Parker is the founder of the Black Dog Institute, which works to remove the stigma around depression, mental illness and bipolar disorder. For the past few years he's been looking closely at the phenomenon of burnout at home and at work

How does Ben Crowe get elite athletes to the top of their game? What he asks footballers, surfers and tennis players to do seems counter intuitive, and a lot of the work happens off the field. (R)

Ben Crowe is a mindset coach who has worked with elite athletes like surfer Steph Gilmore, tennis superstar Ash Barty, and the Richmond Football Club.

But Ben's method of coaching seems counter-intuitive.

Rather than telling these athletes they're the best, he encourages them to own their flaws, make sense of their life stories off the field, prioritising vulnerability and human connection, so they can take both wins and losses in their stride. 

Further information

Originally broadcast in July 2021.

Ben Crowe's new book, Where the Light Gets In, will be published by HarperCollins in January 2026.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Michelle Ransom Hughes, executive producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores sport, NBA, basketball, football, Bayern, David Beckham, Hawks, Tigers, Magpies, Warriors, Tottenham, Jake Weatherald, Champions League, Wimbledon, Tennis Open, US Open, Australian Open, Arsenal, UCL, sports trading, UEFA, FIFA, mindset coaching, positive, books, writing, origin story, grief, death of a father.

Ianto Ware with the story of growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide with his radical feminist lesbian mother Dimity

'Love on the Spectrum' star Jodi Rodgers on her life as a sexologist and relationship counsellor for people with Autism, and her unexpected chapter in reality TV

Parenting educator and retired psychologist Steve Biddulph was in his 50s when a chance conversation over lunch shifted almost everything about how he saw himself

Glenn was working at Enron in London when his mental health began to unravel. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and lost nearly everything. Then a Bowls Club in Queanbeyan helped him begin again

Betty O'Neill's father disappeared when she was a baby. Decades later, inside a tiny apartment in the Polish city of Lublin she opened a green suitcase to find a huge clue to his secret life

Betty O'Neill grew up in country New South Wales with her mum Nora.

Nora worked in hotels in Kyogle and Coffs Harbour, and because she wasn't able to live at the hotels with her mum, Betty was often fostered out to families in the local area.

Nora was what was known in the 1950s as a 'deserted wife'.

Her husband Antoni had disappeared without a trace shortly after Betty was born.

As a girl Betty knew very little about her father.

She finally met him again when she was nineteen, and it was a strange and unsettling experience.

Decades later, Betty became curious about her father's life story.

She began an investigation which took her to Lublin, Poland, a city where she didn't know anyone, to finally uncover the truth.

Further information

The Other Side of Absence is published by Ventura

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Midwife Christian Wright with tales of emergency evacuations and surfing with crocodiles while working in remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land, helping Yolŋu women birth their babies

Christian lives in the tiny town of Nhulunbuy right on the tip of the Northern Territory.

His job there is an unusual one.

Christian doesn't work in the mines like most of the whitefellas in town.

He's a midwife, working with the Indigenous women of remote Arnhem Land to help them birth their babies.

Further information

Learn more about Christian's research into pregnancy and birth

Discover the program to train women as Djakamirr, to help Yolŋu women give birth on their own country

Christian also recommends the book Why Warriors Lie Down and Die by Richard Trudgen as a valuable resource on Indigenous Australia

To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Philippa's parents wanted her to move in the 'right' circles, so they sent her to a Swiss finishing school. Instead she became a debt collector, went to Hamburger University then became a psychotherapist