Cut Through

What would you do if your girlfriend told you she was pregnant tomorrow?

Would you step up? Walk away? Or have absolutely no idea what to do?

It’s a question most young men never seriously consider — until suddenly, it’s real.

Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in our culture. But behind the political arguments are real people facing fear, uncertainty, and decisions that could change their lives forever.

So what does taking responsibility actually look like? Can you stand firm in your beliefs without judging others? And what role should faith play when life gets complicated?

In this episode of Cut Through, Christian sits down with Phoebe Vidacak, Australian entrepreneur and co-founder of Plana, a US-based nonprofit helping women navigate unplanned pregnancies through personalised support, counselling, and access to medical, housing, and adoption resources.

With a Master’s in Business specialising in Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy, Phoebe moved from Australia to Las Vegas to co-found Plana alongside successful tech entrepreneur Gary Rayner. Now working directly in one of America’s most controversial social issues, she brings firsthand experience building practical solutions for women facing difficult decisions.

Together, they tackle uncomfortable questions about abortion, masculinity, responsibility, faith, and what it means to genuinely care for others — even when you disagree.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Abortion beyond the politics: What both sides of the debate might be getting wrong.
• What it means to be a man: Why your response to an unplanned pregnancy matters more than you might realise.
• Pro-life vs pro-choice: Can we move beyond labels and find common ground?
• Thinking for yourself: How social media, cultural pressure, and competing worldviews shape what we believe.
• The choices nobody talks about: Motherhood, adoption, abortion, and the importance of informed decisions.
• Responsibility without control: How young men can support their partners without taking away their autonomy.
• Faith without judgment: Why Phoebe believes Christians need to show more compassion, humility, and practical love.
• Finding your purpose: How an unexpected encounter led Phoebe to leave Australia and build a nonprofit in America.
• Courage when life gets hard: How faith gives Phoebe the strength to keep going through uncertainty, setbacks, and doubt.

You don’t have to agree with Phoebe’s beliefs to get something out of this conversation.

This episode isn’t just about abortion. It’s about the kind of man you want to become when life demands something of you.

Because having an opinion is easy. Taking responsibility, showing compassion, and standing by your convictions when it costs you something? That’s where character is built.

Watch the full Cut Through interview:
https://youtu.be/dxte_MVNlQk

What does it feel like to have no country to call home? And how do you find happiness, hope and purpose when you’ve lost almost everything?

Born in war-torn Congo, Roje Ndayambaje fled violence with his family and spent eight years growing up in a refugee camp in Uganda. Life meant mud houses, no running water or electricity, food shortages and the constant threat of danger. He lost his father and younger sister, and as a young boy, had to help care for his younger brothers.

Yet despite everything, Roje describes himself as “the happiest kid.”

At 12, he arrived in Australia speaking no English, with little formal education and no idea what his future would hold. Today, he’s a qualified nurse and spoken-word poet who has built a new life in the country he now calls home.

Roje doesn’t speak about the refugee experience from a distance. He’s lived it. From fleeing conflict and surviving poverty to navigating a completely new culture, overcoming educational barriers and finding his place in Australia, his story offers a rare firsthand perspective on what it really means to be a refugee.

In this deeply personal Cut Through conversation, Roje shares the realities of displacement, the power of resilience and why his faith in God never wavered, even through unimaginable suffering.

In this episode, we explore:

• Life inside a refugee camp: What it’s really like growing up surrounded by poverty, uncertainty and danger.
• Losing family: How Roje coped with losing his father and sister, and what his mother’s extraordinary resilience taught him.
• Being a citizen of nowhere: The pain of having no country willing to accept you and the search for somewhere to belong.
• Starting over in Australia: Arriving at 12 without English, navigating culture shock and rebuilding life from scratch.
• The truth about refugees and immigration: What people misunderstand about refugees, why integration can be difficult and the difference kindness and opportunity can make.
• Finding happiness with almost nothing: Why Roje remembers being happy in a refugee camp and what his experience reveals about wealth, gratitude and contentment.
• Redefining strength and masculinity: How poetry, vulnerability, courage and supportive relationships helped shape the man he became.
• Finding God in suffering: Why Roje never lost faith despite experiencing profound loss, and how his relationship with God shaped his hope for the future.
• Discovering purpose: Why following your own path, taking risks and showing up for others can lead to a more meaningful life.

Whether you’ve experienced hardship yourself, struggled to find where you belong or wondered what really makes life worth living, Roje’s story offers a powerful reminder that your circumstances don’t have to define your future.

This isn’t just a conversation about surviving as a refugee. It’s about finding home, holding onto hope and discovering what truly matters.

Watch the full Cut Through interview on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/s-Yayree06Y

What if everything you’re chasing won’t actually make you happy?

Joel and Luke Smallbone, the Australian brothers behind the globally successful, multi-Grammy Award-winning band FOR KING + COUNTRY, know what it’s like to chase a dream, face rejection and question whether it’s all worth it.

Before the awards, sold-out tours and Hollywood films, they spent five years failing to break through in music. Even after finding success, Luke pushed himself so hard that his health suffered, forcing him to confront an uncomfortable question: If your success disappears, who are you?

Now, as they prepare to release their new film Drummer Boy, the brothers sit down with Christian on Cut Through for an honest conversation about failure, ambition, family conflict, forgiveness and finding purpose beyond achievement.

In this episode, we explore:

• Five years of failure: Why Joel and Luke refused to quit when nothing seemed to be working.
• The hidden cost of success: How Luke’s relentless drive damaged his health and challenged his sense of identity.
• Finding your purpose: How do you know what you’re meant to do with your life?
• Forgiving someone who hurt you: Why forgiveness might be the key to finding freedom, even when the other person never changes.
• When family relationships break down: The real conflicts between the brothers and what it took to rebuild trust.
• Learning to let go: Why working harder isn’t always the answer, and what eight years of setbacks taught them about surrender.
• Are you becoming who you want to be? The uncomfortable question every young man needs to ask himself.
• Is there more to life than success? Why the brothers believe faith in Jesus offers something achievement, money and recognition never can.
• Behind Drummer Boy: The extraordinary journey of bringing their new film about brotherhood, division and forgiveness to life.

Whether you believe in God, have doubts or have never seriously considered faith, this conversation challenges you to think about what you’re living for, who you’re becoming and what actually makes a meaningful life.

Because success means very little if you lose yourself getting there.

🎥 Watch the full interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/lFkjq8AFW20

We have more freedom, wealth and opportunity than almost any generation in history. So why are so many of us anxious, divided and struggling to find purpose?

Something is changing in the Western world. Trust in institutions is collapsing. Political and cultural divisions are growing. Young people are struggling to afford homes, build relationships and find meaning in life.

And despite having more than ever, many of us feel like something is missing.

Have we abandoned something essential to living a meaningful life?

In this episode of Cut Through, we sit down with Stephen McAlpine, a former journalist, cultural commentator and author of Futureproof. Stephen has spent decades examining the relationship between faith, culture and society, writing and speaking about the challenges facing Christianity in an increasingly secular Western world.

Together, we explore why Western society is becoming increasingly fractured, whether Christianity played a bigger role in building our freedoms than we realise, and what happens when a society loses its shared understanding of truth, morality and purpose.

But this conversation goes beyond politics and culture.

If you’re young, trying to build a future, and wondering what makes life worth living, this conversation is for you.

• Why the West is falling apart — What’s driving cultural division, declining trust and growing uncertainty about the future?
• The culture wars — Why are we fighting over identity, truth, freedom and morality, and can we avoid taking sides?
• The crisis of meaning — Why do we feel increasingly empty and anxious despite having more comfort, freedom and opportunity?
• Did Christianity build the West? — How Christian beliefs influenced human rights, equality, freedom and the foundations of Western civilisation.
• The dark side of Christianity — What about the Crusades, abuse, corruption and the damage done in the name of religion?
• Is secularism enough? — Can a world without God provide lasting meaning, morality and hope, especially when life gets difficult?
• Finding purpose as a young man — Why meaningful work, serving others, strong relationships and community matter more than chasing success.
• Social media and identity — How algorithms shape what we believe, who we become and how we see the world.
• Relationships, marriage and family — Why commitment, forgiveness and building something beyond yourself can lead to deeper fulfilment.
• Why young people are reconsidering faith — What’s drawing a new generation towards Christianity, and could Jesus offer something our modern culture can’t?

Stephen challenges the idea that freedom means doing whatever you want, arguing that a meaningful life requires something deeper than money, career success, pleasure or personal achievement.

You don’t have to be religious to engage with this conversation. Whether you’re sceptical about Christianity, questioning what you’ve been taught, or simply searching for something more, this episode will challenge you to think about what you believe, what you’re living for, and where your life is heading.

Watch the full interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/gk_M4qqw3SM

Is staying silent really the safest option? And what happens when standing up for what you believe could cost you friendships, your reputation, or your future?

In a world where everyone has an opinion, social media rewards outrage, and disagreement can turn into hatred overnight, it’s tempting to switch off, stay quiet, and avoid the controversy.

But what if staying silent comes at a greater cost?

In this episode of Cut Through, Christian sits down with Blair Lemke, a faith advocate who has actively participated in protests, grassroots movements, and public debates on some of Australia’s most divisive cultural issues.

Blair isn’t just commenting from the sidelines. He’s stood outside Parliament House alongside thousands of protesters, publicly defended unpopular convictions, faced backlash online, and navigated difficult conversations with people who fundamentally disagree with him.

But this conversation isn’t about telling you what to believe.

It’s about something deeper: How do you know what’s true? Where do your convictions come from? And how do you find the courage to stand for something in a world that pressures you to fit in?

Christian challenges Blair on his views, exploring the tension between free speech and harm, faith and politics, conviction and compassion, and whether Christianity still has something meaningful to offer a divided generation.

In this episode, we explore:

• The courage to stand alone: Why Blair attends controversial protests, even when it risks friendships and reputation.
• Are you being manipulated? How to recognise misinformation, challenge your biases, and think independently in an age of algorithms and AI.
• The outrage economy: Why social media rewards anger, division, and extreme opinions — and how to avoid getting caught in it.
• Why young people are afraid to speak: Cancel culture, self-censorship, and the fear of being labelled hateful or intolerant.
• Free speech vs hate speech: Who should decide what we’re allowed to say, and where should the boundaries be?
• Can you disagree without hating? How to have difficult conversations without destroying relationships.
• Does politics actually matter? Why checking out of cultural debates might have consequences you haven’t considered.
• Faith, politics, and Christian nationalism: Should religious beliefs influence society, and where should the line be drawn?
• Is Christianity just blind faith? Blair shares the evidence and personal experiences that convinced him Christianity is worth believing.
• Finding courage and purpose: What it means to live with conviction instead of simply following the crowd.

Whether you’re religious, sceptical, or still figuring out what you believe, this conversation will challenge you to think more deeply about truth, courage, and the kind of person you want to become.

Because the biggest question isn’t whether you have an opinion. It’s whether you’ve actually thought about why you believe it.

🎥 Watch the full interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/4z_aY6N4A5s

Cut Through — Real conversations. Tough questions. No easy answers.

Why are people who’ve never been to church suddenly interested in Jesus? And what is it about The Chosen that’s connecting with audiences around the world, including people who don’t believe in God?

In this episode of Cut Through, we sit down with Dr. Ashish Thomas, International Marketing Director for The Chosen, to explore the global success of the hit series, the controversy surrounding its portrayal of Jesus, and why a 2,000-year-old story is still getting people’s attention.

Ashish brings a fascinating perspective. With over 18 years of experience in business leadership, consulting and innovation, including work with Deloitte, PwC and Cognizant, he has spent his career understanding what motivates people. He holds advanced doctoral qualifications in behavioural economics and innovation and now helps bring The Chosen to audiences across different countries and cultures.

But his story goes much deeper than marketing.

Growing up in the Himalayan mountains of India, Ashish watched his missionary doctor parents dedicate their lives to helping the poorest of the poor. When his mother died after a painful battle with cancer, he faced a choice that would change the direction of his life.

In this conversation, we explore:

• Why The Chosen works: How a television series about Jesus is connecting with people who have little or no interest in Christianity.

• The controversy: Is it right for filmmakers to put words into Jesus’ mouth? Where does creative storytelling end and changing the Bible begin?

• The real Jesus: Is the warm, funny, relatable Jesus portrayed in The Chosen an accurate reflection of the historical figure?

• Faith beyond Christianity: Why people from different religions and cultures are engaging with the story of Jesus.

• Suffering and loss: How watching his mother suffer and die led Ashish to make a life-changing decision about faith.

• Success and purpose: Why achieving everything you want doesn’t necessarily leave you satisfied, and what makes a life genuinely meaningful.

• Jesus versus religion: Why Ashish believes Jesus offers something more than good morals, inspirational teaching or another self-help philosophy.

• Faith and doubt: What happens when you don’t have all the answers, when life doesn’t make sense, and when following Jesus demands more than you expected.

• Finding something worth living for: Where to start if you’re curious about faith but don’t know what you believe.

• One practical challenge: Something you can do in the next 60 minutes that could change how you approach the rest of your life.

Whether you’ve watched every episode of The Chosen, never opened a Bible, or simply wonder whether there’s more to life than money, success and entertainment, this conversation is for you.

You don’t have to believe in Jesus to be curious about why so many people are talking about Him.

🎬 Watch the full interview:
https://youtu.be/F5C7FRTtsR0

What happens when you’ve seen death up close, again and again?

Darren Cheers has spent much of his working life around the line between life and death. He spent five years at Australia Zoo, working as a first aid officer alongside staff and animal teams during the Steve Irwin era. Darren was actually working at the zoo on the day news broke that Steve had died.

He later became a qualified paramedic, responding to cardiac arrests, horrific crashes, palliative patients and situations where people survived against extraordinary odds. Those experiences gave Darren a perspective on death that most of us will never have.

In this episode of Cut Through, Darren talks about what Steve Irwin was really like away from the cameras, what it feels like to encounter death firsthand, the cases he describes as miraculous, and what years of emergency medicine have taught him about life, faith and what might happen when we die.

We get into:

• What Steve Irwin was really like off camera
• Darren’s memories of working at Australia Zoo
• Being at the zoo on the day Steve died
• What years as a paramedic taught him about death
• The patient whose heart stopped twice and what he remembered afterward
• A catastrophic multi-vehicle crash Darren describes as a miracle
• Why some people survive horrific accidents while others don’t
• Near-death experiences and claims of an afterlife
• Whether the dead are conscious or able to communicate with us
• Darren’s view of death as a sleep-like state and the Christian hope of resurrection
• Whether science and faith really have to be enemies
• Why studying the human body strengthened rather than destroyed his belief in God
• What facing death teaches us about purpose
• Why gratitude, service and making your life count matter now

Darren isn’t approaching these questions purely as theory. He has worked around death, resuscitated patients whose hearts had stopped, supported people approaching the end of life, and studied the biology and medicine behind what happens when the human body begins to shut down.

His conclusion is challenging but hopeful: life is incredibly resilient, incredibly fragile and far too valuable to waste.

Whether you believe in God, aren’t sure, or are still figuring out what you believe, this conversation asks a question worth confronting:

If your life could end sooner than you think, what are you doing with it now?

🎬 Watch the full interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/RxfVZNA4ibE

What does it take to walk through a door that might be booby-trapped, operate in a country where landmines and the Khmer Rouge are part of daily life, or take responsibility for protecting some of the most recognisable people on earth?

John Rixon has spent a lifetime finding out.

John’s career took him from the Australian military and policing into police diving, high-risk operations, counter-terrorism, United Nations policing in Cambodia and close personal protection. He served as a Federal Police sergeant, trained and worked alongside specialist teams, and was responsible for protective security involving world figures including Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela.

In this episode of Cut Through, John takes us inside a world most of us will never experience and explains what decades of danger taught him about fear, courage, discipline, responsibility and what actually matters in life.

We talk about:

• Nearly stepping on a landmine in Cambodia
• Going through doors that could have been booby-trapped
• How elite teams train themselves to act when they’re afraid
• Police diving and recovering bodies underwater
• Working with the United Nations in Cambodia
• Living and working under the threat of the Khmer Rouge
• Special operations, counter-terrorism and high-risk warrants
• What John looked for when training police and assessing people for specialist roles
• The discipline of finishing the job, even when nobody is watching
• How protective security works around high-profile world leaders
• Protecting Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela
• Why awareness, focus and self-discipline matter far beyond policing
• What seeing violence and death taught him about life
• Losing his wife Hazel and discovering what ultimately matters
• Why John returned to faith later in life
• Why he now believes God was present even when he wasn’t looking for Him
• What he would tell his younger self if he could start again

John’s message to young men is surprisingly simple: you don’t need to be in special operations to develop discipline. Take responsibility for what’s in front of you. Focus. Finish the job. Do ordinary things properly. That’s how you become someone people can rely on.

And after a career spent around danger, powerful people and extraordinary situations, his biggest lessons aren’t really about policing. They’re about faith, family, service and figuring out what your life is actually for.

🎬 Watch the full interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/JXblPVoDZWs

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What do you do when someone who was supposed to protect you becomes the person who hurts you most?

Phil Yates was sexually abused by his father as a child. For years, the memory remained buried. Then, at 21, it came back, bringing with it anger, confusion and questions that threatened to consume him.

But abuse wasn’t the only adversity Phil faced.

Growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia, Phil struggled academically, failed at school and eventually made it to university only to be kicked out. He was told he probably didn’t have the intelligence to succeed at university.

He went back anyway.

Phil eventually graduated and became a teacher, spending 14 years working with young people, including students facing serious behavioural problems, broken homes and abuse. Over the years, he became a mentor to young people others had struggled to reach. His own experiences shaped the way he saw them: instead of focusing only on bad behaviour, he learned to look for the hurt underneath it.

In this deeply personal conversation, Phil talks openly about what his father did, the anger he carried, why he chose to forgive him, and why forgiveness didn’t mean forgetting, trusting him again or pretending the abuse didn’t matter.

We explore:

• What childhood sexual abuse did to Phil’s trust, identity and anger
• Why forgiving his father became about freeing himself, not excusing what happened
• The difference between forgiveness, forgetting, trust and reconciliation
• Failing at school, living with dyslexia and being kicked out of university
• How someone written off academically became a teacher and mentor to young people
• What Phil learned about masculinity, responsibility and asking for help
• Where God was when the abuse happened and how it challenged Phil’s faith
• How faith, forgiveness and honest conversations helped him find peace and hope

Whatever has happened to you, Phil’s story raises a confronting question: will what someone else did determine who you become?

Watch the full interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/g3KaqNlpmqQ

What happens when your whole life is built around proving that you’re good enough?

SJ Foaga knows that struggle firsthand. Diagnosed with epilepsy at 14, he spent his teenage years watching friends do things that seemed normal while wondering why life looked different for him. At the same time, he was driven to achieve, desperate to make his family proud and increasingly tying his identity to performance and the approval of others.

Then things fell apart.

After doing well at school, SJ struggled at university. He stopped looking after himself, gained 25kg, failed his classes and was eventually kicked out. What began as failure in one area of life became something much deeper: “I’m a failure. I’ll never amount to anything.”

SJ isn’t speaking as someone who has studied young men’s struggles from a distance. At 28, he’s lived them. He’s wrestled with chronic illness, failure, body image, approval, cultural expectations, faith and the question of what it actually means to become a man. Today he works directly with young people through teaching, basketball coaching, speaking, motivating and mentoring, using his own experience to help other young men navigate some of the same questions.

In this conversation, we talk honestly about:

• Growing up with epilepsy and feeling different from everyone else
• Why achievement can never finally make you feel good enough
• Getting five school awards and still feeling like his best wasn’t enough
• Failing university, gaining 25kg and being kicked out
• The danger of letting one failure define who you are
• Fitness, body image and chasing validation from women and others
• Why even “optimising” your life can leave you feeling empty
• Growing up Samoan and navigating family, culture, respect and independence
• Why sometimes you have to be willing to disappoint people
• The difference between genuine community, codependency and isolation
• What healthy friendships between young men actually look like
• Growing up believing God’s love had to be earned
• Why SJ once saw God as a wrathful judge
• The conversation that completely changed his understanding of Christianity
• Finding an identity that doesn’t rise and fall with achievement, appearance or other people’s opinions
• What SJ now believes it really means to be a man
• Three things he wishes he could tell his 18-year-old self

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re good enough, felt like one failure defines you, or struggled to work out who you actually are beneath everyone else’s expectations, this conversation is for you.

🎬 Watch the full interview:
https://youtu.be/q4cQ3xV2nkM