Dads on the Air

With special guest:

Dr Gabriel Weston
… in conversation with Bill Kable

In her absorbing new book called ALIVE Doctor Gabriel Weston looks in admiration at the incredible work 11 organs of our body do to keep us alive. Gabriel tells us that if the space permitted she would have liked to examine at least another 14 organs but we do get to investigate the most interesting.

Somehow Gabriel manages to talk about body parts without making even the most squeamish feel uncomfortable. This is clear when the book begins with a post mortem description that is very detailed. Gabriel is also able to deal with the genitals in a very matter of fact way that generates more light than heat.

What comes out most strongly in ALIVE is the sense of wonder that Gabriel feels when describing what the organs of the body do. Gabriel first felt this as a child when she was likely to go towards an accident or medical emergency. The feeling grew when she was invited to attend a surgical procedure but seemed thwarted when her maths and science abilities were not up to the standard required for entry into medical studies.

So Gabriel studied the subject she was good at namely English literature. Luckily for all of us she found a way into medicine and found her true calling.

Podcast (mp3)

With special guest:

Prof Frank Furedi
… in conversation with Bill Kable

Frank Furedi says that fear is the principal motivating force in the 21st Century.

We see fear being used by all sides in politics; we see it in the family dynamic; we see it in the young with their fear of missing out (or FOMO). And yet at the same time we do not call it out because to some degree we have been sensitised to its operation.

Once an expert like our guest today points out the use of fear we can see it everywhere and if it is not going to take over our lives completely we need to take some time-honoured steps to counter its influence.

As Frank Furedi tells us, fear can be distinguished from anxiety which is also a major problem in the Western world with so much of the population in the grip of anxiety and depression.

Podcast (mp3)

With special guest:

Glenn A Baker
… in conversation with Bill Kable

Glenn A Baker is a father of six children and a grandfather of 12. For those of us whose memories extend a little he is the music guru so he is a very special Dad to be on our program.

Glenn is here to tell us about an adventure he had lined up for those with a special interest in a particular seminal event and rock music generally. Yes to our surprise it is more than 50 years since that massive and unplanned gathering of over 500,000 people in upstate New York listened to the cream of the world’s musicians playing in a concert, some concert.

The Woodstock concert went for three and half days. It was recorded for records, tapes and later CD’s. It was also a major feature film that was issued soon after the event and many years later re-issued in a Director’s cut. In 2019 Woodstock was honoured again when Glenn A Baker lead a tour group to Max Yasgur’s dairy Farm in Bethel New York near the town of Woodstock and many other locales famous in rock’n’roll history.

Podcast (mp3)

With special guest:

Steve Biddulph AM
… in conversation with Bill Kable

It was hard enough to raise boys in the 20th Century. What are the new challenges facing parents who want to raise their sons to be the open-hearted, kind and strong men they can be?

Our guest today has revised and updated his classic parenting book released in 1997, a book that is found in over three million homes around the world. There is a lot of new information and surprising research for Steve to draw on in his new book Raising Boys in the Twenty-first Century. There is a new understanding of hormonal changes as boys turn into men, changes that mean the age from 6 to 14 is when fathers count the most.

We know the world is in a lot of trouble and in many ways we have failed our boys. The suggestion from Steve to counter that failing is the most important part of his book and very simple. Dads or Dad figures simply need to spend some time, to just be around their boys particularly when they are between the ages of 6 and 14. Modelling is vitally important even if the role model doesn’t know he is doing it.

Podcast (mp3)

With special guest:

John Stapleton
… in conversation with Bill Kable

John Stapleton is a legend at Dads on the Air. In the year 2000 while working as a journalist he became involved with a number of fathers who struggled to see their own children because of the machinations of the Family Court. Worse still, because of the legislation no-one in the broader community knew what was going on. So John resolved to shed some light on the problem through a community radio program run on a shoestring from 2GLF in Liverpool New South Wales after giving the program its name. Here we are 18 years later still going strong.

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With special guest:

Jake Burden
… in conversation with Bill Kable

Jake Burden tells us that everyone can dance. For those with a particular ability and the drive to do all the hard training that goes with being a dancer on the stage Jake tells us there are all sorts of rewards.

On the flip side of these benefits there remains an element in our society that thinks dancing is somehow unmanly, that only young girls should express themselves in this way and because male dancers are seen as different they can be subjected to bullying. This is where Jake Burden steps in to provide a safe haven as the creator of Ballet Brothers, based in Newcastle New South Wales.

Jake is the creator and director of Ballet Brothers an independent organisation aimed at supporting and encouraging boys who love to dance. Jake has experienced bullying himself but because of his love of dancing he did not let that stop him achieving his goals. Now he wants to let boys know that if they are passionate about dance they are not alone. As well as training boys to become better dancers Jake provides a support network and a platform for male dancers of all ages from around the world to share experience and wisdom with each other.

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With special guest:

Eddie Woo
… in conversation with Bill Kable

We hardly need to do an introduction for our guest today. Eddie Woo has become very well-known through regular television appearances and YouTube lessons as one of the leading teachers in the world. The Government has recognised this by recently appointing him as a “super teacher” so that he can visit schools around NSW and inspire the teachers to inspire their students.

Ever thought that you were just no good at Maths and anyway what good is Maths in everyday life. Our guest today begs to differ on both counts.

Eddie says Maths is for everyone and he has lots of ways of convincing you that not only is Maths fascinating but it underlies everything in the universe. Yes Eddie Woo comes to Dads on the Air and adds to the audience on his YouTube channel Wootube where he has been viewed a staggering 25 million times.

Podcast (mp3)

With special guest:

Stuart Coupe
… in conversation with Bill Kable

We have always heard about the sex and drugs of the rock’n’roll lifestyle but few of us get any access to this hidden part of the music industry. Until now

Stuart Coupe has lived in the music world for over forty years and by getting the roadies, these unsung heroes, to open up we can find out both the good and the bad sides of this life on the road.

Stuart tells us one of his motivations in doing the research and writing his latest book Roadies: The Secret History of Australian Rock’n’Roll was to preserve the stories from the early days because the roadies have had some casualties and he does not want the stories to disappear with the last of the original roadies. Not only does the lifestyle take a toll on the roadies’ physical health but the toll on family life is intense. The roadies will often be away from home for 10 to 11 months of the year because the show has to go on.

Podcast (mp3)

With special guest:

Alice Nelson
… in conversation with Bill Kable

Alice Nelson has produced a topical work with enough discussion points to keep us busy for a long time in her new book The Children’s House.

The title of the book comes from a kibbutz in Israel. The kibbutz movement arose in Israel after the horrors of Nazi Germany, partly as a way of allowing parents to work for the new state of Israel while ensuring that their children would be properly cared for. But does the idea of communal parenting go too far? This is just one of the ethical questions raised in The Children’s House.

From Israel we travel to Rwanda and finally to the world’s melting pot in New York. It is there that we discover the different forces prevalent in modern families with all their mysteries and complexities. In speaking to Alice about her characters we get even more depth into the non-traditional relationships revealed in her book. There are some real surprises in store for the reader.

Podcast (mp3)

With special guest:

Mark Tedeschi KC AM
… in conversation with Bill Kable

Our guest today is the well-known former Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales and author of Murder at Myall Creek, Mark Tedeschi.

Mark has written a deeply moving account of the massacre of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children in 1838 which led to a trial that defined the nation of Australia. If the law of the land in Australia was to have any credibility, if the principle is that we are all equal before the law, then this is a watershed case.

At the time of the massacre it was only 50 years since Captain Arthur Phillip and his first fleet arrived in Australia yet the inhabitants of the country for the previous 60,000 years were under threat of genocide from the new arrivals.

There were many in the community who were sympathetic to all Aboriginal killers and this was expressed in the editorials of the major newspapers such as The Sydney Herald (before it added “Morning” to its masthead). Against this background there were some heroes that stood up against the general view of the free settlers, the squatters, the military, the emancipists, the newspapers and even the convict population which still amounted to 36% of the population. Principal among these was John H Plunkett who as Attorney-General at the time had the duty to prosecute the eleven convicts and former convicts who were put on trial for murder.

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