Human Cogs Podcast

As a very little child, Mariam Issa dreamt of traveling to faraway places. What she did not dream is that she would need to flee the horror of Somalia’s civil war on an overcrowded boat to Kenya. Nor did she dream of the violence and bombings she witnessed, or of her beautiful close-knit family being torn apart and displaced to far-flung foreign countries. 

One of those countries was Australia, where Mariam arrived 25 years ago with four young children in tow, and pregnant with her fifth. What she found when she was settled as a refugee in Melbourne, was a culture she did not understand, and a completely different world and way of being.

Now a life coach, author, community builder and educator, Mariam founded #ResilientAspiringWomen in 2012 – a safe space for women to connect and create community – believing that if women can heal themselves from the impacts of patriarchy, the world will also heal.

In this conversation, we meet a wise and reflective Mariam, now an empty nester, divorcee and no longer wearing the hijab that defined her for so long. Mariam shares with us the peace she has found when she sits in the sacred silence where the waters of her two worlds meet, the practices she lives by to ensure she lives and breathes her top three non-negotiable values, and the benefits for all when we take off the masks that disconnect us from ourselves, and from each other.

Above all, Mariam shares her story with deep and abiding gratitude, recognising and celebrating our shared humanity with the beautiful African phrase, "Ubuntu" [I am, because you are].

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Guest: Mariam Issa
Website: www.mariamissa.com.au
Socials: Facebook Instagram

Hosts: Sabina Read and Mads Grummet
Producer: Daryl Missen

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

We'd love you to support our show! Please follow us or leave a quick review.
It helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How are you feeling right now? Are you wired? Are you tired? Did you sleep ok last night or are you tossing and turning til dawn?

What about your relationship with your body? Are you fasting? Stressed? Eating meat? Riding sugar highs? Suffering energy lows? And what role are hormones playing in your life day to day? 

In this episode we do a full-sweep health check with Michele Chevally Hedge -  a regular presenter and writer with Mama Mia, Huffington Post and Body&Soul, Nutritional Medicine practitioner, Cure Cancer and Heart Research Institute Ambassador and best-selling international author who consults to leading corporations on optimising well-being and nutrition, and how to change your relationship with food, for good.

Passionate, authentic and bursting with knowledge and advice, Michele is a wealth of information, vitality and inspiration and will leave you thinking about the small and achievable changes you can easily make to sleep better, quit sugar, find joy in food, manage stress and even dial up your sex life! 

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Guest: Michele Chevally Hedge
Website: http://ahealthyview.com/
Socials: Twitter Instagram

Hosts: Sabina Read and Mads Grummet
Producer: Daryl Missen

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

We'd love you to support our show! Please follow us or leave a quick review.
It helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If your heart had a voice, have you ever wondered what it would say?

Dr Michelle Woolhouse is an author, podcaster and holistic and integrative GP with decades of experience working in the fields of anxiety, stress and burnout.

We first spoke to Michelle in 2020, around the time she hit a wall within herself, which catalysed her decision to step off the high-stress career treadmill she’d been on, and to embark on a deep journey of self-discovery and to get underneath the anxiety that had been ever-present in her life.

This conversation explores what happened when Michelle pushed pause on everything, undertook a holistic reexamination of her life, work and future, and let her heart lead the way. It wasn’t easy. But by trusting her intuition and challenging some of her traditional medical training, Michelle got out of her head and into the wholeness of her body.

Off the back of that powerful and transformative journey, Michelle has written and released a book, The Wonder Within, in which she explores society’s normalisation of stress, unpacks the interconnections of health and healing, and provides a playbook to give us all the skills, knowledge and inspiration to uncover our full selves in order to feel wholly alive. 

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Guest: Michelle Woolhouse
Book: The Wonder Within
Website: The Holistic GP

Hosts: Sabina Read and Mads Grummet
Producer: Daryl Missen

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

We'd love you to support our show! Please follow us or leave a quick review.
It helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Award-winning documentary maker and author Pete Dickson is no stranger to life’s curved balls.

Childhood illness and a fast-track to an AFL career truncated due to a life-threatening condition were the early harbingers, but the tragic loss of his beloved brother Robert - Australian football identity, reality TV star and filmmaker - and his two young nephews in an accident one ordinary day threw his life into a spin of grief, heart-break, holding on and trying to keep it together when his world was blown apart. 

It’s a human challenge so many of us have sadly had to face. When someone you love dies too soon, how do you honour their legacy but also know how to let them go? How do you find the will to go on when they are gone? And how do you uncouple yourself from their story?

We thank Pete with full hearts for his beautiful sharing and sensitivity in this episode, where he opens up about his journey to the heart of grief’s darkness, and out the other side again.

And while this is Pete’s story, it is also a story of how siblings indelibly shape us, the binds of brotherly love and how you can find yourself again in the face of unimaginable loss.

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Guest: Pete Dickson
Purchase Book: He Was My Brother: The Story Of Rob Dickson And Me

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet
Producer: Daryl Missen

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

We'd love you to support our show! Please follow us or leave us a quick review.
It helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was the philosopher, Holocaust survivor and author of 'Man's Search for Meaning' Victor Frankl who said: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

The idea links to Epictetus’ Dichotomy of Control, that being that there are multiple things within our sphere of influence we do have the ability to change, but there is also so much of our human experience that sits well outside the realm of our influence, no matter our desires or hopes or striving.

This means that we will all - someday, somehow, without a doubt - suffer deeply. And it is only then that we will be forced to look within and ask more of ourselves so we can both endure and adjust ourselves to carry and ultimately transcend that suffering.

In this space of suffering, are there any opportunities for growth? Can we see positives? Will this increase our resilience? Our compassion? And most importantly, deepen our understanding of what it means to be human in the fullest sense?

In this episode we have the privilege of hearing the incredible and profound story of Dianne Draganovic, who shares her stoic and beautiful journey as a mother of four children - Liliana who died too young, and Bella who was born with Down Syndrome.

Before you listen, please take a few minutes to watch the video via the link below so you can meet Bella and her family, and inhabit her world for a moment. Then please lean in, listen and learn from Dianne whose wisdom, humanity, curiosity and unstoppable crusade to help Bella live her best life is an unforgettable and powerful lesson in stoicism for us all. 

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Guest: Dianne Draganovic

Watch video link of Bella and her family: https://youtu.be/rc652FCw9ls

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet

Producer: Daryl Missen at Purple Wax

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

We'd love you to support our show! Please follow us or leave a quick review.
It helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you! CLICK FOLLOW on Apple and Spotify. Or if you're really feeling it, please leave us a quick REVIEW.

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Warning: This episode talks about suicide and mental health.

Did you know that suicide is the #1 killer of Aussie men under the age of 45? Every day in Australia, 7 men and 2 women take their lives, and each year across this country, there are 65 thousand attempts of suicide. That’s one every 28 seconds.

These are shocking statistics that media personality Gus Worland knows all too well. When he devastatingly lost his closest friend and mentor to suicide, he decided something had to change.

Gus founded Gotcha4Life, a not-for-profit foundation with a goal of zero suicides, and of taking action by delivering preventative mental health programs that engage, educate and empower local communities. The charity has raised 11 million since it’s inception 5 years ago, and has had far-reaching impact across Australia teaching men how to build their mental fitness, deep human connections and ensure they have a trusted go-to person they can rely on to share the hard stuff of life, even during times that feel unbearably dark.

While you may know Gus as the host of the ABC series Man Up, or as Hugh Jackman’s bestie, or from his many years on breakfast radio on Triple M in Sydney, in this conversation we meet the remarkable man behind the media who is changing and saving lives, one brave Aussie bloke at a time.

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Guest: Gus Worland
Gotcha4Life Foundation
Watch Man Up on ABC iview

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet

Producer: Daryl Missen at Purple Wax

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

We'd love you to support our show! Please follow us or leave a quick review.
It helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you! CLICK FOLLOW on Apple and Spotify. Or if you're really feeling it, please leave us a quick REVIEW.

Thanks so much for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How are you feeling as the end of 2022 looms? It's been a big couple of years, hasn't it? Pandemic life has worn us all down a little, anxiety and burnout are widespread and trying to find balance again can be a real challenge for adults, and for kids. 

So in this episode we sat down with Dr Lexi Frydenberg, a pediatrician and educator, Co-Host of the Kids Health Info Podcast and Mum of three who's passionate about family-centered care and the power of human connection to optimise health and well-being.

As a career-driven person from a family of origin that set super high bars for achievement, Lexi knows the lived impact of stress on mind and body, and the need to prioritise radical self-care to save yourself from, well, yourself.

In this conversation Lexi shares the story of her professional journey, from juggling glass balls to suffering a case of burnout to learning how to set clear boundaries to reclaim her health and work-life balance.

Lexi reveals how she uses a process of self-check-ins to ensure that her life and work is both sustainable, and sustaining. Plus shares some amazing tips on how to deeply connect with and set your kids up for success in the fast-paced, addled and complex world we’re living in.

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Episode Web Page

Guest: Dr Lexi Frydenberg
Victorian Children's Clinic

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet
Producer: Daryl Missen at Purple Wax

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

 

We'd love you to support our show! Please follow us or leave a review.

We will sprinkle you with loving kindness, gushing accolades and all good things if you CLICK FOLLOW on Apple and Spotify! Or if you're really feeling it, PLEASE LEAVE US A QUICK REVIEW. It really helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Experts say effective communication isn’t just about what you say: it is 50% speaking and 50% listening.

Think about your interactions today.

No doubt you will have countless exchanges with loved ones, colleagues, clients and strangers, but how many times are you actually tuned in and listening deeply to what they say, and what they don’t say? And how many times will you feel truly listened to? 

Oscar Trimboli is a globally renowned deep listening expert, author, host of the Apple award-winning podcast Deep Listening and a sought-after keynote speaker. Along with the Deep Listening Ambassador Community, he is on a quest to create 100 million deep listeners in the world and create lasting change in the leaders and organisations he works with, which include American Express, AstraZeneca, Cisco, Google, HSBC, IAG, Montblanc, PwC, Salesforce and many more.

Oscar has much to teach us all about the difference between listening and hearing, which can radically transform how we engage and connect with our children, partners, parents, colleagues and friends.

This conversation with Oscar literally stopped us in our tracks, inviting us to slow right down, shut up and explore how we both listen. As a result it changed our thinking about the way we sit in conversation with each other, and with our guests on Human Cogs. 

If you’ve ever wondered how you can dial up your listening with the people you love, live or work with to open new ways of thinking, knowing and being, then please make time to really listen to this conversation with Oscar.

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Guest: Oscar Trimboli
Website: oscartrimboli.com

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet
Producer: Daryl Missen at Purple Wax

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

 

Want to support our show?

We will sprinkle you with loving kindness, gushing accolades and all good things if you CLICK FOLLOW on Apple and Spotify! Or if you're really feeling it, PLEASE LEAVE US A QUICK REVIEW. It really helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I am so acutely aware that little girls born like me don’t sit in rooms with billionaires and don’t help run tech companies. So with the incredible privileges that I have, I don’t know that I can justify doing anything else but trying to make sure that other people have access to those same things."

Meet Aubrey Blanche - an absolute powerhouse and world leader in workplace culture, inclusion and belonging - and the Global Head of Equitable Design and Impact at Culture Amp, one of Australia’s biggest startup success stories. 

In this conversation on Human Cogs, Aubrey courageously and insightfully shares her ‘twisty’ family of origin story, her sense of both grief and hope following her recent diagnosis of bipolar, and her lifelong commitment to dismantling the codified systems and practices that prevent each of us from connecting with others, and sharing our authentic selves at work.

This episode will challenge the way you think about the real story of who you are, and your role in creating a sense of belonging and equity for yourself, and those around you. 

"I’ve been so lucky, but I don’t want people from my community to have to be lucky to have opportunity. I just want them to have it.”

 

Guest: Aubrey Blanche

Show Links: Aubrey Blanche Twitter Blog Culture Amp

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet

Producer: Daryl Missen at Purple Wax

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
Join in the convo at Instagram @human.cogs

 

Want to support our show?

We will sprinkle you with loving kindness, gushing accolades and all good things if you CLICK FOLLOW on Apple and Spotify! Or if you're really feeling it, PLEASE LEAVE US A QUICK REVIEW. It really helps us get these stories out to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you think about your life, is there a moment that comes to mind which you know changed you indelibly?

Fergus Watts says that moment happened when he was 15 years old, and the legendary AFL footballer and Reach founder Jim Stynes changed his life by unlocking the vulnerability hiding underneath his masculine bravado to finally give him permission to talk about “real stuff”. 

That encounter 21 years ago sparked in Fergus a lifelong commitment to getting the absolute best out of himself, being true to who he really is and making an opportunity of every opportunity.

This has seen him play professional AFL then have his career cut devastatingly short, found a powerhouse marketing agency employing 300 staff across three countries, and in a remarkable full circle, he’s now playing it forward as newly appointed CEO of The Reach Foundation scaling life-changing preventative mental health programs to thousands of young people across Australia.

The path hasn’t always been easy, or linear. But the lessons are loud. 

This conversation will challenge you to think about how to get comfortable with failure, cast off the labels and roles you define yourself by, and undertake the self-discovery required to get to the core of who you really are.

Guest: Fergus Watts

Show Links: The Reach Foundation

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet

Producer: Daryl Missen at Purple Wax

Human Cogs is available on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via our website where you can also catch great conversations with previous guests :)

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?

Join in the convo at insta @human.cogs

 

Want to support our show?

We will sprinkle you with loving kindness, gushing accolades and all good things if you CLICK FOLLOW on Apple and Spotify! Or if you're really feeling it for us, please leave us a REVIEW. It helps us get these stories to more awesome peeps like you!

Thanks for listening!

Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.