Julia May believes that visibility — to self and others — is not about vanity but about building influence and impact.

An ex-journalist, who spent five years as a foreign correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald before holding senior roles at Reuters and The Times of London, Julia has now found her sweet spot and nexus for real impact as the Founder of Visibility Co - a leadership consultancy.

As a parent to two young daughters,  her vision is that, when they are grown, the world will have been brought back from the brink. She tells them regularly; ‘It’s ok. Whoever you are is good’.

And yet, the women and global leaders she works with so often grapple with persistent impostor syndrome, struggle to identify their values, and are frustrated by not knowing how to create real and lasting impact in the areas they care passionately about. 

Julia thinks we all have the ability to lead ourselves and lift others up no matter we’re at, and that once we know - and own - our story, we can elevate others, to then in turn, elevate others, and pay it forward. 

Guest: Julia May
Website: visibilityco.com
Socials: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn

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.

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Bernard Salt is an Australian newspaper columnist, keynote speaker, business advisor and author of six best-selling books, but he is most widely known as a thought leader in demographic patterns and predictions. 

He is also credited with globally popularising concepts such as the ‘Smashed Avocado’, VESPA and Seachange Shifts – changes that are currently reshaping Australia’s culture, economy and society.

But for all his outward-facing and portfolio career success, it turns out that Bernard’s worst nightmare is rocking up to a party and being asked what he does for a living… because in his own words, “well, it’s complicated.” 

From humble beginnings growing up as a working-class kid in a Housing Commission home in country Victoria to today, Bernard has been passionately curious about using statistics to tell stories that inform social trends and human behaviour in Australia, which he still describes as the lucky country.

In this conversation, we go a level under the statistics with Bernard, and discuss how education freed him; and why the pandemic world we’re living in needs a Control / Alt / Delete moment, so we can take the learnings, wake up to where we’re at, and rethink the future of Australia, for ourselves and for future generations.

Guest: Bernard Salt
Website: The Demographics Group

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.

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Tom Evans is a renowned psychologist who has worked in private practice for two decades and now works in the challenging space of the rehabilitation of sex offenders in Australia, and with young men struggling with issues of consent.
 
In this episode, we step into some difficult and dark areas of the human psyche with Tom, as we explore primitive drivers and sexual dictates, how young men learn about ‘normalised’ sexual behaviour, what consent really means, and what we should be teaching them about healthy, mutually consenting sex.

Tom also shares his own harrowing story as a victim of crime, and how this traumatic experience has informed his clinical practice, and the way he works with - and understands - the complex psychology of young men. 

This conversation deals with some very difficult topics, especially in light of what is currently playing out in the Australian Federal Parliament, and in a week that has seen thousands of people join 40+ Women's March4Justice rallies across the nation demanding an end to gendered violence and inequality.

But despite this backdrop to the conversation, this episode provides a point of light because within the darkness Tom sees in human behaviour, he works to enable hope - and ultimately healing - for perpetrators, victims and for humanity at large. 

Please note opinions and statements in this episode are the express views of Tom Evans and not those of his employer.

Guest: Tom Evans
Socials: LinkedIn

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.

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
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Dom Price sees the future. But he’s not a late-night hotline psychic.

Dom is the globally renowned work futurist at Atlassian – Australia’s first multi-billion dollar software company. Dom’s superpower is his ability to inspire people to transform the practices of their working lives, so they can work anywhere, with real flexibility and purpose – and design the futures they want to intentionally step into. 

But what first strikes you about Dom is that he is unmistakably from Manchester, has boundless curiosity and is infectiously joyous. 

In this episode of Human Cogs, hosts Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet go deep with Dom on how we work, why we work, how his recent battle with cancer catalysed his own work-life shifts – and why we should all be doing audits on ourselves every Friday afternoon.

In the current COVID world, we, unfortunately, couldn’t be in the room together for this chat, so we apologise if the sound quality is a bit dodgy in this episode. It’s well worth a listen though – this conversation is loaded with heaps of gems.

Guest: Dom Price
Website: DomPrice.me
Socials: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TedX

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.

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At the age of 16, Matija Squire was close to being classified as just another statistic. Pregnant, a school dropout and estranged from her family, she was isolated living in a small country town, contemplating her next steps.

This episode of Human Cogs tells the remarkable story of what happened next, when against all odds and with the judgement of society against her, Matija chose to have her son. 

The years that followed were tumultuous and uncertain, as she navigated raising a child when she was still a child herself. At 19, with a 3-year-old in tow, unemployed and nearly broke, she felt destitute and broken.

Fast forward to now, and Matija is today an accomplished Lecturer, Speaker, Business Owner, Board Director, Startup Mentor and COO, who found a new way forward for herself and her son through the life-changing gateway of education, and the catalysing power of a stranger seeing the potential in her that she couldn’t see in herself.

Matija believes your circumstances should never dictate your potential, and that “The only person you are destined to become, is the person you decide to be.” 

Guest: Matija Squire
Socials: Instagram, LinkedIn

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.

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
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Imagine you're a young medical doctor surrounded by sick and dying patients when you experience a panic attack due to an overwhelming sense of disillusionment that the Western medical model and its overreliance on pharmaceutical treatments is NOT the way to nurture humans back to good health.

In this episode of Human Cogs, we chat with Dr Michelle Woolhouse, a GP and global expert in integrative mind-body and nutritional medicine, who upholds a philosophy of health that values the whole spectrum of a person's life – emotional, physical, psychological and environmental.

Michelle shares her learnings on the role that cultural reward plays in our current anxiety and stress pandemic; how social media contributes to our empty pursuit of the holy grail of happiness; and why empathy without self-compassion is unsustainable.

The potency of Michelle’s message lies in the combination of her personal experience and holistic medical approach, which she has used to teach countless others how to heal emotionally and physically by attuning to the powerful feedback we each receive from our hearts, minds and gut.

Guest: Dr Michelle Woolhouse
Socials: Instagram, LinkedIn

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.

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
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This is a conversation that starts and ends with the heart. But, in between, we touch on the taboos of mothers wanting time away from their children, female masturbation and sexual pleasure, and the very real and deep pain of self-hatred. 

Lisa Winneke is the founder and host of The Good News Guide, a podcast host, speaker, author and truth seeker with qualifications in numerous energy modalities. 

She has mined the depths and pain of her own decades of living with an eating disorder, feeling alone and misplaced in her family and later at school, and the eternal search to find the salve to her suffering.

Lisa has now come to a place where she is no longer trying to fix herself, but simply sit still – and live with love.

Guest: Lisa Winneke
Website: lisawinneke.com
Socials: Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Podcast

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.

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

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Not many of us know when we’re very young, just what course our life is going to take. At the age of 19, Johnny Di Francesco knew exactly what he didn’t want.

He had watched his single Mum juggling two jobs working around the clock to bring up three kids, and he learned that grit, determination and very hard work was the recipe he needed for business success, personal satisfaction and financial security. 

Fiercely independent and driven to make his mark, Johnny opened his first business at 19, was running 7 businesses by the age of 23, and fast-forward to today, he sits at the helm of the international Gradi restaurant and retail empire. 

His Neapolitan Pizza was named the best in the world at the World Pizza Championships in Italy, where he beat 600 competitors from 35 countries, and he now plans to continue his international expansion.

But underneath all this, is a man who is insatiably hungry to learn and perfect his craft, who relishes the thrill of the chase, and who takes each and every failure as a learning opportunity. Here’s our chat with ‘Mr Pizza’, Johnny Di Francesco.

Guest: Johnny Di Francesco
Website: 400gradi.com
Socials: Instagram

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.

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
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This year on Human Cogs, we are mixing it up! As always, we are all about having meaningful conversations minus the small talk, and in this episode, Sabina Read takes to the mic for a one-on-one with the passionate, thought provoking, raw and ever-curious Sarah Wilson. 

Sarah is a former journalist and ex-editor of Cosmo magazine, and was the host on Season 1 of Masterchef. She wrote the Masterchef. She wrote the New York Times best sellers - I Quit Sugar and First, we make the beast beautiful; and her 11 cookbooks have sold in 52 countries. Today, Sarah lives minimally, and is a passionate author, activist and campaigner for mental health and climate issues.

In this chat, Sarah shares her experiences living with bipolar, being diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases, and arriving at a time in her life where both she, and the world, seemed devoid of hope. 

As a young person, Sarah says being vulnerable was an alien concept to her, and that writing her latest book This One Wild and Precious Life was a form of therapy, an invitation for our souls to do life differently, and a quest to nurture a hopeful path forward in a fractured world.

If Sabina could choose a group of dinner guests that inspire and challenge the way we live and think, Sarah would be at the top of the list!

Guest: Sarah Wilson
Website: sarahwilson.com
Socials: Instagram, Podcast

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.

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

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The first thing you notice about George Georgievski is that he wears his heart on his sleeve. 

He also carries the story of his life, grief for his father, and love for his daughters on his skin, in a series of tattoos that extend up and down his arms and torso. The same arms that have created lunchboxes that have inspired millions of people across the world, seen him rise to fame on TV, gain 135K Instagram followers, be an Ambassador for Jamie Oliver's Ministry for Food - and go completely viral as The Most Inspiring Lunchbox Creator in the World.

But according to George, he’s just an ordinary dude from Geelong, quietly making lunch for his kids, each meal an act of love, created with care, fondness and attention like it’s the last meal he’ll ever make. 

In this episode of Human Cogs, to be honest, we don’t really talk about lunch. We go straight for the full smorgasbord of who George really is, explore his tough upbringing, and the months he spent as a teenager living alone after his father died suddenly, mother was hospitalised and he had to leave school to fend for himself and find a way to survive.

Today, George is not just surviving but thriving, and relishing every day. 

Guest: George Georgievski
Website: The School Lunchbox
Socials: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn
George’s latest book is Air Fryer Express.

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.

Got some thoughts on today's episode you'd like to share?
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Learn more and support the show: https://www.humancogs.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.