Politics has a way of reducing people to headlines - the speeches, the elections, the controversies, the moments that dominated the nightly news. But behind every public leader is a private person, carrying the weight of decisions, the expectations of millions, and quiet questions about faith, family and purpose.

For Scott Morrison, one of those quiet questions came into devastating focus on a February afternoon in 2020, when a mother named Layla Abdallah stood in front of a television camera - twenty-four hours after losing three of her children to a drug-affected driver - and said: "In my heart I know I forgive him." As Prime Minister, Morrison was already carrying the country through the Black Summer bushfires, and would soon face a global pandemic that tested his leadership like nothing before it. Throughout it all, his Christian faith remained central to who he was - sometimes a source of strength, sometimes drawing intense public attention.

In this conversation, Scott reflects on the experiences that shaped him long before politics, the unseen cost of leadership, and what forgiveness, uncertainty and faith under pressure have taught him about an identity that's never found in a title.

Scott Morrison served as Australia’s 30th Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, leading the country through the Black Summer bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and many other intense and contentious issues. Before politics, he worked as a research economist and later for Bruce Baird, entering Federal Parliament in 2007. Raised in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire in a family shaped by service rather than ambition, Morrison has spoken openly throughout his career about the Christian faith that has underpinned his life and leadership, from a youth camp in Melbourne where he gave his life to the Lord, to the Tuesday-night prayer group he kept running throughout his time as Prime Minister. He is married to Jenny, with two daughters, and today works in business advisory and geopolitics while remaining closely involved with Danny and Leila Abdallah’s 'I Forgive' Foundation.

Key Moments & Highlights

- The 2020 Sydney crash that killed four children and how Layla Abdallah's on-camera declaration of forgiveness “within 24 hours” stunned Morrison and the nation

- Growing up as his father's unpaid “electorate secretary,” fielding constituents' phone calls before he was even a teenager

- The fourteen-year fertility journey and ten failed treatments that preceded the births of daughters Abbey and Lily, including “screaming at God in the forest” in Wellington

- Why he's never seen himself as belonging to a political “tribe,” and how Bruce Baird and John Anderson showed him it was possible to be a Christian, a husband and a father, and still succeed in politics.

- The night he became Prime Minister through a contested leadership spill, and Malcolm Turnbull's differing account of events

- Diverting the campaign plane to Tasmania on the eve of the 2019 “miracle election,” and watching both seats come in on the AEC refresh screen.

- Tabling the Royal Commission report into institutional child abuse in 2018, and the moment he shut his office door afterward and wept.

- Watching hospital footage from northern Italy at the start of the pandemic, and why he tuned out “ideological rubbish” about the virus being a threat to liberty

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Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org

Special Thanks To

Excelsia University College

Christian Finance

Vision Christian Media

When Stephen Driscoll's laptop started acting up, he asked an AI agent to take a look - twenty minutes later it had tracked down and fixed a problem that had been quietly running in the background for six months. It's a small, almost funny story, but Stephen uses it to make a much bigger point: AI has moved from mimicking us to genuinely acting on its own initiative, and the theological and ethical questions are moving just as fast. In this wide-ranging conversation, Karl Faase and Stephen dig into AI-directed drone strikes, the Pope's recent encyclical, transhumanism, campus culture, and Stephen's own decade-long wrestle with doubt.

About Stephen Driscoll: Stephen Driscoll is a university minister and self-described “tech realist” who tries to avoid both blind optimism and fear-driven doomism about artificial intelligence. He won the 2025 Australian Christian Book of the Year Award for his book Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You. Before moving into ministry, Stephen worked on a trading floor in finance, and has been fascinated by AI since his undergraduate years.

Get a copy of Stephen Driscoll's book here: Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You 

Key Moments & Highlights

Find Out More

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org

Special Thanks To

Excelsia University College

Christian Finance

Vision Christian Media

"You can have Daniel and Lyndall for five hundred dollars." That’s the sentence Dan Lyons’ mother used when his father tried to gain custody of him and his sister - the price she put on her own children. In this raw and confronting conversation, Dan takes Karl Faase back through years of alcohol-fuelled domestic violence, a mother who turned her own pain into abuse against her son, and the homeless, drug-affected years that followed - before two schoolmates and a four-word prayer changed the course of his life. This is a story about the long, unglamorous work of healing, and what it looks like to lead, parent, and forgive when you never had a template for any of it.

Dan Lyons is the Director of Missional Culture and Leadership at Carinity, the care arm of Queensland Baptists, where he leads a team of pastors and around 100–125 chaplains serving in hospitals, prisons, aged care facilities, and schools across Queensland. He has been married to his wife Anita for 28 years, they have four adult children, and he recently became a grandfather for the first time. Behind that role is a childhood marked by extreme domestic violence and abuse, teenage homelessness, and a decades-long journey of faith and healing - which he shares candidly in this episode.

Listener note: this episode discusses childhood abuse, family violence and suicide. Please take care while listening.

Key Moments & Highlights

Find Out More

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org

Special Thanks To

Excelsia University College

Christian Finance

Vision Christian Media

Tim Kelly grew up on a dairy farm in northern NSW, learning to ride potty calves at five years old and by his late teens he was riding saddle bronc and bulls professionally, competing at the Calgary Stampede and winning the Saddle Bronc Junior World Championship. But behind the trophies, and the hard-partying rodeo lifestyle was a persistent emptiness Tim couldn't shake. 

In this episode of Insight, Tim shares his journey from rodeo arenas across Australia and Canada to a life-changing encounter at a "million dollar rodeo" in 1982, the fear that nearly ended his career, the devastating breakdown of his marriage, and how faith reshaped his identity, and continues to reshape the lives of the bull riders he now mentors through his own riding schools.

About Tim Kelly

Tim Kelly is a former professional bull and saddle bronc rider from Tenterfield, NSW, who competed internationally through the late 1970s and 80s, including at the Calgary Stampede and Canada's rodeo circuit, and won the Saddle Bronc Junior World Championship. After coming to faith at a major rodeo event in 1982, Tim went on to run bull riding schools for over 40 years, training riders from across Australia while sharing his testimony with the next generation of the sport. He has walked through both the highs of competitive success and the deep personal cost of a marriage breakdown, and now speaks openly about failure, forgiveness, and restoration. Tim is married to Laura and continues to mentor riders and share his story of faith found in an unlikely place.

Key Moments & Highlights

- The five-year-old's dream

Find Out More

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 

Special Thanks To

Christian Finance 

Vision Christian Media

If life were a film, most of us can point to the moment everything changed. For Graham Clarke, that moment came as a phone call from a radiologist about his wife, Christy - a call that changed everything that came after. In this raw and moving conversation, Graham shares the story of walking with Christy through a terminal cancer diagnosis, parenting three young kids through unimaginable loss, and discovering that faith doesn't mean pretending everything is fine - it means bringing your honest grief to God and waiting for Him to meet you there. This is a conversation about lament, Shalom, single parenting, and the surprising, hard-won hope that things really can be okay again!!

About Graham Clarke

Graham Clarke spent most of his adult life in local church ministry as a senior pastor, most recently having stepped out of that role and looking toward a return to education - his first career, as a PE teacher and school chaplain. Raised in the Uniting Church in Brisbane, Graham met his wife Christy on the set of a Christian children's TV show in his late teens. They married young, had three children, and spent almost a decade leading a church in Geelong before returning to Brisbane.

Key Moments & Takeaways

- Early days and meeting his wife, Christy.

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Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 

Special Thanks To

Christian Finance 

Vision Christian Media

He was taken from his family before he could walk, told for years he'd had polio when it was actually malnutrition, and labelled "dumb" by a school system that never diagnosed his dyslexia. Decades later, Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby became the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination.

In this honest conversation, Rex sits down with Karl Faase to talk about childhood abuse, being removed from his family as a toddler, and the shame he carried for years - and how those wounds became the foundation for a life devoted to reconciliation, empathy, and the gospel. Rex shares his story from an abusive home in Holland Park, to a stint as a chef on Brisbane's first luxury yacht, to twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, to a doctorate exploring how Western culture has often been tangled up with the gospel message delivered to Indigenous people.

Along the way, he shares hard truths about the church's mixed legacy in Indigenous communities and a hopeful, hard-won vision for what an intercultural church could look like.

Rev. Dr. Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous person to serve as national head of a denomination in Australia, spending twelve years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church - the longest tenure in that role. He is an elder of both the Kamilaroi and Bigambul peoples. Before entering ministry, Rex trained and worked as a chef, including a stint as the first chef aboard Brisbane's first luxury yacht. He holds a doctorate for his thesis "Social Cohesion Through the Eyes of an Indigenous Elder for the Application of the Intercultural Church," and today continues to teach at several Bible colleges.

Key Moments & Takeaways

- Rex Rigby was the first Indigenous Australian to lead a national denomination, serving 12 years as General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Find Out More

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 

Special Thanks To

Christian Finance 

Vision Christian Media

"I live in Africa - waiting is never an issue." That was Melanie Downes' response when a string of technical hiccups left her and her husband Tim sitting patiently in the studio long past schedule. It's a small window into a life shaped by nearly two decades as a missionary in Malawi - a life of nine-hour queues, two-day border crossings, and a faith forged in a place most of us will never see.

In this episode, Karl Faase speaks with Melanie about the road that took a "goofy" Rockhampton girl to a remote Yao village with a two- and four-year-old in tow. She reflects on her father's overnight conversion, her own childhood call to mission, and the enormous cost of obedience during cyclones, a critically ill baby, and the humbling task of asking others to "hold the rope."

Melanie speaks with honesty about being a woman in an Islamic community (where it took eighteen months just to be seen as "not dangerous"), what the Yao have taught her about reading the Bible, and why she and Tim have spent years deliberately working themselves out of a job. It's a conversation about courage, contextual mission, the spirit world, and the quiet power of simply staying.

Key Moments & Highlights

- A "wild boy" dad meets Jesus at a crusade and changes almost overnight and a young Melanie watches her whole family transform

- Her own clear moment of call as a little girl

- Growing up around mission in remote Aboriginal communities and deciding, as a teenager, that missionary life was "not for us"

- Backpacking the world after 9/11, landing in Malawi, and falling for the "warm heart of Africa"

- Counting the cost to actually go: a critically ill newborn, Cyclone Larry, financial strain, and grieving parents

- Taking a two- and four-year-old to a Yao village, and the years of language and culture learning that followed

- The challenge of being an Australian woman in an Islamic community

- Why relationship with the women was the "secret weapon" that opened the whole community

- Rethinking the missionary: not "great white saviours," but "accepted outsiders" handing leadership to the local church

- Her two books, Jump and Spirit, the Camino, and the bittersweet homecoming 

Find Out More

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 

Special Thanks To

Christian Finance 

Vision Christian Media

You've seen the Red Frogs at Schoolies, festivals and uni O-Week - the crew handing out lollies, walking people home, being the calm in the chaos. You might even know that Taylor Swift's team has called them in for support, or that Allen's donates 24 tonnes of frogs to the cause. What you don't see is the story behind one of the people who's helped build it and why he spends his life helping teens!

In this episode, Karl Faase sits down with Steve Davies, whose childhood was, in his own words, a "trainwreck life." Steve speaks with raw honesty about a home marked by violence and fear, the grief of losing the men who made him feel safe, the discovery that his biological father had taken his own life, and the years he spent trying to numb a broken heart. It's also a story of an almost unthinkable forgiveness - of a stepfather, a mother, and ultimately himself! What's remarkable is that it was a Bible courageously thrown across a room that set all of this in motion. This is a powerful conversation about pain, faith, and what it really takes to re-build a life after hurt. 

Listener note: this episode discusses childhood abuse, family violence and suicide. Please take care while listening.

Steve Davies is the General Manager of Red Frogs Australia - a national charity working to safeguard a generation by providing peer-to-peer support. He has also worked in business, ministry and politics. 

Key moments & highlights

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Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 

Special Thanks To

Christian Finance 

Vision Christian Media

In many of our churches, there's an unspoken script: grow up, find someone, get married, have kids. And if that doesn't happen - or hasn't happened yet - it can leave people quietly wondering: Is there something wrong with me? Is this just a waiting room?

Dr Dani Treweek has spent over a decade thinking, writing, and living these questions. In this episode of Insight with Karl Faase, she shares her journey of growing up in Sydney's eastern suburbs, studying at Moore Theological College, and completing a PhD that became the book The Meaning of Singleness.

Along the way, she's wrestled personally and academically with what it truly means to be single in the Christian life.

Whether you're single, married, widowed, divorced, or leading a church community, this conversation has something important to offer. As Dani shares, the Bible's vision for singleness is far more expansive and far more hopeful than most of us have been taught.

Key Moments and Takeaways:

- The "disenfranchised grief" of singleness - mourning something you've never had

- The moment in a Moore College ethics lecture that changed how Dani read the Bible

- What Jesus's words in Matthew 22 reveal about the eternal significance of singleness

- How the Reformation accidentally devalued singleness in Protestant churches

- The problems with dating apps and the deeper disembodiment crisis behind them

- What Paul actually means (and doesn't mean) by the so-called "gift of singleness"

- Why the church needs its single members as much as single members need the church 

Resources mentioned:

The Meaning of Singleness — Dani Treweek (IVP Academic)

Single Ever After — Dani Treweek (IVP)

Cross Related Ministry

"On Sitting Alone in Church" — article by Dani Treweek 

Find Out More

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 

Special Thanks To

Christian Finance 

Vision Christian Media

What does it take to raise a good man in a culture that can't decide whether masculinity is a problem to be solved or a strength to be celebrated? In this episode of Insight, Karl Faase sits down with Simon Smart - a teacher, writer and Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX). This is a wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation about boys, bullying, fatherlessness, the manosphere, and what it actually means to be a good man.

Drawing on his own brutal boarding-school years and his book The End of Men, Simon makes the case for a richer, more compassionate model of masculinity - one rooted in the example of Jesus.

Simon Smart is a teacher, writer and the Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX), a media organisation working to promote a thoughtful, generous understanding of the Christian faith in Australian public life. Before CPX, Simon spent a decade teaching English and history in boys' schools, an experience that, alongside his own childhood in a tough country boarding environment, shaped his recent book The End of Men. He lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches with his wife and two adult children, and is, in his own words, "an average but enthusiastic surfer."

Key Moments and Takeaways:

Find Out More

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au

Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch

Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org 

Special Thanks To

Christian Finance 

Vision Christian Media