Life & Faith

Feel exhausted, cynical, and utterly ineffective at work? There’s a cure for what ails you. 

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Jonathan Malesic had always dreamed of being a college professor. The reality, however, didn’t match up to his expectations. It got to the point where he found it difficult to drag himself out of bed to teach a class. Nothing seemed to help: therapy, medication, even extended leave. 

So he quit. 

Obviously, that’s not the solution for everyone. But in his new book The End of Burnout: Why work drains us and how to build better lives, Malesic reflects on his own experience as well as our “burnout culture” that primes us for exhaustion. 

In this interview on Life & Faith, Malesic describes that culture as a toxic combination of deteriorating working conditions – think stagnant wages, the gig economy, the decline of union membership – as well as our overinvestment in work as a source of meaning and purpose (“do what you love”). Then there’s the “badge of honour” in being a “work martyr” – someone so committed to work they’re prepared to sacrifice themselves to the cause. 

To plot a path out of burnout, Malesic turns to unlikely sources – like the ora et labora (prayer and work) rhythms of Benedictine monks at Christ in the Desert Monastery in New Mexico. There, the monks tame the “demon of work” by subordinating it to their higher callings.

If you’ve ever felt demoralised about your job, this is an interview that will name your spiritual ills and convince you that there is more to life than work.

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Explore:

Buy Jonathan Malesic’s book The End of Burnout: Why work drains us and how to build better lives

Follow him on Twitter

Sign up for his newsletter

Interested in the Maslach Burnout Inventory? Find more info here.

Buildings and public spaces tell a story about what our culture values and who belongs.

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This week, Life & Faith channels popular TV program Grand Designs through its focus on the built environment and how our public spaces express ideals and aspirations for our life together. 

Our guest is Kamila Soh, who is pursuing a Masters in architectural history at the University of New South Wales. 

Kamila recently contributed a column to The Catholic Weekly about 111 Castlereagh, a luxury apartment development in Sydney boasting pristine views of Sydney Harbour, Hyde Park, and St Mary’s Cathedral. She contrasts the cathedral with the glamorous high-rise – where an off the plan penthouse sold for A$35 million in 2021 – and suggests that the church is a genuinely public space while the exclusive development is not.

We also discuss the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral, which revealed the emotional and spiritual connections people feel to place.

Then there’s the growing recognition that we navigate public space via our phones, like posting photos to social media. But what if we need less – not more – stimulation, especially after two years of lockdown and Zoom fatigue? Kamila suggests what we need from public space are spaces for contemplation and opportunities to genuinely connect with each other.

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Explore:

Kamila Soh’s column in The Catholic Weekly

A glimpse of the lifestyle promises of 111 Castlereagh - hit “play film”

Kamila’s article on the way architecture frames our relationships with each other – explored through working from home during lockdown and people’s responses to the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral

Simon’s article on Easter and the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral

The story of the Hilton Bombing, Evan Pederick, and the Ananda Marga. 

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On Feb 13 1978 a bomb exploded at the front of the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. It had been planted in a garbage bin and as a truck emptied the bin it exploded, killing two garbage collectors and a police officer guarding the entrance to the hotel lounge.

Ten years later, Evan Pederick turned up to a Brisbane Police station and confessed to the bombing. What followed was an incredible tale of conspiracy theories, trials, appeals, re-trials, claims of false convictions and the extraordinary situation of Pederick having to try to prove his guilt!

Evan Pederick’s journey to prison and beyond involved an attempt to come to terms with his crimes and culminated in him becoming an Anglican Priest.

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Imre Salusinszky's book: The Hilton Bombing: Evan Pederick and the Ananda Marga

Young, married, and living in community housing with 28 men.

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When the pandemic hit, plenty of us reassessed our lives: changing jobs, leaving relationships, taking up a new hobby. 

Jayden and Mikyla Battey, a married couple in their 20s, did their own soul-searching and, as a result, decided to move into community housing with 28 men who are at risk of homelessness and face mental health issues and challenging life circumstances.

They were looking for a deeper way of living alongside others. They’ve found that as House Managers at Hamer Court, an affordable housing initiative run by the group Servants.

In this Life & Faith episode, Jayden and Mikyla talk about the joys and the difficulties of living with vulnerable people, and what it’s like for those on the margins to find a home with each other. We also get a glimpse of what extended lockdowns meant for the residents of Hamer Court who were already socially isolated to begin with. 

For Jayden, this way of life is a calling. “My understanding of the way that Jesus has called us to live our life is one where we dig deep and lean into the messy relationships. If I always kept difficult people at arm’s length, then I never have to face the reality of my own impatience and the brokenness in my own heart,” he said. 

“When you live with a group of people who test you and call out your BS and tell you when you’re not loving them – well, then you realise that you have to actually rely on God to be the patient, kind, and loving person that everyone likes to think they are.” 

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Explore:

The article Jayden wrote for the ABC

Servants

New York Times Australian Bureau Chief Damien Cave on learning to live like an Australian.

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Damien Cave has been the New York Times Australian Bureau chief in Australia since 2017. In that time he has thrown himself into life here, embracing (and being embraced by) the Surf Life Saving community and all the vulnerability and humility required to do that. He says he has learnt extremely important life lessons he didn’t know he needed and has come to love and appreciate his adopted home.

With a journalist’s sharp eye, Cave analyses Australia's attitude to risk, community and identity and finds some insights that he says have made his life immeasurably better. This is not the voice of an idealistic tourist, but someone who, by immersing himself in the Australian way of life, has come to recognise its strengths and shortcomings and ultimately, what makes it special.  

Here Cave speaks to Life & Faith about risk, community, vulnerability and humility.

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Book: Into the Rip: How the Australian way of risk made my family stronger, happier … and less American

Leila and Danny Abdallah explain how they found a way to forgive the driver who killed their three children.  

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For i4give week, we bring you a conversation with Danny and Leila Abdallah. On Feb 1st 2020 the Abdullahs experienced an unspeakable tragedy when three of their children, Antony (13), Angelina (12), and Sienna (8), along with their cousin Veronique Sakr (11), were killed when a drunk and drug-affected driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the group of children. 

The Abdallahs shocked the world when they declared their forgiveness for the driver and refusal to hate him. 

The i4give initiative, taking place each year on the anniversary of the tragedy,  encourages people to search their hearts and find someone to forgive.

For Life & Faith Simon Smart talks to Leila and Danny about where they found the strength to forgive, the power of forgiveness and what they hope to achieve by urging us all to forgive.

“Forgiveness has allowed us to heal and to grow together as a family. Forgiveness has given us the freedom from anger and resentment and bitterness.” (Leila Abdallah)

https://www.i4give.com/

People have very different ideas of what Christmas is “really about”. Life & Faith weighs the options.

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“This is pure joy … but this is infused with truffle.”

What makes this time of year so magical for so many? 

In this final episode of Life & Faith for 2021, the team talk about the food, the gifts, the traditions, the family time … and what any of it has to do with the original story. Tim Costello joins Simon, Justine, and Natasha to tell a remarkable story of the most memorable Christmas present he ever received, and Rev Bill Crews talks about the 50+ years he’s been hosting a Christmas lunch for those who don’t have anyone to spend this time of year with. 

“Out of the sadness and the destructiveness of this world, new hope is being born every second. Every second. All you have to do is look and listen, and you’ll see it. Over and over and over again, I’ve found that.” 

Explore:

2021 Waitrose Christmas ad 

Exodus Foundation Christmas lunch for the needy

Theologian Sarah Coakley interrogates our relationship to sex, food, money, the body, and God.

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“I see desire as a central human phenomenon … We see desire in the newborn baby, for physical and psychological needs. We see desire in the dying person, even if they’ve lost the capacity for speech. We see desire in people who are very severely brain damaged or physically damaged. Desire is always there, from the moment of birth to the last gasp of our breath.”

Where do our desires come from? How do we adjudicate between competing desires? And what are our lives really about, what do we most long for?

Professor Sarah Coakley brings a keen and compassionate eye to our difficulties as a culture with sex, eating and drinking, wealth, and more. Her short but profound book The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender, and the Quest for God invites us into a lifelong sorting of desire that might allow us to prioritise what truly matters.

“If you join a religious community within Christianity, there is one question that's asked of you as you join and it's Quid petis, what are you seeking? What are you seeking? What is your life for? And I'm trying to get this question back into the heart of our spiritual and theological reflection, whether or not you believe in God.”

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Explore: 

The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender, and the Quest for God

Tim Costello on the spiritual hold gambling exerts over Australian politics, culture, and identity.

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Tim Costello knows a thing or two about how to fight social justice battles on multiple fronts simultaneously.

The ex-World Vision CEO, lawyer, Baptist preacher, spokesperson for the End Covid For All campaign, and Senior Fellow of CPX has also campaigned against gambling and the pervasiveness of pokies in our pubs and clubs for 25 years.

In October, the Victorian Royal Commission into Crown Casinos found that Crown’s illegal, unethical, and exploitative conduct made it “unfit” to operate a casino. And yet the organisation was still given two years to clean up its act.

Tim has been a strident critic of Crown since its inception. In this Life & Faith, he reflects on why and how Crown became “too big to fail”, the impact of gambling addiction on people’s lives, and the national myth Australia tells about itself – that it’s a nation of gamblers.

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Explore:

Tim’s article in The Saturday Paper

Tim’s July 2021 op-ed in The Sydney Morning Herald

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We talk Ted Lasso, Sally Rooney’s latest novel, and get sentimental about our stuff with Unpacking.

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Simon, Natasha, and Justine download on Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, celebrating the infectious kindness of its hero, the power of pastoral care in general, and the ways the hit show brightened the days of many Australian viewers in lockdown this year.

Justine introduces the team to the surprisingly emotional experience of playing Unpacking, an award-winning video game in which you put away your character’s belongings and, in the process, reflect on how our material possessions connect us to immaterial realities like memory and emotions. 

Lastly, what happens when the twenty-something characters populating Sally Rooney’s fiction turn 30? Natasha meditates on their angst, disappointments, relationships, and conflicted spiritual longings in Rooney’s latest book Beautiful World, Where Are You.

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Explore:

Seen & Heard: Simon, Natasha, and Justine talk about Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen’s podcast Renegades: Born in the USA, Patricia Lockwood’s memoir Priest Daddy, and the latest TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand

Millennial Malaise: Life & Faith interview with Guardian journalist Bridie Jabour, author of Trivial Grievances: On the myths, miseries, and contradictions of your 30s

Miroslav Volf’s CPX lecture Pleasure, Meaning and the Death of God

Sandra Newman’s article: "Every house is a haunted house"

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Life & Faith Survey: We love making this podcast and would value your thoughts about what we do and how we could do it better. Please consider taking 5 minutes to do this short survey – https://bit.ly/3082yW9. Thanks.