Life Matters

It's never too late to learn another language. In fact, emerging research shows that learning a language is the best possible workout we can give our brain as it ages, using more areas of the brain than most other activities. So how do you figure out what to study and how to stick with it?

ABC Classic Presenter Ed La Brocq reveals the enduring fingerprint of Western classical music on our culture in his new book Sound Bites.

And as climate change intensifies and El Niño returns, bringing bushfires and extreme heat, we look at our growing need for emergency volunteers.

We're constantly comparing ourselves to others, and that can be made even harder when we have an over-achiever in our lives. Learn how to stop that comparison engine and focus on your own successes.

Singer Barry Crocker shares backstage tales from his book Last of the Entertainers, and we take a drama about an unfair rent share out of the Too Hard Basket with comedian and journalist Ange Lavoipierre and actor Bjorn Stewart.

If you've ever suspected your boss might be a psychopath, you might be right. A type of person without the capacity for empathy, psychopaths are far more common than we might think and can make our worklives untenable. Researcher and author David Gillepsie shares his strategies for dealing with toxic psychopaths at work.

And Asylum Seeker Resource Centre founder Kon Karapanagiotidis connects with his culture and mum through his new cookbook of Greek vegetarian recipes. 

The pandemic was a massive blow for Australia's arts scene, and recovery has been slow, with rocketing costs for patrons, artists and crew alike. With the recent cancellation of major festivals and events, what does the future hold for the arts in Australia?

Plus, we look at how COVID kids might adapt to a post-pandemic world.

Indigenous suicide rates are higher than the national average, but tackling the problem often ignores cultural context and community. We meet Australian Mental Health Prize winner Professor Maree Toombs, a Euahlayi and Kooma woman developing community-led interventions that work.

We look at how recipes, flavours and food place us in long lineages and connect us to our culture.

Plus, we learn when it's ok for kids to play rough.

Think burnout is bad? Bore-out wants a word. It's a phenomenon that happens when you're chronically bored and understimulated in your work. It can be soul-destroying, but whose responsibility is it to make work interesting? 

Learn about the contributions of older protesters and why they're less visible than the stereotype of the teen activist. 

And we find out if a weekend sleep-in is actually good for you.

Do you have a friend who's quite a bit older or younger than you? Someone from a different generation? Those friendships might be uncommon, and even a bit 'odd' to some, but they can bring a lot of joy and refreshing perspective to our lives. We look at how to make and nurture intergenerational connections.

Plus, Too Hard Basketeers Annie Louey and Sam Leighton-Dore help a listener struggling with a friend who's always being a downer. 

Preventative and allied health is falling by the wayside as the cost of living bites. And that means we miss health problems that become more pressing and expensive down the line. We look at what not to cut out of your budget, and what can be done on a broader scale.

Plus, learn about how scammers exploit our cognitive biases as Dr Christopher Chabris shares the findings of his new book Nobody's Fool: Why we get taken in and what we can do about it.

Are Australian universities in crisis? A spate of industrial actions and student dissatisfaction seems to indicate tough times for our higher education sector. So what needs to change to make universities sustainable?

Plus, meet Leisa Prowd, a dancer and artist living with achondroplasia, whose latest piece I Am (Not) This Body challenges the judgments and meaning we place on the physical form.

Helping you figure out all the big stuff in life: relationships, health, money, work and the world.