Man;Kind Podcast

With the right environment and the right people around us human beings can achieve crazy things. Whether that’s climbing the tallest mountain in the world, launching a rocket into space, or being the first one in your family to finish school…What are the conditions that can help us make the changes we need to in order to create the future we want?

Who better to speak to about this than a coach of elite athletes? Alen Stajcic is the current coach of the Central Coast Mariners, and prior to that he was the coach of the Australian women’s football team the Matildas for several years. Alen has a wealth of experience drawing out the best in people. And he also has a unique perspective on conversations around our society’s shift towards greater gender equality.

Presented by the Central Coast Council and developed by Lead by Story

Host: Will Small

Co-Host: Hannah Gierhart

Editing: Sienna Aloisio

Music: Josh Corkill

Change isn’t easy, but it’s inevitable. There are ideas and ways of thinking that may have gotten us to where we are today, but that doesn’t mean they’ll take us to where we need to go tomorrow.

How do we create large scale change? How do we encourage new ways of thinking across big groups of people? This is essentially what Tim Silverwood, the founder of Take 3 for the Sea spends his life trying to do. He’s tackling the enormous problem of plastic pollution and in a sense trying to upgrade our thinking about waste and sustainability. There’s a lot of parallels between Tim’s work and my journey to uncover our stories about manhood, in order to affirm what’s helpful and challenge what’s not.

Presented by the Central Coast Council and developed by Lead by Story

Host: Will Small

Co-Host: Hannah Gierhart

Editing: Sienna Aloisio

Music: Josh Corkill

I’ve been on this little quest talking to men from different fields, generations and life experiences about their ideas of manhood and masculinity. I’ve shared on previous episodes how for me it’s partly motivated by being a father of two sons. I really want to teach them that there isn’t a one size fits all approach to being a boy or a man. My guest in this episode, Rob Waters, shares this beautiful story of looking up to his own son, and the way he chose to challenge some of the negative versions of masculinity and model a different story.

Rob is a uni lecturer, a poet and a storyteller, and he uses this idea of the big story with a capital S, the one that goes back beyond one generation or moment in time. It’s so easy for us to have these conversations and ignore the fact that we come from a bigger story, a longer history, and if we care about the future, it’s worth listening to the wisdom of the past.

Presented by the Central Coast Council and developed by Lead by Story

Host: Will Small

Co-Host: Hannah Gierhart

Editing: Sienna Aloisio

Music: Josh Corkill

When my first son was born, my wife and I decided to let his hair grow until he was at least two years old. He had killer curls and we loved the idea of him being wild and free.

As his hair started to get some length, people would commonly say things like “you have a really beautiful daughter.” I noticed that when people thought he was a girl they would treat him differently to when they found out he was a boy.

I felt confused by these interactions. I felt weirdly uncomfortable about how often he was mistaken for a girl, while also feeling like it shouldn’t matter. He was a toddler. It’s crazy how early we want to lock in certain identity traits.

Take gender out of it - one of the biggest obstacles we all face is becoming comfortable being unique. Being who we are, without caring so much what other people want us to be.

I spoke with Grant Molony, an incredibly talented artist and photographer, and I really noticed how important it was for him, this idea of owning himself. It may not happen overnight, but I wonder if it’s a key part of this conversation.

Presented by the Central Coast Council and developed by Lead by Story

Host: Will Small

Co-Host: Hannah Gierhart

Editing: Sienna Aloisio

Music: Josh Corkill

Fletcher Pilon recently turned 18 - but he already has some pretty solid thinking around the kind of man he wants to be in the world.

Fletcher won Australia’s Got Talent back in 2017, performing a song called Infinite Child which he wrote after his younger brother passed in a skateboarding accident.

Whether you’re on the cusp of legal adulthood yourself or you’re at the stage where it’d be an epic complement to be asked for your ID, I reckon there’s something in this conversation for you. There definitely was for me.

Presented by the Central Coast Council and developed by Lead by Story

Host: Will Small

Co-Host: Hannah Gierhart

Editing: Sienna Aloisio

Music: Josh Corkill

The question about what it means to be a man is interesting, but I’m probably more interested in what it means to just be healthy. To be self aware and growing mentally, physically, emotionally. That seems less about gender and more just a question about how to take care of yourself. But in many ways our ideas around gender carry with them certain expectations. And for a lot of guys there’s this expectation around not being too emotional or sharing deeply about feelings. And that can lead to a lot of problems.

This episode I thought I’d do something a little different. I thought I’d open up one part of my life that has helped me personally be more healthy, and invite you in.

I often feel like my life is a pretty complex juggling act. Maybe you can relate. Between my family responsibilities and my work and leading a pretty full life I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed. To carry around some weight. So I asked my counsellor, Barney Weir if he’d open up some space to have a conversation about health and manhood and share some of his professional perspectives. And trust me, he’s a goldmine. So, if you’ve never done anything like this, maybe here’s a safe way to sit in the room so to speak and hear some thoughts about ways men can become more emotionally healthy.

Presented by the Central Coast Council and developed by Lead by Story

Host: Will Small

Co-Host: Hannah Gierhart

Editing: Sienna Aloisio

Music: Josh Corkill

"Ready for some man talk?"

My name is Will Small. I’ve been handed stories throughout my life of what a man should be, how they should act, what they aren’t supposed to say or do. And I wonder, what stories are we currently passing on to our young boys and men? Are we satisfied with them?

This show is not a set of answers. It’s a conversation with those who want to ask better questions. Live a better story. If that’s you, you’re in the right place. This is the Man;Kind podcast.

Presented by the Central Coast Council and developed by Lead by Story

Host: Will Small

Co-Host: Hannah Gierhart

Editing: Sienna Aloisio

Music: Josh Corkill