Today on Soul Search we head to New Norcia in WA — the only monastic town in Australia. Founded by Spanish Benedictine monks over 170 years ago, New Norcia is a place with no smooth or easy stories; a place that stays with you - for better or for worse.

On Soul Search today, Meredith Lake chats to podcaster and author Casper ter Kulie whose been thinking about a big question: How do we make meaning as communities, and deepen our sense of connection to one another?

Today, we meet two visionary people on the long pilgrimage towards justice. Dr Anne Pattel Gray is a globally recognized expert on Black theology, and the first Indigenous Australian to be awarded a doctorate in theology in the 1990s. We also speak to Uncle Alf 'Boydie' Turner, the grandson of the legendary Yorta Yorta leader William Cooper whose lifelong pursuit of justice remains remarkably relevant today.

As Brexit reshapes the Irish border, poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama reflects on the role of storytelling in fractured societies.

An in-depth discussion about the radical, spiritual movement - theosophy. What made theosophy so compelling to an influential minority of Australian society?

Join Meredith Lake as she meets two remarkable women who beat the odds. Lisa Jackson Pulver was once a runaway teen. Today, she is a leading figure in the field of Indigenous health and education; and Kamala Sharma Wing was once the only female - and Hindu - in her trainee cohort. Today, she is a Lieutenant in the Navy.

The medieval mystic Meister Eckhart once said, “If the only prayer you said in life was ‘thank you’, that would be enough.” It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But there’s more to gratitude than it seems. In this episode, Professor Mona Siddiqui – one of Britain's most influential public intellectuals – tells RN’s Meredith Lake about her project on Christian and Muslim approaches to gratitude. 

What monks knew about the emotions of isolation.

Today on the show we’ll take a look back on the year that was with writer and storyteller, Julie Perrin, whose journey of faith and doubt infuses the way she writes about the world around her. And, former chef-turned-Christian pastor, Simon Holt, on the way Collins Street Baptist Church will celebrate Christmas this year.

Have you got a holiday reading list already on the make? Or perhaps, in light of Hanukkah or Christmas, it’s a time to dwell with profound stories of faith? Literary critic Tali Lavi and award-winning biographer Jacqueline Kent join Meredith Lake to discuss the stories at the heart of Hanukkah, and the story of suffragist and feminist, Vida Goldstein.