Wellbeing Explained

In July 2027 the IPPA World Congress goes to Istanbul, the first time it has been held outside North America and Australia. In this episode Matt sits down with the committee behindit to talk about what they are trying to change and why.

Ten thematic tracks instead of the usual research and practice streams. Fifty travel bursaries aimed at delegates from the global south and students anywhere. A deliberatedecision to stop inviting the same keynote speakers. And some uncomfortable questions about who the field has been listening to for the last twenty years.

What we cover

• Why the Congress dropped research and practice streamsfor ten thematic tracks, and how those tracks were chosen
• Why the research and practice divide is a fake one, andwhat it costs the field
• What it actually takes to make a global conferenceglobal, from visas and flight costs to fifty travel bursaries
• The delegate feedback that led the committee to stopinviting familiar keynote speakers
• New programming formats, including films, case studiesfrom outside psychology, and matching researchers with practitioners before they arrive
• Dr Maggie Zhao on harmony, and why non-Westernperspectives should shape the questions rather than supply extra populations to test theories on
• Dr Richard Appiah on rural Ghana, African proverbs, andwhat wellbeing science still gets wrong
• Assoc Prof Gökmen Arslan on Istanbul, the Turkishresearch community, and turning attendance into something that lasts

Chapters

13:13 Why Istanbul, and who theCongress has been missing

20:15 Bursaries, students, andthe end of the repeat keynote

32:18 New programming formatsand the research to practice gap

48:05 Dr Maggie Zhao on harmonyand the limits of Western theory

57:52 Dr Richard Appiah on whatwellbeing science gets wrong

1:17:35 Assoc Prof Gökmen Arslanon Istanbul and the Turkish community

Connect further

IPPA 2027 World Congress, Istanbul

Follow Matt

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-iasiello/

Substack:https://substack.com/@mattiasiello

Wellbeing Explained is hosted byBe Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. Better wellbeing practice starts with better conversations. We bring in the experts to answer questions that others won't, bust myths, and go deeper into the science. Be Well Co is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care. Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs to organisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.

Follow Be Well Co

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/bewellco_/

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/BeWellCo1/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/bewellco1

Website:https://www.bewellco.io/

In this episode Matt speaks with Dr Luke Martin, clinical psychologist, co-founder of Prevention United, and now Clinical Spokesperson and Senior Specialist at Beyond Blue. Matt puts aquestion to him that plenty of people in the sector have quietly (or loudly) asked: what has Beyond Blue actually achieved in 25 years?

What follows is a genuinely useful conversation about awareness, prevention, concept creep, and what amentally healthy society would need to look like.

What we cover

• The Kids Matter project and what happens when you askwhat good looks like in a school
• What Beyond Blue actually does, beyond the awarenesscampaigns people remember
• What the independent 25-year review found about mentalhealth literacy, stigma and help seeking in Australia
• Why awareness was never the finish line, and the leakyroof problem
• The 12 year gap between people's first symptoms andasking for help
• What the new CSIRO report says about the four futuresAustralia could end up in
• Concept creep, identity labels, and taking people'sdistress seriously without taking it literally
• Where wellbeing promotion fits, and why everybodystaying in their lane only works if the lanes connect

Chapters

03:23 From clinical practice toKids Matter and Prevention United

11:16 What has Beyond Blueactually achieved in 25 years?

25:39 Awareness isn't the finishline

31:33 The next 25 years, and therisk of medicalising everyday life

42:57 Promotion, prevention, andwho else needs to play a part

Watch on YouTube

Read more on Substack

Connect further

Follow Dr Luke Martin

Beyond BlueThe 25 year review paper

The CSIRO report

Follow Matt

LinkedInSubstack

Wellbeing Explained is hosted by Be Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. Better wellbeing practice starts with better conversations. We bring in the experts to answer questionsthat others won't, bust myths, and go deeper into the science.

Be Well Co is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care. Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs toorganisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.

Follow Be Well Co

Instagram:Be Well Co

Wellbeing Explained

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/BeWellCo1/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/bewellco1

Website:https://www.bewellco.io/

In this episode Matt speaks with Professor Carol Ryff, whose six-dimensional model of psychological wellbeing has been translated into 40 languages and cited in more than 2,000 publications, and who has led the MIDUS national longitudinal study for 25 years.

She explains where the six dimensions came from, why she is deeply opposed to collapsing any of them into a single score, and why she has taken to calling herself the stinkbird of positive psychology.

What we cover

• Where the six dimensions came from, and the undergraduate reading that started them
• Why wellbeing was never meant to be summed into one number, and what gets lost when it is
• What MIDUS does differently on depth of measurement, and what disciplinary training makes people leave out
• Why Carol thinks the replication crisis has been badly overstated
• The one thing ordinary people name as central to being well that the research has never picked up
• The stinkbird, and why she thinks positive psychology has its head in the sand on inequality
• What she thinks we should actually do about it, from integrative science to the arts and humanities
• What she wants to be known for, and why authenticity appeals to her more now

Connect furtherThe MIDUS studyCarol's faculty page

Follow MattLinkedInSubstack

More episodes of Wellbeing Explained

Wellbeing Explained is hosted by Be Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. Better wellbeing practice starts with better conversations. We bring in the experts to answer questions that others won't, bust myths, and go deeper into the science.

Be Well Co is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care. Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs to organisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.

Follow Be Well CoInstagramFacebookLinkedInWebsite

In this episode Matt speaks with Associate Professor Vic Counted, a psychologist of religion at Regent University and a faculty affiliate of Harvard's Human Flourishing Program. Vic takes attachment theory, usually used to explain the bond between a child and a parent, and asks what happens when we apply it to our relationship with God or with whatever we hold sacred. It is a conversation about where meaning actually comes from, and why wellbeing science tends to leave this part alone.

What we cover

• Why Vic defines God in a way that works for believersand non-believers alike, and why he often just says "the sacred"instead
• Safe haven and secure base, and how a relationship withthe sacred shifts from one to the other over time
• Why Vic argues the gym, academia and even politicsfunction as religions for the people inside them
• What happens when that bond is disrupted, and whyprotest, despair and detachment show up in faith the same way they show up in a breakup
• What the COVID lockdowns revealed about how attachedpeople were to their workplaces, schools and shopping centres
• Why Western countries score low on meaning in theGlobal Flourishing Study, and what Vic thinks that has to do with the sacred
• Whether some things are better or worse to hold sacred,and what that means for young people chasing influence

Chapters

03:07 - Welcome, and what drawsVic to this work

07:13 - Is "science andreligion" an oxymoron?

09:54 - The Delphi study wherespirituality didn't reach consensus

11:28 - Five continents,displacement, and place attachment

17:34 - Defining God so it worksfor believers and non-believers

18:31 - God as an attachmentfigure

27:13 - Making it concrete forpeople with no belief

28:09 - Why the gym is areligion

34:41 - Is the sacred apsychological need?

39:56 - Safe haven and securebase, explained through a marriage

43:18 - The four kinds of placeswhere people sense the sacred

50:54 - "Nothing is sacredto me"

51:20 - Separation anxiety,protest, despair, detachment

57:00 - What COVID lockdownsrevealed about attachment to place

1:00:01 - Losing your faith as adetachment phase

1:05:33 - Does wellbeing scienceignore the sacred?

1:08:35 - Why the West scoreslow on meaning

1:09:40 - Are there better andworse things to hold sacred?

1:13:29 - Marx, Freud, andreligion as a character strength

1:18:49 - Contentment, and theChristian Flourishing Index

1:21:10 - Where to find Vic

Watch episode #73 on YouTube

Connect further

• Follow Vic on LinkedIn
• Vic's work, books and free flourishing self-assessment
• The Flourishing Journal
• Vic on YouTube
• Bonding with God book

Follow Matt

• LinkedIn
• Substack

Wellbeing Explained is hosted by Be Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. Better wellbeing practice starts with better conversations. We bring in the experts to answer questions that others won't, bust myths, and go deeper into the science. Be Well Co is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care.

Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs to organisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.

Follow Wellbeing Explained by Be Well Co

• Substack
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Website
• Youtube

In this episode Matt sits down with Dr Kat Page, organisational psychologist, author of Good Work, and one of the researchers behind the model that sits underneath most workplace mental health strategies in Australia. We get into why fixing the work is only half the job, what the new psychosocial legislation is actually producing on the ground, and what makes work good for the people doing it.

What we cover

•   Where the integrated approach to workplace mental health came from, and how a 2014 paper ended up cited by the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organisation and Beyond Blue

•   Why removing the harm from work does not guarantee thatanyone is well

•   The six C's of good work: clarity, control, connection,contribution, competence and care

•   The gap between having evidence in place for a regulator and actually doing the work

•   Why small businesses sit furthest from the minimum standard, and the one thing they can do that large organisations cannot

•   How to tell a credible wellbeing provider from snake oil

•   What Kat tells wellbeing and HR people who are worn out from trying to shift their leaders

Chapters

00:16 - Welcome and introduction

01:31 - Meet Dr Kat Page

02:07 - Why she wrote Good Work

06:21 - Where protect, promote and respond came from

10:58 - The three threads, and how the model went global

12:39 - The craft table: the model in one analogy

14:12 - Distress at work that didn't come from work

16:31 - Individual or systemic, and why we pick sides

17:31 - The question she gets asked on every podcast

18:35 - Why fixing the work isn't enough on its own

19:47 - What the legislation is actually producing

22:07 - The six C's of good work

24:48 - Which occupations carry the most risk

27:11 - The small business gap

29:57 - Data, or just having the conversation

31:10 - How to spot wellbeing snake oil

33:37 - For the practitioners who are worn out

35:56 - Wellbeing's marketing problem

36:25 - Human happiness in anAI-led workplace

36:55 - The one thing Kat does for her own wellbeing

You can also watch episode #72 on YouTube or join the community on Substack.

Connect further

• Follow Dr Kat Page on Instagram: & LinkedIn

• Check out Kat's book Good Work
• ByMany
• Website

Follow Matt

LinkedIn

Substack

Matt sits down with A/Prof Hannah Wardill, who leads the Supportive Oncology Research Group at the University of Adelaide and SAHMRI, and Natalie Tuckey, a health and clinical psychologist finishing a PhD on multiple myeloma.

Together they've spent the past few years taking a wellbeing skills program built for workplaces and rebuilding it for people living with a rare, incurable blood cancer. It's delivered in peer groups by specialist myeloma nurses, and it exists because consumers asked for it.

Their answer so far is yes, it's possible. But not by accident, and not by waiting until someone falls apart first.

What we cover:

• Why mental health support in Australia mostly arrives once someone is already in crisis, and what a program built for the years before that point looks like.

• Why specialist myeloma nurses turned out to be the right people to deliver it, and what it did for the nurses themselves.

• Why this program landed when similar content struggled in workplaces and universities.

• The friction between a flexible, individualised wellbeing program and the fixed endpoints of a randomised controlled trial.

• What came out of 40+ interviews about end of life, and why "fear of recurrence" might be the wrong phrase for what people actually mean.

Chapters:
00:00 Meet Hannah and Nat
03:04 A PhD in multiple myeloma and smouldering myeloma
07:44 What the program is, and why it runs as a peer group
09:05 The three aims of the project
11:00 Dom, and the consumers who asked for mental health care
12:19 Why support only arrives once you're in crisis
17:14 "We already do wellbeing"
19:03 The unsung heroes of supportive care
24:52 Why this landed when the workplace programs didn't
29:11 What surprised a lab scientist about wellbeing research
34:20 Fitting a wellbeing program into a clinical trial
38:06 The participant who dropped out and still benefited
45:50 The Death Festival
52:04 The loneliness nobody talks about
55:06 Fear of recurrence, or fear of dying?

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZKJumS7dKzrB6stwsrnNV33fEd5lVe9M

Join the community on Substack: https://wellbeingexplained.substack.com/podcast

Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-iasiello/
Follow Matt on Substack: https://substack.com/@mattiasiello

Follow Hannah Wardill: https://au.linkedin.com/in/hannahrosewardill

Follow Natalie Tuckey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-t-68712035/

Researching Happy is hosted by Be Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. Be Well Co is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care. Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs to organisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.

Website: https://www.bewellco.io/

Christian van Nieuwerburgh has trained thousands of coaches. He also says he isn't passionate about coaching.

Matt asks the professor of coaching and positive psychology at RCSI what he actually cares about, and the answer has more to do with how you show up at school pickup than anything that happens in a formal coaching session. They get into positive presence, why the science of coaching should become invisible to the client, what coaching research keeps missing, and why coaching individuals inside a dysfunctional organisation never sticks.

(00:00) A big change for the show(02:48) Meet the coach on a motorcycle(12:21) A new definition of coaching(26:33) "I'm not passionate about coaching"(29:23) How to spot a good coach(31:45) What is positive presence?(37:17) Two questions to test yours(40:26) Strengthen or damage, every time(44:11) Where to have the hard conversation(49:29) Can it be taught?(53:21) What coaching research misses(1:03:00) You can't coach a broken system(1:05:11) On being called naive

Follow the show so the next one finds you. Full notes and the community: https://wellbeingexplained.substack.com/podcast?utm_source=Spotify&utm_medium=Description&utm_campaign=Spotify-Substack

In this special episode of Researching Happy, recorded at the European Conference on Positive Psychology in Dublin, Matthew Iasiello from Be Well Co and the University of Adelaide explores one of the most pressing issues in wellbeing science: the fragmented and inconsistent definitions of wellbeing.

Iasiello presents a clear diagnosis of the problem — with nearly 100 different measures using widely varying dimensions, the field struggles with research synthesis, policy impact, and clear communication. When studies claim to “improve wellbeing,” it’s often unclear what exactly is being measured or changed.He proposes a promising solution: the development of a flexible, modular taxonomy of positive mental health.

Drawing on a three-study program — including an umbrella review of 155 measures, in-depth item analysis, and a major Delphi consensus study with 122 leading international experts — Iasiello and his team identified 19 core dimensions that reached expert agreement.

The talk covers the resulting working definition of positive mental health, the tension between standardization and cultural nuance, and why a taxonomy (inspired by the successful Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy) could bring greater clarity without becoming a rigid “prison cell” for the field.

Iasiello discusses limitations, including the need for stronger cross-cultural validation and lived-experience perspectives, and outlines practical next steps for research, interventions, and policy.

This presentation offers both a critical look at the current state of wellbeing science and an optimistic, collaborative path forward. Whether you're a researcher, practitioner, or anyone passionate about human flourishing, this episode provides valuable insight into how we can make well-being science more coherent and impactful.

If this is the kind of conversation you want more of, subscribe. We bring in the experts to answer the questions others won’t, bust myths, and go deeper into the science.

If you loved this ep, we’d love you to join the community over on Substack or watch more of our eps on YouTube.

Connect further:

Follow Matt on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-iasiello/⁠

Follow Matt on Substack: ⁠https://substack.com/@mattiasiello⁠

Researching Happy is hosted by Be Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. Be Well Co is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care. Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs to organisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.

In this episode of Researching Happy, Dr. Matthew Iasiello speaks with Dr. Anco Peeters, philosopher and cognitive scientist at Radboud University. Anco’s work sits at the intersection of embodied cognition, virtue ethics, human-centered design, and AI — with a focus on care robots, education, and the societal impacts of intelligent systems.

Starting from a prescient thought experiment about “Google Morals,” Anco explains how we’ve rapidly moved from hypothetical worries about outsourcing ethics to everyday reality with large language models. The conversation explores:

• The risks of de-skilling critical thinking, moral reasoning, and reflection by over-relying on AI
• Why friction, pushback, and discomfort are often essential for personal growth and flourishing
• Virtue ethics as a practical framework for evaluating AI in healthcare, education, and mental health
• Lessons from care robots and sex robots for today’s AI companions
• Practical ways to design “frictional AI” that supports — rather than replaces — human connection and development
• The balance between efficiency and human well-being in professional and personal contexts

Whether you’re optimistic or concerned about AI’s role in our lives, this episode offers nuanced, thought-provoking insights grounded in philosophy and cognitive science. Anco makes a compelling case for human-centered AI development that prioritizes long-term flourishing over short-term convenience.

If this is the kind of conversation you want more of, subscribe. We bring in the experts to answer the questions others won’t, bust myths, and go deeper into the science.

If you loved this ep, we’d love you to join the community over on ⁠Substack⁠ or watch more of our eps on ⁠YouTube⁠.

Connect further:

Follow Matt on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-iasiello/⁠⁠

Follow Matt on Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@mattiasiello⁠⁠

Researching Happy is hosted by Be Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. ⁠Be Well Co⁠ is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care. Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs to organisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.

In this episode of Researching Happy, host Dr. Matthew Iasiello interviews Dr. Matt Fisher, philosopher, artist, and senior research fellow in public health at Adelaide University.

They discuss Fisher’s book How to Create Societies for Human Well-being, which integrates philosophy, psychology, and public health to argue that societies must be intentionally designed to support human flourishing rather than undermine it.

The conversation explores how social environments drive chronic stress through threats to coping ability and social standing, contributing to widespread mental ill-health (especially among young people). Fisher presents wellbeing as an active process—the development and exercise of “wellbeing abilities” (a capabilities-like approach) that require both personal resources and supportive external conditions. Key themes include balancing goal-directed action with rest, social connection, creativity, contact with nature, and sufficiency; the harms of inequality, discrimination, neoliberal ideology, digital media, and separation from nature; and practical ideas for wellbeing-oriented policies at local and societal levels.

They critique the current trajectory of materialist, hustle-driven cultures and biomedical-focused mental health approaches, while highlighting promising examples from places like Scandinavia, Scotland, and Wales, along with prevention efforts in Australia.

The episode emphasizes clear thinking about what truly supports thriving and calls for shifting from reactive treatment to proactive societal design. It’s an insightful, balanced discussion for anyone interested in mental health, public policy, and creating better conditions for people to live well.

If this is the kind of conversation you want more of, subscribe. We bring in the experts to answer the questions others won’t, bust myths, and go deeper into the science.

If you loved this ep, we’d love you to join the community over on ⁠Substack⁠ or watch more of our eps on ⁠YouTube⁠.

Connect further:

Follow Matt on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-iasiello/⁠⁠

Follow Matt on Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@mattiasiello⁠⁠

Researching Happy is hosted by Be Well Co's Head of Research & Translation. ⁠Be Well Co⁠ is a social enterprise by Camp Quality that focuses on proactive mental health and wellbeing care. Through evidence-based wellbeing workshops and programs to organisations, Be Well Co is on a mission to make an impact for the 5 million Australians currently languishing.