When you hear the word psychiatrist, you might think medicating mental illness, but there’s more nuance to it than that.

Psychiatry brings together biology, psychology medicine and lived experience to understand what’s going on in someone’s mind and how to treat it. 

Aleem is a Pakistani Australian who migrated here 16 years ago, became a psychiatrist and in doing so recognised a major need to increase access to psychiatric services particularly for people in regional areas. He’s since founded HelloDoc, a nationwide telehealth service connecting thousands of people with psychiatrists across Australia. 

We discuss the ins and outs of psychiatry, where medication fits in, how culture shapes the way mental health is understood, why so many adults are being diagnosed with ADHD later in life and more.

This is Aleem Khan…

Sydni grew up on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu, in a tight-knit community with a culture she says expects men to be tough and keep their emotions to themselves.

Her father was one of those men. Loving and strong, but never one to share what he was going through.

When her younger sister went missing in late 2023, Sydni and her family were thrust into the national spotlight overnight, facing huge stress and the brutal commentary of countless strangers online.

Sydni’s dad flew to Los Angeles to search, and tragically never returned home, the immense distress of the situation contributing to his suicide.

It pushed Sydni into the darkest period of her life, grieving her father and questioning everything while trying to protect her son.

Now, a year on, she’s slowly rebuilding herself, launching her own mental health brand to create change and raising her son to be able to share his feelings.

This is Sydni Kobayashi...

Five years ago, Flynn was on this podcast as a teenager living with cystic fibrosis. CF is a genetic condition that affects one in 2,500 Australians, causing mucus to clog the lungs and digestive system, requiring constant physio, medication and hospital check-ins to stay well.

Thanks to modern medicine, many people with CF now live into their 40s and beyond, but it means staying ever vigilant and factoring the disease into their future.

Now in his early twenties, Flynn’s back to share the journey he’s been on since we first met. He’s had setbacks, success and the pressure of managing a condition that never quits, all while trying to mature into the man he wants to be.

This is Flynn Gill...

No guest this week. Instead, here's my rambling about life and the podcast in the following order:

- Australian of the Year Awards

- Getting married

- Contemplating fatherhood

- Getting in the best shape of my life

- Showing up as the best version of me

- The future of the podcast

- Protecting piece of mind

Around 70% of Aussie men are overweight or obese, and most of us would say we’d like to lose some fat and drop a pants size or two.

Maintaining a lean, healthy body we feel happy in, is relatively simple, but it's far from easy. We generally know the importance of exercise and the basics of nutrition, but the way our emotions drive our eating habits is much less talked about.

When life gets stressful, food becomes an easy form of comfort, a socially acceptable, readily available coping mechanism to distract ourselves from having to feel uncomfortable emotions. Whether we’re sad, bored, tired or frustrated, the promise of a quick dopamine hit from junk food can be too good to resist. And if we're in the habit of pairing it with alcohol, it creates the perfect storm for an expanding waistline.

As life gets busier, it only gets harder. With work, bills, kids and relationships to manage, looking after your body can quickly fall down the list of priorities, left unchecked it can lead to hardly recognising yourself in the mirror.

This is Zac's bread and butter.

He’s a personal trainer and fitness coach who's helped hundreds of men in their 30s, 40s and 50s lose fat, gain muscle and build a sustainable healthy lifestyle, without needing to live in the gym and sacrifice everything they enjoy.

This is Zac Mason...

Corporal James Overall served as an Australian Army medic for a decade, deploying overseas on multiple occasions, including to Afghanistan in 2015. He was instrumental in 6 mass casualty events, as a highly skilled trauma care provider and auxiliary security force member, awarded the United States Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (NAM) for his outstanding service.

Frequently under immense pressure to perform in life or death situations, Jimmy didn't have the awareness to recognise the trauma he was internalising or the ability to process it.

Suppressing his emotions and soldiering on seemed to work, until it all caught up with him, manifesting in symptoms that couldn't be ignored.

On the cusp for a decade, but never quite making the big time in professional surfing, Cooper's life was destined to go down another path.

After seeing his sister lose multiple friends to suicide and facing his own challenges, he educated himself on mental health and founded The Good Human Factory to connect people with simple tools to improve their wellbeing.

It took off, and has since grown into countless nationwide workshops for schools and business, the popular podcast Good Humans, and an online community called The 1% Good Club that inspired Cooper’s recently published debut book.

This is Cooper Chapman...

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The Good Human Factory:

https://linktr.ee/thegoodhumanfactory?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=5febb3b5-9180-4ce9-a87e-c6094927d642

Matty signed up to serve in the Australian Army and deployed to Afghanistan as a young soldier.

On his 22nd birthday he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and soon discharged from defence.

For the past 7 years he's shared the unfiltered ups and downs of his journey through Instagram, and was recognised with an OAM for his contribution to brain cancer awareness.

He’s since travelled to some of the most dangerous parts of the world as a citizen journalist, risking his life to report from the frontline of warzones, Including in Ukraine and the Middle East.

At the core of him is an iron will, an evolving sense of purpose, love, and the ability to find the positives while enduring immense suffering.

This is Matt "Willy" Williams...

Masculinity is one of the hottest debates in our culture right now. Boys are growing up in a world that never switches off, where social media, peer pressure and online figures shape how they see themselves and each other.

Daniel is right in the thick of it. He spends his days in schools across Australia, speaking to tens of thousands of young men about identity, relationships and mental health. His work is about giving boys the space to be honest and the encouragement to be themselves, instead of hiding behind the masks they feel pressured to wear.

This conversation is not just about teenagers. Similar struggles with pressure, insecurity and false ideas of masculinity follow men well into adulthood. Daniel is challenging a generation to redefine what it means for a man to be tough and strong in our modern world.

This is Daniel Principe...