Conversations

Former AFLW star Moana Hope has spent her life caring for others, including her dying father and her beloved sister Vinny, who has an intellectual disability. It wasn't until Mo was in her 30s that she realised she needed to learn how to love herself.
Content Warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of childhood abuse, domestic violence and suicidal ideation.
Moana Hope grew up with 13 siblings in a two-bedroom housing commission home in Melbourne's north west.
As a little girl, she played football with the boys and then with grown women, and in her 20s she took on full-time caring responsibilities for two of her nephews, as well as her sister, who lives with an intellectual disability.
This backstory, along with her natural talent for the game and charisma off the field, helped Mo stand out as a star of the women's game when the AFLW was launched in 2017.
Mo was a marquee player for Collingwood in the women's debut season.
But she retired earlier than she had planned to.
Post-AFLW, Mo had a lot of time to think about herself outside of football, and about the chaos and violence that was normalised in her childhood home.
But it wasn't until Mo became a mother herself, that she fully reckoned with her understanding of love.
Mo shares intimate snippets from her life on Instagram.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch.
It explores AFL, the Pies, Melbourne, Glenroy, Maori heritage, Cancer, death, grief, caring, queerness, footy, Hawthorne, women's sports, cricket, mother daughter relationships, mother father relationships, personal work, therapy, inner child work, sisterhood, engineering, female business owners, motherhood, sons and mothers, violence, abuse, financial abuse, Essendon, GWS, Richmond, Adelaide.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Australians are living longer and longer, which is on one hand a beautiful thing. But on the other, prolonged old age is wreaking havoc. So how might we respond to this new demographic situation we find ourselves in?
Lucinda Holdforth is a writer who specialises in looking at what makes good societies flourish, everything from manners to politics and equality.
Most recently, she's set her sights on the unintended negative consequences following the extraordinary increase in life span around the world, particularly in Australia.
In the past 50 years, human life expectancy across the globe has jumped from 46 years old to 73, and in Australia that number is even higher -- an Australian born today is likely to live until they are 84 years old.
On the surface, living longer is a very good thing. It means more time spent with our loved ones, looking at the stars, feeling the sun, living.
But prolonged old age can also be very lonely and painful, and, as Lucinda argues, it is costing society as a whole in many ways.
She has seen this firsthand, as a daughter who supported her own parents in their long old age, and has some surprising suggestions about how we could do things differently to ease the impact on our economy, our medical system, our elderly and our youth.
GOING ON AND ON: Why our longevity threatens our future is published by Simon & Schuster.
This episode was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch.
It explores the sandwich generation, carers, women caring for parents, the elderly, dementia, Alzheimer's, Bryan Johnson, biohackers, Blue Zone, how to live longer, Mediterranean diet, tech bros, longevity, muscle mass, aging, deterioration, aged care, death, grief, how to live well, writing, books, old age, diseases of the elderly, tax, taxation, ageism, voting rights, voting age, lower the voting age.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

It was love at first sight, when Jack Ashby first set eyes upon a platypus specimen as a young university student.
The introduction set him on a lifelong mission to meet these quintessentially Australian creatures in the wild, and redefine their reputation as "weird" or "primitive".
He's met many other animals along the way, coming face to face with an elusive snow leopard family in the Himalayas, with wombats and echidnas, and seeing only the eyes of a sloth bear, reflecting his torchlight in a pitch black forest.
Further information
Platypus Matters is published by Harper Collins
This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2022, the producer was Meggie Morris and the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.
It explores platypus, mammals, zoology, echidnas, Australian animals, Winston Churchill, animal behaviour, Indigenous Australians, baby platypus, the biology and anatomy of platypus, weird animal facts.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Antoun Issa grew up quietly aware of a profound grief in his mother's eyes. As an adult, after living and working in the Middle East, he finally knew how to ask her about surviving the Lebanese Civil War.
Antoun is a journalist who grew up in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, after his parents had escaped the civil war in Lebanon in the 1970s.
Growing up in Craigieburn as the baby of the family, Antoun was particularly close with his mother.
He was always conscious of a deep sadness in his mother's eyes, but was wary of asking her too many questions.
As an adult, Antoun went to live and work in Lebanon.
There, in the Middle East, where he worked as a journalist, Antoun saw firsthand what happens when the trajectory of human life is interrupted by conflict and violence.
Upon returning home to Australia, he was finally ready to ask his mother about the source of her quiet and enduring grief, and what came out of her was a remarkable story of true love, true loss and resilience.
Upon returning home to Australia, he was finally ready to ask his mother about the source of her quiet and enduring grief, and what came out of her was a remarkable story of true love, true loss and resilience.
REBIRTH: A Love Story from the Depths of War is published by Hachette.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch.
It explores the Middle East, War, Conflict, Beiruit, Israel, PLO, Palestine, United States, civil war, conflict, refugees, religious conflict, Lebanese Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Mountains, Maronite Christians, politics and religion, proxy wars, Iran, Iraq, Arab-Isreali, Saudi, Cold War, Arab Cold War, Taif Agreement, political power, relationship, origin story, writing, books, memoir, novel, survival, death, violence, sliding doors.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

The Irish novelist has always been open to where life can unexpectedly take him, and the excitement that comes with that kind of freedom.
Colm Toibin's first big move was from rural Ireland to Dublin after his father died when he was young. 
Then, it was off to experience the wild hedonism and sexual liberation of post-Franco Spain, a pleasant shock after needing a prescription to buy condoms in Ireland.
Since then, he's journeyed to Sudan, Los Angeles, New York and beyond.
Wherever Colm goes, he keeps a running list in his head of tiny details — observations of seemingly mundane encounters, an offhand comment or the cut of a lady's suit on a train.
Every now and then, these details bubble up in Colm's memory and another of his well-loved novels, like Brooklyn, Nora Webster or The Master, is born.
This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in May 2025, the producer was Meggie Morris and the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.
It explores film adaptations, death of a parent, grief, Ireland, homophobia, growing up gay, Catholicism, epic adventure, John Crowley, Nick Hornby, Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Julie Walters, Dublin, immigrant experience, the Irish immigrant experience, family separation, origin stories, falling in love, books, writers, novels, life-story, family dynamics, reflection, loss, funny, comedy, repression, orgies, condom prescriptions, journalism, foreign correspondents.
Colm's latest novel Long Island is published by Pan MacMillan.
To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.