Conversations

After a catastrophic car crash in the parking lot of her hospital, Dr Olivia Ong became a paraplegic. But her obsession with learning how to walk again was stronger than her incomplete spinal cord injury.
When Olivia Ong was 28 years old, she had the world at her feet.
She had recently qualified as a doctor, something she had dreamed of since she was a child growing up in Malaysia.
She had married a man she loved deeply, and they were busy building their future together.
Then, everything changed after a car crashed into her in the parking lot of the hospital she worked in.
Olivia now refers to herself as a 'walking paraplegic'.
She spent years working hard to walk again, using simple exercise therapies she discovered in the United States.
Back On My Feet: From Doctor to Patient is published by HarperCollins.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores medicine, university, love, faith, spinal cord injuries, paraplegia, car crashes, from doctor to patient, marriage, love, motherhood, pain specialist, rehab specialist, California, Project Walk, exercise therapy, surgery, wheelchair user, people living with disability, parenting with disability, accessibility.
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.

Lynne Shori grew up with her hero dad, thinking her Papua New Guinean mother was dead. As an adult, she discovered the truth and set about finding her lost family.
When Lynne was growing up, it was just her and her dad.
Lynne's dad was her hero; he was different and adventurous but she always felt safe with him when they went on hair-raising adventures together in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
He had always told Lynne that her mum had died in childbirth.
But when she became an adult, Lynne discovered this wasn't true.
Just as she turned 40, Lynne set off to a remote island in northern Papua New Guinea to discover the truth of her family story.
Once she started gathering all the answers to her lifelong questions, Lynne and her father then set about healing their own, very special relationship.
Find out more about Wantaim PNG, and the work they're doing across remote Papua New Guinea, online.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores the Pacific, Pasifika, family origin stories, Stolen Generations, charity work, tok Pisin, Manus Island, father daughter relationships, mixed race children, Australia's relationship with PNG, sanitation, education, discovering your truth, mental health, mother daughter relationship, Melanesian culture, family, siblings, blended families, Oceania, geopolitics, knowing your parents, therapy, estrangement, reunion, forgiveness, grief, identity, Sydney, finance, mid-life crisis, rehab, sense of community, family secrets.
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.

Steve Biddulph spent decades working to understand what children need as they grow, but then in his mid-50s, Steve gained an insight that shifted almost everything about how he saw himself.
Steve likes to remind us that humans are 'big sensitive mammals' with needs for connection and self awareness.
As a psychologist (now retired) and parent educator, he has been at the forefront of an evolving conversation about masculinity, emotional intelligence, caring for our children and making sense of our own childhoods.
His best-selling books include The Secret of Happy Children, Raising Boys, Raising Girls and Manhood.
But it wasn't until he was in his mid-50s that Steve gained an insight into a huge facet of his own story.
He was having a lunch with a friend, a psychiatrist, who began asking him a series of pointed questions.
That conversation shifted almost everything about how Steve saw himself.
This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2021 
The producer was Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.
Further information
Fully Human: A New Way of Using Your Mind is published by Pan Macmillan

Environmental journalist, Michael Dulaney looks at viruses and bacteria that can move between bats, horses, seals, pigs, voles and even polar bears, and the conditions that lead to human infection.
These diseases are known as zoonoses.
Michael says climate change, urban sprawl, animal farming and even homelessness contribute to wild animals coming into ever closer contact with people, leading these illnesses to move from creatures to us.
To understand how this process works, Michael has researched the volunteers dedicating their lives to conservation. 
He has camped out on a freezing Victorian night to try to catch ducks with a net shot from a cannon, to test them for bird flu. 
He has gone frog hunting in the jungles of Indonesia, and he’s visited a suburban Melbourne apartment where a dedicated citizen gives up her master bedroom to a collection of injured flying foxes, while she sleeps in the spare room.
Michael also explains how the curious case of Trench Fever fits into the zoonotic puzzle. It was found first in Edmonton, Canada in 2022, when patients developed a serious heart condition after they were given organs donated by homeless victims of the opioid crisis.
Further information
Sentinels: When diseases spread between animals and humans is published by Scribe.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
This episode covers H5N1 bird flu, covid-19, pandemic, lockdown, flu, cat flu, swine flu, hendra virus, horse racing, horse trainer, fly by night bat clinic, Werribee poo ponds, necropsy, chicken farms, disease-proof pigs, PRRS, CRISPR, vaccines, vaccination, smallpox, pox virus, borealpox and northern red-backed vole.
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.

Colleen Gwynne led the investigation into the murder of the British backpacker and eventually confronted his killer in prison.
In 2001, Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were ambushed on a remote stretch of road in the outback and Peter was shot dead.
Colleen was working as a cop in Alice Springs when she was asked to take over the complex murder case.
With help from the F.B.I, her work saw Bradley John Murdoch arrested and charged.
She confronted him in prison, and refused to be intimidated, despite his intense aggression towards her.
Murdoch was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in 2025.
After leaving the police force, Colleen took up another challenging job.
She became the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, tasked with protecting vulnerable children.
Colleen's own story mean she brings a unique understanding to the work.
This episode was first broadcast in 2018 
The producer was Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.