Conversations

The former Kings Cross street kid on his time in prison, recovering from an alcohol-induced brain injury, the puppy called Sunny who showed him what love is and how buying car parking spaces set him up for the rest of his life.
Warning: This episode contains sensitive topics and reference to physical violence against women.
John Howard came from a dysfunctional and often violent home in the outer suburbs of Sydney, and when he was able to, he ran away to the dank but promising Kings Cross of the 1960s and 70s.
He would see Abe Saffron having dinner at the local Bourbon & Beefsteak joint and John found himself doing odd jobs for his sex worker friends in exchange for somewhere to sleep.
John was caught up in a horrific assault and in the following years he found himself in jail and then drawn to drinking.
At his lowest point he was rescued by chance by a passing taxi, and taken to hospital to recover from an alcohol-induced brain injury.
As he was recovering, it was a toy poodle puppy called Sunny who showed John what love and affection were — and from there he was able to build his life for the first time.
Further information
You can call the National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence counselling service on 1800-RESPECT or 1800-737-732. 
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. 
It covers topics like homelessness, alcoholism, prison escape, solitary confinement, toy poodles, lesbian separatism, disability support pension, brain injury, Callan Park hospital, Rozelle Hospital, getting sober, quitting alcohol, Kings Cross, street kid, sex workers, drug use, drug addiction, prostitute, Bourbon & Beefsteak, Abe Saffron, The Coconut Grove, doggy poo bags, pooper scoopers, Potts Point.
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.

Kate McClymont is chief investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, she has won 10 Walkley Awards for her work on some of the biggest crime and corruption cases in NSW.
She grew up on a farm in NSW, and during university, funded her start in Sydney by setting up a busking booth in Kings Cross.
Passers-by would pay her to answer a question, have an argument, or verbally abuse them. 
Kate's start in crime reporting came from an early job writing for a gossip column.  
She was instructed to cover a wedding of a family member of known criminal figure, George Freeman.
Kate compared the sequins in the bridal party's outfit to a bullet-proof vest, and received the first of many death threats throughout her career. 
She has exposed the crimes of politician, Eddie Obeid, former Health Services Union boss, Michael Williamson and financial fraudster, Melissa Caddick, among many more.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan and the Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.
It explores crime, investigative journalism, newspapers, police, corruption, politicians, Eddie Obeid, Melissa Caddick, fraud, murder, defamation, court cases, police, lawyers, timelines, research, contacts, financial fraud, death threats, award winning journalism, the Sydney Morning Herald, Four Corners, Chris Masters, Sydney, NSW
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.

For years, Brendan Cullen was known around Broken Hill as the happy man who ran thousands of ewes across tens of thousands of hectares with a smile. What they didn't see was  the guy crying in a room by himself, drinking himself stupid, thinking he wasn’t providing enough for his family.
Brendan calls himself a ‘glorified shepherd’.
He manages a sheep station outside Broken Hill, a part of the country he loves and knows like the back of his hand.
But Brendan also has another moniker: ‘the desert swimmer’.
A few years ago, he was floored by a cruel bout of depression, the core of which he later understood came from an experience of childhood sexual abuse that he never spoke about.
While recovering, Brendan decided to try to swim the English Channel.
As his swim coach Mike ‘the Tractor’ told him: swimming the channel is straightforward – you get in the water at Dover and keep swimming until you hit something, and that something is France.
The swim is just one of the tools in his 'toolkit' that he uses to stay mentally well and present with his family, and his flock.
Desert Swimmer is written with Paul Mitchell and published by Allen & Unwin.
Content warning: this episode of Conversations contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse.
Help and support is always available. You can call or text Lifeline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores rural, remote Australia, men's mental health, mental wellbeing, mental fitness, exercise for mental health, farming, boarding school, childhood sexual abuse, children who abuse other children, fatherhood, access to education, how to ask for help, mental illness, long distance swimming, ocean swimming, farming, sheep, livestock, Menindee, farming families, succession plans, generational farming, family business.
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.

Filmmaker Lynette Wallworth on how nearly dying as a little girl set her on a lifelong path to interrogate out-of-body experiences, spirituality and what really happens to us when we die.
When Lynette was a little girl, she had a near death experience on her grandparents' property.
Her father brought her back from the brink and what she saw and experienced there, on the edge of death, came back with her.
For years, Lynette struggled to talk about what happened so she made paintings and artworks trying to make sense of this experience.
But when she started visiting remote Indigenous communities here in Australia and abroad, in the Amazon, that she finally found some sort of language for describing the scientifically unprovable. 
There, in cultures where out of body experiences are accepted as either spiritual or possible through the use of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and ayahuasca, Lynette stopped feeling weird.
Her latest film investigates how doctors in Melbourne are turning to psychedelic drugs to help ease their terminally ill patients towards death, and in the process learn that "we weren't put on earth to run around in fear".
Edge of Life will be available to stream on Binge from 28 March.
Currently, you can watch it via Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fetch and YouTubel; or organise your own cinema screening via Fan Force.
You can find more information about Lynette and her films at her website.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores death, dying, grief, medical trials, shamans, hallucinogens, science, psychology, psychiatry, acceptance, palliative care, caring for the dying, nursing, art, filmmaking, philosophy, shrooms, magic mushrooms, the immortality key, religion, spiritualty, quacks, health and wellness industry, tripping, epiphanies, film.
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 chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on the chair of spikes which accompanied his early musical career, and why he doesn't tone down his Italian self for work (R)
During his Suzuki lessons in Turin, Italy, a young Umberto Clerici was sitting up straight on a chair full of spikes, lest his posture slip.
Umberto chose the cello as his instrument, mainly because it wasn’t the violin, which sounded like a cat in a washing machine when played by the older students in his neighbourhood.
Throughout his career playing in orchestras around the world, Umberto has gone to great lengths to let the music filter through him, to embody the meaning behind the notes, to learn what the composer thought or felt.
Today Umberto Clerici is the chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
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.