Conversations

Gardening Australia's Hannah Moloney on the heartwarming and heartbreaking reasons humans continue to lovingly tend to their gardens — for healing, beauty and joy.
For thousands of years, tending to a garden or a small farm meant human survival. 
But now, with massive commercial farms, genetically modified crops, refrigerated freight and modern irrigation, we don't need to tend to our own gardens to survive.
So why, then, do so many of us still lovingly plant, water and cultivate flowers, fruits and vegetables? Or watch 'lawn porn' to relax?
It's a question that Hannah Moloney has asked thousands of gardeners from around the world.
Hannah is a permaculture educator, landscape designer and the Tasmanian presenter for ABC TV's Gardening Australia. 
Gardening is in Hannah's blood, having grown up in a herb nursery run by her green-thumbed father in the Brisbane suburbs.
For Hannah, gardening remains a lifeline, a way to bond with her family and a joyful act of protest.
Why We Garden is published by Simon & Schuster.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores gardening, hobbies, outdoor activities, mental health, grief gardening, why we like being outdoors, gardening as meditation, the beauty of our gardens, Australian native gardens, vegetable patches, how to grow your own vegetables, fruit trees, family origin stories, losing a parent, pregnancy, motherhood, postpartum depression, gardening for healing, creative inspiration, human history, horticulture, climate change, global warming, food scarcity, food supply, drought, flood, famine, Costa Georgiadis, green thumb, meditation.
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.

Zenith Virago was a married mother of two, when she left her family to begin again as a lesbian.  Then she found a new path as a death walker, helping people navigate their life's end. 
Zenith grew up in England, and she was still at school when she fell in love with another student. 
At seventeen, she married Richard, Head Boy of the local Comprehensive school. 
They had two children, Jodie and Todd.
Then at 24, Zenith had a realisation about who she really was. She left her husband and children to begin a new life as a lesbian in New Zealand,
Eventually she arrived in Byron Bay, where she met a community of people who inspired her.
One day, Zenith's dear friend Sylvia died unexpectedly doing yoga in her garden. Rather than outsourcing to the funeral industry, Sylvia's loved ones took over her funeral and cremation themselves.
This experience launched a new path for Zenith, and she became a ‘death walker’, helping people navigate the end of life with reverence and calm.
In the midst of her new chapter, the death of a former lover brought her third son Tane back into her life unexpectedly.
Further information
Original broadcast February 2019
Learn about Zenith Virago's Natural Death Care Centre
Help and information are always available
Lifeline 13 11 14 24 hour counselling
Beyond Blue's telephone and online counselling 1300 22 4636

Conductor Alexander Briger has led orchestras all over the world. But his niche occupation is not the only fascinating thing about him. Alex's family history is wild.
Alexander Briger has stood in front of musicians all over the world, summoning a gigantic, beautiful noise from them.
Classical music was a huge part of Alex’s story growing up.
He is the nephew of the famous conductor, the late Sir Charles Mackerras; and descended from the so-called "father of Australian music", Isaac Nathan.
Another branch of Alex's family tree astonishingly connects him to the man who murdered Rasputin.
Rasputin was a Russian peasant and mystic, whose abilities as a faith healer drew him into the inner circle of the Russian Tzars.
Fearing his destructive grip on the monarchy, a posse of aristocrats led by Alex’s ancestor, Prince Felix Yusupov, drew Rasputin into a trap, luring him to his death in a Saint Petersburg basement in 1916.
In recent years, Alex was invited to Russia to conduct a modern opera, coincidentally called and about Rasputin, in a full circle moment.
Alex is back in Australia right now as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Australian World Orchestra, the only ensemble of its kind in the world.
The Australian World Orchestra is playing in Melbourne on 19 August and in Sydney on 20 August. You can find out more about the orchestra and its performances online.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores classical music, Russian revolution, family history, Paris, Munich, Berlin Philharmonic, conducting, symphony, Mahler, the great Western composers, Wagner, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Jewish Australians, whacky history, Yusupov, how did Rasputin die, European politics, Bolshevik Revolution, the October Revolution, exile, ballet, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australian classical music, Australian expats.
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.

Adele Dumont was a teenager when she first started pulling out her hair, an urge that became so uncontrollable she was left with a bald spot.
She would sometimes enter a trancelike state, covertly sitting on her bathroom floor, picking at her scalp for hours on end.
The urge to pull at her hair was uncontrollable, and secret.
When Adele finally put a name to her behaviour, she learnt that trichotillomania has a complex history and psychological understanding, much of which remains unknown.
This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2024
The producer was Meggie Morris and the Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney
Further information
The Pulling is published by Scribe
Some helpful resources on trichotillomania include Trich Stop and The TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours

Ralph Jackman was a sports journalist who retrained as a teacher in midlife, and got his first job at Melbourne’s Parkville Youth Detention Centre, where he was tested by the troubled and bright, charismatic young men.
At the centre he found students who struggled with basic literacy, and he also met boys who were yearning for more than juvenile justice could provide.
Ralph created bonds with some of the boys that proved his teaching was making a connection. 
But he also saw how hours of isolation in their cells stamped the hope out of the young men, despite the committed teachers’ best efforts.
Further information
Detention is published by Allen & Unwin.
Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. Research by Alice Moldovan.
This episode covers incarceration, troubled youth, youth work,  behind bars, youth detention, Tony Abbott, Hugh Jackman, 
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.