Humans, being. with Lael Stone

Lael Stone
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Humans, being.™ is a podcast created and presented by Lael Stone that explores the real stories behind the public personas. This podcast is about you as a listener, and for all of us to come home to realising that we are all humans being, doing the best job that we know how. I would love to hear from you – what questions you may have, what contemplations you've received from this episode, what guests you'd like me to have on, or any themes or topics you would love me to discuss. Send us a message on our site or on any of our social platforms: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Brand/Partnerships: partnerships@humansbeing.au Connect with Lael: Web: laelstone.com.au Instagram: @laelstone Facebook: @laelstone Team: Brand and Creative by Mike Gaal, Original Music by Josh Reed, Recorded at WeMOV, Melbourne, Produced by Nigel Carboon. Humans, being.™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wathaurong people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

  1. 3d ago ·  Video

    Gina Chick, being. with Lael Stone | Remember You're Wild ♥︎

    Gina Chick was about seven when her whole class was told to walk in a circle. She stepped out of it and walked the other way, on purpose, so she had to look at every single face coming towards her. She’s been walking the other way ever since. I’ve wanted this conversation for a long time. Gina survived 67 days alone in the Tasmanian wilderness, but that isn’t the part that undoes me. It’s her book, We Are the Stars, which I read and wailed my way through, snot-crying, completely levelled. She writes about her daughter Blaise with a line that has never left me: “because I've said yes to the grief and whatever it asked of me, I've always been bigger than it.” So I asked her how a person learns to turn towards the thing that most of us spend a lifetime running from. Our conversation gets into the voice of "should" that is never actually ours, about why our culture pathologises discomfort and hands us ten million distractions instead of tools. We talked about five rhythms and the wild life force that dance sets loose, about dancing in the ashes of friends on Oxford Street in the nineties, about hot flushes as a lifetime of squashed rage burning its way out, and about what Gina calls silver feathers. Her belief that women come out the other side of menopause forged, decentred from the male gaze, with no f***s left to give and exactly the right qualifications to lead. We explore: Why comparison is a normal part of being human, and where our culture leaves us stranded with itGrief as the flip side of love, and how feeling every fibre of it let Gina map the shape of her own heartWhy we’re not designed for comfort, and what discomfort is actually inviting us to doFive rhythms as a way to digest what we cannot think our way out of[Recorded Online June 2026] About Gina Chick: Gina Chick is a rewilding facilitator, five rhythms dance meditation teacher and storyteller who won the first season of Alone Australia after 67 days solo in the Tasmanian wilderness. She is the founder of Wild Heart, which runs family wilderness camps, vision quests and retreats built around reconnecting with nature as a path to inner authority. Her debut memoir We Are the Stars won the ABIA Matt Richell Award for Best New Writer of the Year and became the first work of non-fiction ever to top the Dymocks Top 101, and is now out in the US with Andrews McMeel. She is currently writing her second book. Connect with Gina: Instagram: @gigiamazoniaWebsite: ginachick.comBook: We Are The StarsWild Heart: wildheart.lifeSubstack: @therealginachick — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

    Gina Chick, being. with Lael Stone | Remember You're Wild ♥︎

  2. Aug 16 ·  Video

    Em Rusciano, being. with Lael Stone | The Diagnostic Trifecta ♥︎

    * There are a few F-bombs in our discussion. If you’ve little ones listening nearby, consider headphones! Em Rusciano knows this: taking care of herself first is a radical punk act. And if you know Em from her music, book, radio, or her gloriously chaotic Instagram, you already know she's never done anything by halves. Em talks about parenting her 6yr old son, who she describes, with so much love, as a “sixty-year-old cranky super genius”; her family… they’re a “lineage of lunatics” (in the best possible way), the 30 years of friendship with her bestie, screenwriter Michael Lucas; and about dating again in her forties after divorce. We explore: The "Diagnostic Trifecta": ADHD at forty-two, autism at forty-three, and perimenopause arriving right on schedule, and why Em is grateful she wasn't diagnosed any soonerWhy everything she creates gets made "for her", the woman lying awake at 2am, wondering what happened to her lifeThe imprints from her dad and her mum that she's still working to untangleSchool, undiagnosed neurodivergence, and what it cost her to be brilliant at the hard stuff / punished for struggling with the easy stuffWhy her darling mate Michael is who she calls the greatest love story of her lifeDating after divorce, and the new rule book she's discovered for choosing instead of waiting to be chosen[Recorded Online May 2026] About Em Rusciano: Em Rusciano is a comedian, singer, author, and podcaster who has spent two decades making Australians laugh, cry, and feel a little less alone. She first came to national attention on Australian Idol in 2004 and has since built a career across radio, stand-up, and television. In 2023, Em delivered an address to the National Press Club on ADHD and her son's autism that shifted the national conversation on neurodivergence. She was diagnosed with ADHD at forty-two and autism at forty-three, alongside the arrival of perimenopause, what she calls her diagnostic trifecta. Connect with Em: Website: emrusciano.comInstagram: @emruscianoPodcast: Emsolation (with Michael Lucas)Book: Blood, Sweat and GlitterLive Tour: Addicted to Love — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

    Em Rusciano, being. with Lael Stone | The Diagnostic Trifecta ♥︎

  3. Aug 9 ·  Video

    Joe Williams, being. with Lael Stone | The Hardest Mirror to Hold ♥︎

    Joe Williams told me that looking honestly at yourself can be a brutal thing, and then in the same breath he called it the best mirror we can ever hold, because that’s where generational change actually starts. Joe and I were on the road together for nearly a month touring the doco ‘Seen’, so I got to watch him sit in front of audiences again and again and tell the truth about being a dad. There’s a line of his in the film that gets me every time: that he has to put his hand up, that it haunts him, that there are many years he can't get back. What I’ve watched him do with that grief is not turn away from it. He gave his kids full permission to say whatever they needed to say in their own interviews, then listened to the whole recording alone in a hotel room in upstate New York the night before a keynote, because he knew he couldn't carry it onto a stage. We talk about the stories we think define us and who actually gets to define them, about getting sober twenty-one years ago and why he says culture keeps him sober. We explore: Who gets to define us, and how differently Joe defines himself now compared with almost everyone he’s ever metSitting in lockdown and realising he’d been a father to five kids without being a dad to any of themWhy he now believes a stack of his success came from a place of screaming to be noticedCountry as medicine, the drives out the road not knowing whether he would come backDreaming stories as instructions for living rather than pretty picture books on a shelf[Recorded Online May 2026] About Joe Williams: Joe is a Wiradjuri and Wolgalu man, born in Cowra and raised in Wagga Wagga. He played in the National Rugby League for South Sydney, Penrith and Canterbury before switching to professional boxing in 2009, where he became a two-time WBF World Junior Welterweight champion and won a WBC Asia continental title. Connect with Joe: Website: joewilliams.com.auInstagram: @joewilliams_tewSpeaking: The Enemy WithinBook: Defying the Enemy Within — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

    Joe Williams, being. with Lael Stone | The Hardest Mirror to Hold ♥︎

  4. Aug 2 ·  Video

    Dr Edna Lekgabe, being. with Lael Stone | The Gold on the Other Side ♥︎

    Dr Edna Lekgabe has a name for what happens when a woman becomes a mother. She calls it matrescence, basically puberty 2.0: messy, hormonal, profound, and almost completely unnamed. Edna’s a Melbourne perinatal psychiatrist whom I have so much respect for. We talk about the developmental earthquake none of us are warned about. I became a mum at 25 with no idea what was happening to me… the brain rewiring, the threat system switching on. We discuss what happens when birth trauma and matrescence collide, why accepting care is so much harder than giving it. We talked about how the same threat system that protects a newborn also sharpens a mother's boundaries, and get into perimenopause and menopause, and ‘the gold’ Edna says is waiting on the other side. She wants every woman to have a buddy a few steps ahead and behind her, the same way kids get one on their first day of school. We explore: What matrescence is, and why Edna calls it "puberty 2.0" for the brain and bodyThe support networks that help mothers to thriveWhat's waiting on the other side of perimenopause and menopause, and nature's amazing designDr Edna says the real task of matrescence is learning to accept care. I think about the version of me who once whispered "I don't like this" down the phone to my own mum, and what it would have meant to have a name for it. Whatever quake you're bracing for, I hope this conversation hands you some of that language too. [Recorded May 2026] About Dr Edna Lekgabe: Dr Edna Lekgabe is a perinatal and reproductive psychiatrist based in Melbourne, and founder and clinical director of WARM Health Collective, a psychiatrist-led practice in Collingwood supporting people through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. She also holds a consultant role at The Royal Women's Hospital and sits on Safer Care Victoria's Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity. Connect with Edna: Instagram: @drednalekgabeWebsite: drednalekgabe.com.auWARM Health Collective: warmhealthcollective.com.au — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneThreads: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

    Dr Edna Lekgabe, being. with Lael Stone | The Gold on the Other Side ♥︎

  5. Jul 26

    Bec Sparrow, being. with Lael Stone | The Friends Who Hold You ♥︎

    Friendship, Bec Sparrow says, is a bumper bar on your life. It doesn't stop the hard things from happening – it cushions the impact when they do. Bec is one of Australia's most trusted voices on teen and tween life - author of seven books, co-host of ABC's Parental as Anything with Maggie Dent, co-founder of Birds of a Feather (Australia's largest online book club for women), and a woman who has spent more than twenty years studying the science and art of friendship. She is also, by her own admission, a deeply introverted person who has had to consciously learn every single skill she teaches. We explore: The sense of calling she has carried since her teenage years, and what it actually feels like to be doing the work you're here to doThe pilot light – what Bec says to every parent who is deep in the season of small children and losing themselvesWhy Bec models friendship differently now, including the concept of "deep casual hosting" and having people over even when your house is a mess.The power of apologising and owning your impact when friendships get messyWhy your kids need friends inside school AND outside school – and why having both matters so much when things go sidewaysJOT: Join One Thing – Bec's campaign to combat loneliness, and why she believes there are friendships waiting for all of us if we're willing to walk in the door[Recorded Online April 2026] About Bec Sparrow: Rebecca (Bec) Sparrow is one of Australia's most trusted voices on teen and tween life. She's the author of seven books spanning fiction and non-fiction, including the bestselling novel The Girl Most Likely and the teen guide Find Your Tribe. Her most recent book, Out of the Box: A one-stop guide to navigating neurodivergence, was co-authored with journalist Madonna King and published by UQP in 2024. She co-hosts the ABC podcast Parental as Anything: Teens with Maggie Dent, and co-founded Birds of a Feather Book Club - billed as Australia's largest online book club for women - with Jane Sullivan. Connect with Bec: Website: rebeccasparrow.com – including a free friendship resources offer: if you're struggling and can't afford her paid resources, email hello@rebeccasparrow.com and mention this podcast. She will send you what you need.Instagram: @rebeccasparrow72Facebook: Rebecca Sparrow WriterBook club: birdsofafeather.com.auBook: Out of the Box (UQP, 2024) with Madonna KingPodcast: Parental as Anything: Teens (ABC) — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

    Bec Sparrow, being. with Lael Stone | The Friends Who Hold You ♥︎

  6. Jul 19

    Dr Hannah Gould, being. with Lael Stone | Death Is Not an Emergency ♥︎

    I started this episode thinking about endings, the ones I'm walking towards in my own life right now, and somehow that musing turned into one of the most life-affirming, funniest conversations about death I have ever had. I’ve spent years sitting with families through birth, and I’ve always felt that birth and death are close cousins, both thresholds, both asking something of us we rarely feel ready for. So when Dr Hannah Gould, cultural anthropologist, death studies scholar and author of How to Die in the 21st Century, sat down across from me, it felt like coming home to a conversation I’ve wanted to have for a long time. We explore: Why most of us have never been modelled a healthy ending, and what that does to our relationship with deathThe coffin catalogue moment that sent Hannah down the path to a PhD in death studies, after losing her dad in her early twentiesThe "pornography of death" theory, and why we have sex education but no death educationWhat voluntary assisted dying actually involves, and the genuinely thorny open question of VAD and dementiaThe hidden toll on death care workers, and why Hannah believes the crematorium operator she worked alongside deserves Australian of the Year (Shoutout, Shane)What a glorious death looks like, for a woman who has spent her career studying exactly thatHannah left me with so much to sit with, but the thing I keep coming back to is how unafraid she is to laugh about all of it. I love how she puts it: "we're all going to die, so don't really sweat the small stuff." [Recorded May 2026] About Dr Hannah Gould: Dr Hannah Gould is a cultural anthropologist at the University of Melbourne, where she studies death, Buddhism and material culture across Australia and East Asia, and a Fellow with the DeathTech Research Team. Her academic monograph, When Death Falls Apart (University of Chicago Press), won the 2025 F. Hilary Conroy First Book Prize, and her latest book, How to Die in the 21st Century (Thames and Hudson), brings a decade of research on death and dying to a general readership. She is also President of the Australian Death Studies Society. Connect with Dr Hannah: Website: hannahgould.comInstagram: @hrhgouldMentioned: @thelasthurrahfunerals — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneThreads: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneTikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

    Dr Hannah Gould, being. with Lael Stone | Death Is Not an Emergency ♥︎

  7. Jul 12

    Teresa Palmer, being. with Lael Stone | Born for the Role ♥︎

    Teresa Palmer has five children, a two-decade film career, a podcast, a supplement brand, and at the time of recording, she was filming God of War in Vancouver - playing the goddess of fertility, which feels exactly right. Through all of it, she’s doing the same quiet work the rest of us are: healing the little parts of herself that didn't get what they needed, so she can show up with her heart forward for the people she loves most. In this chat, we talk about birth and all its complexities, we talk about parts work and reparenting, and what it takes to meet your children's big feelings when your own inner child is still waiting to be seen. And we talk about spirituality - how Teresa moved from thirteen years of Catholic school to building her own quiet relationship with something she cannot name, but absolutely feels. We explore: The story Teresa told herself for twelve years about not needing help - and what finally shifted at 40How reading Ina May Gaskin's Spiritual Midwifery changed everythingThe surprising parallel between surrendering in birth and surrendering on a film setParts work - how Teresa tends to the younger versions of herself that still need nurturingTeresa says something so beautiful… that home "is each other. Not a place, not a house in Byron Bay or Vancouver or Adelaide. Each other". Teresa reminded me that what shapes us most is who we keep choosing to come home to. [Recorded Online May 2026] About Teresa Palmer: Teresa Palmer is an Adelaide-born actress, author, wellness entrepreneur and mama of five (plus bonus mum to one more). She co-hosts The Mother Daze podcast with Sarah Wright Olsen and co-founded the parenting platform Your Zen Mama. She also runs Lovewell, an organic plant-based supplement brand for mothers and children. Connect with Teresa: Instagram: @teresapalmerInstagram & YouTube: @themotherdazeMark's YouTube: @markfromtheheart — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneThreads: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneTikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

    Teresa Palmer, being. with Lael Stone | Born for the Role ♥︎

  8. Jul 5

    Luke Bateman, being. with Lael Stone | The Book He Kept Hidden ♥︎

    This episode starts with dreaming and ends with dreaming - and in between, Luke Bateman takes us through everything that happens when you stop letting yourself do it. Luke played professional rugby league for the Canberra Raiders - 71 first-grade games, thousands of hours of training camps and hotel rooms and locker rooms - and in almost all of that time, he kept his love of fantasy fiction completely hidden. The shame of it, he says, was shaped by a very specific idea of what it meant to be a man. And unpacking that idea has been the work of the last several years. His whole life, it turns out, has been a dreamer's journey. He just had to go through a lot to get back to it. We explore: The specific culture of professional rugby league and what it meant for his sense of self, his gambling addiction, and his mental healthThe inner child and parts work that was central to his recovery - including making peace with the version of himself he'd been most ashamed ofWhat it means to call men in, rather than calling them outThe men who went silent during his crisis, and what that silence told him about being a man.His two favourite books - and the one that brought him home to himself after rehab[Recorded Online April 2026] Need help with gambling? Call the National Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858 for free, professional and confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. About Luke Bateman: Luke Bateman grew up in Miles, western Queensland, where rugby league was the dominant culture. He played 71 NRL first-grade games as a lock for the Canberra Raiders before a chronic knee injury ended his career at 24. After leaving the game, he returned to rural Queensland, began posting book reviews to TikTok from a tractor in 2025, and within months had signed a two-book fantasy series deal with Atria Books Australia (Simon & Schuster). He now hosts his own podcast, In the Good Books, appeared on I'm A Celebrity Australia in early 2026, and is writing his debut fantasy novel, due in 2027. Connect with Luke: Instagram: @lukebateman_TikTok: @lukesreadsPodcast: In the Good Books on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneThreads: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneTikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

    Luke Bateman, being. with Lael Stone | The Book He Kept Hidden ♥︎
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Humans, being.™ is a podcast created and presented by Lael Stone that explores the real stories behind the public personas. This podcast is about you as a listener, and for all of us to come home to realising that we are all humans being, doing the best job that we know how. I would love to hear from you – what questions you may have, what contemplations you've received from this episode, what guests you'd like me to have on, or any themes or topics you would love me to discuss. Send us a message on our site or on any of our social platforms: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Brand/Partnerships: partnerships@humansbeing.au Connect with Lael: Web: laelstone.com.au Instagram: @laelstone Facebook: @laelstone Team: Brand and Creative by Mike Gaal, Original Music by Josh Reed, Recorded at WeMOV, Melbourne, Produced by Nigel Carboon. Humans, being.™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wathaurong people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

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