Life Matters - Separate stories podcast ABC listen

When it comes to presentation and manner, Australians are pretty casual, and more of the world is following suit. Employees are pushing back against formal dress codes in workplaces, and formal dress is necessary in fewer social settings. So are we losing anything by dropping the formalities? How does our presentation change the way we relate to each other, and ourselves? 

Geraldine Turner is a legend of the Australian stage, and has earned a lot of wisdom through her long career.

She shares her mantra for getting through stage fright, and what she's learned about figuring out a person's true character.

Angie Chong’s grandfather, Chen Wing Young, is known as the man who, in the early 1940's, popularised the dim sim in Australia. Angie’s mum, Elizabeth Chong, Australia’s 'queen of Chinese Chinese cuisine', was one of the country’s first celebrity chefs. Angie has a rich cooking legacy of her own. But now, as a grandmother, how does she bring her family together over food? And, how has she evolved traditions to keep her grandkids happy whilst maintaining a strong connection to her family’s past? A conversation with three generations - Angie Chong, her mum Elizabeth Chong and her daughter Tess Duddy-Chong

Our closest relationships can feel all consuming sometimes. particularly our children, but also our partners, or close friends, or parents.

It can be hard to imagine ourselves apart from them; to define ourselves, outside of those relationships.

And even when a relationship ends those connections still resonate, we are shaped by the people in our lives, as we shape their lives in turn.

In her new memoir Splinters, Leslie Jamison is sharing her story: of being a mother, a wife, a teacher, an artist, and of being herself.

Psychiatrist Duncan McKellar's life changed when he began looking into problems associated with the Oakden Older Persons' Mental Health Service in Adelaide.

His participation in the Oakden Review was spurred on by people like Barb Spriggs who, following the death of her husband six months after being admitted to Oakden, was looking for answers.

These events paved the way for the Royal Commission into Aged Care and prompted Duncan to investigate how to create caring health cultures that place patients at the centre. In his book, An Everyone Story, he champions the idea that institutions must ensure that the concerns of patients, families and staff are heard and acted on.

In 1970 an eighteen year old, pregnant Lynda Holden took the advice of her doctor who suggested a place she could go to find support. 

As it happened the support came cloaked with disrespect and deception, and she was told her Aboriginality meant she couldn't keep the baby.

Lynda is telling her story in a new memoir, co-written with Jo Tuscano, called This Is Where You Have To Go