Cut Through

Cut Through

Cut Through is a podcast for people who are tired of noise, outrage, and shallow thinking — and want clarity instead. Hosted by Christian Co, the show features honest, long-form conversations with thinkers, leaders, and everyday people who have lived through failure, doubt, faith, ambition, loss, and rebuilding. Together, they explore the ideas that shape a meaningful life — identity, purpose, power, truth, culture, work, and belief. While especially relevant for young men navigating adulthood in a fragmented culture, these conversations are for anyone who wants to cut through the noise and

  1. 1h ago

    41. Why Are We So Afraid To Disagree?

    Is staying silent really the safest option? And what happens when standing up for what you believe could cost you friendships, your reputation, or your future? In a world where everyone has an opinion, social media rewards outrage, and disagreement can turn into hatred overnight, it’s tempting to switch off, stay quiet, and avoid the controversy. But what if staying silent comes at a greater cost? In this episode of Cut Through, Christian sits down with Blair Lemke, a faith advocate who has actively participated in protests, grassroots movements, and public debates on some of Australia’s most divisive cultural issues. Blair isn’t just commenting from the sidelines. He’s stood outside Parliament House alongside thousands of protesters, publicly defended unpopular convictions, faced backlash online, and navigated difficult conversations with people who fundamentally disagree with him. But this conversation isn’t about telling you what to believe. It’s about something deeper: How do you know what’s true? Where do your convictions come from? And how do you find the courage to stand for something in a world that pressures you to fit in? Christian challenges Blair on his views, exploring the tension between free speech and harm, faith and politics, conviction and compassion, and whether Christianity still has something meaningful to offer a divided generation. In this episode, we explore: The courage to stand alone: Why Blair attends controversial protests, even when it risks friendships and reputation.Are you being manipulated? How to recognise misinformation, challenge your biases, and think independently in an age of algorithms and AI.The outrage economy: Why social media rewards anger, division, and extreme opinions — and how to avoid getting caught in it.Why young people are afraid to speak: Cancel culture, self-censorship, and the fear of being labelled hateful or intolerant.Free speech vs hate speech: Who should decide what we’re allowed to say, and where should the boundaries be?Can you disagree without hating? How to have difficult conversations without destroying relationships.Does politics actually matter? Why checking out of cultural debates might have consequences you haven’t considered.Faith, politics, and Christian nationalism: Should religious beliefs influence society, and where should the line be drawn?Is Christianity just blind faith? Blair shares the evidence and personal experiences that convinced him Christianity is worth believing.Finding courage and purpose: What it means to live with conviction instead of simply following the crowd.Whether you’re religious, sceptical, or still figuring out what you believe, this conversation will challenge you to think more deeply about truth, courage, and the kind of person you want to become. Because the biggest question isn’t whether you have an opinion. It’s whether you’ve actually thought about why you believe it. 🎥 Watch the full interview on YouTube:https://youtu.be/4z_aY6N4A5s Cut Through — Real conversations. Tough questions. No easy answers.

    41. Why Are We So Afraid To Disagree?

  2. Oct 9

    40. The Chosen: Is Jesus Making a Comeback?

    Why are people who’ve never been to church suddenly interested in Jesus? And what is it about The Chosen that’s connecting with audiences around the world, including people who don’t believe in God? In this episode of Cut Through, we sit down with Dr. Ashish Thomas, International Marketing Director for The Chosen, to explore the global success of the hit series, the controversy surrounding its portrayal of Jesus, and why a 2,000-year-old story is still getting people’s attention. Ashish brings a fascinating perspective. With over 18 years of experience in business leadership, consulting and innovation, including work with Deloitte, PwC and Cognizant, he has spent his career understanding what motivates people. He holds advanced doctoral qualifications in behavioural economics and innovation and now helps bring The Chosen to audiences across different countries and cultures. But his story goes much deeper than marketing. Growing up in the Himalayan mountains of India, Ashish watched his missionary doctor parents dedicate their lives to helping the poorest of the poor. When his mother died after a painful battle with cancer, he faced a choice that would change the direction of his life. In this conversation, we explore: • Why The Chosen works: How a television series about Jesus is connecting with people who have little or no interest in Christianity. • The controversy: Is it right for filmmakers to put words into Jesus’ mouth? Where does creative storytelling end and changing the Bible begin? • The real Jesus: Is the warm, funny, relatable Jesus portrayed in The Chosen an accurate reflection of the historical figure? • Faith beyond Christianity: Why people from different religions and cultures are engaging with the story of Jesus. • Suffering and loss: How watching his mother suffer and die led Ashish to make a life-changing decision about faith. • Success and purpose: Why achieving everything you want doesn’t necessarily leave you satisfied, and what makes a life genuinely meaningful. • Jesus versus religion: Why Ashish believes Jesus offers something more than good morals, inspirational teaching or another self-help philosophy. • Faith and doubt: What happens when you don’t have all the answers, when life doesn’t make sense, and when following Jesus demands more than you expected. • Finding something worth living for: Where to start if you’re curious about faith but don’t know what you believe. • One practical challenge: Something you can do in the next 60 minutes that could change how you approach the rest of your life. Whether you’ve watched every episode of The Chosen, never opened a Bible, or simply wonder whether there’s more to life than money, success and entertainment, this conversation is for you. You don’t have to believe in Jesus to be curious about why so many people are talking about Him. 🎬 Watch the full interview:https://youtu.be/F5C7FRTtsR0

    40. The Chosen: Is Jesus Making a Comeback?

  3. Oct 1

    39. Steve Irwin, Facing Death and the Meaning of Life

    What happens when you’ve seen death up close, again and again? Darren Cheers has spent much of his working life around the line between life and death. He spent five years at Australia Zoo, working as a first aid officer alongside staff and animal teams during the Steve Irwin era. Darren was actually working at the zoo on the day news broke that Steve had died. He later became a qualified paramedic, responding to cardiac arrests, horrific crashes, palliative patients and situations where people survived against extraordinary odds. Those experiences gave Darren a perspective on death that most of us will never have. In this episode of Cut Through, Darren talks about what Steve Irwin was really like away from the cameras, what it feels like to encounter death firsthand, the cases he describes as miraculous, and what years of emergency medicine have taught him about life, faith and what might happen when we die. We get into: • What Steve Irwin was really like off camera• Darren’s memories of working at Australia Zoo• Being at the zoo on the day Steve died• What years as a paramedic taught him about death• The patient whose heart stopped twice and what he remembered afterward• A catastrophic multi-vehicle crash Darren describes as a miracle• Why some people survive horrific accidents while others don’t• Near-death experiences and claims of an afterlife• Whether the dead are conscious or able to communicate with us• Darren’s view of death as a sleep-like state and the Christian hope of resurrection• Whether science and faith really have to be enemies• Why studying the human body strengthened rather than destroyed his belief in God• What facing death teaches us about purpose• Why gratitude, service and making your life count matter now Darren isn’t approaching these questions purely as theory. He has worked around death, resuscitated patients whose hearts had stopped, supported people approaching the end of life, and studied the biology and medicine behind what happens when the human body begins to shut down. His conclusion is challenging but hopeful: life is incredibly resilient, incredibly fragile and far too valuable to waste. Whether you believe in God, aren’t sure, or are still figuring out what you believe, this conversation asks a question worth confronting: If your life could end sooner than you think, what are you doing with it now? 🎬 Watch the full interview on YouTube:https://youtu.be/RxfVZNA4ibE

    39. Steve Irwin, Facing Death and the Meaning of Life

  4. Sep 25

    38. Special ops, Mandela and the Queen

    What does it take to walk through a door that might be booby-trapped, operate in a country where landmines and the Khmer Rouge are part of daily life, or take responsibility for protecting some of the most recognisable people on earth? John Rixon has spent a lifetime finding out. John’s career took him from the Australian military and policing into police diving, high-risk operations, counter-terrorism, United Nations policing in Cambodia and close personal protection. He served as a Federal Police sergeant, trained and worked alongside specialist teams, and was responsible for protective security involving world figures including Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela. In this episode of Cut Through, John takes us inside a world most of us will never experience and explains what decades of danger taught him about fear, courage, discipline, responsibility and what actually matters in life. We talk about: • Nearly stepping on a landmine in Cambodia• Going through doors that could have been booby-trapped• How elite teams train themselves to act when they’re afraid• Police diving and recovering bodies underwater• Working with the United Nations in Cambodia• Living and working under the threat of the Khmer Rouge• Special operations, counter-terrorism and high-risk warrants• What John looked for when training police and assessing people for specialist roles• The discipline of finishing the job, even when nobody is watching• How protective security works around high-profile world leaders• Protecting Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela• Why awareness, focus and self-discipline matter far beyond policing• What seeing violence and death taught him about life• Losing his wife Hazel and discovering what ultimately matters• Why John returned to faith later in life• Why he now believes God was present even when he wasn’t looking for Him• What he would tell his younger self if he could start again John’s message to young men is surprisingly simple: you don’t need to be in special operations to develop discipline. Take responsibility for what’s in front of you. Focus. Finish the job. Do ordinary things properly. That’s how you become someone people can rely on. And after a career spent around danger, powerful people and extraordinary situations, his biggest lessons aren’t really about policing. They’re about faith, family, service and figuring out what your life is actually for. 🎬 Watch the full interview on YouTube:https://youtu.be/JXblPVoDZWs #CutThrough #JohnRixon #SpecialOperations #CounterTerrorism #Police #Mindset #Discipline #Purpose #Faith

    38. Special ops, Mandela and the Queen

  5. Sep 17

    37. How Can I Forgive the Unforgivable?

    What do you do when someone who was supposed to protect you becomes the person who hurts you most? Phil Yates was sexually abused by his father as a child. For years, the memory remained buried. Then, at 21, it came back, bringing with it anger, confusion and questions that threatened to consume him. But abuse wasn’t the only adversity Phil faced. Growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia, Phil struggled academically, failed at school and eventually made it to university only to be kicked out. He was told he probably didn’t have the intelligence to succeed at university. He went back anyway. Phil eventually graduated and became a teacher, spending 14 years working with young people, including students facing serious behavioural problems, broken homes and abuse. Over the years, he became a mentor to young people others had struggled to reach. His own experiences shaped the way he saw them: instead of focusing only on bad behaviour, he learned to look for the hurt underneath it. In this deeply personal conversation, Phil talks openly about what his father did, the anger he carried, why he chose to forgive him, and why forgiveness didn’t mean forgetting, trusting him again or pretending the abuse didn’t matter. We explore: • What childhood sexual abuse did to Phil’s trust, identity and anger • Why forgiving his father became about freeing himself, not excusing what happened • The difference between forgiveness, forgetting, trust and reconciliation • Failing at school, living with dyslexia and being kicked out of university • How someone written off academically became a teacher and mentor to young people • What Phil learned about masculinity, responsibility and asking for help • Where God was when the abuse happened and how it challenged Phil’s faith • How faith, forgiveness and honest conversations helped him find peace and hope Whatever has happened to you, Phil’s story raises a confronting question: will what someone else did determine who you become? Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/g3KaqNlpmqQ

    37. How Can I Forgive the Unforgivable?

  6. Sep 11

    36. Never Good Enough: My Search For Identity

    What happens when your whole life is built around proving that you’re good enough? SJ Foaga knows that struggle firsthand. Diagnosed with epilepsy at 14, he spent his teenage years watching friends do things that seemed normal while wondering why life looked different for him. At the same time, he was driven to achieve, desperate to make his family proud and increasingly tying his identity to performance and the approval of others. Then things fell apart. After doing well at school, SJ struggled at university. He stopped looking after himself, gained 25kg, failed his classes and was eventually kicked out. What began as failure in one area of life became something much deeper: “I’m a failure. I’ll never amount to anything.” SJ isn’t speaking as someone who has studied young men’s struggles from a distance. At 28, he’s lived them. He’s wrestled with chronic illness, failure, body image, approval, cultural expectations, faith and the question of what it actually means to become a man. Today he works directly with young people through teaching, basketball coaching, speaking, motivating and mentoring, using his own experience to help other young men navigate some of the same questions. In this conversation, we talk honestly about: • Growing up with epilepsy and feeling different from everyone else• Why achievement can never finally make you feel good enough• Getting five school awards and still feeling like his best wasn’t enough• Failing university, gaining 25kg and being kicked out• The danger of letting one failure define who you are• Fitness, body image and chasing validation from women and others• Why even “optimising” your life can leave you feeling empty• Growing up Samoan and navigating family, culture, respect and independence• Why sometimes you have to be willing to disappoint people• The difference between genuine community, codependency and isolation• What healthy friendships between young men actually look like• Growing up believing God’s love had to be earned• Why SJ once saw God as a wrathful judge• The conversation that completely changed his understanding of Christianity• Finding an identity that doesn’t rise and fall with achievement, appearance or other people’s opinions• What SJ now believes it really means to be a man• Three things he wishes he could tell his 18-year-old self If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re good enough, felt like one failure defines you, or struggled to work out who you actually are beneath everyone else’s expectations, this conversation is for you. 🎬 Watch the full interview:https://youtu.be/q4cQ3xV2nkM

    36. Never Good Enough: My Search For Identity

  7. Sep 4

    35. Breaking a World Record Wasn’t Enough

    Paul Fua broke two world records, jet-skied 16,472km around Australia and helped raise more than $2.5 million for charity. But achievement didn’t give him what he thought it would. Paul went on to chase money and business success — until the Global Financial Crisis brought his business to its knees and forced him to question the pride and self-reliance that had driven much of his life. Today, Paul has been a CEO, business owner, teacher and school principal, and now oversees an education system of 10 schools. His experience with thousands of young people gives him a unique perspective on what young men are searching for — purpose, identity and something worth living for. In this conversation: Why breaking a world record wasn’t enoughThe trap of “I’ll be happy when…”Why success can still leave you emptyPride, ambition and the danger of self-relianceWhat young men are really searching forWhy Paul walked away from opportunities worth millionsThe experience that transformed his faith at 40The evidence that convinced him to take God seriouslyWhere to start if you’re open to exploring faithYou don’t need to be religious to listen to this. If you’re chasing success, trying to figure out what your life is actually for, or quietly wondering whether there’s something more — this conversation is for you. 🎬 Watch the full interview on YouTube:https://youtu.be/5Az6UclYDN4

    35. Breaking a World Record Wasn’t Enough

  8. Aug 28

    34. From Witchcraft to Law: My Search for Truth

    What does a lawyer who has spent her career weighing evidence, questioning witnesses and searching for truth do when the biggest question becomes whether God actually exists? Rebecca Cheers is a lawyer with a background in both law and psychology who has worked for the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, appearing regularly in court and dealing with serious criminal cases. Her work exposed her to murder, sexual assault, questions of guilt and innocence, unreliable witnesses, human bias and the difficult reality that truth is often harder to establish than we think. In this conversation, Rebecca takes us inside the world of law before sharing her own remarkable search for truth, from agnosticism and witchcraft to investigating the evidence for Christianity. We explore: • What movies and TV get wrong about lawyers • Why good lawyers aren’t just people who know the law • How lawyers defend people accused of terrible crimes • Whether lawyers can actually tell when someone is lying • The psychological toll of working on serious criminal cases • The most difficult case Rebecca worked on as a prosecutor • How AI could transform the legal profession • Why Rebecca became involved in Wicca and witchcraft as a teenager • What caused her to begin questioning those beliefs • How she investigated the world’s major religions looking for truth • Why the historical evidence surrounding Jesus caught her attention • How archaeology, history and biblical prophecy influenced her thinking • Why she believes Christianity stands up to a lawyer’s standard of evidence • How finding faith changed her understanding of purpose, peace and what makes life worth living Rebecca’s journey wasn’t about switching off her brain and simply believing. It was about asking questions, examining competing claims and following the evidence wherever she believed it led. Whether you’re sceptical, searching, interested in law, questioning what you believe, or simply trying to work out what is actually true, this conversation is for you. 🎬 Watch the full episode on YouTube:https://youtu.be/1zD90g30HA0

    34. From Witchcraft to Law: My Search for Truth
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About

Cut Through is a podcast for people who are tired of noise, outrage, and shallow thinking — and want clarity instead. Hosted by Christian Co, the show features honest, long-form conversations with thinkers, leaders, and everyday people who have lived through failure, doubt, faith, ambition, loss, and rebuilding. Together, they explore the ideas that shape a meaningful life — identity, purpose, power, truth, culture, work, and belief. While especially relevant for young men navigating adulthood in a fragmented culture, these conversations are for anyone who wants to cut through the noise and

Information

  • Creator
    Cut Through
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Cut Through
  • Show Website
    Cut Through

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