Life & Faith

With outrage and division at an all-time high, the need for intelligent and respectful persuasion has never been more urgent.Michael McQueen is an author, speaker and social commentator. In an age of intense polarisation and tribalism, he hasn’t given up on the possibility of changing people’s minds. In this interview with Life & Faith, Michael talks about the psychology of stubbornness and how – even on tricky and controversial debates - we can build trust, strengthen relationships and move minds.---ExploreMichael McQueen’s website: https://michaelmcqueen.net/Check out Michael’s latest book Mindstuck: https://www.mindstuck.michaelmcqueen.net/Take a look at this Google Talk by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, on his book as referenced in this episode: Thinking, Fast and Slow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVQJdIrDJ0 

That’s what disability advocate Emily Korir OAM calls one of the worst things that ever happened to her.In June 2012, Emily Korir suffered a massive stroke. She was just 37 years old, with two young children. It was unclear whether she would survive; and then, whether she would ever walk or speak again. Her road to recovery was long and gruelling – and surprisingly life-giving, both for her and for others.This was far from the first challenge Emily had faced in her life. Born of rape and raised in the slums of Kenya, her journey has been an unlikely one; as the title of her memoir attests, it has been Against All Odds: A Journey of Resilience, Identity & Success.Emily was recently awarded an OAM (Order of Australia) for her service to people with a disability and to multicultural communities. In this conversation, she tells Life & Faith about how she ended up in Australia, why she calls what happened to her a “stroke of luck”, and how she is trying to change the narrative for people living with a disability.“She [my grandmother] made me believe that nothing was impossible. She was a Christian woman and she made me believe that: never, ever to let anybody else’s perception of you become a reality.” --- EXPLORECheck out Emily Korir’s memoir Against All Odds Learn more about the work of BET Group Global

How Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Lewis’ That Hideous Strength predicted our current world disorder. ---Which vision – of a world gone sour – has proved prophetic? Is it George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, which introduced terms like “Big Brother”, “doublethink”, “thoughtcrime” to our vocabulary?   Or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, where people exchange freedom for pleasure ... and everyone is too busy having a good time to worry about being manipulated?  Or is it C. S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength: the third book of Lewis’ “Ransom trilogy” or “Space Trilogy”, published 80 years ago this year? In this episode of Life & Faith, we hear from three expert fans about how each book anticipated our times.  Peter Marks, Emeritus Professor in the Discipline of English and Writing at the University of Sydney, walks us through why Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is “news that has stayed news”, and how Apple, once the upstart defender of individuality, has become a Big Brother-type figure. Peter has written the books Imagining Surveillance: Eutopian and Dystopian Literature and Film and George Orwell the Essayist: Literature, Politics and the Periodical Culture. Scott Stephens, Editor of ABC Religion & Ethics, and co-host with Waleed Aly of the podcast The Minefield, talks about the endless entertainment of Huxley’s Brave New World, and why he thinks Huxley could have invented the recommendation algorithm.  And Susannah Black Roberts, an essayist and editor of Plough Magazine in the United States, explores how C. S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength anticipated the transhuman ambitions of Silicon Valley, and why “staying human” is a way to survive the looming age of AI. ExploreWhy Peter Marks believes Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is “news that has stayed news”. Matthew Purdy, in The New York Times, arguing: “We are all living in George Orwell’s world now”.  Episode of The Minefield podcast where Scott Stephens and Waleed Aly discuss Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and being on the brink of a world without books. Susannah Black Roberts contributed an essay to this collection of writings on the Ransom Trilogy – Life on the Silent Planet: Essays on Christian Living from C. S. Lewis’ Ransom Trilogy  George Orwell’s review of Lewis’ That Hideous Strength  The Rolling Stone article by Miles Klee arguing “People are losing loved ones to AI-fuelled spiritual fantasies” “They asked an AI chatbot questions. The answers sent them spiralling”, by Kashmir Hill in The New York Times 

For 80 years Prison Network has helped women find hope, dignity and purpose in and beyond prison.In 1946, a young woman by the name of Myrtle Breen knocked on the door of Pentridge Prison in Melbourne to ask if she could visit the women inside. She was allowed in to spend time with the prisoners, listening to their stories and showing them kindness.She was invited back to do the same and it became her mission in life, becoming the founder of Prison Network, that has been going into prisons ever since.Today, the organisation is working with women in prison, running programs for them and wraparound services, like finding accommodation and employment, assisting them to break cycles of social disadvantage and other factors that land them back in gaol.Today we speak with CEO of prison network Amelia Pickering, and also Pattie Phillips who is someone who received support from Prison Network when she was incarcerated and now participates herself in the work of the organisation striving for dignity, hope, and purpose for women in and beyond prison. Explore:Prison Network website

Peter Hartcher joins Life & Faith to discuss his life in journalism and the precarious state of the world.Peter Hartcher is a leading Australian political and foreign affairs journalist. He has had a long career in the media, beginning with a cadetship at the Sydney Morning Herald fresh out of school in 1982. He is now the Political and International editor for the Herald and for The Age.He had a couple of stints in Tokyo and Washington and at the Australian Financial Review. He is the author of several books, the latest being, Red Zone: China’s Challenge and Australia’s Future.He’s won a number of awards for journalism including a Gold Walkley.Hartcher is known for his incisive commentary, his lively and engaging writing and his careful, sober but hard-hitting style. He hasn’t always been loved by politicians, which is no doubt part of the job description.In this conversation he talks about his career, the future of journalism, the perilous state of the world and why he won’t give in to despair. Explore: Books by Peter HartcherTo The Bitter End: The Dramatic Story of the Fall of John Howard and the Rise of Kevin Rudd (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin), 2009.The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made Its Own Luck – And Could Now Throw It All Away (Black Inc.), 2011.Red Zone: China’s Challenge and Australia’s Future (Black Inc.), 2021

Sheridan Voysey, from Friendship Lab, explains why, in an age of increasing loneliness, the art of cultivating friendship is needed as much as ever before.When Sheridan Voysey was confronted with the question, “Who can you call at 2am when everything goes wrong?”, he realised that friendship was a facet of his life he had neglected for too long. This set him on a path to consider how we cultivate good friendships, how we can learn the skills required to be a good friend and maintain deep, rich friendships.He now runs the Friendship Lab, a movement and a course to help adults build the skills to create and sustain healthy friendships. Reflecting on ever-increasing loneliness, Sheridan recognised the need to help people develop skills in collecting more “2am friends”. This is an art you can get better at with the right help. Sheridan says that even those who enjoy great friendships can get better at them.What are the factors that help grow close friendships? What things get in the way of healthy, long-lasting friendships. How can we be better friends to those we are close to?Life & Faith delves into all of this with writer, speaker and broadcaster, Sheridan Voysey, along with a couple of groups of people with enduring and interesting friendships. ---EXPOLREFriendship LabSheridan Voysey's website

Niall Williams discusses the conversion of his treasured novel into a major film starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne.Four Letters of Love is the 1997 novel by Irish writer Niall Williams, and has just been adapted, by Williams, into a movie starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne.Life & Faith speaks with Niall Williams about the film and the book. It’s a love story that offers up intriguing and provocative portraits of faith, loss, tragedy, meaning and God.The story itself engages with human longing, the notion of fate and calling and whether our lives have any pattern or purpose. How do we make sense of the vicissitudes of life? Is there a God behind it all? Can we still believe in miracles?Niall Williams is an Irish writer of novels, plays and works of non-fiction. Four letters of love was an international best-seller. The film is released July 2025.ExploreFour Letters of Love trailerFour Letters of Love novelNill Williams website

Julia Verdouw used silence, faith and writing poetry to survive the sudden death of her husband.Julia is an accomplished academic and policy expert, but her book In the Valley of the Shadow may be her most important work.  Through reflection, poetry and prayers, the book documents her journey of grief.Regardless of who we are or what we believe, suffering comes for us all. Perhaps the worst kind of suffering is the grief that we face when we lose someone we love. How can we navigate such immense loss and deep sorrow?In this episode, we explore Julia’s journey of finding comfort, strength, hope, and even redemption, through the deepest suffering.EXPLOREPurchase Julia’s book through her website

A columnist’s job is to process deeper currents in news, politics, and culture – all in 800 words.Who are we as a nation and a people, and what’s going on for us beneath the daily headlines of the 24/7 media cycle?Few of us stop long enough to wonder – but if we ever wanted to find out, a good place to start would be Sean Kelly’s writing in The Sydney Morning Herald. Sean Kelly is a former political staffer in the Rudd and Gillard governments, who now writes a weekly column on politics for The Sydney Morning Herald. He’s also the author of the book The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison.Sean has a front row seat to what’s going on for us as a nation and combines that perspective with an insider’s view of how politics works. In this interview with Life & Faith he considers what it might mean to be considered a chronicler of the national soul. Explore Sean Kelly’s column on how “kindness” won Anthony Albanese the 2025 Federal election.His column about what might be called “the Albanese effect”: the move towards the centre, and the adoption of a less divisive tone, in the new leadership of the Greens and Liberal Party.His book The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison

Stories and stats from the UK suggest that something has shifted, spiritually, over the past few years.-- Since 2018, two million more people in England and Wales have started regularly attending church – an increase fuelled largely by Gen Z, and by young men especially.So say the results from a new survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society, results which cut across a bunch of our assumptions: that Western societies are on a secularising trajectory; that women are more religious than men; that young people are more likely to reject “traditional” beliefs such as Christianity.In this episode of Life & Faith, we gather a few reports from abroad to get a handle on what’s happening in the UK, spiritually speaking. Vicar-in-training and Oxford research student Daniel Kim, who has written extensively about spirituality and occult beliefs in contemporary culture, talks about the spiritual openness of Gen Z. Bri Walsh, an Aussie who spent a season in London recently, offers an insider/outsider perspective on UK churchgoing in the 2020s. And Rob Barward-Symmons, co-author of The Quiet Revival – the report that puts concrete numbers to the anecdotal rumblings of the last few years – talks us through the data and what might be driving the recent surge in church attendance.Explore:Check out The Quiet Revival report, by Rob Barward-Symmons and Rhiannon McAleer, from British and Foreign Bible Society https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/research/quiet-revivalRead more from Daniel Kim about contemporary spirituality https://www.seenandunseen.com/contributors/daniel-kim