Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

Internationally-renowned psychologist, Dr Thomas Curran says healing from perfectionism is about learning you are worthy of love just as you are.

When an ex friend-turned-enemy from years past reappears in the present, with a present, how do you know if it's an opening for repair?

For 12 years, the NDIS has helped countless people live better, more dignified, more supported lives.It's also been marred by overwhelming cost, overcharging and exploitation.From next July, a specific group of young children will no longer enter the NDIS.Children with mild and moderate developmental delays and autism will be diverted away from the NDIS, towards a new program called "Thriving Kids".The government says it's about making the NDIS sustainable, but for many parents, the question is more personal: what happens to their child's support now? 

It's a common complaint - the language used is court is super-confusing for the average person, and muddies what's already a tricky system to navigate.But, a New Zealand magistrate has broken the mould - delivering his verdict in a cross-continental custody dispute, as a letter to its 14-year-old subject.In it, he speaks directly to the boy - known as Claude - mentioning the teenager's love of rugby and acknowledging the mental toll of being involved in a family dispute.It's a rare and touching move, in an environment that's known to be sterile and where emotions and feelings aren't always considered.So, should plain-speaking and appealing to emotions become more common?  

Drug overdoses now kill twice as many Australians as road crashes. Yet half a million people are turned away from drug and alcohol services each year.Why? And what happens when someone is ready to change but the help isn’t there?

Lying, fibbing, telling a furphy. When it comes to stretching the truth, a lie is a lie.A popular author has been accused of fabricating parts of her best-selling memoir  - and there's been swift backlash.So, what makes some untruths, more unforgivable than others? 

Among the ninety thousand people who ran Sydney’s City2Surf fun run, Robyn Smith was impossible to miss.She ran topless - not for shock value, but to make visible something that is usually unseen.Robyn had a preventative mastectomy after learning she'd inherited the BRCA2 gene variant which increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Up to 10 per cent of cancers are linked to inherited gene variants, but Robyn says affected families are largely invisible in public health policy, underfunded in support services, and absent from the mainstream cancer conversation.

The Olympics are coming back to our shores in 2032, and a new paper is highlighting the need for the Brisbane games to focus on their housing legacy.It's an opportunity for Brisbane to emulate some of the lessons of Sydney 2000 and Melbourne 1956, and avoid their mistakes.

After ten years as a paramedic Tim Booth can’t look at a sandwich, a trampoline or even a dishwasher the same way.He’s collected countless bizarre, bloody and baffling stories during his time on the job, which he shares in his latest book You Went To Emergency For What?But beyond the laughs, Tim says the job has changed him in ways he never expected - and our listeners shared how their work has changed them too.

We're basically cling-wrapping the planet in plastic.Since the 1950's production has boomed. Every year another 450 million tonnes of plastic is produced.  Only nine per cent of that is actually recycled. A UN global treaty has failed to reach an agreement on the best way to end plastics pollution. So, with all of this knowledge - why can't we agree on how to best tackle the problem?