Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

In Victoria, there's a push to charge a fee to view the iconic Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road.Around the country, some of our national parks are free, but you pay to visit the most popular, like Kakadu. Nearly all of our beaches are free... but you'll get often slugged for parking.So, what's reasonable when it comes to charging access to Australia's great natural wonders?

Keeping up with the best, most up-to-date nutrition information that's backed by science isn't always easy. Just recently, a study that spruiked the benefits of apple cider vinegar for weight loss was retracted.But is the genie already out of the bottle? How hard is it to unpick scientific research that people have already been told is good, when it in fact goes bad? 

If you're the family matriarch or patriarch but you're very ready to hand over your crown to the next generation…. what do you do if the heirs apparent have run for the hills?Letter-writer Lydia and her husband are in their 70s, and slowing down a bit. So they think it seems fair that, after all those years of managing everything, their children should do some of the heavy lifting.

From Seinfeld to Sex and the City... from Cheers to Friends... popular culture loves celebrating a friendship group.And for most of us, friendship groups are a key part of our social circle. Maybe it's your friend group from school or uni... or the gang you bonded with at your first job... it could be the parent group at your child's school.Friendship groups can be a source of joy, comfort, and camaraderie. They can also be tricky to navigate.

For decades the thinking has been that bringing together people from different cultural or religious groups would be enough to effectively reduce prejudice in society.But new research from the University of Queensland says that method simply isn't working anymore.Staying prejudiced isn't an option if we want to live in a peaceful country. So how can we open the door of our echo chambers, and let other voices in?

If you're a fan of 90s sitcoms, you'll know that the friendship depicted in the sitcom Friends isn't necessarily representative of real life. People in their mid to late-twenties, seemingly working very little, and spending every day and night, sitting around, drinking coffee and chatting with their mates.But contrary to this, many of us will finish school, then spend the next few years wondering where all our mates went. So, why are young adults lonelier than older people?

Have you ever given any thought as to why some people are commemorated with a public bronze statue... and not others?In Victoria, plans are underway to memorialise former Premier Daniel Andrews with a bronze statue. Of course not everyone is a fan of the plan... even though premiers who serve more than 3000 days in office get a statue under law.Meanwhile, there's also a push to immortalise one of Melbourne's former local pollies, Darebin councillor Gaetano Greco. He passed away in April and his advocates say a permanent monument of him wearing his signature black beret would be wonderful.So who - if anyone, really - should get a statue in contemporary Australia?

The US President Donald Trump has linked autism to vaccines ... even pointing the finger at paracetamol. He urged parents to delay childhood vaccinations and announced the FDA would soon warn about possible risks of taking paracetamol during pregnancy.The announcement has been widely criticised by medical experts worldwide and Australian regulators have been quick to point out the safety of both vaccines and paracetamol.But when a US President speaks, the ripple effects are global... and Australia's autism community is paying close attention.

Volunteering was once a part of the cultural fabric of Australian society, but with increasing time pressures both at home and work, it's slipping by the way side.Numbers have dropped from about one in three people volunteering in 2010 to just over one in four in 2022. So what's stopping us volunteering? How can you make the time to keep your volunteering commitments alive?

Riots, murders, and politically-motivated terrorism. No matter what side of politics you sit on ... or even if you consider yourself pretty removed from politics ... it's obvious there is a deepening divide right now. So what's behind "us versus them" thinking?