Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

In high school, sorting out friendship drama can take up a lot of time, but it can cause even bigger headaches as adults. So what do you do when your relationship with your new best friend is upsetting your old best friend?

Although we’d all love to imagine you can have a second chance at love, the divorce rate for second marriages is double that of first. Psychotherapists Dr Zoe Krupka and Stephen Andrew have been a couple for 14 years and it's a second marriage for both of them. They say marriage number two can be the fulfilling and thrilling relationship people always hoped they could have.

In your house there's probably a box squirrelled away in a cupboard somewhere, full of photos and memorabilia of your kids and grandkids.And even though you don't look at it every day, it pulls at the heartstrings when you stumble across it. But do we place the same value on those memories if they're digital?As the social media ban approaches, Meta platforms are prompting users under 16 to download their data before they're removed from the platform.As Australia enters our world first of taking social media off of teenagers, what do we need to make sure they take with them? 

A big backyard used to be part of the Australian dream. But a shift has happened over time.Block sizes for new houses across our cities have shrunk by 22 per cent in the past 15 years, according to the ABS.The average block size is now 467 square metres - but while the size of land is shrinking, house sizes have not.Put simply: we're building bigger houses with smaller yards.So, RIP the backyard? What does it mean for our communities if backyards become a rarity?

When you die, what sort of assets will you leave and who's getting them?Or maybe you've handed over your inheritance early - helping your kids out with a house deposit, paying for their uni, or your grandkids' schooling.Financial expert David Koch says Boomers are putting a good retirement at risk to give their adult kids money.Koch argues that outside of a stable upbringing and a good education, you don't really owe your kids anything. So ... do you?

Even at low speeds... if you have a car crash... and you're a woman... you're more likely to be seriously injured than a man.But interestingly, car crash testing and plane safety testing is dominated by "male" crash test dummies... and has been for decades.These dummies are part of a system of testing methods designed with men in mind.... and it's been letting women down

When you think of the 1960s, what comes to mind? Hippies, Vietnam War protests, the music?What about the 1990s? VCRs, grunge music, minimalist fashion?We're about to reach the halfway point of the 2020s, so what is the defining legacy of this decade? 

She has never revealed her name publicly, but her opinions about fashion have made a huge impact.Fashion Critical started making "silly posts" to entertain her friends, but her platform ended up gaining a huge following. She talks to Life Matters about finding her own style, and why we should never take fashion too seriously. 

This week, listener Sarah is asking for help. She broke up with her partner Mike years ago, because he never wanted to get married. Now, Mike is engaged to the woman he met after he and Sarah went their separate ways. Why has the news prompted such emotion?

You've scraped together a hefty deposit... and you've found the home you love in a price range you can afford.But then on auction day - a flurry of bids goes tens of thousands of dollars above the top end of the price guide... and it doesn't even sell because it hasn't met the reserve price.And you hear it later sells for much more than that ... leaving you clutching your real estate brochures and looking at your bank balance feeling disillusioned... and shut out.New plans in Victoria and New South Wales seek to address the issue of underquoting. So, will these reforms create a fairer system? Will they help first home buyers?And will the changes do anything to address Australia's housing crisis?