Fathering Adventures

With special guest:

• Darren Lewis
  … in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson
  

He doesn’t claim to have been the beginning of all fathering adventures but in July 2008 Darren Lewis started an organisation by that name which has made many fathers and their children come alive through adventure based activities. Darren quotes Howard Thurman in recognising that the world needs people who have come alive.

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Protecting Emilie

With special guest:

• Lisa Heim
  … in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson

A check in the index of topics will reveal that we have explored parental alienation from different angles by talking to academics, psychologists and researchers. Today we cross to Florida in the USA to hear a very real account of what this type of psychological child abuse looks like to those who are personally caught up in it.

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SMS4dads

With special guest:

• Dr Chris May
  … in conversation with Bill Kable
  

Who ya gonna call?

Our guest today is Dr Chris May from the University of Newcastle and he has a simple message for new Dads with mobile phones. Sign up for SMS4 dads and you will get the advice you need to deal with the new challenges we face as a Dad. This is not limited to young Dads. The age range of Dads already accessing the service extends to the over 50 year olds.

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Life and Death Planning for Country Properties

With special guest:

• Owen Catto
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Our guest today is Owen Catto from The Regional Men’s Health Initiative of Western Australia.

Owen’s life as a farmer began when he worked on the family farm for 18 years with a small interest in that farming business given to him by his father. To back up this direct experience of conditions on the farm Owen also has a Bachelor of Business in Agriculture and has operated a farm consultancy business. When talking about life on the land we might say that Owen knows his onions.

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Private Bill: In Love and War

With special guest:

• Barrie Cassidy
  …in conversation with Bill Kable
  

It makes for a rare occasion when Barrie Cassidy goes to the other side of the microphone. Barrie is one of Australia’s most respected and experienced political journalists and we welcome him to Dads on the Air.

But we are not going to discuss politics in this program. We are going to find out more about Barrie’s father Bill who is the main subject in Barrie’s book Private Bill: In Love and War.

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From Bullied to Brilliant

With special guest:

• Karen Clarke
  …in conversation with Bill Kable
  

Have you been bullied? Has anyone in your family been bullied?

In her book From Bullied to Brilliant: How to artfully avoid fitting in, our guest sets out how to understand and deal with bullies. In the program today we get to hear directly from Karen Clarke how to bounce back and turn pain into gain when confronted by bullies.

We learn that bullying can be experienced by anyone at any stage in life and it is nothing to be ashamed of if you are the victim. It is one of the myths of bullying that the victim has shown some weakness that the bully seizes on but in fact bullies are often attracted to people who possess the very qualities they secretly or unknowingly admire.

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The Alpha Female’s Guide to Men & Marriage

With special guest:

• Suzanne Venker
  …in conversation with Bill Kable
  

Do you know any Alpha Females? We know them when we see them but it may be difficult to work out how to relate to them because of some of their defining characteristics. Equally the alpha females may need some guidance to find out what is missing in their lives even if the culture says they have everything. And our special guest today, Suzanne Venker has answered the call with her new book The Alpha Female’s Guide to Men & Marriage: HOW LOVE WORKS.

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How much father? How have dads evolved since the 1930s?

With special guest:

• Dr Peter West
  …in conversation with Glen Poole
  

How have dads evolved since the 1930s? In the 1990s Dr Peter West interviewed a wide variety of men who grew up in the decades between the Depression and the final decade on the 20th Century. The result of those interviews was the book Fathers, Sons and Lovers: Men Talk About Their Lives from the 1930s to Today. From footballers to policemen, from railway workers to farmers, he provided a rare glimpse into the lived realities or everyday Australian dads.

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Flesh Wounds

With special guest:

• Richard Glover
  …in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson
  

Our guest today is famous.

Richard Glover is the host of the top rating Drive show on 702 ABC Sydney, and the weekly podcast of Thank God It’s Friday. He is the author of twelve books including the bestseller In Bed with Jocasta. His new book Flesh Wounds is in a similar humorous vein but the big difference this time is that it is the real story of his unusual, to say the least, upbringing.

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Ugly: A beaut story about one very ugly kid

With special guest: 

• Robert Hoge
  …in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson

Robert Hoge has a daughter Imogen who sums it up best. She said about Robert’s book Ugly “It’s important to tell your story especially when you’re different.” 

As one of the many roles that our guest today has filled with distinction he is an advocate for those with a disability and today we hear what it is like to grow up in a special club. 

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The Men’s Shed Movement: The Company of Men

With special guest: 

• Prof Barry Golding AM
  …in conversation with Bill Kable and Ken Thompson

 When we think of great Australian inventions we might be referring to the Black Box Flight Recorder, electronic pacemakers, cochlear implants or even the stump-jump plough. But today we talk about another Australian invention that has spread internationally and saved thousands of men’s lives. 

Our guest today is Dr Barry Golding who is the honorary patron of the Australian Men’s Shed Association and he provides a fascinating insight into the development and growth of this iconic Australian success story. Barry Golding gives us the benefit of his fifteen years of research in his new book The Men’s Shed Movement: The Company of Men. In talking to us today Barry lets us discover what actually goes on inside the Men’s Sheds we see as we pass through so many country towns. 

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Black River

With special guest: 

• Matthew Spencer
  … in conversation with Bill Kable 

Matthew Spencer decided to make a big change in his life after 20 successful years as a journalist. 

The challenge he took on was not going to be easy and there were no guarantees. Matthew chose to enter the highly competitive field of writing a crime novel and as with a lot of ventures he needed a bit of luck along the way. 

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L Platers

With special guest:

• Madonna King
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

The latest book by Madonna King is L Platers and it is a fascinating sequel to her previous book Being 14.

Something happens to young girls between the ages of 14 and 18 and all parents need to get an insight as to what to expect and what to be concerned about.

We live in times where the word “unprecedented” has almost been worn out by over usage. But how else to describe these times when for the first time in history we are living through a worldwide pandemic? Covid 19 has limited the usual social interaction and forced many to start living a huge part of their lives online which creates its own problems. Not only is this unprecedented but it is happening when so many choices have to be made in comparison to simpler times. When a personal discussion is called for, parents are likely to be called to centre stage for many of these decisions.

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The Making of Men

With special guest:

• Dr Arne Rubinstein
  …in conversation with Bill Kable, Ken Thompson, and Glen Poole
  

“If we don’t initiate our boys they will burn down the village to feel the heat.” This is an African proverb quoted by our guest today Dr Arne Rubinstein that could describe the situation for young men today in Australia and other societies far from Africa.

The Making of Men is a book that Dr Arne Rubinstein has written after seeing first-hand in his medical practice the disasters that can befall boys who are not initiated into life as a man in the community. Arne recognises the qualities valued in young boys when they are naturally loving, energetic, funny, creative and sensitive. What happens then, when so many kids get into trouble as teenagers?

In this program we talk about one of the most important ways in which the community or village can play a role in bringing the boy through to being a valuable man in the community.

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Albanese – Telling it Straight

With special guest:

• Karen Middleton
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Everybody loves Albo - even many of his opponents in the national Parliament.

We can identify the three drives he lists as having influenced his development, namely the Catholic Church, South Sydney Rugby League team and the Australian Labor Party. These drives were all inherited from his fiercely loyal and protective mother Maryanne but behind the relationship between Albo and his mother is another fascinating story that has never been revealed until the release of Karen Middleton’s book Albanese - Telling it Straight.

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Purple House

With special guest:

• Sarah Brown
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Twenty years ago in Central Australia the Aboriginal people called kidney disease “never return home.”

When kidney transplant is not available survival from end stage renal failure means dialysis where the patient is hooked up to a machine for five hours every second day for the rest of the patient’s life. And if Central Australians can only access the machines in Alice Springs and Darwin then that is where they will spend the rest of their lives.

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Keith Urban

With special guest:

• Jeff Apter
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Our own Keith Urban is an enormous success in the biggest music market of all, the United States. Who knew? For some reason Keith Urban has never been really big or even acknowledged in Australia and today we get a few clues as to why that is so.

There is a lot more to Keith than the amiable coach we see in The Voice on Australian TV and our guest today can let us in on some surprises. In his new book Keith Urban our special guest Jeff Apter takes us from Keith’s birth in New Zealand to childhood days on the outskirts of Brisbane to being “discovered” while playing at the Bayview Hotel in Sydney and reaching the stage where he is asked to sing at the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games. On top of that Keith has been married to Nicole Kidman since 2007 to add a bit of Hollywood glamour to his life.

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The Opera House

With special guest:

• Peter FitzSimons
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

As well as being a 20^th century marvel in its soaring design it remains a source of marvel that the Opera House was even conceived in the parochial, conservative backwater that was 1950s New South Wales.

One thing that was typical then and remains so is the Australian love for a gamble so it was a brainwave of the NSW government to think of financing the construction by way of a lottery. All of a sudden there were more than enough funds to do the work of construction.

But the bigger gamble was to construct a building like no other that would be on display at the heart of the city with techniques that had not been invented based on the imaginings and sparse drawings of a Danish architect who had never taken a building design through to completion.

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Mentoring Men

With special guest:

• Simon Jarvis
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Who says men need help in today’s society?

Our guest today would answer by pointing to the shockingly high rate of male suicide with 7 out of 10 victims being male. Yet at a time like this it is hard to gain financial support for male issues because of the focus on other worthy causes. This is where Mentoring Men can make a difference and where Chief Executive Officer Simon Jarvis can build on the work by his predecessor and founder of the movement, Ian Westmoreland, a guest on Dads on the Air in November 2019.

Simon tells us that Mentoring Men is not a crisis centre. This is not for men who have gone over the edge in one way or another. The group aims to get in early with men who just need a non-judgemental ear, someone who may have experienced all this before and who might have a few tips to pass on.

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Anzac and Aviator

With special guest:

• Michael Molkentin
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

If we are looking for a genuine Australian hero then we need go no further than South Australian Sir Ross Macpherson Smith born in 1892. After he volunteered to enlist for the First World War Ross Smith had a very full but tragically short life.

His first experience of war was to wade ashore at Gallipoli, not in the first wave on 25 April 1915 and not on a horse as he might have expected having joined the 1^st Light Horse Brigade as an excellent horseman. His early experience in the War was mostly as an infantry man although he did have one engagement mounted on a horse.

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