Conversations

• Hormones and mental health with Dr Jayashri Kulkarni

  Dr Jayashri Kulkarni on her Indian-Australian upbringing and her groundbreaking research into women's hormones and mental health (R)Jayashri Kulkarni’s family moved from India to Australia in 1961.They found there were no Indian grocery stores, few spices of any kind, and plain yoghurt wasn’t available.But the Kulkarnis adapted to their new home, teaching their neighbours how to cook Indian food, and encouraging Jayashri's love for studying.Jayashri became a doctor, and during her training as a psychiatrist she became fascinated by the relationship between women's hormones and mental health.She’s since been at the frontline of groundbreaking research, which challenged many of her colleagues and ended up helping women all over the world.Further informationFirst broadcast in February 2024.Find out more about the Conversations Live National Tour on the ABC website.Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. This episode was produced by Tamar Cranswick and presented by Sarah Kanowski.It explores female health, medical research, menopause, perimenopause, hormonal health, female medical research, migration, studying medicine, depression, anxiety, gut health, why don't doctors listen to women, gender stereotypes, underrepresentation in medical research, gaslighting in women's health, women's pain, motherhood, stress, psychiatry, reproductive health, hormonal birth control.

  --------  

  52:16
• Part TWO: Locked up in China — Cheng Lei on cell mates, singing and survival

  Cheng Lei's years in detention in China, on trumped-up espionage charges, go from cruel and isolating, to absurd and romantic when she gets moved into a cell with three other women.The Chinese-Australian journalist was held in detention in China for more than three years, accused of selling state secrets to foreign people and powers.In episode one of this two-part series, Lei explained how the charges hinged on a document that was read out publicly on television, and how she survived the cruelty of interrogations and being kept in isolation.In this episode, Lei's details how her experience of detention changed as she moved out of solitary confinement, but still under lock and key with three other women.In cell 112, Lei and the other women sang songs when the guards weren't watching, they fought, they bonded and they communicated secretly with the prisoners in a cell next door.The knocking, for which Lei was punished, climaxed in a covert proposal.Eventually, Lei saw sunlight again. With the help of the Australian Government, she was released and flown back home to Melbourne, where she was reunited with her children (now teenagers), rebuilt her life and can be publicly critical of the paranoid and image-conscious state security system that locked her behind bars for years.Further informationListen to the first part of Richard's extraordinary conversation with Cheng Lei here.Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom is published by HarperCollins.Cheng Lei: My Story is a documentary made by Sky News Australia. It is available to stream at SkyNews.com.au.Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. This episode was produced by Meggie Morris.Find out more about the Conversations Live National Tour on the ABC website.This episode of Conversations explores CCP, Covid, propaganda, communism, paranoia, Marise Payne, Scott Morrison, family separation, career changes, jail, justice system, Chinese Communist Party, embassy, diplomatic relations, CCTV, state broadcaster, media, television, news anchor, single mothers, trade, tariffs, books, writing, motherhood, parenting, Tiananmen Square, personal stories, origin.

  --------  

  48:06
• Part ONE: Locked up in China — Cheng Lei on state paranoia and staying sane in isolation

  When journalist Cheng Lei was detained by Chinese state security agents, she thought would be freed within the week. Instead, she was held on absurd espionage charges for more than three years, much of that time spent in isolation.When Cheng Lei moved back to the country of her birth after the dramatic opening up of China to the world, she was a part of something exciting and historic.That all changed after Xi Jinping came to power, and Australia's relations with China deteriorated.In this first episode of a two-part series, Lei explains how eventually, she found herself detained on bogus espionage charges, and held for more than three years in a Chinese detention centre.For the first six months of her detention, Lei was isolated and alone except for the rotating female guards who stood over her 24 hours a day.Lei was not allowed to speak to these guards, she was forced to sit on the edge of her bed for 14 hours a day, she had to ask permission to do anything, she was not allowed to close her eyes and intermittently she was taken to a room, tied down in a chair and interrogated about allegedly sharing state secrets with foreigners.Lei learned how to ration books, she practised German vocabulary, wrote scripts in her head and thought of her two children to stay sane under torturous conditions.Further informationListen to the second part of Richard's extraordinary conversation with Cheng Lei here.Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom is published by HarperCollins.Cheng Lei: My Story is a documentary made by Sky News Australia. It is available to stream at SkyNews.com.au.Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. This episode was produced by Meggie Morris.Find out more about the Conversations Live National Tour on the ABC website.This episode of Conversations explores CCP, Covid, propaganda, communism, paranoia, Marise Payne, Scott Morrison, family separation, career changes, jail, justice system, Chinese Communist Party, embassy, diplomatic relations, CCTV, state broadcaster, media, television, news anchor, single mothers, trade, tariffs, books, writing, motherhood, parenting, Tiananmen Square, personal stories, origin.

  --------  

  49:00
• Depersonalisation — when Nathan lost his sense of self and nothing felt real

  In 2008 Nathan Dunne was night swimming in Hampstead Heath in the middle of winter when a psychological catastrophe struck him. He felt his sense of self split in two, and an unbearable pain overtook him. He couldn’t work out what had happened to him, and neither could the doctors.CW: This discussion contains sensitive mental health details and mentions suicide.Nathan was driven to attempt suicide, and endured years of misdiagnoses from doctors and medications that didn't work.Nathan didn't have the words to describe the confusion, pain and splitting of self he was experiencing.For years, water was the symbol of his undoing.When Nathan returned home to Australia and his parents' care, his mum gave him a copy of his grandfather's war memoirs.Here, Nathan found a link that showed him the healing qualities and the beauty that were possible in water.Eventually, Nathan found a doctor who could explain his symptoms and finally give them a name — depersonalisation.Further informationIf you need help, you can phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.When Nothing Feels Real is published by Murdoch Books.Read more about dissociative disorders and depersonalisation on the NHS website.Read about dissociative disorders and depersonalisation specifically in relation to young people on the Orygen website.Find out more about the Conversations Live National Tour on the ABC website.Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan.

  --------  

  51:54
• A home filled with music — raising the Kanneh-Masons

  Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason on what it takes to keep up with her seven children — all of them gifted classical musicians (R).Kadiatu is a former English academic and the mother of seven extraordinary children.All of them are gifted classical musicians.Her eldest daughter, Isata wrote and performed her first piano concerto at the age of eleven.Her son Sheku mastered the cello and performed at the royal wedding of Harry and Megan Markle.Every day the seven Kanneh-Masons, who range from early teens to the mid-twenties, fill the family home with glorious, sometimes chaotic, music.This episode of Conversations explores music education, classical music, accessibility to music, Isata, Braimah, Sheku, Konya, Jeneba, Aminata, Mariatu, piano, violin, cello, orchestra, state school, public education, big families, motherhood, fatherhood, prejudice, mixed race families, music is for everyone, how to learn the violin, gifted children, raising gifted children, gifted and talented.Further informationHouse of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons is published by Oneworld.Kadiatu's newest book, also published by Oneworld, is called To Be Young Gifted And Black.

  --------  

  48:48

More Society & Culture podcasts

Trending Society & Culture podcasts

About Conversations

Conversations: Podcasts in Family