Conversations

After a near death experience, Kate Clinch became drawn into the astonishing, Gothic story of a young Australian woman named Eileen O'Connor, who is buried under the floorboards of a home in Coogee.
Kate was working as a GP in country South Australia when an ectopic pregnancy nearly killed her.
She had a vivid near death experience, which prompted her to start interrogating inexplicable and miraculous events.
Kate hadn't grown up Catholic, or even religious, but years after her near death experience, she was drawn into the story of a young Australian saint-in-waiting named Eileen O'Connor.
Eileen lived in Sydney at the turn of the 20th century.
She lived with profound physical disabilities, standing at only 115cm tall, but somehow she managed to head up a group of nurses who delivered free medical care to people living in the slums of Sydney.
Eileen's story is an astounding collection of ups and downs - suffering, tragedy, a scandalous relationship with a young priest, threats of excommunication, a wartime sea voyage to Rome and a meeting with the Pope.
And she is currently being scrutinised by the Vatican for possible canonisation, which would make Eileen Australia's second saint.
Every Inch a Saint is published by Monkfish.
Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor has been caring for the sick and disadvantaged in their own homes for more than 100 years. You can read more about the religious order and the lay nurses who work with the nuns - colloquially known as the Brown Nurses - online.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores spirituality, dying, sickness, religion, faith, Christianity, Catholic Church, World War One, Spanish Influenza, TB, Tuberculosis, history, Australian history, nuns, priests, scandal, people living with disability, sainthood, miracles, near death experiences, metaphysical experiences, motherhood, doctoring, medicine, modern medicine, x-rays, medical history, resilience, divinity, holy, the divine, sainthood, how does someone become a saint, what is a miracle, living with disability, spinal deformity, grief, death.
To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Costume designer Tim Chappel on the chance discovery at a train station that led him into a life of designing for films and the stage.
Tim can’t remember all the places he lived, growing up on Army bases around the country, and overseas. 
His one constant as a kid was nature. 
He’d look for stick insects to pin into his collection and draw endless terrestrial orchids. 
Tim was ready to focus his life on botany when he found a copy of French Vogue at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne.
He was entranced by the glamour of the clothes and felt an instant connection to the tailoring.
Tim was creating shorts for bartenders and costumes for drag queens at Sydney's Albury Hotel when he got a new job offer.
That's when he signed up to design the costumes for an Australian film called Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, work which would later win him an Oscar.
More information
There is a sequel in the works for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Read more about it here

Growing up, para powerlifter, Hani Watson’s passion for lifting had been ignited by her dad and the pack of Arnold Schwarzenegger-types in their string singlets who would accompany him to lift weights. The gym has seen Hani through agonising moments in life, and all the way to the Paralympic Games. Warning: discussion of sexual assault.
Throughout her childhood she was having operation after painful operation, to try to straighten her bowed legs.
After each surgery, the metal pins and screws would wreak havoc in Hani’s legs, and they resumed growing in the same way they always had.
In high school, ruptures at home meant Hani had to move out and support herself, and she lost touch with her mum. 
During this distressing time, a kindly school principal gave Hani the keys to the school gym, and that place became an anchor once more.
After another unsuccessful surgery in her 30s, Hani was enjoying the freedom of a wheelchair, compared to the agonising and exhausting effort of walking.
She turned to powerlifting to recover, which led her to worldwide competitions, eventually earning a bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022. 
Hani also competed at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Further information
If you need support, you can chat online with someone at Lifeline, or call on 13 11 14.
Hani is competing for Australia in Glasgow at this year’s Commonwealth Games.
This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
This episode covers weightlifting, powerlifting, para-powerlifting, paralympian, disability, athlete, bowed legs, osteotomies, plates and screws in your leg, divorce, marriage, trauma, domestic violence, family violence, mental health, mental illness, psychosis, weight training, drugs, drug mule, marijuana, high school, bullying, popular kids, assault, sexual assault, competition, bunnings, wheelchair, VAD, QVAD, voluntary assisted dying and chores. 
To binge even more great episodes of the 'Conversations podcast' with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

At just 15 years old, Jarvis Cocker wrote a manifesto that laid out his vision for a band he hoped would take over the music industry.
Jarvis discovered the document while sorting through the boxes of stuff from his early life that he’d stashed away in his attic.
It was in an an old school exercise book from when he was a fifteen-year-old schoolboy in Sheffield.
He'd filled it with detailed plans to form a band called Pulp that would storm the music industry.
But it took fourteen years for his 'Pulp Masterplan' to come to fruition, when his song ‘Common People’ went to the top of the UK charts.
This interview was first broadcast in 2023 
Further information
This interview was recorded at the 2023 Melbourne Writers Festival 
Good Pop Bad Pop is published by Random House

Hannah had a beautiful love story with her husband Matt. After he died in a surfing accident, grief broke her open and changed her life in unexpected ways 
As a young couple, writer Hannah Richell and her husband Matt left London for a new life in Australia. 
They loved the ocean, the sun, and the people.
Then one morning before work, Matt went for a surf at Bronte Beach, and, in a tragic accident, drowned.
Hannah was lost to grief....and overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for their two little children all alone.
But, painstaking, day by day, month by month, year by year she found her way back to life.
Hannah discovered that her heart could expand to include all of it - the joy and the heartbreak, the sweetness and the pain, the love and the loss.
Further information:  
An Ocean And A Day is published by HarperCollins