Humans, being. with Lael Stone

This episode starts with dreaming and ends with dreaming - and in between, Luke Bateman takes us through everything that happens when you stop letting yourself do it.
Luke played professional rugby league for the Canberra Raiders - 71 first-grade games, thousands of hours of training camps and hotel rooms and locker rooms - and in almost all of that time, he kept his love of fantasy fiction completely hidden. The shame of it, he says, was shaped by a very specific idea of what it meant to be a man. And unpacking that idea has been the work of the last several years.
His whole life, it turns out, has been a dreamer's journey. He just had to go through a lot to get back to it.
We explore:
The specific culture of professional rugby league and what it meant for his sense of self, his gambling addiction, and his mental health
The inner child and parts work that was central to his recovery - including making peace with the version of himself he'd been most ashamed of
What it means to call men in, rather than calling them out
The men who went silent during his crisis, and what that silence told him about being a man.
His two favourite books - and the one that brought him home to himself after rehab
[Recorded Online April 2026]
Need help with gambling?
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About Luke Bateman:
Luke Bateman grew up in Miles, western Queensland, where rugby league was the dominant culture. He played 71 NRL first-grade games as a lock for the Canberra Raiders before a chronic knee injury ended his career at 24. After leaving the game, he returned to rural Queensland, began posting book reviews to TikTok from a tractor in 2025, and within months had signed a two-book fantasy series deal with Atria Books Australia (Simon & Schuster). He now hosts his own podcast, In the Good Books, appeared on I'm A Celebrity Australia in early 2026, and is writing his debut fantasy novel, due in 2027.
Connect with Luke:
Instagram: @lukebateman_
TikTok: @lukesreads
Podcast: In the Good Books on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts

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Connect with Humans, being:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Threads: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

There's something about a Missy Higgins song that lands in your chest before you've even registered the words. Somehow, she gets to the feeling first - the part of you that you haven't quite found language for yet.
Missy's music has been part of the soundtrack to my life for over twenty years, especially in my mothering years. So sitting across from her, I was a little bit in awe. Missy’s so generous in her honesty about the hard stuff: the writer's block that made her question her whole identity, the divorce that undid the story she thought her life would tell, the ADHD diagnosis that reframed so much of her past, and the slow, deliberate work of learning to live in her body rather than just her head.
We also talk about parenting two neurodiverse kids while navigating your own neurodiversity, the strange alchemy of songwriting (expression first, connection second), and what it feels like to fall in love again in your forties when you finally know what you actually need.
We explore:
The gift of neurodiverse children when you're still learning about your own neurodiversity
Why she started seeing a therapist to help her get out of her head and back into her body
What she hopes her kids carry with them: that they're okay, and that they are worthy of love
Repartnering after divorce - what it means to finally want a partner rather than a project
Missy left me thinking about the stories we carry about ourselves - the ones that keep turning up, the ones we think we've put down for good.
[Recorded May 2026]
About Missy Higgins:
Missy Higgins is a Melbourne-born singer-songwriter whose career spans more than two decades and four consecutive-decade ARIA No. 1 albums. Her debut album, The Sound of White (2004), became one of the best-selling Australian albums of its era, and by 2024 she had accumulated nine ARIA Awards and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Her most recent album, The Second Act, was written in the aftermath of her divorce - largely alone, at night, once the kids were asleep - and debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA chart in 2024.
Connect with Missy:
Website: missyhiggins.com
Instagram: @missyhigginsmusic

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Connect with Humans, being:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Threads: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

Amantha calls her AI 'Sunny'. She talks to it on the drive to the gym, like she's chatting to a friend. And it has quietly changed how she works, how she writes, and how she gets the thinking out of her own head.
Dr. Amantha Imber is one of the sharpest, most generous humans I know. An organisational psychologist, the founder of Inventium, host of How I Work, the first Australian to win a Thinkers50 Innovation Award, the author of four bestselling books, and her brand new one, The Energy Game, lands in July.
In this episode, we discuss Amantha's burnout year and the tiny experiments that crawled her back, the ones she calls boosts, rest, and protect. Why "fake rest" (Netflix while you scroll) won't fill the bucket. And we talk about the childhood praise imprint that drives so many of us: what if the goal isn't to be more, but to be okay with being ordinary?
We explore:
The pressure we accept being human and thinking we must do it all
The hit-by-a-bus fantasy and what it tells us about how women carry stress
AI as a thought partner, and how Amantha uses it without losing the human bit
What we want for our daughters, and the thinking skills we don't want to outsource
[Recorded January 2026]
About Amantha Imber:
Dr. Amantha Imber is an organisational psychologist and the founder of Inventium, a behaviour-change consultancy that works with companies including Google, Apple and Lego. She also runs Inventium AI, focused on AI capability building inside organisations. Amantha hosts the How I Work podcast (over 6 million downloads) and recently launched a new podcast, How I AI. She is the first Australian to win a Thinkers50 Innovation Award and is the author of four bestselling books, including Time Wise and The Health Habit. Her new book, The Energy Game, is out on 7 July 2026.
Connect with Amantha:
Instagram: @amanthai
Inventium: inventium.com.au
Newsletter: One Percent Better
Podcasts: How I Work, How I AI
Book: The Energy Game (out 7 July 2026)

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Australia’s Kindest Person:
Australia’s Kindest Person is a national campaign created to help shine a light on the people whose kindness has made a real difference in the lives of others. To nominate someone, please visit:
australiaskindestperson.com.au

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

The question I get asked the most by parents is, "Does this work?" So this week I sat down with two of the people most qualified to answer it.
For the better part of two decades, I have been teaching parents to parent differently. To skip the punishments and the rewards. To look behind the behaviour. To make space for big feelings instead of shutting them down. And the whole time, in the back of my mind, has been the quiet question every parent asks themselves... am I getting this right?
My answer was always going to come from my kids. So this episode, I'm joined by two of them, Indi (22) and Tali (18), and we are talking honestly about what it was like growing up in our house. The mistakes I made. The chocolate I tried to bribe Tali with when I was tapped out. The 4am phone call that taught all of us what safe really means. The big feelings that were always welcome, even when I had nothing left.
This is not a polished retrospective. It's messy and tender, the way our family is. We talk about staying true to yourself in a world that wants you to conform, what social media is doing to young people, why the friends pushing the boat hardest are the ones hurting most, and the little life skills that come from a house where no topic is off limits. It's also a love letter from a mum to her children who turned up, told the truth, and did not throw me too far under the bus.
We explore:
Why looking behind the behaviour beats grounding every time
What it actually looks like to repair when you have lost it as a parent
Staying true to yourself when society and social media are pulling the other way
Therapy, aunties, and the village every kid needs around them
Looking at the so-called "bad kid" and asking what is hurting
[Recorded January 2026]
About Indi and Tali Gaal:
Indi is 22, and Tali is 18. They are Lael and Mike's kids, siblings to Ky (25), and the people Lael calls her best work. Both have spent time working with young children and bring that lens, plus their own lived experience of being raised the way they were, into this conversation.

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Australia’s Kindest Person:
Australia’s Kindest Person is a national campaign created to help shine a light on the people whose kindness has made a real difference in the lives of others. To nominate someone, please visit:
australiaskindestperson.com.au

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

There's a version of strength the world rewards – capable, tireless, always fine. And then there's the cost.
Gorgi Coghlan is someone I've adored from the moment we met. She's formidable, warm, wildly accomplished, and the kind of person who makes you feel seen immediately.
We talk about the imprints that drive us – the little girl who worked hard to be seen by a father whose love came through providing, not presence.
We explore:
The hidden cost of being "the strong one"
Internal vs external boundaries - why protecting your own cup is the whole point, not the selfish part
Reconciling with a parent before it's too late, and what it means to carry that love with you
Highly sensitive people: the superpower of reading the room, the cost of being depleted by it, and why Gorgi thinks HSP will be our next big cultural conversation
"I haven't even begun." Gorgi's mantra at 50, and why she went back to drama school, just because she could
Gorgi talks about who's advocating for her. Here is this extraordinary woman – accomplished, giving, deeply loved – and she still needs to hear herself say it out loud. YES. You are allowed to need something. You are allowed to ask for it. Even if – especially if – you've spent a long time being the one who doesn't.
[Recorded January 2026]
About Gorgi Coghlan:
Gorgi Coghlan is a former Year 12 science and biology teacher turned broadcaster, presenter, and performer. She spent over a decade as co-host of The Project and The Circle on Channel Ten, and as a reporter and presenter on the Today Show on Channel Nine. An extraordinary singer, Gorgi performs live with her friend in their show Songbird – and is also now a voice on ABC Radio. She runs a hospitality business with her husband Simon, and is a devoted mum to her teenage daughter Molly.
Connect with Gorgi:
Instagram: @gorgicoghlan
Biz: The Buninyong Hotel
Songbirds: Theatre Royal, Hobart, Jul 5. Tickets

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Connect with Humans, being™:
Web: humansbeing.au
Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
TikTok: @humansbeingwithlaelstone
YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone

Australia’s Kindest Person:
Australia’s Kindest Person is a national campaign created to help shine a light on the people whose kindness has made a real difference in the lives of others. To nominate someone, please visit:
australiaskindestperson.com.au

Humans, being™ is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.