Life Matters - Full program podcast

They say life's short, but it's actually getting longer. By 2066, life expectancy for Australian women will have jumped from 86 years to nearly 90. And from 82 to 86 years for men. So how do we make sure those extra years of life are lived well?
There's something about physically picking up a cookbook, with it's pasta sauce-splattered, dog-eared pages that makes the meal enjoyed at the end feel a bit special. It goes some way to explaining the rise of cookbook clubs, like a traditional book club but with better food. Joan Tran and Dominique Lonsdale, co-founders of Cookbook Club Naarm join Stephanie Alexander AO, chef, restaurateur and cookbook author to unpack why these books can are so dear to us.
Olympian and mum of five Libby Trickett shares her favourite Australian kids book, and in Head and Heart our resident psychologist Christine Bagley-Jones helps you to prepare for empty-nesting, and hopefully avoid some of the heartbreak that comes with sending your kids off into the world.

Looksmaxxing, promposal, copium... who decides which words are important enough to be elevated to dictionary status?

Competitiveness is baked into most aspects of modern culture, from work, to your kid's sport, to performing your best life on social media. But does competitiveness feel like a trait you can't turn off or on within yourself? Psychologists Dr Inge Gnatt and Gavin Freeman bring their experience from the ballet and elite team sport spheres to unpack where your competitiveness comes from and ask where it's taken you in life.
When a minor infringement can tank an entire friendship, was it ever that serious? Is it a relationship worth patching up? We call in the aunties.

Whether it's climate change, nuclear war, or AI doomsday, conversations about the end of the world are becoming fairly commonplace. So how are we preparing for a seemingly endless list of existential threats? AI expert Toby Walsh and sociologist Jordan McKenzie discuss how we're collectively feeling about the end of days.
It's all fun and games at the younger levels of junior sport, but as players move through the age groups, the element of competition becomes more serious. Researcher Sam Elliott and Olympic medallist Libby Trickett explore how to strike the balance between encouraging healthy competition and making room for fun in kids' sport. 
The story of the Gallipoli campaign is a key part of our national identity. ANZAC history has been commemorated in myriad ways over the decades, but a new video game is raising eyebrows. Sociologist Dan Woodman weighs in on the role conflict plays in our national myths.

Among readers, there are two main camps: the completionists, and those who DNF (do not finish). Giving up on a bad book is one thing, but it can be much harder to walk away from a goal that's taken years of effort. Endurance runner Jane Davies joins researcher Hugh Riddell to explore the power of shifting or simply walking away from a goal. 
Olfactory historian William Tullett has dedicated his career to understanding how an oft-overlooked sense has shaped not only our day-to-day lives, but human history. He argues we could learn a lot from stopping not just to smell the roses, but even the grislier scents too. 
Poetry has always been a pure, earnest and powerful way for humans to express themselves. A recent UK study revealed that 24 per cent of people aged eight to 18 read poetry at least once a month. In the digital age, what's behind this surge of young people turning to this timeless form of expression?