The former Canberra Raiders player on hiding his fantasy reading habits as a kid in Western Queensland, the joy of doing hard things, and how books brought him back from the brink. Warning: Discussion of suicide.

Luke was a sensitive kid, growing up on a cattle station in Western Queensland. 

He loved being transported by fantasy novels — following the quests, battles and magic they offered him.

Luke found release in these books, beyond the hard work and zipped lips of the strong men he saw around him.

Luke didn’t fit into that mould, though he did plenty of work on the farm and loved playing footy. 

The sport helped him find a place to belong in his world.

As a young man, he scored a place in the Canberra Raiders NRL team, and was introduced to the world of gambling.

This quickly spiralled into an addiction, and Luke abused drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of this period.

Despite being at the height of his young life, and earning hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, Luke couldn’t pay for his groceries. He couldn’t put fuel in the car. 

He was spending all his money on betting.

When things hit rock bottom, Luke relied on the strongest, most loving person he knew — his mum.

He understood, somehow, that to get out of the deep hole he was in, he had to find his way back to reading.

Further information

Luke is writing his first two fantasy novels, which will be released in early 2027 under Atria Books Australia, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

If you need someone to speak to, you can always call or chat online with Lifeline on 13 11 14.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch.

This episode touches on suicide, gambling, having a flutter, addiction, rehab, love mum, strong mum, single mum, horse racing, the trots, syndicate, racing horse, borrowing money, Newcastle, rock bottom, hitting rock bottom, powerless over addiction, hero's journey, MDMA, cocaine, alcohol abuse, relapse, recovery, non-linear journey, toxic masculinity, self help, sensitive man.

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.

Jayden Sheridan was just 17 years old when he found out he was going to be a father, and immediately Jayden knew he needed to give his son better opportunities than he ever had growing up in regional Victoria. (R)

In Seymour, which is one of the most disadvantaged postcodes in Australia, Jayden experienced homelessness, substance abuse, violence and a general lack of direction. 

He had no male role models in his life, but he did have the local skate park.

It's where he went to feel safe and to feel himself, and Jayden wanted to create that same feeling for his son, and all the other kids in his town of Seymour.

What started as adhoc skate lessons quickly turned into Gnarly Neighbours, something far bigger and more impactful than 17-year-old Jayden could have imagined.

Jayden has recently been selected as a 2026 Westpac Social Change Fellow. His fellowship involves travelling across the US, Europe and the UK to learn from organisations doing similar work in creative and trauma-informed mentoring for young people.

You can learn more about Gnarly Neighbours here.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer was Carmel Rooney.

This episode of Conversations explores substance abuse, drug use, drug dealing, expulsion, troubled children, mental health, bipolar disorder, teen parenting, teen fatherhood, teen motherhood, skateboarding, skating, streetwear, origin stories, family dynamics, male role models, father figures, dysfunctional families, single parenting, rural and regional Australia, masculinity, manhood, rites of passage, mentoring.

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.

The Wikipedia co-founder has developed seven rules for building trust to create a better world, both on the internet and IRL.

Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, Jimmy was enamoured with his family's Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The city was home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre, and the energy of the place gave a young Jimmy a robust enthusiasm for technology and the future.

As a young man, Jimmy developed the idea to start a free, online encyclopaedia, built by strangers and shared across languages.

In 2001, Wikipedia was born, and for a time it was derided.

Now, the website is a mainstay of the internet and a resource trusted by many.

Jimmy says Wikipedia is all about strangers working together on the internet, in pursuit of a common goal, powered by their shared enthusiasm, and that is something to celebrate.

Further information

The Seven Rules of Trust: Why It Is Today's Most Essential Superpower is published by Bloomsbury.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch.

It covers Twitter, X, trolls, vandalism, respect, civility, not-for-profit, tech bros, volunteers, social media ban, nupedia, servers, bots, AI, meconium aspiration syndrome, authenticity, empathy, logic, abortion, internet traffic, shouting online and civil discussion.

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.

Joh Jarvis was a high-flying boss when grief from a terrible loss began to overwhelm her. She tried therapy, exercise and healthy eating. Then she found Vedic meditation, and the experience was 'psychedelic'. (R)

Joh Jarvis is a Vedic meditation teacher in New York City.

On a regular basis Joh travels to the notorious Rikers Island Prison in the Bronx.

There, she teaches meditation to men waiting on remand.

Inside a prison which is often violent and chaotic, she aims to give them a new way of coping.

Joh grew up in Adelaide, and always wanted to live amidst the bright lights of New York.

After a stint as a bicycle courier, she worked her way up to management at the ABC.

As she approached 50, she had a well-paying job, a nice house, and strong connections with friends and family. 

But long-term grief had hollowed her out, and she asked herself, is this all there is?

Then she was introduced to Vedic meditation, and she says her first encounter was 'psychedelic'.

Read more about Joh's work at Rikers Island and other US prisons at her website The Light Inside.

And you can see Joh in action on ABC TV's Compass.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Alice Moldovan. Executive Producer was Nicola Harrison.

It explores epic life stories, family dynamics, grief, loss, reflection, Vedic meditation, meditation, personal stories, origin stories, death, career, giving back, New York City, Rikers Island prison, incarceration, justice system, prison system, mindfulness, mantras, health and wellness, suicide.

Staff writer at The New Yorker, Patrick Radden Keefe tells the story of Zac Brettler, who inexplicably changed from a charming and hilarious boy into a money- and status-obsessed young man, who mixed with gangsters and shady businessmen.

Patrick's new book begins with the description of a scene that was picked up by a surveillance camera in London in the early hours of a November morning in 2019.

The footage showed a grainy image of a shadowy figure, anxiously moving about the balcony of a luxury apartment. 

That young man's name was Zac Brettler. 

He was 19 years old, and hours later his body was discovered on the banks of the River Thames. 

Patrick Radden Keefe’s investigation explores Zac’s secret life posing as the son of a Russian oligarch, and delves into the true identities of the wealthy gangsters who were there in his final hours.

Further information

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City, and a Family's Search for Truth is published by Pan Macmillan Australia.

This episode covers grief, fantasy life, con artists, London underworld, Boris Johnson, family tragedy, luxury, Holocaust survivors, rabbi, Mill Hill school, young men, making money, raising boys, Roman Abramovich, oligarch, plutocrat, MI6 and true crime.

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.

The philosopher argues that as a culture, we'd be happier and saner if we re-examined our view of love, because our romantic notions can actually work against the relationships we want most. (R)

Alain De Botton's novel from 2016 called The Course of Love challenges many assumptions about falling in love and what comes next.

Alain first tackled the subject when he wrote Essays of Love in his early 20s.

The episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2016

The producer was Michelle Ransom-Hughes and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

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.

The renowned physician discusses the role of trauma in our lives, showing up as addiction, chronic disease and mental illness, and how recognising his own led to true healing. (R)

Dr Gabor Maté was born in Budapest to a Jewish family, just before Nazi tanks rolled into the city.

His mother risked handing him to a stranger on the street to try and get him to safety.

Many years later, after establishing himself as a successful physician in Canada, Gabor looked at the problems in his work and marriage and wondered if they were linked to that early trauma.

He uses his own experiences as a test case for the effects of trauma on the body and the body-mind connection. 

Dr Mate is internationally renowned for his ideas around the lifelong impact of trauma.

He believes it is contributing factor to rates of addiction, chronic disease, and mental illness, as well as ADHD.

His views are sometimes described as unorthodox by his critics, but Dr Mate argues that understanding trauma of all kinds allows for real healing, as has happened in his own life.

Further Information

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Dr Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté is published by Penguin Random House.

This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2025.

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.

Diana Nguyen's mother would walk out of her performances at interval in protest of her career, but Diana forged on and in the process healed this mother-daughter relationship. (R)

Diana Nguyen knew she was born for a life on the stage when she discovered dancing while staying in a nunnery as a child.

Her love affair with the arts, however, fractured her relationship with her mother, who had escaped Vietnam by boat and wanted her eldest daughter to be 'more' than a performer.

But a trip to her motherland helped heal this mother-daughter relationship, and after years of walking out of her performances in protest, Diana finally saw her mum from the stage as she took her bow.

At 48, Bill Hayes moved to New York. He took up photography, and never anticipated the surprise of falling in love with his neighbour, Dr Oliver Sacks,  a neurologist, a naturalist and a university professor. (R)Doctor Oliver Sacks became famous for writing case histories of his patients in books, including The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars.

At 75 years old, Oliver had never been in a relationship, until he fell deeply in love with his neighbour Bill Hayes, who was decades younger than him.

Bill and Oliver lived together until Oliver Sacks died in 2015, in his early eighties.

Further information

Bill's memoir Insomniac City was published in 2017 by Bloomsbury.

This conversation was recorded at the 2017 Sydney Writers' Festival.

The producer was Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.

Louise Philip had just scored her breakout role on Australian television, in Bellbird, when a horrific car crash threatened to derail the life she was forging for herself. (R)

Louise was 15 years old when she convinced her parents to let her drop out of high school to become an actress.

She had just scored her breakout role on Australian television, but within a few months a terrible car crash threatened to derail the life that she was forging for herself. 

Louise broke her back and permanently lost the use of her legs, and she was told that the silver screen was no longer a place for her.

But Louise fought to get back to work, and thrived on Australian television sets for years until she did something else that people told her was impossible -- she became a mother.

Only after Louise became a mother did she have the perspective to deeply talk to her father, who was driving the car when it crashed all those years ago, about grief, guilt and forgiveness.

This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2024.

The producer was Nicola Harrison and the executive producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores disability, tv acting, Australian television, disability access, discrimination, grief, guilt, motherhood, family, love, tragedy, resilience, forgiveness.

As a little girl growing up in Brisbane in the era of the White Australia policy, Lindy lived through the pain of always feeling different but then she began using it as fuel for her art. (R)

It took her many years to find the power in what she calls the 'tearing' in her identity.

She began to make work based on her own family story, and her Zen practice.

Lindy is now one of Australia's leading contemporary artists.

This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2022