Life & Faith

We’ve all been learning some things about ourselves in lockdown. “There’s this other layer from my experience where there was this emotional exhaustion of video calls. I’ve never wanted to miss catching up with people, I’ve always loved it. And so the experience of having catch-ups with people and feeling really emotionally exhausted at the end of that was new. Potentially it’s the experience of an introvert more consistently! So feeling drained by catching up with people was surprising and in some ways disappointing and confusing.” Over the last decade or two there’s been a “quiet revolution” going on, in the words of Susan Cain, introvert and deliverer of one of the most watched TED talks of all time, “The power of introverts”. Where there was once a bias in favour of extroversion - in social settings, and in the workplace - now the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, and introversion seems to get a lot of the attention. In this episode, Simon and Natasha wander into the minefield that is personalit

A candid conversation with Former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, on career, politics, religion and leadership. On this episode of Life & Faith, Simon Smart and Tim Costello are joined by Malcolm Turnbull, the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. His recent autobiography, ‘A Bigger Picture’, is a riveting read following Turnbull’s life from his childhood in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, his colourful career as a journalist, lawyer for Kerry Packer and merchant banker, and his turn to politics.    This book is much more than a political memoir; it is a candid and compelling insight into Turnbull’s life and the workings of Canberra.    Simon and Tim talk to him about this book, his eventful life and politics and religion in Australia.    'I really do believe in collective leadership. And I know a lot of people say that I've got a very high opinion of my own opinions... I do have a higher opinion of my own opinions, but I've always believed my opinions can be improved and advanced by listening to others... A

We honour another class of “essential” workers during COVID: teachers.  “What I’d really love parents to know is that most of us, we’re invested in your children. This is such an important job because you’re developing human beings. We’re here to develop the most important thing in your life, your child.” Nigel was discouraged from becoming a teacher, but discovered it was the right fit for him. Sarah didn’t want to be an English teacher like her dad, but was hooked from the first time she stepped into the classroom.  When you’re a student, teachers can seem remote. But, as it turns out, they share the pain of their students. Evan says the death of a child is crushing for the whole school community. Marcel tells us the difference a kind word can make to a struggling student.  At face value, teachers instruct students. But many invest in students in ways that go far beyond the classroom - and they tremble at the impact they can have on young people’s lives.  In this Life & Faith, we pay tribute to another

A confronting - and deeply personal - look at the roots of racial division in the US. --- “We still live under the long shadow of the plantation. Indeed, freedoms have been spread to a larger group of people over time, but that spread has been at the cost of ongoing oppression of black people in ways that have become very apparent thanks to video cams and cell phones that betray the brutality of the police state that we sometimes live in as black people.” With the events of recent weeks – the Death of George Floyd, the Black lives matter protests all over the U.S. and around the world, including here in Australia, we felt this episode would be a good one to revisit. When we first posted it, we were reflecting on the death of black teenager Travon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman and the fallout from that tragedy. Sadly, it seems not much has changed. In this episode of Life & Faith, Professor Albert J. Raboteau from Princeton University, an expert in the African-American religious experience, walks

Author Tom Holland explores the revolutionary and enduring influence of Christianity.  British writer, Tom Holland, has written many books, both fiction and non-fiction, on subjects ranging from dinosaurs to medieval history to vampires!  His latest book Dominion: The making of the Western Mind is a 500-page masterpiece. It's a story of how we came to be what we are, and how we think the way that we do. It recounts the history and enduring influence of Christianity. Holland is not a believer himself but argues that our western moral and social instincts are traced inexorably to early Christianity and the writings of the Apostle Paul. “I can't think of any piece of writing that has kind of had a more seismic influence on the world, almost everything that makes the Western society what it is and certainly makes me what I am, when I trace it back, it goes back basically to Paul,” says Holland. Dominion by Tom Holland  

Renowned Australian author Christos Tsiolkas talks about the personal experiences that lead him to choose early Christianity and the Apostle Paul as the subject of his latest book Damascus. In this episode of Life & Faith Christos Tsiolkas, author of provocative and disturbing stories like ‘The Slap’ and ‘Barracuda’, speaks with Simon Smart about his latest novel, Damascus. Tsiolkas grew up in a Greek Orthodox family – his Mum a devoted believer - but as a young gay man - Tsiolkas felt he could not reconcile faith with his sexuality. He has had a life-long wrestle with the Apostle Paul. At a time of deep personal despair in his 20s he came back to reading Paul and what he found was “solace, compassion and understanding.” Tsiolkas says he no longer believes the central myths of Christianity but retains a deep interest in its influence and central concepts.  His book is confronting and controversial—extremely so in parts. But it provides a compelling and stunning imaginative life in the 1st century Graeco-R

Women excel in one of two habits of successful entrepreneurs. But they’ll need guts for the other. “As one of my mentors says, ‘“When you come to the edge of mystery and you don’t quite know what to do, there’s like a little thing in you that can jump.’” Michaela O’Donnell Long graduated from college in the middle of a recession. No jobs were available, so she and her husband founded Long Winter Media, a branding and video production company, six months into their marriage. Today, the company counts Google, YouTube, and NBC Universal among its roster of clients. But in its early years, Michaela and Daniel just kept taking the next step to grow their business, even though they didn’t fully know what they were doing.  That process led Michaela to embrace risk as a mark of the entrepreneurial life - and it’s a key finding of her doctoral research into the habits of successful entrepreneurs. Today, she also is a Senior Director at the Max De Pree Center for Leadership where she leads initiatives for entrepreneurs

In 2020 more than ever, they’re everyone’s heroes: a celebration of the highs and lows of nursing.  Vasiliki planned to be a mechanical engineer, but put down the wrong code when she filled out her uni application. Lucy, who’s been a midwife for 20 years, fell in love with the idea of nursing when she was just six years old. Jesse has just started out his nursing career - in the middle of a global pandemic. And Emma S, who works with kids, arrived in the UK to start a new job just as everything went into lockdown. Emma M, a Baptist pastor as well as a nurse, speaks of the intimacy and the privilege of being there with people right at the end. And Kelly speaks from quarantine of her concern for the patients she had to leave behind in Senegal.  200 years on from the birth of Florence Nightingale, on International Nurses Day, in the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, in the midst of coronavirus ... Life & Faith brings you a celebration of nurses and nursing, in their own words, and in five parts: T

Possibilities and dangers from corona chaos. Will we emerge from the Corona crisis with stronger bonds and more united communities? What will it take to preserve solidarity and the re-ordering of our priorities? In this episode of Life & Faith Simon Smart checks in with Tim Costello as to how he is surviving ISO. Simon and Tim then talk to Tim Dixon, enduring Covid19 lockdown in London. Tim is the co-founder of More in Common, and leads a team seeking to build civic bonds and strengthen democracies by doing research and telling the stories of what we share, as opposed to what divides us. Tim sees some fascinating possibilities in what might emerge from our experience of the virus. Observing renewed community solidarity both online and from local initiatives, as well as a concern for the most vulnerable, he wonders if we can find ways to maintain this once the crisis has passed. The conversation also considers the possibility that when faced with mortality and an inability to control our lives, more people

We might be “all in this together” but what does the Covid19 crisis mean for those on the margins of society? In this Life & Faith Simon Smart and Tim Costello discuss the impact of the Coronavirus on individuals and communities. Will it change our priorities and what will be the lasting impact? Tim considers the very real and detrimental effect of the economic downturn on the charity sector. And Simon and Tim talk to Neil Smith from Planet Shakers church in Melbourne about their “Empower” initiative that provides food and necessities for people in need and in a manner that gives them dignity and agency. Neil explains how demand for their services has spiked and how they’ve welcomed some unexpected clients in recent days. Tim's article in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/we-need-to-be-physically-distant-but-we-need-to-share-our-collective-pain Planetshakers Empower: https://www.empoweraustralia.com.au/

This Easter, we encounter incredible stories of forgiveness in the face of unimaginable suffering. Early in 2020, Australians everywhere were shaken by the awful news of the tragic death of four children - three siblings and one cousin - in Western Sydney, mown down by an alleged drunk driver while on their way to buy ice cream one summer evening.  But what struck everyone was the response of the parents of three of the children, Daniel and Leila Abdallah. Though devastated, Leila said that she wanted to forgive the driver. She refused to hate him. “That’s not who we are,” she said. That instinct to forgive is not quick or easy for most of us. In this episode of Life & Faith, we hear from Kylie Beach, a journalist from Christian newspaper Eternity, who reported on a prayer vigil for the Abdallah children. While there, she met Daniel and Leila, and was struck with their ability to comfort others, even in the midst of their heartbreak. We also meet Anba Angaelos, the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London. He

A story of world records, and navigating a neurotypical world of work. “I used to think why are we so similar and yet our lives have turned out quite differently? I thought that she was just introverted at the time. Now, looking back, I can see how some of her autistic challenges were not being properly addressed, not being properly understood … I could see a missed opportunity for people like her, that are being left out of the workplace but have amazing strengths that could be deployed with a bit of appropriate structure around them.” In this episode of Life & Faith, Simon Smart speaks to Mike Tozer, founder and CEO of Xceptional. This unique company began by offering employment for people with autism, but then developed into a recruitment and placement service, finding roles for people with autism in companies that really need the skills they can provide.  Mike is also a world record-holder, although for quite an unusual record - running a half-marathon in a business suit! And his motivation to raise a

Memoir, biography, and even confession: when we tell our stories, just who do we hope is listening? “We feel this impulsion to tell our story, to share our story, to bear witness to the mystery that is us, and to give it away. And that itself is a deeply risky venture, because it makes us so vulnerable.” What are we doing when we tell the stories of our lives?  In this Life & Faith, Simon Smart and Justine Toh explore memoir, biography, and the desire to explain ourselves to others.  Simon also talks to James K. A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the author of On the road with St Augustine: A real world spirituality for restless hearts. Yes, Augustine. According to Smith, regardless of what you think about God, you tread in the footsteps of the fourth-century bishop whenever you tell the story of your life. Augustine’s Confessions - part spiritual autobiography, part memoir, part prayer to God - looms over the genre of memoir today. -- Read: James K. A. S

It takes a village to raise not just a child, but also the teen parent of one. Bernadette Black fell pregnant at 16. Her dad had a public meltdown, but Bernadette decided to have the baby. One day, she flicked through a baby name book and looked up the meaning of her own name. Bernadette, it turned out, meant ‘brave as a bear’. “And I thought, “You know what? That’s just what I have to be. Somehow I have to be brave as a bear,” Bernadette said, even as she experienced plenty of stigma throughout her pregnancy and the early years of Damian, her baby boy. Twenty-six years later, Bernadette heads up the Brave Foundation, which aims to build a village of support around expectant and parenting teens, connecting them with support services as well as educational and employment opportunities. In 2019, Brave was awarded $4.4 million to roll out a trial connecting with and mentoring almost 400 teen mums around Australia. Brave partners with teen parents to help them achieve their goals, providing to them exactly the ki

A poet tells the story of his faith unravelling - and being woven together again.  “One of my favourite sayings in the world, ’The fish in the bowl doesn’t know that it’s wet’ - that helped me to look back upon the fishbowl that I’d been swimming in.”  Performance poet Joel McKerrow’s recently published book Woven is not a book of cookie-cutter spirituality. It’s not a book of answers, or programmable spiritual growth. It’s a question, an invitation, a beckoning toward movement.  In this refreshingly honest conversation with Joel, he looks back on the lost faith of his childhood and the grief associated with that loss - and also recounts how he regained his faith, this time a richer and more holistic, robust version. It’s a conversation about restoration and rebuilding of broken things, and how the rebuilt thing is stronger and able to weather the storms of life.  Check out Joel's book Woven: A Faith For the Dissatisfied

Sarah Williams explains how the mother of modern feminism fell off the pages of history. --- After her death in 1906, Josephine Butler was described as one of the “few great people who have moulded the course of things”. (For the record, she was also described by peers as “the most beautiful woman in the world”.) Yet how many of us have heard of her? A bit too feminist for later Christians, a bit too Christian for later feminists, this pioneer of the movement against sex trafficking is only now being remembered. Sarah Williams is an historian at Regent College and a research associate at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford. And over the last few years, she has gotten to know Josephine Butler well – she would even go so far as to call her a friend. When Natasha Moore asked what she finds so remarkable about Butler, Sarah speaks first about her persistence – the sixteen years she spent working to overturn one law that unjustly discriminated against women. “I don't think that we lack vision in our culture, but we definitely

How many people can say they work undercover to bring justice to some of the world’s most vulnerable people? --- “I thought I was prepared for this work, but I really wasn’t. My three years in India ... hardest three years of my life, of all the things I've done, including being in the Marines. But it's three years that I wouldn't trade for anything. You couldn't have paid me a million dollars a year to do something different.” He was a Marine, then a cop for decades; he worked undercover investigating drug cartels and the Mexican mafia, as well as with the FBI on police corruption cases. As if that weren’t enough careers for one guy, he’s gone back undercover - now for International Justice Mission (IJM), which works to end slavery. The thing is, because of the nature of his work, we can’t tell you his name. Meet Investigator V. “Honestly, my first reaction was, what slavery? I don't believe that. The IJM recruiter told me, back in 2007, 'There's 27 million slaves in the world, we were wondering if you would

Life & Faith brings you some personal snapshots from Australia’s bushfire crisis.  --- “The refuge was very hot, it was very smoky, and there was no power. It’s nighttime - or at least the sun should have been rising, but it looked like nighttime … At one stage a number of us heard dull thud explosions in the distance. They were gas bottles - houses - so symbolising another house had just gone up. So we knew that the fire was in town.”  The whole world has been watching this summer as Australia burned. In total, the area burned out is almost the size of England. The loss of life, property, and wilderness has been devastating.  In this episode of Life & Faith, we give space to a few voices - the voices of ordinary people who’ve found themselves caught up in this crisis in some way, either voluntarily, or less so - in order to give some sense of how things have played out for a few individuals and communities. Air Force chaplain Michelle Philp, RFS volunteer Benjamin North, and Chris Mulherin - who live

A Hidden Life, Jojo Rabbit, and their stories of ordinary people resisting the evils of Nazism. It’s Oscar season, and among the list of nominees you’ll find A Hidden Life and Jojo Rabbit, which ended up winning an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Stylistically, the films couldn’t be more different: A Hidden Life is Terrence Malick’s lyrical retelling of an Austrian farmer’s refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to the Nazis, while Jojo Rabbit is Taika Waititi’s satirical comedy starring Waititi as Hitler, the imaginary friend of the 10-year-old protagonist Jojo. But both stories share a common theme: the need for ordinary people to stand up for what’s right, even at tremendous cost to themselves. In this episode of Life & Faith, Simon and Justine discuss the way these films explore the ethical complexities of doing what is right, versus doing what is expedient. They also talk to Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson and film buff Mike Frost about hate, prejudice, and what might move ordinary people

Yoga, mindfulness, and detox diets: religion for those who’d never be caught dead in a church? “Not everyone who goes to yoga is a spiritual seeker, but there is a lot of it (in yoga). I think yoga can make you start thinking about things, but it’s not really enough to fill that hole.” Brigid Delaney is a columnist with The Guardian and the author of Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness, in which she recounts her attempt to become clean, lean, and serene through an extreme detox diet, daily yoga practice, and meditation. But Brigid also grew up Catholic. While she’s long been disenchanted with the church, that religious backstory gives her a unique take on wellness culture. She claims that for many young women, yoga is a form of ‘religion-lite’: a practice that addresses the spiritual yearning of those untethered from organised religion.  Brigid’s account of wellness culture is haunted by religion in other ways as well. At points in Wellmania, she seems to indirectly quote the Bible. “Maybe I’v