Out Of The Box

Today Joey chats to Father Rod Bower. In July 2013 the sign outside the Gosford Anglican Church was thrust into the center of Australia’s national conversation when Rod changed it to read 'DEAR CHRISTIANS. SOME PPL ARE GAY. GET OVER IT.  LOVE GOD’ Rod posted the message on the Anglican Parish of Gosford Facebook page. It went viral. Five years on, and a healthy dose of death threats later we’ve seen signs reading anything from “BOO THE BIGOTS. WE STAND WITH ADAM GOODES.” , to “CHANGE LEADER, CHANGE NOTHING. CHANGE SYSTEMS, CHANGE THE WORLD". In recent months Father Rod has published his autobiography Outspoken, and announced his senate candidacy as an independent in this year's federal election. Producer: Bre Jones

Lexi grew up in the leafy eastern suburbs of Sydney in a secular Jewish family – the granddaughter of Hungarian refugees. Perhaps she didn’t know it at the time but after having a go as a play write, a short career in acting at the Bell Shakespeare company, and a move to New York it would be the leafy east of her childhood that would provide the setting of her debut novel. Published last year 'Innaprorpiation' has become a phenomenal success in the US making New York Magazine’s top 10 list for 2018.

Today Joey chats to drag artist Le Gateau Chocolat. Gateau was raised in the bustling seaside Nigerian city of Lagos, in a conservative Pentecostal family – he grew up suppressing his identity in an environment where being gay was forbidden. At 16 he moved to the UK to attend boarding school, which became a law degree. But soon he shook of the traditional route and, almost by accident, he became a drag-inflected diva with a soaring operatic baritone that he lends to the compositions of everyone from Whitney to Guiseppi Verdi.

Today, rapper, poet, playwright, and novelist, Omar Musa. When Omar was growing up in the regional NSW town of Queenbeyan, the son of a theatre historian and Malaysian poet, he fell slowly into the world of the arts– driven partly by an obsessive desire to create, and partly by the injustices he saw in the Australia’s combustible society. It would be the basis for a life spent creating in all forms. One that would take him from seedy record labels in London, to otherworldly cultural experiences in California, and back to his family roots in Borneo. As a rapper Omar has collaborated with some of the greats – Horrorshow, Kate Tempest, Marc E. Bassy, and Akala to name a few. Beyond that his poetry books, and novel have both been widely acclaimed.  He’s currently finishing a run of his self written, self performed play Since Ali Died at Sydney festival.

Today Joey speaks to Stuart Coupe. When Stuart moved from the northern Tasmanian town of Launceston to Adelaide in the mid-70s he was a representative squash player, with a passion for music, and an unlikely taste for counter culture. It was not long before he fell into the world of music – his own zine roadrunner was a quiet step into a career that would see him come face to face with the likes of Bob Dylan, and Mick Jagger, manage Paul Kelly and the Hoodoo Gurus, and promote acts as varied Chris Whitley, Lucinda Williams, and Harry Dean Stanton. In more recent times he has taken up radio. On Tuesday he hosts Tune Up - a show dedicated to covers - due to that and the many other shows he has hosted over the years he is often referred as the god father of FBi radio.

Today Joey speaks to the owner of Oxford Art Factory Mark Gerber.  When Mark Gerber moved to Australia in 1971 he was a ten year old with a budding appreciation for the arts. His life to that point split between Denmark and the Netherlands. His new home city of Sydney would be the launch pad for global careers, as a musician, dj, actor, model, and promoter all driven by an obsessive fascination culture - the new and the exciting. But it was in 2005 when he took over a former record store three blocks from Hyde Park in the inner Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst that a long term dream of an inclusive, innovative creative space would come to life. It would be called the Oxford Art Factory and over the past 11 years, under Mark’s management, it has go onto become one the most respected cultural institutions in Sydney.

Today Joey speaks to Ravi Prasad. Almost eight years ago Ravi watched his eldest daughter stop breathing moments after she was born – she survived, but it was a moment that changed everything.  Up to that point he’d spent twenty years working in the often-vacuous world of advertising – an environment where as Ravi himself says ‘the higher you climb the thinner the air.’  Skip forward a few years and Ravi is now the owner of Parliament on King, a café set up in his own living room on South King Street in the inner city suburb of Newtown that provides life-transforming hospitality training and work for refugees and asylum seekers.

Over two years Serge has chatted with an incredible selection of people from the rapper Briggs, to journalist Jan Fran, to Anthony Albanese MP – his radio life continues now at triple J where he produces Hack. But there is more to Serge than radio. In his short years he’s been a wildlife ambassador, child actor, skate board fiend, Italian football hooligan, and the survivor of a life threatening injury.

At just 16 years of age Chris Csab began gay conversion therapy and in decade following, it left him celibate, feeling a deep sense of shame, and ultimately suicidal. But his story is one that has light at the end of the tunnel and chris is now a gay christian LGBTQIA advocate who is pushing governments to stop gay conversion therapy.

Indigenous broadcasting and all-round media talent Emily Nichols talks to Serge about powerful indigenous women and the best and brightest new indigenous artists.

Presenter and reporter for The Feed on SBS Marty Smiley talks to Serge about his Lebanese heritage and making great stories with a tongue in cheek.

Mari Andrew is a writer and illustrator in New York City who has taken Instagram by storm with her modern take on becoming an adult.

The greatest snowboarder of all time, 3 times Olympic gold medalist, 15 times X-games gold medalist Shaun White talks to Serge about what life is like for a GOAT!

American writer and journalist Alexis Okeowo works for the new yorker as a staff writer and has spent years reporting across Africa, the experience of which she has now chronicled in a new book.   

Comedian, radio presenter and all-round funny man Dave Thornton chats to Serge about throwing away a secure job to become a dad and tour the comedy circuit. 

  James Maskarlick is an emergency room doctor from Canada and a member for Medicins sans frontiers who spends half his life working in a state-of-the-art hospital in Toronto, the other half, in make do emergency rooms in Africa.

Indigenous academic Jennifer Newman talks to Serge about the changing face of education for Australia's first people. 

Comedian, writer and all-round media star Jen Wong talks to Serge about racism and passionate enthusiasm for work.

Woman, muslim, boxer, boss... what more is there to say about Bianca Elmir? A lot! Listen in to Her candid chat about going from kidnapped kid to boxing bad ass.

Journalist, documentary maker and presenter of The Feed on SBS chats to Serge about travel, the media and feminism.