The Understanding Boys Podcast

Kylie Rogers is one of Australia’s leading commercial and media executives. Her current role is Executive General Manager, Customer and Commercial at the Australian Football League (AFL). Her previous roles include National Commercial Director and National Head of Generate at Network Ten, and Commercial Director and Managing Director at Mamamia, Australia’s largest women’s media company, where she oversaw significant growth and profitability for the organisation in Australia and internationally. 
 
In this episode Kylie shares her experience working with purposeful organisations, gender equity in the workplace, and the types of conversations we need to be having with our boys. We hope you enjoy this episode. 

Film director and producer Maree Crabbe has worked with young people and issues affecting young people for more than 20 years. She has developed and delivered programs that focus on sexual violence prevention and sexual diversity and has contributed to public conversations through interviews on television and radio and articles in online and print media.

Maree co-ordinates the program Reality Risk: Pornography, young people and sexuality which seeks to support young people and the broader community to critique the messages about gender and sex and to promote the understanding of relationships and sexuality that are based on respect, equality, mutuality, communication and consent.

Maree is also co producer and co-director of the documentary films, Love and Sex in and Age of Pornography and The Porn Factor, both broadcast on SBS. She is also the author of In the Picture,  a resource that supports secondary schools to address the influence of explicit sexual imagery

Maree talks about the impact of pornography, and steps we can take to ensure we are raising healthy boys.

Genevieve is best known in her role as National Head of PR and Talent Relations for News Corp Australia. She has also worked on a number of advisory boards including the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Melbourne Press Club, as well as helping out at local sports clubs her children are involved with.

Join us for this authentic and genuine conversation with this amazing mum as she shares her stories about her own life and her learnings along the way.

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Kim Kane is an award-winning Australian author of 25 books for children and teenagers. Kim’s books have been published throughout the world and translated into a number of languages.

Before she began writing for children, Kim practised commercial law for a decade. Kim is an advocate for children’s writing and sits on the board of the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation. 

Kim’s books include the CBCA short-listed picture book Family Forest, and her time-slip children's novel When the Lyrebird Calls and the Ginger Green series. 

Kim is a mother of two sons and lives in Melbourne. 

Dr Sarah Meachem is an academic research scientist and health research advocate in the area of male reproduction. 

Sarah’s research has a clinical relevance for men’s health in the better management of male infertility and her work is recognised globally.  She is the author of over 80 publications and has received awards for her vision for the nation’s health sector.

Sarah completed her PhD at Monash University where she studied the hormone control of testis function. She is a Director of the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, a Manager for the co-badged PhD International Research Training Program between Germany and Australia and serves on the Advisory Group to the Board of the Australian Society for Medical Research and is the Chair of the national steering group.

In this episode we talk to Sarah about her fascinating work in men’s health.   

Roshena Campbell is a barrister and Melbourne City Councillor who is passionate about contributing to Melbourne’s re-emergence as a vibrant and thriving city.

She has expertise in commercial law and corporate governance and has represented some of Australia’s largest companies and state and local government bodies.

Roshena holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours from Monash University and a Masters of Laws from the University of Melbourne. She is a mother to three children.

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Martine Oglethorpe is a digital wellbeing and online safe educator, speaker and writer.

For over 10 years, Martine’s blog, The Modern Parent, has been a trusted resource for parents on the challenges faced by families in the cyber world and has recently authored a new book, The Modern Parent – Raising a Great Kid in the Digital World.

Martine has a background in secondary education, holds a Masters degree in Counselling and is a Mental Health Education Consultant at headspace. She is an accredited speaker with the Office of the eSafety Commission of Australia and has presented to parents groups, schools and teachers across Australia.  

If you have ever wondered if you should let your child watch Squid games, play Fortnite, get Tik Tok, Instagram, or play Call of Duty, then this episode is worth a listen.

Daisy Turnbull is a teacher, director of wellbeing, counsellor and now inspiring author of two books, 50 Risks to Take With Your Kids – A guide to building resilience and independence in the first 10 years and the follow up 50 Questions to Ask Your Teens – A guide to fostering communication and confidence in young adults. The books are underpinned by research and her own experience as a teacher of teens.

Daisy is an accredited Lifeline crisis support counsellor and regularly volunteers on the crisis support line and a mother of two children.

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Matt and Robyn Cronin endured great loss when their son Pat was killed by one coward punch.

Since April 2016, Matt and Robyn have dedicated their lives towards research, awareness, and education in ending the coward punch through the Pat Cronin Foundation.

The foundation provides free presentations to schools, clubs and community groups, helping young people create solutions to Be Wise, Think Carefully and Act Kindly.

Hear Matt and Robyn’s inspirational story, and their fierce determination to honour Pat’s life by bringing about change so we can have a world free from the coward punch.

Dr Zac Seidler, is a clinical psychologist, researcher and leading men’s mental health expert. Zac is the Director of Mental Health Training at Movember and Senior Research Fellow with Orygen at the University of Melbourne, Dr Seidler has dedicated his academic and professional career to men’s mental health and masculinity. His goal is to help reduce the staggering rate of male suicide worldwide.

Through his research, Dr Seidler has advocated for a change in the way we think about treating men’s distress, with a focus on creating mental health services that account for masculinity.

This has evolved into a fully funded project, Men in Mind, the world’s first training program for mental health clinicians to help them better understand and respond to men’s distress and suicidality.

Jacqueline Hey is the Chair of the Board of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and is also serving on the Board of Qantas Airways, is a School Council member at Brighton Grammar School and a member of Chief Executive Women.

Between 1987 and 2010, Jacquie held several executive positions with Ericsson, including Managing Director, in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Middle East. She was the first female Director of Cricket Australia from 2012 to 2020.

Jacquie holds a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Economics from the University of Melbourne, a Graduate Certificate of Management from Southern Cross University, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

We're pleased to welcome Jacquie to the podcast as she talks about her amazing life in business and as a mother.    

In a career spanning 30 years, Paul Roos has been an Australian Rules Football player (Fitzroy, Sydney Swans), Head Coach of the Sydney Swans and Melbourne Football Club, media broadcaster and men’s wellness advocate.

In 2005, he guided the Sydney Swans to the AFL Premiership, breaking a 72-year drought, and was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame. He was named All-Australian seven times and, in his prime, was rated the best footballer in Australia.

In 2018, Paul founded the Roos Men’s Wellness and Leadership Club. He is currently the founder and director of Performance by Design, which builds high-performing cultures by helping role model leaders bring team behaviours to life.

In this episode, we talk to Paul, who is the father of two sons, about his career and his learnings from it.

Jennifer commenced her career in radio quickly establishing herself as a journalist where she moved to television first joining Network 10. She has worked alongside some iconic journalist across all three commercial television networks.  

In 1990 she became the first female solo primetime news anchor on Australian commercial television.

In 2009, Jennifer was proud to receive the Walkley Award for Television News Reporting on behalf of the Seven News Melbourne team, for their coverage of the Black Saturday bushfires and in 2010, a TV Week Logie Award for Most Outstanding News Coverage for the Victorian Bushfires. 

Jennifer has two sons, James and Alexander and is an avid theatre enthusiast.

Dennis attended Georgetown University and Washington College of Law, where he graduated with a JD.  He has decades of experience in the non-profit health field, as a CEO and adviser to national and international organisations, and more recently his work has focused on disease co-morbidities and how they relate to the need for interdisciplinary medical collaboration.

Join us for our latest podcast where we talk with Dennis Barbour, a man dedicated to working with adolescents and young adult males to optimise their health and ensure that they thrive. 

Jon Muir OAM a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to mountaineering, a Centenary Medal and the Australian Geographic Society’s Adventurer of the year. He started climbing full-time as a teenager and since then, he has gained ground-breaking solo records in climbing the south side of Mount Everest and navigating the Kedarnarth Peaks as well as walking to the South and North Poles without huskies or mechanical vehicles. 

In 2000 Jon paddled a kayak for 52 days along the east coast of Cape York Peninsula, living off the natural environment. In Jon’s fourth attempt in 2001, he and his dog Seraphine began a journey from Port Augusta in South Australia to Burketown on the Queensland North Coast, dragging a cart, taking 128 days on foot and covering 2500 kilometres, reaching Burketown. Jon is also the first person to complete a solo and unsupported walk across the Australian continent. 

In addition to achieving all this and more Jon and his wife Suzan are living in the forest surrounded by the Grampians National Park and living a sustainable life.

We’ve tried to capture his enormous life in this episode, which we know you’ll enjoy.

Alex Rathgeber is an Award-Winning Australian actor, best known for his work as Billy Crocker in Anything Goes, the Tin Man in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Wizard of Oz and his UK performance of Raoul in the 21st Anniversary cast of The Phantom of the Opera in the West End.

Originally from Horsham, Alex graduated from the world renowned Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2003, and established an amazing reputation across many performance disciplines including: musical theatre, television, cabaret, concert, album recordings, solo shows, voice-overs as well as the development of original stage and screen works. He appeared in several household television programs such as Rush (Network 10), Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (ABC) and Winners and Losers (Seven Network).

In 2015, Alex was awarded the prestigious Helpmann Award for his performance in Anything Goes, and earlier in his career he received a Civic Reception by the Mayor of Horsham for his outstanding work and success in London. In addition to these, Alex has received many other notable nominations including both the Sydney Theatre Awards and Green Room Awards for various performances.

On top of his career success, Alex is also a keen ambassador for Entertainment Assist, where he advocates for increased mental health awareness and support for Australian entertainment industry workers. Additionally, he continues to support his hometown and is ambassador for the Horsham Town Hall Performing Arts Centre.

More recently, Alex has also collaborated with Global Citizen Australia in their endeavour to increase Australian vaccination numbers against COVID-19.

In this episode we talk to Alex about change and challenge, what it’s like to be a performer and about finding your voice. This episode will also help parents who have children who want to work and live in the Performing Arts world discover what is required of them, and they can help their sons bounce back and maintain a sense of optimism or resilience in a changing world.

Emma Murray is one of Australia’s leading mindfulness practitioners and high-performance mind coaches. As a former national-level athlete and with a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Psych, Emma has always been passionate about the mind and performance.

Emma works with elite athletes in all sports, corporate executives and companies, students and actors. Her work has played pivotal roles in Richmond Football Club’s 2017, 2019 and 2020 AFL Premierships, Dustin Martin’s three Norm Smith Medals and Brownlow medal, and Scott McLaughlin’s 2018, 2019 and 2020 V8 Supercar Championship wins and his 2019 Bathurst 1000 win.

Emma is also mother to Will, a teenage boy who was destined to be an elite athlete but suffered a tragic accident that left him with a quadriplegic injury. Emma has guided Will’s rehabilitation and rebuilt his and her own vision for the future. She draws parallels between life changing lessons, from the challenges of living with spinal cord injury to finding peak performance in sport, business and life.

In this episode Emma talks about her own story, about being a mum and some of the challenges she has faced, and what we can gain by thinking about not only who we are but how we think about who we are.

Hunter Johnson is co-founder and CEO of The Man Cave, a charity that focuses on and teaches emotional intelligence to young men (boys aged 12-16) across Australia. He also leads STUFF™, a men's personal care brand that champions healthy masculinity.

With a background in emotional intelligence, facilitation and social entrepreneurship, Hunter has worked with thousands of young people across Australia and his work has led to speaking engagements at the United Nations, Government House, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Town Hall, and Universities.

Previously, Hunter has co-managed FYA’s Young Social Pioneers, a leading incubator program for Australia’s top social entrepreneurs and advised the Nexus Australia Youth Summit, a global movement of philanthropists, impact investors and social entrepreneurs collaborating to fast-track social change.

Hunter was a Finalist in the 2020 Young Australian of the Year Awards (Vic), one of Harper’s Bazaar’s Visionary Men of 2019, a 2018 Queen’s Young Leader and the 2018 EY Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Southern Region).

Join us as we talk to Hunter about his life and what led him to this work. They talk about boys and their relational capabilities, about how for some it is difficult to find the words and the language about what is going on. Hunter also provides some great takeaways for parents, including creating authentic spaces for our kids to engage with.

Dr Kylie King, PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University.

Dr King has a decorated career as a psychologist, with her main focus in suicide prevention research (male focus). Her work centres around developing, implementing and evaluating interventions that can have positive impacts on men’s mental health.  

Join us for this episode where Dr King talks about her family life, work and research and some of the factors leading to the prevalence of suicide (particularly in males).

Dr King shares ideas around prevention, how to hold conversations and some great resources for parents. Finally, we get her thoughts on what it is to be a good man.

We hope you enjoy this week’s episode.