Better Than Yesterday with Osher Günsberg

Checking in, July 12, 2019 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First up - you may know I like to ride bikes.Bikes are freedom machines. Freedom from your physical location, freedom from a sedentary life and for me, freedom from unhelpful thinking - I love to ride because it gets me from place to place, clears my head and helps my body and mind work well while I’m at it. I am not a competitive cyclist. However right now the biggest competition in world cycling is happening every night on the telly - the Tour De France is upon us.And while every sport has dealt with it, it’s hard to find a sport where doping has been dealt with in a higher profile than Cycling. Bryan Fogel won an Oscar for his incredible Documentary Icarus - which you can watch on Netflix in between Stranger Things 3 episodes. He was also nominated for a BAFTA for the film - which is extraordinary. Bryan set out to make a film about what happens when an incredibly fast and fit amateur cyclist competes in the hardest non-professional race in the world clean, and then while doping - just like the pros were doing at the time. What happened next is something that ended up blowing the lid off of a systemic international doping system which had implications in no small part playing a role in the entire Russian national team being banned from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.This is a conversation that’s about more than cycling, doping, and international espionage - this is also a conversation about holding fast to your truth, and what happens when you powerfully tell a story in an authentic way. And, if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like having to rent out your place on AirBNB to make the mortgage and then winning an Oscar a short time later - you’re about to find out. Bryan and I caught up over Skype from his place in LA, and I’m so grateful he took the time to do so.I promise you this conversation will inspire you even you haven’t ridden a bike since you were a kid. I hope you get as much out of this as I did. Enjoy this conversation with Bryan Fogel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Checking in, July 5, 2019 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lucy Bloom is a CEO, author, doula, and charity leader from Sydney Australia. She’s done just so much, it’s hard to put it all into one intro.But what she shares in this conversation is an unflinching drive to make the world a better place - be it by teaching men how they can be present and supportive during the birth of their children, helping charities from Cambodia to Ethiopia provide better outcomes for mothers and children struggling in those communities, or inspiring others with her own story about how she overcame the adversity of a catastrophic motorcycle accident to go on to achieve all of these things - all of this as the mother of three kids - Lucy is an absolute powerhouse. The author of two books, Cheers To Childbirth and her latest Get the Girls Out. You can find out more about Lucy Bloom at thelucybloom.com @thelucybloom on twitter and IG. Just a word - this conversation does contain some pretty graphic descriptions of things that can go very wrong in childbirth where either mum or baby don’t make it.But for now, come to our kitchen table at our apartment in Bronte, Sydney, for a cuppa and a chat with Lucy Bloom.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Checking in, June 28, 2019 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Damien Echols is an author, activist and ceremonial magician from the US, and he was one of the West Memphis Three. It was an incredibly famous case of the miscarriage of justice. Along with two others, Damien was falsely convicted of the murder of three eight year old boys.There are plenty of documentaries and dramas that were made about the case - but if you’ve seen Making a Murderer it will get you close to what went on at the trial. Barely 18yrs old, Damien was sentenced to death and ended up spending 18 years and 78 days on death row. I’m 45 - so if you’re ten years either side of my age, you’ll remember seemingly every band you liked getting involved in the activism around getting these men out of jail. Which indeed ended up happening. In 2011 the men were released from Prison as part of a plea deal. Since then Damien has been adjusting to life back in the world, and writing many books - his latest : High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death RowYou know me - I like to do the work. And while what worked for Damien isn’t exactly something I’d try in a hurry - it worked, and brought him peace and deliverance from the crushing mental load of waking up every day wondering if today’s going to be your day to die. Two things about this conversation - Go with it. While what Damien talks about, is an evangelist for and practices every day might not be for you - I got a lot out of hearing how it worked for him and it made me think about how I might double down on my own daily work and ritual that helps me get through the day. And secondly - we connected via Skype from far, far away. Sometimes not everything works as well as it could. I do have redundancies when I record, just in case - and thankfully in this instance, I had one because the original feed from my mic got lost in the netherworld. So, while Damien was talking to me over the phone, you’ll hear me as if I’m also on the phone. I apologies for that, sorry it’s not the greatest audio quality from my end - but I’d rather bring it to you as it was than re-record my bits and not remain authentic to the conversation. Also - a massive thank you to Rachel Barrett (elfymama on the gram) my producer who managed to track Damien down for this conversation. She’s the best there is, and we are thrilled that we were able to get Damien on the show. So - while I normally invite you to come to my kitchen table and enjoy a chat with one of my guests - today I’ll invite you to jump on a conference call with you, me and Damien Echols.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Checking in, June 21, 2019 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sonya Pemberton is an Emmy-winning science documentary maker.She’s recently made JABBED - love, fear and vaccines; URANIUM - Twisting the Dragon's Tail, and now, #VITAMANIA all about how many if any vitamins we need daily. We got in touch when a few months ago I put a photo of myself getting some vaccination shots up on instagram.We have a baby on the way. I don’t want that baby to die of a disease that belongs in a Dickens novel. Vaccines are proven effective by the scientific process, so therefore I use vaccines. It’s a pretty simple thing to say. But some people lost their fuckin’ minds at me. There’s a lot of very convincing, very flawed information out in the world about vaccines. To the point that people were accusing me of wanting to kill my child, and accusing me of being on the take from pharmaceutical companies. I explored a bit more as to why people might believe such things. Things that clearly aren’t true. And I started to discover that if I took the attitude of “I’m right and you’re stupid” that wouldn’t change anything. If I acknowledged the fear and the incredible wanting to cause no harm to their child - and that being the root of the desire to explore if vaccines were safe - well that’s a different story. If you google something for long enough eventually you’ll get an answer that confirms your opinion. That’s how algorithms work. You get more of what you click on. Then you eventually vanish down into a filter-bubble of confirmation bias. Where you never see anything other than the kind of things you click on. If you spend long enough on FB and You Tube, you’ll quickly come across a conspiracy theory - no matter what it is you’re looking for. Things start to get scary. Eventually, wanting to feel less alone, or looking for others in a time of fear people reach out to others who are also concerned - primarily in Facebook groups. There they find a welcome ear, and support and more confirmation that they’re making the right decision. That’s when it gets kind of cult-like for me. There’s an appeal to purity that kicks in, and threat of exclusion if you ever leave the group or say anything against that group. I see it in the vegan community all the time. So people start to identify as a part of that group or movement, even if it’s a movement based on collective delusion that’s been disproven time and again. Once that identity is set in - any challenge to the base belief of that identity is seen as heresy and ends up pushing people deeper into that delusion. And that’s where the incredible reactionary positions and violent language happens. It’s really confronting. It would be super scary to be in it because you’d have a belief that the world is out to get you and me and your kids. I could tell you it doesn’t, but they told you I’d say that didn’t they?As we learned from Jo Thornely, that’s straight up cult-talk 101. So. In the middle of all of this noise and anger when I was just trying to talk about something that’s real, I was contacted by our mutual friend Caroline Pegram who looks after Dr Karl. She told me I should have Sonya on the podcast - because of the extraordinary film she made - Jabbed, a film all about vaccines and how they work and the history of vaccines which goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. We managed to make that conversation happen. It was over Skype, so thanks for understanding the audio... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Checking in, June 14, 2019 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephen Dupont is a conflict photojournalist from Australia.For thirty years he’s travelled the world photographing people, places and cultures at  their most beautiful, their most vulnerable, and often their most violent.Stephen is a rare breed of person, the kind that willingly forges forward into a conflict zone, hoping to get the right shot that will tell the story of those in side the conflict so that those on the outside world may bear witness to it and maybe do something to change it. As you’d imagine, Stephen has seen and documented moments of humans being their most horrendous to each other. From witnessing American Soldiers burning the bodies of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan - a photograph that changed the rules of engagement around the world - to being blown up in a suicide bombing that killed fifteen people - Stephen has seen and documented and lived and breathed and smelled the horrors of humanity, and he’s lived to talk about it. To share what he’s seen. Stephen is fascinating to talk to, and if your’e into photography you can catch him at Aperture Australia, the largest photography conference in Southern Hemisphere is set to return to Sydney International Convention Centre (ICC) in Darling Harbour, Sydney on the weekend of 22-23 June - more details at apertureaustralia.com.auIf you like what you hear, you can let him know on IG - @stephenmdupont, but for now come to my apartment for a cup of coffee with a truly fantastic Australian, Stephen Dupont.***A note! I get confused in this episode and mistakenly said that photographer Bob King had passed away.He's thankfully very much alive!I got confused - Bob asked me about a photo I took of him and another shooter who did pass away for the funeral programme and in the moment I got the names confused. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.