Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

Did you ever get taken out of school for an extended break?A significant amount of our learning takes place outside of the classroom and we know that homeschooling has risen significantly in the last few years.So have you ever considered taking your kids out of school and going on a trip?

The Reserve Bank of Australia has announced that come October, card surcharges will be banned. That extra few cents on your coffee, concert tickets, utility bills that felt inevitable at the check-out will have to be covered by other means. It's a win for sure, but will it actually save you money?

Deborah Lawrie knew from the age of 16 that flying was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. But when she applied become a trainee pilot with Ansett in 1978, women were deemed unfit for the cockpit. So she took the airline all the way to the high court — and won. The landmark legal battle allowed a trailblazing woman to finally pursue her dream career, and paved the way for equal opportunity in Australia.

How likely are you to bail on a boring online admin task when it gets a bit hard?The endless box-ticking, pages to sign and notification approvals create a friction, specifically designed to stop you from achieving your task.Why has this become common place and why isn't the consumer experience as considered as it used to be?

Last week a woman successfully sued Meta and Google arguing their platforms were addictive. She said she was spending up to 16 hours a day online, starting from just six years old.She's been awarded $US6 million in damages, though the companies are appealing.It raises some big questions, like is social media addiction actually real? Can you walk into a psychologist's office, get diagnosed and be treated for it, or are we using the language of addiction a little too loosely?

If you've ever found yourself re-reading the same sentence over and over again, or opening your phone to check a text and then losing an hour, you're not alone.In the online era of 24-hour access, there are endless distractions and demands stealing our focus.Putting it all to one side and paying attention to your top priority tasks can feel impossible. So what can you do about it?

With the calls to limit our fuel purchases to just what we need, is it unethical to stockpile?Is it human nature to protect our own self interest or do we have an ethical responsibility to not buy more than our share?

The friendly jostle to get a spot near the front, the crackle of the speakers as the band takes their place on the stage — attending your first gig is a rite of passage for so many Australians.For some, it plants the seed that inspires an entire career, while for others, it's simply a place to connect with new friends, dance and soak up the atmosphere.But there are major barriers for many young people, whether so a delegation of Australians who are passionate about giving young people a chance to participate in music have just launched their plan to fix it. 

As petrol prices continue to soar, the only way to reduce your bowser bill is to go electric — or get rid of your car altogether. But could you realistically do that where you live?Australian cities have traditionally sprawled out, and now we're trying to correct that by going up, but the legacy has entrenched a car-centric culture for many of us.A University of Queensland researcher conducted an experiment in Brisbane, asking 10 people to totally ditch their cars for three weeks. It certainly wasn't as easy as it sounds, but plenty of people are doing it.

After a friend goes through a break-up, often the real feelings their besties had about their ex come out into the open. But what do you do if they decide to reunite with the person you just declared as public enemy number one?