Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

The main street is the heart of a country town and it can often give you a quick picture of how the place is faring.Across regional Australia, communities are working out how to keep that heart beating and turn interest into investment – especially as new data shows about one in three metropolitan Australians would consider a move to the regions.The same data suggests that half of 18 to 29-year-olds are contemplating a move to the regions.So how can country towns harness this push by younger Australians to go bush and breathe new life into their communities?

Imagine if you could get a glimpse of your neighbours before you signed a lease or bought the house, would you still move in?We've all had a run in with a dodgy neighbour before, either one who's broken the rules of the street — or enforced them without mercy. So what are the rules of neighbourly engagement where you live, and what makes a good neighbour anyway? One comedian has set out to answer this question by asking people to rate their neighbours. 

After someone you love dies, it's often the small things that hit the hardest. A song on the radio. Driving past their favourite picnic spot. Reaching for your phone to call them after a rough day and then remembering you can't.That's where the wind phone comes in — an old rotary phone, connected to nothing, created as a quiet place to "talk" to someone who's passed away.What began as one man's way of coping with loss, has since spread around the world, opening up space for conversations about death, loss and grief.

Bri Lee is an academic, activist and author who wrote her most recent manuscript entirely by hand. She shares the story of the book that, upon first reading, awakened her feminist rage, and ultimately, changed her life.

When the humble nature strip becomes the site of a neighbourly turf war, things can get tense. So how do you keep the peace and avoid the awkward interactions as you're bringing in the bins?

If you've found yourself stuck in a state of overwhelm and despair, you may feel it's a rational response to the state of the world. But experts say this feeling of chronic stress may actually be the result of a modern world continuously keeping our nervous systems in a state of overdrive. They also say that by making practical changes to your daily life, you can bring that system back into balance and regain a sense of hopefulness about your life and the future. So, how do you begin?

Cast your mind back to the local pool of your childhood: the scent of chlorine in the air and a bag of mixed lollies on the hot concrete.After the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, Australia built thousands of public pools, in big cities, outback towns, and everywhere in between.But many are reaching the end of their lives. Royal Surf Life Saving Australia estimates about 40 per cent of public pools will be obsolete by 2030.So what do we lose if our pools start closing, and why are they so important to some communities that locals are lobbying to save them?

Dinner delivered to your door, one click and a package is on its way, location sharing so you don't have to text your partner to ask when they'll be home, or an AI chatbot to help you word an awkward email.So much of the technology in our lives is designed to optimise convenience and sand down the rough edges of everyday living.But in this quest for convenience, have we maybe lost something along the way, something that makes us human? 

Keeping up with Gen Z slang can feel like decoding a secret language. But some of the buzziest words right now aren't new at all.The American Dialect Society has named its words of the year for 2025 and it appears that old-school gems like 'yap', 'skedaddle', even 'diabolical' are making a comeback.So why are old words suddenly cool again? What makes slang cycle back around? And what does that say about the way language – and generations – reinvent themselves?

One of the oldest libraries in Australia, the State Library of New South Wales, is marking a significant milestone this year. And as part of its 200th anniversary celebrations, the library has collated a collection of stories about how libraries have changed us. Beyond offering bookworms a portal to explore the world, libraries have evolved into the ultimate third space, offering a community living room to people who need it most.