Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

Australia is a world leader in cancer survival, with more than 1.6 million people now living with and beyond cancer.But survival alone doesn't tell the whole story. Even when treatment is successful, many people are left managing long-term physical, psychological and social impacts of their illness.So as more people survive cancer, how do we ensure they — and their carers — feel supported not just during the early stages of care, but for the long run?

For some people, it's a high-pitched ringing. For others, it's like cicadas buzzing, clicking, and hissing.

What age did you consider yourself "too old" to wear certain outfits? Did you feel too old to try on certain identities — ones you once felt comfortable in? Playwright Peta Murray and author David Carlin examine it all from the pivotal moment their lives intersected, when their parents became hallmates at a nursing home in inner city Melbourne.They wrote about about the complexities of caring for aging parents as you confront aging itself in a new memoir, How to Dress for Old Age. 

If there were two basically identical products sitting in front of you, but one of them cost $20,000 and the other cost $100, how would you decide which one was better?

Whether it's the AFL, NRL, soccer or basketball, you can now find women in most major sports from the community level all the way up to the professional leagues.At the elite level, the fight is often about pay and professionalism. But at grassroots, it can be far more basic: access to change rooms, equal resources, and something as simple as being taken seriously.So what does it actually take to turn spaces built by men, for men, into places where women truly belong?

More than a third of Australian employees regularly work from home – but for many, flexible work arrangements are informal and depend on how open-minded your manager happens to be.

School's back, families are settling into their routines, and whether or not you have kids, there's one thing that means: traffic. A new survey shows around 70 per cent of kids now get to school by car, a shift that's clogging our roads and seeing more kids miss out on the benefits of active travel.So what are those benefits? And how do we get more kids walking or riding to school?

When John Davey became a quadruple amputee, he spent eight months lying in a hospital bed before a chance meeting in rehab showed him the true meaning of companionship. Social connection can be a crucial part of a medical recovery, but often it's the one thing that hospitals can't provide.Could a willing listener, someone to process your thoughts about what's happening to your body, be the key to recovery?

An open patch of grass, a park bench or two, and as many slobbery tennis balls as you can imagine. The dog park is a magical place for some of our four-legged friends.But for the humans who take them there, these public spaces can offer so much more: they're places where we form friendships, build community, and in some cases, even fall in love. 

For many of us, who we are is primarily defined by what we do. But growing research shows this kind of work-centric identity comes at a cost.So are there ways to downsize the role of work in your life and develop the other parts of who you are?