Revolving Door Syndrome

Why in this age of hyper connectivity and social media are we lonelier than ever? Regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or class, mental health for young people is getting worse. Not only do we see it in self-reported surveys, we see it in hospital presentations for eating disorders, self harm, intentional overdose and suicide attempts.The Harvard Study of Adult Development found that the greatest impact on happiness, health, and longevity wasn't money, social class, or even healthcare access. It was the strength of our relationships.Consider how much time you spend with your friends, your family, your spouse and conversely how much time you spend scrolling social media accounts.We've lost so much community and undervalued the power of strong relationships. If you think this affects you, how much do you think it affects kids?The process of forming relationships, through rupture and repair is critical to the healthy development and success of our children. But if we deprive them of the necessary unstructured, unsupervised device-free play, they will struggle to develop critical thinking and the ability to overcome conflict and adversity. Joining me on this episode is Dr Emma Woodward. She shares her wisdom as a Child Psychologist and specialist in trauma informed care as well as her learnings as a mother to four sons. 

Falling literacy rates are a concern in New Zealand and developed countries around the world.The future generations of New Zealanders are based on the early foundations we set in childhood. But if we don't get literacy right, how can we expect children to one day become global leaders in health, education and science? Strong literacy skills are for everyone, not just for those who can afford private tuition. How we teach in public education and how we encourage behaviours in the home environment can make a world of difference to children in even the poorest most disadvantaged communities.Even how we frame disadvantage can have its harms. Can we really improve disparities with the widely disseminated deficit mindset of low expectations?Joining me on this episode is Dr Melissa Derby of Ngāti Ranginui. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Waikato University, Director of the Early Years Research Centre and part of the ministerial advisory group to the minister for education.

Food waste affects our growers, sellers and our wallets. It affects our farmers who try to grow food that meets strict beauty standards. It affects our shrinking household budgets where wasted food is as good as money down the drain.It affects our environment where wasted food decomposing in landfill contributes to our greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.All of this while food insecurity is becoming a problem for more and more families in New ZealandJoining me on this episode of Revolving Door Syndrome are my two guests Kaitlin Dawson and Iain Lees-Galloway. Through New Zealand Food Waste Champions, Kaitlin helps businesses achieve both environmental and economic sustainability through reducing over-production of food. Iain heads Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance, a network of food rescue organisations taking this extra food and distributing to communities and families who can better use it than our landfills.

Widespread, free and quality education has lifted the masses out of poverty. Or at least that's what it used to do.Access to a quality curriculum with teachers who are supported to teach are important factors to get children interested in education.However, what we are seeing is teachers are increasingly unsupported and overworked. They are having to pick up the pieces for children who are in difficult social situations outside of the school's control. We have rising material child poverty and dire rates of school attendance. These are big problems that require innovation, investment and prioritisation.One of the programs out there attempting to shift the dial is Lalanga toolbox, created by Lesieli and Daniel Oliver.Lalanga seeks to take the load off of teachers and provide a quality curriculum that is culturally appropriate for their Maori and Pasifika community. Lalanga is about showing children their potential, inspiring high aspirations and making education into the most powerful tool for success.

Trust in government and trust in the media are the bedrocks of a working democracy.True democracy requires the freedoms of speech and expression to allow individuals and the media to hold our government to account.However an AUT research report found that trust in mainstream media has plummeted to 33% while three quarters of people actively avoid reading the news. There are accusations that the mainstream media are biased in their reporting, telling people what to think rather than reporting on the facts.Governments of all stripes are increasingly using urgency to pass legislation. How can we expect people to trust in governments that bypass the usual checks and balances?For a society to continue to achieve progress and prosperity, we need to get better at working together with people of different perspectives and points of view. We need to find our common goals and shared visions.Joining me today is Tim Wilson, a seasoned journalist whose work has been featured in The New York Times and The Guardian. He was the former US correspondent for One news and a roaming reporter on Seven Sharp. Today, he is the director of the Maxim Institute think tank.

Let's talk about sex.Sex education has been a particularly divisive topic, yet hasn't really had the quality debate about what good sex education should look like.I get it. People probably have very mixed experiences on how sex education was delivered to them by their schools or their parents. Some people feel squeamish about delivering sex education to their own kids and some are concerned about what is being taught in schools. There's so much confusion from parents, teachers and policymakers because there is such a huge variation in what schools can choose to teach. However, sex education is something we need to get right.While young people are having less sex than before, the research shows they are having more dangerous sex. They are less likely to use protection and more likely to engage in rough sex. Young people are also more likely to have been exposed to porn at a younger age, much of it rough and non-consensual. Could this be purely correlation or causation?The stakes are high. It's the welfare of our children we are talking about. We must balance the urge to bubble wrap our children with the need to teach them skills to stay safe on their own. Because newsflash - you won't always be around to protect them.Joining me on this podcast is Jo Robertson, experienced sex therapist, parenting expert and sex education teacher.

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.And in the context of our health system, prevention looks like a strong primary care service that’s focused on keeping you healthy and out of the emergency department. The problem is though, Primary Care, as we know it, is broken.Our current funding model has driven GP practices to the brink of insolvency. Many are forced to close down or are selling out to profit driven corporates, who want to make your sickness work for their shareholders. By overenrolling patients and pushing doctors to see more people in a day, we will see a two tier Primary health care service beginning to form. Where the days of knowing your local GP might be reserved for those that can afford the premium service.And at the same time, our fascination with medical specialists has relegated the humble medical generalist to the bottom of the pile. Fewer and fewer doctors are interested in pursuing pathways in generalist fields and instead are opting for more lucrative, but highly niche specialties. We know how important primary care is for keeping people healthy, but why aren’t we prioritising it? It seems like we have things backwards.On the latest episode of Revolving Door Syndrome, I kōrero with the energetic power duo that is Dr Marcia Walker (Whakatōhea/Ngāti Porou) and Dr Buzz Burrell. Both passionate about the power of primary care, brimming with real ideas about how we can tackle these issues head on.

Cults have come and gone but for the survivors, the trauma remains. Most every day people think that they'd be immune to a cult and could never fall for something as silly as a cult.The reality is that anyone can end up falling into a cult willingly or unwillingly whether as an adult or child. It is important that we equip ourselves with the skills to identify cult-like behaviours before we fall into the worst kind of echo chamber of groupthink.This is a reminder for us to not take freedom of expression and freedom of speech for granted. We must extend our empathy to survivors and people who are still in these cults where informed concept becomes a foreign concept. Joining me on this episode is Dr Caroline Ansley where we deep dive into the cultiverse and learn about the madness of groupthink and coercive control.

How have we ended up in both a housing and productivity crisis?Why can't we seem to just get on with maintaining and building more housing and infrastructure?Why does it feel like inequality is getting worse, not better?Joining me on this episode of Revolving Door is Sam Stubbs, founder and CEO of simplicity, a not-for-profit kiwisaver and investment provider. Late stage capitalism and an economy based on selling houses to each other is failing our younger generations. I ask Sam if it is possible to make capitalism work better for our young people. Us millenials and zoomers are struggling to get on the housing ladder. How easy is it to hold down a job when your landlord sells up your home? How easy is it for kids to get good education if they keep having to move schools? What effects will the stress of housing insecurity have on our health outcomes?If we can't get housing right, can we really solve any of our other problems?

When we talk about addressing the mental health issues in society, we often hear that if only we had more psychologists, more psychiatrists, more psychotherapists and counsellors, we'd be able to fix the problem. Hamish William's is a host of NewstalkZB's show, The Nutters Club. He has a different perspective on the issue, given that every Sunday night he listens to real stories from real people facing very real mental health challenges around the country. For his listeners, The Nutters Club has become a beacon of hope and a network of support forged through the airwaves. We kōrero about building communities that become self supporting and self healing. Hamish also explores his own experience as a step father and the challenges faced with raising a teenage son in the age of Andrew Tate and the Manosphere.