Dads on the Air
175 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsThe world's longest running radio program on fathers' issues | Australia’s leading radio program for fathers | 9 - 9:30am Thursdays | CRN
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Episodes
Foreskin Revolution
November 18, 2020 22:00 - 9.67 MBWith special guest: Michael Winnel … in conversation with Bill Kable Most people are surprised when this topic is raised. Is circumcision still being practised in Australia outside strict religious groups? The answer is unfortunately yes. And Medicare will still pay benefits for the procedure unlike for example Great Britain where the National Health stopped subsidising male circumcision in the 1940’s. The percentage of young boys who suffer this mutilation in Australia is down to abou...
Daddy Cool
September 30, 2020 23:00 - 9.66 MBWith special guest: Darleen Bungey … in conversation with Bill Kable A real feature of the show today is when we go back to 1957 to hear the golden voice of Lawrie Brooks. Lawrie was born in the United States where he had been named Robert Cutter. But Robert became the most popular singer in Australia under another name, Lawrie Brooks. How he came to wear the new name is a story in itself and just part of the fascinating history told in Darleen Bungey’s book about her father called Dadd...
Diving Into Glass
July 15, 2020 23:00 - 9.66 MBWith special guest: Caro Llewellyn … in conversation with Bill Kable When Caro Llewellyn started writing her new book she had intended it to be mainly about her extraordinary father, Richard. However her life then took a sudden and unexpected turn, one which turned her world upside down. That change meant adding to the story with her own experience and her feelings became the title of her new book Diving Into Glass. Caro was on top of the world with a son she adored, a glittering career...
How Fear Works
July 08, 2020 23:00 - 9.66 MBWith special guest: Prof Frank Furedi … in conversation with Bill Kable Frank Furedi says that fear is the principal motivating force in the 21st Century. We see fear being used by all sides in politics; we see it in the family dynamic; we see it in the young with their fear of missing out (or FOMO). And yet at the same time we do not call it out because to some degree we have been sensitised to its operation. Once an expert like our guest today points out the use of fear we can see it ...
Woodstock 50 Years On
July 01, 2020 23:00 - 9.66 MBWith special guest: Glenn A Baker… in conversation with Bill Kable Glenn A Baker is a father of six children and a grandfather of 12. For those of us whose memories extend a little he is the music guru so he is a very special Dad to be on our program. Glenn is here to tell us about an adventure he had lined up for those with a special interest in a particular seminal event and rock music generally. Yes to our surprise it is 50 years since that massive and unplanned gathering of over 500...
Raising Boys in the Twenty-first Century
June 24, 2020 23:00 - 9.67 MBWith special guest: Steve Biddulph AM … in conversation with Bill Kable It was hard enough to raise boys in the 20th Century. What are the new challenges facing parents who want to raise their sons to be the open-hearted, kind and strong men they can be? Our guest today has revised and updated his classic parenting book released in 1997, a book that is found in over three million homes around the world. There is a lot of new information and surprising research for Steve to draw on in hi...
Dads Group Inc
June 10, 2020 23:00 - 9.66 MBWith special guest: Tom Docking … in conversation with Glen Poole Most Dads can remember vividly the time they were told that they were going to be a father for the first time. There may be a sense of starting on a journey, that life as it has been up until that point has changed forever or even that this is a type of eternity because part of you goes on long after your passing. Listen Now (mp3)
A Paradigm Shift in Suicide Prevention
June 03, 2020 23:00 - 9.66 MBWith special guest: Anthony Smith … in conversation with Bill Kable We ask Anthony Smith what is the situational approach he has written about. The surprising response from Anthony is that only 10% of suicides are due to depression or what are loosely called mental illnesses. This is the first of several surprises in today’s program. We discover that suicide is the biggest cause of death for Australians between the ages of 15 and 44. We discover that three out of four deaths are males. ...
Heart of the Grass Tree
May 28, 2020 00:35 - 9.66 MBWith special guest: Molly Murn … in conversation with Bill Kable Today we travel back to the time before 1836 and to Australia’s second biggest island, Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia. This is a big story over different generations of islanders. The modern day story deals with the effect on a family of a grandmother’s death. When Nell died her family returned to Kangaroo Island to mourn and farewell her. Nell’s granddaughter Pearl pulled together the scraps Nell left be...
Ballet Brothers
May 20, 2020 23:00With special guest: Jake Burden … in conversation with Bill Kable Jake Burden tells us that everyone can dance. For those with a particular ability and the drive to do all the hard training that goes with being a dancer on the stage Jake tells us there are all sorts of rewards. On the flip side of these benefits there remains an element in our society that thinks dancing is somehow unmanly, that only young girls should express themselves in this way and because male dancers are seen as d...
Fathers and Daughters
May 06, 2020 23:00With special guest: Madonna King … in conversation with Bill Kable The word “daughter” with its silent letters points to something going on beneath the surface. To find out exactly what is going on between daughters and their Dads calls for a type of explorer who is prepared to investigate widely and give a voice to their thoughts and feelings. Our guest today is Madonna King one of Australia’s most accomplished journalists. In her new book, Fathers and Daughters: Helping girls and their...
From Little Things Big Things Grow
April 29, 2020 23:00With special guest: John Stapleton … in conversation with Bill Kable John Stapleton is a legend at Dads on the Air. In the year 2000 while working as a journalist he became involved with a number of fathers who struggled to see their own children because of the machinations of the Family Court. Worse still, because of the legislation no-one in the broader community knew what was going on. So John resolved to shed some light on the problem through a community radio program run on a shoest...
Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths
April 15, 2020 23:00With special guest: Eddie Woo … in conversation with Bill Kable We hardly need to do an introduction for our guest today. Eddie Woo has become very well-known through regular television appearances and YouTube lessons as one of the leading teachers in the world. The Government has recognised this by recently appointing him as a “super teacher” so that he can visit schools around NSW and inspire the teachers to inspire their students. Ever thought that you were just no good at Maths and a...
Roadies
April 08, 2020 23:00With special guest: Stuart Coupe … in conversation with Bill Kable We have always heard about the sex and drugs of the rock’n’roll lifestyle but few of us get any access to this hidden part of the music industry. Until now Stuart Coupe has lived in the music world for over forty years and by getting the roadies, these unsung heroes, to open up we can find out both the good and the bad sides of this life on the road. Stuart tells us one of his motivations in doing the research and writin...
The Children’s House
April 01, 2020 22:00With special guest: Alice Nelson … in conversation with Bill Kable Alice Nelson has produced a topical work with enough discussion points to keep us busy for a long time in her new book The Children’s House. The title of the book comes from a kibbutz in Israel. The kibbutz movement arose in Israel after the horrors of Nazi Germany, partly as a way of allowing parents to work for the new state of Israel while ensuring that their children would be properly cared for. But does the idea of c...
Best We Forget
March 04, 2020 22:00With special guest: Dr Peter Cochrane … in conversation with Bill Kable Best We Forget is the title of Peter Cochrane’s new book. This is not the way we are used to thinking about the beginnings of nationhood in Australia. There is a quote from the Australian Prime Minister in 1916, Billy Hughes “I bid you go and fight for White Australia in France.” What was the country thinking at the time? In our school history classes a familiar topic is the causes of World War 1 but the war was neve...
Murder at Myall Creek
February 26, 2020 22:00With special guest: Mark Tedeschi QC AM … in conversation with Bill Kable Our guest today is the well-known former Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales and author of Murder at Myall Creek, Mark Tedeschi. Mark has written a deeply moving account of the massacre of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children in 1838 which led to a trial that defined the nation of Australia. If the law of the land in Australia was to have any credibility, if the principle is that we are all equal before the law, ...
Australia Reimagined
February 19, 2020 22:00With special guest: Hugh Mackay AO … in conversation with Bill Kable Australia has had a well-documented and unprecedented run of economic growth but this has not translated into a happy, harmonious society. Our guest today is Hugh Mackay who describes the current level of anxiety in Australia as an epidemic. The level of income inequality in Australia is growing, public education is under-resourced and our children are falling behind when compared to other first world countries. Listen...
Fatherhood: Stories about being a Dad
February 12, 2020 22:00With special guest: William McInnes … in conversation with Bill Kable In today’s program we go behind the public face of William McInnes. We do not speak to Max Connors from SeaChange, we speak to William McInnes the Dad from Queensland about his real life love of being a father to his son and daughter. We get to hear lots of stories as included in William’s new book Fatherhood: Stories about being A Dad. As William tells us, being a Dad is a serious business but it is at the same time a...
Surviving Adolescents
February 05, 2020 22:00With special guest: Elly Robinson … in conversation with Bill Kable All parents realise on leaving the maternity ward that there is no manual that comes from the hospital with instructions for a new baby. The parents just strap themselves in for the rapid growth and development of this new and totally dependent child. Ten years later with the coming of adolescence there is another period of risky growth and development. The age group from 10 to 19 calls upon a whole new skill set to deal...
Out of the Forest
January 15, 2020 22:00With special guest: Dr Gregory Smith … in conversation with Bill Kable When asked if he sometimes pinches himself and wonders if all that has gone before is true, Gregory Smith says not sometimes but all the time. Our guest today has a truly amazing story that should encourage all of us. After a traumatic childhood Gregory was always trying to escape from his surroundings and became something of an escape artist. Except that he did not escape and his efforts just led to painful encounter...
Sound Tracks
January 01, 2020 22:00With special guest: Raymond Hawkins … in conversation with Bill Kable There is a word for the special mystical feeling we get when we look at the stars in the heavens or listen to some ethereal music and that word is “numinous”. Unfortunately numinous is not a word most of us get to use very often but our guest today experiences this feeling frequently through his tours to remote locations and he tells us all about it. Listen Now (mp3)
Mr Ordinary Goes to Jail
December 25, 2019 22:00With special guest: Wil Patterson … in conversation with Bill Kable Mr Ordinary Goes to Jail is really a story about choices. Some choices we hope we will never have to make. Once made they have significant consequences. Wil Paterson found himself facing temptation at a time when he had financial pressures at home and he made a fateful choice. Wil was at work on an ordinary day. Part of his job was that he was expected to cancel his employer’s cheques when the payee had not been located...
Movember: Grow a Mo, Save a Bro
November 20, 2019 22:00With special guest: Jeremy Macvean … in conversation with Bill Kable Jimmy Buffett sang that he wished he had a pencil thin moustache. Apart from the benefits of looking so dapper, a moustache in November 2019 can mean you save lives. Our guest today is Jeremy Macvean who worked initially in the fundraising section of Movember and has now moved on to projects such as the TV series Man Up and the SpeakEasy Workshops. Listen Now (mp3)
Origin Story
November 06, 2019 22:00With special guest: Dr David Christian … in conversation with Bill Kable It doesn’t get any bigger than this! In his new book Origin Story: A Big History of Everything our guest David Christian traces human history arising from the Big Bang and going through to the first stars, our solar system, life on Earth, dinosaurs, homo sapiens, agriculture, an ice age, empires, fossil fuels, a moon landing and mass globalisation. And all this is done in the context of what it means to us and our f...