Learning to live a life free of limits with Michael Hingson • Connecting Seniors
Michael was born blind and grew up in Chicago and California. His early years lacked access to braille, but he learned math in his head and stayed curious about science. Michael got proper braille education in fourth grade. With his mother’s support and a new resource teacher, he caught up in school, joined the Boy […]
Understanding emotion and finding freedom with Sherrie Laryse
Sherrie Laryse is an Emotional Intelligence Consultant with a degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and a background in human behaviour, trauma, psychosomatics, mental illness, yoga, and meditation. She has authored two books about overcoming challenges—”On Path” and “The Body Talks Back”—and is currently completing her Master’s degree in Psychological Anthropology, specialising in emotional intelligence skills. Sherrie’s […]
Let’s Talk About It: Loneliness, Racism, and Finding Belonging with Ochan Aba
In this episode, Ochan shares his multifaceted journey as someone of South Sudanese and Ugandan heritage, born in Ethiopia to migrant parents, whose family later moved to Kenya before eventually resettling in Australia. He opens up about the challenges he faced after arriving, including experiences of loneliness, racism, and racial profiling. Ochan discusses how these […]
From conflict to embracing change and freedom with Steve Khouw • Connecting Seniors
Steve is an Australia based immigrant who left Indonesia as a child due to risks of persecution. He is an engineer, business leader, single-dad, passionate conservationist and environmental advocate, lover of music of various genre, arts & culture, avid global backpack adventurer off the beaten-tracks. He is an Australian Survivor, social justice activist and prolific […]
Honouring Stories Through Craft – Kintsugi Workshop with Jun San
As part of the Connecting Seniors project, this hands-on workshop introduced participants to the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi — repairing broken pottery with gold. More than a craft, Kintsugi is a philosophy that celebrates resilience, healing, and the beauty of imperfection Learn more at kintsugiheroes.com.au ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Kintsugi Heroes is […]
Healing trauma by rewiring the unconscious mind with Judith Richards • Connecting Seniors
Judith was the youngest of eight in a Catholic family. Despite a comfortable life, she faced traumatic experiences, including sexual abuse by priests from an early age. The abuse and violence she suffered profoundly shaping her programming and she developed beliefs of unworthiness and self-punishment. In secondary school, Judith endured further abuse, by a nun. […]
Surviving the Impossible: Yaser Naseri’s Journey from Iran to Australia
In this episode of From There to Here, Emma Bellamy-Dodd speaks with Yaser Naseri, who fled Iran after political activism made staying impossible. Yaser describes life in Tehran, the dangers of protesting, and tough decisions that led him to Indonesia – where multiple failed escape attempts and a deadly boat disaster profoundly shaped him. He […]
From the Police to First Responder PTSD Advocate with Sean Haran • Connecting Seniors
Born in Brighton, England, Sean moved to Australia at age seven. His dad’s Irish heritage led them to Fremantle, beginning a life of adventure in Perth. At 15, Sean’s navy dream ended due to colour blindness. He joined the Western Australian Police Academy in 1978, quickly finding his passion in policing. Sean served 15 years […]
I didn’t know I had ADHD until I was 35
Lance Burdett didn’t know he had ADHD until he was thirty-five. Growing up with undiagnosed neurodivergence, constant relocations, and no stable friendships, he drifted through school and into construction before a radio ad changed everything. His story is one of radical self-discovery forged through adversity, mental health crisis, and the moment he learned to be […]
Facing ADHD, anger, and finding strength in helping others with Lance Burdett
Lance grew up moving often, with a tough childhood and feelings of not fitting in. He struggled at school, found it hard to make friends and often felt alone. Early on, Lance showed signs of ADHD and anger, feeling out of place and hearing constant criticism which shaped his self-belief and experience at home and […]