Life & Faith

Dr Julie McGonigle led a school community through terrible grief after the traumatic murder of a young women on her staff. Her response and that of the school is worth hearing.In late 2023, St Andrew’s Cathedral School, right in the heart of Sydney's CBD experienced great tragedy, when a young sports assistant, Lilie James, was murdered by her male colleague and former partner. It rocked the whole of Sydney actually, and was totally heart breaking for the St Andrew's community - students, staff, parents, and alumni.Head of School, Dr Julie McGonigle, led the community through complex grief and trauma and made a commitment that, when the time was right, the School would lead the way in respectful relationships education.In early 2024 she began this process by commissioning an international best practice review that involved a whole school, adaptive, participatory change. At the heart of her approach was student co-design which was recently the focus of a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.This area is of serious concern to all communities trying to educate young people, helping them to cultivate healthy relationships and to develop virtue and good character. Life & Faith invited Dr McGonigle in to talk about that and related education topics.Explore: St Andrews Cathedral School

What does your psychologist, teacher, or pastor think about how AI is transforming their job?“I think we may have created something that will end up shaping us more than we shape it.”Is AI a revolutionary tool or an existential threat? A watershed moment in human history or an over-hyped bubble? Is it radically enhancing or fundamentally degrading our lives – or neither?There’s a lot of confident commentary out there, and the CPX team ... has thoughts. But in this episode of Life & Faith, rather than making any pronouncements or predictions, we thought we’d simply go and ask some people to tell us some stories. We reached out to a few friends of CPX in various fields to hear how AI has impacted their work so far, what they’re most keen for or concerned about, and how their pre-existing beliefs and commitments shape what they see when they look at this new(ish) technology.Listen in to these conversations with psychologist Leisa Aitken, psychiatrist Neil Jeyasingam, school deputy principal Sarah Golsby-Smith, economist and academic Gordon Menzies, and Presbyterian pastor Nathan Campbell on the why, when, and how of both embracing and resisting AI.

The Sexual Revolution freed us from oppressive tradition right? Wrong, says Louise Perry.Louise Perry is a journalist who has written for many publications, including the New Statesman, the Daily Mail and is now a columnist at the Wall Street Journal. She is the host of the podcast Maiden, Mother, Matriarch.When she was straight out of university Louise worked in a rape crisis centre and it challenged many of the assumptions she held growing up post the sexual revolution and its notions of unfettered freedom and personal autonomy.Gradually she came to be disturbed by our hypersexualised culture, that she felt was more loss than gain, especially for women. Her book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, considered the cost of huge social change from the 60s and 70s and modern hook up culture, ubiquitous pornography and an anything goes approach to relationships.Described as a radical feminist challenge to liberal feminism, the book gave a language to an uneasiness many people felt but weren’t sure why or how to articulate.Explore:The Case Against the Sexual RevolutionBridget Phetasy https://www.phetasy.com/p/slut-regretPodcast: Maiden, Mother, Matriarch

Loss forces us into barren places. But even there, something new can be born.When life takes a turn – when you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness, when things spiral out of our control – we're forced into some uncomfortable places. Liminal places.The word ‘liminal’ comes from the Latin word meaning ‘threshold’ or ‘doorstep’. When you step over a doorway, you cross the dividing line between the inside and outside of a house. A liminal space, then, is a boundary marker between the end of something, and the beginning of something else.The experience of suffering is one such liminal state in life. It forces us to shed ideas about ourselves that no longer fit our changed circumstances. In this episode of Life & Faith, we bring you the stories of two people who’ve found themselves living lives they weren’t expecting. We explore how they’ve made sense of what has happened to them, and who they are becoming in the process.Paul Gallagher is an author and journalist who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2016. He tells us that the term Multiple Sclerosis means ‘many scars’, and how he’s come to claim that ‘my scars are my human ministry as much as my spiritual ministry’.Adriel Booker is a speaker and author whose latest book is Tethered to Hope: The Quiet Kindness of God in Crisis, Change, and the Spaces In Between.This is a conversation about the twists and turns life takes, how crisis changes us, and how it introduces us to the people we didn’t know we were.EXPLORE Paul Gallagher’s website, featuring his post ‘How to stay happily married, in under three hours a day’ and why he’s ‘not scared of machines taking over’Adriel Booker’s website,Adriel’s book Tethered to Hope: The Quiet Kindness of God in Crisis, Change, and the Spaces In BetweenAdriel’s book Grace Like Scarlett: Grieving with Hope after Miscarriage and Loss

John Inazu joins Life & Faith to help us think about how we might live peacefully and productively alongside people with whom deep disagreement is inevitable.In increasingly, polarised times, the art of disagreeing well is one more of us are going to have to learn. And that is a skill that is not easy to master.Law Professor John Inazu is an experienced guide in helping people live well in complex, pluralist environments where we mix with those we sometimes profoundly disagree with. How do we navigate contested spaces without descending into conflict and violence? Can we separate a bad idea from the person who holds it? And might we even learn from that person?His emphasis on the relational aspects of our civic life is especially pertinent.As a Japanese American whose grandparents were sent to internment camps in World War II, John has a perspective worth hearing on identity, patriotism and the things that can bind a community or a country together.Explore:Learning to Disagree: the Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect.Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference

A butcher, a wife, and a harpist walk into a Life & Faith episode.---Distant from us in time, place, and culture, is there any way for a 21st-century person to truly access the world of ancient texts?Leviticus, Psalms, and Song of Songs are among the oldest books we have as humans. They’re important to Jews and Christians as part of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament; they’re important to scholars of the ancient world, and they’ve been important to our culture. But they’re also quite hard work, right?Enter Phil Bray, Sophia Wisdom, and Kamina Wüst: modern readers of weird old books, whose personal experiences as 21st-century people have given them surprising ways "in" to these words from thousands of years ago.Phil trained as a butcher, and his practical expertise has made the arcane world of priests, altars, and animal sacrifice in the book of Leviticus come alive for him. Sophia longed to play the harp as a little girl; now, that’s what she does for a living, and her music opens up an often hidden dimension to the Bible (especially the Psalms). And Kamina’s life – and marriage – have been changed by what she calls the “weird, sexy book” of Song of Songs. She even has a verse from it tattooed on her.You might not want to take up butchery, learn to play the harp, or get married specifically as a way of unlocking these old books. But we hope that the enthusiasm and insightfulness of these three readers will encourage you to take a fresh – or first – look at some ancient, weird, cool texts with plenty still to say to us today.EXPLOREWisdom HarpsKamina Wüst’s books on Song of SongsPhil Bray’s book Leviticus on the Butcher’s BlockRead PsalmsRead Song of SongsRead Leviticus

As Americans celebrate 250 years since the birth of the USA, we ask what the American project has delivered and what its future might be? Life & Faith examines the 250th anniversary of the USA. What were the founding ideals? How much have those ideals been realised? What might the future of the union be?And what about the contribution and implications of the religious layer to this story. Is, or was the United States ever, a “Christian country?” Well, it’s ... complicated. It takes some untangling.To sort through the complexity we are joined by historian Mark Noll, Bible Scholar and Cultural Commentator Darrell Bock and expert in American politics and foreign policy David Smith. Explore:Mark Noll, America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham LincolnMark Noll, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilisation 1794 - 1911David Smith, Religious Persecution and Political Order in the United States

Ralph Jackman left a successful career in sports broadcasting to become a teacher. He didn’t expect that choice to land him behind bars.Ralph had been a sports reporter for 25 years but felt he needed a change and in his early 50s trained to become a teacher.That might be tough enough of a transition, but Ralph’s first appointment was to Melbourne’s Parkville Youth Detention Centre teaching literacy and numeracy to boys on remand. He was teaching some of our country’s most damaged and vulnerable boys.Ralph has written about that experience in his book Detention: A Rookie Teacher. The Toughest Prison School in Australia, where he narrates some amazing experiences he had in that environment. Jackman shows how being extra creative, as well as personally honest and vulnerable was necessary to make a connection with the boys.He also tells of the reason he came to be a whistle blower against a system he felt was badly failing those in its care.Explore:Detention: A Rookie Teacher. The Toughest Prison School in Australia

Meet winemakers and brothers(-in-law) Daniel and Theo, who make good wine and have thought deeply about why. What’s it like to win best in the world at the ‘wine Olympics’? Do you need a degree to make great wine, or will Google get you through? Is wine only for snobs? And what do grapes suggest about God?Daniel Chaffey Hartwig and Theo Engela are the brothers-in-law behind Chaffey Bros Wine Co. In this celebratory episode of Life & Faith, they talk about the ups and downs of winemaking (mostly the ups), and why they think it’s a natural fit for people of Christian faith like them to be in this business – despite certain stereotypes! Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, and Daniel and Theo can definitely get on board with that idea.Whether or not you’re a wine drinker, we think you’ll enjoy this episode about work and family; loving what you do, but knowing you're not in control of it; and what wine can teach us about life. So pull up a comfy chair and raise a glass with us to the goodness of wine.Explore:Chaffey Bros Wine Co

Author, radio host and columnist Richard Glover talks to Life & Faith about his career, the joys of radio and why ordinary life is so special.Richard Glover was the host of ABC Radio Sydney’s drive program for 26 years, retiring from that role at the end of 2024.He is the author of 18 books including 3 for kids. He has a regular Saturday column at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age which he’s been doing for over thirty years.He started out as a cadet journo for the Herald and has been a foreign correspondent and news editor there.In all of his work – whether it be on the radio, his weekly column or the books he has written there is an inquisitiveness about the world and other people, a generosity of spirit and good humour.He really is a much loved figure in, especially Sydney’s public life.He speaks to Life & Faith about highlights of his radio career, why communication and humour have been so important to him and what things most nourish his soul. Explore:Richard Glover’s Website: https://www.richardglover.com.au/