Best Fate Amp Ambition Podcasts (2025)

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Ep. 91 Don Watson on the power of words, political speechwriting and where to from Trump. 59:43

19d ago59:43

59:43

Don Watson has spent a lifetime listening closely - to the language of politics, power, persuasion and all the spaces in between. A historian, author and master of the written word, he is perhaps best known as the speechwriter behind some of Australia’s most unforgettable words - including the iconic Redfern Speech, delivered by then-Prime Minister…

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Ep. 90 Julia Banks on boys' clubs, Trumpist politics and personal power. 47:55

1M ago47:55

47:55

Politics is the stuff of Shakespeare. Acts of revenge, personal sabotage, falls from grace and epic power struggles have always pushed politicians in and out of public favour. As Australia heads toward a federal election, in our own political landscape we see the high drama of campaign theatre play out against the global backdrop and twisted plot o…

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Ep. 89 Sarah Grynberg on shedding skins, letting old friends go and finding greatness. 53:17

7M ago53:17

53:17

Annus horribilis is a Latin phrase that means "horrible year". It’s the antithesis of annus mirabilis which means "wonderful year". Of course years don’t exist in those binaries but we all know that some years are better than others: some are defined by greatness, and others we just can’t wait to see the back of. As this episode goes to air, Mads s…

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Ep. 88 Stan Grant on life post-Voice To Parliament, lament and writing beauty into the world. 1:04:21

8M ago1:04:21

1:04:21

Stan Grant is a man of remarkable intellect, profound story and deep faith. On a late winter's afternoon recently, I meet Stan in a moment when he is on a difficult journey through a kind of lament - deeply contemplating the three big disciplines that have steeled his extraordinary life and work - physics, philosophy and theology. Stan says since t…

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Ep. 87 Damian Chaparro on swapping a corporate job for a slower pace of life, founding a health retreat and honouring the reset. 55:03

11M ago55:03

55:03

When you think of a health retreat, I wonder what thoughts and feelings come to mind? Yoga with a monk on a mountain, people healing their deepest wounds around grief, illness or weight issues, or perhaps it’s images of Nicole Kidman in 9 Perfect Strangers as depicted in the book and movie? I’ve attended countless retreats in Australia and overseas…

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Ep. 86 Jo Stanley on women in media, comedy as catharsis and the case for vulvas. 58:51

12M ago58:51

58:51

If you’ve turned on the radio lately, have you ever sat back to listen to who’s telling the stories? Current data shows that only 27 per cent of radio hosts are women, female experts are quoted just 34 per cent of the time and - here’s the clanger - NINETY PER CENT of radio voices of people aged over 45 are in fact - men. Yep. NINETY per cent. Why …

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Ep. 85 Corrie Perkin on the Fourth Estate, storytelling and why words do matter. 45:59

1y ago45:59

45:59

It was the poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou who once said ‘there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you’. Stories are what help us make sense of the world around us and of ourselves, of great tragedies and fates and fortunes, of buried histories and mysteries, of the untold secrets and human essence of things. Journa…

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Ep 84. Dr Meg Jay on rethinking your twenties, why this decade isn't necessarily "the best years of your life" and thriving through skills not pills. 55:45

1y ago55:45

55:45

Being a young person in your 20s is a complicated and challenging time. Whether you’re living through this decade of your life now, or you’re a parent to a twenty something, you likely already know that the 20s are the most uncertain decade of life. In this episode, we talk to the always compassionate and wise Dr Meg Jay, a developmental clinical p…

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Ep 83. Grace Tame on social justice, human connection and sharing our pain. 1:01:34

1y ago1:01:34

1:01:34

Grace Tame is a name that needs little introduction, but that doesn’t mean you know Grace - or indeed her story - on her own terms. Catapulted into the spotlight as 'Australian of the Year' in 2021, Grace stepped squarely into the public eye and became a powerful catalyst for a tidal wave of conversation, action and policy change for survivor-victi…

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Ep. 82 Cat Bohannon on the science of sex, why men have nipples and how the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution. 58:26

1y ago58:26

58:26

Over the Summer I spent countless hours deep in the pages of a remarkable book called Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. The book is written by the very entertaining scholar, researcher and poet Cat Bohannon, and it's making very big waves across the world right now. The book is an epic story and sweeping scientifi…

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Ep. 81 Cath Mahoney on over-sharing, a high-profile divorce, career change insights and coming back to self. 49:06

1y ago49:06

49:06

When you google Catherine Mahoney, the first thing it says is Andrew John’s ex-wife. But as I know nothing about the NRL or his career as one of Australia’s biggest sports stars, this isn’t what led me to invite Cath to join us on Human Cogs. Cath is an ex-publicist, writer, podcaster, talented creative, and had me rollicking on the floor with laug…

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Ep. 80 Rachelle Unreich on mothers and daughters, fate and the goodness of people. 46:29

1+ y ago46:29

46:29

How are you going with the state of the world right now? Wars and violence continue to rage, hate and abuse fill social media feeds, and an escalation of ideological conflict is causing uncertainty and division in our politics, in our communities and at our dinner tables. It can make you lose a little faith in the world ... wonder if humanity will …

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Ep. 79 Kate Legge on infidelity, extramarital affairs and how we become who we are. 56:50

1+ y ago56:50

56:50

“Affairs are a little like childbirth. Someone is always having one somewhere, usually right under the nose of a spouse because nobody knows everything that happens inside a marriage, not even the people in it.” Award-winning author and journalist Kate Legge has chronicled social and political affairs and other people’s stories since the 1980s. But…

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Ep 78. Michael Bunting on mindful leadership, owning our shadow self and the power of being vulnerable on LinkedIn. 1:08:35

1+ y ago1:08:35

1:08:35

We’re all familiar with the idea of mindfulness and leadership and most of us would have some preconceived ideas about what each of these terms mean. So what happens when the two constructs collide at the deepest level? And what does mindful leadership mean for the leader, the team, the organisation and the bottom line? Michael Bunting is a keynote…

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Ep. 77 Thomas Mayo on The Voice To Parliament and why you need to be informed. 32:52

1+ y ago32:52

32:52

Over recent weeks we’ve all watched and listened to the debate over 'The Voice to Parliament' play out in the media, at dinner tables and in the public sphere. Conversations have caught fire and it seems that a lot of confusion has got in the way of the facts. This is partly because right-wing hardliners have deliberately launched misinformation an…

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Ep. 76 Dr Lucy Hone on the three secrets of resilient people, navigating unbearable grief and coping with loss. 55:27

1+ y ago55:27

55:27

A quick google search shows that almost 8 hundred million people have searched for the term resilience and close to 5 hundred million have searched for the term grief. However, far less frequently, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, have the two concepts collided. Dr Lucy Hone is a best-selling author, speaker and award-winning academic researcher …

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Ep. 75 Kerri Sackville on the power of solitude, tips for turning inward and the great cost of avoiding ourselves. 55:34

1+ y ago55:34

55:34

Kerri Sackville is a writer and columnist for Sunday Life magazine in The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. She’s also the author of five books, including her most recent, The Secret Life of You – How a Bit of Alone Time Can Change your Life, Relationships, and Maybe the World! Now, those listeners who know me well, know that even though I’m endle…

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Ep. 74 Ange Harbinson on the impact of ending a marriage, pathways to separation and how to create a healthier divorce. 43:03

2y ago43:03

43:03

Ange Harbinson is an entrepreneur, tech and innovation trailblazer, digital strategist, and lover of all things data! In 2019, when she was still the Managing Director of Thirst Creative, a marketing, design and digital agency she co-founded with her husband, Ange saw a gap in the market for online resources to support people going through separati…

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Ep. 73 Jane Rowe and Prue Mahar on the ripples of parental addiction on children, kinship care and why it takes a village. 51:33

2y ago51:33

51:33

In this episode of Human Cogs, Sabina speaks with not one, but two guests to better understand the devastating effects that drug use has on the children of drug users, and the cycle of abuse that can repeat if no action is taken. Prue Mahar shares her story of what unfolded after her sister left behind two young children following a drug overdose. …

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Ep. 72 Jeremy Macvean on the power of fatherhood, using our superpowers for good and connecting with kids as a single parent. 52:32

2y ago52:32

52:32

Jeremy Macvean is a marketing and communications expert who has held senior roles at Clemengers, Young & Rubicam and Austereo among others before deciding he wanted to use his comms expertise and insights for good not evil. This realisation led Jeremy to share his marketing and digital nous with the Royal Women’s Hospital, Peter McCallum Cancer Cen…

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Ep. 71 Lael Stone on self-healing, present parenting and supporting the whole child in an educational system that isn't working. 48:20

2y ago48:20

48:20

What do you think are the most important ingredients for a young person to learn and thrive? While we’ve hopefully come a long way since reading, writing and arithmetic topped the list, we wonder how many of you would say that connection, empathy and a sense of agency matter most when it comes to educating young people to step out into the world an…

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Ep. 70 Shaynna Blaze on tackling domestic violence, breaking the silence and catalysing change. 46:38

2y ago46:38

46:38

You might think you know Shaynna Blaze as the vivacious and talented interior designer from TV shows The Block, Selling Houses Australia, Celebrity Apprentice or Country Home Rescue. What you may not know is that Shaynna is also a passionate advocate for women and a social justice campaigner for tackling domestic violence. In this conversation, Sha…

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Ep. 69 Dr Ahona Guha on understanding trauma, finding ways to heal, and recognising that trauma impacts us all. 41:48

2y ago41:48

41:48

The word trauma is everywhere, but what does trauma really mean and can we heal and recover from the impact of assault, neglect, coercive control, parentification, bullying, loss, sexual violence, war, accidents or destructive acts of nature? In this episode, I speak with Dr Ahona Guha, a forensic and clinical psychologist, who is also a survivor o…

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Ep. 68 Anna Oxley Rintoul on living with ADHD, raising neurodiverse kids and cherishing a good enough life. 53:36

2y ago53:36

53:36

How many people do you know who live with hidden conditions? You might be surprised to learn that an estimated 30 per cent of the Australian population live with neurodiverse conditions including ADHD and autism. In fact, new data has revealed the number of prescriptions issued for ADHD has more than doubled over the last decade in Australia, with …

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Ep. 67 Mariam Issa on crossing two cultures, healing from patriarchy and taking off the mask. 58:18

2y ago58:18

58:18

As a very little child, Mariam Issa dreamt of traveling to faraway places. What she did not dream is that she would need to flee the horror of Somalia’s civil war on an overcrowded boat to Kenya. Nor did she dream of the violence and bombings she witnessed, or of her beautiful close-knit family being torn apart and displaced to far-flung foreign co…

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Ep. 66 Michele Chevally Hedge on hormones, sleep, sugar and how to find joy in food. 49:46

2y ago49:46

49:46

How are you feeling right now? Are you wired? Are you tired? Did you sleep ok last night or are you tossing and turning til dawn? What about your relationship with your body? Are you fasting? Stressed? Eating meat? Riding sugar highs? Suffering energy lows? And what role are hormones playing in your life day to day? In this episode we do a full-swe…

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Ep. 65 Michelle Woolhouse on anxiety, burnout and leading from the heart. 44:20

2y ago44:20

44:20

If your heart had a voice, have you ever wondered what it would say? Dr Michelle Woolhouse is an author, podcaster and holistic and integrative GP with decades of experience working in the fields of anxiety, stress and burnout. We first spoke to Michelle in 2020, around the time she hit a wall within herself, which catalysed her decision to step of…

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Ep. 64 Pete Dickson on how siblings shape us, brotherly love and unimaginable loss. 44:48

2y ago44:48

44:48

Award-winning documentary maker and author Pete Dickson is no stranger to life’s curved balls. Childhood illness and a fast-track to an AFL career truncated due to a life-threatening condition were the early harbingers, but the tragic loss of his beloved brother Robert - Australian football identity, reality TV star and filmmaker - and his two youn…

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Ep. 63 Dianne Draganovic on loss, stoicism and the enduring power of love. 1:02:26

2+ y ago1:02:26

1:02:26

It was the philosopher, Holocaust survivor and author of 'Man's Search for Meaning' Victor Frankl who said: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” The idea links to Epictetus’ Dichotomy of Control, that being that there are multiple things within our sphere of influence we do have the ability to c…

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Ep. 62 Gus Worland on manning up, suicide prevention and Aussie men. 31:08

2+ y ago31:08

31:08

Warning: This episode talks about suicide and mental health. Did you know that suicide is the #1 killer of Aussie men under the age of 45? Every day in Australia, 7 men and 2 women take their lives, and each year across this country, there are 65 thousand attempts of suicide. That’s one every 28 seconds. These are shocking statistics that media per…

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Ep. 61 Dr Lexi Frydenberg on professional burnout, pandemic parenting and finding balance. 45:37

2+ y ago45:37

45:37

How are you feeling as the end of 2022 looms? It's been a big couple of years, hasn't it? Pandemic life has worn us all down a little, anxiety and burnout are widespread and trying to find balance again can be a real challenge for adults, and for kids. So in this episode we sat down with Dr Lexi Frydenberg, a pediatrician and educator, Co-Host of t…

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Ep. 60 Oscar Trimboli on the transformative power of truly listening. 53:29

2+ y ago53:29

53:29

Experts say effective communication isn’t just about what you say: it is 50% speaking and 50% listening. Think about your interactions today. No doubt you will have countless exchanges with loved ones, colleagues, clients and strangers, but how many times are you actually tuned in and listening deeply to what they say, and what they don’t say? And …

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Ep. 59 Aubrey Blanche on owning your story, Culture Amp and truly belonging. 40:30

2+ y ago40:30

40:30

“I am so acutely aware that little girls born like me don’t sit in rooms with billionaires and don’t help run tech companies. So with the incredible privileges that I have, I don’t know that I can justify doing anything else but trying to make sure that other people have access to those same things." Meet Aubrey Blanche - an absolute powerhouse and…

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Ep. 58 Fergus Watts on Reach, casting off labels and talking about real stuff 40:08

2+ y ago40:08

40:08

When you think about your life, is there a moment that comes to mind which you know changed you indelibly? Fergus Watts says that moment happened when he was 15 years old, and the legendary AFL footballer and Reach founder Jim Stynes changed his life by unlocking the vulnerability hiding underneath his masculine bravado to finally give him permissi…

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Ep. 57 Dr Amantha Imber on finding work you love, dating after divorce and using your time wisely. 59:47

2+ y ago59:47

59:47

Have you ever wondered how you can use your remaining days on this planet better? In this episode we explore this question with Dr Amantha Imber, plus unpack stacks of other fascinating, perplexing, super-curly conundrums like: How do high achievers find balance? What does work look like in a post-pandemic world? Can you stop perfectionism? Would y…

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Ep. 56 Tarang Chawla on domestic violence and using his voice to effect social change. 49:26

3y ago49:26

49:26

During the dark days of the pandemic not everyone was baking sourdough. Many women were locked in their homes with people they feared, and psychological, physical, financial and fatal abuse played out behind closed doors with domestic violence continuing to devastate too many lives. Tarang Chawla is a writer, speaker, anti-violence campaigner and m…

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Ep. 55 Lisa Leong and Monique Ross on career changes, burnout and making your work life matter. 58:07

3y ago58:07

58:07

Did you know that you spend most of your waking life working – a jaw-dropping 90,000 hours for the average person. Work dominates our days. It can be the thing that gets you up in the morning, or the thing that keeps you awake at night. What about you? Has the pandemic changed your relationship with work? Are you at a career crossroads, feeling tir…

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Ep. 54 Laura Youngson on kicking goals, breaking world records and the shadow side of ambition. 48:33

3y ago48:33

48:33

Have you ever set yourself a crazy big hairy audacious goal, and found yourself against the odds somehow achieving it? Women climb invisible mountains every day. But Laura Youngson's eureka moment came on a volcanic ash pitch, 5,714 metres above sea level, on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro in June 2017. Youngson, an ambitious entrepreneur, gender act…

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Ep. 53 Sushi Das on seeking truths, "deranged marriage" and raising strong daughters. 56:58

3y ago56:58

56:58

Sushi Das is an award-winning British Australian journalist of more than 25 years, spending much of her career at The Age, where she held a series of senior reporting and editing positions. She is the winner of two Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards including Best Columnist (2005) and currently works as a freelance columnist and as a researcher for …

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Ep. 52 Yves Rees on radical self-inquiry, gender transition and being seen for who you are. 47:38

3+ y ago47:38

47:38

What happens when, aged 30, you understand you’re transgender? This was the question that confronted Dr Yves Rees, an award-winning author, historian and regular contributor to ABC Radio and The Conversation, whose life was upended by gender transition in 2018. Then known as a woman called Anne, Yves was forced to grapple with the knowledge that th…

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Ep. 51 Melissa MacGowan on menopause myths, deep growth and honouring feeling over achievement. 48:35

3+ y ago48:35

48:35

Many of us hear the word menopause and may think it’s not meaningful or relevant in our own life – regardless of our gender, career path or life stage. As an accomplished business executive who travelled the world working in often male-dominated industries, Melissa MacGowan was once probably the same. Until the symptoms of undiagnosed peri-menopaus…

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Ep. 50 Adam Schwab on the highs and lows of building a global business, and why we all need a great escape. 52:50

3+ y ago52:50

52:50

Adam Schwab is a former corporate lawyer, company founder, angel investor and the co-founder of Luxury Escapes, a global travel company. He has also written for Crikey and SmartCompany since 2005 and is the author of Pigs at the Trough: Lessons from Australia’s Decade of Corporate Greed. From being a self-described glorified filer at a top-tier law…

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Ep. 49 George McEncroe on challenging rigidity of thought, managing anxiety and hostility, and serving women through entrepreneurship 44:04

3+ y ago44:04

44:04

George McEncroe is a tech entrepreneur, writer, standup comedian, educator, and force of nature. The single mother of four hates orthodoxies, has a roll up your sleeves ‘can do’ mantra, and has spent her life giving everything a crack to dial up the carpe diem in her every day so she doesn’t die wondering. In this episode, we hear about some of the…

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Ep. 48 Jocelyn Brewer on tech addiction, online boundaries, and positive digital use for kids... and us adults too. 41:15

3+ y ago41:15

41:15

Jocelyn Brewer has, in her words, a job of the future. A psychologist and ex-teacher who helps individuals and organisations be well connected and mentally fit, she has been working with adolescents, families and adults for a decade, and understands the complexity of busy modern life, the increasing role of technology in our work and how healthy di…

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Ep. 47 Craig Hopper on navigating deep grief, the magic of talking and the healing power of asking for help. 40:23

3+ y ago40:23

40:23

On an ordinary day in August 2018, Craig Hopper woke up living the dream, got ready for the day, kissed his three kids goodbye and went off to work. Meanwhile, his wife dropped their youngest at school and set off as a fit 46-year-old on her regular morning run. What happened next changed their lives forever. Craig’s wife suffered a massive heart a…

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Ep. 46 Rachael Neumann on fierce ambition, learning from loss and being worthy of joy and levity. 49:52

3+ y ago49:52

49:52

Rachael Neumann is an uber impressive high flyer who has experienced countless successes around the globe in the ever-changing and complex worlds of venture capital investment and business. But business wasn’t the focus of our fabulous and high-octane chat. Instead of deep diving into her latest hot startup deal, Rachael shared some of the formativ…

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Ep. 45 James "Fish" Gill on seeing beauty in conflict, why certainty is a red flag, and how to see the goodness in each other. 57:47

3+ y ago57:47

57:47

In this episode, Sabina takes to the mic solo without her articulate co-host Mads to meet James “Fish” Gill, a Heart Coach, Yoga Teacher, and Transformational Facilitator. Fish shares his own learnings and teachings about how to see the beauty in conflict, the power of curiosity in relationships, and why certainty is almost always a red flag. From …

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Ep. 44 Kirsty Costa on losing a pregnancy, premature menopause and finding a way through hard things. 49:53

3+ y ago49:53

49:53

Did you know that the average age of menopause is 51, menopause that occurs between 40 and 45 is called 'early menopause', and menopause that happens before age 40 is called 'premature menopause’? October is Menopause Awareness Month. So we're opening up important conversations on Human Cogs to explore all of the usual sleepless, sweat-soaked chall…

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Ep. 43 Scott Watters on outliers, stepping into the arena and finding a way to find the hero in ourselves. 55:13

3+ y ago55:13

55:13

For those of you into AFL, footy finals fever just swept the nation as we aired this episode of Human Cogs. So who better to get on the show than an ex AFL player and ex coach, to explore the game of football, and the game of life. There are lots of things we assume about people who are outliers. People who have gone beyond the everyday, achieved e…

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Ep. 42 Nicole Dyson on empowering young people, unleashing potential and using education as a weapon to change the world. 35:19

3+ y ago35:19

35:19

Nicole Dyson is an award-winning educator, has represented Australia as a delegate for the G20 Young Entrepreneur’s Alliance, and is the trail-blazing founder of Future Anything, which has worked with 1000’s of students and schools across Australia delivering entrepreneurial education to unleash the potential of young people. Nicole trained as a te…

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Fate Amp Ambition Podcasts

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