Humans, being. with Lael Stone

Humans, being. with Lael Stone

Video Podcast

di Lael Stone

Miglioramento personale Relazioni

Stagione 2

Lael Stone, being. | Navigating Sibling Conflict ♥︎

What if the fight in the back seat is really a red flag... and your child is waving it at you? In this honest, practical, and gentle solo episode, I'm talking all things siblings. The squabbles over who got more ice cream, the toddler showing the new baby a little too much "love", the teens hurling spicy words down the hallway... and the parent standing in the middle of it all, muttering, why can't you just get along? This one comes straight from my DMs. So many of you have asked how to navigate sibling rivalry, and I wanted to sit down with you, like we're having a cuppa, and share what I've learnt over 26 years of being a mum and many years of walking alongside families. Why sibling conflict is so normal, what often sits underneath it, and what we can do in the moment when it all kicks off. I explore: Why family is one of the first training grounds for conflict Kids being in balance and out of balance, and the "backpack" of big feelings What gets stirred up in us as parents when our children clash Spaciousness, safety and helping everyone be heard Repair without forced apologies, and filling up each child's cup Every time our kids fight, we get another chance to show them what conflict can look like... someone calm arrives, everyone is kept safe, everyone gets a turn to be heard, and there's always a way back to each other. It's slow, it's messy, and some days we lose our cool completely. But little by little, that pattern can become theirs, and the sibling who drives them up the wall today might just be the one they laugh with the longest. [Recorded October 2026] About Lael Stone: Lael Stone is an educator, counsellor, and author of Own Your Story: Understanding your past to create your future. With over 20 years of experience working with families, Lael helps people understand how their childhood imprints shape their adult lives – and how to do something about it. Connect with Lael: Instagram: @laelstone Website: laelstone.com.au — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Threads: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Join me for the Parenting Immersion. My eight-week Parenting Immersion starts October 19th, working through themes like trust, boundaries, anger and repair to help you understand your own patterns and respond instead of react. Sign up now.

Osher Günsberg, being. with Lael Stone | Hold My Hand ♥︎

"You've gotta walk across the bindis a bit to get to the swimming pool." What if everything you’re hoping for is sitting on the other side of the thing you keep avoiding? In this open, tender and surprisingly funny conversation, I sit down with Osher Günsberg, a man who has been in Australian living rooms for nearly two decades, and who spent a lot of that time doing the hardest work of his life off camera. We talk about the version of Osher that millions of us watched on Idol and The Bachelor, and the version who went home afterwards. He speaks with such generosity about sixteen years of sobriety, about the drinking and the painkillers, about periods of psychosis, and about the day he rang twenty-three people just to get through it. He’s very clear that none of it was solved by clever thinking. What saved him, every single time, was other humans. We explore: The three great lies our brain tells us: this is permanent, this is personal, this is everything Why you can’t think your way out of thinking, and what to reach for instead Speaking plainly about a psychosis diagnosis... it’s grim, but so is a compound fracture Being a stepdad first, and the grace of honouring the dad who is already there [Recorded Online June 2026] About Osher Günsberg: Osher Günsberg has been a familiar face and voice in Australian homes for close to twenty years, from Channel V to seven seasons of Australian Idol, a decade of The Bachelor, and the narration on Bondi Rescue. He’s also a podcaster, best-selling author, award-winning doco maker, mental health advocate, husband, dad and stepdad. He’s been sober for more than sixteen years and speaks about it the way it was first spoken to him, plainly and without shame, so the next person doesn’t have to work it out alone. Connect with Osher: Instagram: @osher_gunsberg Podcast: Better Than Yesterday Book: So What? Now What? Linktree: /osher_gunsberg If this episode hits close to home: There are many doors into support, and they all do the job. National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015, free and confidential, 24 hours; Lifeline 13 11 14. And Osher's own advice, which costs nothing: before you pick up a drink, pick up the phone. — Lael's eight-week Parenting Immersion starts October 19th, working through themes like trust, boundaries, anger and repair to help you understand your own patterns and respond instead of react. Join the waitlist or sign up now.

Karen Young, being. with Lael Stone | Never Alone in It ♥︎

"It's not the distress that hurts kids. It's being alone in the distress." Karen Young With the noise of the world, the endless information, the sense that our nervous systems have hit the limit, I asked Karen how she's finding it, and she said it's a constant battle. Some days she wins it, some days she doesn't. In this episode, Karen talks about wanting our kids to feel safer and do the brave things. Not one or the other. We discuss anxiety and how we've started pathologising a very normal human response, and in doing that we've made it harder to move our kids towards bravery. She opens up on her own childhood with no adult to lean into. We also discuss schools, and the one question she'd ask if she could only ask one. And step-parenting, which she says is the hardest thing she has ever done. We explore: Why anxiety is a normal human response, and what we've done to parents by putting "disorder" on the end of it The difference between a child being unsafe and a child being uncomfortable, and why that distinction changes everything What actually traumatises kids, and why it’s almost never the hard thing itself Why kids are telling us they don't want more resilience, and what they want instead [Recorded Online June 2026] About Karen Young: Karen Young is a former psychologist with an honours degree in psychology and a master's in Gestalt therapy. She founded Hey Sigmund after realising how much power sits in solid information, and her articles now reach millions of readers a year. She wrote the best-selling Hey Warrior for her own daughter, and she's the author of five other books. She's recognised for her expertise in school refusal, which she calls anxiety-based school absenteeism, and she's a mum to two children and two stepchildren. Connect with Karen: Instagram: @karenyoung_heysigmund Web: heysigmund.com Facebook: Karen Young Hey Sigmund — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Threads: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Lael's eight-week Parenting Immersion starts October 19th, working through themes like trust, boundaries, anger and repair to help you understand your own patterns and respond instead of react. Join the waitlist or sign up now.

Luke Cook, being. with Lael Stone | Rather Cringe Than Bland ♥︎

The loudest voice in our heads often says: “what are you waiting for?” Luke Cook has spent his whole life answering that question by just jumping in. Underneath the million followers and the characters and the Netflix devil is a guy who shared that his ongoing battle is feeling like he falls short of everything. That rejection still stings, seventeen years in, and it stings because he still cares. We talk about what we make things mean, and how quickly we all default to our not-enoughness. We talk about his boys, and the birth pool, and the terrifying business of being watched that closely by three small humans. And we land somewhere I loved: if you are having fun, you are probably in the right place. We explore: Why Luke doesn’t experience his biggest leaps as risks The thing school tries to beat out of you that turns out to be your secret sauce Growing up the last of five in a Bible college, and why a minister's kid was always going to end up performing The joyous, ridiculous business of poking fun online, where the line sits, and what he does when he gets it wrong The gap between how the world sees you and how you see yourself, and the inadequacy story that runs underneath it Three boys, two home births, and the best piece of advice he has for partners in a birth space The imprint he hopes is loudest in his sons' heads when they grow up [Recorded Online June 2026] About Luke Cook: Luke Cook is a Sydney-born actor, writer, director and content creator who has lived in Los Angeles since he was twenty-two. He is best known for playing Lucifer Morningstar in Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and most recently starred in the Stan Original series Good Cop/Bad Cop, which earned him a Logie nomination. Away from the screen he has built an audience of around a million people on Instagram through his original comedy characters, co-founded the health and wellness brand Shakewell, and is dad to three young boys with his wife Kara. Connect with Luke: Instagram: @thelukecook TikTok: @thelukecook Web: thelukecook.com Shakewell: getshakewell.com — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Lael's eight-week Parenting Immersion starts October 19th, working through themes like trust, boundaries, anger and repair to help you understand your own patterns and respond instead of react. Join the waitlist or sign up now.

Dara Simkin, being. with Lael Stone | Play Is Not a Reward ♥︎

“Play is an on-ramp, not a reward” Dara Simkin says early on in our conversation. Yep, that resonates. I too have spent most of my life saving play for after the list is done. The list is never done. Dara brings play to boardrooms and leadership days, and what she describes is a generation of adults so addicted to achievement that they have optimised themselves right out of their own lives. We talk about grief hiding inside what looks like resistance, about her redefining success as ease, and about the morning her five-year-old lost it over a Rubik's Cube and what she chose to do instead of fixing it. We explore: The difference between real curiosity and judgment wearing a curious costume Play as a recovery tool for a fried nervous system, and why the micro moments count Achievement addiction, and how gold stars and trophies quietly become a mortgage and a boat you’re not sure you wanted Why adaptability is just play in a fancy suit, and what that means for the kids coming up behind us The question she asks herself at the end of each day: “how was I human today?” [Recorded May 2026] About Dara Simkin: Dara Simkin is a Melbourne-based speaker, facilitator and organisational culture specialist, and the founder and Chief Play Officer of Culture Hero. Born and raised in the US, she moved to Australia at 25 after winning a video competition that sent her around Tasmania in a camper van, and she has spent the last decade researching, designing and facilitating play at work. In March 2026, she co-published Full Stack Human with data scientist and futurist Tane Hunter, about how we hold onto our humanity and adaptability in a world moving faster than we are. Connect with Dara: Instagram: @darasimkin https://hbp.s.gy/buJKhq Web: culturehero.co https://hbp.s.gy/qtzEtI LinkedIn: Dara Simkin https://hbp.s.gy/dDDAGI Book: fullstackhumanbook.com https://hbp.s.gy/P49x3Q — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Lael's eight-week Parenting Immersion starts October 19th, working through themes like trust, boundaries, anger and repair to help you understand your own patterns and respond instead of react. Join the waitlist or sign up now.

Jacinta Parsons, being. with Lael Stone | The Certainty of Uncertainty ♥︎

A ninety-five-year-old told Jacinta she was the last of her tribe. Jacinta asked how that small body holds something so big, and she said she has to feel the loss but not go too far into it … when it gets close she goes outside and listens to the magpies. That is the whole human experience in one sentence. In this episode we talk about the moment women become invisible, and how much earlier that lands than anyone admits. We talk about bodies, and about Jacinta's fierce insistence that we stop policing each other. She tells me what chronic illness took from her in her late twenties, and about the moment in her parents' spare room when it turned. And then she tells me about her friends in their nineties, and honestly, I want what they have. We explore: The unconscious loyalties we carry, and what happens when you put one down What chronic illness took from Jacinta, and why she now calls it ‘the opportunity of illness’ The bottom of the pool, and why she reckons nobody can stay there Her friends in their nineties, the rebels, and what they understand about time that we don’t Why nobody needs your solution, and the deep listening none of us were taught [Recorded May 2026] About Jacinta Parsons: Jacinta Parsons is a Melbourne-based broadcaster, author and public speaker who currently hosts the Friday Revue and Saturday Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne. She started out at community station Triple R in 2006 and joined the ABC in 2015. She has written three books, Unseen, A Question of Age and A Wisdom of Age, moving from her own experience of chronic illness into the far bigger question of what this country does to women as they age. She is an ambassador for Crohn's and Colitis Australia, and she has just finished her PhD. Connect with Jacinta: Instagram: @jacintaparsons Website: jacintaparsons.com ABC Radio Melbourne: abc.net.au/melbourne — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Threads: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Lael's eight-week Parenting Immersion starts October 19th, working through themes like trust, boundaries, anger and repair to help you understand your own patterns and respond instead of react. Join the waitlist or sign up now.

Lael Stone, being. | Supporting Overwhelm ♥︎

This week's episode is a different one. I have been hearing that many of you are feeling overwhelmed, and I wanted to create a little break from the everyday hustle and grind to give you something you can come back to many times. This guided relaxation invites you to sit down for 30 minutes, close your eyes, take some deep breaths, calm your nervous system, and get back in touch with your centre. We don't advise listening to this whilst driving. Instead, find a cosy spot to take a short break. Pop your headphones in and let my voice carry you away for a little while. [Recorded May 2026] About Lael Stone: Lael Stone is an educator, counsellor, and author of Own Your Story: Understanding your past to create your future. With over 20 years of experience working with families, Lael helps people understand how their childhood imprints shape their adult lives – and how to do something about it. Connect with Lael: Instagram: @laelstone Website: laelstone.com.au — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Threads: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

Gina Chick, being. with Lael Stone | Remember You're Wild ♥︎

Gina Chick was about seven when her whole class was told to walk in a circle. She stepped out of it and walked the other way, on purpose, so she had to look at every single face coming towards her. She’s been walking the other way ever since. I’ve wanted this conversation for a long time. Gina survived 67 days alone in the Tasmanian wilderness, but that isn’t the part that undoes me. It’s her book, We Are the Stars, which I read and wailed my way through, snot-crying, completely levelled. She writes about her daughter Blaise with a line that has never left me: “because I've said yes to the grief and whatever it asked of me, I've always been bigger than it.” So I asked her how a person learns to turn towards the thing that most of us spend a lifetime running from. Our conversation gets into the voice of "should" that is never actually ours, about why our culture pathologises discomfort and hands us ten million distractions instead of tools. We talked about five rhythms and the wild life force that dance sets loose, about dancing in the ashes of friends on Oxford Street in the nineties, about hot flushes as a lifetime of squashed rage burning its way out, and about what Gina calls silver feathers. Her belief that women come out the other side of menopause forged, decentred from the male gaze, with no fucks left to give and exactly the right qualifications to lead. We explore: Why comparison is a normal part of being human, and where our culture leaves us stranded with it Grief as the flip side of love, and how feeling every fibre of it let Gina map the shape of her own heart Why we’re not designed for comfort, and what discomfort is actually inviting us to do Five rhythms as a way to digest what we cannot think our way out of [Recorded Online June 2026] About Gina Chick: Gina Chick is a rewilding facilitator, five rhythms dance meditation teacher and storyteller who won the first season of Alone Australia after 67 days solo in the Tasmanian wilderness. She is the founder of Wild Heart, which runs family wilderness camps, vision quests and retreats built around reconnecting with nature as a path to inner authority. Her debut memoir We Are the Stars won the ABIA Matt Richell Award for Best New Writer of the Year and became the first work of non-fiction ever to top the Dymocks Top 101, and is now out in the US with Andrews McMeel. She is currently writing her second book. Connect with Gina: Instagram: @gigiamazonia Website: ginachick.com Book: We Are The Stars Wild Heart: wildheart.life Substack: @therealginachick — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future.

Em Rusciano, being. with Lael Stone | The Diagnostic Trifecta ♥︎

* There are a few F-bombs in our discussion. If you’ve little ones listening nearby, consider headphones! Em Rusciano knows this: taking care of herself first is a radical punk act. And if you know Em from her music, book, radio, or her gloriously chaotic Instagram, you already know she's never done anything by halves. Em talks about parenting her 6yr old son, who she describes, with so much love, as a “sixty-year-old cranky super genius”; her family… they’re a “lineage of lunatics” (in the best possible way), the 30 years of friendship with her bestie, screenwriter Michael Lucas; and about dating again in her forties after divorce. We explore: The "Diagnostic Trifecta": ADHD at forty-two, autism at forty-three, and perimenopause arriving right on schedule, and why Em is grateful she wasn't diagnosed any sooner Why everything she creates gets made "for her", the woman lying awake at 2am, wondering what happened to her life The imprints from her dad and her mum that she's still working to untangle School, undiagnosed neurodivergence, and what it cost her to be brilliant at the hard stuff / punished for struggling with the easy stuff Why her darling mate Michael is who she calls the greatest love story of her life Dating after divorce, and the new rule book she's discovered for choosing instead of waiting to be chosen [Recorded Online May 2026] About Em Rusciano: Em Rusciano is a comedian, singer, author, and podcaster who has spent two decades making Australians laugh, cry, and feel a little less alone. She first came to national attention on Australian Idol in 2004 and has since built a career across radio, stand-up, and television. In 2023, Em delivered an address to the National Press Club on ADHD and her son's autism that shifted the national conversation on neurodivergence. She was diagnosed with ADHD at forty-two and autism at forty-three, alongside the arrival of perimenopause, what she calls her diagnostic trifecta. Connect with Em: Website: emrusciano.com Instagram: @emrusciano Podcast: Emsolation (with Michael Lucas) Book: Blood, Sweat and Glitter Live Tour: Addicted to Love — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

Joe Williams, being. with Lael Stone | The Hardest Mirror to Hold ♥︎

Joe Williams told me that looking honestly at yourself can be a brutal thing, and then in the same breath he called it the best mirror we can ever hold, because that’s where generational change actually starts. Joe and I were on the road together for nearly a month touring the doco ‘Seen’, so I got to watch him sit in front of audiences again and again and tell the truth about being a dad. There’s a line of his in the film that gets me every time: that he has to put his hand up, that it haunts him, that there are many years he can't get back. What I’ve watched him do with that grief is not turn away from it. He gave his kids full permission to say whatever they needed to say in their own interviews, then listened to the whole recording alone in a hotel room in upstate New York the night before a keynote, because he knew he couldn't carry it onto a stage. We talk about the stories we think define us and who actually gets to define them, about getting sober twenty-one years ago and why he says culture keeps him sober. We explore: Who gets to define us, and how differently Joe defines himself now compared with almost everyone he’s ever met Sitting in lockdown and realising he’d been a father to five kids without being a dad to any of them Why he now believes a stack of his success came from a place of screaming to be noticed Country as medicine, the drives out the road not knowing whether he would come back Dreaming stories as instructions for living rather than pretty picture books on a shelf [Recorded Online May 2026] About Joe Williams: Joe is a Wiradjuri and Wolgalu man, born in Cowra and raised in Wagga Wagga. He played in the National Rugby League for South Sydney, Penrith and Canterbury before switching to professional boxing in 2009, where he became a two-time WBF World Junior Welterweight champion and won a WBC Asia continental title. Connect with Joe: Website: joewilliams.com.au Instagram: @joewilliams_tew Speaking: The Enemy Within Book: Defying the Enemy Within — Connect with Humans, being: Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstone YouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Humans, being. is produced on the lands of the Bunurong and Wadawurrung people. We pay respect to their unique and diverse cultures and to elders past, present and future. — Seen Circles is an online space Lael and Sam created where parents can join facilitated group sessions, some themed, some open, at times that suit their week. There's no pressure to share, just a place to feel less alone in the hard parts of parenting. You can join for one session, or sign up for more.

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