Life Matters

Block parties. Street libraries. Kerbside lemonade stands. These are the signs of a neighbourhood that's really alive. But often times, the tangle of red tape required to bring your street to life can get in the way. David Howie, whose decades-long Christmas block party is under threat due to new council rules, joins sociologist Peter Walters to discuss the real price of living in the village. 
Australians have long had a particularly creative penchant for swearing. We seem to take a strange sort of pride in our colourful language — we've even used it in tourism ads and public safety campaigns. Linguistics professor Kate Burridge and author Amanda Laugesen explore what's behind this cultural attachment to swear words.
It's that time of year again — the Black Friday sales are upon us. Last year Australians spent nearly $24 billion in that fortnight alone. But are we really saving anything? Consumer behaviour expert Paul Harrison explains how to tell whether a "sale" really is a bargain, or just clever marketing.

Decades ago, new mums often spent a week or more in hospital after birth, but these days most are home within days or even hours. The data shows there's been a steady decline in the length of postnatal hospital stays. And while that's not necessarily a problem, midwifery professor Hannah Dahlen and Maternity Consumer Network founder Alecia Staines say we need to ensure the care and support at home is up to scratch.You know the feeling — replaying the day’s conversations in the shower, replaying an ill-timed joke, or wishing you'd said more when it counted. Social psychologist Vanessa Bohns has written the book on how to know when to speak up, and when to just let it go.
Most of us have an old box of floppy disks, CDs or hard drives gathering dust somewhere, holding memories we can no longer actually access without significant effort. As the tech to read them becomes obsolete faster than we can keep up, digital media professor Melanie Swalwell explains how can you rescue your digital history before it’s lost for good.

Everyone has secrets — from small omissions to things we’ve never told a soul, carrying them with us can feel heavier than actually sharing them. Michael Slepian, author of The Secret Life of Secrets, explains why secrets gnaw at us even when they’re not technically wrong, and what the research actually says about the risk of revealing them.
When Dad can no longer remember the route home, how do you convince him it's time to hand over the car keys? Aunties Kerri Sackille and Nelly Thomas give listener Ari some advice on supporting ageing parents clinging onto their independence.

For decades, the headlines told one story: a teenage tennis prodigy who fled war to play Wimbledon. The real story, hidden behind it, was years of fear and violence at the hands of her father. Now a Logie-winning commentator, Jelena Dokic has written a new book offering others the map she had to build for herself, from survival to a life fully her own.
Department store juggernaut David Jones is reportedly facing store closures, and even the risk of receivership, as online retail eats into profits. Yet new data shows foot traffic at shopping centres is actually up. So are malls a dying relic, or just evolving? Retail historian Matthew Bailey explains what's going on. 
England and Wales’s outgoing most senior judge has called for AI to play a bigger role in resolving civil disputes faster and cheaper. Resident Life Matters philosopher Patrick Stokes explores whether something as fundamentally human as justice can ever really be left to an algorithm.

In a world of texts, emails and voice notes, there's something almost romantic about an actual letter: the handwriting, the doodles in the margins, the thought poured into the paper. Self-described letter midwife Frish Brandt has spent years helping people write the letters that matter most. She shares the five essential letters of your life.
Nothing beats the smug satisfaction of garden-fresh produce, but research suggests about a fifth of Australian veggie gardens could be growing food in soil with unsafe lead levels. As spring planting kicks off, environmental scientist Cynthia Barlow and gourmet farmer Matthew Evans explain how you can check what’s lurking below the surface and work with it.
EV sales have more than doubled this year, outselling petrol and diesel cars outright in September, but a quarter of Australian drivers have nowhere to plug in at home. With a new EV hitting the road roughly every 100 seconds, ABC technology reporter James Purtill explores whether the government’s plan for more public chargers can keep pace.