Holly Deane-Johns is a youth and community worker who spent 17 years in various prisons across Australia and Thailand after struggling with heroin addiction from age 16. She now works with Wadjining Aboriginal Corporation in the RESET program, supporting men transitioning out of prison, and has written a book about her journey to help others see a future beyond addiction and incarceration.

Jason Blyth: The Gold in the Cracks, How Pain Refines and Purpose Is Built⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation, addiction & recovery and trauma & healing, which some listeners may find distressing.If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au• 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au• SMART Recovery Australia (addiction): smartrecoveryaustralia.com.au• ReachOut: au.reachout.com• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.auBorn from rape after his mother's catastrophic accident left her brain-damaged and emotionally dysregulated, Jason entered the world under profound darkness. The child protection and mental health systems failed him repeatedly as he cycled through twenty clinicians between ages 2 and 15. He left home at 15 believing his circumstances would change, only to discover trauma travels inward. A gifted athlete and musician, he spent 15 years seeing himself as a victim, living with rage, engaging in escapism through drugs, prostitution, and even satanic cults. At 29, drinking a litre of wine three times daily to pass out, he hit rock bottom. In rehab on his 30th birthday, a single realisation shifted everything: no one was coming to save him. His wife's ultimatum to check himself in became his turning point. Now, nearly 8 years sober with a wife of 13 years and an infant son, Jason is using his voice and storytelling gift to champion systemic child protection reform and help others recognise that pain refines rather than defines us.Jason Blyth is a speaker, advocate, and systemic change champion who survived profound childhood trauma, addiction, and a near-fatal descent into alcoholism before rebuilding his life with intention and faith. Now 8 years sober, he channels his lived experience into work protecting children and helping others recognize their own agency in rewriting their stories.🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 The Riptide: A Story Shaped Before Birth01:51 The Fracture: How Jason Came Into the World04:46 The System That Failed: Fifteen Years in Psychology08:58 The Hero's Journey and Necessary Trials13:39 Being the Story: Narrative and Presence16:50 Why Pain is the Great Initiator22:09 One Person's Love Stops the Spiral28:44 Marriage, Miracles, and a Son33:54 Purpose From Pain: The Systemic Change Mission43:27 Discipline and the Daily Regimen59:13 Seeking His Biological Father: Closure Without Redemption1:07:46 What's Next: Growing Into the Mission🎧 If this story moved you, follow Kintsugi Heroes in your podcast app so you never miss an episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Welcome.We're glad you found your way here.Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.This channel is home to honest conversations about resilience, hope, grief, recovery, courage, love, and what it means to keep moving forward when life doesn't go to plan.Here you'll find five podcast series, each sharing stories through a different lens:• Kintsugi Heroes, hosted by John Milham• Animals & Us, hosted by Natalie Stockdale• Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace, hosted by Simone Allan and Maryan Bova• From There to Here, hosted by Emma Bellamy-Dodd• Golden Threads: Stories of Disability & ResilienceEvery story shared here is offered with the hope that it helps someone feel a little less alone. A little more understood. A little more connected.Whether you're navigating a difficult season, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for meaningful conversations, you're welcome here.New episodes are released fortnightly.If you'd like to help us continue sharing these stories and keeping them freely available to everyone, you can support our work here: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate#donateThank you for being part of this community.We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌐 https://kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes#KintsugiHeroes #KHMainFeed #JasonBlyth #HeroJourney #GoldInTheCracks #TraumaRecovery #Redemption #ChildProtection #Faith #SystemicChange #SecondChance #PainToPurpose

⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses abuse & exploitation, which some listeners may find distressing.If you need support, you're not alone — help is available:• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au• 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.auMahir entered high school as an energetic, curious kid thriving in primary school. By year 10, whispered jokes became systematic exclusion; by year 11, he was trapped between two new friends and a school full of people who had already decided who he was based on rumours. The day before his HSC exams, 15 bullies attacked him on the oval, humiliating him publicly. That same day, a compassionate teacher on his bus ride home convinced him to break his silence. His mother called the principal; the bullies apologised; he began counselling. University became his reset. Journalism reignited his expressive nature; the Big Lift volunteer program gave him the deep friendships he'd been searching for. Today, Mahir mentors emerging journalists, speaks publicly about mental health, and is building a career in broadcast media, turning his darkest chapter into fuel for helping others.Mahir Manot is a journalism and law student at UTS who survived severe bullying throughout high school. Now an ambassador for mental health charities including Headspace and Are You Okay?, he uses his story to help younger Australians find their voice and build genuine connection.In this Kintsugi Heroes conversation with Mark Henderson, Mahir shares the story behind the moments below.🎙️ IN THIS CONVERSATION:• Rumours and preconceived notions can be as damaging as direct bullying because they prevent victims from forming new friendships and force them to suppress their authentic selves.🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 Introduction: Who Mahir Was Before02:15 Primary School: Energy, Curiosity, and Belonging03:37 The Transition: A Broken Arm and Changing Dynamics10:01 Corridor Confrontations: The Ripple Effect of Rumours13:34 The Breaking Point: Physical Attack Before HSC16:24 Breaking Silence: A Compassionate Teacher and Telling His Mother19:01 After the Assault: School Response, Loss, and Academic Resilience22:13 The Navy Dream and the 1% That Changed Everything22:51 Golden Joinery: University and the Uncaging of Expression37:48 Forward: Curiosity, Impact, and Broadcasting Dreams41:00 Core Message: Using Your Voice to Uplift, Not Drown44:06 Closing and Gratitude🎧 If this story moved you, follow Kintsugi Heroes in your podcast app so you never miss an episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Welcome.We're glad you found your way here.Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.This channel is home to honest conversations about resilience, hope, grief, recovery, courage, love, and what it means to keep moving forward when life doesn't go to plan.Here you'll find five podcast series, each sharing stories through a different lens:• Kintsugi Heroes, hosted by John Milham• Animals & Us, hosted by Natalie Stockdale• Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace, hosted by Simone Allan and Maryan Bova• From There to Here, hosted by Emma Bellamy-Dodd• Golden Threads: Stories of Disability & ResilienceEvery story shared here is offered with the hope that it helps someone feel a little less alone. A little more understood. A little more connected.Whether you're navigating a difficult season, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for meaningful conversations, you're welcome here.New episodes are released fortnightly.If you'd like to help us continue sharing these stories and keeping them freely available to everyone, you can support our work here: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate#donateThank you for being part of this community.We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌐 https://kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes#KintsugiHeroes #GoldInTheCracks #AustralianStories #BullyingRecovery #MentalHealthMatters #FindingYourVoice #JournalismMatters #YouthMentalHealth #SharedAdversity #CommunityConnection

Colin Parsons spent decades people-pleasing and chasing externally imposed goals until a move to Luxembourg, the birth of his children, and therapy catalysed a complete reckoning. He took paternal leave in a country that supported it, discovered his gift for genuine human connection through a Chief Happiness Officer role, and later questioned everything: money, marriage, identity, and what it meant to show up authentically. A divorce forced him to surrender the shame and labels others placed on him. Today, he runs free weekly LinkedIn Live conversations with people worldwide, building trust through imperfection, and has learned that confidence isn't a destination but a compound return on small daily acts of courage and self-kindness.Colin Parsons is a Luxembourg-based conversationalist, former Chief Happiness Officer, and founder of unscripted LinkedIn Live interviews. After a career in banking and consulting, a divorce, and six years of therapy, he now facilitates genuine human connection globally through intentional dialogue and has built confidence through small, compounding acts of courage.🎙️ IN THIS CONVERSATION:• Taking time to genuinely connect with your children reveals what parental responsibility actually means and builds deeper bonds than any schedule can predict.• Money is a borrowed value, not a true one; when we make it the primary goal, we sacrifice alignment with ourselves and justify pain we didn't need to endure.• Vulnerability and therapy are not signs of weakness but courageous acts that disrupt the conditioning and narratives holding you back from living authentically.🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 Welcome and introduction to Colin's story02:28 Paternal leave in Luxembourg and the gift of deep parental bonding07:15 From frustrated consultant to Chief Happiness Officer14:53 How job loss and relocation sparked a career pivot20:06 Questioning money as a primary value and reclaiming intentionality27:38 The turning point: therapy, self-discovery, and disrupting old narratives35:43 Awareness as a superpower and the art of reframing self-talk43:49 Divorce, shame, and learning to stop people-pleasing56:11 Building confidence through small, compounding daily acts01:05:42 LinkedIn Live: creating genuine connection in a digital age01:14:47 Why human imperfection matters more than AI perfection01:19:00 Closing: gratitude and where to find Colin's work🎧 If this story moved you, follow Kintsugi Heroes in your podcast app so you never miss an episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Welcome.We're glad you found your way here.Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.This channel is home to honest conversations about resilience, hope, grief, recovery, courage, love, and what it means to keep moving forward when life doesn't go to plan.Here you'll find five podcast series, each sharing stories through a different lens:• Kintsugi Heroes, hosted by John Milham• Animals & Us, hosted by Natalie Stockdale• Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace, hosted by Simone Allan and Maryan Bova• From There to Here, hosted by Emma Bellamy-Dodd• Golden Threads: Stories of Disability & ResilienceEvery story shared here is offered with the hope that it helps someone feel a little less alone. A little more understood. A little more connected.Whether you're navigating a difficult season, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for meaningful conversations, you're welcome here.New episodes are released fortnightly.If you'd like to help us continue sharing these stories and keeping them freely available to everyone, you can support our work here: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate#donateThank you for being part of this community.We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌐 https://kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes#KintsugiHeroes #GoldInTheCracks #RebuildingAfterDivorce #SelfCompassion #MentalHealth #Authenticity #PersonalGrowth #Therapy #HumanConnection #Vulnerability #IntentionalLiving #Fatherhood #Confidence

Gene Moore grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household where his sexuality was framed as sin. He married, became a pastor, and spent 14 years denying who he was before a near-suicidal crisis forced him out of the closet. After losing his partner Victor to a plane crash in 1994, Gene channelled his grief into studying gay identity and eventually transforming military and police cultures by reframing homophobia not as prejudice against gay people but as a masculinity enforcement system that damages all men. His paradigm shift, grounded in research by David Plummer on homophobia phobia (the fear of being labelled gay), has proven effective in the most resistant institutional environments, creating what he calls a fellow victim paradigm where straight and gay men become allies against a common enemy. After 20 years of silence driven by safety concerns, Gene has begun publicly sharing this work.Gene Moore is a scholar, former pastor, and cultural change specialist whose decades-long career has focused on understanding and eliminating homophobia in military and police organisations across New Zealand and Australia. Born in Texas into a fundamentalist Christian home, Gene came out as gay after years in the closet, a trauma that sparked his lifelong mission to dismantle the systems that damage both queer and straight men.In this Kintsugi Heroes conversation with John Milham, Gene shares the story behind the moments below.🎙️ IN THIS CONVERSATION:• The closet is not a secret kept by individuals but a performative system that damages everyone in an environment, particularly in hyper-masculine institutions like the military and police.• Homophobia phobia (the fear of being labelled gay) is the invisible driver of toxic masculinity enforcement, and naming this fear breaks its power by making the mechanism visible and absurd.• Straight men…🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 Introduction and Gene's Interdisciplinary Mosaic05:09 From Texas to the Pacific: Geographic and Intellectual Wandering08:42 Fundamentalist Upbringing and the Denial of Desire14:46 The Closet as Performance: Crisis and Escape19:02 From Grief to Academia: The Birth of a Mission25:28 The Military Paradigm Shift: From Tolerance to Attitude Change32:27 Homophobia Phobia and the Fellow Victim Framework44:00 Operational Effectiveness and the Rational Case for Change50:17 Twenty Years of Silence and the Decision to Speak01:02:14 Victor Neo: Love, Fate, and a Plane Crash01:10:09 Breaking the Silence for Suicide Prevention01:13:05 The Unpublished Book and the Path Forward🎧 If this story moved you, follow Kintsugi Heroes in your podcast app so you never miss an episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Welcome.We're glad you found your way here.Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.This channel is home to honest conversations about resilience, hope, grief, recovery, courage, love, and what it means to keep moving forward when life doesn't go to plan.Here you'll find six podcast series, each sharing stories through a different lens:• Kintsugi Heroes, hosted by John Milham• Animals & Us, hosted by Natalie Stockdale• Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace, hosted by Simone Allan and Maryan Bova• From There to Here, hosted by Emma Bellamy-Dodd• Golden Threads: Stories of Disability & ResilienceEvery story shared here is offered with the hope that it helps someone feel a little less alone. A little more understood. A little more connected.Whether you're navigating a difficult season, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for meaningful conversations, you're welcome here.New episodes are released every week.If you'd like to help us continue sharing these stories and keeping them freely available to everyone, you can support our work here: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate#donateThank you for being part of this community.We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌐 https://kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes#KintsugiHeroes #KHMainFeed #FirstPersonStories #masculinity #homophobia #mentalhealth #suicideprevention #culturalchange #lgbtq #military #toxicmasculinity

EPISODE SUMMARYNot every journey to purpose is a straight line. For Matt Tulle, it wound through stigma, addiction and some of the darkest corners of mental health — all while growing up queer in rural Queensland.Matt didn't just survive that journey. He transformed it. Today he works as a peer worker in alcohol and other drugs (AOD) support, walking alongside men who are exactly where he once was. In this honest, generous conversation, Matt unpacks ten years as a "functional drug addict", the cocaine years in a Melbourne ops manager role, the breakdown that followed, and the night he felt his late father's presence and chose a different path.This is a story about lived experience as a connection multiplier — and why peer work might be one of the most important roles in modern recovery.KEY TAKEAWAYSLIVED EXPERIENCE IS A CONNECTION MULTIPLIERMatt explains why "me too" lands in a way no textbook can — and how peer work uses it with intention, not as a trauma dump.SHAME TO GUILT IS THE MOVE"I'm a bad person" becomes "I had a bad moment." Matt walks through how that single reframe rebuilt his self-worth.ADDICTION CAN BE THE THING HOLDING IT TOGETHERFor ten years, the drugs weren't the problem — they were the unprocessed solution. Real recovery meant doing the harder, slower work underneath.THE WORK TAKES AS LONG AS IT TAKESEight years into healing and still going. Matt's view: time doesn't matter, you'll do it when you're ready.YOU MAY NEED A NEW POTOn outgrowing people, redrawing boundaries, and why moving on isn't betrayal — it's growth.GUEST BIOMatt Tulle is an AOD peer worker based in Queensland, supporting men through addiction, mental health and recovery. A social work graduate, Matt brings a decade of lived experience to a workforce he believes belongs at every multidisciplinary table.RESOURCES MENTIONED- Lifeline Australia (24/7): 13 11 14 — https://www.lifeline.org.au- Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 — https://www.beyondblue.org.au- QLife (LGBTI peer support): 1800 184 527 — https://www.qlife.org.au- 13YARN (First Nations crisis line): 13 92 76 — https://www.13yarn.org.auTIMESTAMPS00:00 Introduction03:11 Growing up queer in Gympie13:20 Melbourne, burnout and cocaine15:42 Breakdown, withdrawal and first attempt22:00 Losing Dad and the cat moment26:00 Uni, therapy and doing the work30:48 Peer work — shame to guilt52:21 Future of peer work and LGBTQI+ hopesCALL TO ACTIONIf this conversation moved you, share it with one person who needs it. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, and please leave a rating and review — it helps others find these stories.Support Kintsugi Heroes with a tax-deductible donation: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.auTHE KINTSUGI CONNECTIONWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroesIf this resonated, you may also like:- KH episodes on men's mental health and recovery- KH episodes on lived experience and peer supportABOUT KINTSUGI HEROESKintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit storytelling platform sharing real stories of resilience, disability and transformation. Inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi — repairing broken pottery with gold — we believe our breaks make us more valuable, not less.PARTNER WITH USSponsorship and partnership enquiries: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.auDONATEMake a tax-deductible donation: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.auCONNECTWebsite: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.auInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroesYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroesTheme music: "Broken" by Colin Lilly, used with permission.

Donna carries memories from 18 months old, including repeated sexual abuse by her father beginning at age three. Through childhood and adolescence, she endured trafficking, gang rape, attempted abduction, and betrayal by peers. Two abortions—one illegal and traumatic, one legal—marked her teenage years. At 16, a suicide attempt by overdose nearly killed her. She married an abusive narcissist in her early twenties, escaped after years of rape and violence, and found safety with her second husband at 21. Real healing began at 38 when she finally disclosed her full story in a safe relationship. Hypnotherapy, EMDR, spiritual practice, and boundary-setting ('weeding the garden') became pivotal tools. At 44, just as she felt emotionally stable, her husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died after 23 years together. Today she lives with peace and freedom, working toward a healing practice while helping others see hope beyond their circumstances.Donna Kent is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, trafficking, and ongoing violence across her lifespan. Now in her late 40s, she works in bookkeeping and payroll while developing a healing practice as an intuitive guide and psychic medium, drawing on lived experience and multiple therapeutic modalities to support others in their recovery.In this Kintsugi Heroes conversation with Natalie Stockdale, Donna shares the story behind the moments below.🎙️ IN THIS CONVERSATION:• Silence is the mechanism by which abusers maintain power; speaking up, even when terrified, immediately disempowers the abuser and opens pathways to help.• Trauma survivors develop sophisticated masking behaviours early—suppressing inconsolable crying to avoid drawing attention—which becomes a lifelong pattern that prevents authentic help-seeking.• Different therapeutic modalities work at different stages of healing; no single approach is sufficient, and survivors must remain open to trying new tools as they progress.• The body archives trauma separately from emotion as a survival mechanism; EMDR and similar therapies work by reconnecting memory to emotion so it can be processed and archived rather than continuously relived.• Healing requires conscious boundary-setting ('weeding the garden'), including the difficult work of removing or distancing from family members and lifelong friends who drain energy or perpetuate cycles.• Survivors often dissociate into separate selves to survive; true integration requires bringing these fragmented parts back together, not just processing individual traumatic events.• Empathy and the ability to help others see alternative perspectives is one of the most valuable gifts that emerges from having survived and recovered from trauma.🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 Content warning and introduction04:11 Early memories: hiding at 18 months, being trafficked by father's taxi to paedophiles07:08 Gang rape at bus stop age 12: survival and silent continuation13:49 Pregnancy at 15, rejection by family, illegal abortion in Tweed Heads22:37 Meeting and marrying first husband: narcissist and abuser27:38 Moving to Mount Isa, meeting second husband, safe relationship begins34:43 Hypnotherapy: confronting father in safe space, writing letter42:26 Mind games in trauma recovery: reliving events, self-blame, paralysis50:41 Reintegrating dissociated selves: survivor and school-aged identities54:43 Gifts from suffering: empathy, perspective-shifting, offering hope57:36 Life now: peace, freedom, healing practice vision01:00:22 Final message: draw on strength, you're not alone, keep moving forward🌐 CONNECT WITH DONNA KENT:Lifeline: https://www.lifeline.org.au/1800RESPECT: https://www.1800respect.org.au/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit Australian podcast network sharing real stories of resilience and transformation.Named after the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold — the philosophy that what's been broken can become more beautiful for the mending — every episode honours the cracks, the rebuild, and the human underneath.We believe every story matters. Every scar has something to say. And every person quietly finding their way through deserves to be heard.📺 Series on this channel:– Kintsugi Heroes — real stories of resilience | hosted by John Milham– Animals & Us | hosted by Natalie Stockdale– Grit Diaries: from Grit to Grace | hosted by Simone Allan & Maryan Bova– Golden Threads — stories of disability & resilience | hosted by Dan Dougherty━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌐 https://kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━💛 SUPPORT THE NETWORK━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Kintsugi Heroes is listener-supported and run entirely by volunteers. Your support helps us keep sharing stories that matter.❤️ Donate (tax-deductible): https://kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate🤝 Partner with us: https://kintsugiheroes.com.au🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week and join a community that believes in the power of human stories.We're all in this together. 💛#KintsugiHeroes #KHMainFeed #FirstPersonStories #RebuildingAfterFracture #TraumaSurvival #ChildhoodAbuse #SpeakingUp #HealingJourney #MentalHealth #EMDR #Boundaries #Empowerment

EPISODE SUMMARYHarpreet Kalsi-Smith founded The Kindness Company after caring for her mum through end of life. Shaped by her own migration story and over 15 years working with First Nations, migrant and refugee communities, Harpreet walks alongside people approaching death — making space for grief, honouring culture, and proving that kindness is the quiet thing that changes everything when someone is saying goodbye.TOPICS COVEREDEnd of Life Care • Kindness • Grief and Loss • First Nations Communities • Multicultural Health • Palliative Care • Community Healing • Stolen Generations • Advance Care Planning • Sound Healing • Compassionate Communities • AdvocacyEPISODE CHAPTERS00:00 — Welcome and Episode Introduction 02:00 — From Kenya to Brisbane: A Life Shaped by Community 06:00 — Losing Her Mum, Finding End of Life Work 11:00 — Walking Alongside: Trust, Time and First Nations Communities 16:00 — Why Kindness Is the Whole Point 26:00 — Grief, Witnessing and Community Healing 44:00 — One Small Act: Legacy, Advocacy and a Parting MessageKEY TALKING POINTS● Kindness is not soft — it is the difference between being re-traumatised and being seen. Harpreet reflects on the one physician, among many, who sat with her family and treated them like people, not a case.● Trust is not a transaction — it can take a year or more. A stolen generations uncle asked her to come to his home with the end of life paperwork — twelve months after she first raised it.● Person-centred care only works when someone slows down enough to listen. Equity is not about treating everyone the same; some people need more time, more support, more context.● We live in a death-phobic, life-prolonging society. Harpreet unpacks why so few healthcare conversations make room for "not prolonging", and why families suffer for it.● Communities heal in community, not in isolation. From yarning circles to the tree of grief and strength, Harpreet shows what collective grief actually looks like."Healing happens when people are witnessed, not when they're fixed." — Harpreet Kalsi-SmithCONNECT WITH THE PODCASTWebsite: kintsugiheroes.com.au Listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube — search "Kintsugi Heroes" Instagram: @kintsugiheroes Facebook: /kintsugiheroes LinkedIn: /company/kintsugi-heroesCONNECT WITH HARPREET KALSI-SMITHWebsite: thekindnesscompany.com.au Location: Gold Coast, QLD — Yugambeh Country LinkedIn: Harpreet Kalsi-Smith Instagram: @thekindnesscompany Email: [email protected] RESOURCES● Griefline — 1300 845 745: National service offering grief, loss and bereavement support across Australia. ● 13YARN — 13 92 76: 24/7 culturally safe crisis support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. ● Advance Care Planning Australia — advancecareplanning.org.au: Templates and guides for every Australian state and territory.SHARE YOUR STORYKintsugi Heroes exists to help people tell the stories they need to share, so others can find the stories they need to hear. If this episode moved you, or you know someone whose story should be told, get in touch at kintsugiheroes.com.au/share.Music credit: Thank you to Xavier Rudd for the use of "Follow the Sun".

🎙️ EPISODE SUMMARYWhat happens when the thing you were told to hide becomes the very thing that shapes your purpose?Jay Borthwick grew up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches — a life filled with ocean swims, surf lifesaving, and community. But behind that upbringing was a challenge that shaped everything: dyslexia.In this episode, Jay shares how navigating school with a learning difficulty, being labelled early, and learning to adapt built the resilience, self-awareness, and leadership that now define his life and career.From working in mainstream media to becoming a multicultural communications specialist at SBS, Jay’s work is centred on connection — helping people and organisations communicate across cultures, languages, and lived experiences.This is a conversation about identity, inclusion, and what it really means to build environments where people feel seen, supported, and able to contribute.It’s also a powerful reminder that sometimes the very thing you struggle with becomes your greatest strength.🔍 TOPICS COVERED dyslexia and learning difficulties, neurodiversity in the workplace, multicultural communication Australia, inclusion and accessibility, mens mental health, identity and resilience, surf lifesaving Australia, SBS multicultural media, personal growth and leadership, building inclusive communities⏱️ EPISODE CHAPTERS00:00 – Introduction01:00 – Growing up on the Northern Beaches05:00 – Early independence and life by the ocean10:00 – Living with dyslexia and school challenges15:00 – Being labelled and finding confidence through sport20:00 – Discipline, resilience, and learning through adversity25:00 – Career journey: Channel 9 to SBS30:00 – Multicultural communication and inclusion in Australia35:00 – Why connection matters across cultures40:00 – Neurodiversity, awareness, and workplace change45:00 – Building environments where people feel supported50:00 – Fatherhood, mindset, and raising confident children55:00 – Legacy and doing the small things well01:00:00 – Final reflections🔑 KEY TALKING POINTSDyslexia is not a limitation — it’s a different way of processing the worldBeing labelled early can shape identity, but it doesn’t have to define itConfidence is built through action, not perfectionInclusion starts with understanding and curiosityCommunication goes beyond language — connection is humanSmall, consistent actions create long-term impactLeadership is about creating environments where others can thriveLegacy is built through everyday actions, not big moments🧩 EPISODE PILLARS🌊 Growing Up & IdentityA childhood shaped by the ocean, independence, and community on the Northern Beaches.🧠 Dyslexia & ResilienceNavigating school, labels, and learning differences — and turning adversity into strength.🌏 Multicultural CommunicationA career built on bridging cultural gaps and helping communities connect across language and experience.🤝 Inclusion & AccessibilityCreating environments where people with visible and invisible disabilities feel supported and empowered.👨‍👧 Family, Leadership & LegacyRaising confident children, prioritising mental health, and building a legacy through small, meaningful actions.🔗 THE KINTSUGI CONNECTIONJay’s story reflects the essence of Kintsugi — embracing what once felt like a flaw and recognising it as part of what makes us whole.His journey shows that resilience isn’t about avoiding challenges, but about learning how to adapt, grow, and contribute in meaningful ways.To explore more stories like this, visit:👉 https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes/videos🎧 RELATED EPISODESNavigating Identity & Adversity:Explore more conversations on resilience, lived experience, and personal growth across the Kintsugi Heroes series.🌏 ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROESKintsugi Heroes is an Australian not-for-profit (DGR endorsed) dedicated to strengthening mental wellbeing through the power of storytelling.We believe that lived experience is something to be shared — creating connection, reducing isolation, and building resilience through real human stories.🤝 PARTNER WITH USAlign your organisation with resilience, inclusion, and social impact.👉 https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/partners/❤️ SUPPORT KINTSUGI HEROESYour support helps us continue sharing powerful stories across Australia and beyond.👉 Donate: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate/#donate🔗 CONNECT WITH US🌐 Website: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes/📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes/📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Kintsugi-Heroes-100084850387170/📢 SHARE YOUR STORYHave a story of resilience, recovery, or growth?👉 Get involved: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au

🎙️ Episode SummaryWhat does it take to rebuild your life after losing everything you built together?Kevin Holloway shares his deeply personal journey through grief after losing his wife of nearly 40 years. From overwhelming loss to finding meaning again, this is a powerful conversation about courage, identity, and what it truly means to keep showing up.Through his experience as a leader, coach, and human being navigating profound loss, Kevin explores emotional resilience, presence, and the importance of connection and self-awareness.This episode is a reminder that while life can break us, it can also reshape us — if we’re willing to do the work.🔍 Topics Coveredgrief and loss, men’s mental health, emotional resilience, courage, vulnerability, identity, healing journey, leadership, personal growth⏱️ Episode Chapters00:00 – Introduction01:00 – Kevin’s story and loss05:00 – Understanding grief10:00 – Courage as a foundation15:00 – Identity and being20:00 – Love and forgiveness25:00 – Men’s mental health30:00 – Connection and support35:00 – Surrender and control40:00 – Presence and joy45:00 – Redefining success50:00 – Becoming who you want to be🔑 Key Talking PointsGrief is ongoing, not something you “get over”Courage is a daily choiceYou can feel fear and still actPresence creates space for healingVulnerability builds real connectionGrowth requires honesty and self-reflection🌏 About Kintsugi HeroesKintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit organisation sharing lived-experience stories to build connection, dignity, and mental wellbeing across communities. 🔗 Connect With UsWebsite: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.auLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Kintsugi-Heroes-100084850387170/❤️ Support & Get InvolvedDonate: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate/#donatePartner: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/partners/