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Humans, being. with Lael Stone: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Lael Stone
Humans, being.™ is a podcast created and presented by Lael Stone that explores the real stories behind the public personas.This podcast is about you as a listener, and for all of us to come home to realising that we are all humans being, doing the best job that we know how. I would love to hear from you – what questions you may have, what contemplations you've received from this episode, what guests you'd like me to have on, or any themes or topics you would love me to discuss.Send us a message on our site or on any of our social platforms:Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: <a target="_blank" rel=
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- Yesterday55 min
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 risksThe thing school tries to beat out of you that turns out to be your secret sauceGrowing up the last of five in a Bible college, and why a minister's kid was always going to end up performingThe joyous, ridiculous business of poking fun online, where the line sits, and what he does when he gets it wrongThe gap between how the world sees you and how you see yourself, and the inadequacy story that runs underneath itThree boys, two home births, and the best piece of advice he has for partners in a birth spaceThe 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: @thelukecookTikTok: @thelukecookWeb: thelukecook.comShakewell: getshakewell.com—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
- 1 weeks ago1h 6m
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 costumePlay as a recovery tool for a fried nervous system, and why the micro moments countAchievement addiction, and how gold stars and trophies quietly become a mortgage and a boat you’re not sure you wantedWhy adaptability is just play in a fancy suit, and what that means for the kids coming up behind usThe 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/buJKhqWeb: culturehero.co https://hbp.s.gy/qtzEtILinkedIn: Dara Simkin https://hbp.s.gy/dDDAGIBook: fullstackhumanbook.com https://hbp.s.gy/P49x3Q—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
- 2 weeks ago1h 2m
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 downWhat 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 thereHer friends in their nineties, the rebels, and what they understand about time that we don’tWhy 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: @jacintaparsonsWebsite: jacintaparsons.comABC Radio Melbourne: abc.net.au/melbourne—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneThreads: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
- 3 weeks ago28 min
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: @laelstoneWebsite: laelstone.com.au—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneThreads: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
- 4 weeks ago1h 8m
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 itGrief as the flip side of love, and how feeling every fibre of it let Gina map the shape of her own heartWhy we’re not designed for comfort, and what discomfort is actually inviting us to doFive 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: @gigiamazoniaWebsite: ginachick.comBook: We Are The StarsWild Heart: wildheart.lifeSubstack: @therealginachick—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
- Aug 16, 20261h 5m
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 soonerWhy everything she creates gets made "for her", the woman lying awake at 2am, wondering what happened to her lifeThe imprints from her dad and her mum that she's still working to untangleSchool, undiagnosed neurodivergence, and what it cost her to be brilliant at the hard stuff / punished for struggling with the easy stuffWhy her darling mate Michael is who she calls the greatest love story of her lifeDating 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.comInstagram: @emruscianoPodcast: Emsolation (with Michael Lucas)Book: Blood, Sweat and GlitterLive Tour: Addicted to Love—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
- Aug 9, 20261h 2m
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 metSitting in lockdown and realising he’d been a father to five kids without being a dad to any of themWhy he now believes a stack of his success came from a place of screaming to be noticedCountry as medicine, the drives out the road not knowing whether he would come backDreaming 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.auInstagram: @joewilliams_tewSpeaking: The Enemy WithinBook: Defying the Enemy Within—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
- Aug 2, 20261h 14m
Dr Edna Lekgabe, being. with Lael Stone | The Gold on the Other Side ♥︎
Dr Edna Lekgabe has a name for what happens when a woman becomes a mother. She calls it matrescence, basically puberty 2.0: messy, hormonal, profound, and almost completely unnamed.Edna’s a Melbourne perinatal psychiatrist whom I have so much respect for. We talk about the developmental earthquake none of us are warned about.I became a mum at 25 with no idea what was happening to me… the brain rewiring, the threat system switching on. We discuss what happens when birth trauma and matrescence collide, why accepting care is so much harder than giving it. We talked about how the same threat system that protects a newborn also sharpens a mother's boundaries, and get into perimenopause and menopause, and ‘the gold’ Edna says is waiting on the other side. She wants every woman to have a buddy a few steps ahead and behind her, the same way kids get one on their first day of school.We explore:What matrescence is, and why Edna calls it "puberty 2.0" for the brain and bodyThe support networks that help mothers to thriveWhat's waiting on the other side of perimenopause and menopause, and nature's amazing designDr Edna says the real task of matrescence is learning to accept care. I think about the version of me who once whispered "I don't like this" down the phone to my own mum, and what it would have meant to have a name for it. Whatever quake you're bracing for, I hope this conversation hands you some of that language too.[Recorded May 2026]About Dr Edna Lekgabe:Dr Edna Lekgabe is a perinatal and reproductive psychiatrist based in Melbourne, and founder and clinical director of WARM Health Collective, a psychiatrist-led practice in Collingwood supporting people through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. She also holds a consultant role at The Royal Women's Hospital and sits on Safer Care Victoria's Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity.Connect with Edna:Instagram: @drednalekgabeWebsite: drednalekgabe.com.auWARM Health Collective: warmhealthcollective.com.au—Connect with Humans, being:Web: humansbeing.auInstagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneThreads: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneFacebook: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneYouTube: @humansbeingwithlaelstoneHumans, 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.
About Humans, being. with Lael Stone
Humans, being.™ is a podcast created and presented by Lael Stone that explores the real stories behind the public personas.This podcast is about you as a listener, and for all of us to come home to realising that we are all humans being, doing the best job that we know how. I would love to hear from you – what questions you may have, what contemplations you've received from this episode, what guests you'd like me to have on, or any themes or topics you would love me to discuss.Send us a message on our site or on any of our social platforms:Web: humansbeing.au Instagram: @humansbeingwithlaelstone Facebook: <a target="_blank" rel=
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