Radical Australia

This week on Radical Australia we resume our conversation with Margaret Ryan, our second guest this year with an OAM. Margaret was there at the beginning of palliative care in Australia in the 1980s, a healthcare approach which puts the person first, disease second. She has worked with a lot of different communities throughout her long working life and knows something, too, about family tragedy. Margaret has a benevolence about life and says that if you want to do something in your life, you just have to get on with it and do it. She is such an inspiration. We hope you enjoy the second part to our conversation with her. Thanks once again, Margaret.

On this episode of Radical Australia we speak with the passionate, hardworking Taylor Wheeler from the Pink Paw Program, an organisation that is there for our beloved pooches and their human companions in times of need. You know what we mean - when people are at a loss as to how to care for their dog. That's when Taylor and friends at Pink Paw step in, providing that knowledge and support gained from years of study and practise dedicated to animal welfare. Taylor has always been around animals and really loves them, back to the times her Dad caught snakes and she was a nipper in the waters around Newcastle and loved Elvis. Taylor chats with us about what people should think about when bringing a dog into their life, the top reasons dogs are surrendered and dogs to consider based on your lifestyle. She really is a dog whisperer. We thank Taylor for being our guest this week and make sure you check out the Pink Paw Progam online. Thanks, Taylor.pinkpawprogram.org@pinkpawprogram

This week's guest, Jwala, is another political refugee from Queensland '78. Jwala is a co-producer on 3CR's Global Intifada, an anarchist music and news show when she is not busy organising with Vixen Collective, a peer sex worker organisation and being a strong voice in the community for drug user rights. Jwala has had a full life of travel and activism and was a great outspoken and entertaining guest. We are sure you will enjoy this conversation.Global Intifada, Thursdays 5pm - 6pm, 3CR 855AM@swersvictoria (Vixen Collective) (facebook)hrvic.org.au (Harm Reduction Victoria)hrvic.org.au/whack (WHACK! drug user magazine)

Maurya Borandanis was our guest this week on Radical Australia. Maurya hails from the USA but has lived in Australia longer. She is a performer who has spent the last few years enjoying finding her voice with numerous artistic enterprises in Port Phillip. Maurya experienced homelessness in her 50s after a long life in hospitality, from St Kilda's Whiskey a go go to Parliament House silver service and everything in between. She was recently in the film Some Happy Day about homelessness in St Kilda and is passionate about commuity and social networking. Maurya has a great spirit and we are sure you will enjoy her stories. Thanks for being our guest this week, Maurya.@voicesofthesouthside (Facebook)somehappydayfilm.com@CityOfVoices1992 (Facebook) 

Kim Nicholas Pendergrast, or just Nick P, our guest this week on Radical Australia, hails from Perth and has been a vegan and animal rights advocate for many years. He currently co-hosts Freedom of Species on 3CR when he is not busy producing a podcast called Progressive Podcasts Australia with his partner Katie or lecturing in Sociology at le university. Nick is a great, smart guy and would like to see animal advocacy and change become more systemic, rather than relying on individual consumer choice. He's played ice hockey for many years and loves all the vegan eats in Melbourne, not to mention the great comedy. Thanks so much for being our guest this week, Nick. Keep up the great work!3cr.org.au/freedomofspeciesprogressivepodcastsaustralia

This week's guest, Adrian Farrugia, has packed a lot into his relatively young life so far, kicking trailblazing goals with his team researching the very interesting area of young people's drug use, drug education, stigma and related health issues. This research led to the development of the website overdoselifesavers.org, a resource capturing people's experience of drug overdose and the use of medication to revive them. He has also conducted research into Hepatitis C and the uptake of the revolutionary medication which now cures it. On this week's show you'll find us enjoying an interesting conversation with Adrian about all these things and we certainly learnt a thing or two. We hope you enjoy the show and we thank Adrian very much for being our guest this week.overdoselifesavers.org

This week's guest, Chris Quinlan, has had a full life. Growing up 'in the pub', first at The Prince of Wales in St Kilda and then Dan O'Connell's in Carlton in the 60's and 70's, Chris has been playing music since a teen and has been a teacher for a long time. His instrument of choice is the drums and he's had a long-running, weekly TV show on Ch 31 called 'Melbourne Musos'. These days, Chris is also a proud member of Musicians Australia, a union agitating for mandatory payment for gigging musicians and other fantastic things. It was great having Chris in the studio this week and we thank him very much for sharing some of his life's stories with us.@melbournemusostvmusiciansaustralia.org

This week's guest is Giles Fielke, a recent garden plot tenant at the Collingwood Children's Farm, one of 70-80 gardeners who have had the gate locked on them after many years of small plot gardening on Crown Land down by the Yarra. Giles poses the question 'what does Crown Land mean in the 21st-century?', like many interesting questions he poses as a smart, learned type. Giles had an eventful childhood living in Melbourne, Ballarat and New Zealand, among other destinations. These days he enjoys immersing himself in the local arts community and encourages anyone to become involved in things in their immediate environment. He reckons activism is more meaningful at the local level. Thanks so much for being our lovely guest this week, Giles.collingwoodcommunitygardens.org

As a member of Blockade Australia, this week's guest, Max Curmi, recently spent 4 months in jail for scaling a crane in Port Botany. He says that you shouldn't be afraid of people in jail. Max grew up in a housing commune in the Yarra Valley with parents who have always respected the land and from a relatively young age Max was looking for the best place to resist. He got turned on to direct action in Scotland and has never looked back, working on the Adani campaign and with Extinction Rebellion, learning how to use his body and collective power to disrupt. Blockade Australia are calling all those serious about survival to a series of events happening in Sydney late June. See the link for details. We thank Max for being our guest this week. Keep up the great work.blockadeaustralia.com 

We're extremely honoured to welcome Margaret Ryan into the 3CR studios this week. Margaret is one of those wonderful people who has committed her life to helping others. She has always wanted to be a nurse ever since she bandaged her dollies as a wee one, progressing to community health in Broadmeadows and finally to Papua New Guinea after independence, the best years of her life, where she worked on the frontline training women, children, men and communities facing serious health and mortality issues to become self-sufficient in their healthcare needs. Margaret has a deep well of wisdom and knowledge about healthcare in PNG and a deep love for the place. Her life has been fascinating and full of spirit. We thank Margaret for being our wonderful guest this week. 'Changing Social Relations in remote Papua New Guinea'A talk and open discussion featuring Associate Professor Monica Minnegal.The first part of a series exploring the future shape of Australia/Papua New Guinea relationship as nearest neighbours.Frida

This week's guest, Peter 'Redgum' Roberts, is an environmentalist and self-taught propagator, a white bloke ruffling the feathers of the squatocracy with his adoption of the ancient practise of lighting fires. Robert has Authority Defiant Syndrome, like most of our guests, and was no teacher's pet, carving out his own unique life with his family, learning about and caring for our amazing natural world. He's come far since beginning his entry to the world at Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne. Thanks for the great, relaxed yarn, Peter. Keep up the good work.

It was a lovely treat to have this week's guest, Brendan Bonsack, in the studio regaling us with tales from his childhood in Macedon, including vivid memories of being caught up in Ash Wednesday. Brendan is a very talented person, being a poet, musician, film producer and co-host of 3CR's Spoken Word. This was a delightful, fun conversation we hope you enjoy. Thanks for being our guest this week, Brendan, and to treating us to a couple of your wonderful poems.Spoken Word, Thursdays 9:00am - 9:30ambrendanbonsack.com

Our guest this week is political beast, local government expert and temple builder, Sen, a familiar, friendly face on the 3CR reception desk and programmer since 1985. Sen shares with us the history of his land, Sri Lanka, before colonisation and after and the best times of his life working as an engineer in Zambia and Botswana. Sen has always been interested in politics and was always going to end up at 3CR after making Melbourne his home. Look out for his upcoming new show featuring the music of the Tamil language. Thank-you for being our lovely guest this week, Sen. We are lucky to have you at 3CR.

This week's guest couldn't come in as their boss didn't like the idea, so we revisited our 2016 conversation with supremo sound engineer, Lara Soulio. Lara's a great gal and shares with us the story of how she became one of those rare breed female sound engineers and how she came to work on 3CR's Burning Vinyl, putting live bands to air every Friday arvo. It was fun revisiting this conversation. We are sure you will enjoy it.

This week's guest is Stephanie Sabrinskas, a Lithuanian-Dutch rebel from Moe who is currently co-producing a documentary and accompanying podcast on life after coal in the Latrobe Valley. How good is that! Stephanie has always been a creative person and an animal lover and in this conversation she recalls memories of her time growing up with her family in Moe before moving to the big smoke and working in retail, sharing sharehouse dumps and palying in bands. Steph was born in 1988 and still has so much to do with her life. Thanks for being our guest this week, Steph. Listen to her podcast here:coalfacepodcast.com

This week's guest is none other than Aran Mylvaganam, currently running in the 2022 federal election to represent the Victorian Socialists in the senate. Aran shares with us the remarkable story of his life so far, from Tamil refugee to lifetime human rights activist. Aran's a lovely guy and we wish him all the best in the election. Make sure to listen to his story. He tells it better than us. Thanks so much for being our guest this week, Aran.victoriansocialists.org.au

On this week's show we welcome Vicky Vacondios, a community services teacher trainer who is passionate about making a better system based on her lived experience of accessing family violence and housing services as a single mum. Vicky has been a hard worker all her life after growing up in Broady with her Greek family. She became politicised after working as a peer for Council to Homeless Persons, educating service workers about homelessness from her lived experience. Vicky has written a manual based on her experience as both a consumer of and trainer in community services for workers. She is passionate about making sure lived experience is an important part of good service delivery. Thanks so much for being our guest this week, Vicky. You're a legend.

'Get out there and do it. Don't have a fear of failure. And listen to 3CR'. This week's Radical Australia guest, host of 3CR's Doin' Time, Marisa Sposaro, has been listening to the little radio station since she was a teenage rebel, curious about the world and eager to experience everything it had to offer. Maria was born blind and in this conversation she tells us about some of the curious little experiences she has had living in society as a blind person. Illuminating stuff. Marisa has been an activist for decades now and she has been at 3CR for about as long, these days presenting Doin' Time, a show covering prisoner rights, asylum seeker rights, migrants - women - and family violence and other topics that interest her. Marisa was a fun guest and gave us a good laugh. It was a pleasure hearing some of her life stories and we thank her very much for being our guest this week.Doin' Time, Mondays, 4pm - 5pm3cr.org.au/dointime

Born in Devonport in the year of Woodstock, we are delighted that Rose Turtle Ertler graced our shores this week. In case you didn't know, Rose is a humble but extraordinary artist, playing ukelele the past 22 years, some of that with the Black Orchid String Band, but having lived a full life immersed in artistic escapades, here in Australia and in Europe. These days Rose grows food back on the Apple Isle when she's not teaching the uke or performing on the mainland. Great gal. Thank you very much for being our guest this week, Rose. You're a legend.roseturtleertler.com@blackorchidstringband 

On this week's show we are delighted to welcome Herb Patten, a gum leaf player extraordinaire who has been dedicated to the art since childhood when he started mimicking the sounds of the birds and wildlife around him. Herb grew up in East Gippsland near Orbost before going on to tuna fishing and spotting from the crow's nest. He's always had good eyes and this runs in the family. In this conversation, Herb takes us on a journey into his life of family and love, reminiscing on his late wife and the achievements they made such as establishing the Aboriginal Community Elders Services in Brunswick. Herb is a spritely 78-year-old and is looking forward to the future. It was a great privilege to have him as our guest this week. Thank-you, Herb.