“Giving anaesthetic in a muddy cave kilometres underground and under water? I never thought that was a good idea.”    Experienced cave diver and doctor Dr Richard ‘Harry’ Harris is no stranger to extreme dives in pitch-black, cramped conditions. But when a call came for him to assist retrieving 12 teens and their coach from treacherous conditions inside a cave in Thailand during monsoonal rains? Well, he thought the boys had no hope of being pulled out alive.    This incredible recovery...

Jack Manning Bancroft was 17 when he walked into Australia’s most prestigious college at Sydney University. Think sandstone buildings, young men wearing suits and gowns to the dining hall each evening.   Jack, a talented athlete and student and a Bundjalung man, had been awarded a scholarship to St Paul’s College.  The level of privilege he was surrounded by made him angry, but it wasn’t long before he channeled that into establishing the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME),...

“We bought computers that had never been connected to the internet. Phones were taken out of the room and I unplugged everything, including televisions and fridges. At one point the cabinet secretary pointed out through my window to a block of flats across the water and said, ‘You realise the Chinese will be in there and they’ll have a laser on that tumbler of water, and they’ll have turned it into a microphone. They can listen to what we’re saying now’. So the curtains came down immediately....

“I love that moment on the blocks. It’s the most high pressure moment. You can feel your heart beating. Your palms are all sweaty. Often when I’m going down onto the block and they say ‘take your marks’ my hands and legs are shaking. It’s a place of great failure and great success. They’re both possible in that very same moment”.  Bronte Campbell could be the second best 100-metre sprint swimmer on the entire planet, and still not be the fastest in her family. That’s the reality of growing...

Graeme Wood knew his planet was in danger even as a little kid. No one had to tell him: he could tell by how rapidly his fishing hauls on Moreton Bay were diminishing each year. But what was a bored kid in Brisbane going to do about it?   Come 2014, entrepreneur Graeme Wood sells Wotif, his internet travel booking platform, and for the first time he has the potential to enact enormous change. So why does this devoted conservationist then go out and buy one of the world’s largest wood...

After three decades of highs and lows in the lipstick business, Poppy King is set to reign again with a new line in this Curveball exclusive.

How this financial guru went from good wife to good life.

Golden-orb weavers, caterpillars, or the look on his mum’s face when he says he’s written a book about his childhood. Trent Dalton sees the beauty in a gloomy world.

From the big budgets of the advertising business to the bigger personalities of federal politics, Dee Madigan doesn’t shy away from a challenge.

Curveballs don’t discriminate. Learn from leaders in the C-suite and beyond in this new season of Curveball.

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“She helped me completely dismantle a media personality I constructed and wasn’t happy with. It was a media personality I constructed to be a television presenter. To be sort of charming, maybe trying to be funny, trying to be a smartass here and there. But it was a struggle because it wasn’t who I really am.”  Richard Fidler’s had more careers than most. He’s best-known as a host of the ABC’s most popular radio show and podcast Conversations.   But he came to radio via a career as a TV...

Broadcaster Richard Fidler reveals how marriage changed him, the time he caught on fire (really), and why saying less is doing more as an interviewer

Legacy can be a bit of a loaded term when it comes to family businesses. If you’re taking over at the helm, how do you honour the legacy of those who came before you? Do you keep things as they were, or should you shake things up?  Buckaroo Belts owner Tanya Van Der Water asked herself exactly these questions when her father fell ill in 2013. Unexpectedly, she was thrust into the CEO role in his place.   Once upon a time, she wasn’t even interested in joining his leather-working company, let...

Meet the woman who unexpectedly inherits a leatherworking business and hear about the radical transformation both she and the business went through to escape collapse.

There’s sweat flying everywhere at the Alice Springs YMCA as a young instructor cheers the class through their workout. Michelle Bridges is learning how to bring the heat, honing her craft as the motivator-in-chief for people looking to turn their lives around.   Michelle had been teaching fitness classes and entering bodybuilding competitions while she was living in the desert with her then boyfriend.  She was building a small yet loyal following - but she was a big fish in a small pond, the...

Michelle Bridges shows you her vulnerable side. What has she learned from letting her guard down after more than three decades in the fitness industry?

Brandon Jack pulls back the curtain on the most common careers in the AFL, and reflects on the impact his own career’s had on his family, his future, and his identity.

The sun’s setting in the Sydney suburbs, but a young Brandon Jack’s still running his science experiment. Or rather, he’s still pretending to run his science experiment. In reality, he’s just kicking an Aussie Rules football around. But when you’re the son of an NRL legend, you have to come up with a good cover story to even go near other football codes.  Brandon’s talent for side-stepping the truth about football continued into adulthood. Rather than speaking openly about his fears and...

We get it! It’s scary being your real self out there. Being vulnerable. Laying it all on the line when you’re feeling uncertain, not quite sure if you’ve got it right.  We’ve noticed so many Curveball guests have had a moment where they could choose to be the all-knowing tough guy/gal, but instead decide to let their guard down.  It might be emotionally risky, but how can you make vulnerability work for you in relationships, on a project, or even in the workplace?  Oh, and Kellie and...

What happens if you show vulnerability? It might be emotionally risky but how can you make vulnerability work for you?

Once upon a time, a young Kirstin Ferguson wanted to be Australia’s first female Prime Minister. And she figured the free university education and rigorous leadership training of the military would make a good first step.   But – surprise! - the Royal Australian Air Force Academy of the 1990s wasn’t the most welcoming environment for an ambitious young woman. Kirstin had to adjust her behaviour in ways that would affect everything she did for the next few decades.   After a stint in a law...

Kirstin Ferguson's journey from the long-held leadership traditions of the military to a brave new ideal for women in charge

Think back to the toughest challenges you've ever faced - the longest grind, the lowest low... What would you do if, almost as soon as it ended, you were told you had to do it all again?  For Kath Koschel, former New South Wales cricketer, this question isn’t hypothetical. She’d already faced loss of her fiancé and was overwhelmed with grief. And after months of rehab following a debilitating back injury, she wanted to get back on the pitch, but couldn’t. She still wasn’t able to lift her...