Grief is something we will all experience, but it’s also something that can feel very lonely. Supported by Medibank, ‘We are Lonely’ is a podcast that seeks to demystify loneliness and this bonus episode shares participant Charity’s experience with grief and loneliness, and how creativity can help with healing and connection.  This episode brings together singer songwriter, Alice Skye, Aunty Bea Ballangarry and Charity to talk about grief, and to work on a piece of music as a form of...

We’ve had a chance to get to know our participants pretty well by now, but they still haven’t met each other. So we do the thing that is most practical when it comes to loneliness - bringing people together.    Charity, Tim, Aleks and Holly all head to Melbourne to meet and share their experiences with each other.   Host: Jemma Sbeg Participants: Charity, Aleks, Tim and Holly Mentors: Dr Deidre Anderson, Barry Conrad, Sean Szeps and Tessa Blencowe Experts: Professor Ian Hickie and Dr...

It’s pretty common to blame our blooming loneliness on technology. In this episode we tease out that theory and look at the ways technology is both helping and hindering our connection with other people. Tim also meets with a psychologist who is part of a gaming research program to talk through the impacts gaming has on our brains and how to control our relationship with technology. Host: Jemma Sbeg Participants: Tim, Holly, Aleks and Charity Mentors: Dr Deidre Anderson, Barry Conrad,...

Reaching into where you feel joy, where you feel accepted and happy is a powerful way to build connection. Holly does something she would never have faced just months ago and heads to a yoga retreat alone. Tim reignites his passion for drag and Charity steps into the world of study. Sometimes connection doesn’t have to be with people just like us, it can be with people who like the same things as us. Host: Jemma Sbeg Participants: Charity, Tim and Holly Mentors: Dr Deidre Anderson, Barry...

How does our relationship with the world and the people around us make us lonely? And how do we fix it? Aleks, Charity, Holly and Tim are getting ready to step into the world, and find their people.  During our 20’s our relationships are changing a fair bit. Only a few years ago we were at school, we each had our school identity - sporty, academic, musical, popular. Then we left school and the world felt a bit bigger and the options for how we presented to the world expanded. Naturally,...

What does your relationship with yourself have to do with being lonely? When you think about loneliness it’s easy to focus on how many friends you have, how connected you are with the outside world. But loneliness isn’t that simple - you can feel lonely in the company of others and you can feel content alone. In this episode our participants and their mentors take a moment to look inwards and work out who they are, and who they want to be. This question of self discovery, of understanding...

Why are we lonely? Holly found herself in a habit of being alone after experiencing years of illness; Tim moved into a studio apartment in Melbourne just as the second lockdown hit; Charity is working through generations of disconnection forced on her family through Stolen Generations; and Aleks finds the pressure of managing a multi-faceted career and study life can overtake his downtime and peace. We join our participants as they each meet their mentor and start to understand why they’re...

It seems as quickly as we’re filling this planet we’re each becoming more isolated. One in three people in Australia are experiencing high levels of loneliness. The UK now has a Minister of Loneliness and the US Surgeon General has declared loneliness a health epidemic. And whilst it can seem like a simple human emotion, loneliness can have serious health implications. Being consistently lonely can be as bad for us as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And so we built this podcast to break the...