We explore how humour does real work: building critical thinking, lowering defensiveness, and fuelling social change, from pandemic myths to political power. Two kinds of laughter—herd and heights—show why some jokes harm and others heal, with practical ways to use comedy well.

• role of laughter in learning, groups, and connection
• comedy as a response to fear and frustration
• philosophers on humour from Plato to Nietzsche
• herd laughter versus heights laughter
• political mockery, late‑night satire, and why power hates jokes
• case study of Pete Evans and the cut‑through of Tom Gleeson
• RISE and Funny or Die driving legislative change
• self‑deprecation and avoiding punching down
• small steps to craft humorous messages for impact
• safety, critical thinking, and staying connected

Keep your critical thinking hats on. And don't forget to subscribe, wait, and review the podcast, and share it with your fellow smart women and allies

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We explore how humour helps us handle stress, anxiety, and life’s clatter without ignoring pain. A rogue bush turkey sparks a deeper look at the body’s laugh response, thought defusion, and why timing and validation matter when using comedy as a coping tool.

• acknowledging Country and setting the scene in Sydney
• the bush turkey saga as a catalyst for laughter
• why some laugh in crisis and others only later
• what laughter does to the diaphragm, hormones and breath
• using humour to defuse anxious thoughts and gain distance
• paradox of approaching fear instead of pushing it away
• validation needs, boundaries and timing with jokes
• practical tools: mechanical laughter, comic voices, silly imagery
• habit-building for resilience and lighter problem solving
• closing reminders on safety, critical thinking and community

And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast and share it with your fellow smart women and allies

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Support the show

Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting

We turn a chaotic week—stolen bikes, a shredded laptop, and a dog’s sock surgery—into a guide to better decisions by swapping blame for causation and drama for clarity. We unpack coercive control, how to warn a friend without lecturing, and why scepticism is a safety tool against health misinformation.

• shifting from blame to causation to regain control
• spotting early coercive control masked as care
• using calm, specific language to influence a friend
• jealousy as insecurity not love
• metacognition as a buffer against emotional decisions
• health misinformation on social media and why scepticism matters
• practical sceptic habits for medical advice
• update on Ryder’s surgery and recovery

Please, please respect that gut feeling. Staying safe needs to be our primary objective. And don't forget to subscribe when we're going to do the podcast and share it with your fellow smart women and allies

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Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting

Send us a message!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Support the show

Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting

Send us a message!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Support the show

Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting

A sweltering spring day, a newly minted dog beach, and one missing ball turn into a bigger question: why do we try to control what can’t be controlled? We head to Mona Vale where hundreds of dogs sprint through the surf and most humans smile—until a few arrive with tight rules, tight lips, and the belief that public spaces should run to their personal script. That tiny friction becomes our doorway into manners, shared spaces, and the sneaky sentence that fuels so much outrage: “this shouldn’t be happening.”

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Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting

If certainty had a sound, it would be the wellness aisle whispering boost, detox, and natural into your ear. We pull back the curtain on why those words feel so right—and why they so often lead us astray. With Richard Saunders from Australian Skeptics, we unpack how intuition clashes with evidence, how authority bias makes white coats and big badges persuasive, and how deepfakes and influencer snippets outpace careful science in the attention economy.

Listen to Richard's Podcast - https://www.skepticzone.tv/

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Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting

A glittering festival of certainty met a table of questions. We took you inside Sydney’s Mind Body Spirit Festival with pharmacist Kate Thomas and skeptic investigator Richard Saunders to test the confidence, the charisma, and the sweeping claims—everything from tarot to “age reversal” stem cell patches. What we found wasn’t just crystals and calm; it was a sales engine where scientific words get borrowed, anecdotes become evidence, and vulnerable people are nudged toward costly detours.

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Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting