Episode notes
Brining Community Back Together | Episode 4 | Luella Prassad Many of us underestimate how simple acts of genuine human connection can transform lives, especially across generations. On Bringing Community Back Together this week, Luella Prasad, a Year 12 student from International Grammar School Sydney, shares * her love of connecting with people * appreciating friendships no matter what age * a special bond with her own grandfather through a love of piano and ABBA * a mutual love with her aged care buddy Louise of all things cats 🐱& ABBA 🎶 (even her pet dog Fernando !) * hopes to be a Speech…
Podcast
Bringing Community Back Together
Heart and Soul Story · Health · English
What if an important part of the answer to our community mental health challenges doesn’t lie within us… but between us? Bringing Community Back Together, hosted by Samantha Heron, explores the growing impact of social fragmentation - from rising anxiety in young people to loneliness in older adult
More from Bringing Community Back Together All episodes →
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S2 · E2 · 5 Aug 2026 · 50 min
Rethinking our Rites of Passage, Dr Arne Rubinstein
Bringing Community Back Together |Season 2 Episode 1 | Dr Arne Rubinstein | Rites of Passage Institute "The question is not whether they'll go through a rite of passage, because they will. The question is, can we create something healthy for them, rather than having them create their own, which can be disastrous.....The transformation of a rite of passage is a change in our beliefs and values about ourselves and the world." Welcome to Season 2 . To kick off our next conversations about community, connection and our collective wellbeing, Samantha Heron sits down with Dr Arne Rubinstein OAM —…
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S1 · E8 · 30 Jun 2026 · 51 min
Humans for the long haul. Jon Owen, Wayside Chapel
Bringing Community Back Together | Episode 8 | Jon Owen | Wayside Chapel "At Wayside Chapel ... when people realise that they're in a place where they're being held, they often start to move forward on their own two feet and with their own energy and momentum, which is a beautiful gift we can give ...because we don't need to be experts... we just need to be humans who can who can be there for the long haul... Join us as we explore the profound insights of Reverend John Owen from Wayside Chapel, delving into community, mental health, and the power of story sharing to foster connection and…
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S1 · E7 · 17 Jun 2026 · 30 min
Lifelong Truckie turns School of Life Teacher
Bringing Community Back Together |Episode 7 | Ken T "You've given me so much more than youprobably realise." Luca, Year 10 “You might run into good times. You might run into bad ones. But that's life. You take the good with the bad” Ken T What happens when a 15-year-old sits downwith a man who drove trucks across Australia for 37 years, and they just...talk? Ken Taylor has lived a life full of stories .From digging foundations as a builder's labourer at 19, to hauling grain from Queensland to Victoria, mangoes to market, and steel to building sites. Ken spent decades on the open road with…
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S1 · E6 · 4 Jun 2026 · 41 min
Rethinking the way we measure progress
Bringing Community Back Together | Episode 6 Catia Davim "Human life is worth it until the very last breath. You could be 102 years old and you are still very valuable." In this episode we explore Bhutan's Gross National Happiness & Indigenous wisdom and how they relate to community, plus much more! The secret to making a real impact isn’t always about doing more - it can be about starting small and building community that lasts. Catia Davim’s journey leading Australia’s Social Good Summit for the past decade reveals how one person’s purpose, can ripple outward to create meaningful change.…
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S1 · E1 · 25 May 2026 · 44 min
Rethinking the way we school
Bringing Community Back Together | Episode 5 Dr Hugh Chilton "Education of the Mind without Education of the Heart is no education at all" Aristotle What does it actually mean to educate a human being? Not just fill them with knowledge or prepare them for a career, but genuinely form them as a person, capable of connection, empathy, and belonging across difference? Dr Hugh Chilton has spent his career inside that question. From twelve years on the executive leadership team at Scots College Sydney , where he co-designed ScotsX, an experimental model of schooling built around real-world…
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S1 · E3 · 27 Apr 2026 · 35 min
Rethinking the Way We Live
What if connection wasn’t something we added on… but something we designed for? In this conversation, Samantha Heron chats with Churchill Fellow Savannah Fishel, who researched 54 intergenerational and communal living communities across the US and Australia, and authored the report Beyond the White Picket Fence . Drawing on these real-world models that are already emerging, we explore what it means to move beyond individual moments of connection and begin thinking at a systems level. This episode invites us to consider what becomes possible when we stop treating connection as a “nice to…
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21 Apr 2026 · 30 min
Rebuilding Community from the Ground Up
What does it really take to bring community back together? Sometimes it starts with a pair of boots on the ground Mel Knuckey has spent her career doing the quiet, essential work of community connection - from her early days as a shy 18-year-old joining Rotaract on the Central Coast, to running 16 intergenerational programs across Tasmania in under a year as Community Programs Coordinator at COTA Tasmania. In this conversation, Mel reflects on finding her purpose, the moment something "just clicked" working in community development, and why she believes real change happens on the ground We…
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2 Apr 2026 · 18 min
The Prime Minister Problem .. or all of ours?
I had a chat with children's author Brenton Cullen this week about his beautiful, warm and deeply relevant book The Prime Minister Problem "Old folks might feel a little left out. Lonely. So they hide away. They can seem angry or sad — but they might just want a friend." This is a children's book. Yet it captures something that researchers, clinicians and community workers spend entire careers trying to articulate with the same depth. It gently points to something many of us are sensing — that as we fragment and become too 'busy' as a community, so too does our everyday experience of…
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2 Apr 2026 · 2 min
Bringing Community Back Together Introduction
Bringing Community Back Together is a podcast about what happens when we stop trying to solve wellbeing in isolation — and start rebuilding connection across generations, roles, and communities. Hosted by Samantha Heron, founder of Heart & Soul Story, this series explores the growing impact of social fragmentation on our mental health — from rising anxiety in young people to loneliness and loss of role in older adults — and asks a simple but powerful question: what if the answer lies between us, not within us? Through conversations with a diverse range of voices — educators, aged care…
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