Test your instincts — Richard Harris on embracing risk to rescue teens trapped in a Thai cave

“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…

Hoodie economics — How Indigenous systems-thinking could unlock your business potential, with Jack Manning Bancroft

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 S…

Alan Rusbridger on spies, spooks, and the Assange saga

“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 Chine…

Twists and tumble-turns – Bronte Campbell’s road to Olympic glory has been anything but a straight line

“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 pos…

Ratbag millionaire — Graeme Wood’s adventures with Wotif, tree huggers, and pirates

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 intern…

Lips are sealed - Poppy King reveals she's back to conquer Australia

“It's nothing short of an Australian small business fairy tale that's about to unfurl.”  Poppy King was barely out of high school when she launched her first company in 1991, quickly gaining a cult-like following for her dreamy 1940s Hollywood-inspired matte lipsticks.  By 1995 she was Young Aust…

Breaking tradition — Shivani Gopal’s ride from arranged marriage to mentoring mogul

“When my friends were all going out and still doing Contiki tours, I was navigating a divorce.”  Growing up in a traditional Fijian-Indian family, Shivani Gopal was given the message that women should be nice, they should serve others, that a woman’s value came from kindness and doing the right th…

Boy-like wonder — Trent Dalton sees the humanity where there's none

Best-selling author and journalist Trent Dalton appreciates things most people wouldn’t give a second glance.  Growing up, Trent had no choice but to see the best in people, because if there wasn’t some light in those he loved, the world would be too dark a place to bear.  When he sat down to tra…

Advertising oracle — Dee Madigan makes the message matter

The thin timber floorboards and sticky carpet were a thin shield from the noise at the pub downstairs. But a 17-year-old Dee Madigan was trying to drown it all out as she studied for her final high school exams.  The room above a bar hardly qualified as optimum living quarters but moving back to t…

What if everything changed in an instant? Curveball returns

One day you can be striding into work in a suit worth thousands of dollars, and the next you can be at home in your pyjamas struggling to connect your laptop to the wifi in time for a job interview well below your pay grade.   Tragedy, failure, loss – they’re all part of life’s ups and downs. Life…