Curveball

Kate Reid’s knead for speed has taken her from Formula One to Lune Croissanterie.

It’s the early 2000s and a young Aussie engineer named Saul Griffith has made his way to the prestigious MIT in the United States. He launches several startups, including one that develops the technology that eventually powers the Kindle, he even consults to NASA and the US Department of Defence.  But at the same time, the climate crisis is looming larger. Saul tells his wife that perhaps he should ditch start-up life and instead become “an eco-terrorist”. It’s said partly in jest, but next thing Saul and his wife move their young family home to regional New South Wales.   Over a few beers with friends at the local pub, Saul pitches an audacious idea: What if their post code, 2515, becomes Australia’s first fully electrified community?   So, can Saul turn this bold pub pitch into a model for the nation – and do it fast enough to save Australia’s future?   +++  Curveball is a production of Deadset Studios.   Saul Griffith’s books include Plug In! The Electrification Handbook,  Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for a Clean Energy Future, and The Big Switch. You can find Saul on Instagram and find out more from Rewiring Australia.  Rebecca Levingston and Sarah Dabro produced this episode with editing from Amelia Navascues.  We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2019, nearly 20 years into building fashion empire Ginger & Smart, AleAlexandra Smart sold majority control of the label she co-founded with her sister — and everything changed.

Jim Rogers thought he needed new blood pressure medication. But instead, he received a diagnosis that floored him.

“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 mission taught him about pushing boundaries and propelled Harry into conversations with other risk takers. Why don’t we take more risks? Why aren’t we letting our kids explore their boundaries, and to deal with the consequences that might eventuate? Australian of the Year 2019, Richard Harris, takes you inside this remarkable rescue, but also a heart-breaking one to recover the body of a close diving buddy. In the process he illuminates the ways we can all face fear head-on. Check out Harry's podcast Real Risk and his new book The Art of Risk. +++ Curveball features revealing conversations with leaders about their challenges and their successes. It’s a production of Deadset Studios. Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram. Want to know more about how people thrive in challenging times? Sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter! This episode was produced by Liam Riordan and Harry Hughes. Executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Country on which this podcast is made, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s first storytellers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“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. At home, I did the same. I unplugged everything. And if I wanted to talk to my wife, we went out into the woods. We did all the things that spies are supposed to do.” Alan Rusbridger was the editor of The Guardian newspaper when a whistle blower called Edward Snowden reached out with documents suggesting the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US was spying on its own civilians. The extraordinary claims landed them in hot water with governments in both the US and the UK, and ultimately forced Snowden into exile in Russia where he remains today, more than a decade on. So what’s it like when you’re the one responsible for hitting publish on the most explosive story of the decade? One that involves spies and spooks, encrypted messages, and an international hunt for both the source of the story and the journalists who broke it? Alan Rusbridger is now the editor of Prospect Magazine, the chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and a member of Facebook’s Oversight Board. He’s been at the forefront of journalism’s transition to the digital and social world – all while juggling this century’s most complex stories in news. Rusbridger also describes the time he played Chopin in a deserted hotel in Libya while waiting for officials to negotiate the release of a missing Guardian journalist, why he believes Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be released from prison, and the legacy of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. +++ Curveball features revealing conversations with leaders about their challenges and their successes. It’s a production of Deadset Studios. Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram. And friends, don’t forget you can also sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter! And we’d love you to suggest a Curveball guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com This episode was produced by Liam Riordan. Executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Country on which this podcast is made, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia's first storytellers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 chipping mills? Whether it’s disrupting the Queensland egg industry in the 1980s, building his own website for Wotif (fueled by fear and a few vodkas), or fending off literal pirates on his sailing adventures, Graeme Wood does things his own way. Now, he’s transferring his business experience into the conservation space – but will his cowboy philosophy work in his new career? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

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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.

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.