The Osher Günsberg Podcast

Michelle Langstone is an incredibly talented actress from the west coast of New Zealand. You'll remember her from McLeod's Daughters and more recently 800 words.  She came over ten minutes after I'd had some rather confronting news, so I just started recording and she talked me through it.  Thanks to everyone who supports the show on patreon.com/osher - without you this episode wouldn't exist!

Tommy Little is a comedian, radio host and tv host from Melbourne Australia.   You can catch him regularly in Australia on The Project on a Friday Night, and he's always touring around the nation doing standup.   We talk a lot in this conversation about what it is to be a standup, what it is to have things go well - for example when you're doing breakfast radio and a late night show, and when things don't go well like when said late night show is cancelled.    He's on instagram as @MrsTommyLittle and sells a cracking coffee mug at Gangster Mugs.

Montaigne is a singer/songwriter/performer from Sydney Australia - her new album "Glorious Heights" is out now, and she's touring the country through September - details at Montaigne.com.au   We met on twitter after she tagged me in a photo that she took of an old notebook full of "I love Matt Corby" signs she and her school friend had held up in a live audience at Australian Idol about ten years ago.    That she now has a job where she's a performer is so wonderful to see.  She came around to my house one morning last week, and filled the room with a powerful and loving energy - she's a really special human.    I haven't had a chance to see her live but I am hoping to get along to one of her shows because her authenticity and ability to express herself is so open and effortless, you can't help but be drawn in to what she's creating.    Even if you're not a music head or like other kinds of music, I'm sure you'll get a lot out of this chat - we cover what it means to redefine yourself through your appearance, struggles with parents around her sexuality, and what it is to make music for a living.    I hope you get as much of a buzz out of listening to this as I did recording it.  Enjoy this conversation with Montaigne. 

Dan Rosen is the CEO of ARIA - The Australian Recording Industry Association.   Among other things, ARIA provide the official pop music charts for Australia, as well as facilitating the annual ARIA awards which are our country's highest acclaim to give a musician.    Dan has a cracking story, of how he became CEO of ARIA in the middle of the biggest market disruption in industry's history - and how he sees artists and fans moving forward together in the brave new digital world.    He's a great chat, and even if you're not into music - his career path is something to be inspired by.  

Hot Dub Time Machine is probably the hottest DJ ticket in town right now.    A creation of my guest today - Tom Loud. This time-traveling dance-party is currently packing out huge rooms all across Australia and Europe.   He's redefining what it means to go and have a dance. He's opening dance culture up to a whole new audience, and he's spreading joy all across the world.    Tom reached out to me over instagram - it turns out we worked together a long time ago, and he let me know about his success and how he'd like to come on the show.    I caught him at Splendour in The Grass a few years back and I can tell you he knows how to make a party happen.    You'll also hear how mental illness played a role in his story, and how his life became so much better once he took responsibility for his situation, and worked on getting help and getting healthy.    It's an inspiring story, a story that might even make you want to dance with excitement.    You can see HDTM all over UK and AU in coming months - hotdubtimemachine.com is where his dates are - like you'll hear me say in the show - people go back again and again, it's no wonder because it's the best night ever.    Enjoy this chat with DJ Tom Loud, Time Lord and Captain of Hot Dub Time Machine.

Chas Licciardello (@chaslicc & @chas_usa) is part of the incredibly successful Australian Satire collective The Chaser. You can see Chas every week on "The Checkout" on the ABC For over 15 years they've been calling out hypocrisy, lies and general bloviating by our public figures and making us either laugh or be outraged while they do it. Never one to shy from commitment to a joke, Chas has been arrested numerous times, received death threats and has even been assaulted in the street - all for the sake of satire. As you'll hear, I've been waiting a long time to have this interview - and I'm thrilled you finally get to hear it.

My guest is Madison Missina, she defines herself as a prostitute, a  porn star, sex therapist, sex educator and sex worker advocate.  We had a rather robust and frank conversation about how she ended up doing what she does, the role of sex workers in society (eg, assisting with the disabled etc) and spent a long time talking about the effect of porn as default sex education for a generation of young people. Madison has a new and very successful podcast with Mamamia called "the prude and the pornstar" that's just launched - so she's quite mainstream. It's not a titillating chat and it is very matter of fact when we get to the brass tacks.   It's an important conversation to have, as I feel quite strongly about the adverse affect hardcore porn has on young people and their sexual expression.   Also, Maz Compton drops by to talk about the results of her manifesting a talk show out of thin air. 

Socratis Otto is a gifted Australian actor best known at the moment for his role as Maxine in the women's prison drama "Wentworth" which has its season finale on Tuesday night this week. It's a demanding role, because his character used to be called Max - and is now Maxine. Foxtel here in Australia deserves enormous praise for its support of original Australian drama, and this show is one of the best. Socratis is an incredibly talented man, and was gracious enough to make the trek over from the inner west of Sydney all the way out to the edge of Australia here at the beach to chat with me on a brisk morning about a month ago. I was struck by his warmth and genuine charm, sometimes actors can be empty shells and only when they've been given the words and directions do they come to life, but then as another person. Socratis lit up my house with a loving glow, and was very generous with his time and his trust in our conversation. Big thanks again to Jane Negline who lined up this interview, without her it never would have happened. Enjoy a warm cuppa and a warm chat with Socratis Otto. For exclusive episodes of this show support at patreon.com/osher

My guest this week is Dr John Demartini, he's a best selling author, speaker and teacher.   He's written over 40 books, and travels the world 360 days a year.  You'll hear in this conversation how he came to begin to explore what makes people tick and how he dug deeper into human behaviour patterns to understand why we do what we do.    Might have seen him if you've ever watched the film "The Secret".    He and I do differ on some aspects of what he speaks about, notably the treatment for clinical depression - however that's not to say that what he teaches doesn't work for thousands of people all over the world - it's just not the thing for me.   Regardless, I am thrilled he came by - he walked into my home and from the kitchen window you can see the ocean, he stared at the swell coming in and his eyes misted over as he ghost rode the waves that broke on the sand back in the south corner of Bondi.

Steve Beckett is a marketing and product growth exec at Zwift.com - go have a look at that website for a quick video demo.    What is Zwift?    But he comes from a legacy of bike industry gigs, and this chat is pertinent at the moment with Tour De France being on - because he was there on the ground floor for the formation of Team Sky, one of the most dominant forces of cycling in recent years to emerge.    This is a great story about how tech evolution in one sector can make a transformative leap ahead in another.  Even if you haven't ridden a bike in years, this might make you want to capture that freedom one more time. 

Dr Glen Richards is a vet, entrepreneurial mega-success and a shark on the Network Ten hit show Shark Tank. It's Dragon's Den in the UK and shark tank everywhere else.    He has an incredible story, and has some very powerful and interesting views on euthanasia.   He's someone who's compassionately ended the life of thousands of incredibly loved but suffering pets - and we start to discuss what it would mean for our society if we looked at people's suffering in a similar way.    If you're at all triggered by such a conversation, once you hear us talking about states that permit dr assisted death, skip ahead 7 minutes and you'll emerge safely on the other side.    This is also a great chat because I got the feeling that Dr Glen and I come from different sides of the political spectrum, yet we found so many commonalities. And I think that's important to remember in this world where our political parties are so ideologically divided - there's way more in common than we think.    Enjoy this chat with a 100% stand up human, Dr Glen Richards. 

Nell Schofield is an Australian actor, author, journalist and activist.  She became a household name after her role in the landmark coming of age film "Puberty Blues", and was a part of the creation of the worldwide smash hit "Strictly Ballroom". Nell is also an advocate for Solar Citizens which is pushing for a 100% renewable energy Australia by 2030.  She's a bloody delight and I couldn't be more happy that she came over for a cuppa on a cold and windy Friday arvo.

My guest today is film director James Fazio we're talking about the power of happiness through helping others and his documentary, which you can help make: Time Well Spent.    Thanks so much for listening. 

  Justin Hamilton is a stand-up comedian, writer, producer and generally wonderfully creative and funny man from Australia.  He and I first met on a panel show called Good News Week in 2009.  You can listen to his exceptional podcast "Can you Take this photo Please" and also hear him occasionally pop up on TOFOP with Will and Charlie which we talk about on this show too.  This is a great chat because it speaks of the value of mentorship.  The value of identifying a mentor and keeping that relationship going through life, but also in the other direction - of finding someone to mentor and realising the value that can bring you.    Thanks for listening, if you like it tell Justin on twitter - if you really like it, tell a friend.   

Alice Fraser is a comedian, writer, and ex-lawyer from Australia.  She's also host of the wonderfully cerebral podcast "Tea With Alice" which I'm happy to have been a guest on.    We recorded both her show and mine on the same day, and if there's parts of this chat that don't make sense, perhaps go find the episode she and I did on her show to flesh things out.    Alice has a very interesting story, a story about following what you believe in, finding your truth - and what monetary rewards balance against that truth or even the joy of that journey.