What does it feel like being you today? With Rae Bonney

21/11/2025

🎤📻 New Episode Out Now: Grant Fuller on men, mental health & the cost of unsafe worksites - 94.1FM 3WBC

Last week, on What Does It Feel Like, Being You Today?, I sat down with Grant Fuller, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Principal at Alchimie Pty Ltd and co-founder of Wellness in Infrastructure, for an awe inspiring conversation - perfectly timed in the lead-up to International Men’s Day.

Grant spoke candidly about growing up in Montana USA, losing his father at age five, and learning early that men and feelings, weren’t a great relationship.

💙 “I didn’t see the men around me show emotion. I want my boys to be able to.”

We traced the pathway that shaped him - being raised in a small Montana town, marked by addiction and loss, finding freedom and purpose on fishing boats in Alaska, and eventually building a life in Australia.

Grant also spoke candidly about what it cost him to stand up to unsafe cultures and bullying on a major project - a long period that left a deeper mark than he realised at the time.

💙 “Two years of harassment… being filmed, edited, posted online… told ‘you’re a liar’ for hours. I thought I was fine. Then I realised: I wasn’t.”

Grant described the moment he understood the emotional impact:

💙 “I was told, ‘take the emotion out of it’, and I said, ‘I don’t know how.’"

That experience fed directly into the beginnings of Wellness in Infrastructure.

Grant talked about Professor Luke Downey’s 2018 research, which found burnout at almost 50% in construction and depression and stress four to five times higher than the general population.https://roads.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Mental-Health-Study-Outcomes.pdf

💙 “People were hurting. Enough wasn’t being done. We wanted to change those statistics.”

One line stayed with me, well after the show:

💙 “This isn’t about being nice for the sake of it. The way we treat people at work can push them over the edge or pull them back from it.”

For anyone who works in infrastructure, construction, or mostly male environments, this episode is a powerful reflection on what real prevention looks like: clarity, safety, leadership, and environments that don’t break people.

Grant’s honesty, insight and lived experience bring a rare depth to a conversation workplaces (and beyond) desperately need.

🎧 Listen to the show at:
Its original home on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S13Ok3Rxjkk?si=eJaxZCjwlD4C0RvZ
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5lqXHht88q85mt8Oygw3LR?si=cKRTexPEQyCr6QrPY3wKAA
Or wherever else you like to listen. https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-jawqj-19cb6c6

What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au

14/11/2025

📻What Does It Feel Like, Being Grant Fuller?
Wellness in Infrastructure
Live tomorrow, Sunday 16 November, 10 am-12 noon (AEDT) on Radio 94.1FM 3WBC

What do Alaskan fishing vessels, the U.S. Navy’s emergency ship salvage system, a Victorian freeway project and a new movement to build a mentally healthy construction industry have in common?

One man: Grant Fuller.

Tomorrow on What Does It Feel Like, Being You, Today? I’ll be joined live in the 94.1FM 3WBC studios by Grant - who doesn’t just “do” health and safety, he’s lived it.

During his amazing career, Grant has hauled nets in Alaska, worked on the U.S. Navy’s ESSM program and led health and safety on major infrastructure projects here in Australia.

He was also a driving force behind the Integrated Approach to Wellness Program on the Mordialloc Freeway Project - a first-of-its-kind initiative that measurably reduced depression, stress and burnout across a major project workforce.

Bringing it all of this together - Grant co-created Wellness in Infrastructure to kick things right up the path of much needed health, safety and wellbeing change in the sector.

Among all of his stellar accomplishments, I'll be speaking gravely to Grant about his personal onsite experiences that no human should ever experience, and how it’s everyone’s responsibility to commit to making safer, healthier and happier workplaces.

There’s no excuses – just be kind, just be caring and don’t be an #*%@ # - It can kill people.

🎙️ Tune in live:
🕙 Saturday 16 November, 10am–12 noon (AEDT)
📻 94.1FM 3WBC
🌐 Stream via the 3WBC website https://www.3wbc.org.au/streaming/

What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au

24/10/2025

New Episode Out Now: Men’s mental health researcher Michael Wilson, with a surprise cameo from Movember’s Dr Zac Seidler.

Last week, I sat down with Michael Wilson, Research Fellow in Men's Mental Health at Orygen and one of the new generation of men’s health researchers at the 94.1FM 3WBC studios, with a surprise call-in from Movember’s Dr Zac Seidler.

Together, we explored what happens when research actually meets real life.

Michael’s work traces why some men face the highest su***de risk after relationship breakdown: how loneliness and emotion dysregulation collide, and why “get back on the horse” doesn’t land.

💙“Many young men told me they’d never had a conversation like that with anyone,” he said, in relation to being interviewed about their relationship break-ups - a topic they’d often struggled to speak about even with friends or family.

💙“Our job is knowledge translation - taking findings into the world.”

Michael also encouraged us to widen our lens on anger and substance use which can be depression in disguise. Emphasising the onus is on practitioners to respond well.

Zac reminded us about what happens after a man walks through the door of a practitioner is pivotal:

💙“The best way men look after others is to look after themselves,” and systems need strength-based care, not stereotypes.

And, as I put it:

💙“Expecting men to change means showing them how - not just telling them what to do.” Because running away isn’t a choice; it’s pain.

This is an insightful conversation for anyone who cares about contributing to better lives for men and boys.

Michael’s ability to hold vulnerability with rigour is rare and powerful, and Zac’s generosity added even more heart.

I have enormous respect for their work, and I’m grateful they shared it with me… and now, with all of you.

Listen to the show here on its original home a YouTube https://youtu.be/TlZaLGAQiF4?si=1-_awGG5JQ8dcBv7

Or wherever else you like to tune in 🎧 https://rae6z.podbean.com/

What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au

What Does It Feel Like, Being Michael Wilson?The Human Side Of Men's Health ResearchThe world loves a good stat 📈.We quote them, post them, argue about them...

18/10/2025

📻 What Does It Feel Like, Being Michael Wilson?
The Human Side Of Men's Health Research
Live, this coming Sunday, on Radio 94.1FM 3WBC🎙️

The world loves a good stat 📈.
We quote them, post them, argue about them, and use “the research” to support our opinions.

But how often do we stop to ask, where does the data come from? Who are the people behind the research? What drives someone to commit years of their life to a PhD? .... and who supports them along the way?

This Sunday on What Does It Feel Like, Being You Today?, I’ll be joined by Michael Wilson, Research Fellow in Men’s Mental Health at Orygen and one of the new generation of men’s health researchers, helping shape what “evidence” really means in the lives of men.

His work explores why some men face higher su***de risk after relationship breakdowns, especially how emotion dysregulation and loneliness can collide in the months post-separation.

We’ll unpack the why behind Michael’s PhD - the purpose, persistence and curiosity that fuels his work, and how good support is essential in making it all possible.

Then… enter the room (by phone), Michael’s super-supportive supervisor, none other than Dr Zac Seidler - global men’s health icon, Movember leader, and champion of the next generation of researchers, sharing what it takes to nurture rigorous, human-centred research and why great supervision can influence the trajectory of a PhD (and a researcher).

🎙️ Tune in this Sunday 19 October between 10 am – 12 noon (AEDT)
📻 94.1 FM 3WBC
🌐 Or listen live anywhere in the world: https://www.3wbc.org.au/about-3wbc/

What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au

25/09/2025

🎙 New Episode Out Now: Involuntary Male Childlessness with Dr Robin Hadley on 94.1FM 3WBC

Last Sunday, I aired a very special conversation with Dr Robin Hadley - researcher, advocate, poet, and all-round diamond 💎.

Timed perfectly with World Childless Week, Robin and I explored the often overlooked reality of involuntary childlessness in men - the grief, the stigma, and the silence.

Some of Robin’s words that stayed with me:

💔“It’s grief without a death ... a disenfranchised grief because there’s no ritual, no structure, no recognition.”

🔢“If you’re not counted, you don’t count. And if the people who do the counting won’t count you, then you’re excluded twice over.”

🐥“I thought I was the only one who felt so broody, who felt like there was a cloud over them. Then I discovered there were many men like me.”

We also spoke about:
✨ The ache of Father’s Day for men who longed to be dads
✨ The policy blind-spots that leave childless men invisible in planning and services
✨ Aging without children and who advocates for you when family isn’t there
✨ Male vulnerability - why it needs to be understood on its own terms
✨ Robin’s very personal health update about how a routine check led to an early prostate cancer diagnosis

This is an interview I absolutely loved. Robin’s ability to weave his own lived experience with groundbreaking research is rare and powerful. I have enormous respect for his work and I’m grateful he shared it with me .. and now, all of you ☺️.

Listen to the show here on it's original home a YouTube https://youtu.be/t7ZFWCsQYMw?si=em3_hV_lPNTzsedI

Or where ever else you like to tune in 🎧 https://rae6z.podbean.com/

What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au


https://youtu.be/t7ZFWCsQYMw?si=em3_hV_lPNTzsedI

Involuntary Male Childlessness with Dr Robin Hadley.On Sunday 21 September, I aired a very special conversation with Dr Robin Hadley - researcher, advocate, ...

16/08/2025

Anna Feringa: Psychological Safety, Culture Change & Saying Yes to Anything and Everything 👍

TUNE IN this coming Sunday, 17 August 2025 to What Does It Feel Like, Being You, Today? at 94.1FM 3WBC 💛

If you’ve been waiting for a conversation that’s educational, entertaining and right from the guts, this one with Anna Feringa will be all that and much more, when she joins me live in the studio at 3wbc this coming Sunday.

Anna is one of Australia’s most energetic, no-nonsense, and straight-to-the-point voices in workplace mental health, psychological safety, and wellbeing.

We first met in person earlier this year at the Self Insurers Association Victoria Conference, after years of fangirling each other’s work from afar. We quickly discovered a shared language 🤬🤬 – and a huge appetite for creating safe, kind, caring, and sustainable workplaces.

When I asked Anna what she'd like to talk about on the show - her reply was “Anything and everything” .... so, expect quite a racey conversation where nothing’s off limits 🤣.

What makes Anna so compelling is her ability to cut through bu****it and get to the heart of what matters. She’s worked across industries, led change at scale, and helped leaders move from compliance to genuine care, not to mention accolades like being named a Global Top 10 Health and Safety Influencer in 2020, and a LinkedIn Top Voice for Workplace Mental Health in 2022.

I cannot wait to hear what it feels like, being Anna Feringa 🧡💜💚💛💙.

📻 Tune in live: Sunday 17 August, 10am–12 noon at 94.1FM 3WBC
Or stream online: https://www.3wbc.org.au/streaming/

🎧 Don’t forget, you can now listen to this show and many more like it on your favourite podcast platform, such as Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3nwunw1rki76U3MsKe2Hoh
... or at its original home at YouTube https://www.youtube.com/
What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au

18/07/2025

🎙️Jeremy MacVean : Championing Fatherhood, Wellbeing & Gender Equity

This Sunday, 20 July, 2025 on What Does It Feel Like, Being You, Today? at 94.1FM 3WBC💛.

If ever there was a reason to get out of bed on a Sunday morning, it’s having Jeremy Macvean join me on live radio, at the 3WBC studios!

Jeremy and I first crossed paths, almost 10 years ago through Movember, and over the years we’ve collaborated across many men’s health initiatives. In more recent times, we're sharing space at workplace events, where DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging) is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Part of what makes Jeremy’s story so compelling is his trajectory - turning a big-name marketing career into purpose-driven work, championing fatherhood, wellbeing, social connection, and gender equity.

As co-founder of The Father Hood, Jeremy brings both personal experience and professional charm to conversations about what all dads need, and why supporting them benefits everyone.

What really sets Jeremy apart, is his commitment to making gender equity an everyone’s issue and helping workplaces understand that when we lift up fathers and men, we help create fairer, more connected communities for all.

This Sunday, hear what it feels like, being Jeremy Macvean and experience the magic that happens when we make beautiful space for each other ❤️💚🩷💙🧡🤎.

📻Tune in live: Sunday 20 July, 10am–12 noon at 94.1FM 3WBC
Or stream online: https://www.3wbc.org.au/streaming/

🤣Come for the laughs and stay for the goosebumps 🪿.

Don't forget, you can now listen to this show and many more like it on your favourite podcast platform like Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3nwunw1rki76U3MsKe2Hoh... or it’s original YouTube home https://www.youtube.com/

What does it feel like, being you, today?
www.raebonney.au