Moments of Clarity

S4 E2 - ’The Laughter Effect’ with Ros Ben-Moshe

Our guest today on Moments of Clarity is Ros Ben-Moshe.
Ros is a Laughter, Wellbeing and Positivity author, academic and practitioner. She is Adjunct lecturer at the School of Public Health and Psychology at La Trobe University where she coordinates the Laughter, Resilience and Wellbeing online short course for professionals. Ros is author of The Laughter Effect – How to Build Joy, Resilience and Positivity in Your Life (2023) and “Laughing at cancer – How to Heal with Love, Laughter and Mindfulness”. Often called on for expert opinion in mainstream media, she has also written for publications including The Canberra Times, Huffington Post and Wellbeing magazine.
In today's conversation we discuss Ros's new book "The Laughter Effect" and many of the lessons Ros has learnt about laughter over the years. We hear about Ros' early life, career and the various pathways she took to get to the point she is at today. Ros talks about her cancer diagnosis and first hearing about Laughter Yoga, how we can work to reframe our situations, being grateful and how you do not have to be funny to laugh. It was a fantastic chat and we know you will learn a lot from it.
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out  our website at www.moc-pod.com.  
 
Links
https://ros-benmoshe.com/
https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/rbenmoshe
https://www.instagram.com/rosbenmoshe/?hl=en
https://au.linkedin.com/in/rosbenmoshemph-454a122a
https://twitter.com/RosBenMoshe
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/could-laughter-make-us-happier-and-less-stressed-/102258166
https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/laughter-effect
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/they-say-it-s-the-best-medicine-so-here-s-how-to-bring-more-laughter-into-your-life-20230720-p5dpyl.html
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 7:51 Introduction with Matt and Toby
7:52 - 43:34 Part 1 with Ros Ben-Moshe
43:35 - 63:49 Part 2 with Ros Ben-Moshe
63:50 - 65:05 Outro  
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.

S4 E1 - ’Leading with the Head, the Heart and the Hands’ with Arron Wood.

Today's guest on Moments of Clarity is Arron Wood. 
Arron Wood AM is Chief Policy and Impact Officer at The Clean Energy Council - the peak body for the clean energy industry in Australia. He is a former Councillor and former Deputy Lord Mayor for City of Melbourne. He is currently on the South East Water Corporation Board and was Chair of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute.
Arron is founder of award-winning education program Kids Teaching Kids where over 140,000 students have participated in the peer education model since 1999. He was 3AW environment reporter for many years. Arron received The Centenary Medal for outstanding contribution to conservation, awarded by the Governor-General and completed a Churchill Fellowship to New York with the United Nations. As a past winner of the United Nations Individual Award for Outstanding Service to the Environment, Arron was also the 2001 Young Australian of the Year (environment). His commitment to the environment was covered on ABC’s Australian Story in a 2004 episode titled "Rising Son". In 2011, Arron published an autobiography titled 'Billabong Boy' which follows his journey from a boy who loved to explore his local billabong in Mildura on the Murray River to an international award-winning speaker, as well as his struggles to keep balanced while being an inspiration to those around him.
Today's episode also marks the beginning of Season 4. Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out  our website at www.moc-pod.com.  
 
Links
http://arronwood.com/
https://au.linkedin.com/in/arronwood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arron_Wood
https://www.instagram.com/arronwood/
https://www.facebook.com/ArronWoodMelbourne/
https://twitter.com/ArronWood
https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/about/our-team
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 14:39 Introduction with Matt and Toby
14:40 - 42:13 Part 1 with Arron Wood
42:14 - 77:33 Part 2 with Arron Wood
77:34 - 78:51 Outro  
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.

S3 E16 - ’Bolsonaro, Brazil and the New Heirachies of Social Media’ with Alex Fleck

Today's guest on Moments of Clarity is Alexandre Fleck Soares Brandao (Alex Fleck).
 
Alex moved to Australia in 2018 to pursue a PhD at UNSW Sydney under the Scientia Scholarship Program. His research focuses on how social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have reshaped the way social movements pursue legal change. He has previously taught at UNSW Law, but is currently in the last stages of finishing his thesis.
 
Alex is originally from Brazil, but has lived in different places. As a child he briefly  lived in Southern California and as a young adult moved to the Basque Country, Spain, where he completed his Masters degree in Sociology of Law. Alex lives in Sydney, New South Wales with his partner Michele whom he met while protesting at the Federal Law School in his hometown of Porto Alegre, Brazil. They were both law students at the time and were occupying the building in a struggle against illegal changes to the faculty and fell in love.
 
Alex's strong interest and knowledge in law, social media, and politics shines through in this conversation. He is articulate and values-driven yet demonstrates how important it is to understand the nuances and perspectives on various issues.
 
Matt, Toby and Alex discuss:
Social media and it's impact on activism, politics and society.
Whether social media has democratised power or created a new paradigm of power.
The difference between amateur and professional activists and how it leads to repression. 
The history of Jair Bolsonaro
Brazilian politics more broadly
Links
Twitter @A_FleckBrandao https://twitter.com/a_fleckbrandao?lang=en
Interview on Ticker News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQKLzMHaf60
https://www.unsw.edu.au/law-justice/about-us/our-people/higher-degree-research-students/alexandre-fleck-soares-brandao
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/anticonstitutional-populism/when-bolsonaro-and-the-judges-go-shopping-how-brazils-legal-elites-opened-the-door-for-bolsonaros-bad-populism/D520A6C9D7582479FE94CDB41E2A003F
Zeynep Tufekci - https://www.nytimes.com/column/zeynep-tufekci
 
Toby is currently reading "In the shadow of the Sword" By Tom Holland - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12376830
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 15:37 Introduction with Matt and Toby
15:38 - 38:57 Part 1 with Alex Fleck
38:58 - 80:14 Part 2 with Alex Fleck
80:15 - 81:29 Outro  
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
 
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out  our website at www.moc-pod.com.  

S3 E15 - ’Moving Beyond the Prevailing Views’ with Sue Barrett

Today's guest on Moments of Clarity is Sue Barrett.
 
CEO, entrepreneur, and systems thinker, Sue is best known as a business growth strategist, sales systems specialist, educator, writer, consultant, and change agent championing Better Business Practices for a sustainable world.Founder and CEO of Barrett and the Selling Better Movement, Sue works with organisations across the world helping leaders and teams create and operate highly successful sustainable business growth systems, strategies, teams and cultures.A leading advocate for human-centred, ethical business, sales and leadership practices, Sue works with leaders, teams and communities to think deeply about the consequences of our decisions on others and on the planet. She has the ability to raise awareness of our interconnectedness as a foundation for empathy, compassion, decency and ethics, which in turn informs our moral cognition – our capacity to ‘do the right thing’.One of the founding organisers of March4Justice that rallied 110,000+ people in 200 locations around Australia in 14 days in 2021, a founder organiser of Voices of Goldstein, and Campaign Manager for Zoe Daniel’s winning campaign for the Federal Seat of Goldstein in 2022, Sue’s an advocate for Equality, STEMA education, Social Justice, Climate Action and Representative Democracy.In 2019, Sue published her first paperback book, ‘142 Days of Gratitude that changed my life forever‘, a treatise on the positive power of gratitude that delivers a masterclass in resilience.Sue lives in Melbourne with her family and is inspired by David Bowie, Rachel Carson, Kate Raworth and Maria Montessori.
 
Links
https://www.barrett.com.au/
https://www.sellingbetter.com/
https://www.suebarrett.com/
https://www.suebarrett.com/media/
https://www.suebarrett.com/books/
https://twitter.com/SueBarrett
https://www.linkedin.com/in/suebarrett1/
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 13:42 Introduction with Matt and Toby
14:43 - 45:29 Part 1 with Sue Barrett
45:30 - 80:50 Part 2 with Sue Barrett
80:51 - 82:05 Outro  
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
 
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/momentsofclaritypodcast/?hl=en or our website at www.moc-pod.com.  

S3 E14 - ’Health, Harm Reduction and Human Rights’ with Damon Barrett

Today's guest on Moments of Clarity is Damon Barrett. Damon has been working on issues related to health and human rights for over 15 years, focusing mostly on drugs and harm reduction. He is a senior lecturer at the School of Global Studies, and a researcher at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is also a co-Director of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy, which he co-founded in 2009. 
Prior to entering academia Damon was Deputy Director of Harm Reduction International, based in London. His most recent book, Child Rights and Drug Control in International Law was published by Brill/Martinus Nijhoff in 2020.    Since 2016 Damon has been part of the core drafting team for the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy. The project has aimed to apply decades of developments in human rights law to global drug control.  
 
Links:

https://brill.com/display/title/55876
www.humanrights-drugpolicy.org
https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/damonbarrett
Damon Barrett: Child rights in global drug policy: From justification to accountability - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibwDHhFcoxE
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/damon-barrett/
Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy - https://twitter.com/hrdp2
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 23:51 Introduction with Matt and Toby
23:52 - 48:30 Part 1 with Damon Barrett
48:31 - 82:35 Part 2 with Damon Barrett
82:36 - 83:49 Outro  
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
 
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/momentsofclaritypodcast/?hl=en or our website at www.moc-pod.com.  

S3 E13 - ’Helping Others Find Their Identity’ with Lizzie Kuoth

Today's guest on Moments of Clarity is Lizzie Kuoth.
Whimsical, wise and courageous, Lizzy Kuoth is a woman to watch and at 30, has already lived a very full life. As a child Lizzy fled war-torn South Sudan with her grandmother and three younger brothers, spending four years in Egypt before arriving in Melbourne in 2005. Fast-forward 16 years and Lizzy is carving out her own niche at the intersection of economics, diversity and inclusion.
Lizzie is a leader in the multicultural sector and adviser on refugee experience and community engagement. She passionately advocates for the advancement of these issues and works to build better, more inclusive communities.
Currently, Lizzie works in health promotion and as Multicultural Officer at St Francis Xavier College, delivering and implementing programs and events to build awareness and drive change with students, families and the entire school community. 
Lizzie also leads the Metropolitan Partnerships program, a Victorian State Government initiative helping to build community engagement on the economy, inclusion, and the environment to design and deliver better policy outcomes. As Member for the Inner South East Region Partnership (InnerSEMetroPartnership), she builds relationships with community and industry leaders to listen and help identify the issues that matter with a focus on youth and refugees.
Lizzie is a self-described lifelong learner and is studying a business degree with a major in economics at Swinburne University and has an Advanced Diploma of Justice. 
Lizzie has worked closely with many diverse groups including the City of Monash, United Nations Association of Australia, Victorian Police, White Ribbon and South Sudanese Community Association raising awareness, promoting social cohesion, gender equality and respectful relationships.
 
Links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizzy-kuoth-she-her-60a575b2/
https://twitter.com/kuothlizzy?lang=en
https://www.multiculturalcommission.vic.gov.au/refugee-lizzy-kuoth-finds-home-common-ground
https://www.refugeeweek.org.au/lizzy-kuoth/
https://www.monash.vic.gov.au/Community/Multiculturalism/Community-Ambassador-Project/Community-Ambassador-Lizzy-Kuoth
https://www.empowergirl.com.au/portfolio-item/lizzy-kuoth/
https://www.suburbandevelopment.vic.gov.au/metropolitan-partnerships/inner-south-east-partnership
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 9:05 Introduction with Matt and Toby
9:06 - 32:19 Part 1 with Lizzie Kuoth
32:20 - 64:35 Part 2 with Lizzie Kuoth
64:36 - 65:49 Outro
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out our Instagram page @momentsofclaritypodcast or our website at www.moc-pod.com.

S3 E12 - ’Focusing On What You Love’ with Malcolm Preston

Our guest today on Moments of Clarity is Malcolm Preston.
Malcolm Preston is an Adjunct Professor at Kellogg School of Management, teaching sustainability on their MBA and Executive Education programmes and visiting Faculty at Harvard Business School. He is also the Sustainability Adviser to a number of large international businesses and one small sustainability start-up.
 
Malcolm recently retired as the Global Head of Sustainability Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), leading a team of some 700 sustainability and climate change experts. Malcolm lead PwC’s thought leadership on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and, in particular, the role of the private sector in their achievement.
 
An accomplished speaker, Malcolm has spoken at numerous events including as a keynote speaker at the Rio +20 Summit, the World Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, and the United Nations.
 
During the podcast we discuss Malcolm's career with PwC, the art of public speaking, his love of teaching, his love of travel, situational deprivation as a tool to living a good life, pivoting from a life of audits to climate change, reimagining our societal structures to adequately deal with the climate crisis, challenging the system within 'the brand boundary' and a moment of clarity. 
 
Linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmpreston/
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/preston_malcolm.aspx
https://twitter.com/malcolmhpreston
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 17:06 Introduction with Matt and Toby
17:07 - 44:10 Part 1 with Malcolm Preston
44:11 - 68:02 Part 2 with Malcolm Preston
68:03 - 69:17 Outro
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out our Instagram page @momentsofclaritypodcast or our website at www.moc-pod.com.

S3 E11 - ’Nurturing Possibility’ with Josie Gibson

Our guest in this episode of Moments of Clarity is Josie Gibson. 
 
Josie is co-founder and director of The Catalyst Network, a membership community of accomplished changemakers and a mentorship program for graduates and creative entrepreneurs. She is also the founder and director of CatalystFX, which she created to address the urgent need for different thinking and responses to complex business, social, and environmental issues.
 
Josie is active in national and international initiatives exploring new work, community and economic models. She is an advisor with multiple leading organisations in different industries and is also a Senior Industry Fellow at FORWARD, RMIT's new Centre for Future Skills and Workforce Transformation.
 
Josie's incredibly rich professional history is matched by her personal life and experiences which we discuss today. 
 
In today's episode we talk about the expectations of a working-class Irish Catholic family, a trip to Japan, a man named Ed, individualism vs collectivism, the need for mutual contribution and respect, reciprocity, connection, urbanisation and Richard Florida, networks, self-organisation vs hierarchy and a moment of clarity. 
 
Linkshttps://www.catalyst-fx.com/
https://www.catalyst-fx.com/the-catalyst-network/
https://about.me/josie.gibson
https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/get-involved/join-our-corporate-membership-program/meet-our-corporate-members-josie-gibson-catalyst
www.linkedin.com/in/josiegibson
https://twitter.com/josiejosieg
https://medium.com/rmit-forward
https://soundcloud.com/rmit-forward/rmit-forward-skillscast-s1e03-josie-gibson-culture-conversations
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 19:50 Introduction with Matt and Toby
19:51 - 44:07 Part 1 with Josie Gibson
44:08 - 69:00 Part 2 with Josie Gibson
69:01 - 70:13 Outro
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
 
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family.
 
You can also check out our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/momentsofclaritypodcast/ or our website at www.moc-pod.com.
 

S3 E10 - ’Talking Disasters, Resilience and Families’ with Brett Ellis ESM and Dr Randolph Kent

Welcome to the 10th installment for Season 3 of Moments of Clarity with Matthew Sortino and Toby Kent. We have something a little different for you in this episode - 2 guests! And not just any guests, Matt and Toby are joined by Toby's former business partner and good friend Brett Ellis ESM and Toby's dad, Dr Randolph Kent.
 
Brett has a stellar record of achievement as a senior executive in state and local government, community organisations and small business in areas as diverse as emergency management, public safety, environmental management, risk management and societal resilience.
 
During a 30-year career Brett has held senior strategic planning, culture change and operational roles in organisations tasked with supporting communities and implementing major change management programs. As a result of his expertise and experience, a number of initiatives he led inform state, national and international disaster and resilience policies and frameworks.
 
His expertise has seen him perform senior government operational roles during significant emergency events and disasters including the State Consequence Manager, State Relief and Recovery Manager and Municipal Emergency Manager. Brett has been awarded the Emergency Services Medal (ESM) for distinguished services to the community for improvements to Public Safety and the National Emergency Medal for sustained service during the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires.
 
Dr Randolph Kent is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a Visiting Professor at the African Leadership Centre at King’s College London, Honorary Professor at University College London’s Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, as well as a member of the Global Science Forum of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
 
Previously he has directed the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College London, where he and his staff worked from 2004 to 2016 with a wide range of multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental organisations to strengthen their strategic and planning capacities for dealing with longer-term disaster threats.
 
Prior to this Dr Kent was assigned as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia (2003), UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Kosovo (1999), UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Rwanda [1994-1995], Chief of the UN Emergency Unit in Sudan [1989-1991] and Chief of Emergency Prevention and Preparedness in Ethiopia [1987-1989].
 
Since leaving the United Nations, much of Dr Kent’s attention has been focused on projects dealing with organisational and systems behaviour. These interests had led to appointments on a range of governmental and non-governmental committees in Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the private sector, he had served on the policy committees of DHL Deutsche Post Sustainability Advisory Council and Deloitte’s Humanitarian Innovation Panel.
 
Dr Kent's publications include include 'Anatomy of Disaster: The Relief Network in Action' as well as 57 book chapters and journal articles and co-edited, 'The Study and Teaching of International Relations'. He is also currently writing a book – Planning from the Future: Why it Matters - intended to guide governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations on ways to address new types and ever more complex disaster threats.  
 
Links
https://www.firesticks.org.au/
https://www.resilientco.au/
www.linkedin.com/in/brett-ellis-esm
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/randolph-kent
Humanitarianism InFocus with Randolph Kent - A New Debate Production
https://youtu.be/cZmwtYkSy_A
https://rusi.org/people/kent
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 4:57 Introduction with Matt and Toby
4:58 - 57:36 Part 1 with Brett and Randolph
57:37 - 90:25 Part 2 with Brett and Randolph
90:26 - 91:39 Outro
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family.
You can also check out our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/momentsofclaritypodcast/ or our website at www.moc-pod.com.
 

3.9 ’Bringing Transformation and Significance to Education’ with Adriano Di Prato

Our guest today on Moments of Clarity is Adriano Di Prato.
Adriano is a founding partner of a School for tomorrow, a global educational network supporting students, teachers, and school leaders to thrive in our new world. He is co-host of the Game Changers podcast series and co-author of the Hawker Brownlow Education book, Game Changers: Leading Today’s Learning for Tomorrow’s World.
Adriano is a former President of the Victorian Catholic Secondary Schools Deputy Principals Association (VCSSDPA). He was the Deputy Principal at Marcellin College, Bulleen, for 12 years, where he was heralded in positioning the school as one of the best performing Independent Catholic boys’ schools in the state. He was also Deputy Principal at Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, Braybrook for 4 years.
In 2019, 2020 and 2021, Adriano was honoured to be selected on the annual Hot List of movers and shakers in Australian education by The Educator magazine. In 2022 The Educator magazine listed Adriano in their Top 50 Most Influential Educators in Australia. 
In this episode we discuss Adriano’s early life, education and leadership, edupreneurship, his passion for the arts, creating communities of transformation, care, depression, faith, a moment of clarity and much more. 
 
Links
https://www.aschoolfortomorrow.com/
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/game-changers/id1503430745
https://adrianodiprato.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/AdrianoDiPrato
https://www.instagram.com/adrianodiprato/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/GameChangersPC
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianodiprato
http://www.instagram.com/gamechangerspc
 
Time Stamps
0:00 - 14:17 Introduction with Matt and Toby
14:18 - 41:55 Part 1 with Adriano Di Prato
41:56 - 67:53 Part 2 with Adriano Di Prato
67:54 - 69:09 Outro
 
Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.
Thank you so much for listening to Moments of Clarity. Remember to subscribe, review and share episodes with your friends and family. You can also check out our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/momentsofclaritypodcast/ or our website at www.moc-pod.com.