Following Triple M’s No Talk Day held on July 1, in partnership with Beyond Blue, Southern Cross Austereo News has launched What’s Your Problem? The Aussie Men’s Health Podcast.
Across three episodes, SCA journalist Nikki Markovics has a candid discussion with Triple M Melbourne’s Wil Anderson, Fox FM’s Brendan Fevola and Beyond Blue doctor Grant Blashki, about the mental, physical and social health of blokes.
Wil and Fev are very honest when it comes to discussing their own experiences across all aspects of their health and Fev speaks openly about his own personal struggles and the time he had to admit himself into a mental health clinic in Brisbane in 2010.
While Wil opens up about having two close friends take their own lives in recent times, living with chronic back pain and the prevalence of drinking and illicit drugs in the comedy world. “Alcohol is intrinsically a part of the community in which I operate.
“If someone has a few drinks or has that rock n roll lifestyle or stays up all night drinking or taking drugs, nobody’s going to look at them and say, ‘You’re behaving badly’. So it makes it a lot harder to identify when that behavior is becoming problematic.”
Nikki also chats to Triple M Sydney’s Gus Worland, who says there needs to be a change of rules around what it means to be an Aussie bloke. “80% percent of being an Aussie bloke is really cool, but 20% we’ve got it wrong.
“The stereotypical Australian bloke – you know “she’ll be right”, “don’t worry about me, I got this sorted. All that BS that we keep telling ourselves, putting on the mask every day and saying everything’s cool when it isn’t. That is a stereotype that has been built for so long, it’s very difficult for people to turn it around and change that – but we are doing it slowly.”
There’s also a bonus episode with Olympic swimming champion Daniel Kowalski who speaks about navigating mental health as a professional athlete and how working on his mental health made his relationships stronger.
The podcast is available on both the Triple M and Hit Networks app, via ITunes or can be listed to here.
