After the Disaster Podcast

Discover related resources in the Recovery Collection.

The After the Disaster Podcast was developed by the ABC, Australian Red Cross and the University of Melbourne.

The podcast is for people who have been affected by disasters. In the podcast, host Kate Brady and guests provide easy to understand, reliable information from people with lived experience, and people who have professional experience.

Each of the 15 episodes covers a different topic – ranging from how to support the kids in your life, managing the insurance issues, planning memorials and why disasters that come from acts of violence might feel different.

Episodes are available via ABC Listen. On this page, you will find information about each episode and links, where available, to specific resources for further information.

Episode 2: Helping Our Kids

Whether the kids in your life are toddlers or teenagers, there are some key tips for how to help them through the aftermath of a disaster. There are also things you can do to help yourself as a parent or carer. (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 2: Helping Our Kids, Kate talks to Mandy Gilbert from NSW who experienced the floods in Dungog and supported her children through the aftermath, child psychologist Michelle Roberts, Director of the Australian Centre for Child and Adolescent Trauma Loss and Grief network and Dr. Lauren Kosta from the University of Melbourne.

Mandy describes what it was like to support her children after the flood events and what she found helpful. Michelle summarises what the evidence tells us we can do to help the children in our lives after a disaster and Lauren identifies things that parents told her they wished they had known after the disaster they experienced.

Listen to Episode 2: Helping Our Kids on the ABC.

Episode 4: Should I Stay or Should I Move?

One of the biggest choices people face after a disaster is whether or not to move somewhere new. When your home or community are drastically impacted by a disaster, how do you decide whether to stay where you are or to make a fresh start? There’s no right or wrong answer, but there are things you can do to help make the choice (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 4: Should I Stay or Should I Move?, Kate talks to Ali and Gary who both lost their homes to different disasters. They both had to make the big decision about whether to rebuild in their community or to move somewhere else and start again.

Kate also interviews Professor Lisa Gibbs from the University of Melbourne who talks us through what the research tells us about how to make these big decisions and what the outcomes can be.

Listen to Episode 4: Should I Stay or Should I Move on the ABC.

Episode 5: Memorials, Commemorations and Anniversaries

Making a place, and a time, to remember the moment of a disaster can be fraught but there are some things you can do to make the process easier (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 5: Memorials, Commemorations and Anniversaries, Kate talks to Steve Pascoe, who was part of the community committee that managed the memorials and anniversary events in Strathewen following the 2009 Victorian fires. He talks through the process they went through, and the challenges in getting it right.

Kate also interviews Shona Whitton and Andrew Coghlan about their experiences working and researching disaster memorials, and discusses the advice they have.

Listen to Episode 5: Memorials, Commemorations and Anniversaries on the ABC.

Episode 6: Good Outcomes From Bad Times

While disasters are hard, it’s also really common to have positive change alongside the rough bits. It has a name - Post Traumatic Growth. But while we can admit things are tough, we can really struggle with accepting the good bits. It’s OK to be OK and it’s to not be OK. There is no right or wrong (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 6: Good outcomes from bad times, Kate talks to Leigh Sales (from ABC 7.30) and Rhonda Abotomey, who both talk about their personal experiences of post traumatic growth. They also both had a chance to interview other people about their experiences after traumatic events (Leigh for her book ‘Any Ordinary Day’, and Rhonda for a project she worked on for University of Melbourne) which shaped their understanding of what was happening to them.

Kate also interviews Professor Lou Harms, who is an expert at the way people experience different types of trauma. She explains what post traumatic growth is, and why it’s not a straightforward outcome for people who experience trauma.

Listen to Episode 6: Good Outcomes from Bad Times on the ABC.

Episode 7: When the Landscape Changes

When the landscape is drastically impacted by a fire, flood or a cyclone, we can all feel a loss. Perhaps you've walked through a silent landscape after a fire, or seen massive trees laying in the middle of a field, after being carried kilometres by a raging, flooded river. We all feel that sense of loss and mourning. We are all connected the natural environment in some way. And for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, people who work and live on the land and wildlife carers, that loss can be heightened (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 7: When the Landscape Changes, Kate talks to Bhiamie Williamson (from ANU’s Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research) and Suzy Nethercott-Watson (founder of wildlife career support organisation Two Green Thread) about how our connections to environment can heighten the impacts of disasters. Bhiamie discusses how the connection Indigenous peoples have to environment means that there may be additional and different impacts from disasters in some communities. Suzy discusses how the connection to animals and the natural environment can be a source of distress for wildlife carers during and after a disaster.

Listen to Episode 7: When the Landscape Changes on the ABC.

Episode 8: Before the Next One

When you’ve been through a disaster already, it’s common to feel stressed that something else can happen. We go through the tips to prepare, and then move on with life. Preparation for a future disaster goes beyond packing a first aid kit. It’s about acceptance, communication and community as well as the practical things you may think of (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 8: Before the Next One, we hear from Sam Savage, who works for Red Cross in Townsville and Dan Neely who works for WREMO in New Zealand who both talk about the work they’ve been doing to help make it easier for communities to prepare for future disasters.

Scott Pape (the Barefoot Investor) talks about what he wished he knew before he lost his home in a bushfire, and Nick Wiesener from the Insurance Council of Australia gives us some tips and tricks about how you can mitigate some risks for your home and prepare your information to make future insurance claims easier.

Listen to Episode 8: Before the Next One on the ABC.

Episode 9: How to Talk to Someone After a Disaster

What do you say to someone who is struggling? We can often avoid people who have been through something tough like a disaster or a death in the family, because we’re scared of saying the wrong thing. But there are ways to approach these conversations that will make them easier (ABC, 2021).

In this episode, we hear from psychologist Dr. Susie Burke. Susie has a long history of working with disaster affected communities and helping develop evidence informed resources for practitioners. She talks us through some practical tips about how to talk to people who have been affected by a disaster and ways that we can manage our own discomfort at other people’s reactions.

Listen to Episode 9: How to Talk to Someone After a Disaster on the ABC.

Episode 10: The Disaster Ripple

While we understandably think of the people who have been directly physically impacted by a disaster, the impacts of disasters are far reaching. Disasters really do affect more people than you might first think. It’s important that we move beyond comparing tangible impacts and towards thinking about how to care for everyone (ABC, 2021).

In this episode we hear from Claire Braund, who was a young journalist in Tasmania at the time of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. She talks about how the event and the aftermath shaped her life and what she learned from it. We also hear from Vicky Richards, whose hometown in Edgecumbe NZ was flooded in 2017 and how they worked to recognise that the whole town had been affected in different ways, irrespective of where the water had been.

Listen to Episode 10: The Disaster Ripple on the ABC.

Episode 11: Why a Violent Event Might Feel Different

Disasters that are caused by deliberate acts of violence like terrorism or arson can feel different to those that are caused by big weather events or freak accidents. People who experience disasters that involve violence may be at greater risk of negative impacts, and may also have to deal with drawn out legal processes. There are things that you can do to help yourself and the people you love after these events (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 11: Why a Violent Event Might Feel Different, we hear from Professor Richard Bryant from UNSW. He outlines what the research tells us about the mental health impacts of disasters, and why negative impacts can be more common after events that are deliberate and violent. Richard then talks through steps that people can take to feel safer, calmer and more in control at a time when a lot of things feel out of our control.

Listen to Episode 11: Why a Violent Event Might Feel Different on the ABC.

Episode 12: Communities with Trauma

A massive event affects each of us in different of ways, but we do know that people who have experienced previous trauma are more likely to be affected. So when a whole community has already experienced trauma, the impacts can be particularly tough for a whole group of people. For example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities who are already navigating intergenerational trauma will carry that experience through a disaster event. Or former refugee communities are already contending with a difficult past will have unique challenges in this new environment. If you're in those communities, or supporting people in those communities, what can you do to make it easier? One key is respecting and honouring the resilience people have already displayed. (ABC, 2021).

In Episode 12: Communities with Trauma, we hear from Bhiamie Williamson from ANU, who describes the impacts that disasters can have on Indigenous communities and the additional challenges Indigenous people can face when trying to access support. We then hear from Zakariah Mohamed Omar, who came to Australia as a refugee and is now the manager of TenderCare Disability Services in Townsville. He talks about the challenges that people from refugee backgrounds can face when experiencing disasters in Australia.

Listen to Episode 12: Communities with Trauma on the ABC.