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Kintsugi Heroes

Kintsugi Heroes

Written by: Kintsugi Heroes
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Kintsugi Heroes is a powerful Australian podcast sharing real-life stories of resilience, mental health, and human transformation. Each episode features raw, honest conversations with everyday people who have overcome adversity including addiction, trauma, grief, illness, financial hardship, and life-altering challenges. Inspired by the Japanese philosophy of Kintsugi — repairing what’s broken with gold — this podcast explores how life’s toughest moments can shape strength, purpose, and connection. Kintsugi Heroes exists to remind us that our struggles do not define us — they refine us.  Through deeply human storytelling, we create a safe space for lived experiences to be shared with dignity, compassion, and authenticity. Our mission is to reduce isolation, increase connection, and promote mental wellbeing through the power of story — not as clinical advice, but as real conversations that people can relate to and learn from.  🎧 Topics covered include: Mental health, addiction recovery, trauma, grief and loss, personal growth, resilience, relationships, disability, identity, life transitions, and rebuilding after failure. 🌍 Featuring voices from diverse backgrounds across cultures, communities, and lived experiences — because everyone has a story worth hearing. 🔗 Listen, Connect & Learn More Website: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KintsugiHeroes 💬 Why Listen to Kintsugi Heroes? If you’re navigating a tough time, rebuilding your life, or looking for real stories that inspire hope — this podcast is for you. These are not polished success stories. These are real people, real struggles, and real comebacks. ⸻ Follow the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Subscribe on YouTube for full video episodes Share this with someone who needs to hear itCopyright 2026 Kintsugi Heroes Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences
Episodes
  • David Ayliffe: 23 Years in a Cult, an ADHD Late Diagnosis at 70, and the Day the Film Over His Eyes Fell Away

    David Ayliffe: 23 Years in a Cult, an ADHD Late Diagnosis at 70, and the Day the Film Over His Eyes Fell Away
    Oct 15 2026
    The film over the eyes fell away⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses mental health & wellbeing, which some listeners may find distressing.If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.auDavid's career began in journalism at the Bankstown Observer, where he worked alongside young Paul Keating. His ADHD, undiagnosed until age 70, drove him through multiple careers and into a Pentecostal healing ministry that became a cult led by a woman claiming to be God. For 23 years, he was isolated from family, including hanging up on his mother's calls. After the cult leader died, David led a five-year dismantling process, reversing isolation, reconnecting members with families, and eventually dissolving the group. He has since worked for International Needs, the Red Cross, Guide Dogs Victoria, and now runs a disability support business. His vision centres on kindness as a practice and framework for society, taught through children.David Ayliffe is a journalist, charity CEO, disability support worker and children's book author who spent 23 years in a religious cult before dismantling it from within. Now 72 and recently diagnosed with ADHD, he works with people with intellectual disabilities and advocates for kindness as a foundation for society.In this Kintsugi Heroes conversation with John Milham, David shares the story behind the moments below.🎙️ IN THIS CONVERSATION:• Late ADHD diagnosis can reframe decades of 'failures' and offer self-compassion instead of shame.• Fundamentalism thrives by declaring certainty; it requires turning off critical thinking by designating something sacred.• Cult recovery works when the leader loses credibility; collective realization can dismantle even deep isolation in a single moment.🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 Young David at the Bankstown Observer06:17 ADHD diagnosis at 7016:19 The path into the cult: from journalist to believer22:09 How fundamentalism silences critical thinking27:20 Cut off from everyone but her32:35 The moment she lost all credibility35:28 The Emperor's New Clothes moment37:48 The dismantling: five years of reversal and reconnection42:04 Disability work and the kindness vision51:00 Kindness as something you practise56:51 Admitting what you got wrong1:03:17 Humour as the thing that saved me🎧 If this story moved you, follow Kintsugi Heroes in your podcast app so you never miss an episode.📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:Lifeline Australia: lifeline.org.au━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Welcome.We're glad you found your way here.Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.This channel is home to honest conversations about resilience, hope, grief, recovery, courage, love, and what it means to keep moving forward when life doesn't go to plan.Here you'll find six podcast series, each sharing stories through a different lens:• Kintsugi Heroes, hosted by John Milham• Animals & Us, hosted by Natalie Stockdale• Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace, hosted by Simone Allan and Maryan Bova• From There to Here, hosted by Emma Bellamy-Dodd• Golden Threads: Stories of Disability & Resilience• Pride in Stories, hosted by John DwyerEvery story shared here is offered with the hope that it helps someone feel a little less alone. A little more understood. A little more connected.Whether you're navigating a difficult season, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for meaningful conversations, you're welcome here.New episodes are released fortnightly across our series.If you'd like to help us keep these stories freely available to everyone, you can support our work here: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donateThank you for being part of this community.We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌐 https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes#KintsugiHeroes #LivedExperience #ResiliencePodcast #...
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Ezra Burke on Dissociative Identity Disorder, Self Advocacy and Self Determination After Childhood Abuse

    Ezra Burke on Dissociative Identity Disorder, Self Advocacy and Self Determination After Childhood Abuse
    Oct 14 2026
    What that little child's brain did to survive ⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses trauma & healing and mental health & wellbeing, which some listeners may find distressing. If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au Ezra grew up in a country town, the only Black child in a white family, enduring prolonged childhood sexual abuse by a primary perpetrator and others. The trauma fragmented their sense of self into distinct alters as a survival mechanism, which went unrecognized until their early twenties. For years, they struggled with suicidality, shame around disability, and profound isolation. When they disclosed the abuse to their family at 24, they were not supported and went no contact with their mother's side. Moving to Sydney, accessing NDIS support, and beginning intensive therapy marked a turning point. Ten years on from their darkest period, Ezra now works in advocacy roles, speaks to psychiatrists about lived experience, and has rebuilt a life grounded in self-compassion rather than productivity. They describe their journey not as recovery but as ongoing integration and functional multiplicity, where different parts of themselves can collaborate safely. Ezra Burke is a 30-year-old advocate, artist, and person with psychosocial disability living in Sydney. They have dissociative identity disorder (DID) and complex PTSD stemming from prolonged childhood sexual abuse. Through years of therapy, advocacy work, and the support of their assistance dog Peanut, Ezra has moved from crisis to a place of functional multiplicity, where their different parts collaborate rather than fracture. 🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 Ezra Burke on surviving fragmentation and rebuilding03:07 What is psychosocial disability07:47 Forgetting years of childhood11:03 Complex PTSD and childhood trauma14:11 Disclosure without support19:28 Why disorganized attachment shapes DID26:22 Parts learning to work together31:19 The only Black child in a white town42:38 How trauma reshapes gender and sexuality1:00:40 What life looks like at 301:07:27 Recovery as ongoing work, not destination1:14:03 From survival to advocacy 🎧 If this story moved you, follow Kintsugi Heroes in your podcast app so you never miss an episode. 📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:Lifeline Australia: https://www.lifeline.org.auNDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme): https://www.ndis.gov.auDisability Support Pension: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Welcome. We're glad you found your way here. Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most. Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another. This channel is home to honest conversations about resilience, hope, grief, recovery, courage, love, and what it means to keep moving forward when life doesn't go to plan. Here you'll find six podcast series, each sharing stories through a different lens: • Kintsugi Heroes, hosted by John Milham• Animals & Us, hosted by Natalie Stockdale• Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace, hosted by Simone Allan and Maryan Bova• From There to Here, hosted by Emma Bellamy-Dodd• Golden Threads: Stories of Disability & Resilience• Pride in Stories, hosted by John Dwyer Every story shared here is offered with the hope that it helps someone feel a little less alone. A little more understood. A little more connected. Whether you're navigating a difficult season, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for meaningful conversations, you're welcome here. New episodes are released fortnightly across our series. If you'd like to help us keep these stories freely available to everyone, you can support our work here: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donate Thank you for being part of this community. We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌐 https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://...
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Dave Oliver: 32 Jobs, One Secret, and Men's Mental Health Motivation

    Dave Oliver: 32 Jobs, One Secret, and Men's Mental Health Motivation
    Oct 13 2026
    What recovery has given me⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses trauma & healing, addiction & recovery and abuse & exploitation, which some listeners may find distressing.If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:• Blue Knot Foundation (complex trauma): 1300 657 380 · blueknot.org.au• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au• SMART Recovery Australia (addiction): smartrecoveryaustralia.com.au• ReachOut: au.reachout.com• 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.auBorn into a legacy of civic leadership in Cowra, Dave Oliver was a high-achieving student, school captain and rugby player who excelled outwardly while carrying the weight of childhood sexual abuse from ages 9 to 12. He masked his trauma through alcohol and drugs that escalated into his twenties and thirties, cycling through 32 employers in 25 years while his behaviour spiralled. A turning point came 10 years ago when mates intervened and he entered a psychiatric facility where therapy helped him name what had happened and begin healing. Today sober and purposeful, he works in mental health and mentors individual men, driven by a mission to become the support he needed as a young man.Dave Oliver is a 45-year-old survivor of childhood sexual abuse who spent decades using alcohol and drugs to survive unresolved trauma before entering recovery 10 years ago. Now a peer support worker and programs coordinator in mental health, he mentors other male survivors and has launched You, Me, Us, an initiative connecting men through shared lived experience.In this Kintsugi Heroes conversation with John Milham, Dave shares the story behind the moments below.🕒 CHAPTERS:00:00 Introduction and Cowra legacy06:31 The fracture: childhood sexual abuse12:00 Boarding school and coping mechanisms15:25 School success masking inner collapse18:04 The pattern: 32 jobs in 25 years23:17 Trauma, shame and sexuality in rural Australia38:11 From survival to recovery45:09 Reparenting the wounded child50:24 Purpose through lived experience mentoring57:15 The hybrid model: lived experience plus resources01:04:00 Practical steps and You, Me, Us initiative01:09:31 Closing and resources🎧 If this story moved you, follow Kintsugi Heroes in your podcast app so you never miss an episode.📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:Survivors and Mates Support Network (SAMHSA): https://www.samhsa.org.au/Lifeline: 13 11 14You, Me, Us: Instagram: You, Me, Us Australia━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Welcome.We're glad you found your way here.Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.This channel is home to honest conversations about resilience, hope, grief, recovery, courage, love, and what it means to keep moving forward when life doesn't go to plan.Here you'll find six podcast series, each sharing stories through a different lens:• Kintsugi Heroes, hosted by John Milham• Animals & Us, hosted by Natalie Stockdale• Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace, hosted by Simone Allan and Maryan Bova• From There to Here, hosted by Emma Bellamy-Dodd• Golden Threads: Stories of Disability & Resilience• Pride in Stories, hosted by John DwyerEvery story shared here is offered with the hope that it helps someone feel a little less alone. A little more understood. A little more connected.Whether you're navigating a difficult season, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for meaningful conversations, you're welcome here.New episodes are released fortnightly across our series.If you'd like to help us keep these stories freely available to everyone, you can support our work here: https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au/donateThank you for being part of this community.We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH US━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌐 https://www.kintsugiheroes.com.au▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@kintsugiheroes📘 https://www.facebook.com/kintsugiheroes📸 https://www.instagram.com/kintsugi.heroes💼 https://www.linkedin.com/company/kintsugi-heroes#KintsugiHeroes #LivedExperience #ResiliencePodcast #JohnMilham #...
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    1 hr and 11 mins
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