
Show Notes
Lagpas Tao by Neen Ramos When a storm surge swallows a coastal town in the Philippines, a daughter in Sydney receives a shaky phone call from her mother calling from a patchy Wi-Fi. The floodwaters would recede, but they can’t take away a daughter’s worry from thousands of kilometres away. “ I've been so worried about you. I guess what I really want is to be there, even if I don't know how to say it out loud.”
Produced by Aswathi Matthews Written and performed by Neen Ramos Mother voiced by: Liza Caliao Special thanks to Amanda Caliao, who generously recommended her mom to voice this piece.
Rapture by Christopher Sammut After losing his job, a young man in Sydney ends up working at his uncle’s chicken farm, where the daily violence of slaughter and the weight of family expectations trigger a crushing anxiety attack. His only comfort comes from Lorenzo, a Sudanese coworker who offers faith, hope, and an unexpected kind of tenderness in a place built on brutality. The smell he’s trying to escape isn’t on his clothes - it’s in his bones.
Produced by: Persephone Waxman Written and performed by Christopher Sammut Sound design by Lana Lusina
My childhood is split into Inside Outside by Cathy Stirling What are the small, ordinary moments when you feel safe enough to connect with your body, with others, with place? Cathay’s childhood is split between two worlds: the fear-soaked “inside,” where her father’s rage fills the air, and the bright “outside,” where magpies call, bare feet hit the grass, and the rhythm of games, laughter, lizards, and sunshine offer a taste of freedom. And with every step between inside and outside, she begins to realise that light can live in her too.
Production and sound design by Catarina Fraga Matos Written and Performed by Cathy Stirling Mark Williamson voiced ‘Dad’
All The Best Credits Host: Kwame Slusher Executive Producer: Melanie Bakewell Programming & Community Coordinator: Caterina Fraga Matos Community Coordinator: Patrick McKenzie Theme Music composed by Shining Bird Cover Art: Ray Vo Special shout-out to our volunteers: Sue, Sharon, Lindsey, Andrew, Ash, and Emma.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from All The Best
"...as an act of justice doing and expressing how much I care for them, and I guess also the sacredness of all life in witnessing and experiencing multiple genocides and affrontations of, like, what's happening on these lands I think navigating grief as an act of love maybe gave me a sense of autonomy and being able to move through with a, with a bit more grace and not letting it subsume me all of the time." - Shareeka Helaluddin
There is this Tolstoy quote from Anna Karenina, "All Happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." I've always struggled with this binary. This idea of happiness or unhappiness as somehow being fixed states. No nuance. I think real families, ones outside Russian fiction, exist on a more complex spectrum.
This week we are featuring our first story from our Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship 2026! More than 15 Years ago, Jesse Cox co-developed an incredible audio narrative program on fbi.radio called All The Best. JCAF is an audio mentorship program, pretty one-of-a-kind, championing the kind of work and spirit our show's co-founder upheld and honouring his legacy.
Sooooo ... the best way to think of this episode is a bit like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. But instead of there being a bereaved scientist obsessed with resurrection, we have a monster of a story stuck together from different audio body parts made by audio makers from all over the world. Our Programming and Community Coordinator Catarina Fraga Matos breaks down the way the audio corpse works: