Jennifer Chance

WHAT’S ALL THIS? WHAT’S ALL THIS?

Written by Olivia Ryan

With last year’s COVID-19 lockdowns leaving many people with an unprecedented amount of spare time, it’s not surprising that a lot of us found ourselves looking inwards.

For Helen, host of Radio Fodder’s What’s All This? and Master of Music student at the University of Melbourne, Victoria’s lockdowns saw her deep dive into books, videos and films on a quest to answer life’s big questions.

“While flicking through YouTube videos, I fell into the motivational and TED Talk video spiral. Randomly, I started to take notes from what I found interesting,” she said.

She then delved into books by speakers from the videos, which Helen credits with having begun her “journey into understanding the human psyche and the world we have created for ourselves.”

With a wealth of knowledge now at her fingertips, Helen jumped at the chance to share everything that she found most relevant and insightful on Radio Fodder. Each episode of What’s All This? sees her draw quotes and ideas from texts, as well as her own life experiences, to answer questions such as “What’s my purpose?”, “Why compete?” and “What’s clarity?”.

“I combine different source types and try to find as many links as I can between them to create episodes that have a narrative,” she said.

Helen deals with the existential and the philosophical in a way that is casual and accessible. Her hope is that listeners who are eager to think a little deeper can consider new perspectives that she found useful.

“By sharing what I have learned and the curiosity I have for each topic, I hope that listeners of the show might feel similarly, taking even just one thing each week from the show to reflect on,” she said.

While it is great to reflect, constantly thinking too deeply about the world can also take its toll. What’s All This? can be that allocated hour in your week to listen to a collection of ideas grounded in the relatable experiences of a student trying her best to make something of the world we live in.

Tune into Radio Fodder to catch all of Helen’s wisdom on What’s All This?, airing Wednesdays at 2pm.