Alex Kalliris is a clinical psychotherapist and Program Director at Foundation House, a residential rehab service in New South Wales supporting men from the construction industry to take back control from alcohol, drugs and gambling.

He’s spent the past eight years working with men at rock bottom — helping them break destructive cycles, rebuild trust and rediscover meaning.

In this episode, we talk about mental health in construction, how substance use spirals out of control, and what recovery really looks like. We unpack who rehab is for, how it works, and why change is always possible — no matter how far gone things seem.

This is Alex Kalliris...

I’ve stuck with this podcast for 301 weeks — 2,107 days and 230 episodes.

But outside of the interviews, I still hesitate to share my thoughts and feelings...

The show’s always been about the guests, and that’s the way it should be — but sometimes it feels like I fade into the background and hide behind the role of host.

I’m afraid of making it about me.

I’m so conscious of coming across as cringe and self-centred, that I avoid sharing my personal views.

I think that limits people who follow this page from actually connecting with me and vice versa.

So my question for you this week is...

Where in your life are you holding back?

(Leave a comment and let me know)

Brayden Ainsworth grew up chasing the footy dream and he caught it. From small town W.A, to the big stage of the AFL, he made it, but behind the scenes, the pressure to perform, the need for validation and the obsession with being in peak condition, were quietly eating away at him.

When Brayden was delisted by the West Coast Eagles, after a short rollercoaster career, the identity he'd built his life around was suddenly gone, and so was his sense of purpose with no structure and no direction, he quickly spiralled into a dark place.

Constantly justifying starving himself and exercising to extreme excess, Brayden became very sick while being unable to fully accept the reality of his eating disorder. Anorexia was the end result of clinging to an identity that had turned against him and a desperate need for control.

For a long time, he didn't have the awareness, the words, or the courage to face his demons and speak his truth, but he sure does now.

A few years on from rock bottom, Brayden's working with young people to promote mental health in schools and using his experience to break the stigma around anorexia in men.

This is a story of what happens when the dream doesn't work out, and how falling apart can open space to build back up stronger than ever.

This is Brayden Ainsworth...

Some moments are so impactful they can split your life in two — there's before it happens, and everything that comes after...

For skydivers Lucch and Ben, that moment came in mid-air over Byron Bay, when a routine jump went catastrophically wrong. A shocking collision in freefall obliterated Ben's leg, and knocked Lucch unconscious, sending him cartwheeling thousands of feet toward the ground and almost certain death...

Miraculously, Lucch survived, but what followed was the hardest chapter of Ben's life, as he reckoned not only with the brutal road to physical recovery, but also the trauma, guilt and identity loss that came with it.

They've emerged from this life altering event with a remarkable story to tell and important mental health message to share with the world.

It's all captured in their documentary called Impact — which is yet to be publicly released.

This is Mark Lucchiari and Ben Lucock...

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Give + Get is a charity born out of this accident and the desire to help others. It's a platform designed to connect businesses and individuals with charities, fostering a culture of giving and community engagement. Go to www.givenget.org for more info.

Teenage boys are growing up in a world where manhood is being put under the microscope and redefined in real time.

The mixed messages are everywhere — be strong, but vulnerable; speak up, but don’t say the wrong thing; just be yourself, but only if you fit the mould...

And while adult voices dominate the conversation on how young men should behave, very few are actually asking boys what they think and feel.

18-year-old Jesse has been doing just that...As a member of White Ribbon Australia's youth advisory group, he's spent the past few years helping shape how issues like respect, masculinity and consent are spoken about with young people.

We explore the quiet conflict young men face — the pressure to live up to an image that's not who you are: and the mass appeal of the ‘alpha male’ narrative'.

From everything labelled 'toxic', to missing the point entirely, from peer dynamics to the search for meaning, this is a perspective on what it’s actually like to grow up as a teenage boy today — and what to do when the world’s telling you who to be.

This is Jesse Rothgrew...

In Australia, around 1.5 million men report lifting weights regularly, with countless young guys in their teens, twenties and beyond structuring their lifestyle around building their body in the gym.

For many, the gym is a safe haven providing structure, growth and community providing huge physical and mental health benefits. But there is a dark side… with research showing one in ten gym-going men may experience muscle dysmorphia, a body image disorder based on an obsession with not being muscular enough.

The dramatic rise of young fitness influencers, and constant exposure to extreme, often steroid-enhanced physiques on social media, has raised the standard of what’s now considered impressive to heights that would’ve been unthinkable a few decades ago. Making it harder and harder for young men to separate their expectations from what’s realistically attainable.

For gym rats, bodybuilders, and teenagers just starting their fitness journeys, the drive to get bigger and leaner can easily become all consuming if not tempered with a healthy perspective.

Oli and Rayan are 21-year-old natural bodybuilders prepping to compete for the first time. Their journey started like many others — as overweight school boys chasing confidence and control. Years later, they’ve built the bodies they used to wish they had, but it’s hard to love the way you are when the goal posts keep moving.

This is Oli Wright and Rayan Abou-Hamdan.

Research shows around 30% of male suicides are linked to separation, and men who are separated or divorced are up to 3 times more likely to die by suicide compared to those in stable relationships.

Scott knows this pain all too well. Enduring a brutal six-year divorce, he was dragged through the family court, given limited access to his children, and found himself stuck in a storm of depression and pressure that threatened to consume him.

Exhausted, with suicidal thoughts running rampant, Scott was at the end of his tether when he made a commitment to rebuild — starting by finally opening up. It’s the reason he’s alive today, and a big part of why he founded Kokoda Centurions — a community-driven project that’s much more than a trek through the jungle.

This August, Scott will lead a group of 100 on a transformative journey along the Kokoda Trail, building resilience, fostering emotional strength, and taking a stand for men’s mental health. At its core is a movement promoting healthy masculinity and putting the responsibility on men to speak up and call out disrespect toward women.

This is Scott Matthews...

Before his chest was cracked open on the operating table, Nick Hudson was already battling something less visible — depression.

He refused to talk about it, pushed people away who tried to be there for him, and wouldn't admit the truth to himself...

Then came the life-saving open-heart surgery that forced everything to stop. Recovery was brutal. The silence got louder. And the darkness got darker before it got better.

Years earlier, Nick had kicked off a casual push-up challenge with his mates — just a fun way to stay active. But now, faced with his own mental health spiral, he realised it could be something much more.

He reimagined the challenge as a national movement to raise awareness and funding for mental health — tying each push-up to a powerful statistic, breaking down stigma one rep at a time.

Today, The Push-Up Challenge has raised over $50 million, engaged hundreds of thousands of Australians, and helped spark honest conversations in homes, schools and gyms across the country.

The Push-Up Challenge's success is rooted in it being a fun way to spark mental health conversations and foster a positive culture of looking after yourself and others - turning a physical challenge into a shared mission.

This is Nick Hudson...