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Connecting people, yarning through stories.
Hosted by Lockie Cooke, founder and CEO of iYARN, this podcast brings together powerful conversations with changemakers, community leaders, researchers, and innovators across Australia and beyond. Each episode explores how culture, technology, and community insight intersect to drive meaningful change — particularly in health, wellbeing, and social innovation.
Lockie is a non-Indigenous Australian who has worked in partnership with First Nations organisations for over 20 years. Through these long-standing relationships — and his connection with his cultural;ly adopted Aboriginal family in Ardiyooloon community in the North West of Western Australia — Lockie approaches each yarn with deep respect, cultural humility, and a shared commitment to strengthening self-determination and data sovereignty across Australia.
Whether discussing Indigenous data sovereignty, wearable tech in remote communities, mental health, or creative grassroots initiatives, iyarn Yarns invites listeners into grounded and thoughtful conversations about connection, belonging, and purpose.
Episodes
Jun 2, 2026
Jun 2, 2026
1 hr 6 min
The Cost of Bullying & Why Evidence Matters | Friendly Schools Podcast Ep. 1 with Prof. Donna Cross AM
Lockie Cooke sits down with Professor Donna Cross AM, one of the world's most cited researchers in bullying prevention, for the first episode of the Friendly Schools Podcast.
In this conversation, Donna shares 30 years of research into what actually works to reduce bullying in schools — including why punishment alone makes things worse, which popular approaches can cause harm, and what a whole school approach really looks like in practice.
Topics covered:
- The $2.2 billion per year cost of bullying in Australia
- Which students are most vulnerable and why location matters
- The traffic light mapping exercise schools can use tomorrow
- Why "evidence-based" doesn't always mean what you think
- The problem with Restorative Techniques (capital R, capital T)
- Why mindfulness can be harmful for primary school children
- The LATE model: Listen, Acknowledge, Talk options, End with encouragement
- AI, deepfakes, and the swimming pool analogy for online safety
- Australia's social media ban: the positives and the risks
Friendly Schools is Australia's leading evidence-based bullying prevention program, developed over 30 years of research and accessed by over 4,000 schools. It is the only program to achieve a four-star rating on the Be You evidence ratings.
Recorded on Noongar Whadjuk Boodja at Studio Scotch, Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia.
Learn more: friendlyschools.com.au | iyarn.com
Friendly Schools is distributed by iyarn.
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