Richard Fidler

Let the record show we're both making the live long and prosper hand gesture to one another as we speak.

Tracy Drain is in Australia as a guest of the 2026 World Science Festival in Brisbane.

Today's conversation with Tracy Drain was made on the lands of the Gadigal people.

Producer was Jennifer Leake.

Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

I'm Richard Feidler.

Thanks for listening.

Something snapped.

Looking back on it.

Hello, welcome to Conversations.

As part of our 20th anniversary this year, we've been digging down into the archives and mining out some choice favourites.

As you can imagine, it's been very hard to choose just 20 from all the amazing guests we've met over the years.

Today, it's my conversation with Sydney barber, Charles Lomu.

In a garage in Blacktown in Sydney's western suburbs, Charles Lomu is a youth worker who teaches young guys to cut hair.

This wasn't the original plan for Charles' life, but he's pretty happy with the way things have turned out.

In his early years, Charles lived with his grandparents in Tonga, reading the Bible with his grandmother, helping out his grandfather.

He moved back to Australia and became a talented rugby player, but then he went off the rails for a bit.

After a stint in prison, Charles tried his hand at various jobs.

He'd been cutting hair all his life,

But now he discovered that barbering gave him peace and friendship and independence.