Chaos At the Crossroads: The Birth of Dads On the Air

After majoring in philosophy and anthropology at university John Stapleton did his post-graduate thesis for a Diploma in Social Sciences on the subject of gay bars. As a young man he travelled widely as a result of free air fares through his father's job as a Qantas captain.

He wrote for a wide variety of Australian publications on a freelance basis, including The Bulletin and The Financial Review, before joining the staff of The Sydney Morning Herald in the mid 1980s, following the publication of his first front page story while working as a casual. At that time the SMH was regarded as one of the world's top 20 newspapers.

While writing since childhood, he experienced his first success in 1972 as co-winner of the Adelaide Arts Festival's Short Story Competition. His play The Police Commissioner's Grandmother was also performed in that city.

As a general news reporter in Sydney John Stapleton covered literally thousands of stories, from the funerals of bikies, children and dignitaries to fires, floods, droughts, from the demonstrations of inner-city worthies concerned over the plight of refugees to the sad and pointless deaths of youth in the city's poverty stricken housing estates.
He spent the last 15 years of his journalistic career, until 2009, working as a general news reporter on the country's national newspaper The Australian.

John Stapleton is the very proud father of two successful young adults.

His articles and fiction have also appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies over the years, including the books Men Love Sex, Australian Politics and Writers in the Park.

His book about Sydney life in the 1980s The Lure Of The Illicit, previously only given narrow distribution, will be re-published shortly.

In 2000 he joined a group of small group of separated dads at the community radio station 2GLF in western Sydney as a volunteer, thereby helping to found Dads On The Air, now the world's longest running and most famous radio program dedicated to issues concerning fathers. The fact the show continues to prosper without him and has attracted a talented team of contributors is one of his proudest achievements.

Stapleton's last book, Chaos at the Crossroads: Family Law Reform in Australia, published in December 2010, is readily available for downlod in all major electronic bookstores. An interview with the author about Chaos can be found in the December 2010 archives at www.dadsontheair.net. An article on the book can also be found at Australia's most prestigious intellectual and culturally focused website: www.onlineopinion.com.au

His interview about the founding of Dads On The Air can be found in the August 2010 archives.

He is currently living in Asia.