As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of media, in this episode I sit down with Amantha Perera, journalist, researcher, and Director/Consultant at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, Asia Pacific region.Amantha is a veteran of news reporting, starting in his home country Sri Lanka, including work for TIME, Reuters, the Washington Post, the Guardian and al-Jazeera. At the Dart Center he works on developing peer support networks and trauma awareness skills for the Asia Pacific region.As a researcher, educator and trainer he focuses on the impact of online and digital trauma on journalists. Specifically, Amantha explores the impact on the lives of journalists when their personal and professional online and digital profiles collapse on to each other, proposing a 'digital flak jacket' as a resource for reporters online. The interview touches upon his flak jacket idea, as well as experiencing trauma as a journalist when his colleague and mentor got killed while reporting a story, and his subsequent work at the Dart Center to support fellow newsworkers in need. These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out late 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.Please follow, leave a comment, and check more interviews and updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).