Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries

For the first time, one of the Double Ds, Donna West, shares part of her story dealing with an extended workplace trauma, as a guest on the "Thriving Business" podcast, with Kate de Jong. Donna discusses being caught up in a traumatic Corruption and Crime Commission case in late 2021, where she realises she is falsely accused due to a bungled investigation at her workplace. After reaching rock bot...

Andrew Steiner was a young Jewish boy during World War II, living in Hungary. He recounts memories of living through the Holocaust, where 11 close family members and countless friends were amongst 6 million murdered by the Nazis.  Andrew discusses the relevance of those events to the perilous times we are facing today in world history. We all have an extraordinary and innate power of one within us...

D'Arne Healy shares surprisingly broad wellbeing benefits of jigsaw puzzles. Whether on your own or with others, puzzling can help with loneliness, conquering addiction, giving your brain a break and improving focus, just to name a few.  D'Arne has created inclusive communities, both as Founder of the Australian Jigsaw Puzzle Association and more recently the Inter-School Puzzle Club. D'Arne share...

Dr. Vish Ramakonar returns to the DDs to share the life altering change management work she learnt from Joe Dispenza, based on neuroscience. The program, "Change your mind, create new results" focuses on giving people strategies and tools to increase their resilience to navigate through challenging situations, create desirable change and ultimately, change their life. Dr. Vish discusses how we bec...

Co-founder of neuro nudges, Tammy Tansley discusses how her small business started. Neuro nudges are packs of 70 self-coaching cards in 7 categories that can help you to build resilience, regulate your emotions, improve your habits and become more self-aware. Each card asks a coaching question, gives you a behavioural nudge and provides background into the related neuroscience. Tools such as givin...

Alastair Milne opens up about his mental crisis five years ago – a journey that led him to spend three weeks in psychiatric care in hospital. Alastair shares how he recovered slowly and eventually started his consultancy, Curam Consulting, where he focuses on developing fearless teams and improving psychological safety in the workplace. Alastair discusses tools and strategies that help him today s...

Join Double Ds Donna and Di for Part 2 of their first ever live podcast, as previous podcast guests answer the question, "What happened Next?" Hear from previous guests Susan Saleeba (#11), Tara Jeisman (#7), Nio Correa (#5), Steve Cox (#1) and hear about what happened following Wayne Sankey's episode (#8) about surviving the Boxing Day Tsunami. Themes include the power of sharing your story, self...

Join the Double Ds, Donna West and Di Murray, as they do their first ever live podcast in front of an audience, to celebrate the first anniversary of the podcast.  Hybrid Warehouse owner Darren Payne interviews the Double Ds about their first year and how they turned a dream into reality and started a podcast. Their reflections and lessons to date, how they find and prepare guests, the power of po...

Lachlan (Lockie) O'Donoghue, co-founder of 20Talk, a not-for-profit focusing on improving the mental wellness of young people, discusses the origins of 20Talk, following the suicides of two close friends in their early 20's.  Lockie gives tips on how to approach a conversation with someone who may be struggling, what to do if you aren't coping with life and a methodology for creating a personal se...

Professor Rob Donovan is Founder of the Act-Belong-Commit health promotion campaign. This was one of the world's first mass media campaigns to promote being mentally healthy, which commenced in 2005 in regional Western Australia and is still going strong today. Rob shares the background into the project, including the market research he undertook, the development of the Act-Belong-Commit message a...

Lawrence (Laurie) Brown was born in Scotland and travelled by boat to Perth Western Australia when he was 17 years old, in 1952. A couple of weeks after he arrived, he found work in the North-West of the state. Lawrence recounts his family circumstances that led him to migrate to Australia. He shares some of his tales and adventures from his time living in Broome and Derby in the 1950's and 1960's...

Artist Sophie Mahir takes us on the wild ride of her life, while she sets out to make money as an artist and single Mum. Multiple careers, living in several countries, from success to bankruptcy, from passion to burnout and then rebuilding and redefining herself again and again. Sophie’s enthusiasm for life and her relentless entrepreneurial spirit will inspire you, not only to discover your own p...

Jon Sanders is one of Australia’s greatest ever sailors, holding multiple world records for solo circumnavigations around the world, including a triple circumnavigation lasting 658 days from 1986-1988 and his latest at 81 years old during the COVID pandemic in 2020-2021. In this episode, recorded over 2 sessions, Jon recounts some of his adventures and memorable moments, including smashing into a...

Henrietta discusses her early life in Hungary growing up in the post-Communist era, her decision at 20 years old to travel to and eventually settle in Australia and her move to Perth from the east coast. Throughout these experiences, the themes of the importance of community and finding your tribe shine through. Henrietta’s passion for helping other migrants, especially women, and for giving back...

After bringing up 4 children, upon retiring, Bill and Pina decide to take on the challenge of hiking a Camino pilgrimage in Spain. This journey of nearly 800 kms leads to 2 more Camino pilgrimages in Europe and 2 in Australia, including most recently the Camino Salvado in Western Australia, from Subiaco in Perth to New Norcia, a distance of 150kms.  Bill and Pina share their physical, mental and s...

Dr Vish Ramakonar shares her personal story of how dealing with family tragedies eventually led to her own healing and transformation. Vish recounts her happy childhood days growing up in Geraldton, a small regional town in Western Australia, where she and her family were the only people with Indian heritage. At aged 16, Vish’s father became the first manager of Annalakshmi, an Indian community-ba...

Chef, café owner and fresh food enthusiast Simon Naber talks about his career and travels, including as an apprentice in Albany in regional Western Australia, then onto Perth and over to Europe, where he worked in one of London’s most well-known restaurants and then in the south of France. He discusses the fun adventures, along with the long hours and isolation of being a chef. Simon then returned...

Susan Saleeba recounts how she volunteered to go to Nakuru in Kenya when she was 50 years old. Life for her began again as she fell in love with the people and the difference she could make, realising she had a gift for getting things done, despite any obstacles she faced. She returned to Nakuru annually for months at a time, first purchasing sewing machines and paying for a local seamstress to te...

Donna and Di take time to reflect on their podcasting journey so far, as the Double Ds Discovery Diaries podcast reaches its 10th episode. They discuss how it all began, lessons learnt along the way, how much they are enjoying the podcasting experience together and the positive impact of their guests' stories, on listeners, the Double Ds and the guests themselves. 

Emily reflects on working as a nurse in the emergency department of a central London hospital during the COVID19 pandemic. Topics covered include why she chose not to return home to Australia when the pandemic broke out, the tight bond formed between coworkers in such trying circumstances, how she adapted her own self-care during lockdowns and her media comments that made front page news about ant...

It was the morning after Christmas and Wayne and his girlfriend Allison had woken up early in Arugam Bay, on the East Coast of Sri Lanka, after having arrived the previous afternoon. Leaving their beachside cabana, they went for a long walk along the beach. It was such a perfect morning that on the way back, Wayne proposed. Allison said yes.  Only a short time later, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake was...

Tara Jeisman talks about how a TikTok video showing her taking a sunrise plunge into the ocean went viral and the community movement Sea Gals was born.  Tara discusses her passion for Sea Gals and how she has found her ikigai as Founder. Also covered are the underlying Sea Gals principles of inclusion, fighting against body shame, providing a safe environment to make new friends and promoting ment...

Recently departed from his role as Director General of the Western Australian Health Department for nearly 9 years, from 2015 to the end of March 2024, Russ reflects on his diverse career, including relocating from the UK to work as a doctor in Outback Australia in the Royal Flying Doctor Service, then a multitude of other clinical then leadership roles, culminating in leading 55,000 staff in WA H...

Aged 14, Nio figured out she was gay. Realising it would be difficult for her to be accepted in her conservative homeland of Venezuela, she dreamt of relocating to a new country, Australia. Over the next decade, through developing a strategy, hard work, determination and a 100% certainty that she would make it happen, Nio turned that dream into reality. Nio discusses her period of depression when...

Mother to young daughter Willow, Sarah wanted to give her a sibling. Sarah shares her deeply personal story about the joy she and her husband Marvin experienced when they found out she was pregnant, which was followed by confusion and devastation when they found out their unborn daughter had structural problems and was unlikely to survive the pregnancy. Sarah discusses her decision to continue wit...