Seize the Yay

It has been an absolute delight to see how many of you share in my passion for espionage or intelligence stories and to hear that you enjoyed our last episode with a real-life Australian spy. One of the most common follow up questions from you has been my top recommendations for spy books, TV shows or podcasts and, funnily enough, my own current favourite podcast was also the one our ASIO Intellig...

Over our seven years so far of seizing the yay, I’ve found myself repeatedly blown away by some of the rooms it has led me into and some of the incredible people I’ve been lucky to meet. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine one of those rooms would be a SCIF at the headquarters of our national security service, ASIO, or that one of those people would be a real life spy. For the uninitiated, a...

Welcome back lovely yayborhood, I hope the new financial year is treating you well. I’m so excited to share today’s episode not only because our guest is infinitely knowledgeable, but also because it ended up a little different to usual. Anaita Sarkar and I have been mutually fangirling for many years and one of the many things I love about her is her insatiable curiosity. Because of that, she not...

We all know I rarely find myself struggling with words, but certain guests and their stories simply defy adequate description. I was lucky enough to interview Grace Tame at an event back in 2022 where her bravery and eloquence moved a room full of excitable adults to still, silent awe. Getting to chat with her again and share that with you all this week feels like such a great privilege and again...

Welcome to BIZ — the podcast that's rewriting the rules of work for a new generation. Are you the queen of procrastination who'd rather deep clean your entire house than finish that urgent report? This week on BIZ Inbox, Em Vernem and Sarah Davidson tackle the art of actually getting work done with practical strategies – including the game-changing "eat the frog" method that might just save your p...

Lovely yayborhood, it’s been a little while since our last Seize the Bebe episode but as always that in itself is such an apt representation of the juggle. SO many topics have come up recently that I’ve wanted to dedicate episodes to without anywhere near enough time to squeeze them in (including another episode on that juggle itself after a little video I shared on it went viral) but that will ha...

Lovely yayborhood, one of my favourite things about this show is the incidental opportunity it gives me to learn about things I don’t really understand from the people who find THEIR yay in making it their area of expertise. I often refer to my selfish motivations in approaching particular guests to pick their brains about things that fascinate me and an episode on AI has been brewing for some tim...

If you’ve been on the Internet at all over the past decade or so, you’ve likely been influenced by Rozalia Russian who I feel comfortable calling one of the OG influencers of our time. While many of us embraced the mirror selfie and Valencia filter from the beginning, not all of us transformed into one of the country’s most sought after opinion leaders, brand ambassadors and dare I say “icons” wit...

Lovely yayborhood, I hope you all had a wonderful double long weekend and are getting back into the swing of things. I had some very much needed down time with lots of wholesome, offline play to yay and it does SUCH wonders for the soul. So often, you don’t realise how fast you’ve been going or how hard you’ve been pushing until you stop - I talk about the relentlessness of our modern pace of life...

The problem with being an excitable person who always uses excitable language is that I leave no superlatives in reserve for when something really blows me away. But I think most of Australia and the world (in fact, at least 60 million listeners) will grasp why I am pinching myself that our guest this week is none other than Hedley Thomas, National Correspondent for The Australian and creator of g...

I am so excited about our guest this week (although I know I say that every time), but I'm especially excited about this one as we’ve been trying to line this up for a long time and I’ve been fangirling over her for even longer. But as always, the universe in its infinite wisdom worked out the perfect timing for us in the end so that this chat would come out the same week as her very first book. Y...

Following on from last week, here's a little (very unedited, stream of consciousness style) dear diary reflection episode on the top ten things I've learnt in our first year of parenthood. If you've listened to last week's throwback, you'll remember the crazy timing of all our birthdays meaning I got to it down to record this one on the morning of my own 36th birthday. The perfect moment to think...

It is such a great privilege to have a community (or a yayborhood) sharing in our big life milestones and moments (especially over many years for some of you who have so kindly stuck around) and I’m sure it will shock you just as much as me to hear that this week marks ONE YEAR since Teddy came into the world. Weirdly it feels like I’ve been his Mum for both a minute and a lifetime all at once, bu...

Given International Women’s Day fell on a Saturday this year, consider this week’s conversation our annual dedication episode. And I don’t think we could have a more perfect guest for the occasion than the woman currently holding the highest position that exists in one of the most traditionally male dominated landscapes in Australia… the AFL. We are so lucky to have Laura Kane with us today, the E...

Welcome to part two of our very hotly awaited episode of Seize the Bebe on starting solids. In this part, we cover one of the most overwhelming parts of the process - introducing allergens - with Nourishing Bubs founder and paediatric dietitian, Olivia Bates, who answers your questions in such great detail sharing her wealth of knowledge to put our minds at ease. If you haven't listened to part on...

Welcome to a very hotly awaited episode of Seize the Bebe and by hotly awaited, I mean we had SO many submitted questions from you guys but possibly even more from me. Pretty much every area of parenting is overwhelming, sometimes confusing and energy intensive but starting solids is right up there at the top of the list in the early days so it’s one of the first topics I wanted to cover. Most of...

Many of our guests on the show tell incredible stories of trying lots of different things they don’t really love before stumbling on a particular yay that changes their life. What has fascinated me about George Hartley since the day we first met is that he’s loved then left lots of different yays to end up in his current chapter in an industry he originally knew absolutely nothing about. I was fir...

It’s not the first time we’ve touched on this week’s topic or guest on the show, but you’ll all remember how absolutely CAPTIVATED I was by the Thai cave rescue when I first read Against All Odds, so I am SO excited to be able to revisit it again. Our conversation with Dr Richard Harris a few years ago is still one of our most popular episodes ever, so I’ve been hoping to get his friend, diving pa...

Welcome to BIZ - the podcast that's rewriting the rules of work for a new generation. Join Em Vernem (ambitious but efficient), Michelle Battersby (launched Bumble APAC) and Soph Hirst (ex-Google) as they tackle everything from dealing with difficult bosses to knowing if your side hustle can become your career. In this first episode: Asking for a pay rise is about as comfortable as explaining to y...

I mentioned the crazy revelation in our last episode that our first was back in 2018 making 2025 our seventh year. And that makes this one of many beautiful full circle moments as we welcome back our first guest EVER, the inimitable Lisa Messenger, without whom the show would not actually exist. I so often talk about sliding doors moments and sometimes those come in the form of a person taking a l...

I couldn’t think of anyone more special to help us start the year (and to mark our 300th episode) than my very best friend, Ebony Beggs, whose story embodies the idea of new beginnings both in itself and in the fact that this was her first time properly telling it in her first podcast interview ever. Some of you may remember we had the incredible opportunity of doing a live episode at SXSW with Al...

Whether you are a child, have a child or have ever met a child, you will undoubtedly know of The Wiggles and not just at home here in Australia - they have also captured the hearts of families around the world since their beginning back in 1991. Speaking of capturing hearts though, in their latest evolution with eight wonderful members, one particular Wiggle has shot to global fame as the "sexy wi...

Our first #yaysofourlives episode in a while and our last for a while as Ang has some big news!!! + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You all know I find every single guest amazing in their own way and use a lot of superlatives to convey that, but every now and then a conversation leaves me almost speechless (which is very rare) and this was one of them. I recorded this one at Producey Studios who - shout out to the team - have been incredible for our return to in-person interviews since maternity leave, but it also meant we had...

My first blood relative arrived when I gave birth to my son Teddy. Growing up, I always knew I was adopted; brought to Australia from South Korea at just five months old, it was never a secret. But even after finding out you're adopted there are so many other questions, some of which people may choose to never find answers for.  As Adoption Awareness Month comes to a close, find out what life grow...