Club Sandwich

She was one of Sydney's best door bitches. Now she's CEO of Autism Australia.  Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit clubsandwich.community to join the tribe, access resources, and find our private Facebook community. SEND US YOUR QUESTION: hello@clubsandwich.community In this episode: The Conversation: Sarah talks to Nicole Rogerson, CEO of Autism Australia and...

She used to let everyone else win. Now nobody's safe at bowls. Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit clubsandwich.community to join the tribe, access resources, and find our private Facebook community. SEND US YOUR QUESTION: hello@clubsandwich.community In this episode: Sarah visits a dementia day programme run by ECH in Adelaide to meet Gina, who's living with demen...

Stan Grant, journalist, author and Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man, joins Sarah Macdonald to talk about caring for his ageing parents, why he sees himself as a 'provider, not a carer', and what eldership really means. Along the way, he shares the process behind his new book, visions of John Coltrane, and wisdom gleaned from a lifelong love of music, books and family. Ageing parents? You've got them. W...

Maggie Beer, cook, author and founder of the Maggie Beer Foundation, joins Sarah Macdonald to talk about food, ageing and why what's on the plate in an aged care home matters more than most families realise.  Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit clubsandwich.community to join the tribe, access resources, and find our private Facebook community. SEND US YOUR QUE...

Natalie Siegel-Brown spent years holding the government to account for the funding, administration and regulation of Australia's aged care system as the Inspector General of Aged Care. She's also part of the sandwich generation herself, raising an 11-year-old while supporting her own ageing parents. Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit clubsandwich.community to join...

" I always find that there's part of me here, and there's another part of me swimming with the fish in the sea at the same time." In this episode, Indira Naidoo joins Sarah to talk about her new role with the  Sydney Theatre Company, spending time under her tree, and the importance of creativity in her life. They reflect on rediscovering play and creativity in midlife, the limits of journalism in...

"I'm alright, sweetheart. No, I don't need help." Every one of us has heard it. Prue Bowden runs home care for 50,000 Australian families, which makes her the person everyone corners at parties to ask about a parent who won't accept a thing. Today, she's in the chair talking about what to actually do next.  Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. Content note: this episode covers agei...

In this bonus episode, Sarah Macdonald is joined by Kerry Milligan and Melissa Reader to discuss representations of the sandwich generation on screen. Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. This episode was supported by Australian Unity, home health and care services — australianunity.com.au/clubsandwich. With thanks to NSW Trustee and Guardian — search NSW Trustee and Guardia...

Grief doesn't run to the timetable you were handed. A year after her mum Emmie died, Kerry Milligan thought she was managing well. Then she went back to Tasmania with a small plastic container of her mother's ashes, and found out that year one isn't a finish line. Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. For support: Carer Gateway 1800 422 737. Griefline 1300 845 745. Lifeline 13 11 14, 24/...

Legendary ladies Janelle Adams and Nicole Bennett are looking after Janelle's 94-year-old dad Ernie, Ernie's dog Bella, and their two boys Max and Sam – all under one roof. They shared their story with Sarah on last Sunday's episode of Compass (available on ABC iView), and on today's episode of Club Sandwich, they join us with an update about how life has changed since Sarah visited them. Fo...

Melissa Reader provides an update on Vera's FACES campaign. FACES (Families for Aged Care Equity and Support) is a family-led campaign asking for one honest count of the number of people waiting for their aged care funding and the people who die while they're waiting. Add your name at vera.guide/faces . Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. Put The Kettle On — Vera's free conversat...

She found out she was a carer from a line buried in her dad's hospital discharge papers, not from anyone asking her. This week's guest lived the exact crisis she'd spent her career trying to fix. Content note: this episode discusses the deaths of both of the guest's parents within six months of each other, terminal illness, carer burnout, grief, and systemic failures in aged care support. For supp...

A will is only useful when you're dead, but the rest of the paperwork is critical long before that. This week's guest lives and breathes it for a living. Marie Brownell, Director of Estate Planning and Administration at NSW Trustee and Guardian, joins Sarah Macdonald to explain what a power of attorney, an enduring power of attorney, an enduring guardianship and a will each actually do, who needs...

Melissa Reader on the launch of Vera's new FACES campaign. FACES (Families for Aged Care Equity and Support) is a family-led campaign asking for one honest count of the number of people waiting for their aged care funding and the people who die while they're waiting. Add your name at vera.guide/faces . Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. Put The Kettle On — Vera's free conversati...

Your kid finished school years ago. They're 22, or 27, or 33. So why are you still doing their washing? Clinical psychologist Jo Lamble is in the chair for the layer of the sandwich generation nobody names. Content note: this is a lighter, funnier episode than most, although the last few minutes touch briefly on ageing parents and visiting a grandparent in aged care. For support: Relationships Aus...

What do you do when your kids are still little and your parents are already old? The queen of common sense, Maggie Dent, is in the chair for the double squeeze. Content note: this episode includes honest conversations about death and dying, children's grief, and caring for a parent with dementia. Be gentle with yourself while you listen. For support: National Dementia Helpline 1800 100 500 (24/7)....

What happens when your marriage ends in the exact season your parent needs you most? Katie Noonan knows, and this week, she tells us how you start again in the middle of everything. Content note: this episode discusses separation and divorce, grief and the death of a parent. Be gentle with yourself while you listen. For support: Relationships Australia 1300 364 277 (relationships.org.au) — c...

The same conversation, again and again. The strange ideas. The day they don't know your face. Part two of our dementia special is about how you cope when a parent is becoming someone else — and how to look after yourself while you do. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit https://clubsandwich.community to join the conversation. SEND US YOUR QUESTION: hello@clubsandwich.community In this episode: The Conversa...

We all walk into a room and forget why we came in. So how do you tell ordinary forgetfulness from the early signs of something more? This week, in part one of our two-part dementia special, geriatrician Dr Stephanie Ward shows us what to actually look for. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit https://clubsandwich.community to join the conversation. SEND US YOUR QUESTION: hello@clubsandwich.community In this episo...

Most of us have a conversation we keep avoiding – about ageing, about more help at home, about dying. In this week's episode, recorded live in Sydney, palliative care physician Dr Kathryn Mannix shows us how to have that tender conversation. Recorded live at our Stay For Supper event, Sarah Macdonald sits down with Dr Kathryn Mannix — global campaigner, author of With the End in Mind a...

Dementia is the leading cause of death in Australia, and a lot of what we believe about it is making things worse. This week, meet the man who moved in. Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit https://clubsandwich.community to join the tribe, access resources, and find our private Facebook community. SEND US YOUR QUESTION: hello@clubsandwich.community In this episode:...

Sarah Macdonald and Bianca Dye on caring solo for a mum with dementia when you have no kids and no siblings to share the load – and why "I don't have children" doesn't disqualify you from the sandwich generation. This week Sarah Macdonald is joined by broadcaster Bianca Dye: an only child, with no kids of her own, and the sole carer for her 81-year-old mum, who has Alzheimer's-form dementia....

Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. This week Sarah Macdonald is joined by Dr Joanne Bennett from the Australian Catholic University, designer of the upcoming 'Thriving Without Driving' program, to unpack one of the most loaded conversations in the sandwich generation: taking the keys. Together they map the three kinds of older drivers (the acceptors, the reluctants and the resistors),...

Former NSW Premier Bob Carr on losing his wife Helena, and the year of grief that followed. A long, honest conversation about bereavement. Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. In 2023, Bob Carr's wife Helena died of an aneurysm in his arms in Vienna, after a night at the opera. She'd been his constant companion for more than 50 years. The former NSW Premier and Foreign Minister has writ...

86% of us never have this conversation with our ageing parents. So we built you a way in. Free guide at https://putthekettleon.com.au — and a podcast episode to walk you through it. Ageing parents? You've got them. We've got you. JOIN THE CLUB: Visit https://clubsandwich.community to join the tribe, access resources, and find our private Facebook community. SEND US YOUR QUESTION: hello@clubs...