I'm Listening with Dr Ariella

In this special Her Issue edition of I’m Listening , Dr Ariella once again hands the mic to her mum – journalist and podcast host Deborah Blashki-Marks . Deborah sits down with internationally renowned designer Şener Besim , who opens up about the creative partnership he shares with his wife, Kelly, and the surrogacy journey that shaped their family. In this intimate and honest conversation, Debo...

In this special Her Issue edition of I’m Listening , Dr Ariella hands the mic to someone very special — her mum, journalist and podcast host Deborah Blashki-Marks . Deborah sits down with Dr Helen Frazer , radiologist, Clinical Director of St Vincent’s BreastScreen, Adjunct Associate Professor, and winner of the ANZ Women in AI Innovator of the Year. Helen is leading one of Australia’s most ambiti...

Recorded live at SXSW Sydney 2025 , this episode uncovers a truth that shapes every woman’s experience in healthcare: medical bias isn’t accidental — it’s built into the system. Dr Ariella is joined by Associate Professor Amy McLennan , medical anthropologist and educator at ANU, to trace how history, research practices and cultural assumptions have created a model of medicine designed around men....

What if living with chronic illness could deepen, not derail, your power? In this episode, Dr Ariella sits down with Michelle Irving — founder of Career & Chronic and Chronic Illness At Work — to unpack practical ways women can protect their health, honour their ambition, and lead with sovereignty. We explore “badass boundaries” in the clinic, the crucial mindset flip from pleasing to patient...

In this moving episode, Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks sits down with Joyce Jiao — a founder and mother whose story reveals what happens when intuition collides with a system that doesn’t listen. After giving birth, Joyce began experiencing strange sensations — fluttering in her stomach, chest tightness, weight loss — but her symptoms were dismissed as postpartum anxiety. Months later, an ultrasound...

In this heartbreaking and deeply resonant episode, Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks sits down with Mary Spanos — an advocate who spent over a decade searching for answers to her crippling period pain, only to be told again and again: “It’s just your period.” From her first emergency room visit at 12 to years of surgical disappointment, misdiagnosis, and disbelief, Mary’s story exposes how the system co...

In this candid episode, Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks sits down with writer, editor, and chronic illness advocate Chloe Sargeant to explore what it really means to live with fibromyalgia and navigate a healthcare system that too often fails disabled people. Chloe shares the raw realities of daily pain, fatigue, and brain fog — and the endless cycle of GP appointments, medication battles, and stagger...

In this unapologetic episode, Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks sits down with Grace Lam — celebrated fashion director and fierce menopause advocate — to talk about the reality of perimenopause and why silence is never the answer. Grace shares how her symptoms hit “like a rock,” from insomnia and mood swings to brain fog, only to be dismissed by doctors who handed her sleeping pills instead of answers....

In this episode of I’m Listening with Dr Ariella , we hear from Leila Oliveira — investor, entrepreneur, and one of the first people to back Ovum. Leila shares her dual perspective: as a woman navigating her own health journey (from painful periods to a decade on the pill without answers) and as a venture capitalist reshaping where capital flows. Her story exposes not only the gaps in women’s heal...

In this powerful episode, Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks sits down with writer and actor Hannah Vanderheide , who opens up about her life with invisible chronic illnesses — and how being dismissed by doctors nearly cost her life. Twice. At just 26, Hannah was told her terrifying symptoms were “just anxiety.” In reality, she was in a thyroid storm from undiagnosed Graves’ disease — a condition that co...

In our very first episode of I’m Listening with Dr Ariella , the tables turn: Ovum founder Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks becomes the guest, opening up about the personal and professional journey that led her to create Ovum. Joined by Stefanie DiGianvincenzo , Ovum’s Chief Marketing Officer and stand-in host for this episode, Ariella shares what it was like to move from the clinic into advocacy, the...

Welcome to I’m Listening — the podcast that listens, because healthcare hasn’t. Hosted by Dr. Ariella Heffernan-Marks and brought to you by Ovum , this show creates a sanctuary of listening: to real health stories from women, to researchers unpacking bias in medicine, and to the innovation closing the gender health gap. Coming soon, wherever you get your podcasts.