Really Interesting Women

Ep. 63 Pauline Nguyen Pauline Nguyen's story is a remarkable tale and commences from a very early age as one of survival.  She shows an extraordinary resilience as well as forgiveness....in situations where both qualities probably would have evaded a lesser person.  After escaping Vietnam with her family after the war and living for a year in a refugee camp, Pauline's early years were to...

Ep. 62 Jodi Geddes Jodi Geddes and her co-founder, Kate Pollard had both led very successful careers – but after deciding to start families, they experienced first-hand how isolating and career-slowing becoming a parent could be if an organization was not properly equipped. Realizing that there were millions of other parents and caregivers in the same boat, who were having their career momentum st...

Ep. 61 Prof. Lisa Jackson Pulver AM PhD An extraordinary story from an extraordinary woman. That this story played out at all is remarkable. Having run away from home as a 14 year old with her father, suffering from PTSD, firing shots in her direction with his shotgun, Lisa had to carve out a life in Kings Cross and other areas disguising herself as a boy so as not to be hassled. The kindness of s...

Ep. 60 Robynne Murphy Link to episode… https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/really-interesting-women/id1526764849?i=1000539205221 Forty years ago, director Robynne Murphy, one of the leaders of Wollongong’s 1980-1994 Jobs for Women Campaign, joined hundreds of migrant/working class women to take  on  Australia’s most powerful  company BHP – and initially they seemed to have won. But when the 1983...

Ep. 59   Charlotte Wood AM Charlotte Wood is one of Australia's best and most successful authors.  She’s the author of six novels and three books of non fiction. Her last fictional work, The Weekend, was the ABIA Literary Fiction book of the Year 2020 and was shortlisted for numerous other awards. The previous novel, The Natural Way of Things won the 2016 Stella Prize, the Indie Book of the Y...

Ep. 58 Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell AO FTSE FAHA This was one of the most interesting conversations I've had. And that's saying something. Genevieve's background is technical and almost overwhelming....but don't do what I did and shake your head and go, 'I'm not going to understand a single word of this,' because we break things down and build them back...

Ep. 57   Christine Bryden AM, PSM, PhD, MBA, BSc(Hons) In 1995 at the age of 46, Christine Bryden was told by doctors that she had early onset dementia and that she should get her end of life affairs in order. In other words....nuthin' we can do, best get yourself off to a home while you still can. She refused to do that. There was no one....absolutely no one advocating for dementia sufferers...

Ep. 56  Vika & Linda Bull Vika and Linda Bull are this country's best singing duo.  They have sung with the best there is and have had songs written for them by everyone it seems. They have been performing professionally for 35 years. Which is extraordinary in a business which is known for its carnivorous nature (my words not theirs). The secret to their longevity? They reckon it's b...

Ep. 55 - The Governor of Victoria, The Honourable Linda Dessau, AC On 1 July 2015, the Honourable Linda Dessau AC was sworn in as Victoria’s 29th Governor, the first female in the role.  She worked as a solicitor and barrister for a number of years before taking her first judicial appointment as a Magistrate in 1986. In 1995 she was appointed a Judge of the Family Court of Australia where she serv...

Ep. 54 The Hon. Margaret McMurdo AC Margaret McMurdo is a true pioneer. She was the first woman to be appointed as a judge of the District Court in Queensland, the first woman in Australia appointed to lead an appellate court (appointed as president of the Queensland Court of Appeal) and all this as she and her husband raised four children. They had to rewrite the rules for her. They weren't...

Ep. 53   Kirstie Clements Kirstie Clements was the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Australia for 13 years. Her career at Vogue was nearly 30 years. It didn't end as she expected but I reckon she's all the better for it.  She's rubbed shoulders with Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, Kylie Minogue, Ian Thorpe, Crown Princess Mary, Cate Blanchett, amongst many others. But you wouldn't know i...

Ep. 52   Shelley Cable Shelley Cable is a Wilman-Nyoongar woman from Perth and the CEO of Generation One, part of the $2Billion Minderoo Foundation established by Andrew and Nicola Forrest. Her goal is  is to create parity with and for Indigenous Australians, within one generation through meaningful and sustainable employment opportunities. It's been described as an audacious, challenging, an...

Ep. 51 Bronte Campbell OAM (Part 2) Bronte Campbell is an Australian champion. Swimmer and person.  Olympic Gold and World Records in consecutive Games.  She was good enough to give some more time to RIW so we could catch up and see how everything is going. In quarantine!! She's been doing her pottery and, I imagine, glancing at her gold medal and smiling. Have a look at the photo she took fo...

Ep. 50   Louisa Hope Louisa Hope was the last one out alive from the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, Australia. She and her mother had both been shot.  She was the last one out but the first one to decide to turn that experience into a positive. She did that while lying on the pavement in Phillip Street, Sydney, being treated by paramedics.  Walk with me and Louisa into that cafe and hear it and feel...

Ep. 49 Professor Colleen Hayward AM When I asked an indigenous CEO of a company in WA if she knew Professor Hayward, she replied, 'Aunty Colleen? Yeah, she's a legend.' And she was right. She is. Professor Hayward is a senior Noongar woman with extensive family links throughout the south-west of Western Australia. For more than 35 years, she has provided significant input to policie...

Ep. 48 Dr Anne Aly MP Anne Aly is an extraordinary woman. Her story is one of utter determination, resilience, love and compassion. She was a single mum of two small boys and had nothing. No money. No job. But she fought for her boys. Like Carla Zampatti. Like Nanette Carroll. She fought her way out of her problems....and ended up eventually being invited to Barack Obama's White House in an o...

Ep. 47 Professor Kathryn North AC  Professor Kathryn North is one of Australia's leading and most influential physician scientists. Trained as a paediatrician, neurologist and clinical geneticist, Kathryn is recognised internationally for her leadership in genomic medicine and her research into inherited myopathies and genes that influence human muscle performance. Kathryn's achievements...

Ep. 46   Alison Battisson Alison Battisson is the founder and Director Principal of the organisation, Human Rights For All. Their focus is to ensure basic human rights and humanitarian treatment for refugees and the stateless.   Most of us have very strong opinions on this topic but realistically -  how many of us actually know what happens from a legal and humanitarian perspective. For example, d...

Ep. 45 Heather Ellis Heather is a motorbike adventurer who survived contracting AIDS in the early 90's. When you didn't. Her remarkable solo adventures from South to North Africa Africa and then along the silk roads from Western Europe, Russia  and Asia have been captured in her two best selling books (below). Prior to her silk roads trip she was given the horrendous diagnosis. At that t...

Ep. 44 Jane Caro AM  Jane Caro is a Walkley Award winning columnist, author, broadcaster, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator. She spent 35 years in the advertising industry, published twelve books, including three novels and has appeared frequently on ABC’s Q&A, Sunrise, The Project, The Drum. She was also a regular panellist on the ABC’s top-rating show on advertising “The Gru...

Ep. 43 Dr Alice Gorman Alice Gorman is one of the world's leading authorities on space archaeology.   She blogs as 'Dr Space Junk' and her research on space exploration has been featured in National Geographic, New Scientist, and Archaeology magazine. She is a faculty member of the International Space University's Southern Hemisphere Space Program in Adelaide. She started life...

Ep. 42  Antoinette Braybrook Antoinette Braybrook is an Aboriginal woman who was born in Victoria on Wurundjeri country. She left school at 15 and, after a period of time finding where she needed to be, she went to university as a mature age student and completed a law degree and was subsequently admitted as a legal practitioner. It was then that she decided to dedicate her life’s work to giving a...

Ep. 41   Prue Gilbert Prue Gilbert is a lawyer, human rights advocate and mother....and she combines her vast experiences in all three areas to improve the lives of thousands. Marie Claire called her the “the anti-discrimination guru”. Vogue named her a “Game Changer” and her business, Grace Papers, won the Australian Human Rights Business Award for addressing pregnancy related discrimination. At...

Ep. 40 Rachel Doyle SC Rachel is one of the country's most senior female barristers. She has taken the extraordinary step of writing a book (Power and Consent) which directly addresses the allegations of sexual harassment by 6 former Judges Associates against a former High Court Judge, Dyson Heydon. And the current Chief Justice of the High Court, Justice Susan Kiefel, not only believes these...

Ep. 39  Jahna Cedar OAM Jahna Cedar is a Nyiyaparli/Yindjibarndi woman from the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with family connection to the Gija people of the Kimberleys, and is recognised as a strong Indigenous community leader.  She has worked for over 20 years advocating for equal rights and reconciliation of Indigenous people and has represented Indigenous Australia at the United Nation...