The Good Girl Confessional

Today in the Confessional, Sandy is joined by Ailsa Wild! Ailsa is an author, performer and community artist with a history of deep collaboration who writes for children, young adults and Adults. Ailsa’s most recent book, ‘The Care Factor: a story of nursing and connection in the time of social distancing’, is a snapshot biography of her dear friend Simone Sheridan, who worked as a nurse during th...

When one magazine publisher meets another! Kathy Barron is the host and producer of the successful California-based podcast Women Who Sarcast, and she joins Sandy in the Confessional as our special guest to chat about her exciting new venture - the launch of Women Who Podcast Magazine! As the Editor-in-Chief of Women Who Podcast Magazine, Kathy is building a podcast empire by creating the very fir...

Today one good girl chats to another in the Confessional as Sandy chats with special guest Tracey Spicer AM.Tracey is a multiple Walkley Award winning author, journalist and broadcaster who has anchored national programs for ABC TV and radio, Network Ten and Sky News. In 2019 she was named the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year, accepted the Sydney Peace Prize alongside Tarana Burke for the Me Too mo...

Today on the podcast our special guest is Jules Brooke! Jules is a public relations expert but she’s no ordinary PR person. Jules has handled hundreds of PR Campaigns for businesses and entrepreneurs helping them to get their stories into the media. Jules is an engaging keynote speaker and is also the host of her Ticker TV show She’s the Boss which is exclusively about women. In 2003 Jules started...

Trigger warning: Online child sexual abuse, trauma Please welcome change maker and advocate Natalie Walker. When Natalie Walker was in her early twenties and not long married, it was revealed that her husband had been accessing images of child sexual abuse on his computer. When the internet was still in its pre-Google days, these horrendous crimes were so underground that they were not even fully...

Ginger Gorman is a fearless and multi award-winning social justice journalist. She is the host of the Podcast, Seriously Social. Throughout her career, she’s interviewed everyone from eminent scientists and artists to hardened criminals and vicious Internet trolls. Ginger has courageously interviewed people from all walks of life, and openly written about her own journey with cancer, and dealing w...

Do you believe in ghosts? Are you fascinated by stories of the unexplained? Then this might be the podcast for you! Kristy Sumner is a Paranormal Investigator and the co-founder of Soul Sisters Paranormal, an all female Paranormal investigation team based in the USA, who have investigated some of the most haunted sites across America.  In 2020, the team changed somewhat as twin sisters Jenny and K...

Lisa Westgate is an award winning passionate advocate for open conversations about difficult and sometimes taboo topics. Her no BS style appeals to the new mentality of 'real, honest and raw' presentations that speak to the heart, from the heart. Beyond sharing her lived experience of mental health issues, being a rape survivor and over a decade as a Paramedic, Lisa teaches NLP Training and is hel...

As a media and advertising professional, Lisa Cox spent years making products, brands, and messages visible. Now, after having acquired a disability, she’s using her lived experience and her existing professional skill set to make disability more visible in popular culture. Lisa is a disability advocate, a media consultant, writer, presenter and model and is changing the narrative around disabilit...

Proud Indigenous woman Donna Stolzenberg is a CEO, keynote speaker and trainer. In 2014, she had the simple idea of handing out 50 donated sleeping bags to homeless people. That idea has evolved into a nationwide charity. The National Homeless Collective (NHC) is a grassroots Australian organisation that helps people affected by homelessness, domestic violence and social disadvantage. A mother of...

180 years ago, Australia’s first children’s book was published by an anonymous writer known only as “a lady long resident in NSW.” The identity of the author was one of Australia’s most puzzling literary mysteries until 1981 when was finally given a name – Charlotte Waring Atkinson. I’m so happy to be chatting with Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell, sisters who are both celebrated authors in their...

Today in the confessional I am so thrilled to chat with Tara Moss, the award winning author and advocate for women, children and people with disability. Tara has written 13 books, published in 19 countries in 13 languages, including her critically acclaimed non-fiction book The Fictional Woman and her latest work, the internationally best-selling historical crime novel, The War Widow. Her books ce...

Chloe Higgins writes about the things she’s afraid of: death, sex, love, and how she feels about her mother. The Girls, a memoir of family, grief and sexuality, is her debut and won the People’s Choice Award at the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. The Girls was also shortlisted for the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award Prize for Non-Fiction and shortlisted for the State Library’s 20...

Kayte Murphy and Kim Berry are the hosts of the fabulously popular podcast, The Hot Flush - The Premier Podcast for Peri-Menopausal People! Kayte has a background in publishing and professional blogging (she is Mrs Woog from popular blog Woogsworld) and is also an author. Kim is a journalist with a passion for baking as seen in her popular blog All Consuming. 4 years ago they joined forces to host...

Imagine falling in love with a man, imaging your life together and then finding out that everything he claimed to be was a lie. This is Stephanie Wood's story, chronicled in her book 'Fake'. A startling true story about love in a world of liars, cheats, narcissists, fantasists and phonies. Stephanie's raw honesty in the telling of this story is nothing short of brave. "Joe" who she met online, is...

TW: Missing Person/Suicide Sally Leydon, has been searching for her mother, Marion Barter, for 23 years. Marion is a missing person, much loved mother and a celebrated teacher. Marion's disappearance is the subject of the hugely popular Channel 7 Podcast, The Lady Vanishes, now with over 8 million downloads. Host Bryan Seymour and Executive Producer Alison Sandy have helped Sally to gain incredibl...

Nikki Hind is a social entrepreneur and Australia's first legally blind fashion designer, with a background in PR, Communications and Event Management. Nikki is a champion for others in the disability sector and gentle disrupter. Overcoming trauma and PTSD, Nikki credits her survival to her two beautiful sons and her love of fashion design. The catalyst for design was a determined desire to find a...

Dr Catherine Barrett is a doctor, educator and researcher who started #TheKindnessPandemic only 3 weeks into Australia's Covid shutdown and it has become a global movement with over 800,000 followers and growing daily. 💓This podcast runs for 49.22 mins. (Trigger Warning: This Podcast does contain references to sexual and physical assault from 21:00 - 32.00) ❤️Dr Barrett is a Melbourne based docto...

Susan Francis is the author of her true memoir, The Love That Remains. After spending over twenty years searching for her biological parents, Susan met the love of her life. After a whirlwind romance, they married and set off on an amazing adventure to live overseas, but things took an unexpected turn. Susan joins host, Sandy Lowres, in the Confessional to tell her story - a story about secrets, l...

Claire Ashman is a remarkable woman. She grew up in a sect, a break away from the Catholic Church, and at 18 married a man who would lead her into an even more sinister community. For almost a decade she lived by the whim of a man who called himself "Little Pebble", the leader of a doomsday cult called The Order of St. Charbel. Forced to join the religious order, she took a vow of poverty, chastit...

Claire Ashman is a remarkable woman. She grew up in a sect, a break away from the Catholic Church, and at 18 married a man who would lead her into an even more sinister community. For almost a decade she lived by the whim of a man who called himself "Little Pebble", the leader of a doomsday cult called The Order of St. Charbel. Forced to join the religious order, she took a vow of poverty, chastit...

Sara Cunningham is the Founder of Free Mom Hugs (USA) and she shares her journey from midwest Christian mother to her gay son Parker coming out, to creating an organisation that wraps its arms around the LGBTI+ community. This is an inspiring and heart warming story. Free Mom Hugs now has a chapter in every state of the USA and has inspired other groups around the world including Australia. Her bo...

Many women listening or of a certain age, will be going through peri-menopause or menopause. Host Sandy Lowres chats to Nadine Marsh, a Women's Health facilitator, and Sarah Hennessey, Natural Health practitioner and Doctor of Chinese Medicine, about their innovative workshops for women - Menomorphisis: Reclaiming, Reframing and Reinventing Menopause. When Nadine started to go through her own meno...

Dating in midlife?! Kerri Sackville Australian author, columnist, social commentator, media personality and mother of three chats about herl atest book Out There - A guide to dating in Midlife, and dating after 50. Kerri writes a regular column for the SMH online and has written for The Age, Women's Weekly online, MamaMia, OK Magazine and The Australian Jewish News. To follow Kerri Sackville: Face...

Guest #14 Nicole Brownlee is an innovative leader in business who founded The Story Box Library in 2012 utilising her passion for children's literature and a background in education. Nicole works with Australian celebrities who read Australian children's books for her, including Nick Cave and Missy Higgins amongst others, and designs programs around the books for use in schools. Her vision is supp...