Really Interesting Women - the podcast

Episode 135

Lily Brett OAM

Lily Brett is an internationally acclaimed author of six novels, four collections of essays and nine volumes of poetry. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including, the C.J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and has been shortlisted several times for the Miles Franklin award.

She was born in Germany to two Auschwitz survivors and the family migrated to Australia as refugees when she was very young. She went on to become a bit of a reluctant journalist (initially) and worked for Australia's most renowned rock magazine where she covered the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival and has interviewed, amongst others, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger.

She subsequently turned to writing poetry and novels and, as alluded to earlier – made a great success of that. Her work frequently explores the lives of Holocaust survivors and their children. The story of her own parents survival is remarkable. As is pretty much most of Lily Brett's life.

Head to the link in my bio to listen to my conversation with Lily Brett.


You can find Lily's books on her website:
https://www.lilybrett.com/books

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Really Interesting Women - the podcast

Episode 134

Justine Barwick

"If you can't solve the big problems, solve the little ones in front of you and keep chipping away"

Justine Barwick has been working tirelessly and selflessly in the Community Services sector for 25 years. The sort of person that puts the needs of everyone else before her own. But circumstances eventually changed that dramatically.

It was what happened in September 2018 that propelled Justine into the national conscience. You see, she was on annual holiday in the beautiful Whitsunday Islands and this country’s collective worst nightmare happened. She was attacked and mauled by a shark.

She was very, very lucky to survive. In those situations, life changes dramatically in an instant and those changes, should you survive...are ongoing both physically and mentally.

Here’s the story of an extraordinary woman whose resilience and determination meant she not only survived, she thrived. It's an incredible and inspiring story of survival. And the lessons she's learned on the way are relevant for all of us.

Head to the link in my bio to hear Justine's story.

Visit instagram @reallyinterestingwomen for further interviews and posts of interesting women in history.

Follow the link to leave a review....and tell your friends
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/really-interesting-women/id1526764849

Really Interesting Women - the podcast

Episode 133

Melinda Schneider

*This podcast contains content about depression*

Melinda started in the entertainment industry aged 3 alongside her mother, the legendary yodeller Mary Schneider. She recorded music at 8, had her acting debut in A Country Practice at 13, went on to release 14 albums and win six Golden Guitars from the Country Music Awards of Australia.

Her songs have been recorded by Australian music royalty such as John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John and Paul Kelly.

Melinda is an incredible live performer and has enjoyed huge touring success. After recording an album of Doris Day songs in tribute to her hero, Mary encouraged Melinda to write a full theatre show about Doris. She did. The tour which accompanied her #1 hit album ‘Melinda Does Doris’ toured the country extensively and even sold out the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall twice!

Having had a successful career for 40 years, she continues her innovative progression with the launch of an independent record label and, I understand, a new album early next year. Rock guru Glenn A Baker described her as one of this country’s truly important artists.

But, as is often the case, the achievements and accolades don’t tell the whole story.

In 2018, as a result of 30 years of relentless work combined with a perfectionist streak, Melinda was overcome with depression. She has been very public about it and I personally found it a really insightful discussion. Her strength, resilience and determination in dealing with this issue stands, I imagine, with equal pride alongside all her other achievements.

Head to the link in my bio to listen to Melinda's podcast episode.

Visit instagram @reallyinterestingwomen for further interviews and posts of interesting women in history.

Follow the link to leave a review....and tell your friends
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/really-interesting-women/id1526764849