Seize the Yay

So excited to finally have our #yaysofourlives recap for you from our incredible trip to the Northern Territory a few weeks back. You'll hear all about it in the episode, but to quickly give you some background - eight amazing women (and two fabulous men to capture photos and video) spent three days hiking 55km with 2200m of elevation across three of the twelve parts of the Larapinta Trail led by Larapinta Culture, the only Aboriginal owned and operated touring company in the area. Jungala, the owner and an elder in the region, and his grandson Perrulle (along with Nick Fife, their mate who came to help out) gave us the most eye opening and immersive few days camping in the red dirt, walking through the oldest land formations in the world and sleeping under the shooting stars. I sat down with now three-time Seize the Yay guest Samantha Gash who organised the trip under the banner of her new female adventure group, Her Trails, and Jo Nevin (one of my amazing new friends from the adventure) to give you a little insight into what it was like. As avid trail runners, these two are also heading back in a few months to run all twelve sections of the Larapinta Trail covering 250km in a row unassisted (so carrying everything they will need with them the whole way) just to give you an idea of the powerhouses you're about to hear from. They'll also speak to you about the return of Relief Run that they are both working away on furiously - you may remember that my husband, Nic, and Samantha pulled together a global virtual run last year to raise over $1 million for bushfire relief and it's back again this year to support the terrifying challenge faced by India at the moment under the pressures of COVID 19. Samantha just incidentally has crossed the whole of India on foot giving it a special place in her heart, and we've set up a Yayborhood team which you can join from anywhere to run anytime with us between 11-13 June. I'd be so proud to have some of you on board with us too - links below. Enjoy the cackles and reflections, I hope it brings some yay to your week! SIGN UP TO RELIEF RUN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HER TRAILS + Follow Samantha here and Jo here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

So excited about our guest for this episode, you all know I love finding different and heart warming stories from around the world and this was one I found randomly on Instagram. I'm so thrilled that Rob Kenney kindly agreed to join us from Seattle to share his fascinating journey from college football to salesman to YouTube influencer extraordinaire! You may know him simply as "Dad" from the wildly popular Dad How Do I? YouTube channel teaching you how to do everyday things you may have missed out on learning from your dad. Created during the pandemic last year following conversations with his 28 year old daughter and 25 year old son, the channel has exploded to nearly three and a half million subscribers who Rob calls hid "kids" from all over the globe. You'll hear the story of how Rob's own dad took custody of him and his seven siblings when his mother turned to alcoholism, only to leave the family when Rob was just 14 leaving Rob to grow up in his older brother's small caravan. You'll also hear his extraordinary empathy for his parents and refusal to dwell on the past leading a beautiful life with his own family before this incredible plot twist in his 50s. His is such a cool story with so many important lessons on kindness, forgiveness, the different forms of ambition and the very seize-the-yay-appropriate reminder that you never know when a new chapter you could never have imagined lies just around the corner. Rob is also a published author AND has so many other exciting things on the horizon. I hope you enjoy as much as I did! BUY A SIGNED COPY OF ROB'S BOOK WATCH ROB'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL + Follow Rob here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

Today's guest is a little ray of sunshine - I can almost hear her smile coming through my headphones. Georgie Mankey is our first nurse on the show who absolutely dispels the misconception that nursing is just where you end up if you didn't become a doctor sharing her long-time dream of nursing in ICU and how she worked her way up there. We also cover her little hiatus from nursing to complete her yoga teacher training leading to several stints in India and even a period juggling both full time jobs before ultimately coming back to nursing as her first love. During that time, you may have known her as Fit with Georgie where she grew quite a considerable online community around her yoga practice and healthy lifestyle. She also shares openly about why she's taken a step back from the online world going against the grain to find a balance that makes her yay. I hope you enjoy! + Follow Georgie here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

Back after a short break while we were out in the Northern Territory hiking on country along the Larapinta Trail. Soooo much to share from our transformative week without signal or devices, but I probably need a bit longer to be able to find the right words, so I'll kick off this week with a bit of a hybrid #yaysofourlives episode that we recorded before I left. While I know I just set you up with the three sections for this segment, this week's guest is so fascinating that our interview was almost as long as a regular episode (and probably should have been), so today's episode is all about the Yayborhood Watch. Our wonderful yayborhood member, Stephanie Ippel, submitted the most amazing nomination for her fellow Phillip Island local, Mat Bowtell. You may have seen the video already of our visit to his factory on social media (and if you haven't, watch here), but Mat goes into more depth here about starting Free 3D Hands to make assistive hand devices using 3D printers at a fraction of the cost which he then provides FREE for children around the world. His aim is to make these items at 1/1000th of the cost changing the terrifying static that 90% of the over 1 billion people in the world who needed assistance devices aren't currently able to access them. The factory is solar powered ad the printers use recyclable plastic, recently advancing to even producing a bionic arm that costs just $100 versus the $30,000 that some equivalents cost to make. And it all unravelled during a pivot from a redundancy - the best kind of yayborhood story. I hope you enjoy as much as I did! And thank you so much again Stephanie for the nomination, I'm relying on you all to dob in your local heroes (especially those who would never nominate themselves for the spotlight they and their work deserves), so keep your eyes peeled! Please email smile@spoonfulofsarah.com with your nominations... + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

What a treat we have this week with the melodious voice of Julia Stone coming to your ears - even just her speaking is one of the most beautiful sounds. Unless you've literally been living under a rock, you will have definitely heard some of her work (even if you didn't realise it) including, at the very least, the ubiquitous and ARIA award-winning single, Big Jet Plane, released with her brother Angus in the same year that they won five ARIA awards from nine nominations for their incredible work. But what I'm thrilled to be chatting with Julia about today is her brand-new album, Sixty Summers, and this episode starts with a snippet of one of the featuring songs, Break, which gives you a taste of vibrant and distinctly different sound. Thi sis her third solo album but first that wasn't launched in between Angus and Julia releases and with the most striking departure into new styles, partnerships and even supporting visuals including a music video with Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover. You know I love getting into conversations about identity, different chapters, outgrowing your past definitions of success and finding new metrics for your happiness so what a perfect time to sit down with this wonderful artist just before this new album comes into the world. As always, it was so enlightening to hear more about the human being behind the household name - I LOVE that part of this show so much. Hopefully you all learn as much as I did about her that you might not have known and you'll also get a juicy sneak peek of some of the music to come. JULIA'S RELEVANT LINKS HERE + Follow Julia here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

I'm thrilled to be joined by my dear friend, Melissa Ambrosini, to celebrate the launch of her FOURTH and very much needed book, Comparisonitis. In a time where the minute details of everyone else's lives are more visible than ever, this book is MUST-have guide to arming yourself against the dangers of continual social comparison and self-doubt. Melissa is one of the absolute OG leaders in self-development and wellbeing growing from a Blogspot newbie over a decade ago to multiple bestselling author, podcaster with over 16 million downloads, TEDx speaker and very soon-to-be new mama. It's quite lovely now that enough time has passed since my move out of corporate to have been able to experience multiple chapters and stages in the lives of people I have been lucky enough to connect with since the early days and I actually interviewed Melissa for her very first book just as she was at my very first speaking gig ever. Mel has taught me so much over the years particularly around self-awareness, boundaries and continual growth and she shares so many of those lessons today. We chat everything from her fascinating earlier days as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge to the weirdest health hacks we've tried, the challenges of getting pregnant, and trusting the process. I hope you enjoy! BUY YOUR COPY OF COMPARISONITIS HERE + Follow Melissa here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

Our first co-hosted Yays of our Lives episode with two absolute legends Abbey Gelmi (ep 81) and Gemma Watts (ep 85) squeezed in during a girls night catch up that was filled with yay (so how could we NOT record all our musings?) Even in the time that has passed since their respective episodes of the show, many subsequent seeds have come to fruition in their lives so these two made the perfect guests to join us for a chat on patience, hard work and trusting the process. I initially thought this new segment would fall into quite a consistent routine like our regular interview scheduling, but I've actually really enjoyed how different each week has been and LOVED the pace and laughter of having co-hosts on board. As always, however, this is a yayborhood production so I'd LOVE to know if you enjoyed having a few different voices in your ear with some tangential banter (and, if so, I'll start lining up some more co-hosts for the coming weeks). Please never hesitate to flick me your thoughts by DM or email any time, you know I ADORE connecting with you all. + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

Welcome back lovely yayborhood and thank you for always bearing with me when I take a little break leaving a longer than usually gap between episodes. We had a glorious few days in the countryside over Easter with family switching off completely and I can't say how good it was for the soul. I think one of the most clarifying things for me over the past year has been to re-evaluate urgency and realise how many false deadlines I imposed on myself - I think I did 70 weeks in a row when we first started the show! I hope you enjoyed the re-release of legend Wim Hof's episode from last year to give you something in your ears, what an absolute hoot he is! I'm so glad I waited that extra week though as I got to record this week's episode in person which feels a bit like a luxury these days having done so many on Zoom. After voraciously consuming Lucy Glade-Wright's beautiful content last year to help get us through COVID particularly following her home reno very closely as we started our own, it was a thrill to actually see the results in person and record this in her lounge room. For any fellow homewares and home design lovers out there like myself, Lucy's amazing business Hunting for George will need no introduction having made waves in the industry since 2010 but in case you haven't already discovered its wonders, it's my absolute go-to source for home, design and lifestyle with a growing number of facets including house tours, travel guides and even a renovation TV show. This is only the second time however that Lucy has jumped on a podcast to share the full story of how it has evolved through several earlier chapters from a retail store (which it was when we first met a random local government business dinner) to a product design business and now to a bustling platform for storytelling and it was an absolute delight. She's another fabulous example of the many unexpected but amazing ways your why will evolve through many different hows if you just trust the process and give things a go. She's such a good egg and we had some fabulous chuckles on her lounge room floor. I hope you enjoy! WATCH THE A + M HOUSE TOUR HERE + Follow Lucy here + Visit Hunting for George here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

NOTE: Released May 2020, re-released in April 2021. I'm so excited to have something a little different for you this week - a JOINT podcast episode with Stef and Jess Dadon, the fashion entrepreneurs behind How Two Live, Founders of Twoobs and hosts of their own fabulous, How Two Live podcast. I've mentioned that one of the silver linings to come out of isolation this year is the new ways we've been finding to connect with each other and I was so stoked when these spectacular sisters reached out with the idea of hosting an episode together. As a solo host (for which there are so many perks which mostly include not making anyone else deal with my last minute antics for editing), I do miss out on the joys of banter with a co-host, so this was an absolute delight not least because the girls are total pros having hosted the likes of Meg Ryan, Erin Brockovich, Dita von Teese and so many more. Add to that the pleasure of a totally invigorating, energetic and overwhelmingly passionate guest like Wim Hof and you've got one of my most enjoyable chats to date. I'm so grateful to the girls for sharing this opportunity with me - you might have heard this quote in my episode with Harlan Coben a few weeks ago, nobody has to fail so I can succeed to which I added that success doesn't halve when you share it, it doubles. I'm a big believer in collaboration and I hope you enjoy the result as much as we did. If you haven't heard of Wim Hof and his eponymous breathing method that has taken the world by storm, Stef and Jess will give you a run down before we kick off - he is totally quirky but so much fun and an embodiment of seizing his yay. Like all people blazing a new and different trail, there are controversies around some areas of his work, but we focused on the practical, day to day takeaways of his method and on his incredible passion for controlling your happiness and health. He's so excited about what he does that he shouts most of it the whole way through, which I ADORED! Hope you find him as fascinating as we did. + Follow Wim Hof here + Follow How Two Live here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

How crazy but wonderful that we've made it to Easter already, I hope you're all looking forward to a long weekend and have some play to yay scheduled in. This week I've got the second guest who was originally scheduled in for International Women's Day who is an incredibly inspiring and powerful woman and who you'll very soon hear is well worth the wait. If you've been listening long enough to know a bit about how my brain works, you'll probably notice as quickly as I did how similarly Rey Vakili and I think, with many parallels earlier on in our story like starting studies in law to gratify our inner nerd. Rey, however, went off on an equally non-linear but completely different pathway that in a parallel universe would be my absolute dream life. I'll let her tell you most of it herself particularly because it's her VERY FIRST PODCAST, so It's my privilege to bring you her fascinating story for the first time. But let's just say, she's an Ivy League Graduate from Yale University, worked in the International Criminal Court for Sierra Leone, has an MBA from Stanford, worked as ANNA WINTOUR'S ASSISTANT (the Editor in Chief of Vogue) living The Devil Wears Prada in real life, moved from NYC into start ups in London and has now moved back home but she's just getting started. Buckle in for a serious dose of inspiration! Note: Rey's headphone batteries die at about 13 minutes in so the sound changes (but actually improves) for the rest of the episode. + Follow Rey here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

Some birthday reflections on why ageing should be celebrated, not lamented as well as a celebration of the 90th year of the Good Friday Appeal. As we approach Easter, I thought it would be the perfect time to share some deeper insights into how it started, how it's grown over the past 90 years and the incredible impact it has had on children and their families visiting the Royal Children's Hospital. The Good Friday Appeal has raised close to $400 million since it began funding research projects like the Children's Cancer Centre Tissue Bank and Brain Tumour Clinical Trials, equipment like the Neurosurgery microscope and infant warmers for critical care and patient and family centred care focusing not only on physical but also mental health. The Royal Children's Hospital remains one of the top paediatric hospitals in the world. >> CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE AND DONATE <

I'm so excited to share one of the women whose praises I could sing over and over who was originally lined up for International Women's Day for the incredible impact she has had on my journey through many different chapters. Dr Alexandra Phelan was a few years ahead of me at Monash University and, as you'll hear, has a very similar personality combination of "nerdburger vs arty farty" with a splash of languages and also started her career at the same law firm as I did which was one of the reasons I wanted to work there in the first place. While we both ultimately left corporate law. Alex is a glowing example of how you can stay within the law and find a niche that suits your strengths and interests and she has gone on to become a seriously impressive Member of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University School of Medicine, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Her Honours AND Doctoral theses both focused on International Law and the prevention of infectious diseases (including the possibility of measures like quarantine and border closures before they became as relevant as we know them to be), which has made her a leading global authority on health security and INCREDIBLY relevant to the world's response to COVID-19. Alex is infinitely impressive, painfully humble and continues to inspire me every day - I'm so honoured she made time to join the show from Washington DC. She shares some fascinating insights on the more technical side to the challenge of a global pandemic like COVID-19 with her intellect and empathy shining through. + Follow Alex here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

I'm SO excited about this week's instalment of Yays of our Lives because I finally got on the road and headed to West Gippsland to record Yayborhood Watch IN PERSON. It's been so delightful heading back out into the real world to discover new yayborhoods, stories and unsung heroes and this trip was such an amazing place to start. I could have sat down with every single person we met, they were all so interesting and wise in different ways - hence this week's quote of the yay, as you'll hear. Probably lucky I didn't though as we already reached an hour just with the four LEGENDS I was able to record with and we barely touched the surface. These four amazing Gippslandians inspired me in such different and profound ways. To find out more about them: •Find Joy here •Find Brodie here •Find Etch Sparkling here •Find Gippsland Jersey here >> WATCH THE VIDEO OF OUR TRIP << + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

Back with another wonderful guest today - I've pushed this week's Yays of our Lives episode back a little bit until the Gippsland video is ready to help you put faces to names, so that'll be out next week. Content warning: this episode covers family violence. This week, I was lucky enough to sit down with Rosie Batty, 2015 Australian of the Year and passionate campaigner against domestic violence during a week where the alarming statistics surrounding violence against women have been brought back to the forefront of our attention. Rosie has turned the unfathomable personal tragedy of losing her son Luke who was murdered by his father in 2014 into a relentless fight to raise awareness of family violence and address the systemic and many other obstacles to positive change. The topic is a little heavier than usual, but I believe it's such an important conversation to continue in order to amplify the fact that one woman a week is still killed by her partner or former partner. Rosie also has such powerful insights on rediscovering joy through the paralysis of grief, unravelling her identity from trauma which is not the totality of who she is and I loved also having the chance to get to know about the parts of her story that I hadn't heard about in the media. Rosie is also an ambassador for L'Oréal Paris' new Women of Worth campaign and we also chat about some of L'Oréal's amazing Self-Worth Commissioned Research about the pervasive and destructive nature of self doubt and low self esteem among women. If anyone will inspire us all to combat the self doubt and continue to raise each other up, it's Rosie. I hope you are as moved by her as I was. If you need any support or resources, please don't hesitate to contact the WHITE RIBBON HOTLINE on 1800RESPECT. + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Join our Facebook community here

Re-releasing this beauty to celebrate the launch of Embrace on Netflix on March 5th!!! Three women who represent IWD to me had to postpone their recordings, but Taryn also inspires me everyday to embrace my womanhood so if you missed this back in 2019, what a perfect week to catch up Today's guest is one of the people I admire most in this world who is the fiercely passionate thought leader behind The Body Image Movement and whose first film, the documentary Embrace, has reached over 100 million people with her message about learning to love your body. Taryn Brumfitt broke the internet in 2013 with an unconventional before and after photo where the after shot was heavier and HAPPIER than the leaner before shot taken during a body building competition when she was more restrictive, less balanced and less happy. After going viral all over the world and receiving over 7000 messages from women struggling with body confidence, she wrote a book and crowdfunded an incredible documentary, Embrace, that is set to become Australia's highest grossing documentary ever. She is now in the process of raising money for the second film, Embrace Kids, and I couldn't be more excited for the positive impact and contribution it will make to a comparative, competitive and sometimes overwhelming world that our children will grow up in. Not only is she making serious waves in the world, she also loves to play and doesn't take life too seriously which I LOVE about her and the cackles are next level - hope you smile as much as I did during our chat!!! + Full show notes here + Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah + Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!