Lael Stone is a parenting expert, but really she’s a humaning expert. I’ve shared her conversation with the Imperfects about parenting yourself first more than any podcast I have ever listened to.

She has worked as a birth educator, post-natal trauma counsellor, a parenting educator, with teens around sexuality, she created Woodline primary school an innovative new school based on emotional well-being and connection, and now speaks about creating wellness in adults through connection and communication.

Lael is an educator, TEDx speaker, author, mother, a parenting counsellor, funny lady, and in her words, she speaks for the kids.

In this episode we discuss:

• Creating wellness through connection and community - and what that looks like.

• There is no perfect parenting, and compassion is one of the most important tools of motherhood.

• It's important we learn to sit with our kids' big emotions and be present for and with them.

• Asking the two important questions: What am I making this mean? and, What would I like it to look like? and using our responses to reparent ourselves.

• The work - as a parent, partner, friend, child - is to be observant and curious.

• Modelling a better picture of self care for our children.

• How Lael's children have facilitated her greatest growth.

I am so excited that I get to chat with her, I hope you enjoy it too.

I have to confess I’m technologically challenged. Or, as today’s guest Katherine Boiciuc, also known as KB, puts it, I’m a technology teenager. Learning every day but throwing tantrums about it.

KB is EY’s Oceania Chief Technology and Innovation Officer. We met at a conference, and when she was on stage she said everyone in the company works in IT but not everyone knows it, and I thought it was time to figure a few things out! What better way that to speak to one of Australia’s go to professionals in tech, with 20 years experience leading global teams at Telstra and advising Australia’s next generation of CTOs at Maximus.

KB is a tech industry leader, a woman in a man’s world (less than 9% of tech leadership positions are held by women), a mother, an accredited futurist, an AI specialist, and I can’t wait to learn from her.

The average cost of daycare in Sydney is around $180 per day. If you have a child in care 4 days a week, that’s more than $33k a year on daycare before the subsidy. For one child. And that’s if you can even access it, which is an increasing issue in regional areas of Australia where there are childcare deserts, but also in major cities where people are registering their kids before they are even born.

Add to that, the motherhood penalty means women face a career and income hit for a decade after they have children. Women in Australia reduce their workforce participation when they have kids, and often never catch up to our global peers. To quote advocacy group, The Parenthood, “While the motherhood penalty persists everywhere, among developed countries few have done as little as Australia to tackle it.”

This episode is with Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood, Australia’s leading parent advocacy organisation representing over 80,000 parents, carers and supporters.

Georgie is funny, opinionated, passionate and incredibly smart, and I hope you enjoy this conversation!

According to Peter Dutton, the housewives of Australia are at home doing their household budgets. According to Allegra Spender, women are out in the world demanding leadership who don’t expect them to be at home ironing.

Allegra is the Independent MP for Wentworth, focusing on bringing humanity back into politics, climate action, building a kinder, more inclusive society, and making sure those 'women at home doing the budgets' don’t crumble under the weight of the cost of living crisis we’re in right now.

Unsprisingly impressive, Allegra has degrees from Cambridge, University of London, Harvard and Dartmouth, deep corporate and public experience, and she’s doing it all as a mother of three.

We’re heading into a federal election this year, and because I think it’s so important we’re represented by someone who doesn’t think our place is in the kitchen, I’ve invited Allegra to chat with me about her hopes for the future. Full disclosure I campaigned for her last election and will be again this time. But with dual platforms of women and climate change that made her enter Parliament in the first place, I think you'll like this chat even if you don't like her politics. 

In today’s chat, we speak about:

• Allegra's mandate to represent the values of her community.

• The lies that get told during election campaigns (and that it's allowed!).

• The concern people have about opportunities, housing security, and cost of living.

• The imperative of climate action after the hottest year on record, and Australia's energy transition.

• Her belief (like RGB) that women should be equally represented in Parliament and involved in national decision-making.

• Her war stories in politics - and some of the places she's been able to drive significant change,

• How she balances work, travel and family, and building her kids' independence.

• Her belief that it's ok to care about your career, and that doesn't mean you don't also care about your kids.

I am so excited to be learning from her today, I hope you enjoy this episode with Allegra Spender.

When you look up Professor Rae Cooper on Google Scholar, there are 2659 citations.

Rae is Professor at the University of Sydney, where she is the founding Director of the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work. She also has multiple fellowships, collaborations with groups like the Australian Human Rights Commission and the OECD, and is generally incredibly impressive and knowledgeable.

Rae is one of Australia’s leading experts on the many aspects of women’s working lives. She is an Order of Australia, a mother of two, and she says it like she thinks it. 

In today’s chat, we speak about:

• The midlife collision of work, care, the mental load, the physical load, caring for parents, and women are exhausted.

• Employer solutions like flexibility, and ensuring people aren't penalised for taking it.

• Government solutions such as Paid Parental Leave and policy architecture.

• How women feel like they have to do everything twice as well, while their mistakes are amplified.

• The motherhood penalty, flex work, and how men see their partners being penalised in their careers.

• What women want: respect, job security, flexibility, and equal pay.

• The outsize impact your direct and one-up manager have on your work experience.

• The stories Rae has heard about lack of respect - being talked over, interrupted, and everyday sexism.

• The power of collective action and professional peers.

I am so excited to be learning from her today, thank you so much for joining me, Rae Cooper!

I currently have plantar fasciitis, which is essentially a sore heel, and I’ve been told it can be symptom of perimenopause. But what can NOT be a symptom of perimenopause I ask!?

Well, on this episode I am joined by Dr. Charlotte Middleton. She’s an integrative GP with over 25 years of expertise, specialising in women’s health. She founded Dr Charlotte’s Web, focused on mothers and their babies, and is about to open a new integrative medicine clinic. I came across her via Biolae – a supplement company – where she is Chief Medical Officer.

She’s also a mum, navigating a man’s world in the medical field. The latest reported gender pay gap for full-time medical specialists was 33.6%.

If you want to know what peri-menopause is, how we know if we’re in it, and how to deal with the symptoms, as well as a bit of Doctor Charlotte’s own story listen on.

Joy Adan is a Filipino-born presenter, writer and artist from Western Sydney. She’s passionate about challenging the status quo, and said after she had children she sat down with her husband and said, ‘whatever this partnership is, the terms have now changed.”

If you want some honest truths – like I love my child AND I find this really hard – are interested to know what it looks like to rewrite cultural and gender roles, and you need permission to discard the lessons we’ve been taught about self sacrifice, Joy is your woman. 

Jane Caro is a renowned feminist author and social commentator, known for saying exactly what’s on her mind. She’s known for her sharp wit, her humour and fearless advocacy for gender equality, and is a pioneering feminist in Australia who’s name you most likely already know.

Jane is a Walkley Award winner, a Member of the Order of Australia, a mother, a grandmother, a wife, a beef producer and a timber grower.

I’m honoured to have the opportunity to speak with her, and I hope you enjoy her passion and humour as she talks about all things feminism. 

*This summer we're re-releasing previous episodes that we loved. Here is Koa Beck  episode from 2021* 

*This summer we're re-releasing previous episodes that we loved. Here is Jess Hill episode from 2021* 

Investigative journalist Jess Hill wrote the award-winning See What You Made Me Do, about the national emergency of domestic abuse in Australia. It’s a riveting but deeply distressing look at the real-life stories of women and children, how the justice system enables abusers, and hope for reducing violence through community intervention. Please note there is a content warning on this episode. It’s incredibly important listening, but it’s also upsetting at points, and we discuss family violence and child abuse.

Diversity Council of Australia CEO Lisa Annese is a self-described feminist and activist, working to improve gender equality in Australian workplaces. She is passionate about the connection between the gendered roles we still expect at home with a lack of progress for women in workplaces.  Lisa shared research from the DCA that shows men’s mental health and wellbeing benefits from being in gender equal relationships, families and workplaces. The conversation around men’s mental health and women wanting flexibility and support in the workplace are two sides of the same coin, and Lisa’s deep knowledge around gender issues led us on a fascinating discussion.