This episode discusses themes of birth trauma, post natal depression and anxiety.

Bron Lewis is one of Australia’s most promising new comedians. She was the co-winner of the National Raw Comedy competition in 2022, a four-time champion of the Moth storytelling competition, and both the best and the worst mum living at her house. Bron is a writer at The Project and has a prominent presence on stages all around the country.

Bron’s critically acclaimed show ‘Probably’ sold out in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, and it scored her a nomination for Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s ‘Best Newcomer’ for 2023.

A conversation with the soulful indie folk singer songwriter Mietta - storytelling and creating on Boonwurrung country in Australia's Mornington Peninsula. At 22 years of age, Mietta is in a season of emergence. With deep connection to her home roots and her community she is also an education researcher, learning skills mentor, facilitator and designer of youth wellbeing and expressive writing workshops. Mietta has recently supported the beloved artists Pete Murray and Kim Churchill and has just released her first recorded single with producer and friend fellow indie folk musician Timothy Li.

Roberta had a baby during Covid and noticed that many mothers in her community (including herself) were feeling isolated and alone. With the help of an organisation called the Planetary Healing Centre Roberta began running women's circles for mothers in the woods near her home building space for mothers to share their stories, stitch, sit with their feet in the stream and shine a light on the darkness as well as the love they were experiencing.

Dr Melanie Jackson is a private midwife providing homebirth services since 2009. In 2015 she completed her PhD, called "birth outside the system: wanting the best and safest" This work sprouted academic publications and has also allowed her to work as a researcher and midwifery lecturer at Western Sydney university, as a peer reviewer for academic journals and as a project officer at the Australian College of Midwives and motivates the work she now does on her social media and youtube channels.

Welcome to another episode of TONTS. on the road. Audio grabs from Claire's tour of the UK last year. This one is from her London show with the spoken word poet Hollie Mcnish. Hollie is an award-winning poet, writer and performer. She is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Slug (and other things I’ve been told to hate) and won the Ted Hughes award for new work in poetry with her poetry and parenting memoir Nobody Told Me.

Jasper Peach is a trans, non-binary and disabled writer, speaker and parent. They are passionate about equitable access and inclusion, focused around the dismantling of misplaced shame via storytelling. Their written work has been published in The Age, HireUp, The Big Issue, Archer, The Guardian, Verandah, Australian Poetry Journal, Meanjin, ABC and SBS online.

Lucy Jones is an investigative journalist and author. She has written extensively on culture, science and na­ture. Her articles have been published on BBC Earth and in The Sunday Times, The Guardian and the New Statesman. Her first book, Foxes Un­earthed, received the Society of Authors’ Roger Deakin Award. She has also written the book Losing Eden which was long-listed for the Wainwright Prize and received a Society of Authors’ K Blundell Trust Award. The Times and Telegraph named it a book of the year (2020) and the paperback became a Times' bestseller (2021).

Clementine Ford is a Melbourne based writer, speaker and feminist thinker. She is the author of four books, Fight Like A Girl, Boys will be Boys, How We Love and het latest book I Don’t the case against marriage. She has been a columnist for Fairfax’s Daily Life and a regular contributor to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. Clementine's writing explores issues of gender inequality and pop culture. Her ability to use both humour and distilled fury to lay bare ongoing issues affecting women has earned her a huge and loyal readership amongst both women and men. Clementine’s work has radically challenged the issues of men’s violence against women, rape culture and gender warfare in Australia, while her comedic take on casual sexism and entertainment has earned her a reputation as an accomplished satirist.

TONTS. On The Road. This episode is part of series of episodes that were recorded on the road as part of my tour of the UK and Ireland last year. In this first on the road episode I talk to the incredibly kind Sabrina Kennedy Charge nurse at the Bristol New Horizon Mother and Baby Unit. The unit is the smallest in the UK and is a 4-bed South West regional service providing treatments and interventions to meet the physical and mental health needs of mothers and their infants.

Larissa is a freelance illustrator with many strings to her bow. In 2021 she decided to couple her creative powers with her entrepreneurial mindset and founded the bereavement care charity Possum Portraits. This charity provides bereaved Australian parents with keepsake portrait drawings of babies lost to miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death free of charge.

In a very special episode of TONTS. I deep dive into the wonderful world of Bluey podcast with Bluey expert and podcast host Mary Bolling. Mary is a journalist, mum and kids culture enthusiast, and one half of the Gotta Be Done podcast, deep-diving Australian juggernaut Bluey (and parenting, pop culture and everything else!) since 2019.

Tess Lehman is a photographer, creative, proudly queer and a mother of 3 living in Newcastle, Australia. Her story is honest and raw and an example of what happens when we have the courage to really live a creative life and find ourselves with vulnerability, humour and joy.

Sally Douglas and Imogen Carn met after the sudden deaths of their mothers only months apart. Their experiences led them to launch a podcast, and their no-holds-barred, relatable approach to talking about grief sparked a growing following of people eager to have honest conversations about what it really feels like to deal with loss. 

The last episode of season 3 for 2022 and I'd like to share my single Fear to Feel with you and tell you the story of La Loba the wolf woman.

Trigger Warning - this episode discusses themes of emotional abuse and trauma. If this brings anything up for you at all please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Part Two of this beautiful conversation with author, storyteller and presenter Holly Ringland.

Holly Ringland is a writer, storyteller, and television presenter. Her award-winning, bestselling debut novel, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, has been published in 31 countries/territories and will stream globally in 2023 as a seven-part series on Amazon Prime, starring Sigourney Weaver…

Freya Lawler joins me again today to deep dive into Endometriosis, a condition that effects so many women and is still chronically under diagnosed and often misunderstood…

My guest today is Lizzy Hoo WHO is many things – a writer, noodle enthusiast, designer, actor, sports lover, and rescue greyhound owner. Lizzy is also a stand-up comedian who has rapidly become one of Australia’s most exciting new voices. Lizzy only started doing stand-up in 2017, originally as a way to gain more self-confidence…