
A treasured acknowledgement of how I work came from reclusive poet John Kinsella in 2015. After I thanked him for a lengthy interview, he responded “I tell you what, I’m surprised I did it. I wasn’t going to, but …I looked at some of the other stuff you’d been doing and I thought that this is a way of telling a life where I’m not going to be judged. At least not during the conversation…I feel that I’ve been given a go to speak my mind under my own conditions. So thank you for that.”
Formerly a producer of news and current affairs radio at ABC Perth, I was a latecomer to media, starting in community radio in my early 30’s. My clients have included Fane Productions, Perth Festival, WA Museum Boola Bardip, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Women in Mining WA, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Disrupted Festival of Ideas.
My Rare Air podcast features one-on-one long form interviews revealing remarkable stories of self mastery, strong principles and transcendence of great challenges. The podcast and my live interviewing work has given me the chance to talk to some incredible people including author Margaret Atwood, journalists Leigh Sales and Stan Grant, and robotic limb expert Professor Munjed al Muderis. In 2016, I was senior producer for the Perth International Arts Festival’s collaboration with London’s Empathy Museum, called A Mile in My Shoes.
In March 2020 by crazy chance, I was able to host Christiana Figueres, chief architect of the Paris Climate Agreement in Perth and since then have focussed on understanding the climate action landscape in Western Australia, using Figueres’ lessons in inclusive leadership and stubborn optimism to inform progress.
Not long after, I started WA Climate Leaders Inc, a cross sectoral network intent on inspiring bold leadership in Western Australian business and industry to accelerate emissions reduction and climate action. The vision is that Western Australia is a world leader in the race to net zero emissions. Now, I do my best to prioritise involvement in conversations that share that focus.