Dr Billy Garvey is a renowned developmental paediatrician and one of the hosts of the brilliant ⁠⁠ Pop Culture Parenting⁠⁠ podcast. His new book Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child's Mental Health is out now.

If you have kids or work with young people in any capacity - THIS IS THE BOOK TO READ.

Have you ever wondered how we build self-esteem in kids? Or what the long-term ramifications of shame might be? Do you know where anxiety comes from and how early it can start? Did you know that there is one thing you need to do before you can help improve your child’s mental health?

In this episode, we drilled down into all of these questions – and so much more – and thanks to Billy’s invaluable insight and professional expertise, you will finish this episode with evidence-based answers and strategies that you can start implementing immediately.

Billy is passionate about creating accessible resources for all families, to ensure better outcomes for our children and young people. To learn more, head to Guiding Growing Minds, a social enterprise founded by Billy, dedicated to changing the future of our kids.

You can access all of the ⁠Pop Culture Parenting⁠ videos and podcast content (for free!) on ⁠Youtube here.⁠

You can find Billy on socials at ⁠@drbillygarvey⁠ and at ⁠@popcultureparenting⁠

To connect with Jana, head to ⁠@thecuriouslifepodcast⁠ or send an email via ⁠thecuriouslifepodcast@gmail.com⁠.

Thank you to The Curious Life Team – Sam Talbot for his super speedy audio engineering, and to Julie Reynolds of ⁠Audio Lemonade⁠ for her wonders with VO!

Please leave us a rating and review on iTunes so that this episode and the show can be found by new listeners too.

Dr Nick Fuller is a leading obesity researcher and internationally recognised health expert, who is committed to helping families get the best start in life. He joins us for the second time to talk about his new book, Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids: Six Steps to Total Family Wellness.

In this chat, Dr Nick shares exactly how we can transform our habits and behaviours, to give our kids (and ourselves) the gift of good health and longevity. Is there any greater gift?

And it's amazingly simple, really! No fads here, just clinical evidence that teaches us what our bodies need, with a clear guide to the changes we can implement from today, how to feed our fussy kids and the importance of the messaging we give to our kids around movement and health.

To find out more, go straight to the source for resources, recipes and cooking demonstrations for your own family, by heading to Feeding Fussy Kids.

There is more on Youtube at: @FeedingFussyKidsbyDrNickFuller

And to learn more about Dr Nick's work and research in the adult realm, head to Interval Weight Loss.

You can connect with Dr Nick on socials at @intervalweightloss

Come and say hello at @thecuriouslifepodcast or send us an email at thecuriouslifepodcast@gmail.com

A big thank you to Sam Talbot for jumping in so expertly on the audio engineering tools! And as always a big thanks to our lovely Julie Reynolds of Audio Lemonade.

Heidi Anderson is a bubbly ball of brilliant energy, who has pivoted from a life in the reality and radio spotlight, to PR and confidence hype queen.

But she's not all sequins and sass, Heidi has had to do the heavy lifting to overcome significant challenges in her own life. From body image and self-esteem, to her new normal of balancing a busy work and media life, with her role as a doting mum to her beautiful young son and partner to her loving hubby. To manage this, Heidi is constantly evolving and doing the work in a meaningful way.

In this conversation, we dug down into some of Heidi's most vulnerable spots. From grieving former identities and the path through a very difficult family choice, to a harrowing parental diagnosis that has brought Heidi and her family closer together than ever before.

This one has laughter and tears but through it all, I hope it inspires you to ask yourself the hard questions, to talk to the people you love about the scary things and as Heidi says - to shed your shit!

You can work directly with Heidi through her VIP PR Champagne Confidence Club – offering a personalised PR plan, pitch templates, access to Heidi and her media expert besties and so much more. So, if you’re ready to make a splash – contact Heidi today on socials at @_heidianderson.

While you’re at it, grab a copy of her book “Drunk on Confidence” and why not grab a copy of my new book, PLOT TWIST, while you’re there!

If you have any questions for Heidi or for me – send us a DM on socials or send me an email, at thecuriouslifepodcast@gmail.com⁠.

You can catch me at @thecuriouslifepodcast and I would be so grateful if you could leave a rating and review on iTunes.

This episode was sound engineered by the brilliant Sam Blacker of @thepodcastbutler and delightful voice over work by the lovely Julie Reynolds at @audiolemonade.

You can work with either or both of these legends at:

www.thepodcastbutler.com and www.audiolemonade.com

Returning guest and one of our favourite documentarians, Marc Fennell sat down to unpack his new project that explores the early days of the internet and where it all went wrong, through a deep dive into a previously unexplored world of tech hippies, eccentric web subcultures and simmering paranoia, uncovering how this tongue-in-cheek artistic experiment backfired on its creator and went on to influence much of what’s wrong with the internet today.

Marc was quite candid about his approach to documentary making and storytelling, and to my delight, shared just how he really felt about being labelled as the "cheerful Aussie version of Louis Theroux" - the same day he was sitting down to interview Louis himself.

This is a fun one.

The Audible Original series, This is Not a Game with Marc Fennell, is out now. Listen for free at audible.com.au/notagame”

My new book Plot Twist is available now in bookstores everywhere or online and I'd love to hear your thoughts! Hit me up with a DM on socials at @thecuriouslifepodcast or send me an email at thecuriouslifepodacst@gmail.com.

This episode was put together by the audio engineering wizardry of Sam Blacker at The Podcast Butler.

Voiceover as always by the lovely Julie Reynolds of Audio Lemonade.

Please leave a rating and review on iTunes so that we can continue to deliver this show into new ears.

Victoria Vanstone has lived the nightlife of a rockstar – blazing through bars across the world, waking up in random locations with hazy memories of the night before, with clubbing injuries and risky scenarios all part of her weekly experience. It was a blisteringly good time – until it wasn’t.

As a mum of three kids, and an author with a thriving podcast, Vic is now sober and living in Queensland, in stark contrast to her blackout days.

She has had some wild adventures, that she recounts in quite hilarious fashion, in her book A Thousand Wasted Sundays. We got right to the heart of things, unpacking Vic’s journey to sobriety, through her early years growing up in the UK, to her many misadventures across the world – including a traumatic firsthand account of the Boxing Day Tsunami, bearing witness to the unthinkable tragedy in the unfolding days.

We got deep about the complexities of parenthood, grief, peer judgement and accountability – and so much more.

Vic’s story is entirely engaging, totally relatable and incredibly inspiring.

Listen to this ep and then grab yourself a copy of her brilliant book A Thousand Wasted Sundays, but be warned – you won’t be able to put it down!

You can hear more of her story in her award-winning podcast Sober Awkward and on socials at @drunkmummysobermummy.

Find me at @thecuriouslifepodcast and @thedaysthatfollow.

You can also order your copy of my new book PLOT TWIST via Booktopia by clicking this link, or in real life at your favourite bookstore.

Thank you to my wonderful team, Editor and Audio Engineer, Luke Hensel @lukehensel07, and voiceover artiste Julie Reynolds @audiolemonade www.audiolemonade.com

We are back with Season 6 and we’re kicking things off with a huge announcement! Plot Twist! You’ll hear it here first and I’m so thrilled to finally be able to spill the beans.

Following that big announcement, we welcome back returning guest, comedian Chris Franjola – live from Las Vegas. Well, he was live on location at the time of recording anyway. Chris brings some much-needed laughter and lightness into the conversation, and we talk about his Hollywood connections, what’s next for Megan Markle, a tangential royal education for Chris – and the realities of life on the road as a touring comedian. We also connected over the battles of parenthood and unwelcome input from strangers – this episode really has it all.

There are plenty of laughs and relatable moments in this one, and it’s the perfect start to the year.

You can keep up with Chris on socials at @chrisfranjola and find out where he’s touring next at www.franjola.fun.

You can find me at @thecuriouslifepodcast and @thedaysthatfollow and pretty please leave us a rating and review on iTunes so that this episode and the show can reach as many people as possible.

The pre-order link to Plot Twist: a personal guide to surviving life’s unexpected curveballs can be found below!

Plot Twist by Jana Firestone | A personal guide to surviving life's unexpected curveballs | 9781761470448 | Booktopia

A huge thank you as always to the brilliant team that puts this show together!

- Luke Hensel: editor/audio engineer @lukehensel07

- Julie Reynolds: voice overs/podcast coordinator @audiolemonade. www.audiolemonade.com

Welcome to the final episode for 2024… And what an ep it is!

In this lucky last conversation for the year, I had the absolute privilege of meeting one of my favourite content creators, the brilliant Sean Szeps.

If you’re not already a fan – you soon will be. Sean is an American expat, author and a married father of twins who makes a living creating hilarious content on the (rude) realities of parenting.

But in this conversation, I got to know the more serious side of Sean. The real Sean.

Growing up in a religious family in New Hampshire, Sean’s early discovery that he might be gay was a terrifying prospect. This sparked the beginning of a deeply existential and extremely difficult period in Sean’s life, where he began to question everything.

Sean has been through many difficult transitions in his life, but we go deep on the one that changed everything.

We talked parenting and partnering, post-natal depression and mental health, and Sean left me with fresh ideas and insights on many aspects of family life, that we should all be pausing to consider.

Sean shares all of this and more, but if you’d like to go even deeper, you must read his wonderful book Not Like Other Dads.

You can find Sean on socials at @seanszeps.

Connect with me at @thecuriouslifepodcast or @thedaysthatfollow and if you love this ep, please let us know with a rating or review on iTunes. It’s the only way we will get into new ears and keep the show growing.

Have a happy and safe new year!

A massive than you to our brilliant Editor and Audio Engineer @lukehensel and Voice Over artist extraordinaire Julie Reynolds of Audio Lemonade, who have worked right up until the very last moments on 2023, to bring you this episode. What a team!!

Get ready for Part 2 of The Road to Self via Paris, with Rachael Coopes. This episode opens with a personal interruption, that could not have been more perfectly timed. It illustrates the balance we are daring to strike at all times, as busy working parents, pulled between commitments and responsibilities, with demands on our time and energy tugging us in every direction.

So how do we find ourselves in and among all of this beautiful chaos? How do we find stillness, follow our hearts and thrive in the middle of the maelstrom?

We unpack that and plenty more, in this zinger of a second half of a conversation I could have carried on all day long.

Listen now on all the podcast apps.

Don’t forget to leave us a rating and review on iTunes please! The team here at The Curious Life would be incredibly grateful for the support!

You can find Rach at @rachaelcoopes.

Follow the show at @thecuriouslifepodcast and @thedaysthatfollow.

Audio engineered by Luke Hensel and VO by Julie Reynolds of @audiolemonade.