Sound Salad Podcast

In her role as a Technical Engineer - Civil, Lisa plays a key part in managing Orion's overhead power network. No two days are the same.

Book 1 in the Chylgar series

By Simon Taylor

For more information about Simon Taylor, his books, audiobooks, radio broadcasts and school storytelling, go to www.simontaylorstoryteller.com

Book Summary

An ordinary boy who hates his name. A boy who is drawn into the world of Chylgar, by the giant talking wolves who protect the Land. Aided by two village children, they ride the wolves on a perilous journey to seek a cure for the sickness that ails the wolf packs. Tracked by the Emperor's soldiers, and threatened by monstrous creatures, Boy discovers he has a special gift. Can he control the power? Can he protect the wolves? Will they be time? A journey of adventure and magic. Book 1 in the Chylgar series. Written and narrated by Simon Taylor Audiobook copyright 2023.

Produced and distributed by Audiobooks NZ www.audiobooks.com

This is the moving story of a woman who, throughout her life, has refused to be defined by what others think she can or cannot do. Minnie Baragwanath was diagnosed, at the age of 15, with a congenital condition that left her legally blind. However, she did not meekly accept the limitations that blindness might have imposed on her: instead, she dug in her heels and set about improving not only her own life but also the lives of all New Zealanders with access needs. The dramatic events of Minnie’s life – losing her sight, being admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Japan at 19, becoming a television presenter, participating in the New York Marathon, surviving life-threatening illnesses, founding and leading innovative organisations, receiving prestigious awards (including the New Zealand Order of Merit) – are related in vivid detail. Minnie looks candidly at both her challenges and her triumphs, giving the reader the opportunity to share her exceptional experiences. This book has the potential to change our views of what ‘disability’ means. Minnie’s far-reaching ideas on how our society could be transformed – to everyone’s benefit – are not just intellectual speculations: they are based on her experiences and on those of the many people with disability with whom she has worked. There is a growing demand for information about ‘diversity and inclusion’. This book, with its keen insight into what it means to be in a meaningful relationship ‘with’ one another, and in particular how we as a society choose to relate to leaders and pioneers of a more progressive world, breaks new ground on those subjects.

Written By: Minnie Baragwanath

For more about Minnie go to www.minnieb.co.nz

Read By: Romy Hooper

Produced and Distributed by Audiobooks New Zealand

To make your audiobook or podcast go to www.audiobooksnz.com

This is the moving story of a woman who, throughout her life, has refused to be defined by what others think she can or cannot do. Minnie Baragwanath was diagnosed, at the age of 15, with a congenital condition that left her legally blind. However, she did not meekly accept the limitations that blindness might have imposed on her: instead, she dug in her heels and set about improving not only her own life but also the lives of all New Zealanders with access needs. The dramatic events of Minnie’s life – losing her sight, being admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Japan at 19, becoming a television presenter, participating in the New York Marathon, surviving life-threatening illnesses, founding and leading innovative organisations, receiving prestigious awards (including the New Zealand Order of Merit) – are related in vivid detail. Minnie looks candidly at both her challenges and her triumphs, giving the reader the opportunity to share her exceptional experiences. This book has the potential to change our views of what ‘disability’ means. Minnie’s far-reaching ideas on how our society could be transformed – to everyone’s benefit – are not just intellectual speculations: they are based on her experiences and on those of the many people with disability with whom she has worked. There is a growing demand for information about ‘diversity and inclusion’. This book, with its keen insight into what it means to be in a meaningful relationship ‘with’ one another, and in particular how we as a society choose to relate to leaders and pioneers of a more progressive world, breaks new ground on those subjects.

Written By: Minnie Baragwanath

For more about Minnie go to www.minnieb.co.nz

Read By: Romy Hooper

Produced and Distributed by Audiobooks New Zealand

To make your audiobook or podcast go to www.audiobooksnz.com

This is the moving story of a woman who, throughout her life, has refused to be defined by what others think she can or cannot do. Minnie Baragwanath was diagnosed, at the age of 15, with a congenital condition that left her legally blind. However, she did not meekly accept the limitations that blindness might have imposed on her: instead, she dug in her heels and set about improving not only her own life but also the lives of all New Zealanders with access needs. The dramatic events of Minnie’s life – losing her sight, being admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Japan at 19, becoming a television presenter, participating in the New York Marathon, surviving life-threatening illnesses, founding and leading innovative organisations, receiving prestigious awards (including the New Zealand Order of Merit) – are related in vivid detail. Minnie looks candidly at both her challenges and her triumphs, giving the reader the opportunity to share her exceptional experiences. This book has the potential to change our views of what ‘disability’ means. Minnie’s far-reaching ideas on how our society could be transformed – to everyone’s benefit – are not just intellectual speculations: they are based on her experiences and on those of the many people with disability with whom she has worked. There is a growing demand for information about ‘diversity and inclusion’. This book, with its keen insight into what it means to be in a meaningful relationship ‘with’ one another, and in particular how we as a society choose to relate to leaders and pioneers of a more progressive world, breaks new ground on those subjects.

Written By: Minnie Baragwanath

For more about Minnie go to www.minnieb.co.nz

Read By: Romy Hooper

Produced and Distributed by Audiobooks New Zealand

To make your audiobook or podcast go to www.audiobooksnz.com

I was delighted to be the narrator for Minnie's autobiographical book Blindingly Obvious which tells of her travels and stories as a partially sighted woman and access advocate, and her quest to build a more equitable and accessible world. The book was destined to be the countries ‘most accessible published book’ to date - which I believe it is, given that it's available as a printed text, an audiobook, it's the first full non-fiction book to be translated into NZ sign language, it is soon to be released episodically as a podcast series and will be coming to a Braille and e-braille format as well. The next step is te reo Māori, other global languages and beyond.

Check out her work at www.minnieb.co.nz or contact her at [email protected] 

PmR3H4p0q91XTuRFestp

We’re chatting about the impending doom that is the use of artificial intelligence and cloned or computer-generated voices as replacements for narrators and actors in the audiobook industry.

Join me as I talk through the nitty gritty with Theo Gibson, founder and head of AudiobooksNZ, who has a breadth of experience and opinion on the subject of AI and what it means for the audio publishing industry. We share some horror stories and what we can expect as we move ahead with the knowledge that AI is here to stay, we just have to learn to live with it and safely protect ourselves from being exploited as it continues to learn from the infinite melting pot of content and information available on it’s feeding ground; the internet. We’re hopeful the layperson - or indeed any human who enjoys listening to long-form content, podcasts, audiobooks and stories can become advocates for the continued use of human voices, instead of letting us be taken over by robots.

Our first episode for 2023 features Rahul Rai with his new book: Repurpose Me, Your Path to a Contentment Mindset.

​​Do you take life too seriously even though you know it is so temporary? Have you found yourself postponing the things that you really want to do? Do you ever wish you could enjoy your work a little more or wonder where to find purpose, happiness, or just contentment? After a near-death health experience and living through the horror of the Christchurch earthquakes, Rahul Rai started to look at the bigger purpose of all we do. As always, thanks so much to @audiobooksnz for making Sound Salad possible!

Episode 4 has us tossing it with esteemed non-fiction and children’s fiction writer Karen McMillan. Having published in 9 countries she has a number of titles under her belt already, - almost 20, not to mention her Elastic Island series for younger readers, comprised of 6 titles all set to be released as audiobooks with the first coming out this month, narrated by beloved children’s entertainer Suzy Cato. You can access the audiobook @AudiobooksNZ

Season 2’s third episode of Sound Salad has us tossing it with Rosy Fenwicke. She’s made the shift from writing part time alongside a medical career, to working full time as a mystery and women’s fiction writer (The Euphemia Sage Chronicles; Hot Flush, Switched Up and Empty Nest, among other solo titles) and is the esteemed editor of ‘In Practise: The Lives of NZ Women Doctors in the 21st Century.’

Her recent cryptocurrency thriller ‘Cold Wallet’ is stocked on the shelves of your local bookstores and on Amazon, with the audiobook available through @AudiobooksNZ