The Good Girl Confessional

If you love a good crime novel, you will love our special guest!

Today in The Good Girl Confessional, host Sandy Lowres chats with Crime Writer Nikki Mottram. While at home with a new baby and a toddler, Nikki was looking for a creative outlet and so began a love affair with writing. When Nikki had her own children, she started to see her career in child protection in a whole new light.

Drawing on those experiences in child protection, but affected by a 30 year old unsolved murder of two women she had read about, Nikki's debut novel, Crows Nest, combats the often ineffectual essence of social workers previously portrayed in books and film, bringing forward a main character, Dana Gibson, written with intelligence, both hardworking and ruthless when it comes to the protection of children.

Through Nikki's unique and well informed lens, she challenges the misconceptions of the child protection industry through a heart-twisting and compelling small town crime fiction. Nikki's debut novel, set near the town she actually lives in, is gripping, with believable and fully formed characters. Having signed a two book deal with UQP, Nikki's second book coming in 2024!


You can follow Nikki here:

https://www.instagram.com/nikkiamottram

Nikki's book Crows Nest is available in all good bookstores.


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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
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Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present and emerging.

Today in the award winning The Good Girl Confessional, host Sandy Lowres is chatting with Louise Pfeiffer, a passionate philanthropist, politician and animal rights advocate. Louise is a woman who doesn't do things by halves. Down to earth and approachable, Louise is quietly passionate about the things she believes in, and living a life that aligns with her values.

Louise is a proud South Australian, and the Director of Philanthropy at The Life You Can Save, an organisation that makes smart giving simple by recommending charities that save lives and improve well-being where each dollar goes the furthest. Having done the research already, The Life You Can Save makes it easy for donors to support charities that are proven to be highly impactful. Through their website they recommend many charities that are making an impact including those that support women and girls globally, climate change, and charities that create ecomomic opportunities. While studying ethics, Louise was inspired by Peter Singer, the man often dubbed by Journalists as the “world’s most influential living philosopher", to become more mindful in regards to issues that impact the world - global poverty and animal justice amongst them. She became interested in effective altruism which measures the number of lives saved per dollar. On their website, The Life You Can Save has an Impact Calculator so you can see what impact your donation is making.

Beyond her work at The Life You Can Save, Louise has worked or volunteered in roles across financial advising, management consulting, political campaigning and animal advocacy. In 2017, Louise felt moved to join the Animal Justice Party in South Australia becoming a Senate candidate, with a key focus of helping farmers transition to move to more sustainable, plant based crops and business models. Louise is now the Vice President of the Animal Justice Party. Louise was hoping she could create structural change at a bigger level. For Louise, the treatment of animals cannot be separated from the health of our environment and is linked to the wellbeing of our community.
Big change requires bold thinking and in 2018, Louise ran in the South Australian State Election as a candidate…and then as a lead candidate in the Senate in 2019. In 2022, she ran for both the State and Federal election. She is now the Vice President of the party.

‘They may be a minor party but we can still have an impact. It gives us the ability to negotiate with bigger parties at a State and Federal level."


Sandy chats with Louise about her life in philathropy, being a woman in Australian Politics, animal rights and veganism, and why passion for what you do really matters, and the changes it can effect.

You can follow Louise and The Life You Can Save here:
https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org.au
https://vic.animaljusticeparty.org/ajp_vice_president
https://www.instagram.com/veganmamaboss
https://www.instagram.com/animaljusticepartyaustralia

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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional
https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present and emerging.

Trigger Warning: This podcast episode shares references and conversations about abuse, trauma, depression and suicide.
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Today in the Good Girl Confessional studio, I am honoured to be chatting with Shantelle Thompson, OAM (She/her).

Shantelle is a proud Barkindji/Ngiyampaa First Nation Woman, a business entrepreneur, a 3 times
Jiu-Jitsu World Champion and the 2019 NAIDOC Sportsperson of the year. If that's not enough, this mother of 6 is also back in training and is about to write a book about her life journey. She embraces her culture as a First Nation woman and considers herself a Storyteller Warrior Guide, as she shares her Aunty wisdom across two separate Podcast!

Shantelle shares an open and honest conversation about the impacts of generational trauma, abuse, and postpartum depression. Her fighter instinct would take her from fist fights to a becoming an elite athlete. Shantelle's story is one of a true grit and determination, winning three World Champion titles without sponsorship or funding.

At 39, Shantelle is an entrepreneur, and the visionary of Kiilalaana Tidda's Program, a program to help build the self esteeem and courage of First Nation girls, guiding them to be leaders in their own lives, and to be unapologetically themselves. Shantelle was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia for her services to the Indigenous community of Victoria.

You will not want to miss this incredible story!

You can follow Shantelle's journey here:
https://www.instagram.com/barkindjiwarrior
https://www.instagram.com/shantellethompsonofficial
https://www.instagram.com/kiilalaanatiddas_

You can listen to Shantelle on here Podcasts here:

Warrior Heart Yarns with Aunty Shan
https://open.spotify.com/show/2IHIyT6CeSpo4QMPQNSYnD?si=qZlREc3yTsC3qGTPjUx5Tg

Journey to Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt
https://open.spotify.com/show/0HjgH0NlANaNPKP3bwWhxP?si=Hh88sSnISk-OiOg2RNx57A

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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional
https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present and emerging.

Today in the Good Girl Confessional, host Sandy Lowres chats with the dynamic and wonderful author Resiliency Coach, and Podcast Host Marci Warhaft about her incredible journey from stripping to helping others to live their lives fully. You won't want to miss this episode!

In her 30s, Marci found herself living a life she had never envisioned for herself. She had been a good student who had been accepted into a prestigious theatre school, she was a doting mother with two young sons, and yet, somehow she found herself taking it all off in front of paying customers to "Bootylicious" by Destiny’s Child.

Marci's book, The Good Stripper: A Soccer Mom's memoir of Lies, Loss and Lapdances, is an eye-opening journey. Marci reveals the punishing circumstances and self-destructive behaviors that shaped her early adulthood, including a bank-robbing stepfather, the loss of her beloved brother, eating disorders, and sexual misadventures with a manipulative husband.

She describes, in honest, raw, and intimate detail, her struggles to recognize what was happening to her, and her sometimes misguided fight to regain control of her destiny. Above all, it is the story of how one woman, after years of living a double life, packing school lunches by day and giving lap dances by night, finally became the authentic human and inspirational leader she was meant to be.

Marci shares her powerful and hard-won wisdom in The Confessional. It is a story of resilience, of finding herself, embracing her sexuality in her 50s and living a life with authentic power.

Marci is a recognized expert on body image and self-esteem, and founder of The Fit vs Fiction body image workshops. She was named one of Canada’s Top 100 influencers for 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 by Optimyz fitness magazine. By surviving a life of turmoil through tenacity and resilience, Marci uses her experiences to help others release themselves of the shame, guilt and insecurities that keep them from living their lives with the joy they deserve. Marci is the host of the inspiring new podcast How To Ruin Your Own Reputation where she shares the stories of guest bravely living life their own way.

You can follow Marci's journey here:

https://www.thegoodstripper.com
https://www.fitvfiction.com
https://www.instragram.com/

How To Ruin Your Own Reputation Podcast:

Podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-ruin-your-own-reputation/id1642976489

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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional
https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present and emerging.

Happy New Year and welcome back to The Good Girl Confessional Podcast! Our first episode for 2023 features a brilliant special guest. Faith Agugu is a Pro-Aging advocate who is helping women to embrace aging! Faith chats with host Sandy Lowres about how she is changing the narrative around ageing.

Faith is the Founder of Silver Sirens, a movement which is passionate about redefining ageing and celebrating the rise of culture's fascinating 40+ female demosgraphic.

Faith is a qualified psychotherapist and she knows the power of embracing yourself for exactly who you are. Faith has always had the instinct that she would get better with age and she is now inspiring other women to adopt this mindset.

Silver Sirens is a growing annual gathering that explores and celebrates this extraordinary time in women's lives.

"As each new wave of contemnporay women reaches middle age, they rewrite the blurprint of how we see aging. The truth is that 50+ women are becoming freer, more financially independent, visible and expressed than any other time in history."

You can follow Faith here:

Https://www.silversirens.org
https://www.instagram.com/silversirens_redefiningageing
https://www.facebook.com/silversirens,redfiningageing


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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional
https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present and emerging.

TW: This podcast includes themes of addiction, suicidal thoughts, depression, eating disorders, rehab


I'm Sandy Lowres, the host of The Good Girl Confessional Podcast. I am so excited to bring you the 100th Episode today with our special guest Kayte Murphy!!

Over the years, Kayte has worn many hats - As Mrs Woog, she became one of Australia's most successful professional pioneer bloggers (@woogsworld). She has also created a thriving community of like-minded women. Kayte is also an author and writer and was the co-host of the popular podcast The Hot Flush, where she and Kim Berry talked about their lived experience of Peri-menopause.

You can listen to their podcast episode here:
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/41361196

During the pandemic, Kayte, like a lot of women, turned to alcohol for comfort but realised her relationship with drinking had become more than problematic. Kayte openly shares her journey into her awakening that in the grip of peri-menopause and depression, alcohol was ruling her life, and her experience of going to rehab. She also shares how therapy led to a brand new passion and purpose - painting. Now sober for over 12 months, Kayte has reinvented herself as an artist, bringing joy to many, but more importantly healing herself.

Thank you to Kayte for sharing your hard-won wisdom and lived experience so openly.

You can follow Kayte Murphy here:
https://www.instagram.com/kayte__murphy
https://www.facebook.com/woogsworld/

View and Buy Kayte's art here:
https://bluethumb.com.au/kayte-murphy


The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional
https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present and emerging.

Today in the Confessional, host Sandy Lowres chats with Jan Latta, an brilliant and adventurous woman in her 80s whose passion for wildlife has taken her around the globe.

After decades of trailblazing the advertising and publishing world as an independent woman, an up-close-and-personal encounter with a mountain gorilla in the wilds of Rwanda – think Dian Fossey and Gorillas in the Mist – that Latta, who has more than 15 children’s book titles under her belt, credits with sparking the fire in her belly that doesn’t look anything like going out even after over 20 years.

“I came face to face with him up in the mountains and that changed my life and my career. My guide said there were only 600 mountain gorillas left in the entire world. I thought that was pretty sad and I knew I had to do something.”

With considerable advertising experience and with extensive contacts, Latta had a number of options when it came to spreading the conservation message, but decided it was the
animals themselves that needed to “tell the story”.

Under the direction of acclaimed African-based photographer Karl Ammann, the now-former ad-industry exec swapped her briefcase for a camera lens and embarked on what’s been, and is, an incredible journey to success as an educator and conservation campaigner. took her spotlight in the hearts of thousands of children, sharing her love of endangered species through an astonishing collection of wildlife photographs, and a phenomenal ability to recount her most thrilling adventures.

Jan has written her memoir - Doing It My Way - a powerful, inspirational story of never giving up from Australia’s wildlife photographer.

You can follow Jan Latta here:
https://www.truetolifebooks.com.au/


The Good Girl Confessional is proudly the award-winning Podcast of the WB40 - Women Beyond Forty Platform, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond who want to be seen and heard. Join the revolution here:

https://wb40.com

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, upon whose lands I live, work and play. I pay my respects to Aboriginal elders past, present and emerging.

There is no doubt that moving to a new country can be exciting but also disruptive, jarring, and disorienting. Having a baby shortly after brings a whole new set of challenges and learnings. Nicole Webb, a journalist and news reader turned media consultant and author, chats with host Sandy Lowres about what she experienced when moving from Australia to Hong Kong and eventually China while adjusting to her life as a new mother.

Nicole chats about how she managed to adapt and thrive in the midst of tremendous professional and personal change. She is open and honest about her career in the media and how the landscape of media impacted her.

In 2010, she left the news desk, and pregnant, moved to Hong Kong with her hotelier husband where she lived for four years, before moving to Xi’an, North West China. Nicole continued her work in all things media across Asia-Pacific as well as starting her memoir China Blonde which she published in 2020.

As she continued to navigate the ever-changing pace of motherhood, she continued to work as a freelance Journalist, Writer, Speaker, Presenter, Media Trainer and Master of Ceremonies.

Having survived and thrived in the land of chopsticks, dim sum and very tall buildings, in 2014 Nicole and her husband found themselves in Xi’an, one of China’s oldest and most revered cities. A land with an ancient history.

Her memoir ‘China Blonde’ reveals more, with Nicole sharing all of those things she couldn’t say from China.

Back in Sydney since 2017, in the spirit of adventure,| Nicole and her family will soon make the move to Singapore.

You can Follow Nicole Webb here:
https://nicolewebbonline.com


The Good Girl Confessional is proudly the award-winning Podcast of the WB40 - Women Beyond Forty Platform, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond who want to be seen and heard. Join the revolution here:

https://wb40.com

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, upon whose lands I live, work and play. I pay my respects to Aboriginal elders past, present and emerging.

Today in the Confessional, host Sandy Lowres chats with inspiring journalist and author, Jenny Valentish about writing, addictive behaviours and pushing yourself to your limits.

Starting her Journalism career in London, her career in Australia began when she edited national music magazine Jmag (for the radio station Triple J) before taking the helm of Time Out Melbourne, sister mag to Time Out London.

Now a freelance writer for publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Guardian, the ABC, The Saturday Paper and The Monthly, Jenny also teaches courses on memoir writing.

Jenny is the author of Walkley-nominated research-memoir,Woman of Substances, which investigates the female experience of drugs and alcohol. It was published in the UK and US by Head of Zeus in 2018. Woman of Substances is considered to be a valuable resource by drug and alcohol professionals. After its publication Jenny was appointed as a board director of SMART Recovery Australia, a consultant for the University of NSW’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), and an ambassador for BrainPark, a project of Monash University’s Brain and Mental Health Laboratory.

Her fourth book, Everything Harder Than Everyone Else: Why Some of Us Push Our Bodies to Extremes, was published in 2021. It’s become a global hit with podcasts devoted to endurance and sport, and the audiobook version has excerpts from my interviews with the people profiled in each chapter.

If that's not impressive enough, Jenny has also been an amateur Muay Thai fighter and has now started body building!

You can follow Jenny Valentish, read her articles buy her books here:
http://www.jennyvalentish.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jennyvalentish_public
https://www.facebook.com/jennyvalentishauthorandjournalist

The Good Girl Confessional is proudly the award-winning podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond. Join the Revolution here:

Https://wb40.com

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, upon whose lands I live, work and play. I pay my respects to Aboriginal elders past, present and emerging.

TW: Missing Person/Suicide

Today, we are re-sharing this powerful episode where Sandy chats with Sally Leydon. Sally has never given up searching for her mother, Marion Barter, who has been missing for 25 years. Marion is a missing person, much-loved mother and a celebrated teacher. Marion's disappearance is the subject of the hugely popular Channel 7 Podcast, The Lady Vanishes, now with over 10 million downloads globally.

Host Bryan Seymour and Executive Producer Alison Sandy have helped Sally to gain incredible traction regarding information and clues about Marion's sudden disappearance. Along with a group of volunteer super sleuths around the world, they edge closer to unravelling this unsolved case.

Sally joins me in the confessional to chat about her mum, her unwavering quest to find answers and how this experience, and the later loss of her brother, Owen, has impacted her life. This case has so many twists, turns and leads - from international travel to cults, name changes and mysterious untouched bank accounts.

Marion, also known as Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, is on the Australian National Missing Persons register. This is an ongoing investigation. Since we originally taped this episode, Marion's disappearance had become the subject of a Coronial Inquest, with startling evidence uncovered and shared including testimony by Ric Blum, a convicted conman who had gone by dozens of aliases including Fernand Remakel. His names also included Frederic de Hedervary, Willie Wouters and Roger Louzoney. The findings of the inquest are due to be released in two weeks as brand new episodes of The Lady Vanishes Podcast continue to unfold.

If you have any knowledge of Marion's whereabouts, or have any information about her disappearance or beyond, please contact www.crimestoppers.com.au or (in Australia) phone 1800 333 000.

For more information on this case, and to follow Sally's journey, you can listen to The Lady Vanishes Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-lady-vanishes/id1457296528

You can also Follow on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/7NEWSTheLadyVanishes/

https://www.facebook.com/MissingMarionBarter/

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The Good Girl Confessional Podcast is part of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty

Follow the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional
https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional


I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, upon whose lands I live, work and play. I pay my respects to Aboriginal elders past, present and emerging.