Eleanor Roosevelt conducted a parallel life beyond the view of most of the American people, despite occupying the most prominent role for a woman in the country at that time. She maintained two different apartments in Washington Square in New York before and after the White House years and thereby opened the way to a host of new friends and renewed purpose. ER’s reinvention was a remarkable one, sparked, on one reading, by physically removing herself from the constraints of husband and family and surrounding herself with a coterie of women who rejoiced in the intellectual, the cultural and the political. In doing so, she herself was transformed.

Show Notes:

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse  // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

What happens when one of the most famous women in the world goes back to work? She proves she has something to give by giving her all and leaving a legacy that no one can argue with. ⁠Jackie’s last 20 years were a study in how fulfilling a working life can be. She didn’t need to do it, she didn’t have to do it; she wanted to do it. ⁠And with two marriages behind her and two children at school, no one was going to hold her back. At 45, she reclaimed her career and got down to work. ⁠

Show Notes:

Jackie's favourite novels:

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse  // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

Sustainable luxury travel expert, Juliet Kinsman, is your go-to person if the travel hotspots of the world that give back are on your wish list. She’s smart, she’s well -informed and she’s on Unpaused.

Show Notes:

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse  // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

India Hicks has been called the quintessential Brit “It” Girl-turned-entrepreneur but it's her latest chapter as a committed philanthropist that intrigues. Eloquent, provocative and never dull, here's India Hicks re-imagined on Unpaused.⁠ 

Show Notes: 

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse  // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

Today, I am bringing you a story that is unfolding on a small Greek island - SYROS, where author and economist Oana Aristide has renovated a run-down, neo-classical villa into a jewel box of a hotel of just 9 suites, called Hotel Aristide.

Oana’s personal story is a dramatic one. She grew up in Soviet-occupied Romania in her grandmother’s care, when her parents and sister defected - without her - to Sweden. She trained formally as an economist, a role which took her into the halls of presidential power in Bucharest, before a career in economic advisory in London and Europe. On any reckoning, in economics Oana had built the foundation of a solid professional career.

But she was busy after hours as well, writing and editing a first novel, Under the Blue, which, with some prescience, describes an epic road journey during a devastating global pandemic, brought on by the unanticipated effects of climate change. This is a classic Unpaused episode; enjoy. 

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse // Research Assistant: Claudia Cameron // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

Becoming a mother heralds a dramatic change in the lives of Australian women. New mothers go from spending a weekly average of two hours caring for others to a staggering 51 hours. And when women become mothers, they also increase the time they spend on housework, like cooking, cleaning and washing, leaping from a weekly average of 16 hours to 25 hours in not much more than the blink of an eye. Statistics like these bring the whole issue of gender equality into a new realm. 

Married with three daughters, Nicolette Rubinsztein (author of 'Not Guilty') has lived this conflict and come out the other end with a well-developed plan for how to smooth the way to a happier and fairer household for the working mother. Having led strategy for Colonial First State, the wealth management arm of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for 12 years, during the first 2 years of which she also had her first baby, Nicolette knows more than most about thinking her way out of a problem. Despite reducing her hours to become part time, she managed to retain her rank and position as one of Colonial's general managers and go on to have two more children as well. How did she do it? 

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse // Research Assistant: Claudia Cameron // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

In our first episode of Season 5 I’m doing something different: interviewing Annabelle Hickson and recording it before a live audience at ‘Bertholme’, a heritage-listed, 19th century sandstone house on the outskirts of Brisbane’s CBD. Annabelle is here to promote her brand new publication GALAH magazine, which of course, is not her first foray into the world of publishing and the printed word, but definitely her most ambitious.

Annabelle’s story is the ultimate Unpause and this chat is a timely follow up from my first interview with her (Ep 11) which took place during a time of professional uncertainty for her. That time of questioning her place in the working world has certainly now paid off as she forges her way in her new role as Magazine Editor-in-Chief (and writer and designer and distributor and funder!)

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse // Research Assistant: Claudia Cameron // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

Ex Asian Spice Girl (yes, this band really existed) turned founder of feted interior design firm SIREN, Mia Feasey has a dazzling Unpaused story to tell. Arriving in Australia from the UK with no friends, no contacts and just £1000  in her pocket, Feasey worked 6 jobs, joining the local lacrosse team when loneliness began to tell. Little did she know how that single step would open career doors and enlarge her world. Fast forward to today - Mia won the Women in Design Award in 2020 and leads a dynamic team of mostly women in offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore, designing workspaces for the likes of Google, Uber and KPMG. She champions the working mother and is very candid about how she managed her growing empire with two babies in the early days. On top of all this, she has a message for her industry that it's not ok to trash the last fit-out without a backward glance to the environmental consequences. In a world of lookalikes, Mia is the modern professional woman with a head and heart beating to a new ethos of creative freedom and collaboration all the while recognising that we are all human, yes? It's a great story.

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse // Research Assistant: Claudia Cameron // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

Judy speaks to retired Australian Family Court Justice, Michelle May. Michelle’s is a story with a great twist. She grew up in Brisbane, raised by a professional working mother, unusual for those times, who was a role model and trusted advisor to Michelle.  Michelle recently retired from the bench after a 40-year career - firstly at the Family Court Bar, later as a Queens Counsel in that jurisdiction. At 40 she accepted an appointment as a judge in the Trial Division of the Court and finally stepped up to its Court of Appeal. It was certainly a distinguished career but took a dramatic turn when at 35, she gave birth of triplet daughters – thus the pause.  Michelle knows more than most, having directly observed in the divorce courts what women sometimes do in their personal lives which ultimately has the effect of sabotaging their careers or their lives more generally.

// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse // Research Assistant: Claudia Cameron // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net

Judy chats with marketing expert Souad Christina Saied, about embarking on a new career, her journalling process which has amassed a stack of invaluable data about herself  (not only personally but professionally too) and her experience of racism and discrimination and what she's doing about it.

Souad’s journaling habit, the signature exercise of  her practice as a budding life coach, has enabled her to assemble a mountain of self-revelatory intelligence; putting paid to the notion that your memory is your best navigator on the path to self knowledge. Writing every Friday, and reflecting on the ups and downs of the week just past, soon manifested bright threads of valuable intel, unique to her, and so useful for working out next steps.  ⁠

⁠// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Leonie Marsh // Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen and Jason Millhouse // Research Assistant: Claudia Cameron // Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net