There’s something we need to talk about more. In this episode of No Filter from the archives Naomi Watts, Alison Brahe-Daddo & Dr Ginni Mansberg sat down with Mia Freedman to talk about the Bermuda Triangle of women’s health. The funny and the not so pleasurable, hot mess stuff. They get real about the rollercoaster that is menopause and peri-menopause. The chaos, brain fog, sex drive and silver linings. Prepare for a huge flow of beautiful stories and some new found IDGAF attitudes. You are...
Jan 23, 2025•54 min
The world knows Naomi Watts as one of the most iconic and accomplished actors of her generation - from The Ring to Mulholland Drive, King Kong to The Impossible - and so much more. But Naomi Watts is starring in a new role now…the role of author and advocate and innovator for menopausal women. She’s written an incredible new book, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause. But before she could write it - she had to wrestle with the strong sense of shame she carried around her ow...
Jan 19, 2025•45 min
Can a woman really grow a baby without knowing she is pregnant? The answer is YES, as supermum Erin Carty proves! Erin’s story is one of bravery- as she details coming to terms with being an instant mum. You’ll hear about her husband’s heroic actions, their family’s shock and the incredible way Erin grew to bond with her bub. Diary Of A Birth features mums telling their miraculous stories of bringing life into the world, and we have all medical questions and concerns cleared up by Australia’s fa...
Jan 16, 2025•32 min
Happy New Year - No Filter listeners - how are you going so far in 2025? Did you survive the silly season? Did you make any “new year, new me” resolutions? Maybe you’re one of the many people who chose to get through the holidays sober…or maybe you enjoyed some Christmas tipple but now you’re feeling sober-curious. Wherever you might be on the mocktail to cocktail spectrum - this conversation is for you because our guest, author and health & wellbeing coach, Sarah Rusbatch, has lived it all....
Jan 12, 2025•52 min
What do you do when you receive a phone call saying that your daughter has murdered someone? Mary Pershall spent 28 years trying to shield her youngest daughter Anna from her demons. First, it was anorexia, then other mental health issues and later drug use including marijuana and ice. But one act of rage in 2015 changed the course of Anna and her mother's life forever. So how do you deal with the fact your daughter is a murderer? Listen to part two of this conversation where Mia talks to Mary's...
Jan 09, 2025•44 min
Tara Westover was 16 when she stepped into a classroom for the first time. She didn’t know how to talk to her peers, had never heard of the Holocaust and thought that she was sitting amongst heathens. Today Tara holds a PHD in intellectual history and political thought from Cambridge University. She’s attended Harvard as a fellow, and has just written her first book, a memoir called Educated. So how did she get here? Click here to subscribe to No Filter. CREDITS: Host: Mia Freedman With thanks t...
Jan 07, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Never has the cliche “truth is stranger than fiction” applied more than to the woman on today's episode. You couldn’t make Susan Francis’s life up - it has too many twists. It begins with an adoption story and the mystery of her biological parents, it includes a secret sister, a heartbreaking confrontation, unexpected love and a series of events that were so dramatic that she had to write them down in a memoir just to make sense of them. It’s called The Love That Remains . Read an extract of The...
Jan 05, 2025•34 min
How do you prepare for prison? How do you tell your young daughters that you aren’t going to see them for a very long time? Kerry Tucker was jailed in 2004 for one of the biggest white-collar crimes committed by a female in Victoria at the time. She’d been stealing money from her employers. She owned up to it, went through the process and spent 4.5 years behind bars in a maximum security prison away from her two daughters. Surprisingly for Kerry, jail was the making of her and she’s written a bo...
Jan 02, 2025•1 hr 5 min
When you think of a psychopath, you probably imagine someone like serial killer Ivan Milat. But according to David Gillespie, it's more likely to be your boss or your grandma. Five to 10 per cent of the population qualify as psychopathic, and the rate can be as high as 20 per cent among corporate leaders and politicians. So how do you spot them? What do you do if you have to work for or with them, or better yet, date them? Grab a cup of tea and get ready to go ‘OH MY GOD’... THE END BITS Your ho...
Dec 31, 2024•55 min
It was an ordinary day on the 30th of July, 1997 in Thredbo, but at 11:35pm the earth moved. Lives were changed and lost in just a few minutes. The Thredbo Landslide happened fast. It hit two ski lodges where 19 people were sleeping. It destroyed the buildings, ripped them off their foundations, and plunged those inside under tonnes of debris and concrete. For the first two days, we were told that there would be no survivors. However, on the morning of the third day, 66 hours after he was buried...
Dec 29, 2024•46 min
What were you doing on Boxing Day morning in 2004? Sarah Ayles was on a beach in Sri Lanka, putting on a mask about to go snorkelling with her business partner and ex-boyfriend, when her life changed forever. The Boxing Day Tsunami was caused by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean and experts say it had the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. 227,898 people lost their lives across Indonesia, Sri Lanka , India , and Thailand but Sarah survived. Click here to subscribe to No Filter. Listen...
Dec 26, 2024•52 min
On the 12th of September, 2018, Australian Academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran’s International Airport in Iran. She spent 804 days incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin and Qarchak prison for espionage, a crime she never committed. She was an innocent Australian stuck in a foreign prison...with no way of getting home. Kylie’s story about her imprisonment, and what happened after she was finally released is unbelievable. Except it really happened. Want more of Kylie? Listen to Mia’s bonus...
Dec 24, 2024•58 min
The last few years of Abi Morgan’s life would make an incredible TV show, although you might not believe it because of the plot twists. One of those twists is that Abi herself is an Emmy-award-winning screenwriter of movies like Iron Lady, with Meryl Streep, and TV dramas like The Split. But nothing could have prepared her for the cascading series of events that began on a very ordinary day. The crescendo of this story is that, after waking up from a coma, Abi's partner of 20 years didn't recogn...
Dec 22, 2024•45 min
When Louisa Hope walked into Sydney’s Lindt Cafe 10 years ago she didn't expect her life would change forever. Louisa is one of the survivors of the Sydney Siege. She and her mother were held at gunpoint and trapped for 17 hours before the gunman executed cafe manager Tori Johnston on his knees in front of her. Another hostage, Katrina Dawson was killed moments later in gunfire when police stormed the cafe. Louisa joined Mia Freedman for a conversation in 2019 to talk through what happened that ...
Dec 21, 2024•57 min
Have you ever been love-bombed by a romantic partner only to have them go cold as soon as they’ve snagged you? Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who made you feel crazy because of their ability to seem SO great in front of the neighbours but be SO different behind closed doors? What about a boss who steals your ideas, your thunder and your inspiration…Or a parent who always made your life about them? According to our guest today, chances are you’ve been tussling with a Narcissist...
Dec 15, 2024•48 min
The Believe in Magic charity was set up by a 16-year-old girl and her mother. Megan and Jean’s charity helped grant wishes to sick children in a make-a-wish sort of way and some kids, including Megan, even got to meet One Direction members. The charity was founded because Megan was diagnosed with a rare brain condition and a few years later a brain tumour. A group of internet sleuths became suspicious after Jean tried to raise money for an emergency trip to see a doctor overseas. So was Megan si...
Dec 13, 2024•41 min
Cait West was raised inside an fundamentalist Christian patriarchal cult that believed that women should be submissive to men and that girls should be raised to serve their husbands…by first serving their fathers. Until she was 25 years old, Cait was what is referred to as a ‘stay-at-home daughter’ - what exactly does that mean? And how did Cait decide to finally leave? Listen to this timely, important, and deeply empowering conversation to hear Cait’s incredible story - Only on No Filter. You c...
Dec 08, 2024•1 hr 3 min
[Part 1 of 2] Having one baby is hard. Imagine four! This is the incredible story of Taylah Tudehope-Glachan ’s pregnancy and birth with her quadruplets. In Part 1 of Taylah’s tale, she details a roller-coaster fertility struggle; think PCOS, endometriosis and IVF. Plus what it was like discovering her successful transfer had resulted in four babies. You’ll hear about high-risk pregnancy, exactly HOW she fell pregnant with quads, and how she handled her hospitalisation at 24 weeks Can’t wait for...
Dec 07, 2024•32 min
Samantha Azzopardi spent 10 years receiving care as a troubled teen. It would be years before the truth came out that she was actually an adult woman. Her scams stretched decades and impacted families, friends and even children, in Australia and abroad. But it wasn’t money that she wanted… In this conversation, Mia speaks with investigative journalist Sharon Davis, co-host of the successful podcast Finding Samantha. Sharon worked with colleagues Tim Desmond, Nicoline Greer and Liam O'Brien from ...
Dec 04, 2024•54 min
There’s a reason why behavioural scientist Dr Ali Fenwick is one of the most followed relationship & psychology accounts on social media (and it’s not just his fantastic dancing). In this special episode of No Filter, Clare Stephens explores the real meaning behind the red flags and the green flags we encounter in our relationships with others - from romantic partners to family, the workplace and friendships - Dr Ali Fenwick provides a clear framework for better communication, healthier boun...
Dec 01, 2024•1 hr
At the intersection of sex, marketing and the gig economy, you will find Annie Knight, who has been branded ‘Australia’s Most Sexually Active Woman’. Annie is a 27-year-old Brisbane woman who makes her own sex content and sells it to subscribers via Only Fans where she is in the top 0.02% of creators on the platform. Only Fans became wildly popular during the pandemic, with thousands of Australians creating accounts in the hope of converting home made content - usually sexually explicit photos a...
Nov 27, 2024•53 min
For years, Erica Garza struggled with sex and porn addiction - an addiction that had to reach rock bottom before she sought help. Now, Erica Garza is on a mission - she wants to take away the stigma and shame surrounding women who struggle with sex & porn addiction. How does a habit become an obsession...and an obsession turn into an addiction? And what does recovery look like? (spoiler alert: it doesn't have to mean giving up sex or porn). In this taboo-smashing conversation, Erica talks wi...
Nov 24, 2024•1 hr
Simmone Jade McKinnon was - and is, to many - Stevie from McLouds Daughters. She joined that iconic Australian show fresh from another era-defining TV moment, Baywatch, with a Hollywood star fiancé on her arm and a creative career in full flight. And then everything changed. Simmone and her son Madigan have been living in a caravan and then a shed in her family’s back paddock for the best part of a decade. She’s been making ends meet with carer’s subsidy, odd jobs like jillaroo and by starting h...
Nov 23, 2024•1 hr 4 min
In this special episode of No Filter, Mia Freedman shares a story about a very vulnerable time in her life...when she was dealing with big life challenges around marriage and fertility and career...and what happened when the place she went for help turned out to be, well, a cult. THE END BITS: Subscribe to Mamamia Join the Month of MOVE Get $30 off a Mamamia subscription and get unlimited access to our feel-good exercise app. Head here to get a yearly subscription for just $39. Listen to more No...
Nov 20, 2024•29 min
[Part 1 of 2] One day, Ariane Beeston looked at her newborn baby, Henry, and saw a dragon. And not a cute, happy dragon - but an upset, red-faced dragon. At that moment, Ariane knew something was very wrong. Other very wrong, very scary things were happening too. A few months later, Ariane would be diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. But a diagnosis was only the beginning of her odyssey - one that would see her hospitalised twice, convinced that she didn’t exist, and worried that she might neve...
Nov 17, 2024•44 min
In this conversation, Mia speaks to Jackie O, the equal highest paid person in the media industry in Australia. After working together for 23 years, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie completely dominate breakfast radio. She talks to Mia about the long recovery from divorce, co-parenting, being on Hinge, the media being obsessed with her weight and behind the scenes of negotiating a huge radio contract. You can hear the second half of Mia's conversation with Jackie O here. THE END BITS: Subscribe to Mam...
Nov 13, 2024•49 min
Jackie O was deep into a years-long addiction to pills and alcohol until one phone call changed her life. There’s a reason Jackie O kept her addiction to pain medication and alcohol a secret for so long: shame. But now, she wants to share her story of recovery and healing with the world and to help other people get the help they need - and so she’s sharing the hard truths of the years she spent struggling. Jackie and her best friend Gemma sit down for a searingly honest conversation with Mia Fre...
Nov 10, 2024•56 min
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Nov 07, 2024•2 min
Mitch Larsson is a former male escort with stories you would not expect from someone who was paid for sex. If you haven't heard this conversation before, it's worth the listen! Mitch was a lawyer and stay at home dad but decided he wanted to change careers. And at first, his wife was supportive. In this episode he tells Mia about the time a client’s mum walked in on them, a lady in her 70’s who booked him regularly, a woman trying to get over a cheating ex and the woman who broke his heart wide ...
Nov 06, 2024•49 min
[Part 1 of 2] Anna Grosman is a Melbourne-based mother of two and staunch advocate for women’s sensual empowerment. She’s recently launched Her Confidant - an elite male escort service that aims to satisfy a woman’s libido, body and mind. Anna believes that putting a male escort on retainer will be one of the new trends of 2025 - as more and more women decide to go #boysober - rejecting the dating apps and more traditional methods of meeting a sexual partner - which all too often prove to be uns...
Nov 03, 2024•53 min
