New podcast out now featuring Christine Nixon. Join us as we have a chuckle talking about childhood northern beaches summers, fierce independence, love of swimming and Brownies, before we get into Christine’s most impressive, change-making career. Imagine the burly world of policing in NSW in 1972 when there were only 130 women in the police force, and 8,000 men. Now imagine being asked at a job interview if you planned to get married and have kids. What would a young, educated, feminist do with a workplace that wasn’t moving with the times? Come along as Christine shares the wild ride of her incredible leadership career with humour, humility and an uncommon openness. I have deep respect for this beautiful human!

Thanks to Leadership Victoria for connecting Christine and I, so we could share this delightful conversation with you.

Dan shares the stories of his childhood, growing up in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Bundoora in the 1970s and 80s. Cricket and football in the street, boundless bike rides, the freedom he was given to roam and explore.

At fourteen Dan loses his sight. His parents fight to keep him in mainstream education and with the help of a few great teachers and aides, he learns new ways of learning. He continued his mission through his late teens and twenties to ensure that he could experience as much of the world as his sighted peers, which led him to overseas travel, skiing, scuba diving, surfing and bushwalking.

Dan talks openly of his journey, the challenges and supporters he has had through his long career in advocacy. Today Dan is the first Public Advocate in Victoria with an open disability, using all of his knowledge and life experience to support some of our most vulnerable people with disability.

This is a Memory Lane Life Stories production with host Nina Fromhold.

Recorded at the Narrm Ngarrgu library in Melbourne, Australia.

Music licensed through PremiumBeat.

Design by Pass the Salt Studio.

Learn more about the podcast or recording your own life story: www.memorylanestories.com

Fiona shares the stories of her childhood, growing up in Northern Ireland during the civil war known as The Troubles. Her life was on a steady path of fitting into the expectations set out for Irish Catholic women in the 1980 and 90s, until she went to Uni in Dublin and met a lovely girl from Australia. This friendship opened up the possibilities of the world to Fiona, and with some action and courage on her part, she changed the trajectory of her life.

Fiona now calls Melbourne home. She is a celebrant for funerals and weddings and has a podcast called Deadly Serious Conversations. Through her work, she noticed that people in Australia often aren’t talking about death, dying and legacy, and so may not know where to start when they lose a loved one. She has created a wonderful library of episodes that looks at all different aspects of death and dying with kindness, respect and compassion. Let’s find out how she got into the tender work of funerals.

This is a Memory Lane Life Stories production with host Nina Fromhold.

Recorded at the Narrm Ngarrgu library in Melbourne, Australia.