Shows
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#28 Surviving a workplace lifequake with Double D Donna WestFor the first time, one of the Double Ds, Donna West, shares part of her story dealing with an extended workplace trauma, as a guest on the "Thriving Business" podcast, with Kate de Jong. Donna discusses being caught up in a traumatic Corruption and Crime Commission case in late 2021, where she realises she is falsely accused due to a bungled investigation at her workplace.
After reaching rock bottom and slowly recovering, she then faces a second related lifequake a year later when during an internal investigation, she is suspended on full pay for 809 days and isolated from...
2026-02-1249 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#27 Lessons from the Holocaust for Today with Andrew SteinerAndrew Steiner was a young Jewish boy during World War II, living in Hungary. He recounts memories of living through the Holocaust, where 11 close family members and countless friends were amongst 6 million murdered by the Nazis.
Andrew discusses the relevance of those events to the perilous times we are facing today in world history. We all have an extraordinary and innate power of one within us. Andrew himself was saved as a child by someone who harnessed that power. We must not remain silent when harm is going on around us. Indifference always helps the perpetrators.
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2025-12-2253 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#26 Puzzle Power: How Jigsaws Boost Wellbeing with D'Arne HealyD'Arne Healy shares surprisingly broad wellbeing benefits of jigsaw puzzles. Whether on your own or with others, puzzling can help with loneliness, conquering addiction, giving your brain a break and improving focus, just to name a few.
D'Arne has created inclusive communities, both as Founder of the Australian Jigsaw Puzzle Association and more recently the Inter-School Puzzle Club. D'Arne shares some of the personal puzzling stories she has witnessed, spanning all ages of jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts.
You'll be finding and starting a puzzle once you listen to this episode and be better for it.
S...
2025-10-0239 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#25 Rewiring your Brain to Change Your Life with Dr Vish RamakonarDr. Vish Ramakonar returns to the DDs to share the life altering change management work she learnt from Joe Dispenza, based on neuroscience. The program, "Change your mind, create new results" focuses on giving people strategies and tools to increase their resilience to navigate through challenging situations, create desirable change and ultimately, change their life.
Dr. Vish discusses how we become victims to our environment, how stress can be addictive and how most of our beliefs and behaviours are based on subconscious programming. We can all rewire our brains to create a brighter blueprint of our future...
2025-08-2139 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#24 Neuroscience, self-coaching and resilience with Tammy TansleyCo-founder of neuro nudges, Tammy Tansley discusses how her small business started. Neuro nudges are packs of 70 self-coaching cards in 7 categories that can help you to build resilience, regulate your emotions, improve your habits and become more self-aware. Each card asks a coaching question, gives you a behavioural nudge and provides background into the related neuroscience.
Tools such as giving yourself space and time, relishing small moments of joy and the power of hope are all messages covered in this episode.
Shownotes
www.tammytansley.com.au
www.neuronudges.com
Di...
2025-07-2335 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#23 From a personal mental crisis to creating psychological safety at work with Alastair MilneAlastair Milne opens up about his mental crisis five years ago – a journey that led him to spend three weeks in psychiatric care in hospital. Alastair shares how he recovered slowly and eventually started his consultancy, Curam Consulting, where he focuses on developing fearless teams and improving psychological safety in the workplace.
Alastair discusses tools and strategies that help him today stay mentally well. He also outlines the steps he would undertake to start the healing process with a team that had been ruled by fear.
Show notes
If you need help or kn...
2025-06-2551 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#22 What Happened Next? Connection & Community with the Double Ds Previous GuestsJoin Double Ds Donna and Di for Part 2 of their first ever live podcast, as previous podcast guests answer the question, "What happened Next?" Hear from previous guests Susan Saleeba (#11), Tara Jeisman (#7), Nio Correa (#5), Steve Cox (#1) and hear about what happened following Wayne Sankey's episode (#8) about surviving the Boxing Day Tsunami. Themes include the power of sharing your story, self-reflecting, connection and community.
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Public Speaking | Donna's Balcony Vie...
2025-05-2924 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#21 From Dream to Reality Starting our Podcast with the Double Ds Live Donna West and Di MurrayJoin the Double Ds, Donna West and Di Murray, as they do their first ever live podcast in front of an audience, to celebrate the first anniversary of the podcast.
Hybrid Warehouse owner Darren Payne interviews the Double Ds about their first year and how they turned a dream into reality and started a podcast. Their reflections and lessons to date, how they find and prepare guests, the power of podcasting and sharing stories of courage and resilience, communities and connections formed and how their guests have inspired them in their own journeys.
Sponsors
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2025-05-2128 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#20 Take Time to Talk for Mental Wellness with Lachlan O'DonoghueLachlan (Lockie) O'Donoghue, co-founder of 20Talk, a not-for-profit focusing on improving the mental wellness of young people, discusses the origins of 20Talk, following the suicides of two close friends in their early 20's.
Lockie gives tips on how to approach a conversation with someone who may be struggling, what to do if you aren't coping with life and a methodology for creating a personal self-care action plan to build your wellness and resilience.
Lockie also explains the charity event 20Hours and how disconnecting from devices for 20 hours straight is a transformative experience for participants.
S...
2025-03-2647 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#19 Act-Belong-Commit to be Mentally Healthy with Rob DonovanProfessor Rob Donovan is Founder of the Act-Belong-Commit health promotion campaign. This was one of the world's first mass media campaigns to promote being mentally healthy, which commenced in 2005 in regional Western Australia and is still going strong today.
Rob shares the background into the project, including the market research he undertook, the development of the Act-Belong-Commit message and how listeners can incorporate the principles to improve their own quality of life.
Rob also shares the growth of the campaign internationally - how various Scandinavian countries have embraced the campaign (A: Do something, B: Do som...
2025-02-2647 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#18 Adventures in the Wild North-West with Lawrence BrownLawrence (Laurie) Brown was born in Scotland and travelled by boat to Perth Western Australia when he was 17 years old, in 1952. A couple of weeks after he arrived, he found work in the North-West of the state.
Lawrence recounts his family circumstances that led him to migrate to Australia. He shares some of his tales and adventures from his time living in Broome and Derby in the 1950's and 1960's, imparting a living history lesson for listeners about what life was like there decades ago.
Shownotes
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Hel...
2024-12-2948 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#17 My Journey to Making Money as an Artist with Sophie MahirArtist Sophie Mahir takes us on the wild ride of her life, while she sets out to make money as an artist and single Mum. Multiple careers, living in several countries, from success to bankruptcy, from passion to burnout and then rebuilding and redefining herself again and again. Sophie’s enthusiasm for life and her relentless entrepreneurial spirit will inspire you, not only to discover your own path, but to get out and do something about it.
Show Notes
How to contact Sophie:
tonesandtextures.com.au
Facebook
@sophi...
2024-12-0449 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#16 A lifetime of sailing adventures with Jon SandersJon Sanders is one of Australia’s greatest ever sailors, holding multiple world records for solo circumnavigations around the world, including a triple circumnavigation lasting 658 days from 1986-1988 and his latest at 81 years old during the COVID pandemic in 2020-2021.
In this episode, recorded over 2 sessions, Jon recounts some of his adventures and memorable moments, including smashing into a Chinese fishing vessel and sailing past the Falkland Islands at the heart of the conflict between Great Britain and Argentina in 1982. He outlines the perseverance and preparation required to undertake endurance endeavours no one had ever even attempted, le...
2024-11-201h 02
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#15 Transitions: From new immigrant to new CEO with Henrietta PodgorskaHenrietta discusses her early life in Hungary growing up in the post-Communist era, her decision at 20 years old to travel to and eventually settle in Australia and her move to Perth from the east coast. Throughout these experiences, the themes of the importance of community and finding your tribe shine through. Henrietta’s passion for helping other migrants, especially women, and for giving back to the community led her to become the youngest and first ever female President of the Hungarian Association of Western Australia, Chair of Multilingual Australia and in recent months, CEO of Umbrella, delivering home care se...
2024-11-0655 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#14 Camino Couple - Physical, Mental and Spiritual Journeys with Bill and Pina DunneAfter bringing up 4 children, upon retiring, Bill and Pina decide to take on the challenge of hiking a Camino pilgrimage in Spain. This journey of nearly 800 kms leads to 2 more Camino pilgrimages in Europe and 2 in Australia, including most recently the Camino Salvado in Western Australia, from Subiaco in Perth to New Norcia, a distance of 150kms.
Bill and Pina share their physical, mental and spiritual journeys along the way. Topics covered include their tips on training and gear, daily life on the Camino, Pina's blog about her experiences, emotional arrivals at the end of the Caminos a...
2024-10-2357 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#13 Personal Transformation from Tragedy with Dr Vish RamakonarDr Vish Ramakonar shares her personal story of how dealing with family tragedies eventually led to her own healing and transformation. Vish recounts her happy childhood days growing up in Geraldton, a small regional town in Western Australia, where she and her family were the only people with Indian heritage. At aged 16, Vish’s father became the first manager of Annalakshmi, an Indian community-based restaurant in Perth, with a philosophy of “serving something greater than ourselves.” During those years, Vish formed strong cultural connections, including touring as an Indian classical dancer, while she also studied a degree in engineering teleco...
2024-10-0952 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#12 Fresh food and flavours - World travels with Simon NaberChef, café owner and fresh food enthusiast Simon Naber talks about his career and travels, including as an apprentice in Albany in regional Western Australia, then onto Perth and over to Europe, where he worked in one of London’s most well-known restaurants and then in the south of France. He discusses the fun adventures, along with the long hours and isolation of being a chef. Simon then returned home and became head chef on the luxurious vessel the True North, touring in the remote Kimberley region in the north of Western Australia, for 4.5 years.
Throughout, Simon dis...
2024-09-251h 03
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#11 Never too late to find your life's purpose with Susan SaleebaSusan Saleeba recounts how she volunteered to go to Nakuru in Kenya when she was 50 years old. Life for her began again as she fell in love with the people and the difference she could make, realising she had a gift for getting things done, despite any obstacles she faced.
She returned to Nakuru annually for months at a time, first purchasing sewing machines and paying for a local seamstress to teach local widows to sew, giving them a trade.
Since then, she has started a school, now with 300 children, and an orphanage under her...
2024-09-1154 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#10: Double Ds Reflect on Double Digit EpisodesDonna and Di take time to reflect on their podcasting journey so far, as the Double Ds Discovery Diaries podcast reaches its 10th episode. They discuss how it all began, lessons learnt along the way, how much they are enjoying the podcasting experience together and the positive impact of their guests' stories, on listeners, the Double Ds and the guests themselves.
2024-08-2817 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#9 From COVID to Coronation in Central London with Emily ReganEmily reflects on working as a nurse in the emergency department of a central London hospital during the COVID19 pandemic. Topics covered include why she chose not to return home to Australia when the pandemic broke out, the tight bond formed between coworkers in such trying circumstances, how she adapted her own self-care during lockdowns and her media comments that made front page news about anti-vaxxers. Emily recounts how she was one of only 14 Australians to receive an invite to King Charles III’s coronation.
Show Notes
Sponsors
Building Personal Resilience - A Gu...
2024-08-141h 11
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#8 Armageddon - Surviving the Boxing Day Tsunami with Wayne SankeyIt was the morning after Christmas and Wayne and his girlfriend Allison had woken up early in Arugam Bay, on the East Coast of Sri Lanka, after having arrived the previous afternoon. Leaving their beachside cabana, they went for a long walk along the beach. It was such a perfect morning that on the way back, Wayne proposed. Allison said yes.
Only a short time later, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake was recorded off the coast of Sumatra, in northern Indonesia. This event led to one of modern history’s worst natural disasters, the Boxing Day Tsunami, in 2004. An estimat...
2024-08-021h 02
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#7 A Dip into the Sea Gals Story - Finding your purpose and ikigai with Tara JeismanTara Jeisman talks about how a TikTok video showing her taking a sunrise plunge into the ocean went viral and the community movement Sea Gals was born.
Tara discusses her passion for Sea Gals and how she has found her ikigai as Founder. Also covered are the underlying Sea Gals principles of inclusion, fighting against body shame, providing a safe environment to make new friends and promoting mental health. Tara also discusses Sea Gal’s expansion across Australia and new initiatives in the pipeline.
Show notes
You can find Tara on Instagram @ _seagals_ and...
2024-07-1750 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#6 A Healthy Discourse on Leadership with Dr David Russell-WeiszRecently departed from his role as Director General of the Western Australian Health Department for nearly 9 years, from 2015 to the end of March 2024, Russ reflects on his diverse career, including relocating from the UK to work as a doctor in Outback Australia in the Royal Flying Doctor Service, then a multitude of other clinical then leadership roles, culminating in leading 55,000 staff in WA Health, including through the challenging COVID19 pandemic.
Russ shares his thoughts and experiences about: working in rural and remote health; the commissioning of the $2b new Fiona Stanley Hospital; how clinically trained staff can...
2024-07-031h 14
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#5 A Queer Venezuelan Dream with Nio CorreaAged 14, Nio figured out she was gay. Realising it would be difficult for her to be accepted in her conservative homeland of Venezuela, she dreamt of relocating to a new country, Australia. Over the next decade, through developing a strategy, hard work, determination and a 100% certainty that she would make it happen, Nio turned that dream into reality.
Nio discusses her period of depression when she realised she was gay and cultural expectations meant she had to hide her true self; how no one else believed she would be able move to Australia; her feelings when she...
2024-06-1938 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#4 Emmy’s Legacy - dealing with the loss of a child with Sarah SaoleleMother to young daughter Willow, Sarah wanted to give her a sibling. Sarah shares her deeply personal story about the joy she and her husband Marvin experienced when they found out she was pregnant, which was followed by confusion and devastation when they found out their unborn daughter had structural problems and was unlikely to survive the pregnancy. Sarah discusses her decision to continue with the pregnancy and then meeting and then losing Emmy.
Universal themes covered include dealing with grief and feelings of isolation after losing a loved one, slowly figuring out how life can and...
2024-06-0553 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#3 A Prisoner's Wisdom - Mindset, manifestations and mentoring in prison with Ian McTavishIan McTavish grew up as a person of colour during South Africa’s Apartheid system, until his family moved to Australia when he was 13 years old. The violence he grew up around in South Africa became a way of dealing with difficulties and Ian ended up serving prison time for a violent crime. Ian outlines how instead of wallowing in his self-inflicted misery, he used prison as a training ground to learn how to better control his mind and his ego, becoming a role model for many and publishing a book about his transformation.
Since leaving prison, Ia...
2024-05-2348 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#2 Courageous Journeys - burnout and escaping domestic violence with Rebecca BeardsleyFounder of Untitled & Co, Rebecca Beardsley shares her experiences of working for decades in business development in law firms and the skills and strategies she employed in a male dominated environment to progress her career. At aged 38, Rebecca experienced burnout due to a combination of professional and personal factors. The inner work she undertook to recover led her to eventually build the courage to leave her long-term marriage, where she suffered domestic violence – physical, emotional and financial. Rebecca redesigned her life and took the brave steps to leave her corporate career to become a Founder and to relocate across Au...
2024-05-0957 min
Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries#1 Life Stories - facing racism and life challenges with Steve CoxSteve Cox shares stories from his life, starting from growing up in a large family in a small town in regional Western Australia, with a white father and Noongar mother. Steve's stories cover his search for belonging, impacts of the stolen generation of Aboriginal children, systemic and individual racism, facing personal battles and sliding door moments throughout his life experiences.
2024-04-2554 min
Double Ds: The Discovery DiariesDouble Ds Discovery Diaries Trailer - the story behind the Double Ds podcastWe share our guests' life stories of courage and resilience. We are Donna and Di.
2024-04-0303 min