This week Nicola and Di chat with the brilliant journalist, broadcaster and presenter Kumi Taguchi. Kumi has been working in the Australian media for almost 30 years, since she landed her first job as a Production Assistant for the 7.30 Report in the 90s. From there she went on to become the host and presenter of many shows, including her current role as the host of the SBS show, Insight. Kumi can now add author to her title, with the release of her book: The Good Daughter: A memoir of losing my father and finding home.

We chat to Kumi about some of the powerful and emotional moments that she shares in her new memoir, The Good Daughter. Kumi talks to us about the estranged relationship she had with her father and the unbelievable moment they shared in Japan when Kumi went to close that chapter in her life, and the universe sent her a glaring sign that it was far from closed.

Kumi talks about what it was like growing up as half Japanese and half Australian, and how it was actually her Australian mother that kept the Japanese culture alive in her home. Kumi shares the beautiful moment when a Japanese woman on a train in Tokyo, helped her to reframe how she thinks about her heritage in the most powerful way.

We also chat about some of the incredible personal challenges that Kumi has achieved - like that time she ran a marathon in the middle of the desert, or the time she was in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, despite the fact that she had no sailing experience and a history of getting sea sick.

And of course, we wanted to hear all the behind-the-scenes intel about what really goes into an episode of Insight, how the show is made, and what Kumi’s favourite shows have been over the years.

We had so much fun with Kumi and we could have chatted to her for hours. We loved having her in the studio and we really hope you enjoy this episode.

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or investor@montinvest.com

Follow Kumi on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/kumikotag/

Buy Kumi’s book here - https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/The-Good-Daughter/Kumi-Taguchi/9781925750799

Watch Insight here - https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/news-series/insight

Follow Kumi on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/kumikotag/

Follow Kumi on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kumitag/

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/

Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts

Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di are back with the third episode of our monthly financial series, Over The Money Fence with Roger Montgomery. This series aims to help you take control of your finances with clarity and confidence. Roger is the Founder and Chairman of Montgomery Investment Management, has over 30 years’ investing experience and is a highly respected financial commentator featuring on various ABC programs, as well as his popular column in The Australian newspaper. He is also the author of best-selling investment guidebook Value.able.

In this conversation we chat about how to manage your money wisely at every age and every stage of your life. Roger goes through each generation from Gen Z, to Millennials, to Gen X, to Boomers and what you might need to focus on or consider when it comes to your finances for that stage of your life.

Regardless of where you’re at in life, Roger recommends having a wealthing account. Entirely separate to a savings account, this account is where you focus on building wealth. As he suggests, a great financial habit to start is to pay yourself first into this account

Roger talks about the benefits of taking some risks when you’re younger, why he thinks spending a lot of money on a wedding isn’t the best financial decision, why starting a side-hustle and being entrepreneurial is a great idea if you’ve got the drive and why paying down your mortgage first can make good financial sense.

We also weigh up the pros and cons of investing your money in an investment property versus a private credit fund. Roger gives us solid ways of being able to make those decisions by making sense of and evaluating the true returns you’re getting on any investment you’re making.

As always, this episode was full of so much valuable information and we’re so glad to be able to bring you these conversations with Roger where we are learning so much. We hope you are too.

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or investor@montinvest.com

Find out more about Montgomery Investment Management here - https://montinvest.com

Learn more about Roger and read his articles here - https://rogermontgomery.com

Buy Roger's book Value.able here - https://rogermontgomery.com/valueable-book/

Follow Roger’s YouTube channel here - https://www.youtube.com/user/rogerjmontgomery

Follow Roger on X here - https://x.com/rjmontgomery

Follow Roger on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/montgomeryroger/

Follow Roger on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogermontgomery/

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/

Follow Nicola and Di on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the stunning and soulful Kate Bell. Kate is an international model, writer and yoga teacher, who is passionate about using her voice to challenge outdated ideas in fashion and beyond. Kate has been modelling for 4 decades and has worked for so many incredible designers and iconic brands, appearing in fashion shoots and runway shows all over the world. Now at 57, Kate is speaking out against ageism and advocating for change.

In this conversation we hear how Kate got started in modelling, and by the time she was 19, was living in New York and flying all over the world. Kate shares some of the most juicy stories from her early modelling days, which you won’t want to miss.

Kate talks about the 2 different worlds and lives she was living - there was the model Kate and the yogi Kate, and she describes the full circle moment, later in her career when she was hired by an activewear brand as a yoga teacher and her two worlds integrated in the most beautiful way.

Kate also opens up about the ways she has experienced ageism in her career and how ageism really is the last ‘ism’ that needs to be kicked out of the room! We couldn’t agree more.

It was so lovely speaking to Kate. She is graceful, grounded and full of insight and we were so grateful to have this conversation with her in the studio. We hope you love it too.

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or investor@montinvest.com

Follow Kate on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/i_am_katebell/

Follow Kate and read her articles on Substack here - https://katebell.substack.com/

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/

Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts

Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the incredibly talented Rob Carlton. Rob is an award-winning actor, writer, director and an all-round brilliant storyteller, who grew up near Nicola and Di’s backfence on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. He’s been in so many memorable shows which you may have seen, including A Country Practice, Underbelly, Paper Giants, Black Snow, Boy Swallows Universe and The White Lotus, to name just a few. He also hosts Bravewords Live, with his wife Adrienne Ferreira, an event which brings wildly entertaining true stories to the stage. Bravewords Live has been such a success over the years, that they’ve now decided to bring these incredible stories to you with the Bravewords Podcast, which will be launching at the end of the month.

In this episode we get all The White Lotus goss from Rob. He shares how secretive it was from the very beginning, when he first received the script to audition for ‘The Secret Garden’. He talks about how much mystery there was surrounding the show, from the script to the filming locations, and how great it was to be a part of the show. He talks about the fun the cast had on set, the friendships he made, the sketchy past of the superyacht they were filming on, and what it was like working with Mike White. Rob also give us such a great take on why he thinks The White Lotus became such a huge hit, and the Mike White magic that lies at the heart of this show.

We also hear what it was like to become Kerry Packer, for his Logie award-winning performance in Paper Giants. Rob shares such an honest story of how he almost lost the opportunity before he even had the role, because of the way he was being driven by fear and self-sabotage.

As well as his wonderful work in TV, we chat to Rob about Bravewords - his live storytelling events that he hosts with his wife Adrienne. The next one is coming up on June 29th at Avoca Beach Theatre with Larry Emdur. The good news is, over the years they’ve curated hundreds of brilliant true stories, and are about to release this as the Bravewords Podcast in the coming weeks.

And it’s not all career chat in this episode with Rob. He also opens up about his family relationships - the magnificent lessons from his parents, what makes his marriage work, the power of having difficult conversations and the way that he tries to parent his 21-year-old twin boys.

This is such a beautiful and rich conversation with Rob, and we hope you love it as much as we did.

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or investor@montinvest.com

Follow Rob on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/robbyjcarlton

Find out more about Bravewords and get tickets here - https://www.bravewords.com.au/

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/

Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts

Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with one of Australia’s most sought after relationship therapists, Melissa Ferrari. Melissa has been working with couples for over 25 years, helping them create healthy, secure relationships. She is certified in the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT) and is regularly called upon as a relationship expert in national media. We know that the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives and that connection to others is vital to our health and happiness, so we were thrilled to explore this topic with Melissa.

In this conversation we hear about the common challenges that couples face that Melissa sees over and over again in her therapy. Melissa gives us some good advice for how to ‘fight right’, including the importance of being face-to-face and looking each other in the eyes.

We chat about the hormones that flood our bodies when we’re in love, and what we need to remember when those hormones wear off, and we’re really getting to know the person in front of us. Melissa talks about putting the relationship first, recognising that you’re in a 2-party system where things are give and take, and the need to get to know each other on a deep level, including the trauma that you’re both bringing into the relationship.

Nicola opens up and shares a very vulnerable story about a recent relationship she was in, which ended in deception and betrayal. You won’t believe this story until you hear it! She talks about the importance of speaking up, of holding people to account, of women supporting women, and feeling empowered.

We hope you enjoy this special episode with Melissa as much as we did. And if you love our Over The Back Fence chats, come and hang out with us and some amazing guests at our in person event this week on the 19th of June at the Woolly Bay Hotel in Sydney. You can buy your tickets here - https://events.humanitix.com/over-the-back-fence-podcast-9r2scfqj/tickets

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future.

Follow Melissa on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/melissaferrari_psychotherapist/

Follow Melissa on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/melissaferrarirelationshipspecialist

Follow Melissa on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-f-38a77575/

Find out more about Melissa’s work here - https://www.melissaferrari.com.au/

Buy Wired For Love by Stan Tatkin (Melissa’s teacher and mentor) here

Buy Wired For Dating by Stan Tatkin here

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/

Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts

Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with fun and inspiring Kylie Jones. Kylie has created an incredible community called Fifty & Fearless, which empowers women to live boldly, love this chapter and stop playing small! It has become a global sensation with 600K followers, and it continues to grow.

In this conversation we hear about the turning point in Kylie’s life, which is where Fifty & Fearless began. Kylie opens up and shares about the incredibly difficult year she had just after turning 50, when both of her parents died suddenly and she was retrenched from her job. Kylie describes the rock bottom moment she had when she was lying on the floor sobbing, and how it was her teenage son’s words of wisdom that helped her turn it all around.

We talk about the wonderful community that Kylie has created and go through some of the most inspiring quotes she shares about life in your 50s and beyond. Kylie tells us that being fearless is really about being in your ‘No F**ks Era’, and having the courage to BE YOURSELF and not worry about what other people think. Kylie also shares some brilliant advice for how you can reconnect to who you truly are and remember the dreams you used to have when you were younger so that you can bring them back to life.

This is such a fantastic chat with Kylie about embracing midlife, rediscovering the things that bring you joy, being bold and living without the rules. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. And if you’re also in your ‘No F**ks Era’, Kylie has a special offer on her caps for our listeners. To get 25% off, enter the code OTBF25 at checkout.

If you love our Over The Back Fence chats, come and hang out with us and some amazing guests at our in person event on the 19th of June at the Woolly Bay Hotel in Sydney. You can buy your tickets here - https://events.humanitix.com/over-the-back-fence-podcast-9r2scfqj/tickets

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future.

Follow Fifty & Fearless on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/fiftyandfearless/

Buy a “I’m in my No F**ks Era” Cap here - use the discount code OTBF25 to receive 25% off

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/

Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts

Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the passionate and purposeful Dr. Phoebe Meagher. Phoebe is a scientist at the Taronga Zoo Conservation Society with a diverse background in wildlife conservation, forensic research and education. She has been pioneering the use of advanced technology and AI to combat wildlife trafficking and enhance animal detection. Phoebe has also led many field projects which have had a tangible impact and allowed for the successful release of rehabilitated animals back into their natural habitat. On top of all of that, Phoebe is also a mum of 2.

In this conversation, we hear all about the incredible project that Phoebe has been leading, where Taronga is using AI imaging technology to detect and prevent animals that are being illegally trafficked. Phoebe tells us about the astounding wildlife trafficking trade, with thousands of animals, such as blue tongue lizards, being poached and sent through the mail to foreign countries where they are sold for substantial amounts of money.

Phoebe also shares some of the most incredible stories from her career as a wildlife biologist. From almost losing an arm whilst hand feeding sharks, to being shocked by numb rays when she was studying sting rays for her PhD thesis as well as the most epic expedition through the jungles of Palawan. On that particular trip, Phoebe was guided by an animal poacher, 8 military guards and a young man wielding a machete in the hopes of finding a pangolin (the most trafficked animal in the world) so they could take the images they needed for the AI tech to prevent it being trafficked in the future.

It is really amazing to hear about all of the conservation work that Taronga is doing and to learn how much zoos have changed for the better over the years. We are so proud of the work that Phoebe is doing and thankful that there are women like her in this world. We hope you enjoy this chat as much as we did.

If you love our Over The Back Fence chats, come and hang out with us and some amazing guests at our in person event on the 19th of June at the Woolly Bay Hotel in Sydney. You can buy your tickets here - https://events.humanitix.com/over-the-back-fence-podcast-9r2scfqj/tickets

This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future.

Follow Phoebe on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/phoebe_for_the_wild/

Help fund Targona’s new Wildlife Hospital by donating here - https://taronga.org.au/donate

Follow Taronga Zoo on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/tarongazoo/

Follow Taronga Zoo on TikTok here - https://www.tiktok.com/@tarongazoo

Follow Taronga Zoo on LinkedIn here - https://au.linkedin.com/company/taronga-conservation-society-australia

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/

Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts

Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.