Inspirational guests feature on a podcast made locally.  Jane O’Loughlin reports.

If you follow the podcast Conversations With Wāhine then you would have heard the voice of Mt Victoria resident Aisling Waldron.

The weekly podcast is run by the Wellington chapter of the National Council of Women New Zealand. 

It aims to promote gender equality and the voices of women in the community, says Waldron.

“Every time we get a guest, we're either thinking, is this a woman in our community who we can give a platform to that maybe wouldn't have access to a platform? Or is it somebody who is talking about something or doing a piece of work that could affect or impact women in the community?”

The guest list includes authors, artists, activists, comedians, politicians, sportspeople.  As well as women from Aoteroa, the podcast has managed to talk to prominent international guests such as comedian and feminist Debra Francis-White, who has a huge platform internationally, and Randee Kogan, a trauma therapist who treated some of the victims of Jeffry Epstein and appeared in a Netflix series about the in case.

While the guests are mainly women, occasionally men will feature as well.

According to Waldron, there’s no big secret to securing well-known guests.  

“Honestly, we just ask. We just really ask everyone. And nine times out of 10, people say yes.”

The podcast has been going for three years and has surpassed 100 episodes. Waldron has been involved for the past two years.

She is passionate about the work the National Council of Women do, whether it’s fundraising for women’s refuges or inputting into policy that affects women. The Wellington branch is very active, and a broad church, she says.

“It's a really cool organisation in that you have women who are in their 70s, 80s and were here in the early days when this was kicking off and have been part of huge pieces of change in the country.
“But you also have a lot of really young women who are, you know, maybe teens, early 20s.”

Waldron is from Ireland, and moved to New Zealand in 2018.  She and her husband have lived in Mt Victoria for around three and a half years.  She is a big fan of the area.

“Everyone's so friendly. You feel like you're in the suburbs but you're also like a five-minute walk to the city centre. You know, you've got 10 minutes up to Mount Vic, 10 minutes down to the beach.

“It's just, it's like a little haven in the middle of the city.”

Anyone interested in listening can find Conversations With Wāhine through Spotify, Apple or any of the usual podcast providers.  More information can be found on Facebook and Instagram.