Showy Ovaries with Penny Ashton

Showy Ovaries is in the presence of journalism royalty this week with Voyager Media Award Winning Reporter of the Year, Alison Mau. A journalist since 17, Mau has been successful across whatever media format you care to name, from TV to radio to broadsheets....well until she's made redundant anyway.  From her native Australia to the BBC and finally to her nearly three decades informing and entertaining Kiwis, Mau is a class act. We chat her courageous work in bringing predators to justice in Stuff's #metoo Project, about that one time she had a large audience watching her giving birth, and how she's really really sorry to have had a very easy menopause.  (Recorded Feb 1st 2022) Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

It's a brand new season and excitingly episode one was recorded live with a small but mighty studio audience as part of the Listen to This: Live Podcast Festival at Bats Theatre in Wellington. Penny's first guest this season is the hilarious comedian Sameena Zehra and tho Penny was stuck in West Auckland, she zoomed in and a jolly good time was had by all. Sameena treated everyone to some stand up at the top, then they chatted all about how you should never trust monkeys with your sanitary pads, about the filtered juice of guinea pig ovaries and how orgasms are the best medicine. Sameena's upcoming show information https://www.circa.co.nz/package/tea-with-terrorists/Dennis Eir Lim's Podcast Festival  https://bats.co.nz/whats-on/listen-to-this-live-podcasts/Always see what's happening at Bats https://bats.co.nz/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

In late 2021 Penny Ashton stormed parliament, but in a much more fabulous way.  In Season Two's first minisode you can hear the speech she gave to the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians group at their Orange the World Event. This was a breakfast which was to celebrate the 16 Days of Activism to end Gender-based Violence globally. Thanks to Ingrid Leary for the invite and to Louisa Wall and Nicola Grigg for their introductions.  Tune in to hear Penny regale MP's with exciting tales of her period, of other's people's vaginas, and as she tells gender based discrimination to "duck" right off. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

In the final of Season One of Showy Ovaries we have tenacious MP, Rugby Black Fern, Netball Silver Fern, and all round social justice amazon; Louisa Wall. Initially perplexed as why her fingers were tingling, her blood was raging and her temperature was a yo-yo, she eventually discovered it was menopause and had a light-bulb moment; "Why the hell didn't I know about ANY of this?" So always the one to make a fuss when it's required she has embarked on a parliamentary quest to effect change for women and trans people everywhere.  We chat demanding shorts that actually fit on the rugby field, how the marriage equality debate brought out a special breed of trolls and how when they agree on something, parliamentarians can all get along. Thanks for listening to Season One all you lovely Showy Ovarians - til 2022!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

Walkley Award winning Jane Caro has opinions and I was delighted to hear them. Australian feminist icon, lecturer, novelist, non-fiction star, thinker, atheist, stirrer, mother and grandmother; Jane has been rattling her feminist cage for decades now and poking the patriarchy with a big stick. We covered her flooded 'basement', how she overcame her crippling anxiety when her daughter nearly died,  and how civilsation owes its very existence to menopause.  All hail to thee, the goddam older woman.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

Carolyn Harris, deputy leader of Welsh Labour, is searingly honest about her struggle with grief, depression and Strictly Come Dancing. Floundering in the dark with what she now realises was menopause, she has turned those dark times into fuel and is at the forefront of the #menopauserevolution in the UK. She opens up about her mission to make lives better for ALL women regardless of class, about chatting to Davina McCall and about showing Boris Johnson how to push the right buttons.  Just don't call her posh. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

All round funny feminist Michele A'Court chats fibroids, cysts and the sisterhood. Raised with frank conversations and laughter around the kitchen table, Michele was determined to pass the same knowledge onto her daughter, even if her daughter didn't want to hear it. We talk about her bothersome uterus, her first feminist fracas at the age of 4 and just what is locked away in her fleshy vault. Warning: Contains improvised singing. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

AUT Associate Professor Dr Ella Henry, (Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Kuri, Te Rārawa) regales me with tales of skiing in bikini tops, getting expelled from High School, oh and menopause.  A life of travel, promotion of Maori excellence and fuc*ing the patriarchy. Prepare to hear one or two cackles as she discusses her one hot flash, throwing period parties for her daughters, and inserting the word vagina as much as possible into the official records of the Waitangi Tribunal. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

Once she finally realised she was in the grip of menopause, cake addled Anna Sophia didn't take it lying down. Mainly because she had to go to the toilet six times a night. After listening to UK menopause guru Lousie Newson's podcasts, she approached her doctors with a shopping list. But it wasn't that easy and she had to fight to get the remedies to get her joy back. We chat Catholics, vasectomies and squirting a cream where the sun don't shine. Link to the Spinoff article: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/27-07-2021/menopause-mht-and-me Dr Lousie Newson's podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dCctfyI9bODGDaFnjfKhg?si=76ba7661da4e4d7dSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)

Yes we have heard of hot flashes but what about electric shocks? Thinning hair? Stress incontinence? In this minisode I investigate the symptoms of menopause for Showy Ovaries News Network, so here are all THIRTY FOUR of the little buggers laid bare for your enjoyment. Oh, and the occasional mention of Alexander Skarsgård.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pennyashton)