I love podcasts. It’s like the radio genie heard about my love for the ABC Conversations (and it’s forebear, Margaret Throsby) and decided to open the doors to millions of such great conversations, from all around the world on topics I care about. Now, I can find on demand radio shows, ie. great podcasts, whenever and wherever I want… such as my new poddie love, Sparta Chicks Radio.
During last year, I kept seeing Instagram posts pop up from @SpartaChicks and her founder and host @SpartaJen (Jen Brown). I finally got to meet her six months ago and she’s awesome!
I admit that I struggled with the name ‘Sparta’ at first, as it conjured up images of hard-core Spartan races, flash-backs from 90’s Gladiators and now the Ninja vs Spartan TV shows. However, a fast bit of Wiki-loving has shown me that there is such great depth in the name and history of Sparta, that it makes complete sense for Jen to adopt the name when creating her community.
Turns out, that women in ancient Sparta (think Greece 400 BC) not only experienced better rights and equality to men than in other ancient civilisations, but as part of the citizenship of Sparta, everyone had to undergo military (physical) training. They were pretty impressive when it came to wars, but the other aspect of the Sparta Chicks name that I love, is the nod to the arena. Not the one with lions and hand-to-hand battle, but the arena of life.
And really, this is what Sparta Chicks is all about. Finding bravery for the arena of life, for chasing your dreams and dealing with fears. My biggest surprise in listening to these podcasts, is realising how much I actually have in common with the impressive people that she interviews. Don’t think that these amazing athletes and adventure people are all professionals bound for Olympics or World Championships, these are everyday people, (or as Jen says in her intro… ‘everyday women and a few good men’) who are learning to overcome the mental challenges and the negatives stories that we tell ourselves, to move towards their dreams.
Needless to say, I was so delighted when I got to sit down in my backyard (with the cockatoos which you can hear in the background) and spend about an hour with Jen for episode #49. It felt like we were old friends and that we rambled on for hours and hours. Thankfully, she’s a very generous, humble and intuitive interviewer, keeping me on track as we talked about my issues with weight, getting started into this whole bushwalking/hiking shenanigan and dealing with my own negative self-talk.
You can listen to our episode #49 here and see her collection of other great podcast interviews here.
Thank you Radio Genie and thank you Jen.
Q: Do you have a favourite podcast that is connected to your outdoors life? I’d love to hear about it! Please pop over to the LotsaFreshAir Facebook page or leave a comment below.
