Episodes
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In this special episode, our usual presenter, Courtney Collins, is interviewed by our Producer Lisa Madden.
Courtney talks about her novel writing process and her PhD 'Working against whiteness in creative literary production'. She shares insights from living in the remote Northern Territory in Ngukurr, working amongst the indigenous community, and how what she learnt in that time has influenced her work and her life.
Many thanks to Hattie Dalton for allowing us to use her outrageous but immediately understandable quote in this episode.
This is the final episode in Series 2 of 'Are You Still Working?!', do let us know if there's anyone you'd like us to interview for Series 3, and follow us on Instagram @areyoustillworkingpodcast.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
In this episode of Are You Still Working?! writers Mirandi Riwoe and Laura Elvery chat to Courtney Collins about becoming published authors and what they've learnt along the way.
Recorded in front of a live audience at Avid Reader, an independent bookstore in West End, Brisbane, this episode is packed with tips and tricks for emerging writers - from getting noticed by publishers by entering competitions, to establishing your own writers group and setting up your own writers residencies.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
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Clare Murphy is a Storyteller by trade. In this episode she talks about the long history of storytelling in Ireland, her birth country, and how storytelling culture differs around the world but is ultimately essential to humanity.
Clare lives in Bristol, England now, but she has worked with organisations across the globe as diverse as NASA, the NHS and the New Zealand All Blacks. She realised early on in her career that Storytelling was going to be an isolating and lonely road if she didn't cultivate connection with like-minded people. She talks about how she is inspired and kept company by artists, poets and dancers both living and dead.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Jasmin Tarasin has been a filmmaker her entire career. She's never had any other job. She's worked all over the world directing documentaries, short films, commercials and video art installations. Most recently she’s been creating a series of artists retreats called Muse Maker, to feed creative souls and she has just directed her first feature film LIFE CAN BE A DREAM.
So what does it take for a person, a woman, a mother to multiple children (and a dog), to commit to a working life that offers no security, little possibility for planning and often outrageously long hours?
In this episode of Are You Still Working?! Jasmin talks through the core elements that help her keep momentum, clarity and playfulness in an industry that relentlessly demands so much time, energy and creativity.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Ruth Maddison's visual work spans 5 decades. Her first photography exhibition was in Melbourne in 1979 and the collection was purchased complete by the National Gallery of Victoria.
Self-taught, Ruth was introduced to the camera and photo processing at the age of 30 by her house-mate Ponch Hawkes. She photographed people that she knew, processing the film and she quickly began getting paid work. Subsequent commissions and exhibitions replicated her success.
Ruth moved to Eden on the south coast of NSW in the mid-90s and the location has influenced her work profoundly. Living in a small town, she photographed the lives of the community including teenagers, fisherman and the local chipping/sawmill industries, as well as documenting the landscape with polaroids, lumen prints and camera-less photography.
Fascinated by the lives of ordinary people, Ruth's work has moved beyond photography and now includes other image making. Her recent show at SECCA in Bega exhibited covid-related embroidered doilies, stained by unknown families and her grandmother's tablecloth.
Ruth is still working.
{Last seconds: Sound of a wave crashing onto Aslings Beach in Eden}Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Originally a science writer by profession, Toni Jordan talks through the catalyst and the process that put her on track to being the acclaimed novelist she is today.
She describes herself as someone who thought she 'didn't have a creative bone in her body', but now the discipline and process of working on intensive scientific dossiers for 12 months or more has transferred to her creative process as a full time writer.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Judith Nangala Crispin discusses in bold and simple terms what it takes for her to call herself an artist - the joys and the sacrifices.
Beginning her creative journey as a musician, Judith worked as an opera singer and a composer before arriving at poetry and visual art. One of her current projects is using dead animals (roadkill), and transforming them into ethereal works of art.
Judith talks about her commitment to and inspiration from the land - the country she lives and works on, and about searching for her indigenous heritage, tracking down as much as she could about her Great, Great Grandmother Charlotte.
Essential listening for anyone who wants to truly commit to living an artistic life.
More information about Judith's work and pictures of her beautiful artwork can be found on her website: https://judithcrispin.com/Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Sarah Lambert is a writer, director, producer and showrunner, creating television series' such as The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, The Messenger, Lambs of God and many more.
In this episode Sarah talks about how as a child, she always preferred the imagined world to reality, how she'll never feel able to rest on her laurels (no matter how successful she is or how many projects she has on the go), why she wasn't satisfied being 'just' a writer, and why she loves them but doesn't think she should be the one to make documentaries.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer and editor. Her debut novel titled 'Dirt Poor Islanders', is the first novel to be published about the Tongan-Australian community.
In this episode, Winnie talk about how she honed her craft at Sweatshop, a literacy movement in Western Sydney, how self-insert fan fiction was her gateway to writing, and how working solidly as a writer and editor has allowed her to move out of the cramped family home she grew up in, to a place of her own.
Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Lo Carmen is a singer/songwriter, writer and actor. Lo first came to public attention starring as Freya in the 1987 classic Australian film The Year My Voice Broke. She's just released a new album called 'Transatlantic Light', her first album since the Nashville recorded Lovers, Dreamers, Fighters in 2017. Her book, published in 2022 by HarperCollins (the book is also titled 'Lovers, Dreamers, Fighters'), with its accompanying playlist should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the history of Australian music.
In this episode, Lo tells stories of the brutal reality of life as a singer and the sometimes disjointed process of songwriting. She talks about growing up in a creative community in Adelaide and why she doesn't care if other people take her work seriously - as long as she does.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Artist and author Karen Rogers is a Ngalakan woman from Ngukurr, a remote community in southeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Her artwork comes from cultural knowledge and her feelings for the land. She studied visual art at Batchelor Institute.
Karen works across textiles, glass, painting, and animation. Wanmari, written and illustrated by Karen and directed by Jake Duczynski, was a finalist in the NATSIA Awards. Karen's also an author of a picture book called Main Abija about her grandfather.
In this episode, Karen talks about how her feelings for country flow into her work, how following story leads her to paint, and the cultural law she is both bound by and nourished by.
We HEART Karen Rogers.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Multidisciplinary artist Lottie Consalvo lives and works on Awabakal Country in Newcastle, Australia. She works across painting, sculpture, performance art, photography and video.
She is represented by https://dominikmerschgallery.com/ in Sydney and https://www.janmurphygallery.com.au/ in Brisbane.
In this interview, Lottie talks about how she finds agency and autonomy in her studio, how she creates the headspace for little epiphanies, and the people and practices that sustain her and her international career.
We HEART Lottie Consalvo.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Photographer Joy Mai En Lai has worked in Sydney's leading cultural institutions for more than a decade, including the Library of NSW. Her photographs regularly appear in print, exhibitions and on the facades of prominent public buildings.
Born in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Joy has also lived in Asia and Australia. Based on Gadigal Country in Sydney, she creates work from her own explorations and commissioned assignments.
Joy discusses the rewards of leaving the comfort of her city apartment for the discoveries she makes – about herself and her environment.
We HEART Joy Mei En Lai.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Musician and creative research scholar Dr Amanda Roff lives on the traditional lands of the Taungurung people in Nagambie, Central Victoria, and the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation in Naarm/Melbourne. She completed her Honours at the University of California Berkeley, and she holds a PhD in English and Creative Writing from La Trobe University. Her thesis focused on metaphysical aspects of music and performance through re-interpretation of Greek myth.
Amanda is a member of post-punk outfit Harmony and is principal lyricist and vocalist for shadowy pop group Time for Dreams. Both bands have been long listed for the Australian Music Prize. She has sung backing vocals for bands including The Drones and Don Walker.
In this conversation, Amanda talks about being plagued by self-doubt and how she bolsters herself through an interior process to arrive at a place of confidence and integrity.
She shares her own investigations into the mystery of singing and how it is possible for anyone to access its magic and power.
We HEART Amanda Roff.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Author Charlotte Wood is the author of nine brilliant books. Throughout her career, she has most generously shared her own research and life-long investigations into how stories are made. She has even been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to literature.
Her latest novel Stone Yard Devotional has just been released to a great critical reception and before that, her novel The Weekend was an international bestseller, winning both the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award.
“To create is to defy emptiness."
... is just one of many profound things that Charlotte says in her non-fiction book The Luminous Solution: Creativity, Resilience & the Inner-Life. It is a must read for anyone who has a creative bone in their body.
True to form, Charlotte most generously shares her process and challenges with us.
We HEART Charlotte Wood.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Filmmaker and video artist Naina Sen explores cultural identity, gender and equity. AACTA and Walkley nominated, her work privileges First Nations and South East Asian points of view, and includes the wonderful documentary The Song Keepers with The Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Choir.
In this interview, Naina discusses how focus and discipline support her creative practice.
She offers insight into the emotional and social rigour of testing your ideas, and why accountability must start (but not end) with yourself. Naina asks herself: Why are you telling the story? Why are you working with a particular group of people? Are you the right person to do that?
Through these questions, her commitment to a project is made.
WE HEART NAINA SEN.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Singer-songwriter Laura Jean has released six widely acclaimed albums. Her most recent, Amateurs, is a pulsing examination of what it is to be an artist working in Australia today. As well as making music and touring, she also works for a film financing company and studies Arts/Law at the University of NSW.
In this interview, Laura Jean describes how she nurtures her 'three children': music, work and study, and how her working-class background influences how she regards herself as an artist – or an amateur.
For Laura Jean being an artist is not only about producing, it’s a way of life.WE HEART LAURA JEAN.
Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
Author Holly Ringland has well and truly picked up the pen. In the past five years, she has published two novels – The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, and she has just released her first non-fiction title, The House That Joy Built, which explores the transformative power of creative work. Meanwhile, the screen adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart screened this year on Amazon Prime.
Holly's creativity and joy seem to radiate from her. But to courageously begin writing the stories she'd been longing to write her whole life, first she had release herself from the grip of fear.
Holly describes this life changing moment and how she sustains herself through the marathon of the work – to create stories that have now connected her with so many adoring readers.
WE HEART HOLLY RINGLAND.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests. -
Send us a text
There's a new podcast in town and it's called, Are You Still Working?! How to take your creative ideas seriously. Is there a creative project you've been longing to do, but for one reason or another, you haven't been able to pick up a pen or a brush or a hammer to even begin? In season one, you'll hear from acclaimed authors, Charlotte Wood and Holly Ringland, musician, Laura Jean, artist Lotte Consalvo and more.
You'll hear how they've wrestled with self doubt to do the work they love. They'll share tips and tools you can use in your own creative life.
This podcast is going to be an angel in your ear, encouraging you to take your creative ideas seriously. We're going to demystify what it actually takes to do the work.
And identify what might be in your way. So you can pick up the pen or the brush or the hammer. I'm Courtney Collins, and I can't wait to bring you, Are You Still Working?! Coming soon, wherever you get your podcasts.Support the show
Are You Still Working?! is an independently produced, ad-free podcast presented by Courtney Collins and produced by Lisa Madden.
To keep connected, follow 'Are you still working?!' on Instagram.
Music: We are grateful for permission to use the track 'My Operator', by Time for Dreams.
Love and thanks to:
Shirley May Diffley
Jude Emmett
Amanda Roff
Stefan Wernik
AND our brilliant guests.
