November 22, 2021 • 13 mins
Welcome to the wrap up episode of Season One of Cerebral Conversations. Here are some highlights and never heard before stories from the great minds at Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA) and our special guests and hosts.
And as you have heard throughout the series from the likes of Hannah Diviney, Bronya Metherell and Tara Moss, just how important storytelling is. We'd like you to share your story with us in Season Two, so if you have an idea you'd love us to tackle, send an email to ask@ cerebral palsy. org.au, or join the CPA Facebook Community Group and tell us there.
We'd love to hear from you. And in the meantime, please stay subscribed if you haven't done so already, tell your friends about Cerebral Conversations and you can keep the conversation going between seasons by leaving us a rating or review on your favourite podcast platform.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Andy McLean (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the wrap up episode of Season
One of Cerebral Conversations. My name's Andy McLean.
Ben McAlary (00:10):
And my name is Ben McAlary, G'day. Well, Andy, we
are back to recount our favourite moments of season one
and even share some never heard before stories.
Andy McLean (00:23):
Yeah. What a fun season it's been. The response has
been sensational. So first of all, Ben, I just want
to thank everybody who has listened to the season, commented,
shared and helped spread the word. We've been really quite
overwhelmed by some of the feedback that we've had. It's
been lovely.
Ben McAlary (00:38):
Yeah, and Cerebral Conversation set out to tackle some of
the biggest disability issues like able ism and accessibility, advocacy,
inclusion and tech innovation. And I think we've achieved that.
Just recently, a mum and advocate for a little one
with cerebral palsy told us how valuable the show's been
(00:59):
in raising the awareness and understanding of cerebral palsy, which
will no doubt have a really positive impact on her
child's future.
Andy McLean (01:06):
How good is that? And it's actually been a really
big year for disability awareness. More broadly, we've had the
Paralympics, t he launch of We The 15 and even COVID 19
has offered some surprising silver linings, with so many things
moving online and making it easier for some people with
disability to get involved.
Ben McAlary (01:26):
Yeah, and I think these conversations have also played an
important part.
Andy McLean (01:30):
Yeah, it's nice to think we might have made a
small difference ourselves too with the podcast, Ben and even
Apple recognised that . They showcased Cerebral Conversations in their new
and noteworthy list for a couple of weeks, which is
a huge achievement. We were delighted to see that .
Ben McAlary (01:45):
We're stoked with that. Not all podcasts appear on that list,
so that was wonderful. Andy, w ith that in mind, I
wanted to ask you what was your favourite moment of
the season?
Andy McLean (01:55):
Oh, so you've basically saved the most difficult question for
the very end of the podcast season, Ben, that's cruel.
Ben McAlary (02:02):
Had to,had to.
Andy McLean (02:04):
It's really, really hard to pick. But look, I mean,
as a creative professional, I suppose one guest that stuck
with me was Emily Dash. Emily's a prolific actor, writer, playwright.
She's living proof, I think that it's possible to overcome
barriers to employment with a disability and to have an exciting,
fulfilling career of your own choosing. Let's play a clip now, actually,
(02:29):
that I think really highlights Emily's positive. It's a sense
of humor, and I think that if you think about it,
it's the positivity and the sense of humour being two
of the great enablers for her in her career so far.
Ben McAlary (02:41):
Let's take a listen.
Emily Dash (02:42):
So one day I was at a theatre performance with
my friend Julie McPherson, and we were we decided that
we were getting ice cream at intermission, and that all
sounded really great. U ntil I discovered that it's very
(03:04):
hard to feed someone ice cream without making a very
large mess. So, you know, we're laughing and, you know,
trying to get me cleaned up before the lights went
down again. And she said yeah, my my determination in eating the ice cream.
And I told her it was kind of what my life, and she said,
(03:28):
What do you mean? And then out of nowhere, I said,
"life is like eating an ice cream. It's often difficult,
sometimes messy, but always enjoyable if you can find the sweetness in it."
And that is something I would say that is like
my life motto from then on out.
Andy McLean (03:49):
Yeah, there you go. Indeed. So that was Emily Dash,
who is such a great storyteller. If anyone's listening right
now and they haven't yet heard that episode, I guarantee
you will love it. Go back, check it out. There's
some great yarns in there involving a stellar list of
actors that Emily's worked with. In fact, I'm still feeling
a little bit starstruck from it. So, Ben, you've asked
(04:10):
me the difficult question. I'm going to throw it right
back to you, mate. What was your highlight for the season?
Ben McAlary (04:16):
Well, Andy, it's really hard to go past episodes one
and three for me, so if I can take you back.
These were the episodes with Professor Nadia Badawi, and she
talks about her incredible work that she does in neonatology.
And it really resonates with me because I think I
may have mentioned in the episode, Andy, that my daughter
(04:39):
spent her first couple of days in a NIC unit,
so hearing those stories from Nadia really took me back there.
And I think anyone who's had a baby in the
NICU would be touched by Nadia's story and just how
much those who work in neonatology care about these little babies.
So Andy, the c lip that I wanted to share, i t's
(05:01):
actually an extended cut from episode one, and it goes
into what inspired Nadia to become a neonatologist. Let's hear it.
Nadia Badawi (05:12):
I'm half Irish and half Egyptian, and I'd grown up
in Egypt predominantly, and my parents, especially my father, had
had quite a difficult childhood. So he was very sympathetic
to the plight of women and children in particular, and
saw that in poor countries or where there's any political strife,
(05:35):
women and children are always the first victims. So I
think that over the years he talked to us and said, Look,
you guys, as four of you, you're pretty lucky and
you've had a good education. And it really it's important
that you try and help other people. So I chose
(05:58):
initially planning to do obstetrics and gynecology because I was
very sympathetic to women and what happens in low income countries.
But I found myself increasingly interested in the babies and
realised that you can do a lot around that time
to change the trajectory of somebody's life. And if you
(06:23):
have good newborn intensive care or special care, then that
really has a huge impact on that person, their family
and the whole community. Because I think most Australians would
be shocked to realise that about 10 percent of all
babies in Australia are going to end up in a
newborn intensive care unit or a special care nursery. So
(06:47):
if we don't get it right at that time, that
really affects the life of that child forever. And you
only have to stand a newborn intensive care and see
the parents, the grandparents, the siblings to see that you're
it's not just that baby, it's the whole family and
(07:08):
the community are impacted forever.
Andy McLean (07:11):
That was Nadia Badawi and just some extraordinary work that
she and her colleagues do. Ben, another highlight I'm going
to cheat now. You asked me for one, but I can't.
I'm going to have to have a second one. As
a dad, I can't stop thinking about the story of
Little Eve Darcy and our chat with her dad, Joe,
where he recounted her birth story and the miracles that followed.
(07:33):
And thanks to Nadia Badawi and her team, actually, this
is the clip that really stayed with me. So Joe,
the family's all together. You've got Eve in your arms.
What happened next?
Joe Darcy (07:46):
Yeah, it was it was quite quite difficult to kind
of get your head around that you're lying with this little,
this little baby here and waiting for her to slip
away because they had said it'll take a bit of
time for that lungs to saturate or something like that
that she would just stop breathing because the brain stem
couldn't tell the lungs to work. That's what I was
(08:07):
got in layman's terms. The information. But yes, we kind
of didn't recognise, don't know how long we were there.
It seemed like a probably an hour or two hours,
I don't know. But. After a while, the doctor doctors
were coming in and out, and she's you can see
the look on their face like, Oh, she's still here.
You know, that type of thing. And then one particular
(08:27):
doctor came in and he said he just came over
and checked her in, and then he put a glove
on on his hand and then just put his finger
in her mouth, and she started sucking on his finger.
And he was OK. This this this isn't right. That
shouldn't be happening to this. I don't know. And we've
got to get her some food. I don't think doctors
(08:50):
knew that because they knew what was happening. Probably never
saw that before that you're on the end of end
of life. And next of all, it's oh, she's doing
what we were told couldn't be done. And so now
the lungs are working and the brain stem is telling
the lungs to work. Now we have to get her some
food and and try and come out of this sort
(09:12):
of this kind of fog that we're in of, of
letting her go next of all it's, Oh, well, she's probably going
to be all right. Oh, so that's an amazing roller
coaster to be on to tell her that one minute
you're saying you goodbyes. The next minute you're celebrating that
she's she's still here. And then the next day and
(09:32):
the next day, it's just it's just a blurred. And
after that, how it all came came from that, you know.
Ben McAlary (09:37):
I'm getting quite emotional just listening back to that, Andy.
And it certainly was a bit of a tearjerker when
we were in the room recording it with Joe, wasn't it?
Before we wrap up, I want to revisit one last
clip and that's from our youngest guest in the series, Mr.
Arran Keith, an athlete and an aspiring Paralympian. I love
(09:59):
Arran's determination and passion to create a future where disability
is completely normalised. Take a listen to this.
Arran Keith (10:09):
And last year, I also got elected as school vice president. Yeah,
I think it's really good that the younger kids get
to see me up there with my walker and stuff
with this really, because that normalises it, so yeah , and I also want to become
Australia's first disabled prime minister.
Andy McLean (10:30):
So there you go. We've given you an exclusive in
this podcast season. You now know that Australia's first disabled
prime minister will be Arran Keith. And you know what?
He's got my vote for absolute certainty.
Ben McAlary (10:43):
Absolutely. Wouldn't that be wonderful and Andy, we could probably
share more and more of these clips, but like all
good things, it must come to an end. And as
we close the curtain on season one, we wanted to
share with you our plans for season two.
Andy McLean (10:59):
Yeah, great news. We're going to be back in your
ear holes in 2022 with more stories, more laughs and
more conversations between great minds that think differently. Talking about
how we can change expectations, attitudes and culture around some
of the biggest disability issues in our world today.
Ben McAlary (11:17):
And as you have heard throughout the series from the
likes of Hannah Diviney, Bronya Metherell and Tara Moss, just
how important storytelling is. We'd like you to share your
story with us in Season Two, so if you have
an idea you'd love us to tackle, send an email
to ask@ cerebral palsy. org.au, or join the CPA Facebook
(11:44):
Community Group and tell us there.
Andy McLean (11:47):
Yes, so get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.
And in the meantime, please stay subscribed if you haven't
done so already, tell your friends about Cerebral Conversations and
you can keep the conversation going between seasons by leaving
us a rating or review. So, until next time. Thanks
again for listening and goodbye for now.
Ben McAlary (12:10):
You've been listening to Cerebral Conversations, a podcast produced by
Cerebral Palsy Alliance .
Andy McLean (12:18):
To learn more, check out the show notes to this episode.
Over at cerebral palsy.org.au/ cerebral conversations.
Ben McAlary (12:26):
And if you enjoyed the show, please rate or review
on your favorite podcast platform.
Andy McLean (12:32):
And to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Ben McAlary (12:36):
Thanks again for listening.
Arran Keith (12:38):
The music for this podcast was kindly supplied by Ocean Alley.
Check out the band's music on Bandcamp or visit oceanalley.com.au
Hello and welcome to the wrap up episode of Season
One of Cerebral Conversations. My name's Andy McLean.
Ben McAlary (00:10):
And my name is Ben McAlary, G'day. Well, Andy, we
are back to recount our favourite moments of season one
and even share some never heard before stories.
Andy McLean (00:23):
Yeah. What a fun season it's been. The response has
been sensational. So first of all, Ben, I just want
to thank everybody who has listened to the season, commented,
shared and helped spread the word. We've been really quite
overwhelmed by some of the feedback that we've had. It's
been lovely.
Ben McAlary (00:38):
Yeah, and Cerebral Conversation set out to tackle some of
the biggest disability issues like able ism and accessibility, advocacy,
inclusion and tech innovation. And I think we've achieved that.
Just recently, a mum and advocate for a little one
with cerebral palsy told us how valuable the show's been
(00:59):
in raising the awareness and understanding of cerebral palsy, which
will no doubt have a really positive impact on her
child's future.
Andy McLean (01:06):
How good is that? And it's actually been a really
big year for disability awareness. More broadly, we've had the
Paralympics, t he launch of We The 15 and even COVID 19
has offered some surprising silver linings, with so many things
moving online and making it easier for some people with
disability to get involved.
Ben McAlary (01:26):
Yeah, and I think these conversations have also played an
important part.
Andy McLean (01:30):
Yeah, it's nice to think we might have made a
small difference ourselves too with the podcast, Ben and even
Apple recognised that . They showcased Cerebral Conversations in their new
and noteworthy list for a couple of weeks, which is
a huge achievement. We were delighted to see that .
Ben McAlary (01:45):
We're stoked with that. Not all podcasts appear on that list,
so that was wonderful. Andy, w ith that in mind, I
wanted to ask you what was your favourite moment of
the season?
Andy McLean (01:55):
Oh, so you've basically saved the most difficult question for
the very end of the podcast season, Ben, that's cruel.
Ben McAlary (02:02):
Had to,had to.
Andy McLean (02:04):
It's really, really hard to pick. But look, I mean,
as a creative professional, I suppose one guest that stuck
with me was Emily Dash. Emily's a prolific actor, writer, playwright.
She's living proof, I think that it's possible to overcome
barriers to employment with a disability and to have an exciting,
fulfilling career of your own choosing. Let's play a clip now, actually,
(02:29):
that I think really highlights Emily's positive. It's a sense
of humor, and I think that if you think about it,
it's the positivity and the sense of humour being two
of the great enablers for her in her career so far.
Ben McAlary (02:41):
Let's take a listen.
Emily Dash (02:42):
So one day I was at a theatre performance with
my friend Julie McPherson, and we were we decided that
we were getting ice cream at intermission, and that all
sounded really great. U ntil I discovered that it's very
(03:04):
hard to feed someone ice cream without making a very
large mess. So, you know, we're laughing and, you know,
trying to get me cleaned up before the lights went
down again. And she said yeah, my my determination in eating the ice cream.
And I told her it was kind of what my life, and she said,
(03:28):
What do you mean? And then out of nowhere, I said,
"life is like eating an ice cream. It's often difficult,
sometimes messy, but always enjoyable if you can find the sweetness in it."
And that is something I would say that is like
my life motto from then on out.
Andy McLean (03:49):
Yeah, there you go. Indeed. So that was Emily Dash,
who is such a great storyteller. If anyone's listening right
now and they haven't yet heard that episode, I guarantee
you will love it. Go back, check it out. There's
some great yarns in there involving a stellar list of
actors that Emily's worked with. In fact, I'm still feeling
a little bit starstruck from it. So, Ben, you've asked
(04:10):
me the difficult question. I'm going to throw it right
back to you, mate. What was your highlight for the season?
Ben McAlary (04:16):
Well, Andy, it's really hard to go past episodes one
and three for me, so if I can take you back.
These were the episodes with Professor Nadia Badawi, and she
talks about her incredible work that she does in neonatology.
And it really resonates with me because I think I
may have mentioned in the episode, Andy, that my daughter
(04:39):
spent her first couple of days in a NIC unit,
so hearing those stories from Nadia really took me back there.
And I think anyone who's had a baby in the
NICU would be touched by Nadia's story and just how
much those who work in neonatology care about these little babies.
So Andy, the c lip that I wanted to share, i t's
(05:01):
actually an extended cut from episode one, and it goes
into what inspired Nadia to become a neonatologist. Let's hear it.
Nadia Badawi (05:12):
I'm half Irish and half Egyptian, and I'd grown up
in Egypt predominantly, and my parents, especially my father, had
had quite a difficult childhood. So he was very sympathetic
to the plight of women and children in particular, and
saw that in poor countries or where there's any political strife,
(05:35):
women and children are always the first victims. So I
think that over the years he talked to us and said, Look,
you guys, as four of you, you're pretty lucky and
you've had a good education. And it really it's important
that you try and help other people. So I chose
(05:58):
initially planning to do obstetrics and gynecology because I was
very sympathetic to women and what happens in low income countries.
But I found myself increasingly interested in the babies and
realised that you can do a lot around that time
to change the trajectory of somebody's life. And if you
(06:23):
have good newborn intensive care or special care, then that
really has a huge impact on that person, their family
and the whole community. Because I think most Australians would
be shocked to realise that about 10 percent of all
babies in Australia are going to end up in a
newborn intensive care unit or a special care nursery. So
(06:47):
if we don't get it right at that time, that
really affects the life of that child forever. And you
only have to stand a newborn intensive care and see
the parents, the grandparents, the siblings to see that you're
it's not just that baby, it's the whole family and
(07:08):
the community are impacted forever.
Andy McLean (07:11):
That was Nadia Badawi and just some extraordinary work that
she and her colleagues do. Ben, another highlight I'm going
to cheat now. You asked me for one, but I can't.
I'm going to have to have a second one. As
a dad, I can't stop thinking about the story of
Little Eve Darcy and our chat with her dad, Joe,
where he recounted her birth story and the miracles that followed.
(07:33):
And thanks to Nadia Badawi and her team, actually, this
is the clip that really stayed with me. So Joe,
the family's all together. You've got Eve in your arms.
What happened next?
Joe Darcy (07:46):
Yeah, it was it was quite quite difficult to kind
of get your head around that you're lying with this little,
this little baby here and waiting for her to slip
away because they had said it'll take a bit of
time for that lungs to saturate or something like that
that she would just stop breathing because the brain stem
couldn't tell the lungs to work. That's what I was
(08:07):
got in layman's terms. The information. But yes, we kind
of didn't recognise, don't know how long we were there.
It seemed like a probably an hour or two hours,
I don't know. But. After a while, the doctor doctors
were coming in and out, and she's you can see
the look on their face like, Oh, she's still here.
You know, that type of thing. And then one particular
(08:27):
doctor came in and he said he just came over
and checked her in, and then he put a glove
on on his hand and then just put his finger
in her mouth, and she started sucking on his finger.
And he was OK. This this this isn't right. That
shouldn't be happening to this. I don't know. And we've
got to get her some food. I don't think doctors
(08:50):
knew that because they knew what was happening. Probably never
saw that before that you're on the end of end
of life. And next of all, it's oh, she's doing
what we were told couldn't be done. And so now
the lungs are working and the brain stem is telling
the lungs to work. Now we have to get her some
food and and try and come out of this sort
(09:12):
of this kind of fog that we're in of, of
letting her go next of all it's, Oh, well, she's probably going
to be all right. Oh, so that's an amazing roller
coaster to be on to tell her that one minute
you're saying you goodbyes. The next minute you're celebrating that
she's she's still here. And then the next day and
(09:32):
the next day, it's just it's just a blurred. And
after that, how it all came came from that, you know.
Ben McAlary (09:37):
I'm getting quite emotional just listening back to that, Andy.
And it certainly was a bit of a tearjerker when
we were in the room recording it with Joe, wasn't it?
Before we wrap up, I want to revisit one last
clip and that's from our youngest guest in the series, Mr.
Arran Keith, an athlete and an aspiring Paralympian. I love
(09:59):
Arran's determination and passion to create a future where disability
is completely normalised. Take a listen to this.
Arran Keith (10:09):
And last year, I also got elected as school vice president. Yeah,
I think it's really good that the younger kids get
to see me up there with my walker and stuff
with this really, because that normalises it, so yeah , and I also want to become
Australia's first disabled prime minister.
Andy McLean (10:30):
So there you go. We've given you an exclusive in
this podcast season. You now know that Australia's first disabled
prime minister will be Arran Keith. And you know what?
He's got my vote for absolute certainty.
Ben McAlary (10:43):
Absolutely. Wouldn't that be wonderful and Andy, we could probably
share more and more of these clips, but like all
good things, it must come to an end. And as
we close the curtain on season one, we wanted to
share with you our plans for season two.
Andy McLean (10:59):
Yeah, great news. We're going to be back in your
ear holes in 2022 with more stories, more laughs and
more conversations between great minds that think differently. Talking about
how we can change expectations, attitudes and culture around some
of the biggest disability issues in our world today.
Ben McAlary (11:17):
And as you have heard throughout the series from the
likes of Hannah Diviney, Bronya Metherell and Tara Moss, just
how important storytelling is. We'd like you to share your
story with us in Season Two, so if you have
an idea you'd love us to tackle, send an email
to ask@ cerebral palsy. org.au, or join the CPA Facebook
(11:44):
Community Group and tell us there.
Andy McLean (11:47):
Yes, so get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.
And in the meantime, please stay subscribed if you haven't
done so already, tell your friends about Cerebral Conversations and
you can keep the conversation going between seasons by leaving
us a rating or review. So, until next time. Thanks
again for listening and goodbye for now.
Ben McAlary (12:10):
You've been listening to Cerebral Conversations, a podcast produced by
Cerebral Palsy Alliance .
Andy McLean (12:18):
To learn more, check out the show notes to this episode.
Over at cerebral palsy.org.au/ cerebral conversations.
Ben McAlary (12:26):
And if you enjoyed the show, please rate or review
on your favorite podcast platform.
Andy McLean (12:32):
And to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Ben McAlary (12:36):
Thanks again for listening.
Arran Keith (12:38):
The music for this podcast was kindly supplied by Ocean Alley.
Check out the band's music on Bandcamp or visit oceanalley.com.au
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.