Why Smart Women Podcast
Welcome to the Why Smart Women Podcast, hosted by Annie McCubbin. We explore why women sometimes make the wrong choices and offer insightful guidance for better, informed decisions. Through engaging discussions, interviews, and real-life stories, we empower women to harness their intelligence, question their instincts, and navigate life's complexities with confidence. Join us each week to uncover the secrets of smarter decision-making and celebrate the brilliance of women everywhere.
Episodes
We record live with Australian Skeptics to unpack wellness fads, anti‑vax myths, and why certainty beats nuance online. From onion cures to HPV wins, we share how to challenge claims with empathy, evidence, and clear language without feeding false balance.
• defining skepticism as open inquiry and testing claims
• why psychics and alt‑med thrive on confidence and scripts
• the language of wellness...
We dig into Australia’s “Cooker Wars,” why online hype didn’t translate into real marches, and how grifters turn fear into sales. Along the way we unpack media tactics, harmful pseudoscience, and what you can actually do about microplastics without falling for scams.
• who the “cookers” are and why their marches flopped
• how online engagement misleads organisers and followers
• splinter groups, d...
We explore how quiet, steady change can break the shopping dopamine loop, reduce bias-driven choices, and build a wardrobe that reflects who we really are. Emma Edwards shares tools for metacognition, enoughness, and outfit repeating without fear while keeping values in view.
• recognising present bias, urgency bias and loss aversion in shopping
• exposure therapy for desire and “empty the cart” tact...
We talk with Emma Edwards about The Wardrobe Project, a year-long pause on clothes shopping that reveals how bias, body image, and culture fuel compulsive buying. The pause creates a new way to enjoy style without chasing constant newness.
• the no-buy year and why a full stop on shopping matters
• how hedonic adaptation keeps us stuck in the “newness” loop
• body image pressures and the polished ...
We unpack the psychology that makes property buying so risky and share the biases that almost had us purchasing a unit above a bong shop because of plantation shutters. We lay out simple steps to slow down your thinking, separate what can change from what cannot, and make a cleaner call.
• urgency and fatigue pushing “that’ll do” choices
• halo effect from shiny features masking defects
• anchorin...
Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting
We challenge celebrity myths about vaccines, unpack the “too many too soon” claim, and show how grifters turned doubt into profit while measles and whooping cough return. We share practical steps to talk to hesitant loved ones and protect vulnerable kids now.
• why the “Forest of the Fallen” misleads
• how celebrity rhetoric fuels vaccine hesitancy
• the autism link myth debunked with evidence
A fast, clear walkthrough of the “Cooker Wars” timeline, from a viral march brand to four competing groups, collapsing turnouts, and a movement that sells outrage without outcomes. We map the players, the optics problem, and why economic pain makes people vulnerable to grifters.
• Gaza protest optics triggering a copycat “March for Australia” wave
• NSN claiming involvement and the credibility collaps...
We unpack how a once unified protest movement fractured into rival factions and why that vacuum drew in neo-Nazi groups. We explore the psychology that keeps people in, from grief and defiance to false cures, and share practical ways to build scepticism and safety.
• cooker wars defined and why the split matters
• loss of clear goals and rise of hero complexes
• vague slog...
We explore how humour does real work: building critical thinking, lowering defensiveness, and fuelling social change, from pandemic myths to political power. Two kinds of laughter—herd and heights—show why some jokes harm and others heal, with practical ways to use comedy well.
• role of laughter in learning, groups, and connection
• comedy as a response to fear and frustration
• philosophers on h...
We explore how humour helps us handle stress, anxiety, and life’s clatter without ignoring pain. A rogue bush turkey sparks a deeper look at the body’s laugh response, thought defusion, and why timing and validation matter when using comedy as a coping tool.
• acknowledging Country and setting the scene in Sydney
• the bush turkey saga as a catalyst for laughter
• why some laugh in crisis and othe...
We turn a chaotic week—stolen bikes, a shredded laptop, and a dog’s sock surgery—into a guide to better decisions by swapping blame for causation and drama for clarity. We unpack coercive control, how to warn a friend without lecturing, and why scepticism is a safety tool against health misinformation.
• shifting from blame to causation to regain control
• spotting early coercive control masked as car...
Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting
Proudly sponsored by COUP — helping brands cut through the noise with bold, smart marketing. Visit the http://coup.co website or book a meeting with us at. https://go.oncehub.com/RequestMeeting
A sweltering spring day, a newly minted dog beach, and one missing ball turn into a bigger question: why do we try to control what can’t be controlled? We head to Mona Vale where hundreds of dogs sprint through the surf and most humans smile—until a few arrive with tight rules, tight lips, and the belief that public spaces should run to their personal script. That tiny friction becomes our doorway into manners, sh...
If certainty had a sound, it would be the wellness aisle whispering boost, detox, and natural into your ear. We pull back the curtain on why those words feel so right—and why they so often lead us astray. With Richard Saunders from Australian Skeptics, we unpack how intuition clashes with evidence, how authority bias makes white coats and big badges persuasive, and how deepfakes and influencer snippets outpace car...
A glittering festival of certainty met a table of questions. We took you inside Sydney’s Mind Body Spirit Festival with pharmacist Kate Thomas and skeptic investigator Richard Saunders to test the confidence, the charisma, and the sweeping claims—everything from tarot to “age reversal” stem cell patches. What we found wasn’t just crystals and calm; it was a sales engine where scientific words get borrowed, anecdot...
A young woman followed a fruit-only diet until her body could no longer keep up. That tragedy isn’t an outlier—it’s the end point of smaller ideas that sound reasonable, feel empowering, and get reinforced by online echo chambers. We pull on that thread to reveal how “eat clean” becomes a slippery slope, why influencer certainty beats cautious science in the algorithm, and how health halos and status battles can t...
Tired of being told to “love yourself first” before anything else can work? We take that sacred cow for a walk and ask a simpler, kinder question: what if love is a verb, not a mood? Annie and David unpack the pressure-packed version of self-love that dominates social media and swap it for practical actions anyone can do—no lotus pose required. Along the way we separate self-love from self-care aesthetics, look at...
Ever tried to share a life when your partner’s best hour is your worst? We dive into the everyday friction of two people on different clocks—one of us a sunrise exerciser who thrives on routine, the other a late-day creative who hits stride when the world winds down. Along the way we challenge wellness overpromises (no, stress doesn’t cause 99% of illness), keep the real science on movement and ageing, and get hon...
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