Two soul sisters hanging out discussing taboo topics like: navigating motherhood, body hair, sexuality, periods, anything that tickles their ovaries. Here, you'll find reclamation of power, womb love, exploration of the spiritual + sexual self, vulnerability, celebration, sisterhood, & so much more. (Hosted by Isadora Orgasma & Venus Creciente.) Podcast also on SoundCloud and YouTube.
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Comedian Penny Ashton is on a voyage of discovery into the hormonal hocus pocus of menopause. So what better way to learn about her moisture moving from inside her body to perspiring out her face, than by talking to a series of wondrous women and owners of ovaries about their own lives and their menopause journeys. A series of frank and funny interviews all about what to expect, when expecting the change. Warning: salty language, and not just from the night sweats. Season Three and beyond is ...
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With a husband catching the FLiRT variant and subsequent laying low, Penny decided to bust out an ovum with her WOMAD poem all about her Showy Ovaries epiphany. Listen in as hubby shouts up the stairs from his isolation den for sandwiches, and Penny chats about what happened with HRT, what's coming up in her world and screeching about tampons in a …
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Brainy Niki Bezzant
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To coincide with the launch of her new book today; The Everything Guide: Hormones, health and happiness in menopause, midlife and beyond, Niki Bezzant dropped in to Penny's house with almond croissants to talk life, hormones and her prodigious brain. In her third visit to Showy Ovary Town, Niki told Penny of her mission to educate women about how t…
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Full Noise Angela Barnett
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Writer, journalist, redhead advocate and PR specialist; Angela Barnett swung by Penny's house to discuss inter generational bodily shizzle in all its complicated glory. From her mother's traumatic birth, to her own struggles with bulimia, to making sure her daughter navigates the world aware of the ridiculous standards placed on women by the patria…
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Magical Amanda Kennedy
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Waaaay back in August 2023 Penny dropped in on Amanda Kennedy's house in West Auckland to discuss her body, her dewy complexion and her adult onset epilepsy. One half of the comedy duo The Fan Brigade, the librettist couple behind NZ Opera's The Unruly Tourists, Amanda was dealing with her recent diagnoses of ADHD, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome AND epilep…
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The time has come, the research is in, the arse is too sore, the foot annoying, the new upper belly is sticking out too far... it is time for the HRT! Two days after her epic 50th birthday party Penelope Patchstart is slapping on some Estradot in the low dose of 25 somethings and seeing if it is the golden elixir of her dreams. Dreams can flounder …
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Brightest Amy Spark
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After her ballet teacher wouldn't let a very young Amy dance purely on on foot, she readjusted her life ambitions to being a pathologist. Inspired by forensic stories from her parents and from novels by Kathy Reichs, (the inspiration for the TV series Bones) she set her sights on dead people and being the last voice for those who can no longer spea…
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Show-busy Lizzie Tollemache
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Performer, director, side show starlet, writer and all round showbiz whiz Lizzie Tollemache may have been travelling the world hammering nails into her head and making thousands of people laugh, but underneath all that was a diagnosis lurking that would change her whole perspective on life. Penny visited her carnie friend's Christchurch home to lea…
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Showy Ovaries Live - Tenacious Justine Smith
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Hello lovely Showy Ovarians, Penny's back with another Showy Ovaries Live! This time with her comedy compatriot, fellow tenacious broad and Bette Midler lover; Justine Smith. They rendezvoused onstage at Q Theatre in the 2023 NZ International Comedy Festival to discuss how their bodies have taken them through being a woman in comedy since the late …
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Excellently Accomplished Eilish Moran
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Queen of Christchurch's Court Theatre stage, Eilish Moran took some time out of her packed schedule to chat to Penny about her body, her menopause and being in Penny's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility at the Court in February 2023. Penny was excited to get to know a woman she saw onstage all through her youth and adolescence in such plays as Lit…
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Showy Ovaries Live - The "O" Show
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Hello all you wondrous Showy Ovarians, Penny Ashton is back for Season Three! Yes release the fireworks and say huzzah Showy days are here again in a season where we will be pivoting away from focusing mainly on menopause and opening up to our bodies in all their glory! Kicking things off with The "O" Show from the Hamilton Arts Festival recorded o…
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It's a surprise Xmas Special for Showy Ovaries! Tune in to hear Penny chat to her husband Matt from different rooms in their house. Why might that be???? Listen in and find out. Hear them pass some isolation time over the festive season by chatting the presents of Xmas past, hear some ukulele carols and find out what moves Matt to tears. No it's no…
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In the very last little dribble of Showy Ovaries Season Two, here's one last ovum all about your hostess with the most chest's relationship and journey with HER body through her life. If it's good to gander at her guest's goose, so must she talk turkey and be honest about her own twisty tale of bodily acceptance. So Penny is here to talk about her …
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Showy Ovaries Unleashed
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To end Showy Ovaries Season Two we have the raucous, ribald, squirty and hilarious recording of Showy Ovaries Live taken at the Suter Theatre on Friday October 21st for the Nelson Arts Festival. Penny was like really really really excited to welcome back Nicky Pellegrino and Niki Bezzant, together with 140 cheering punters to discuss their books, t…
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Excellent Local Body Judene Edgar
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The deputy mayor of Nelson until a matter of weeks ago, Judene Edgar was happy to beam into Penny's office to celebrate no longer being a target for councilphobes and her relief at being released from the bondage of reading 1700 page agendas. A playwright, improviser, governance expert, former Councillor and loyal friend, Judene's perimenopause is …
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The Cult of Tusiata Avia aka Tusiata Two - The Sequel
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It's World Menopause Day and what better guest to revisit than the very woman who told Penny that the day existed in the first place. Tusiata Avia was Showy Ovaries third ever guest, and in their conversation she alerted Penny to the fact World Menopause Day was just around the corner. So Penny leapt to action and launched the whole shebang on Worl…
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The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Anna Fifield
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This week Penny is welcoming current Dominion Post and Stuff Wellington editor Anna Fifield, who moved back to NZ in 2020 after a glittering 20 year career as a globe-trotting foreign correspondent. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed biography of the North Korean leader; The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant…
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NZ Woman Jenene Crossan
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In March 2020, NZ Girl and Powered by Flossie co-founder, Jenene Crossan, (Ngai Tahu) flew back to NZ from London and a pesky spiky virus hitched on for the ride. Developing Covid a few days after landing, Jenene became NZ's 37th covid case but one of its most visible after going public on instagram. After a particularly brutal case she is still le…
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Tardis Pilot Dr Huhana Hickey
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NZ's very own Dr Hu took some time out from her Multiple Sclerosis and disability advocacy to chat to Penny about her incredible life. From having her whakapapa stripped from her birth certificate when she was adopted, to her surviving sexual assault and familial abuse, to discovering her various indigenous identities, to her fistful of academic qu…
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Taboo Terminator Sarah Connor
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Freelance writer Sarah Connor was 46 when her usually trustworthy body started misbehaving. Anxiety, panic attacks, loss of joy and lack of sleep saw her undertake an investigation into just what the hell was happening. She visited a litany of specialists before finally settling on a visit to the Wellington Menopause Clinic that changed her life. O…
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Action Hero Kate Billing
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When perimenopause came knocking at Kate Billing's door with all its insomnia and anxiety she had no idea what the hell was happening. Once armed with a diagnosis she was pissed off, and so set about educating as many people as possible through her Linked In Group - Menopause Awareness and Action. Determined that Generation X will be the last to be…
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Dr Geri McLeod is a senior research fellow in the Otago University’s Department of Psychological Medicine, and recently published findings around supplements, which she describes as expensive wees. She chatted with Penny around medical misogyny, the predatory nature of some supplement companies, the lack of evidence into their efficacy but also the…
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Energetic Lori Dungey
1:04:59
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Penny's theatre wife Lori Dungey, dropped into her house to chat about her virtually non-existant menopause. Despite working together for 22 years this is the first time they have really discussed menopause and so much more besides. They cover the origins of Theatresports in NZ, Lori's sexual awakening, sanitary belts, her horny mother and perhaps …
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Trailblazing Lynda Chanwai-Earle
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Today Penny is talking and laughing with the prolific and inspiring award-winning writer; Lynda Chanwai-Earle. Lynda is the originator and performer in Ka Shue - Letters Home, which was the first mainstream theatre show for a universal audience by a Chinese New Zealander in Aotearoa. The show premiered in 1996 and Penny chats to Lynda after she rem…
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Punk Princess Yvette Parsons
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Former punk icon and current witch, Yvette Parsons is one of the most prolific actresses working in NZ today. From What We Do in the Shadows, to The Luminaries to The Power of the Dog to Nude Tuesday, her comic talents are in hot demand in many genres and often without any clothes. She and Penny discuss her years as a musician in NZ's small punk sc…
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Vulva News Network (VNN) Special - Vulvodynia
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In a break from menopause, Penny invites two of her globe trotting performer buddies to drop in and spill their souls about their troublesome bits. Both diagnosed with a condition they share with Penny, vulvodynia, they talk about their long and frustrating journeys to being diagnosed, treated and even believed. Ingrid Garner who is an award winnin…
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Wooohoooo. Here is a bonus documentary to honour of all Penny's good friends currently battling in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival trenches. She produced it way back in the Jurassic period, aka 2004, about her first ever time presenting a show there. Since then she been 4 times with varying degrees of success and there really is nothing like it; fuck…
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Not At All Evil Elisabeth Easther
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Shortland Street's first ever murderer drops in on Showy Ovaries to discuss her blood letting onscreen and in life. Having absolutely no symptoms Elisabeth thought this podcast would be short and uninteresting but she and Penny managed to fill the space with chats of orgasms, early diplomacy by Nanaia Mahuta on school camp and being the daughter of…
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One Eyed Cantabrian Lianne Dalziel
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Ōtautahi born and bred, former MP, soon to be former mayor, but still current mayor Lianne Dalziel, beamed into Penny's Covid isolation at her parent's house to chat about various things. A advocate for the people of Christchurch for just over half her life, she discussed what she loved about wearing those mayoral chains and what she is looking for…
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Fifth Generation Jenny Agnew
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Fifth Generation Kiwi, Jenny Agnew, welcomed fellow 5th Generation Kiwi Penny into her home to chat all about what it is to be a Chinese New Zealander. A descendant of Choie Sew Hoy who moved to NZ in 1869, Jenny was recently awarded a Queen's Service Medal along with her husband Trevor, for their research into her ancestor. She talked to Penny abo…
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Wellllllllll it finally caught up with Penny. The Vid, the Rona, the virus that's the least desirous, and it has a bit of a story so Penny thought she'd overshare it. For a change. Coming to you from Day 7 of isolation in Christchurch where she has turfed her own mother out of her bedroom, Penny is here to dish the deets on the spiky protein that h…
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Gender Queer Ren Lunicke
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*Sorry for the delay Ovarians, covid finally got me. Ren Lunicke has lived many lives and tackled each wholeheartedly. Deeply uncomfortable within their evangelical upbringing, they went through a journey of discovery with their body from sexual discovery, to gender identity and finally hormonal balance. Now proudly Non-Binary, taking testosterone …
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Green Party MP and self described lefty feminist lesbian, Jan Logie beamed into Penny's office during a recess in that hive of human activity that is the NZ Parliament. Penny divulged that Jan's work in boosting funding to Women's Refuge was a big part of her decision to vote Green in the last two elections and thanked her for helping reverse some …
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Top Chick Stephanie Tauevihi
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Penny had a bloody hilarious time getting honest AF with Stephanie Tauevihi, aka Shortland St's crack paramedic and iconic character Donna Heka. Of Danish and Niuean heritage, Steph spoke of her heartbreaking struggles with her body and was brutally honest about her complex relationship with her beloved Mum who passed away aged only 49. Penny's kin…
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Dr Dame Margaret Sparrow
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2020 Senior New Zealander of the year, Dame Margaret Sparrow, delighted Penny by agreeing to chat about her very minor menopause plus her very major life's work in freeing NZ's women from the forced burden of child birth through abortion reform. A lifelong champion of the notion of choice, Dame Margaret regaled Penny with tales of her own illegal a…
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Brave Caitlin Smith
1:03:37
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It's the queen of Jazzy Ovaries this week, who shares her journey of suddenly losing her voice on tour thanks to menopause's effects. Caitlin opens up as wide as a pharynx to regale former pupil Penny with a cavalcade of stories, potions and spells in her journey with her body, her blindness and her daily supplement regime. Spiritual Caitlin and de…
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Award Winning Angela Bloomfield
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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Shortland St, NZ's longest running soap opera, Penny headed to see one of the longest stars of the street - Angela Bloomfield. A veteran of 24 years of both acting and directing in Ferndale, Angela opened up about what's it's like to grow up onscreen, the pressures of looking your best and how trying to trounce …
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Chief Correspondent Samantha Newman
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Hawkes Bay founder of The Female GP, Dr Samantha Newman, joined Penny to share her passion for vaginas, vulvas and all thing science. A self described happy geek, she is an advocate for women's health not only in her private clinic, but also as a campaigner for equitable access to advice and medicines for those who cannot afford it. Penny invited h…
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Ain't Nothing Like Dame Catherine Healy
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When Catherine formed the NZ Prostitute's Collective (now the Sex Worker's Collective) with her co-workers back in 1987, she never dreamed that would one day lead to a nod from the crown and a Dame-hood. But her advocacy for the rights, health and dignity of those in the world's oldest profession did just that and Penny was excited to chat to a wom…
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This week's guest is the very gorgeous Jeanette Thomas, co-host of one of Auckland's most popular breakfast radio shows on The Breeze, and former presenter of Good Morning. She beamed into Penny's office to chat about their time together on Good Morning, about how her perimenopause was camouflaged by her intense grief and the one symptom of menopau…
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This week it's Good Morning's doyenne of the daisy and dazzler of the doily, Astar, so fabulous she only needs one name. She entertained Penny in her home with her tales of working for the Sultan of Brunei, about growing up in Tuatapere and shouting at a GP. A devotee of HRT for some time, she is a woman who knows her own body and just what it need…
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Mother/Daughter Besties Carolyn and Meg
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For a Mother's Day special here's Showy Ovaries' first mother/daughter combo with TV director Carolyn Sylvester and artist Meg Mahy. Carolyn (Penny's first adult showbiz employer) told Penny all about her struggles with menopause and how she realised her mother's "break-down" was no such thing, about how not all hormone treatments are created equal…
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Govermental Judith Tizard
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Veteran politician Judith Tizard welcomed Penny into her home to talk about her life, her body and her menopause. A part of the Tizard dynasty of public servants we chatted about her happily being the daughter of a Mayor, a Governor General and a Deputy Prime Minister. Also about the perils of coming out in the public eye, male infidelities in parl…
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Jazz Handy Jackie Clarke
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New Zealand's cabaret superstar Jackie Clarke, dropped into Penny's house with two hot buns to talk all about her sweaty knees. A self described human water feature, Jackie is determined she will not go gently into that hot flushed night but rather yell all about her menopause to anyone who is vaguely listening. They chat about her body's journey f…
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Showy Ovaries is thrilled to welcome one of the busiest TV presenters and authors in Aotearoa, Miriama Kamo, to share her fertility journey with Penny. From the pain of six miscarriages, to the joys of delivering her daughter, to the struggles of endometriosis and early menopause, Miriama is warm, open and honest about all that her body has been th…
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Irrepressible Lana Schwarcz
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Former Muppet wrangler at Henson Studios, Lana Schwarcz, joins Penny from Melbourne to talk about her medically induced menopause following a breast cancer diagnosis and surgery. Lana took this experience and turned it into an award winning comedy show; Lovely lady Lump which she toured through Australia, Canada and to Edinburgh in an effort to get…
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A minisode with a brief and not at all peer reviewed history and explanation of HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy. It can sound as dry as a menopausal vagina so stand by for some appalling internet sourced menopause jokes. Like so bad. Like why internet.... WHY? Louise Newson's Website: https://www.balance-menopause.com/ Fertility Associates: https…
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Purple-tastic Threesome with Jacki Morris and Denise Astill
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It's Shaky Ovaries! In a belated Purple Day Special (Epilepsy Awareness Day on March 26th) Penny chats to fellow ladies with epilepsy Jacki Morris and Denise Astill. Denise founded Foetal Anti Convulsant Syndrome NZ (FACNZ), an organisation about promoting awareness of the damage anti-convulsants can do to unborn children, and she and Jacki share t…
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Bestselling Niki Bezzant
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This week it's bestselling brainbox Niki Bezzant whose book This Changes Everything: The Honest Guide to Menopause and Perimenopause, recently hit the Number One spot on the NZ top Ten Non-Fiction charts. The result of two years of research it's an excellent manual to leaf through as you try and figure out just what the hell is happening to you as …
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Outrageously Fortunate Robyn Malcolm
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Award-winning NZ acting queen Robyn Malcolm was NZ's sexiest woman 2007, though she grew up feeling anything but. Her teenage years were a storm of hormones resulting in extreme PMT and bulimia, then once in her 20's she discovered the secret to weight loss; smoking. In her first in person podcast interview, Penny chats Robyn's path to her recent 5…
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David Bowie's China Girl is all woman now and still as fabulous as ever. Having always felt incredibly lucky, Geeling told Penny tales of landing the biggest gig of her life rolling naked with the Starman in the surf, starring as Jasmine Sage in the epic 80's glamour TV show Gloss and her enduring roles as a hospitality doyenne on the Auckland nigh…
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