Last week in Episode 6 of WOW Wise Older Women Series 2 we met Simone O’Brien, a physical theatre performer, feminist firecracker, and a woman whose storytelling crackles with truth and grit. In fact, it's so good her interview had to be broken up into two parts!

If you weren’t runed in or need reminding here’s a little update on the story so far…

In her sixty‑plus years Simone has lived a life that defies gravity. Literally. From soaring above audiences on a trapeze, to touring the world with a queer aerial troupe, surviving a devastating fall, confronting illness, and offering radical forgiveness to her father in amongst the depths of a major diagnosis, Simone has rebuilt herself again and again. A common theme in the stories of the Wise Older Women throughout this CBF grant funded series

Last week we heard how she’s marched through waves of feminism, explored sexuality with honesty, and how she continues to navigate the effects of menopause, amongst the politics of women’s health. She approaches all of this with the same fierce intelligence she brings to everything, including her post‑menopausal post‑punk cabaret band Mutton, alongside WOW Ep.4 Guest: Gabrielle Griffin.

Simone refuses to be silenced and absolutely insists on being seen.

In Part 2 we go deeper. We explore the fall that shattered her bones and almost her spirit, as she colliding head on with a major diagnosis. We'll hear about the fierce determination that carried her through and the answer to the question "What's the one thing you'd regret not doing before you died?'

Her story is full of forgiveness and enlightenment, of radical resilience, it's full of art and movement, and the inner furnace that never stopped burning.

It’s my great pleasure to reintroduce Simone O’Brien to Belly to finish her story. We left her last week hanging from a silk, waiting for us to come back this week, teetering on the edge of a lifechanging event that triggered huge changes both physically and emotionally. 

Ladies and Gentlemen and Everyone in the spaces between - Enjoy.

This project was made possible with the support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation CBF.org.au

The WOW2 podcast version of the series will be available in July and broadcast nationally via the Community Radio Network (CRN) later in the year.