Hi, it's Jess Rowe, and if you're a regular listener to my podcast, you know I love to
skip the small talk and have deep conversations with my famous guests. And when I create a
safe space for them to talk, they often open up in ways they haven't before, like this
revealing chat I had with Robert Irwin.
People will say, I grew up without a father figure, and your dad, Robert, was a father
figure to me. What an amazing thing. He was like a father figure for an entire generation.
And it makes me emotional, even now.
Along with some tears, like this moving moment I had with Matt Agnew.
I've had a long battle with mental illness for a long time. It's exhausting for me to
have a baseline that isn't dangerous, is so much work.
I absolutely love listening to people, and it is such a privilege for me to share the
space and to share these quiet, emotional times, like Jackie O opening up in a way that
And that's the thing I miss most about my old life, you know. Sorry. Having that family
time at the dinner table, it's like, that used to be my favourite part of the day.
Well coming up on the podcast, I've created a mini-series where I talk to people whose
voices often aren't heard, people who can sometimes be ignored or misunderstood and
don't get a chance to share their story in a safe place without judgement.
And then it moved to ice, probably in the last 10 years of my addiction, and that's
where it went really bad, really quickly, unable to pull myself out of those holes.
It was just step by step each day that I had too much where to go back to addiction would
have been harder than to move forward. So it was more, why would I now?
I've been terminated, I had my employment terminated immediately when the diagnosis
of schizophrenia fell out of my mouth.
I've had people move away from me at parties, Jess, when I first was all out there and brave,
gone to a barbecue, told them I just got a diagnosis of schizophrenia and suddenly they
need to go and talk to somebody else and they won't come back and talk to me, Jess.
For me, I grew up with people referring to me not by my name, but referring to me as
the Asian one or that Asian girl. I kept it to myself and it just meant that I was really
prolonging confronting that I had internalised racism and I'm not proud to say it, that I
was a self-hating Asian.
My goal for this series is to help you and I get a better understanding of what it's
like to walk in their shoes and together reduce some of the stigma. It's called Safe Space.
Find it here in the Jess Rowe Big Talk Show feed, wherever you get your podcasts.