Two Canberrans are celebrating the importance of female friendships through an ever popular medium – podcasting.
Kirstie Fitzpatrick, 23, and Jen Seyderhelm, 42, met through work, and created the 20/40 podcast to celebrate their “friendship across generations”, and discuss their views on various topics and life experiences.
“It’s something we didn’t feel was being done at all and something that I think a lot of people could benefit from, actually having that friendship with someone who’s ‘walking a different walk’ but actually has a lot to offer,” Jen says.
The pair discuss “anything and everything”, with a different theme or topic for each episode. Kirstie says a lot of their ideas come from personal experiences.
“We’ve done podcasts that talk about our experiences with mental health to our views on sex to what sacrifices we make in our life and whether they’ve been beneficial or not.
“We definitely get quite personal as well in terms of mental health and personal struggles, because it’s that element that connects with people.”
“And I love that it’s the mundane to the really powerful conversations that we have as well,” adds Jen.
“We differed quite substantially on whether or not we’d see a movie by ourselves … But we [had] a really beautiful discussion around finding your backbone at work, and the difference in our ages … so we talk about the light-hearted – from having sex in the car to what really matters in our lives.”
Kirstie and Jen say they’re beginning to reach an audience of male and female Canberra listeners who often provide feedback and ideas for future episodes.
“[The feedback will] say things like ‘we’re disappointed that you didn’t delve deeper into this area, that you didn’t expose more of your experience’ and others that say ‘wow, it’s so great that we were able to hear this from your perspective, because we otherwise wouldn’t have’, sort of thing,” Kirstie says.
“There are some areas where we’re still careful, because we’ve still got our own private lives. But I suppose it’s quite empowering really, to be able to do that and know that, in a sense, you’re helping other people or people are learning from you.”
The pair structure their episodes like a conversation between friends (which it is), with one person “running” each episode.
“Because when you have a normal conversation you bounce off one another’s responses, and that’s what we do. We’re not trying to push a certain agenda because we’re just chatting,” Kirstie says.
“So one of us will start with a general idea. I asked Kirstie how she thought people viewed her, and I specifically didn’t want her to have time to prep and think about that answer because it’s not authentic otherwise,” adds Jen.
“A good friendship doesn’t come along very often; we’re probably not a traditional perspective of what a friendship looks like, but through our conversations and through this podcast, I have actioned a lot more positives in my life.”
Kirstie and Jen release new episodes of the 20/40 podcast fortnightly. Listen via their Facebook page, @twentydashforty.
For more:
