It is was 7pm (ish) on the 25th of January, 2023. Gemma was on her porch eating chicken. Mia was on her couch drinking espresso martini’s. Taryn was in Canberra being announced as Australian of the Year. 

What followed was an epic year for Taz and her team at The Embrace Collective including 90 odd flights, hundreds of keynotes and appearances, tens of thousands of fist bumps, 1 million children reached, and many millions more parents, teachers, coaches and leaders now better equipped to address the epidemic of body image distress in young people. 

In this episode, we dive deep into Taryn’s reflections on her experience as 2023 Australian of the Year. You’ll hear behind the scenes stories of how Taz dealt with intense public scrutiny, grappled with targeted critique, and struggled not to swear all year. 

As her chicken-eating, espresso-martini-drinking mates serve up some tasty questions, Taz dishes out the facts and her feelings about the year, dares to share some of her “head lines” (her inner monologue) behind the newspaper headlines, and declares her enduring commitment to ”fierce kindness”. She also reveals some juicy and hilarious stories that you’re not going to want to miss. (Pssst…something to do with singing with the B52’s and stealing from the White House!) 

Listen as we explore Taryn’s pearls of wisdom about leadership, how “pottering” became her word of 2024, and how she edits Michelle Obama’s famous quote about highs and lows to get real about the “mess in the middle“.  

We do need to warn you: Taz had to hold her swear words in for a whole year. In this episode, she does, therefore, let a few rip. You’ll be pleased to know, on the matter of letting rip, that she did NOT, and we repeat, she DID NOT fart in the White House. That said, you may wish to take care with sharing this episode out loud if you’ve got little ears around.