On The Breath

Listen now | to this actor, writer & producer as she talks to me about voice & writer’s process. Hear how she challenges herself to put her work into the world as a strong introvert and be inspired! Sarah talks about a disempowering moment with voice and what she did about it, as she fills us in on new ventures in the Northeast of England aimed at supporting the creativity and economy of this region.

HOW TO ACCESS SJ'...

Whose voice does Dawnette love most? “It's the voice of women who truly empower others.”   Never underestimate your personal impact, as a parent, as a partner, as a person.  Waking up one morning, Dawnette decided to change her family’s financial situation.  Now she empowers others by helping them to develop a purposeful relationship with money!  In this short and impactful conversation, we talk about how changing our...

Selfish Actors VS Powerful Speakers!   In this 'how to' episode Joan Cardellino speaks about her transformation in public speaking, and Josiah Darwish discusses her transformation in acting for film.  I share a theatre anecdote that exemplifies how your context matters and we investigate how to identify your personal & professional context in order to empower yourself when speaking in public.

Have a listen as we explore some acting...

“Not everyone can like you and that’s ok”.  In this intimate behind the scenes conversation with Indira Varma, we get an inside look at her approach to acting, discuss the wonders of the voice in life and death, the power of listening onstage, Indy’s abiding love of voiceover & radio, her experience of growing up with parents from different cultures, working with Ralph Fiennes and so much more!  Fans will get a wonder...

Is it possible to sell with sincerity?  “Shouldn’t every moment be a magical moment of love and that’s created by the voice?"  And what a voice!  During the Thatcher years, Nicky ran a market stall selling cookies in the North of England.  Nicky used her voice to convey belonging and validation to the single mothers that came to her stall. Through making heart to heart connections with her buyers, her market stall bec...

An artistic life lived at the intersection between languages and cultures: Zeina Azzam, a deeply thoughtful presence, reads several of her visually evocative poems.  We discuss synesthesia, Zeina's experience of speaking under threatening circumstances,  how we often pour our identity into our accents, and how the experience of speaking publicly has been a process of moving from fear to empowerment.

ZEIN...

All the feels! A rich and jam packed episode in which Tanya Moodie gives us the view through her unique lens of the craft of acting and takes a deep dive into the personal.  We discuss how what goes on in the psyche, goes on in the voice, wearing black to disappear, the vulnerability of using our voices with our partners, how she navigates motherhood, code switching to build bridges, and the initial devastation of cha...

Season 2 is shaping up to be deep dive into the personal lives of my guests as well as highlighting their diverse experience of voice.  I speak to two voice experts, actors at the top of their game, Tanya Moodie, who was recently in the film Empire of Light and Indira Varma, who is known for Game of Thrones and Obi Wan Kenobi, to name just a few…

I speak to Nicky Pattinson from the North of England. “Sho...

Putting our work out into the world can be personally empowering - yet we often run the gamut of difficult emotions when we do so.  “Sitting in vulnerability when we communicate, our voice becomes very clear.”  In this sweet conversation with New Zealand actor, writer and producer Adrian Hooke, we discuss Shakespeare, vocal fry, navigating performance and so much more! Adrian and I became friends when I was playing Ge...

How the word POLITE can be an acronym for Pissed Off Later In The Evening! Alli shares how her air of confident extroversion masked high anxiety when she worked at Google. We discuss how we've learned to listen to the voices in our heads, and how setting boundaries improves relationships.  Here are some key 'how to's' for lasting change, as well as tips for slowing down communication in sexual situations and beyond.  Plus some humo...

Chatting to actor, rapper and teaching artist Carlos Aguirre about beatboxing, BBC plays, voiceover, embodied performance, learning the hard way that less is more, and mental health. Carlos asks me to share some personal moments: when my accent has worked against me. Best of all, Carlos exposes us to his not to be missed virtuosic beatboxing skillz!

...an On the Breath Podcast Interview!

Carlos Aguirre (actor, musician, vocal percu...

In this celebration of voice, I share 8 of my favorite ones with you! We explore how the most interesting voices may not be classically beautiful. Listen to some elder actors who have lived with their voices a long time, and compare their younger voices with their current ones. We'll also hear some some mid life actors and I'll tell you why I find their voices sexy. Paul Jennings, who did the voiceover for Raphael in Soul Caliber I...

Best friends since the age of nine, it's my pleasure to present to you this intimate conversation with poet Danusha Laméris. One of my favorite moments of this interview is when Danusha says "Every poet was a person who once felt they didn't have a voice". We discuss how our lifelong friendship has helped us grow into powerful voice, how Danusha has learned to be herself in front of an audience, being feminine while feeling empower...

Did you know that there are many well-known speakers who once had a speech impediment? Carl Richards is an award-winning speaker from Canada, podcast strategist and coach. Carl shares deep wisdom from his personal experience of stammering as a kid. We discuss how empowering it is to be aware of childhood experiences that may be holding us back today. Carl shares how he came out onstage and won an award in the process and asks me a ...

Ajanta Chakraborty is co-founder of Bolly & Culture Groove. In this interview with my friend, we celebrate the marriage of art and business and address the shame people have around earning money with their art towards successful entrepreneurship. Ajanta shares with us how she and her husband Vivek became accidental authors, that 3 year olds have the attention span of an ant, and more personal moments such as the discomfort around b...

Mark Montgomery French, film composer, podcaster, music historian and YouTuber discusses his most empowered and disempowered moments with voice, including a very wise thing that his mother did when he was 10, his wedding, busting the myth that you can't make money with your art and how clarity of thought powers public speaking. Mark explains how he found a positive way into teaching without teaching in an institution. He also a...