277: Tanya Hennessy

Tanya Hennessy is a comedian, author, broadcaster and YouTube superstar. 

She’s currently on the radio every weekend right around the country, on the internet being very, very funny - and about to be on Bachelor in Paradise UNPACKED where she and her colleagues watch every episode of The Bachelor in Paradise and react to it - like a mini version of Goggle Box. It’s extraordinarily funny. 

That’s mainly because she is extraordinarily funny too. 

Tanya has an incredible story to tell, and as a woman in Australian broadcasting has some excellent lessons about success when you’re up against it. 

A note here at the top of the show. 

Tanya wrote quite extensively in her book “Am I Doing This Right?” about body image. 

She wrote a whole chapter on it. 

During this conversation she brings it up, and we begin to talk about it. 

I called her the other day to double and triple check to make sure that what we talked about was ok to go up on the podcast, and she assured me that it was. 

I am no stranger to body image issues - having been 112kg at one point, fat shamed by paparazzi and bullied in the press, I am well aware of what it is to be bigger in the public eye. 

My own story involves compulsive eating, portion control, and binge eating. 

So where I was coming from was a place of someone who works every day to keep on top of those compulsive behaviours, someone who tries to do the work every day around making sure what I eat is the right thing and the right amount, and someone who tries to train every day so that I am healthy and feel good in my own body.

That’s where I was standing when she and I dove into that often taboo discussion. 

It might be confronting to hear, and you might get an itchy outrage trigger finger - but I’d ask you to listen with an open ear and open heart to what the two of us were discussing and the reality of the business we both work in, and indeed the realities of health outcomes when you’re heavier. I can now officially say I’m a man that’s nearly 50. If I don’t stay fit and watch what I eat it’s a slippery slope to blood pressure pills, type 2 diabetes, erectile dysfunction and a stent in my arteries. 

So that’s where we both were really when we talked about what we talked about. I hope you can listen in the spirit of which it was conversed - that of two colleagues discussing the reality of where we work, the nature of our business and the plain facts about health. 

Tanya is snort-laugh funny, so I’d caution against drinking or eating when listening to this episode. 

If you want to let Tanya know you heard her here on the show - she’s online, mostly FB and Youtube - just search Tanya Hennessy. 

Her book is out wherever books are out and Bachelor in Paradise unpacked goes live right after our first episode on April 9th. 

So you ready? 

Get set for a fabulous sit down chat with Tanya Hennessy. 

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