Summer series: in conversation with Em Rusciano

Something To Talk About

Something To Talk About is continuing to publish across the summer break, and will be back with a brand new episode on January 12.

In the meantime, we are revisiting some of your favourites from the 50 episodes we released over the past year. Today’s conversation is with Em Rusciano, which originally aired May 4, 2024.

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Em Rusciano has never been one to hold back, but despite having built a career on being refreshingly honest, her decision to go public at a National Press Club address about being diagnosed with ADHD at age 42, and autism a year later, took her into completely unchartered territory.

Now, three years on from her diagnoses, Em is embarking on her most personal project yet, a new podcast series she describes as a “love letter to the neurodivergent community and a roadmap for neurotypical people.”

As you’d expect from a conversation with Em Rusciano, today’s episode covers a lot of ground - and veers from the emotional to the insightful to the hilarious - as Em speaks to host Sarrah Le Marquand to take us inside the past few years of her life, a volatile time she describes as “scorched earth”.

She gives a very-real-and-very-sweet glimpse inside her family life as the mother of three neurodivergent children, reveals whether we will ever see her run for politics, and explains how menopause will be making its presence felt when she takes to the stage for a national comedy tour later this year.

She also has the perfect answer for those who question if the increasing diagnosis in ADHD among adult women is simply just a “fad”. And she opens up about how being publicly accused of faking her autism diagnosis last year was her worst fear and sent her to ground - only to see her come back with a stronger sense of purpose than ever before.

You can watch Em Rusciano’s National Press Club address here.

You can get more from Em on her Instagram.

Something To Talk About is a podcast by Stellar, hosted by Editor-In-Chief Sarrah Le Marquand.

Find more from Stellar via Instagram @stellarmag or stellarmag.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chapters

1. Summer series: in conversation with Em Rusciano (00:00:00)

2. Marker 22 (00:28:35)

3. Marker 23 (00:42:57)