Interview with On A Good Day
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Elizabeth Callaghan and Julia Ajayi met after their lives changed forever following brain injuries suffered by their husbands. The ripple effect on others in their wider family and community prompted them to share their stories, and those of other brain injury survivors and their families. We caught up with them to understand their journey.
What inspired you to start podcasting?
We both felt that there was a lack of accessible information for people in our situation and a podcast would help to serve this need. There was a huge range of topics we wanted to cover and felt the conversations we had together would provide a strong foundation for a podcast. We’re so glad we went for it as we have learned so much from the experience and our guests. It has definitely felt like a therapeutic undertaking too.
What has been the most rewarding episode or moment in your podcasting journey so far?
Interviewing Georgie Tyler-Collings about her father who had locked-in syndrome. She was amazing and told his story – and that of her family- with love and honesty. Despite his condition, David Collings managed to communicate with his children and grandchildren and set himself a number of challenges. At times it was an emotional conversation but there was also a lot of laughter. We learned so much about the situation, the strong family around him and how much joy they were still able to have together.
What has been the game-changer moment for you?
When former stuntman Joe Watts wrote to each of us to say he was now in touch with his family as a result of being interviewed by us on the podcast. It made the whole journey of On A Good Day worthwhile. Being invited to attend the Irwin Mitchell brain injury conference also helped validate the podcast as well as being asked to collaborate with Headway for its new campaign. Julia’s appearance on TV to talk about brain injury and highlight its impact was something we would never have had the opportunity to do without the podcast.
What episodes should we watch out for in the new series? Why?
Our episode with Traitors star Andrew Jenkins. He was so honest about his brain injury, trauma and how his mental health has been impacted. His journey and growth over recent years has been incredible and how he’s now helping others. He wasn’t afraid to show his vulnerability and was open to talking about everything. His warmth really does shine through the episode.
What would you say has been the biggest challenge in your podcasting journey?
One of our biggest challenges is coordinating times to record which fit into both our schedules and our guests. It’s often late nights and weekends but we are making it work! Editing the episodes can also be time-consuming as well as promoting the podcast – which we are going to focus more on this year!
Five words to describe On A Good Day:
Heartfelt, authentic, expert, honest, enlightening
What are all the different things that you do to help promote your podcast?
This is definitely a bigger focus for this year. We promote through our social media channels: Instagram, Facebook and X as well as LinkedIn. We have also attended some events to make new connections face to face and increase our network with professionals in the brain injury world. Julia recently appeared on TV for TRT’s Roundtable discussion show to talk about the impact of brain injury for World Stroke Day. Our partnership with Auddy also helps and the opportunity to feature in this newsletter is exciting. We depend a lot on word of mouth though and I think that has been effective so far.
If you could interview anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
We would like to interview Kate Garraway. She has shared many similar experiences on this journey and has also been a great advocate for increased understanding and awareness about brain injury. Others include James Cracknell, Richard Hammond and Jim Kwik who had a brain injury when he was very young and has gone on to help others to use their brains more effectively and faster.
What show would you love to be a guest on?
I (Julia) would love to be a guest on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose. He covers a lot about relationships and to bring the focus of relationships after brain injury and the wellbeing of both brain injury survivors and their families would be hugely powerful in helping educate and inform others. (Elizabeth) would love to be on Mel Robbins or Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place to talk about the highs and lows of brain injury and shine a light on how it impacts people and their families and how you can adapt and grow to live a slightly different life to the one you may have had planned out.
What are your favourite podcasts to listen to and why?
There’s so many and we both listen to different ones but they include: The Mel Robbins Podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place, Kwik Brain with Jim Kwik, Feel Better Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee and Off Air with Jane and Fi. We always learn something new from these and enjoy listening to the hosts, their conversational style and expert guests.
Why did you move to Auddy?
We started our journey with Auddy, it was recommended by a good friend, who happens to work there – and haven’t looked back. Thank you for having us!
