On the Mones

In Part 2 of my conversation with my dad, former marketing professor Graham Dowling, we turn to a deceptively difficult question: how do you market medicine? We talk about the decline of trust in medicine and mainstream media, why people often struggle to interpret numbers and risk, and how the same data can appear to tell very different stories depending on how it is analysed or presented. We also explore an uncomfortable tension inside community pharmacy: tightly regulated medicines are sup...

In this episode, pharmacist Kate Thomas is joined by Annie McCubbin from the Why Smart Women podcast to unpack the myths, marketing and medicine behind cold and flu season. Together, they explore what the evidence really says about popular cold and flu remedies, including vitamin C, zinc, echinacea, andrographis, pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine. They discuss: • Can you actually shorten a cold? • Do “immune boosters” work, and do we even want a boosted immune system? • The role o...

Part 2 of my conversation with sex therapist Georgina Whelan and we’re talking about the stuff people rarely say out loud about sex in long-term relationships. What is “bread and butter sex” and why does it probably deserve better PR? Why people need a transition phase between everyday life and intimacy? And why do we expect ourselves to go from work emails, school lunches, dishes, stress and Antiques Roadshow… straight into feeling spontaneously sexy? In this episode we talk about: - des...

This week on On the Mones, Kate sits down with Annie McCubbin for a conversation about what happens when real science collides with wellness marketing. They unpack: why creatine isn’t just for gym broshow creatine actually works in muscle and in the brainwhat the evidence does, and doesn’t show for cognitionwhy “mechanism” is not the same thing as “proof”They also dive into the growing online claims that nicotine is a cure for dementia: how nicotine acts on nicotinic acetylcholine receptorswh...

In Part 1 of this conversation, I sit down with one of Australia’s most loved comedians, Jean Kittson, to explore the unexpected path that shaped her life and career. We start at the beginning, a shy child growing up in a family where her dad’s love of comedy, gags, and joke-shop tricks quietly set the tone for what was to come. Jean shares how she “fell” into drama almost by accident, thanks to a drama teacher at her high school. From there, we dive into her early work teaching drama in disa...

In this episode of On the Mones, Kate reflects on what it means to grow up as a young woman today as her daughter Audrey turns eighteen and prepares to vote for the first time. Named after Kate’s grandmother, born in 1925, Audrey represents three generations of women who have lived through enormous social change. From marriage bars that forced women out of the workforce, to the feminist movements that fought for economic independence and voting rights, the freedoms women have today were hard-...

In this special field-trip episode of On the Mones, pharmacist Kate Thomas heads to the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival in Sydney to explore one of the most fascinating corners of the modern wellness economy. Between handmade pottery and beeswax candles are stalls offering EMF harmonisers, orgone energy devices, pet psychics, structured frequency water, cannabinoid oils and crystal healing. Some of it is beautiful. Some of it is harmless fun. And some of it makes some very ambitious claims about ...

In Episode 13 of On the Mones, Kate shares a recording from a special event held with women from a women's shelter. The day began with breathwork and mindfulness overlooking the ocean, a moment to pause, breathe and arrive. For some of the women attending, simply leaving the shelter and coming to the event took enormous courage. Kate then spoke about hormones, perimenopause and what is actually happening in women's bodies during midlife. From estrogen, progesterone and testosterone to sleep, ...

In Episode 11 of On the Mones, pharmacist Kate Thomas sits down with Dr Sarah Farrell, GP and principal of Sydney Women's Wellness, to tackle two major midlife health topics that do not get nearly enough honest airtime: breast awareness and genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). On breast awareness, Kate and Dr Farrell cover: What breast awareness actually means today and how it differs from formal breast cancer screeningHow to know when to see your GP about a breast change or lumpBreast ...

Midlife reinvention isn’t glossy, curated, or hashtag-friendly. It happens while you’re still paying bills, packing lunches, and doing the work you already know how to do. In this episode of On the ’Mones, I reflect on standing on stage at a menopause education event in Sydney and asking myself a quiet but clarifying question: How did I get here? Not because I suddenly became more qualified, but because I finally gave myself permission to be visible. We talk about reinvention as access, privi...

What if the thing that makes you feel safest… isn’t actually helping you? In this episode of On the Mones, Kate unpacks a deceptively simple idea with enormous consequences: comfort is not evidence. It starts with a respectful but confronting comment thread on a debunking video about naturopathy, vulnerability, and communication. From there, the conversation widens into something much bigger: why women in midlife are so often sold reassurance instead of rigour, validation instead of verificat...

In this episode of On the ’Mones, Kate Thomas, pharmacist, midlife woman, and professional oversharer, tackles one of the most distressing and misunderstood parts of perimenopause: what’s actually happening to your brain. If you’ve found yourself forgetting words, losing focus, feeling anxious “for no reason,” questioning whether you suddenly have ADHD in your 40s, or quietly Googling early-onset dementia at 2am, this episode is for you. Because here’s the truth: You are not stupid. You are n...

In this episode of On the ’Mones, we unpack three things many women quietly worry about - progesterone, memory changes, and the wellness advice that sounds scientific but absolutely isn’t. First, we deep-dive into progesterone. Why it’s not always a gentle background hormone, how it acts in the brain, and why some women feel calmer while others feel anxious, flat, or completely unhinged when they start it. We explain the real science behind "progesterone intolerance", PMDD, GABA receptors, an...