This week on the SWN Podcast, we chat with author and psychologist Lauren Keegan about her latest novel, The Woman in the Seal Skin and dive into the fascinating world of Selkies, mythology, motherhood, grief, violence and the biological impulses that bind us to the natural world.

A timeless tale, The Woman in the Seal Skin is set on the Orkney Islands in the late 1600s and follows the story of Malie, a motherless child who has grown up in a cloistered island community and is about to become a mother herself. Our chat today ventures to the depths of how folktales act as a powerful allegory for women’s lives, societal expectations and the generational and systemic patterns of oppression; a theme that is resoundingly relevant today. We also discuss the environmental aspects of the book as well as Lauren’s research process and how her background in perinatal psychology informs her writing practice.

Lauren Keegan is a perinatal psychologist, author and host of the podcast, Trust the Process. Her debut historical fiction novel, All The Bees In The Hollows (Affirm Press) was named Best Debut Fiction in the 2025 Indie Book Awards and longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize. Her second novel The Woman in the Seal Skin is out now. Lauren lives with her husband and two daughters on Dharawal and Gundungarra Country (New South Wales).

Check out her website, laurenkeeganwriter.com where you can find her books, listen to her podcast, Trust the Process – where psychology meets writing – and subscribe to her monthly newsletter on Substack!

As always, a full list of works discussed, links and resources are available on the SWN website. Enjoy this week’s episode!

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Science Write Now is dedicated to accessibility, connectivity, inspiration and collaboration across disciplines. Our content is free to access and we want to keep it that way, so if you’re keen to be part of this growing community of creative writing inspired by science, hit subscribe!

We’ll be back with another episode soon, and more conversations inspired by science and creativity to come!

We acknowledge the Jaegara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is created, and the unceded cultural lands on which our guests live and continue to make and tell stories.

Amidst shape-shifting landscapes, we enter a realm of staggering beauty, harsh isolation and danger simmering just beneath the surface…

Our conversation today unearths the stories of two female scientists navigating the tectonics of their own inner turmoil; excavating the past as well as facing the erosion of a future forever altered by the climate crisis. Stories that urge us to look deeper and listen closely as lives both human and non-human emerge, erupt and unfold against the ever-expanding timescale of the Earth.

This episode traverses climate and earth science, mycology, food and agriculture, exploitative industries such as mining and fish-farming, and more.

SWN's Bianca Millroy is joined by Romy Ash and Verity Borthwick talking about their latest works of fiction, both of which combine the fascinating science of geology with deeply human narratives of grief, hope and longing.

Romy Ash is a critically acclaimed, award-winning novelist. Her first novel Floundering was shortlisted for The Miles Franklin Award, The Prime Minister's Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, amongst others. Her children's picture book As Bright as a Rainbow was published in 2024. Her essays and journalism have been published in The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, Meanjin, The Griffith Review and others.

Verity Borthwick is an award-winning novelist and geologist. She has been published in The Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Island, The Furphy Anthology, Aurealis, Science Write Now and more. She holds a Master of Arts from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She started writing fiction by night, while working on her PhD in structural geology by day—looking at one crystal of salt for four years. She has worked in various remote locations around Australia as an exploration geologist, which was the inspiration for her novel Hollow Air. When she is not writing, Verity works as a freelance editor and takes care of her two sons.

As always, a full list of works discussed, links and resources are available in the Show Notes on the SWN website under ‘Listen’.

Enjoyed this episode? Share the SWN love!

If you liked this episode, leave us a review and share it far and wide.

Science Write Now is dedicated to accessibility, connectivity, inspiration and collaboration across disciplines. Our content is free to access and we want to keep it that way, so if you’re keen to be part of this growing community of creative writing inspired by science, hit subscribe!

We’ll be back with another episode soon, and more conversations inspired by science and creativity to come!

We acknowledge the Jaegara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is created, and the unceded cultural lands on which our guests live and continue to make and tell stories.

This week on the podcast, SWN’s Bianca Millroy joined by Dr Sue Wilson and Helen Carrington for our final conversation in this series – and on that note, if you’ve been a regular listener of Cognitive Conversations, thank you for coming along with us on this journey for ten whole episodes!

This episode focuses on the role of music as a therapeutic intervention, and perspectives on somatic symptoms and chronic or persistent pain from two experts in the field - and how they came to specialise in a field at the intersection of mind, brain and body.

Helen, a senior music therapist, takes us through the fundamentals of Music Therapy and how it’s used in clinical practice – from playing the drums, guitar or piano and singing to curating personalised playlists and even song writing.

Sue, a specialist psychiatrist, speaks to the interdisciplinary nature of paediatric and adolescent psychiatry, including aspects of medical practice that need to be approached differently when it comes to Functional Somatic Symptoms (FSS).

Helen explains the neuroscience behind music and its effects on the brain and nervous system, and Sue dives deep on the topic of somatisation, and how advancements in neuroscience are progressing our understanding of functional brain networks and predictive processing.

Finally, we discuss how music (and other forms of creative and artistic practice) can influence and inspire — and we share a beautiful ekphrastic poem to leave you lingering on the transformative power of art and storytelling.

For further details on this episode, and some fascinating / nerdy research on the neuroscience of music, check out the Show Notes on our website.

New to this series? With topics ranging from navigating neurodivergence and brain preservation to chronic pain and speech pathology, narrative medicine, psychiatry and philosophy, why not go back to #1 ‘Synergy’ and explore them all?

Enjoyed this episode? Share the SWN love!

If you liked this episode, leave us a review and share it far and wide.

Science Write Now is dedicated to accessibility, connectivity, inspiration and collaboration across disciplines. Our content is free to access and we want to keep it that way, so if you’re keen to be part of this growing community of creative writing inspired by science, hit subscribe!

We’ll be back with another episode soon, and more conversations inspired by science and creativity to come!

We acknowledge the Jaegara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is created, and the unceded cultural lands on which our guests live and continue to make and tell stories.