Singing as 'sweet relief' — Meg Washington on stuttering, spirituality and song

The musician reflects on the epic evolution of her singing from practical childhood speech therapy to sacred musical fluency.Meg Washington was born in a musical home in Port Moresby, where her parents had met as Australian expats.Meg and her sister spent a lot of their time watching classic Hollywood musicals and also down at the local yacht club where their dad DJ'd every Saturday night.Singing became something Meg was encouraged to do herself after she developed a stutter as a little girl.And eventually it grew from a therapy into a thrill.Meg's stutter was something she did her best to disguise while building her career as a singer and songwriter in Australia.But after going public about her speech impediment in a TedX Talk, Meg realised she no longer cared about hiding who she was.This honesty led to a whole host of exciting new opportunities – including becoming the voice of Calypso in Bluey, and making a film with her husband based on the iconic Paul Kelly song, “How To Make Gravy”.This episode of Conversations explores origin stories, parenting, artists, music-making, Hugo Weaving, reflection, family dynamics, Australian music scene, Christmas movies, motherhood, TedX, Ted Talk, public speaking, speech impediments, speech therapy, Papua New Guinea, PNG, expats, Australian expats, Christianity, religion, spirituality, The Deb, Rebel Wilson, The Killers, Hot Fuss, Batflower Records.To binge even more great episodes of the ‘Conversations podcast’ with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, singers, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

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