1: Rosie and Roula - Who Are we, Really?

Who are Rosie & Roula

Roula: [00:00:00] Rosie, you have 90 seconds to let the listeners know who you are.

Roula: Surprise me. 

Rosie: My heart's racing. First thing though, Ruella, I'm starting a timer. Hey, Siri, start a timer for 90 seconds. 90 seconds starting now. Okay. My name is Rosie. Full name is Rosanna. My mum had a dream about that name. That's how she came up with it. There's also a song by Toto called Rosanna, but I digress.

Rosie: I live in Australia in my van with my red dog, Tilly. I'm a full time podcaster. I'm someone who is very passionate about figuring out who I am and what I want from life. I still haven't figured that out, but you know what? I'm very happy right now. I've never had less money or less possessions, but I've also never, ever, ever been this happy.

Rosie: Roula, I have 54 seconds left. Take that. It's your turn. 

Roula: Oh, goodness. Okay. My name is Rula. I'm from the Middle East, [00:01:00] from Lebanon. Every house in Lebanon have a Rula. I moved to Europe, and I'm the only Rula, which is very exciting. Passionate about cultures. What's make us act the way that we do. I do love to break the rules, but I don't like to hurt people.

Roula: I like to challenge them. I live with my kids, my husband and two cats in a big house. And the ironic about it. I grew up in the smallest house I've ever been to. So That's me. Did I do the 45 seconds? 

Rosie: You did it in 30 seconds. What is this bullcrap up upstaging me Roula?

Rosie: Microphone drop. Oh, I want to go to that point though. You said you grew up in a really small house and now you're in a big one. And if I reflect on that. I've always grown up in fairly large houses. And here I am in a van, like my bed is right next to my kitchen and my toilet is pretty much in my kitchen.

Rosie: So it's a very small place. Well, I lost 

Roula: my belly fat walking from my bedroom to my kitchen every day. [00:02:00]

Rosie: Wow. But 

Roula: you know, this brings us back to the contradictions that you and I have even in our past. That's amazing. Yeah. Now that we introduced ourselves. to the listeners. It would be really nice to know what makes you want to do to do this podcast with me.

Roula: I just 

Rosie: want to have some fun. Like you and I really have this vibe. I love it. You know, different countries, different experiences and backgrounds. And we just have a hoot every time we chat. I love it. Like I'll see you calling me and I'm like, and so it just came up very organically and Prior to us sort of floating this idea, I was feeling a little bit demotivated in my own podcast.

Rosie: It's very lonely. I'm the only host. And yeah, I get to talk to my guests, but you know, it's me editing by myself, coming up with the [00:03:00] titles and the show notes and thumbnails, blah, blah, blah. It's a lot. So then to do a podcast with you is so exciting. You get it. You've got your own podcast. You get the struggles.

Rosie: And here we are. We get along. We argue a little bit. We tease, we have really deep conversations, like I couldn't think of anything better. I'm doing this for fun. How about you? 

Roula: I'm also doing it for fun to tackle important topics in a fun way and also in an authentic way. Which one day I want us to talk about what is authentic, we use this word a lot.

Roula: We, but I want to say very important point is that we both have serious podcast and in real life, we're both very playful. We like to joke and we have this, this passion about us that I don't think I'm letting it all out [00:04:00] on my podcast. I'm kind of reserved. I pick very, um, selective topics and doing this podcast together.

Roula: It's an opportunity to find out who I am when my opinions are out there and hear from others what they think about these topics. Having conversations can be limited and the podcast give us the opportunity to have a free style, respectful, cultural opinion and get closer to the world around us.

Roula: Why I do this with you, I like that you have very often this aha moment when I tell you something about my culture, about the things that I lived or I knew. This makes it very exciting to ask more because you're curious, 

Rosie: you like 

Roula: to know more. [00:05:00] I do. 

Rosie: You, you've put me to shame. You made my answer sound so shallow, Roula.

Rosie: So shallow. 

Roula: Remember, I'm Gen x, you're Millennial. We have so many years of experience difference. 

Rosie: Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, this is true. This 

Roula: we're doing this podcast. Right, yes. To bring generations together. 

Rosie: Yes, why do we have to be, why does it have to be us versus them? You know, I'm, I'm a Millennial, you're Gen X, and we're friends.

Rosie: What's so wrong about that? 

Roula: I like to Party 

Rosie: . Everybody does. Is that the song you were going for? I don't know. But everything you said I agree with. Absolutely. And I loved how you mentioned that we're both quite playful people but it doesn't come across in our own podcasts. You're so right. We cover some really deep topics.

Rosie: Deep, heavy topics, like one of your recent episodes was about porn addiction. And I just guessed it on a podcast recently talking [00:06:00] about mental health and self harm, like this is heavy stuff. So having the opportunity to still cover meaningful topics, but do it in a playful way. That's cool. 

Roula: And many listeners.

Roula: want a light, fun, happy, informative podcast not everyone has the time to listen to long form 

Rosie: podcasts. 

Roula: When the listeners are having their break, they're having a small walk, whatever they're doing. You can't listen to a podcast that is heavy when you're occupied with other things. And with this quick podcast, You know, it's like the new, excuse me people for saying this, the new cigarette break.

Roula: . I grew up with cigarette breaks. Living in the Netherlands, it's almost not existing. Podcast is the new cigarette break and it won't harm you unless you listen to harmful podcasts. 

Rosie: [00:07:00] True that. And for the Aussies out there, the fellow Aussies, cigarette break, what do we call it? Smoko. So here's your cigarette break or your Smoko.

Rosie: Just chuck us on. We're a little snack, something to nibble on while you have a break from the mundane every day today. And then get back to it. So I think the main theme here is a bit of lighthearted fun about the topics that really matter. 

Roula: And sometimes don't matter. But that's true. It's okay. Stand in the way of our daily life.

Roula: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.