ABC Radio Australia
268 episodes listed below
Pacific women's stories, care, and courage.
Sistas, Let's Talk is a measured interview show about Pacific women navigating care, stigma, family pressure, joy, and survival. It moves between intimate testimony and public-health context, giving practical weight to subjects often left private.
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Sistas, Let's Talk is a Pacific women's interview show with a strong public-service spine. It listens before it explains. Recent episodes move through pregnancy, HIV, gender-based violence, survivor care, elder abuse, friendship, song, and women in science without treating any of those subjects as abstract issues. A first pregnancy becomes a conversation about fear, family support, labor, postpartum depression, and learning to ask midwives and doctors better questions. Fiji's HIV crisis becomes a discussion about stigma, missed testing, treatment, breastfeeding, and why language matters when babies acquire HIV. Gender-based violence is handled as both immediate danger and long aftermath. The show asks what a positive bystander can do, but it also asks what survivors need after they have escaped. That second question gives the series much of its moral clarity. It understands that safety is not the same thing as recovery. The health episodes are practical without turning clinical. The social episodes are compassionate without drifting into sentiment. When the subject lightens, the same attentiveness remains. Friendship is treated as a protective relationship, not just a pleasant one. Singing becomes a communal practice that can hold joy across ordinary life, stage, and community gatherings. Pacific women in science are framed as role models whose research and heritage can serve their communities. Elder abuse is raised with grief and urgency, especially where family duty and silence can make harm harder to name. The format is largely guest-led, with plain questions and careful follow-ups. It suits listeners who want lived experience connected to wider patterns of care, access, stigma, and responsibility. Its strength is the way it keeps returning to what people can do next. The result is serious, warm, and grounded in Pacific women's everyday realities.
Made for: For listeners interested in Pacific women's health, family life, safety, community care, and cultural identity. It especially suits people who prefer grounded interviews over personality-driven chat.
What sets it apart: The show connects intimate testimony to public-health and community consequences without losing warmth. It gives Pacific women's experiences the room usually reserved for policy panels, while keeping the language accessible.
Sistas, Let’s Talk is a show for women across the Pacific region. Each week, host Natasha Meten talks to inspirational women about the issues affecting them, and discusses how to navigate modern life as a Pacific Island woman.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Sistas, Let's Talk brings Pacific women's health and social realities into focus through direct, practical, regionally grounded conversation, with music remaining peripheral.
Sistas, Let's Talk builds conversations around concrete pressures in Pacific women's lives, with Natasha Metten asking direct questions about what help exists and what prevents people from reaching it.
Loneliness, child marriage, pregnancy and cervical screening meet the questions you might be too polite to ask.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm, honest look at first-time pregnancy as fear, preparation, and support.
The episode treats first-time pregnancy as a mix of excitement, fear, and the hard work of letting go of plans and control. Grace Nalemba speaks openly about an unplanned pregnancy and the disappointment that followed, but the discussion also makes room for the support around…
A practical account of stigma, early treatment, and protecting babies from HIV.
It frames Fiji's HIV crisis as an urgent public-health issue shaped by stigma, misinformation, and fear, especially for women who may delay testing or care.
A humane look at loneliness as both a private feeling and a shared community concern.
The episode draws a clean line between being alone and being lonely, and it does so without forcing the point. It starts from the Pacific view of community and family as shared values, then shows how loneliness can still surface when work, migration, or a move to the city leaves…
A sober Pacific briefing on how child marriage reshapes girls' lives and the people trying to stop it.
Child marriage in the Pacific is treated as a lived reality, not a policy abstraction, and that gives the episode its weight. It moves from sobering regional data into testimony about how early marriage can cut short schooling, narrow choice, and expose girls to abuse inside the…
A clear look at screening, grief, and the push to prevent cervical cancer across the Pacific.
Cervical cancer prevention sits at the center here, and the strongest stretch ties HPV screening and testing to the Pacific's uneven access to care.
Birth choices, argued in plain language.
Warm health talk for messy real life.
Practical midlife medicine, plainly explained.
It opens with a straightforward conversation about first-time pregnancy and the feelings that can come with it.
This episode looks at Fiji’s rising HIV crisis through the experiences of women and babies.
This episode explores how to be a positive bystander by taking action to prevent gender-based violence, featuring personal stories and practical advice from the Pacific region.
This episode explores the ongoing support needs for survivors of gender-based violence in the Pacific, focusing on therapy and trauma recovery rather than just prevention.
This episode explores the importance of friendship among women, particularly in Pacific Islander communities, highlighting how it provides emotional support and protection against stress and depression.
This episode celebrates Pacific Islander women in science, featuring interviews with three scientists discussing their research and how their heritage influences their work.
Host Natasha Meten discusses the joy of singing and its role in Pacific Islander community and personal well-being.
Host Natasha Meten discusses elder abuse in the Pacific region, sharing statistics and raising awareness about the issue affecting Pacific Island women and families.
Host Natasha Meten discusses financial literacy and saving strategies for Pacific women, featuring an interview with Rebecca Mainuta from the West Areare Rokotanikeni Association.
Host Natasha Meten discusses maternal mental illness with a Fijian mother who experienced postnatal depression after a traumatic birth and isolation.
Host Natasha Meten discusses the importance of vaccines in the Pacific, highlighting low vaccination rates for polio and measles in Papua New Guinea and Samoa.
Loneliness is treated here as something more complicated than simply being by yourself.
This episode looks at child marriage in the Pacific and the people trying to end it.
Host Natasha Meten introduces young women activists in the Pacific, featuring Sabina Morde, a 24-year-old advocate for people with disability and mentor through the Pacific Girl Program.
Host Natasha Meten discusses cyber abuse against women and girls in the Pacific, exploring how to make the internet safer.
Host Natasha Meten discusses the underrepresentation of women in Pacific politics and interviews former Samoan Prime Minister Fiyame Naomi Mata'afa about her mother's influence.
Host Natasha Meten discusses ovarian cancer with a Tongan survivor, covering symptoms, stigma, and prevention for Pacific women.
This episode discusses the pivotal role of Pacific Island women in climate change adaptation, food security, and resource conservation, highlighting their exclusion from decision-making.
Host Hilda Wayne interviews activist Ruth Kisum about sorcery-accusation-related violence against women in Papua New Guinea.
Discussion on the importance of paid maternity leave for maternal and child health in the Pacific region.
This episode examines whether customary law is appropriate for addressing sexual and gender-based violence in Pacific communities, highlighting concerns about women's voices being excluded in traditional justice processes.
Host Natasha Meten discusses the importance of preserving oral histories from elders and the wisdom of grandmothers in Pacific Island culture.
This episode discusses the financial vulnerability of widowed women in the Pacific, highlighting cultural and economic challenges.
Host Natasha Meten interviews filmmaker Lisa Tauma about her documentary exploring Pacific women's representation and resilience.
Host Hilda Wainwright discusses period pain with women, exploring its prevalence, impact, and remedies.
A woman shares a story about experiencing a heavy period during an important meeting in Vanuatu, highlighting the challenges and support among women.
This episode celebrates the essential role of overbearing aunties in Pacific Island culture, sharing personal stories about how they provide guidance, protection, and love while demanding respect and obedience.
Hosts discuss how to raise boys to be good men and break cycles of violence in the Pacific, featuring an anti-violence advocate.
A Pacific Island woman shares her dream of giving birth in a Tahitian lagoon to connect her children to their heritage.
Host Natasha Meten discusses the rising issue of child sexual abuse in the Pacific and what communities can do to end it.
This episode explores why the Pacific music industry is male-dominated, examining barriers for women musicians and featuring examples like Vanessa Kwai and Vika and Linda Bull.
The episode opens with a direct question about whether cervical cancer has touched the listener's family.