“Just to be a finalist was a huge privilege, but winning was so surreal!” says founder and host Harita Gandhi-Kashyap, who travelled to Auckland for the ceremony. “We put this show together in a volunteer capacity, on top of full time jobs and life, so being recognised for our hobby when none of us come from a radio or journalist background makes the last four years since we started the show so worth it. We don’t really count the time we spend making the show because it’s a passion project for us, but it definitely takes up quite a lot of time finding guests to interview, interviewing a different person for each episode, researching the guest, thinking of the interview questions, liaising with the guest and editing the interview to get it ready to air on radio and podcast, and looking after the social media pages, but it’s all worth it when we think back on all the amazing people we have met through this show.”

Conversations with Wāhine is funded by the Wellington branch of the National Council of Women New Zealand, and is hosted by a group of volunteers that take turns to interview their invited guests. The current co-hosts are Harita Gandhi-Kashyap, Aisling Waldron, Laura Trobiani, Sophie Kelsall, Eleonora Bello and Haley Rolls. The show is created by women, for women (and men who are interested in gender equality), and showcases candid interviews with inspirational wāhine in a huge range of fields. Interviews over the last year have included Jay-jay Feeney, Alok Vaid-Menon, Jess Hong, and Deborah Frances-White (The Guilty Feminist).

"We are extremely proud of the Conversations with Wāhine team," says Wellington Access Radio Station Manager Tony Kemp. "They produce an important, entertaining, and high-quality show that absolutely deserves this award. It’s so important that the vital work of Access Radio shows are highlighted alongside commercial radio stations." Another Wellington Access Radio show, Tu Ma Tilotilo, was also a nominee in the same category, along with two other New Zealand Access radio shows.

You can listen in Conversations with Wāhine every Sunday at 8pm on Wellington Access Radio 106.1FM or stream via www.accessradio.org.nz Follow Conversations with Wāhine on Facebook, Spotify, YouTube and Instagram.

You can reach the hosts via [email protected].

To read more articles from The Circular (May-June 2025) issue 652, click on the tag below.