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Is it getting easier to build and sustain a writing career if you’re disabled?

Crip Culture

Release Date: 12/06/2025

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Crip Culture

Crip Culture is a disability-led podcast, hosted by award-winning writer Fiona Murphy and disability advocate/influencer Rosie Putland. Crip Culture shines a light on disability arts from publishing, film, TV, visual arts and beyond. Season one explores the publishing industry: What is it like being a disabled author or editor? Is the industry welcoming? Or are there still barriers? This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast  

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Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk to journalist Matilda Boseley and author Olivia Muscat. Matilda tells us how audio books and text to speech technology have become tools for work, pleasure and survival. Olivia shares how she decides what creative projects to work on.

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Matilda Boseley is an award-winning social media reporter and presenter for Guardian Australia. She has spearheaded the publication’s popular TikTok channel where she writes and hosts their short-form news explainers. Her work on the platform has won her a Quill Award for Innovation in Journalism and was nominated for a Walkley Award for the same category. Named Walkley Awards’ 2019 Student Journalist of the Year, Matilda has also worked as a reporter and assistant chief of staff at 7 News Melbourne and as a breaking news reporter for The Age newspaper. She regularly reports on issues affecting young people, women and mental health and her first book, The Year I Met My Brain, documents her experiences and discoveries after being diagnosed with ADHD at 23 and investigates the hidden prevalence and costs of ADHD among adults. Now, she’s written The ADHD Brain Buddy: a treasure trove of practical tips, activities and scientific insights to help you make it through the hard days, utilise the great ones and reflect on the impact ADHD has had throughout your life. All in the pursuit of making your world easier to navigate – and way more fun.

Olivia Muscat is a totally blind writer, performer, and disability arts activist. She uses her love of colour, whimsy, and music to tell stories that make people want to examine their attitudes to disabled people and to difference in general. She is the author of My Name Is Jemima, which was selected as a New York Public Library book of the year for 2025. Also in 2025 she premiered her autobiographical play Is Anyone Even Watching? as part of Melbourne Fringe, where she won the Change Maker award and the Outstanding Newcomer award. Her novel for younger readers Annie and Maeve are Definitely Not Friends is set for release by Fremantle Press in autumn 2026.

Links and resources:

Cover art: Judy Kuo

Music credits:
 -Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat)
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-My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat)
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