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PODCAST

My Mum"s Bad Diaries

Jenny Ackland and Lilika May

You"re invited to eavesdrop as a mother reads out her teenage diaries to her daughter. Funny, candid, poignant and brave, this podcast is both living memoir and an investigation into what makes (and breaks) a woman. No scripts, no prep; just 40-year-old (diary) gold being unearthed. Even Jenny doesn"t know what"s going to come up as she lays bare her inner teen world to her daughter Lilika. Their motto is "we go there", so what could possibly go wrong?

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

9:32

SIDE CHAT (reply guys)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/10/22

we learn what reply guys are. do you know any? We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

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59:59

The fake ex wife (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/10/22

In this episode mum goes to Inverloch with friends, is reading the Day of the Jackal, and has cigarettes for breakfast. We start our intro by saying where we are (granny's place in Elsternwick. mum and her siblings have been sorting through things, a big and sad job), and when we are: Tuesday 14 October. Apparently one of the most powerful days in 1000 years for changing your life. I'd like a little more notice though. I am unprepared. Mum is sick and thinks it's because she ate a whole bag o...

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89:15

So many ports (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/09/07

Content note: more talk about food and diets + In this episode we find ourselves back in June 1983, and Mum is back from Sydney. The big news is she's moving into a house in nice Camberwell with Granddad (and not into the lounge room of a drug flat in St Kilda!) But before the reading we have a duck update from the Elwood canals, the lowdown on what Mum's working on for her fourth novel and I manage to out myself as a writer as well. o onto the diary reading. Mum's packing for the move, s...

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5:37

SIDE CHAT (lily tween years)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/09/07

We talk about how we both think that kids should just eat the food the parents are eating, that they shouldn't have separate meals, and then also talk about tween Lily We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

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78:13

3rd wheel (Vol. 5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/08/20

We're back after a long hiatus so thanks for waiting for us! In this episode we have a few complaints (podcasting platform Riverside; the NGV's current exhibition of the impressionists out of Boston. We found it hard to be impressed by the impressionists get it?) but we also have a reading from May 1983 for you. Mum heads to Sydney - FINALLY. KON the VW beetle has been fixed and is in good nick (apparently, there are a few hiccups on the road including the 'G' light goes on. What does that me...

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65:45

18 days to Sydney (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/06/11

*** Content note: mention of hard drug use; violence + Part 2, following on from episode 7. It's early May 1983 as Mum reads on from her diary. She wakes from another late night with a wrecked throat (not remarkable) and mentions that she's using a 'Safeway Bag' as a handbag (which needs some unpacking lol see what I did there). She goes to see SCUM at the Ballroom, and talks about the girl who has a $20,000 'contract out on her'. Words like 'scrag' are used, and there's a fight outside ...

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21:12

SIDE CHAT (dramione)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/06/11

What is Dramione, you may ask? If you don't know - and it's reasonable that you don't - it's a mix of Draco (Malfoy) and Hermione (Granger) from Harry Potter. And Dramione is specifically a genre of fan fiction that has proliferated online and which we talk about in this side chat. + Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening! We'd love to read your comments or questions! Send us a text!

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44:15

Modern technology (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/06/11

Here we are with Episode 7, part 1 of a 2-part recording on a Friday in early May. Yes we're a bit behind but will be catching up soon! We know how important it is for people to be hearing our current-day news close to real time. The 1983 readings? Well, they are timeless. But these days when we record we seem to go for hours and so have to split the gold! As well, I'm all over the place (Seattle-London-Antalya) while Mum is actually bed bound. We're not up to that yet in the podcast. But yes...

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47:13

Pots v pints (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/05/28

In 1983, Victorian pubs didn't have pint glasses, it was just a glass or a pot. Who knew? Not me. This is part 2 of the previous recording, where Mum just carries on reading her diary from 1983. It's her first Friday at home for more than 3 months and I'm kinda impressed. Though her reading is funny: she toggles between Sex Pistols books and Jill's pony series. Cute. Simon seems to have vanished off the face of the earth and we think mum maybe sent another letter, and she worries in the diary...

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48:16

Hostile & ravenous (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/05/14

This is part 1 of this recording session, with part 2 (Episode 6) to follow in a fortnight. We start our chat with a catch up on Life: but I start out by saying how good mum is at Garage Band, and she tells me how she fixed the family kettle back in Ashburton years ago, one of the old ceramic Hecla electric kettles. (In the ep we don't know the name but we Googled since!) I also hear about a yacht problem-solving time at Lakes Entrance, and we mention the Bennington College podcast, which we'...

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15:43

SIDE CHAT (severance)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/05/14

Enormous warning about SPOILERS. But if you've seen the second season of SEVERANCE, listen in and see whether you agree with Mum or me, as we disagree on several points! + Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening!

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61:56

Boys called Smear, Spike & Rat (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/04/30

Content note carries over from the first part, which was Ep 3 (food, weight, eating, diets etc) + Welcome to the second part of the diary reading, where Mum continues on with her 1983 life. She cooks a roast, she likes Rod, she goes to another party, in Lygon Street. Getting into punk: there's bands called Justifiable Hatred, Depression. You get the idea. She goes to Smear's house in Caulfield and Spike's house too, and we wonder whether these are private school boys just going through their ...

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39:58

SIDE CHAT (mafs)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/04/16

While MAFS was one of grandad's shows, we'd never watched it until recently! Here's our chat about it, after pounding through most of the episodes within a week. Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening!

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53:44

Vows and jackets (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/04/16

Content warning: LOTS of food and body and weight talk. Also a lot of jacket talk. + Mercury is in retrograde and we're grumpy, but we make it work!! I talk bone brother and village soup recipes while back in 1983, mum is obsessed with getting rid of the matted bits in her hair ('dreadlocks' she calls them. Sure.) She's thinking about Simon a lot. There a day of car trouble. We talk '80s cheque and banking conventions as well as the virtues of a leopard skin dressing gown. Oh and there's a ...

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11:41

SIDE RANT: Meghan, with love

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/04/16

What can we say. We hate watched some episodes. Those of you who know us know we don't love the Meghan. Follow us on Insta @mumsbaddiaries and thanks for listening!

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67:14

Noodles part 2 (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/04/02

Content note: food talk, exercise talk, weight talk Apologies the sound quality is NOT GREAT... back to our normal crystal-clear audio next episode! * It's 1983, still Feb and we both Mum and Bret Easton Ellis are seeing the Psychedelic Furs. (I don't know who they are of course!) We continue straight on with the reading. The letter from Simon has come and Mum show the influence of his writing style in her diary entries, with lots of 'n's and dropped g's... it's embarrassing but totally und...

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62:33

Noodles (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2025/03/19

Content note: diets, food and weight. * It's the first episode of season 4 and this one is all about noodles, breakfast of champions for the young back in 1983. It's February 1983, mum is staying with girlfriends down at Queenscliff and the big fires are happening. Gran is ringing worried but all mum seems to care about is reading a new book Tom, being interested in a photography course, the F-Plan Diet and the No Nonsense merch: yoyos! Mum's also waiting for a letter from Simon from Br...

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46:35

Xmas bonus - part 2 (A Very Bronte Christmas)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2024/12/26

We continue our Boxing Day bed-chat with an up-to-date missive from Haworth, epicentre of Bronte Country. We talk about our visit to the Parsonage Museum, the church where Patrick Bronte was the minister. We also talk about our walk on the moors, up to Top Withens, the setting for the house Wuthering Heights in the book. We're now on hiatus until March next year. Join us then for Season 4!!

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91:01

Xmas bonus - part 1

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2024/12/26

We're in the UK. lying in bed on Boxing Day after a big lunch yesterday, lots of British Bake Off, and -- believe it or not -- church and needle point.How very Bronte of us.We are in fact in Haworth, village of the Bronte sisters, but in this part 1 we catch you up on our travels since early November.

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58:42

Dragon Phoenix (Vol.5, 1983)

My Mum"s Bad Diaries ·

2024/12/18

Simon is gone and Mum’s trying not to write about him in her diary! So she plays guitar and goes to see bands, and of course watches TV – The Partridge Family, Gidget, Young Doctors and Rock Around the World, and Carson’s Law.We have the vivid summer memory of picking up the school books from Campion and we also have ‘yet another dinner stuffed at the Dragon Phoenix’ with Grandad/Roger.We become confused by ‘mewing’ and all-round Gen Alpha terms before getting back to the ‘80s and Mum’s ...

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