Broken Brains With Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland, moderated by Benjamin Law

4 May 2025

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Join Jamila and Rosie for a deeply personal conversation, scattered with humour and lived experiences, covering exactly what they wish they’d had at the height of their illnesses: comfort, solidarity and understanding. Hilarious and unflinchingly honest, this conversation is essential for anyone who has ever been ill or loved someone who was.

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Jamila and Rosie don’t just share their stories – they crack themselves wide open, revealing the reality of living with illness.

Turia Pitt

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Physical brain health and mental brain health, and how they coexist

At the age of 31 Jamila Rizvi was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour. When she shared her diagnosis with loved ones, good friend Rosie Waterland proposed the tumour eventually be named ‘Jam’s Jerky’ and kept on display in a jar. While this sensitive proposal was politely declined, there was a reason Jamila had turned to Rosie for support. Rosie knows what it’s like to live with a broken brain. After a childhood of abuse and neglect, she had been dealing with significant trauma symptoms for years. Jamila and Rosie soon discovered their broken brains had more in common than they could ever have imagined.

Join acclaimed authors and close friends Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland as they tell Benjamin Law about their Broken Brains, the subject (and title) of their new co-written book.

Jamila and Rosie are available for signing following the event.

Presented by Sydney Opera House

Jamila Rizvi

Jamila Rizvi is a broadcaster, public speaker and social policy expert, as well as the bestselling author of Not Just Lucky and The Motherhood. As deputy managing director of Future Women, Jamila champions women’s economic security and gender equity in Australian workplaces. She has been named one of Culture Amp’s 25 Emerging Global Culture Creators, included in the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence and won the Women and Leadership Australia Award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership in 2020. At age 31, Jamila was diagnosed with a rare type of recurrent brain tumour and now lives with complex disabilities due to acquired brain injury.

Rosie Waterland

Rosie Waterland is an author, comedian, podcaster and public speaker, but mostly calls herself a writer. Her first two books, The Anti Cool Girl and Every Lie I’ve Ever Told, were critically acclaimed, national bestsellers. Her podcasts Mum Says My Memoir is a Lie and Just the Gist have over 20 million combined downloads, earning her an Australian Commercial Radio Award and an Australian Podcast Award. She has written for various TV projects and nationally toured three one-woman shows. Rosie has spent much of her adult years dealing with the debilitating symptoms of trauma caused by prolonged exposure to abuse and toxic stress in her childhood.

Benjamin Law

Moderator

Benjamin Law is an Australian writer and broadcaster. He’s the author of The Family Law, Gaysia, the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia.

Benjamin is also an AWGIE Award-winning screenwriter. He’s the co-executive producer, co-creator and co-writer of the Netflix comedy-drama Wellmania, creator and co-writer of three seasons of the award-winning TV series The Family Law and playwright of the sold-out mainstage play Torch the Place. He has a PhD in creative writing and cultural studies from the Queensland University of Technology.

Every week, Benjamin co-hosts ABC Radio National’s weekly national pop culture show Stop Everything and interviews public figures for Good Weekend. He hosted ABC TV’s two-part feature documentary on Chinese-Australian history Waltzing the Dragon, and has appeared on TV shows like Australian Survivor, Filthy Rich and Homeless, Q&A, The Drum and The Project. He has also written for over 50 publications in Australia and beyond—including the Monthly, frankie, Guardian, Monocle and Australian Financial Review—and is a literary scout for Hachette Australia.