There’s a lot in a given name.

When Zelda’s mum chose that name for her little baby girl, who could have known just how completely she would go on to embody it. Zelda is often said to derive from an old Germanic name meaning battle or warrior, sometimes described as a battle maiden, so calling her a warrior princess feels anything but accidental.

Zelda has been battling various forms of breast cancer for eighteen years. After inheriting the BRCA2 gene from her dad, she has been fighting and thriving for over a third of her life.

As Gobsmacked! approaches its fourth year, Catherine sets out in the Gobsmacked podcast van to revisit previous guests and discover what has unfolded since they last pressed record.

And for Zelda, there has been a lot. A staggering amount of life for a true warrior.

This is Gobsmacked… After the Podcast.

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At first glance this promised to be a full blown Britain’s Got Talent conversation, a look behind the scenes at what it’s like to step onto that famous stage, to meet Simon, Amanda, Alesha and Bruno, and to experience the whirlwind of television fame.

But this story sits somewhere else entirely.

When Mark Smutz Smith, respected artist manager, lecturer, songwriter and creative mentor, heard about the Post Office scandal and the plight of those caught up in it, he couldn’t just stand by. A life immersed in music became the catalyst for something far greater, a mobilisation of people and places from his past. Reaching back through friendships and old connections, he found himself part of a movement that, almost instinctively, helped to form a choir that would lift not only voices but spirits.

Through those connections runs a thread that leads to Bequia, the small Caribbean island that anchors friendships and emboldens connections, an idyllic backdrop to the tumultuous life events that unfold in this compelling interview.

The Gobsmacked! moment comes when the conversation shifts. What begins in the world of showbiz and performance opens into something deeply human. When family stories surface and truth begins to settle, this becomes a story about redemption, belonging, and the power of song to bring people home to themselves, even when grief and disorientation still reverberate.

This podcast is dedicated to Avril Teresa Smith.

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This episode of Gobsmacked features Wendy Boast a woman who left school at 16, when the world of work beckoned brighter than the underwhelm of the classroom. Later discovering she has a remarkable IQ, and went on to build a career in the City with big jobs in complex information systems and major corporate achievements.

Wendy’s journey hasn’t been without heartbreak and betrayal, but she has come through wiser, sharper, and more grounded — the most informed and insightful friend you could ever hope for.

Her worldview is vast and surprising, flipping perspectives a full 180. In this conversation she takes us from the rat race to aliens, from ancient wisdoms to global jitters, from Shakespeare to Plato, with the 2012 Olympics woven in along the way.

Bright, centred, and compelling, Wendy Boast will put your brain in shaker-maker mode. This is an episode that will stretch your thinking, shake your assumptions, and leave you wide awake to possibility.

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