Sofia Levin on navigating divorce while losing her dad to MND
7/6/202657 min
Hello!
Today, we're joined by Sofia Levin. Sofia is an Australian food journalist, food critic, travel writer, and MasterChef Judge.
In this conversation, Sofia shares some of her most memorable food and travel stories, reflects on how she built a career in food journalism, and explains the path that led her to becoming a Logie-nominated MasterChef judge.
Sofia also opens up about one of the most difficult periods of her life. As her marriage was coming to an end, her dad was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND). She speaks candidly about navigating divorce alongside anticipatory grief and the lessons she carries with her after losing her dad.
If you’d like to support Sofia, you can check out her website The Seasoned Traveller here and sign up to her Eat Curiously newsletter here! You can also donate to MND Victoria here.
Thank you so much to Oura for supporting this episode of Inherited. If you'd love to look deeper into your health, keep on top of stress, or even track your cycle, check out the new Oura Ring 5 at ouraring.com now!
Your host today was Ruby Hall (@rubytuesday2.0), and the guest was Sofia Levin (@sofiaklevin).
Inherited is produced by Monica Vantilburg and executive-produced by Lucy Hunt.
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We’re also on Instagram and TikTok @inheritedthepod.
We’ll be back with another episode on Tuesday!
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSofia Levin· Guest0:00
I got divorced in, like, September 2021, but then my dad was diagnosed with a terminal- Mm ... illness the following January. So I really didn't have that much time to grieve the end of my marriage. The current head of content sat me down, and he was like, "Well, you may or may not have guessed, but the thing that we've been screen testing you for is MasterChef." [laughs] He'd asked me if I would get married again pretty early on, and I said, "No." I was not really interested. And then I think, like, two or three months into dating, I was like, "I wanna get married."
Ruby Hall· Host0:30
Married.
Sofia Levin· Guest0:30
[laughs] [laughs] One of my greatest learnings from all this, and, and still, is just how joy and grief can exist at the same time.
Ruby Hall· Host0:38
Mm-hmm.
Sofia Levin· Guest0:38
Like, it's not, it's not an either/or. And we were going around the table, um, and we- when we got to Dad, he said, "Just come back as me." That's how I wanna live. That's, that's exactly what I wanna strive to do.
Ruby Hall· Host0:49
This episode of Inherited is sponsored by Oura, the world's smallest smart ring for sleep, cycle tracking, activity, and women's health. [gentle music] Sophie Levin, welcome to Inherited.
Sofia Levin· Guest1:06
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Ruby Hall· Host1:07
I'm gonna jump straight into your recipe, because it just makes sense to do so. It's a chicken soup, and I hear your mom has a hack that she's passed down to you for finely chopping or grinding parsley and then freezing it in a container for later use that's a part of this recipe. So tell me about it.
Sofia Levin· Guest1:22
Yeah, it's [laughs] it's funny. So my, my mom is an amazing cook, uh, but she doesn't have, like, a specific recipe