'We balance each other out'. Meet the brand new hosts of Mamamia's But Are You Happy? podcast.

Anastasia and Ashani get on like a house on fire. And it's a good thing too, considering they are the new co-hosts of Mamamia's But Are You Happy? podcast.

The pair didn't know each other at all before signing onto the pod, which focuses on mental health. Luckily, platonic sparks flew, and their dynamic quickly became clear.

"We balance each other out," Ashani told Mamamia. "Anastasia comes with the facts, and she grounds it all really well."

Anastasia added: "I'll be like, here's this statistic, and Ashani will provide reflection and insight on the topic."

Dr Anastasia Hronis works as a clinical psychologist at her own clinic, the Australian Institute for Human Wellness. She is also a part-time academic and lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney. 

"My main area of focus and speciality is addictions," she told us. "Last year, I published a book called The Dopamine Brain. It's all about understanding the neuroscience behind our behaviours and how we can get hooked on different things in life, from drugs and alcohol all the way to social media, online shopping, dating apps."

Outside of work, Anastasia is also a trained classical pianist who has performed at the Sydney Opera House and Carnegie Hall in New York.

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While Ashani Dante began her career as a speech pathologist, a quarter-life crisis led her down a different path.

"I started to reflect on my high school years. I struggled a lot as a teenage girl. I had a lot of body image issues and anxiety," she told Mamamia. "I had these issues, but so did my peers. There was a lot of self-harm in year eight, year nine, and girls were losing all this weight before formal. No one was having conversations in schools. I was like, 'Something needs to be done at a preventative level.'"

As a result, Ashani founded her organisation, The Flourish Journey, which delivers high school programs for teenage girls to build self-awareness, self-confidence, and social connectivity. At the end of 2023, Ashani stepped out of the operations but remained on the board.

"Now my core mission is around supporting women who didn't get a Flourish Journey in high school. I really focus on building their self-confidence, help them tap into their inner wisdom, inner power, and to get clarity and confidence."

For both women, But Are You Happy? is a perfect addition to their repertoires. 

"It's literally me in a podcast," Ashani said of BAYH?, "I love having conversations that plant seeds in people's psyche around unpacking patterns that are playing out in people's lives, whether it's in relationships or whether it's the inner relationship."

Anastasia, who went to university with former host Clare Stephens, has been following the podcast since its inception.

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"Even though my formal training is in the clinical side of mental health, once you see enough people who are suffering, you really start to focus on the preventative end of things," she said.

"I see a need for evidence-based, fact-checked mental health resources, because there's a lot of noise out there. I think there's a growing desire from the general public to have scientifically-sound resources and information delivered to them with some nuance. I think that's what But are you happy? tries to deliver."

The new hosts will "look at all facets of mental health that contribute to overall satisfaction and happiness in life," said Anastasia. 

"I think there's so much power we can get from hearing people's stories, which I think would have happened in the previous iteration," said Ashani.

"But I think with this, it's really practical and relatable, and it's kind of like Anastasia and I are sitting with you in the passenger seat while you're driving the car, or you're having that cup of tea," said Ashani. "It's directed to that other person that might be going through a lot of the topics that we know so many of us struggle with. 

"We bring humour to it. It's a good mix of everything, it's practical, but then it's also fun. There's always something to improve on but it's bringing lightness."

So what, exactly, does happiness mean to Ashani and Anastasia?

"I think so often we think happiness is a positive feeling. But, actually, I believe happiness is the fullest expression of whatever emotion that we're feeling," said Ashani.

"If I'm sad, give myself permission to cry or let it out, or angry, let that out. I think some of those denser emotions we feel, we push it away, or we numb it, or we avoid it. We attach shame and embarrassment to it but, actually, when we allow that to come out, that is where our access to true happiness is. Get all the mess out. This is what happiness is."

Anastasia, meanwhile, has a slightly different definition.

"I say happiness is a fleeting moment. Are you content and satisfied? When I work with clients, we really try to look at that big picture of contentment and satisfaction in life. And that can be, 'I can be really unhappy in this moment, but I can be overall pretty satisfied with my life'. I like to think of the difference between momentary happiness as an emotional state that can change, versus my overall feeling towards my life."

She added: "On the podcast, we're challenging the idea that there's one experience of happiness, because happiness is not the same experience for you or for me, or there's no formula that equals happiness."

"What I like about this season is that we're taking little topics like relationships, anxiety, whatever, and we're giving our listeners an opportunity to take that topic, look at it, and reflect on their relationship with the topic right now," added Ashani.

"Then, getting them to continue to challenge their perception of 'Okay, am I happy in this topic? Am I not?' It's just a lot of seeds for thought. I think, because we all have different versions of happiness, life takes us on different journeys. We go through different chapters, seasons, all of those different things."

Feature Image: Supplied.