Between Numbers and Goats – A Woman Who Dared to Leave (Irena Orešnik) — WonderWorks 29

If you enjoy the podcast, subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave a review. You'll be helping us carry the voice of women further!
About Irena Orešnik: Website: kozjisir.si Instagram: instagram.com/sirarstvo_oresnik
_______________________________________________
Timestamps: 00:03:42 – How Zala met Irena Orešnik 00:07:25 – Statistics and goats: Irena's two worlds 00:13:13 – Why she chose to study agriculture 00:23:56 – How she became a goat farmer and pioneered raw milk cheese in Slovenia 00:48:27 – The Slovenian Goat Farmers' Association – 10 years of fighting for raw milk 00:52:02 – Working across the Balkans and Asia: what the world taught her 01:02:32 – Women's rights and confronting different realities across cultures 01:11:02 – Where do you recharge? Nature, grandchildren and a swim in Piran
_______________________________________________
Today's guest on the WonderWorks Podcast: Irena Orešnik
Irena Orešnik comes from Slovenia – and her life has unfolded between two worlds. On one side, the world of numbers: for almost 40 years she worked as an agricultural statistician, first at the national statistics office, and since 2002 as an international consultant across the Balkans and in Asia.
On the other side, the world of hands: together with her family, she built a goat farm and a small cheese dairy nearly 30 years ago – and fought for years to make raw milk cheese legally possible in Slovenia at all.
She is a mother of four, a passionate traveller, an association founder – and a woman who was ahead of her time in many ways.
In this conversation we talk about courage, instinct, the realities of women around the world – and what it means to live a life with real roots.