Writer and Podcaster
A collection of podcast articles from my weekly podcast column
Re-affirmed: Chat 10 Looks 3, Shameless, Squizz Shortcuts, Teacher’s Pet series’ Who The Hell Is Hamish?
New: Loose Units: The Podcast, Gertie’s Law, Parental As Anything (with Maggie Dent), Take 5, Unravel True Crime: Snowball
Undiscovered: We Fact Up, Love and Luck
— Read on www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/apple-s-best-of-list-reveals-undiscovered-gems-in-remarkable-year-20191202-p53g32.html
For much of his career, John Safran has been obsessed with religion. For his latest work, a three-part podcast for Audible, Safran is tackling three stories of the occult, which he describes as “an alternative way to get shit done, if you’re not into mainstream religion”.
Angharad “Rad” Yeo hosts ABC TV’s Good Game: Spawn Point, and over the last few months she’s written, produced, edited and hosted a podcast all about video games, and how they reflect and inform our culture.
Read at SMH: Gaming reframes how we see bushfires, climate change
Academic Scott Galloway and reporter Kara Swisher have made some accurate predictions about the future of tech and Silicon Valley unicorns.
Source: Pivot’s predictions of Silicon Valley’s shake-up is on the money
One of the best semi-daily podcasts is Guardian Australia’s Full Story. The podcast is released three times a week, again focusing on a single story.
Laura Murphy-Oates may be the perfect podcast host for this format.She’s just so engaging to listen to; she’s witty and informative, and doesn’t shy away from letting you know her opinions on the stories she covers. She brings a tone that would never work in a standard new bulletin but feels pitch perfect for a podcast.
The podcast includes these conversations, as well as audio from the police watching the trio. These contemporaneous recordings give the show an immediacy, as though you’re listening to the events in real time.
Read more at SMH: Humanising the smugglers and law enforcers behind the Pong Su story
Gertie’s Law is the best podcast I’ve heard in 2019. The series has the same empathy and access to the courts as the classic documentary So Help Me God, and plays as a more successful version of Serial’s third season, offering the perfect mix of fly-on-the-wall soundscapes, narration and interviews.
Source: Here comes the judge: Gertie’s Law goes to the coalface of the court
In a world awash with Trump news, scandals and podcasts devoted to the man, one of the best investigations is from Australia’s own ABC. Russia, If You’re Listening has been riveting from the start, as host Matt Bevan took us through the Robert Mueller investigation with help from the near-perfect audio production of producers Will Ockenden, Yasmin Parry and Ruby Jones.
Read more at SMH: Dark material makes for a riveting podcast
“RMIT are really keen on moving into [the podcasting] space,” Shortis says. “I think it’s recognising an appetite for the extended expert comment. [When a major news story breaks] like the Trump impeachment, there is a real appetite for explaining that, making sense of it. RMIT, I think, is keen on getting in front of those stories and becoming the voice to explain it.
Let’s Talk About Sects is an award-winning podcast from Sydney-based filmmaker and writer Sarah Steel. The show explores the charismatic leaders behind cults ranging from The Family, Branch Davidians and one that sprung up from an addiction to recovery program Synanon. (read more)
