Compiled by Grace Gollasch and Tess Connery
Rolling with the punches with Abbie Chatfield on It’s A Lot
The list of successes for Abbie Chatfield just keeps growing – the most recent announcement is that she’ll be taking her place behind the guessing panel desk on The Masked Singer. No matter what she’s up to however, her podcast It’s A Lot goes from strength to strength, coming in at #19 in the most recent Podcast Ranker.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to Chatfield about keeping things cheery and taking things as they come.
With a news cycle that has been anything but smooth lately, Chatfield says that she has a solid technique for dealing with bad news on the podcast.
“My approach to a lot of things – particularly political things – is to approach them with humour and have a laugh. So that’s how I deal with it mentally.”
This extends to her radio show as well – and a dose of good news never hurt anyone.
“On Hot Nights because of the awful news cycle, we have a segment called Good News Tuesday, where we get people to call up and tell us their good news. That can be ranging from ‘I had a strawberry milkshake today,’ to ‘I’m pregnant with my third kid’. That helps me counteract it all, once a week people call up and talk about good things that are happening in their lives.”
As for what the future holds, Chatfield says that she rolls with the punches when putting It’s A Lot together.
“The podcast is very week by week, even day by day. People ask what my plans are – I don’t have plans! I don’t know. I guess I’ll just keep doing every week and see what happens.
“I don’t plan things more than a week in advance. God, that would be far too much to handle!”
LiSTNR delves into sensory non-music audio with Sound States
LiSTNR has launched Sound States, a series of ‘sensory non-music audio’ that influences mood states of listeners.
Sound States was a concept conceived in-house and presented at SCA’s The Lab Contest as part of its innovation program. SCA’s own research found that more than two thirds of its under 35 audience have heard of sensory non-music audio, and use it to influence their mood.
Two Sound States have launched on LiSTNR with more to come – one for ‘Focus’, that uses ‘brown noise’ which is generated by decreasing the power, while increasing the frequency of white noise. Just like colours of light are distinguished by their frequencies, there are different colours of noise. Although varied, these colours are specified by their power density across frequencies.
The other Sound State is ‘Sleep’, that uses ambient noise.
LiSTNR has engaged with cross functional experts at SCA such as audio producers, research, and digital product specialists and partnered with Memu at Uncanny Valley, an artificial intelligence (AI) powered music engine, to leverage its AI software for this experiment.
Grant Blackley hints at SCA adopting the LiSTNR name in “natural extension”
SCA’s LiSTNR has taken a handful of guests into the World of LiSTNR as part of its Audio Amplified event, overlooking the harbour at Sydney’s Campbell’s Stores.
After the interactive experience wrapped up, guests were taken back downstairs, where a special guest panel kicked off the afternoon.
Taking to the stage were head of factual and drama content at LiSTNR, Jennifer Goggin; host of The Howie Games, Mark Howard; host of It’s A Lot, Abbie Chatfield; and CEO of SCA, Grant Blackley. Hosting the proceedings was Grant Tothill, general manager digital audio.
Speaking about why he loves podcasting so much, Howard said “For me, I work as a broadcaster on radio and TV – which is absolutely brilliant – but it doesn’t have the same connectivity, it doesn’t have the same intimacy that podcasting does.”
This proved to be a theme that arose many times over the day. The panel covered a number of topics, from the statistics behind long form content consumption, all the way through to why a porn star talking about her worst client has been Chatfield’s most memorable podcast moment to date. No matter where the discussion went, however, it came back to the fact that podcasting allows a deep connection between the presenters, guests, and audiences.
This was cited by Blackley as one of the reasons that audio continues to grow despite an increasingly fractured media landscape.
We’re not like the TV industry, Blackley said. “There is less consumption because of the digital disruption by streamers, and the same for magazines and newspapers. Audio doesn’t have that problem, radio doesn’t have that problem, and the advent and development of podcasting has grown the audio marketplace.”
HeartPodcast Network gains Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry
Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry is the latest show to announce it is joining ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia.
Hosted by author, actor, TV Host, and nutritionist, each week Lola Berry invites well-known guests to share their failures and discover how these have helped shape their lives.
Released three-times a week, each episode aims to leave listeners inspired to set out to achieve their dreams and not be afraid of failure. There are in-conversation episodes featuring well-known guests, special release Wednesday episodes and then a diary check-in with Lola on Fridays.
From the likes of designer Collette Dinnigan AO to model Megan Gale and actresses Sam Frost and Pia Miranda to mental health advocate and host of The Imperfects Hugh Van Cuylenburg, there’s a story for everyone within the Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry catalogue.
The partnership between iHeart and Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry aims to accelerate the reach of the show, whilst also accessing ARN’s suite of commercial partners.
Host Berry said, “I’m rapt to be joining the iHeart family. I’ve completely fallen in love with podcasting and am really excited to learn and grow with the iHeart team.
“Fearlessly Failing is all about honest interviews with people who inspire me, all in a bid to give you, the listener, the courage to go after your wildest dreams. I hope you love it as much as I love recording these pod episodes, and to those who already listen, thank you so much, this wouldn’t be possible without you.”
[Listen to Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry here]
Keep it Cleaner’s KICPOD and KICBUMP now live on LiSTNR
Keep it Cleaner’s Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw’s successful podcasts KICPOD and KICBUMP are now live on LiSTNR.
The previously self-published KICPOD, which focuses on health, wellness and body positivity, has notched up more than seven million downloads since its launch. It’s the ‘weekly D&M on the stuff that matters’, covering everything from staying safe when travelling and mental health to tackling life admin and navigating friendships through different life stages.
Since becoming a mother in 2021, Steph launched the KICBUMP podcast that covers everything from “bump to baby” to support women on their journey to motherhood and beyond.
Steph and Laura established Keep it Cleaner to help embrace body acceptance and educate people on how to embrace a sustainably healthy lifestyle. With more than 1,000 workouts and recipes, the Keep it Cleaner app has been downloaded over 500,000 times across all corners of the globe.
Steph said, “We had to pinch ourselves as we walked into LiSTNR’s new recording studios, it still blows my mind that this is our new home for our podcasts. After recording our first episode we felt incredibly supported, we knew that joining the LiSTNR family was the right move for us.”
[Listen to KICPOD and KICBUMP here]
Skinfluence back with a second season of beauty tips and tricks
Celebrity makeup artist Michael Brown and skincare guru Alisha Bhojwani return on Monday 1 August with more all-inclusive beauty and skincare, in the second series of the original Nova Podcast Skinfluence.
The first season covered practical, must-know tips and product essentials, from foot care to combatting dry lips. Michael and Alisha are back each week with even more beauty and skincare tips, from expensive product dupes to their favourite skincare hacks to give you the best glowing skin of your life in any season.
While season one saw explored a scientific take on clean beauty with Hannah English and gave a 101 on plastic surgery with Dr Jeremy Hunt, this season the podcast will be ramping up with = more special guest features to deliver another round of hot takes.
Michael said, “What a ride season one of Skinfluence was and I’m super excited to start recording season two with Alisha! We had so much fun delivering our beauty product news, personal
experiences, trends, application and techniques and we especially loved seeing so many beauty questions from our listeners and of course the positive reviews.”
Alisha said, “I can’t wait to get back into it with Michael, we’ve loved all the support and sharing our journey with beauty and skin! You can expect Season 2 to be filled with lots more tips, special guests, more beauty news, lots of laughs and we’ll also be deep diving into more listener questions. If you thought last season was juicy, just wait for Season 2!”
LADbible Group launches series to boost the mood of listeners
LADbible has released a new podcast designed to echo the themes found in GOODLAD’s news feeds – delivering feel good, inspiring and positive news stories for daily motivation.
Established podcaster & influencer Phoebe Parsons will be hosting GOOD FEELS, inviting guests from various walks of life to share their uplifting stories in an effort to soothe its listeners into a good mood.
The launch of GOOD FEELS is the second podcast by the LADbible Group, acting as another touchpoint to the publications GOODLAD brand. Launched in May of this year, GOODLAD’s mission is to act as a place of refuge for its audience by breaking up stress-inducing social feeds with positive, uplifting, good-vibes-only content.
Joseph Summers, general manager of LADbible Group APAC, said: “We’ve learnt a lot about the world of audio since the launch of our SPORTbible Daily Podcast earlier this year, and we’re ready to double down in this space after the positive feedback that we’re getting both from our audience, and the industry.
“We expect Podcasts to be a continued area of growth for us in the future as delivering video content that makes our audience laugh, think and act continues to be what we do best; and so video podcasts are simply the next evolution of that.”
[Listen to the Good Feels Podcast here]
Charlotte Crosby returns to Nova with new podcast, Charlotte Crosby Always On
Reality TV star Charlotte Crosby will return to Nova Entertainment with her podcast Charlotte Crosby Always On.
Audiences can join the soon-to-be new mum as she shares her intimate perspective on pregnancy, motherhood and her thoughts on what it’s like to trade dirty nights for dirty nappies.
With a new episode dropping each month, Charlotte will provide the most in-depth look into her life, and as fans know – nothing is off limits. Think of this podcast as a personal look into Charlotte’s diary. Listeners will be brought along on her pregnancy journey and hear all of the ups and downs as Charlotte and her partner handle becoming first-time parents.
Charlotte said, “Guys! I’m so excited to be ALWAYS ON with NOVA! This pod will give us a chance to catch up on all the gossip and recent developments in my life.”
Charlotte Crosby is a best-selling author, has platinum selling fitness DVD’s and is ambassador for some of the UK’s leading fashion and beauty brands. Having been in the limelight since her early 20s, Charlotte stole the show with her raw, real and hilarious personality on the MTV reality series Geordie Shore.
Following a hit season of the Nova Podcast Values & Vibes, Charlotte will continue to share all as her life takes a very different direction in Charlotte Crosby Always On.
[Listen to Charlotte Crosby Always On here]
Piccolo Podcasts provides half-yearly update
Piccolo Podcasts, a full-service podcast production company, has shared the current and upcoming projects it’s working on.
The company has recently announced the release of PodShare, a platform that connects advertisers and podcasters and Australia’s advertising marketplace for all levels of podcasting. Additionally, Fresh off winning Bronze for Best True Crime Podcast at the 2021 Australian Podcast Awards, Fairground F*ck-Ups has just wrapped up season three.
Piccolo Podcasts also announced season two of Macquarie University’s In the CAVE: An Ethics Podcast is in production and will be released later this year.
Piccolo Podcasts director, Andrew Menczel said, “It has been fun this year working on ‘Stories that Stir’, a live event and podcast in Sydney. I am also pleased, after 2 years of planning, we have launched ‘Podshare’ to help podcasts monetise.
“We are about to start production on a podcast with Sydney University, my former University, and we are continuing Season 2 of ‘In the CAVE’ with Macquarie University. We are also working with one of the stars of ‘Luxe Listings’ on a show we will announce soon.”
