Compiled by Tess Connery and Grace Gollasch
Christian Hull on making the leap to LiSTNR with Complete Drivel
Last week, AACTA nominated comedian Christian Hull made the announcement that his podcast Complete Drivel was making the move to LiSTNR.
The entire catalogue of Complete Drivel’s no-filter discussions on trending topics moved to LiSTNR as of September 5th, where listeners can stay up to date on his “absolute shambles of an existence”.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery caught up with Hull to chat about what the move means and how it came about.
The universe works in mysterious ways, and for Hull the partnership with LiSTNR was just another example of (potentially) divine intervention.
“I have crystals and I burn essential oils, but I don’t believe in any of that shit. But for the first time I put something out into the universe – I’ve been doing the podcast for five years, and I suddenly went, ‘you know what I want to take it to the next level, I’m going to try and work on it’.
“Literally, three days later, I got a call from a podcast company called Acast, and then two days after that, I got a call from my mate, Sam Cavanagh, from LiSTNR. They both wanted to get me across on their platforms!”
The decision to go with the LiSTNR team came from the fact that Hull has an existing relationship with SCA.
“I know everyone because I used to work at SCA – I spent nine years there. They had a studio and a team of producers, everything that I was looking forward to make Complete Drivel a little bit more shiny and a little bit less shit.”
Having made the podcast by himself for five years, Hull says it’s been a bit of a shock moving to a space with the facilities that LiSTNR has. The change might be significant, but it’s also very welcome.
“It’s definitely thrown me because I’m used to just being naked at home, recording into a mic and then waffling for half an hour – but now I’ve really got to put some effort in!
“It’s a weird full-circle thing, because I got into radio when I was 23 and was wanting to host my own radio show. I wanted to be like Kyle Sandilands, and nothing ever happened with that. Then I left radio, and the podcast has brought me back – it feels like I’m doing my own radio show, so it’s great.”
Hull began his career as a content creator, posting videos on Facebook that clocked up more than 670 million views. Even though his roots are in radio and video creation, he says that these days it’s podcasting that has his heart.
“Podcasting for me so much easier – you’re just talking to a stick, and then you’re done! Whereas with videos there is editing, and they go on a million different platforms.
“My original love was radio, and podcasting came about while I was still working in radio. I built up a following on Facebook and went ‘you know, I can probably just do a podcast and see how it goes’. It did pretty well, which was very surprising considering the content! But now it’s one of my favourite things to do, I love filming and doing all of that, but the podcast is where the fun is for me.”
[Listen to Complete Drivel here]
Regional Australia podcast My Town launched by LiSTNR
My Town, a podcast series dedicated to locals in regional communities across Australia is available on LiSTNR. Bringing news, stories and content to local communities across regional Australia on the topics that matter to locals the most.
Launching in Hobart, Adelaide, the regional centres Townsville (Queensland), Newcastle and Albury (NSW) and Bunbury (Western Australia), the podcast aims to be the audio destination for regional Australians and is looking to extend its reach into additional regional markets.
Featuring locally produced and created podcasts tailored to each market, the podcasts include local news as well as exclusive audio from each Triple M Breakfast show. My Town features stories of local town and sports history as well as event coverage such as the Newcastle and Hunter region’s multi-million dollar wine industry.
All the content of My Town is produced and presented by local radio announcers from the regions, made by people in the town, for the town.
My Town, which will feature a range of titles dropping daily, is available now on the LiSTNR app.
Andy Lee launches new audiobook series on LiSTNR
Andy Lee’s interactive Do Not Open This Book audiobook series on LiSTNR has been followed up by the release of its newest addition, Do Not Open This Book For Eternity.
Available for free and exclusively on LiSTNR, the series is the ideal listening companion for children and their parents, as Lee encourages children “not” to turn the page.
Best known as one half of iconic Australian comedy duo Hamish and Andy, Lee became an award-winning children’s author by accident, as he wrote the first book in the series as a surprise for his sister and her husband to celebrate their son George’s first birthday.
When Lee asked his friend to print the book for his sister, his friend said: “This book is good, can we print more?” Lee replied: “No. DO NOT print this book.” The rest is history with the book winning 16 book awards, becoming a best seller in Brazil, Portugal, France, Italy, Japan and Iceland and being selected for Portugal and Brazil’s official state school reading program.
[Listen to Do Not Open This Book For Eternity here]
Australian Podcast Awards returns in 2022 with new categories
The Australia Podcast Awards (APAs), powered by iHeart, will return in 2022.
The prestigious podcast awards celebrate the best of the best Australian podcast and podcasting talent to emerge and gain fandom over the past year.
Over 90 judges listened to nearly 1,000 submissions in 2021, awarding gold to 29 top podcasts across categories from True Crime to Comedy and Sex and Relationships.
The 2022 Australian Podcast Awards promises to be bigger and better than ever with a total of 33 award categories from best new podcast, to podcast of the year, and every genre-based category in between.
This year, the Awards will also make it easier for independent BIPOC, Queer and Trans audio creators to enter, thanks to a partnership with the Podcasting Seriously Fund that provides reimbursement for entries from members of these communities.
Submissions for the Australian Podcast Awards are now open, find out more at australianpodcastawards.com.
Another walk down memory lane: Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project returns to LiSTNR
Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project has returned for season four, streaming exclusively on LiSTNR.
Australia’s top podcast creators, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee will once again turn back time and remember some of their greatest moments.
The pair have pulled out the run sheets from 2,500 shows, 26,000 segments and 20+ years of radio archives to take a trip down memory lane in every episode.
Across the 12 episodes, the boys remember a whole other chapter of memories including ‘Ghosting’ on The Graham Norton Show, how they ended up on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno with Robin Williams, Hamish convincing someone at the Oscars he was Hugh Jackman, behind the scenes of that moment U2 joined the boys on stage, and running naked with Peking Duk.
Hamish and Andy’s award-winning podcast Hamish & Andy, also available on LiSTNR, has topped the Australian Podcast Ranker charts consecutively since March 2022 with more than 2.1 million downloads and 942,000 listeners each month.
[Listen to Hamish & Andy’s Remembering Project here]
A Brief History of the Metaverse: Mark Pesce and Tony Parisi explore the virtual world
Inventor and futurist, Mark Pesce is back with a brand-new series of his award-winning podcast, The Next Billion Seconds.
In the new 6-part series, Pesce will be joined in the hosting seat by fellow Metaverse pioneer, Tony Parisi to explore ‘A Brief History of the Metaverse.’
Together, they explore the long history of the Metaverse – from early science fiction, through to their creation of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, the origins of the modern Metaverse) and Facebook’s bet-the-farm reinvention as Meta Networks.
With 40-plus years of inventing, exploring, and explaining the diverse innovations that will change our world, Pesce – who is also an author and former judge of ABC’s The New Inventors – has a reputation for unapologetic questions and unparalleled insights giving listeners the information they need to make the best decisions about how to prepare for – and profit from – what’s next.
The Next Billion Seconds is produced by Ampel, and this year the podcast episodes are centred around the theme ‘World Changing.’
A Brief History of the Metaverse will be available to download from September 15.
[Listen to The Next Billion Seconds here]
Lee Tran Lam uncovers Australia’s food history in the Culinary Archive Podcast
In the Culinary Archive Podcast, food journalist Lee Tran Lam dives into Australia’s food history.
Each of the six episodes is inspired by one ingredient – oysters, grain, brewer’s yeast, tomatoes and soybeans – and tells the stories of First Nations food, migration, scientific innovation, and the diversity of Australian food.
In the first episode, Tran Lam explores the story of oysters and how First Nations people feasted on the shellfish and preserved them in their middens — a millennia-old example of sustainability. This episode also covers migration and the mollusk’s nature-restoring ways (a single hard-working oyster can filter over 100 litres of water a day).
The podcast features special guests, including chef Chris Jordan, authors Leonard Janiszewski and Effy Alexakis, bush food educator Jody Order, Reef Design Lab’s Alex Goad and marine biologist Dr Chris Gilles.
The Culinary Archive Podcast launches September 20.
