Podcast Week: Howie Games expands, Shandee’s Story, Daniel Johns + more

This week we explore two big series: Shandee’s Story and The Howie Games.

The Howie Games rocks as brand expands

The LiSTNR podcast series The Howie Games from sports journalist Mark Howard has been one of the platform’s biggest hits. It crashed back into the Podcast Ranker Top 10 again last month thanks in part to Artist Series, a sub-brand launched by host Howard that sees him speaking with some entertainment industry greats. So far they have included Paul Kelly, Kirk Pengilly, Wil Anderson, Kevin Parker and Daniel MacPherson.

“It’s been a tremendous amount of work putting out two podcasts a week,” Howard told Podcast Week’s James Manning. “It’s been extraordinary on many levels and I’ve had a lot of help to get there. I received many text messages from people unsure about me entering the artistic world. At the same time many of them said they were pleasantly surprised. The download numbers have been phenomenal, but more than that I have really enjoyed it.”

Howard said there was some thought about creating a separate brand for Artist Series. “We started it sitting within The Howie Games because we have so many listeners and it gives that audience the option of discovering it now. If we started a new feed it would have been like starting from scratch.”

The Howie Games Corporation, despite the output and expansion into a bit of merch plus filmed and live episodes, is still pretty much Howie and an editor. “When I look at some other podcasts that also have huge downloads they have maybe 6-8 people working on them. To scale up I think we might need to get a few more people on board.”

That Howie Games “editor extraordinaire’ is LiSTNR’s Darcy Thomson who also helps publish and edit the Mediaweek podcasts.

Howard has recently calculated for a listener how much time he spends on each podcast. “A typical episode takes anywhere between 16-18 hours. Two of them a week is almost a full working week.” That time includes securing a guest, research, the interview and post-production.

The cricket season gives Howard the opportunity to combine his commentary preparation with his podcasts. The good news for cricket fans is that he will shortly be releasing a five-part LiSTNR Ashes special. “I have done podcasts with [English bowler] Jimmy Anderson and [player-turned-broadcaster] David Lloyd and just this week with Alan Border. There is no better way to find out about Jimmy Anderson than to have a 90-minute conversation with him.”

Ahead of a big summer of cricket, Howard will be a key player on the Fox Cricket Ashes commentary team.

Howard told Podcast Week that during lockdown he watched a lot of English cricket in preparation for the Ashes Tour. “At 9pm in lockdown in Victoria this year there was not much else to do.”

[Listen to The Howie Games and Artist Series here.]

The Australian launches Shandee’s Story from Hedley Thomas

The Australian has launched a new podcast from Hedley Thomas, Shandee’s Story.

Shandee’s Story is the culmination of six months’ work by Thomas, the award-winning investigative journalist behind The Teacher’s Pet and The Night Driver podcasts.

The Shandee’s Story podcast investigates a harrowing cold case. Shandee Blackburn was left to die after a frenzied knife attack as she walked home.

A mystery figure running towards the popular young woman in the seconds before she was cut down near her mother’s house was captured briefly by security cameras. Detectives went after her former boyfriend, a champion amateur boxer with jealousy issues. He pointed an accusing finger at a local man with a violent record and a shaky alibi. 

The first Shandee’s Story episode opens with Thomas describing the final moments that Shandee was seen alive through CCTV footage that captured her when finishing her shift at a local cafe and then walking home to her mother’s house with a dark figure lurking in the background, and the taxi driver who caught a glance of the vicious attack before the figure was then captured again running away from the scene of the attack where Shandee laid dying.

Shandee’s Story is sponsored by Harvey Norman.

[Listen to Shandee’s Story here]

Spotify launches Who Is Daniel Johns? podcast

Spotify has launched a new original podcast with Australian music icon Daniel Johns.

With each episode introduced by actor Guy Pearce, Who is Daniel Johns? is a deep dive into the life and times of one of the most successful, controversial and mysterious artists in Australian music history.  As someone who doesn’t give many interviews, the five-part documentary podcast gives the former Silverchair frontman a chance to tell his story as he addresses the tough questions that have surrounded his 27-year career. 

Produced by Kaitlyn Sawrey, Amelia Chappelow and Frank Lopez, the weekly series includes a soundtrack of original, yet to be released Daniel Johns music. 

Following the first five episodes, the season will end with a series of bonus episodes where Daniel has 1:1 conversations with the key figures in his life, collaborators and luminaries including Natalie Imbruglia, Kevin Parker of Tame Impala and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. 

Johns said: “I’m happy to do it because I think it’s a good vessel to release art. Above all things, I just want to make art, and I would really love for people to hear it. And the only way to get people to hear my art is through vessels like this because I don’t want to perform on stage.”

[Listen to Who is Daniel Johns? here]

Spanian and DM Media announce new podcast

Four years since his release from prison, Spanian has now announced his own podcast The Search, with DM Podcasts.

Having announced the release of his memoir The Unfiltered Hood-Life, Spanian is now launching his new podcast to document the next steps on his search for life’s truths and the lessons people can learn from each other.