Compiled by Tess Connery and Grace Gollasch
Keep it Cleaner’s Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw on keeping it real with KICPOD
Keep it Cleaner founders Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw have announced that they’re bringing KICPOD and KICBUMP podcasts to LiSTNR. Up until now, the pair have been self-publishing the health and wellness podcasts, with KICPOD tallying up more than 6 million downloads since its launch.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to Smith and Henshaw about how the partnership came about and what comes next.
Henshaw: “We met up with Sam Cavanagh two or three years ago, in a cafe in South Melbourne. We caught up just to chat about what we could do together. We’d always admired Sam and his career and what he’d done in terms of podcasting – obviously, he worked with Hamish and Andy for so many years.
“When we met with him, it was really great to connect, but it wasn’t the right time for either of us to go into a partnership. But we’ve stayed in contact, and then this time it was the right time.
“So we’ve had that relationship for a while, which is really nice. We’re really, really excited.”
The podcast covers a wide array of topics and speaks to a wide array of guests. When it comes to deciding what to cover each week, the pair say that it comes down to a philosophy they’ve had since the very beginning: the podcast is for the community.
Henshaw: “For us, it’s about speaking to our community about what type of issues and topics they want to hear about. We can speak about fun things and silly things, but we also speak about things that really matter. That’s really, really special for us to be able to do.
“Our listens are really very consistent, which is great. Sometimes they’ll be a bit higher if it’s a really popular person, but they’re quite consistent. What that means for us is that we can bring to light really important topics, and we know that our audience is open to it.”
As well as heading to LiSTNR with the original KICPOD podcast, Smith has also launched the KICBUMP podcast. Created after the birth of her son, Harvey, KICBUMP covers everything from bump to baby – but she says that the listenership is not restricted to mums.
Smith: “For me personally, being a mum and having a space that I can just vent all things motherhood, or speak about Harvey and know that no one’s getting sick of it because they’re coming here to listen to that sort of thing is special.
“We’ve had 14 episodes so far, and what we found is that a lot of the listeners aren’t necessarily mothers themselves, or parents – they might not even be pregnant. Some of them aren’t even thinking about having a child soon, they’re just really intrigued to learn more about it.
“I know I’m speaking to quite a broad demographic when I’m having those conversations, which is really exciting. We’re averaging about 70% of the downloads that our KICPOD episodes are getting, which is really incredible, considering it is that bit more niche.”
The pair say that there are a number of goals they’re lining up to kick with LiSTNR on board, bringing KICPOD to “a new level”.
Smith: “Expanding our listenership, being able to reach more people with these stories and these lessons that we learn is important to us.
“We’ve never captured video content of our podcasts, and as podcast listeners ourselves, we really appreciate when other podcasts do that, I find it really entertaining. It’ll be so great for us to be able to share that as well.
“Also, I think LiSTNR will help us to get a better understanding of exactly what our audience is wanting or listening to – that’s really exciting for us. It’s going to be really exciting to see what happens when we have a team of specialists.”
Overall, the pair hope that KICPOD listeners have fun with them, and learn something along the way.
Smith: “We hope they enjoy it most of all, and we just try and make sure that there are takeaways from every episode. Even if we are just talking about the fun stuff, if people can take things from listening to our podcast, that’s awesome.
“For us, as well as growing as interviewers and the partnership with LiSTNR which is really exciting, at the same time we aren’t going to stray from being super relatable and raw. We are not polished, KIC is not polished, Laura and I are not polished, and we think our listeners like that about us as well. We won’t lose touch with that.”
Henshaw: “We live in a world where you open the news and get stuff like what’s been going on in the past week, it’s really hard. Sometimes you do want to escape from that and listen to something that feels wholesome. We hope the podcast feels like a hug.”
Guardian Australia dives deep into the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial in new series
Guardian Australia has announced the launch of Ben Roberts-Smith v the media, a special 5-episode podcast series about the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial. The episodes will be available from October 17.
The podcast delves into the court case of Australia’s most decorated living soldier, who is suing three of the country’s most-trusted newspapers for defamation over articles he says falsely accuse him of war crimes. The series re-enacts key parts of the trial as heard in the federal court of Australia, bringing the legal drama to life.
Ben Roberts-Smith v the media is hosted by Guardian investigative journalist Ben Doherty, a former foreign correspondent covering south-east Asia and South Asia. He has won three Walkley awards for his foreign and immigration reporting, and he reported from Afghanistan, where Roberts-Smith was deployed six times.
[Listen to a preview episode of Ben Roberts-Smith v the media here]
Serial’s Adnan Syed has charges dropped
Serial podcast’s Adnan Syed has had charges against him dropped after DNA testing ruled him out as a suspect in the 1999 killing of his ex-girlfriend.
Prosecutors closed the case against Syed on Tuesday and apologised to his family and the family of Hae Min Lee, who was murdered at 18. He served 23 years in prison.
The Serial podcast on Syed’s case investigated the case and pointed out inconsistencies that resulted in the conviction, and most notably, raised doubts about some of the evidence, including the validity of cell phone tower data that was one of the main pieces of evidence for the prosecution in Syed’s original trial.
Upon release, Serial reached five million downloads faster than any podcast to date, and a year after its release was still being downloaded 500,000 times a day.
When life throws a Curveball: Season three reveals lessons from high profile Australians on life’s toughest moments
Deadset Studios and ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia have announced the return of podcast series Curveball, where high-profile Australians reveal how they confront their toughest moments in life, and share stories of grit, determination and the triumph of the human spirit.
Host and executive producer Kellie Riordan is the former head of podcasts at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and creative force behind podcasts Conversations, Ladies We Need to Talk, Unravel, The Pineapple Project, and Fierce Girls.
Her production house Deadset Studios developed and produced Hooked, Hitched, and Hung Up with Britt Hockley and Laura Byrne (for iHeartPodcast Network Australia) and has produced podcast series for the University of Queensland, the Judith Neilson Institute, and PinnaFM.
Each episode of Curveball features a candid, in-depth interview with an influential person who reveals a challenging time, one where they’ve struggled at a crossroads, or come entirely and unexpectedly unstuck.
LiSTNR and Wondery announce podcast partnership for Australia
LiSTNR has announced that it will be the exclusive sales representative for Wondery podcasts in Australia. Wondery, an Amazon company and one of the world’s leading podcast creators, will now make its podcasts available on the LiSTNR app.
LiSTNR is Australia’s fastest-growing digital audio destination since its launch in February 2021. The addition of Wondery’s original podcasts will further accelerate LiSTNR’s audience and monetisation potential.
In the latest Australian Podcast Ranker, Wondery podcasts had a monthly audience of 1.618 million and 5.85 million downloads.
Wondery was founded in 2016 and is a premium, multi-award winning podcast studio best known for its character-driven, binge-worthy stories including Dr Death, The Shink Next Door, Even the Rich, WeCrashed, and Business Wars, as well as distributing hit podcasts SmartLess, Morbid and My Favourite Murder. Its portfolio spans true crime and investigative journalism, entertainment, business, kids and family, comedy, sports, news, and personal growth.
As Wondery’s exclusive sales representative in Australia, LiSTNR will offer advertisers its powerful ‘LiSTNR Voice’ execution – custom creative using trusted, local voices to seamlessly integrate within the intimate podcast user experience.
Somehow Related with Glenn Robbins and Dave O’Neil joins ARN
Glenn Robbins and Dave O’Neil are bringing their podcast, Somehow Related, to ARN as part of the business’ growing podcast-to-broadcast strategy.
From Sunday the 9th of October, the comedians will bring their unique show to air via WSFM, Gold104.3, Mix 102.3, KIIS 97.3 and 96FM from 7pm.
The show, produced by Nearly Media and part of ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network, sees the duo take two seemingly unrelated topics and work out how those very different things are Somehow Related.
From Space and Steak to Elvis and Vaccines, the radio show adapts the best bits from the top episodes for listeners across the country.
Robbins said of the exciting news: “Dave O’Neil and I are very excited to bring our podcast Somehow Related to ARN’s Sunday line-up.
“Sure, they’ve already got Simon & Garfunkel or Lennon and McCartney but now they have the classic duo of Robbins and O’Neil. Think of it like a “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with dad jokes or “Let it Be” with Comedy Company anecdotes.”
This is the third ARN show to be launched as part of their Podcast to Broadcast Strategy, following the lead of Life Uncut and She’s on the Money, which make up the current KIIS Saturdays format.
[Listen to Somehow Related with Dave O’Neil & Glenn Robbins here]
The Australian launches The Growth Agenda podcast
The Australian is expanding The Growth Agenda editorial series, which promotes creativity in marketing and advertising, by launching a new podcast.
Hosted by The Growth Agenda editor Pippa Chambers and supported by Advertising Council Australia, the new weekly podcast begins on Monday, October 10.
Over eight weeks, the podcast will feature some of the marketing and advertising industry’s smartest minds.
Offering unique insights from brand-side marketers at Kmart, Diageo, Catch, EA Games, Glenfiddich and Tourism Australia and top creatives at ad agencies, including Dentsu Creative, BMF, The Monkeys and Saatchi & Saatchi, the series is not to be missed.
The podcast covers themes across brand purpose, creativity at all touchpoints, diversity of creative, and technology and creativity.
Topics within the series include the rise and rhetoric around commercial creativity, the role of creative agencies inside and outside of the metaverse when it comes to immersive content and why First Nations’ creativity and leadership should be critical to all businesses.
[Listen to The Growth Agenda here]
