Compiled by Jasper Baumann and Tess Connery
Five years of KICPOD with Steph Claire Smith
Keep it Cleaner founders Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw have hit the five year mark of their KICPOD podcast, bringing listeners deep conversations on the topics that matter… and also the topics that don’t.
“On the one hand, it feels like it has flown. But on the other, it’s also hard to remember time where it didn’t exist,” Smith told Podcast Week’s Tess Connery.
“For Laura and I, it’s one of our favourite parts of the week. It’s definitely one of our favourite parts of our jobs – it doesn’t feel like a job because we enjoy it so much. It started as another way to share with the community and reach more community members, but it’s now an absolute enjoyment, and we learn and get so much from it ourselves.”
Looking back at the evolution of the podcast, Smith laughs that whilst sometimes it’s hard to listen back to early episodes, it’s a joy to have a record of how far KICPOD has come.
“We were really excited to create a platform where we could share people’s stories and get a lot of insights from people that we looked up to, or we knew that our community looked up to. So when it started we felt like we needed to always have a guest on with us, and it was a very interview style Q+A – and Laura and I really structured who was asking each question before we came on,” Smith said.
“What it’s turned into, which has been so beautiful, is a space where Laura and I have felt very, very comfortable to share very, very openly stuff that’s going on in our life. To be able to do it in that kind of longer form format is so much easier than say an Instagram post.”
With over 180,000 unique listeners last month, Smith said she and Henshaw will never take the community that they’ve grown for granted.
“It’s a testament that we are working together as a team and with listeners so well, in really hearing what the community are loving and what they’re wanting to hear more of.”
Looking ahead, the podcast won’t be slowing down any time soon, with a miniseries on the horizon.
“Laura is in a phase of her life at the moment where she and her partner are trying to decide on whether or not they want to have kids. From what she has found in podcasts and online in that space, there aren’t too many super honest conversations where people have shared their own decisions and the pathway to making that decision,” Smith said.
“She’s got an incredible miniseries launching in a couple of weeks. There’ll be two episodes a week where Laura has a guest on, as well as sharing a lot of her own discovery within the topic. It’s one of those big taboo topics that women hold a lot of shame around if they are questioning it or not sure, it’s about removing that shame and just having some really honest conversation.”
Mick Molloy and Titus O’Reily expand ‘Bizarre’ podcast on LiSTNR
Bizarre with Mick Molloy and Titus O’Reily has expanded, featuring more episodes and stories.
Following the ongoing success of the pair’s original Sports Bizarre podcast, Molloy and O’Reily are expanding the format to now include an additional weekly episode called Animal Bizarre.
Molloy said: “From seagulls who are too fat to fly, drunk echidnas, a crypto-investing hamster, racoons hell bent on disrupting a ‘gender reveal party’, and a bear who invaded a military base, every week we will be looking at the most bizarre stories from the animal kingdom.”
O’Reily added: “We’ve been thrilled with the ongoing success of Sports Bizarre – and we will continue to find the weird stories from the sports world, but we’ve always wanted to branch out with other topics. When it comes to the stories we tell about animals, we are like David Attenborough if he didn’t fact check and had an incredibly poor understanding of wildlife.”
Bizarre with Mick Molloy and Titus O’Reily will feature two new episodes weekly on LiSTNR.
Hotwire’s Flip the Focus brings together voices from the comms, marketing, and tech world
Hotwire Australia has launched a new brand platform Flip the Focus, bringing together voices from comms, marketing, and tech.
The first instalment of Flip the Focus will be a podcast series featuring the voices of female funders, founders, and leaders in tech.
Jen Dobbie, creative director of Hotwire Australia, and host of the first series says, “Flip the Focus will provide us with multiple opportunities to unpack some important conversations in tech. With our first podcast launching around this year’s International Women’s Day, it was a great opportunity to hear from some of the most extraordinary female voices in the industry.”
Episode one of the series featured Noga Edelstein, venture partner at Black Nova VC, NSW Government adviser on systemic changes to the tech industry, and former general counsel at Yahoo!
[Listen to Flip the Focus here]
1 in 5 mothers, 1 in 10 fathers returns for second season on LiSTNR
Davina Smith returns to host the podcast that explores the often silent truth of perinatal depression and anxiety (PNDA).
Nine News presenter Smith and her husband Mark gave birth to their daughter Rose in 2016. The isolation of being away from family and friends and with their baby daughter experiencing reflux and food allergies, along with sleep deprivation, saw Smith diagnosed with PNDA after several months.
In season two of the podcast, Smith, who is now a Gidget Foundation ambassador, will provide listeners with raw and honest accounts from some of the 1 in 5 mothers and 1 in 10 fathers living with PNDA.
Paired with expert insights from psychologists and counsellors in the field, this podcast explores the realities of parenthood, breaks down the stigma surrounding perinatal mental health, and gives parents the tools on how and when to seek support.
Gidget Foundation Australia was established 23 years ago to support the emotional wellbeing of expectant and new parents to ensure they receive timely, appropriate and specialist care. Gidget was the nickname of a young mother who took her own life while experiencing postnatal depression, a diagnosis that she kept to herself.
1 in 5 mothers, 1 in 10 fathers will have eight episodes in season two, released fortnightly every second Wednesday on LiSTNR.
[Listen to 1 in 5 mothers, 1 in 10 fathers here]
