Compiled by Trent Thomas
Sean Szeps new podcast comes out for the LGBTQIA+ community
Sean Szeps‘ new LiSTNR podcast, Come Out Wherever You Are, will feature guests across Australia’s gender and sexual spectrum.
In the podcast, Szeps seeks to better understand the personal experience each guest had with embracing their identity.
Mediaweek‘s Trent Thomas spoke to Szeps about his new podcast and why it was important to him to explore this topic.
“As a young queer person growing up in this world, you are often made to feel, sometimes accidentally, that you are less than. There is no content created for you,” said Szeps.
Growing up in the ’80s and the 90’s Szeps said that he didn’t look to television and movies and see anyone going through the same experiences as he was and that was one key reason why he wanted to make the podcast.
“Oftentimes throughout history, as the LGBTQI+ experience has become more and more prominent and prevalent in media and television it is often painted specifically around pride with all the positivity, it is the ‘it got better’ approach. You see the fully realised queer person who has a really happy life, and it’s beautiful and wonderful but what is missing in that experience is how hard it is.
“The actual struggles that real queer people go through to just live, and to admit who they love. As a young queer person not being able to find content like that was really troubling for me.”
However, Szeps said the real reason that he wanted to create the podcast was that during the Covid-19 lockdown he began to learn more about his community.
“I like so many other people in the world were spending more time online, and because I was spending so much time online, I was discovering content creators that I had never followed before, people who represented different letters of the queer alphabet.
“And for the first time in my life, I realised I was walking around this world thinking because I am gay that I understand the community and realised that I don’t. There are members of this community who have it so much harder than me, and there are members of this community who are not safe because they represent a different letter at this time in history.
“For me the moment I had that realisation I was like ‘okay let me find content about this, let me go online and look for people talking about their experience’. I realised that ‘oh my god there is not a show that does this, there isn’t a show dedicated to the coming out experience and we aren’t holding space for these people’.
“The fact that we knew pride month globally was in June, we thought why don’t we make a show that launches in June that celebrates that story, and holds space for those people for the future.”
The podcast was developed over a number of months with LiSTNR Original Podcasts head of content, Jennifer Goggin, who Szeps said was passionate about the project.
“This is not an exaggeration, but 12 minutes after sending the pitch email I received an email from her. The whole process involved her from the very beginning and we have had multiple meetings over the course of many months to try and figure out and distil what would make this unique and what would make this show special.
“Right off the bat, she and I were in a room together paired with producer Lindsey Green, and over the course of seven months, we were meeting periodically and really determining what kind of guests we wanted to have, what was the overall message and what the PR strategy would look like.
It has been a year since Szeps first sent that pitch email and he said that from his first meeting with Goggin, that he has recorded 8 episodes with 34 planned, with hopes for more.
Szeps said that he always believed that they were onto something special, but wants people to know that the podcast is not just for queer people.
“When you hear the name of the show and you hear the description it might potentially be seen as isolating to anyone who is not a member of our community. The fact is this is content for everyone, this is content for parents who don’t know if their child is going to be queer but want to create a world in which anyone no matter who or what they feel safe and loved by those ones around them.”
Szeps is a parent himself after marrying the ABC’s Josh Szeps in 2014, and raising twins together, and said that the big takeaway is that queer people can listen to this, but it’s the others as well that are important.
“The people who might not think this is a show for them, but if they can just listen to these conversations and imagine that’s your child talking, I think you will be a better parent in the long run.”
The series will feature guests such as Queer activist and content creator Deni Todorovic, businesswoman Sophie Cachia, radio presenter and current affairs journalist Patricia Karvelas, Just The Gist podcast host Jacob Stanley and ABC Heywire winner and content creator Kirra Hampson.
“The connected tissue amongst all of the guests so far has been that they were all looking for the same thing, they were all to be loved, to have someone respond to them and say I know this was hard and I am proud of you.
“For so many of us up to that moment we are not sure if it’s going to be okay, we are not sure if we are going to go straight to hell or if we are going to get kicked out of our house or if no one is going to love us anymore. No matter what letter you are in the alphabet no matter where you live or what religion you are we just hope that the people that come out to are going to look back at us and say that is okay.”
[Listen to Come Out Wherever You Are here]
Sport Today returns from hiatus with new hosts
Sport Today by The Squiz relaunched this week as part of the Acast Creator Network with some changes.
The podcast originally launched in March of this year and was sponsored by Kayo Sports and hosted by Greg Elliott and Gemma Ryan.
The show is now helmed by journalist Sam Ferris, with an episode recorded each weekday at 6:30am.
The show is designed to be a quick listen for sports lovers and include the biggest stories in Australia and around the world.
Ferris will be joined by sports journalists and co-hosts, Danielle Kavanagh and Martin Gabor.
Ferris said: “Sport Today is exactly the kind of sports news podcast I’ve always wanted. I’m stoked to be part of the team and can’t wait to deliver it to a passionate audience of sports lovers like myself. Sport Today is short, snappy and designed to bring our listeners up to speed with the key talking points so you’ll never be out of the conversation. We’ll also highlight some of the weirder stuff that happens in the sporting world and provide you with a bit of trivia that could come in very handy at the pub. Have a listen, tell your mates and enjoy!”
Guy Scott-Wilson, Acast’s content director for Australia and New Zealand, said: “For a nation as sport-obsessed as Australia there are actually not as many sport podcasts as you’d think. We’ve been mindful of this at Acast for quite some time and it has been great to work with The Squiz to find smart ways to cater for this audience.”
“That’s why we’re excited for this fresh take on Sport Today. It’s made by sport lovers for sport lovers, in quick, easy to digest episodes and that really lends itself to the medium of podcasting.
“With its new format and Sam as host, I’m sure it will quickly become a go-to daily podcast for sport fans and fanatics across Australia.”
Kate and Sophie back with more Talking In Common
Lifelong friends Kate Gudinski and Sophie Panton have returned with their second season of their podcast Talking In Common.
Exploring all things health, wellness, lifestyle, family, motherhood, relationships, kids and culture, Talking In Common boasts a unique range of guests.
Sophie Panton & Kate Gudinski
The first 2020 13-episode season featured guests like Clare Bowditch, Missy Higgins and Mahalia Barnes, season two is promising a huge roster of A-Listers – from broadcaster Brendan Fevola to actresses Asher Keddie, Stephanie McIntosh and more.
This season, the Mushroom Group podcast has partnered with health and wellness brand Swisse, and its parent company H&H Group. The association will see Swisse Ambassador Elsa Pataky appear as a guest on an upcoming episode.
Continuing their Australian-first alignment with Auslan Stage Left, a national organisation specialising in the arts and performance interpreting, all Talking In Common episodes are available to the deaf community via translated videos.
[Listen to Talking in Common here]
Canon ambassadors share camera craft via podcasts
Season two of the Canon Convos Podcast has just been published. The first episode features Canon Australia Ambassador Jarrad Seng with New Zealand’s Ben Journee as they speak to Australia and New Zealand’s most inspiring photographers and filmmakers to find out what makes them tick and the Canon gear they use for their craft.
Seng is an Australian photographer who has worked on everything from tourism campaigns to short films, and he also has pop culture fame as a competitor on Survivor Australia. Journee is a videographer and podcaster based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. His work spans across wedding videography, content creation for brands, and hosting multiple podcasts.
Season one featured nine episodes with photographers and filmmakers like James Simmons, Melissa Findley, Benjamin Lee, and Daniel Boud featured.
[Listen to The Canon Convos Podcast here]
Tickets now on sale for Great Australian Podcast Festival
Live Nation is the promoter of the inaugural Great Australian Podcast Festival, coming to Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on November 6 & 7, 2021.
Visitors will have the opportunity to see, hear and meet some of the biggest names in Australian podcasting, live on stage.
The festival’s first release line-up features an impressive list of podcasting heavyweights, including comedian and media personality Em Rusciano, comedy duo and ex Triple J breakfast hosts Matt & Alex (Matt Okine and Alex Dyson), hosts of TOFOP Wil Anderson and Charlie Clausen, and The Little Dum Dum Club duo Tommy Dassalo and Karl Chandler.
For more information visit greataustralianpodcastfestival.com.au and livenation.com.au.
Sir David Attenborough comes to the LiSTNR app through BBC partnership
David Attenborough Life Stories is now available on LiSTNR as part of SCA’s recently announced partnership with the BBC.
David Attenborough Life Stories is a series of talks on the natural histories of creatures and plants from around the world delivering an educational and adventurous audio experience.
The complete 20-episode BBC Radio 4 series is written and presented by Sir David Attenborough about some of the strangest plants and creatures of the natural world from his pioneering and astonishing encounters.
In the first episode, Attenborough muses on the natural history of the sloth, perhaps the most lethargic beast in the animal world.
Other episodes in the series include the female platypus of NSW, the Komodo dragon, the salamander, as well as the importance of human eyebrows for communication.
David Attenborough Life Stories is available now on the LiSTNR app.
BBC music Programs and concerts have also joined LiSTNR
Another component of the BBC’s partnership with LiSTNR is that now music programs and concerts from the BBC now ar available via the LiSTNR app.
The BBC’s In Concert series features live performances from artists including Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Blondie, Deep Purple, AC/DC, Kylie Minogue, Coldplay, and Queen’s 1975 Christmas Eve gig at London’s Hammersmith Odeon.
People who enjoy the dance floor can listen to Essential Mix with studio sessions from EDM greats Daft Punk, Sasha, Carl Cox and Deadmau5.
For those who want to go beyond the music the BBC’s Pop Docs include I Love It Loud: The Gene Simmons Rock Show, Rhapsody in Bohemia (the story of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody), The Language of Kylie, After Nirvana, Legends of Rock – Metallica, and Classic Singles including David Bowie’s Heroes and Great Lives – Freddie Mercury.
Real Wild Child hosted by Iggy Pop serves up a real wild mix of music spanning from Chuck Berry to Sleaford Mods.
The BBC music and concert programs and more are available now on the LiSTNR app.
