Compiled by Jasper Baumann and Tess Connery
Sitting down with Dom and Ella as they join the LiSTNR family
In June last year, Married At First Sight (MAFS) stars Ella Ding and Domenica Calarco launched a new weekly podcast, Sit with Us. In May, following the announcement that LiSTNR had forged a strategic partnership with DM Podcasts, Sit With Us moved over to LISTNR.
Sit With Us unpacks the pair’s lives after MAFS, and reveals the real stories behind the headlines, covering everything from dating to daily life.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to the pair about a year behind the podcast mic, and making the move to LiSTNR.
Ding and Calarco
You’ve just hit a year since the podcast launched – has the show evolved at all since the first episode?
Ella: “I can’t believe it has been a year since we recorded our very first episode. It blows my mind how quick time has gone by and how much we have done together with Sit With Us. Both us and the show have evolved so much. When we first started we really didn’t know what we were doing (sometimes we still don’t haha) but the opportunity to interview amazing guests and be inspired and inspire has been the biggest reward.”
Dom: “The past 365 days of Sit With Us have all been an amazing journey! Ella and I are enjoying getting to know our audience and evolving with them.”
The podcast is now on LiSTNR after a strategic partnership was announced with DM Podcasts. What has the move been like on your end?
Ella: “The transition from Acast to LiSTNR has been super smooth and we absolutely LOVE everyone at LiSTNR who is now behind us and helping us grow the podcast. I don’t think I realised how much we can benefit from having a company like theirs supporting our journey!”
Dom: “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without our amazing team behind us; the transition to this new partnership with DM Podcasts and LiSTNR has been amazing.”
What sort of topics do you find your audience resonates with most?
Ella: “Since the globe met Dom and I on a dating show, I feel our audience relate and love listening to our real personal stories and experiences; when we share the real stuff that goes on, not just what everyone sees on social media. They can feel they aren’t alone and that we all really do go through the same things in life. Also, whenever we have a guest on from reality TV of course, because everyone loves the goss and behind-the-scenes detail!!”
Dom: “As Ella has said, our audience did get to know us on reality TV so they do love to hear us giving our opinions and insight into things that we know happen behind the scenes.”
What are your hopes for Sit With Us as the podcast continues?
Ella: “My hope is for the Sit With Us community to continue to grow and continue to have guests sitting with us. Hopefully one day we get Justin Bieber on the podcast (lol in my dreams). I guess at this point anything is possible. We will continue to share our life through their ears and keep it grounded. We also want to uplift our community and motivate them!”
Dom: “Keeping it real with our audience and continuing to entertain them is my greatest wish. Providing new and exciting content and guests is something we are working very hard on.”
What do you hope listeners get from Sit With Us?
Ella: “What is most rewarding is when our listeners start a thread in our Facebook group about how we have given them the confidence or courage to do something that they didn’t think they could do… like ask a boy out! Or go for a run! So, I hope to continue to give people support that although they may not have this from friends and family, they feel like they get this from us!”
Dom: “Hearing the feedback from our loyal listeners who look forward to our episodes dropping each week is the most amazing feeling; knowing we can give them that joy is enough for us to keep going and create entertaining and engaging content.”
LiSTNR announce new season of Birth, Baby & Beyond, a podcast for new dads
LiSTNR has announced a brand new season of Birth, Baby and Beyond, the podcast for new parents, but this time, it’s through the lens of a dad, for all new dads, and dads to be.
The podcast features midwife Cath Curtain who has delivered thousands of babies over her 47-year career and worked with 50,000 families during COVID. Joining Curtain is Chris Taylor, the Australian creative who’s best known as a member of The Chaser team and as creator and producer of the Foxtel/Binge drama Upright starring Tim Minchin.
“We went five years without conceiving. It was quite a quite a journey… traumatic and harrowing and depressing, anxious, frightening, an existential crisis,” Taylor said.
Taylor and Curtain talk about why couples traditionally wait for 12 weeks until they share the news of a pregnancy. Curtain said it was a societal thing, tinged with an old-fashioned hiding of loss.
“It’s if you lose the baby, then you don’t have to tell anyone, which is so bad because when you lose a baby, what you want is family around,” she said.
[Listen to Birth, Baby and Beyond here]
SBS’ new podcast explores the weird and wonderful world of Idioms
The Idiom is a new eight-episode podcast series that celebrates the wonderful phrases used in multicultural Australia and explores the different ways cultures express themselves with a delightful blend of introspection and silliness.
“The Idiom adopts a quirky approach to exploring idioms and the profound influence they have on our thoughts, actions, and interactions. Idioms have become a kind of gateway in interrogating the complexities of a specific language and culture, and its context,” said host Rune Pedersen who speaks Danish, English and German and is an expert in cross-cultural communication.
With the help of linguistic experts and other guests, Rune navigates the origins of idioms and their role in everyday conversations – such as being “in a pickle” or “wearing your heart on your sleeve” which both have Shakespearean roots.
The Idiom also looks at similar sayings across languages including Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese. For example, where English-speakers say, “when pigs fly”, Spanish speakers say, “when frogs grow hair”.
Bold Types explores the past, present and future of women in journalism
The National Library of Australia has released their new limited series podcast, Bold Types which is hosted by The Guardian Australia’s Amy Remeikis and is based on the book of the same name, authored by historian and journalist, Dr Patricia Clarke.
The podcast explores the past, present and future of women in journalism, featuring discussion between Remeikis and Clarke, readings of the work and words of selected historical women journalists, and interviews with a line-up of contemporary female journalists reflecting both their experiences and those of their forebears.
Podcast guests include Suzanne Dredge, Mia Freedman, Sophie McNeill and Ita Buttrose, among others.
Harry and Meghan ‘mutually agree to part ways’ with Spotify
This week, Spotify confirmed it would not be renewing the Duchess of Sussex’s podcast Archetypes for a second series.
The podcast deal was one of the major commercial agreements that came after the couple left their royal duties in the UK and relocated to the US in 2020.
The podcast saw various high-profile guests throughout its first season including Serena Williams and Mariah Carey where they discussed stereotypes regarding women.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Archewell Studio, the couple’s content creation label stated Meghan was “continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform.”
[Listen to season one of Archetypes here]
Toni Lodge gets rave reviews from Qantas for her take on the iconic I Still Call Australia Home ad
Toni Lodge, the co-host of the Spotify-exclusive Toni & Ryan podcast, received rave reviews from Australia’s national air carrier Qantas after she shared her recreation of the I Still Call Australia Home ad.
The iconic commercial sees a group of children singing Peter Allen’s hit from 1980 I Still Call Australia Home at stunning locations around the country – from the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Twelve Apostles and South Australia.
For Lodge, she always dreamed of being part of the Australian Children’s Choir and appearing in an iconic Qantas television commercial, dressed in a white button-up shirt with black trousers.
Lodge’s late mother assured her “they don’t recruit kids from Western Australia”. But through a bit of research, the podcast hosts have since learned through a mutual friend from Perth that her mother lied about this for fifteen years.
On the podcast, co-host Ryan Jon helped to make part of Lodge’s dream come true by getting her an audition for the National Girls Youth Choir.
While her performance was angelic, it was her age – 29 – that the choir director noted was outside of the recruitment criteria of 10-16-year-olds.
Lodge was disappointed at not making the cut, but she had a light bulb moment and announced that she would film the Qantas ad herself. “I’ll just take a GoPro around Australia and I’ll record on my own.”
