Compiled by Tess Connery
Heading to the regions with Sarah Grynberg on Stories of Us
LiSTNR is celebrating regional Australian communities with Stories of Us, a collection of untold stories from some of Australia’s biggest names and everyday heroes.
In each episode, host Sarah Grynberg – who listeners will know from A Life of Greatness – is joined by a guest whose life is set against the backdrop of regional Australia.
Guests include activist and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, singer Shannon Noll, musician Pete Murray and comedian Rhys Nicholson.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke with Grynberg about Stories of Us, and shining a light on the regions.
“There are a lot of podcasts out there, but not many have this focus on regional Australia,” said Grynberg. “There are just so many great stories to tell from our regional communities, it’s such an untouched area full of great stories.
“We started off the interviewing well-known Australians, and that will hopefully move into the everyday heroes as well. We want to really celebrate them and their stories, the different towns that everyone’s from, and all the great places that we have within this beautiful homeland of ours.”
Grynberg is known to listeners through her interview podcast, A Life of Greatness, where she interviews big names from all over the world. Whilst Stories of Us is still making use of her interview skills, she said that the podcasts are very different.
“A Life of Greatness is interviewing people about how they’ve achieved great things. The podcast gets into its eighth season in February next year, and it’s really built up this amazing calibre of guests. The majority of the people that I have on the podcast now are very, very well known names – if I’m going to talk to someone about neuroscience, I get the best person in the world.
“It’s different in that sense, because this one really focuses on regional Australia. It also goes into the stories of people’s lives, as well as what was so great about these areas within regional Australia that they live in, or grew up in.”
When asked what it is that she hopes listeners take away from Stories of Us, Grynberg highlights the sense of community that is found in regional Australia.
“In a podcast like this, you really hear the stories of people and their love of community. I really find that people in regional areas who have lived and grown up there, they have this sense of simplicity to them and that’s such a beautiful, beautiful trait. For city slickers, everything is so fast paced and there’s a million things going on, we can get overwhelmed. By listening to these stories, you realise the things that are really important in life.
“It’s really nice to have a podcast like this that champions, Newcastle, Townsville, or whatever the different area is. I think that’s very special to the people that live there, too.”
As for how the team are finding everyday people for each episode, Grynberg said that “We have the Stories Of Us email that people can write into if they’ve got a tale from themselves or someone they know that they think is an everyday hero of that certain area. We’re finding people like that.”
The email to contact is [email protected]
[Listen to Stories of Us here]
Gary Lineker still scoring as podcast empire grows
Goalhanger Podcasts is less than two years old, but the company has a bulging slate of UK programming that continues to grow, reports Mediaweek’s James Manning.
The latest edition to the stable is The Rest is Entertainment, a weekly series being hosted by Guardian columnist Marina Hyde and TV quiz guy-turned bestselling novelist Richard Osman.
Former British footballer and BBC commentator and host Gary Lineker founded Goalhanger in early 2022 with Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport (not the actor) as a spinoff from their sports documentary business Goalhanger Films.
The company flourished quickly off the success of The Rest is History and that branding has been used for The Rest is Politics, The Rest is Football, The Rest is Money and the aforementioned The Rest is Entertainment.
The Rest is History has just wrapped a live tour down under this week with stops in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
The Rest is Politics recently had a live stream episode which peaked at 18,000 concurrent listens. The show also regularly sells out its UK live shows in venues like the Albert Hall in a matter of minutes.
The Politics, Football and History podcasts are all regular fixtures in the top 10 of the British podcast chart.
The Goalhanger pitch for The Rest is Entertainment includes: “With years of experience and an enviable network of contacts, Richard Osman and Marina Hyde are set to bring a unique blend of knowledge, humour, and insight as industry insiders to this new weekly series. They’ll talk television, films, books, music and celebrity gossip as well as offering an enticing peek behind the curtain of the world of entertainment.
“In each episode they’ll discuss what’s hot and what’s not in the world of pop culture. Listeners can expect engaging discussions, entertaining views, and outrageous gossip.
“They’ll also suggest what to watch on television, the best streaming box-sets, and books and magazines you must not miss.”
[Listen to The Rest is Entertainment here]
Wellington Paranormal TV series launches a companion podcast
Hosted by Mike Minogue and Karen O’Leary, with Maaka Pohatu and Tom Sainsbury as recurring guests, Wellington Paranormal: The Podcast will feature actors, writers, directors and more, delving into the making of the Jemaine Clement produced and Taika Waititi executive produced TV series, Wellington Paranormal.
Karen O’Leary and Mike Minogue in season three of Wellington Paranormal
The podcast launched Thursday 23 November and sees a new episode available weekly every Thursday.
Shot in New Zealand, the Wellington Paranormal TV series first aired in 2018 on TVNZ with its four seasons available in 109 countries including CW and HBO Max in North America, Sky in UK & Ireland, SBS in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand. The series, which is filmed documentary style like the 2014 film from which it was created from, follows Officers Minogue and O’Leary as they battle a surprising amount of paranormal activity in the small city of Wellington.
[Listen to Wellington Paranormal: The Podcast here]
NewsCast debuts crime podcast Breaking Badness with Gary Jubelin
NewsCast, News Corp Australia’s on-demand audio division, has launched Breaking Badness, a six-episode true crime podcast following former homicide detective Gary Jubelin as he goes inside the walls of a maximum security prison.
As a cop, Jubelin spent decades locking up murderers, gang leaders and rapists – and he didn’t care what happened to them after. Now he’s going back to find out what he missed.
With exclusive access to the Macquarie Correctional Centre, one of New South Wales’ most controversial prisons, what Jubelin discovers changes the way he thinks about crime and punishment. It might also change the way crime is dealt with across the country.
Releasing Breaking Badness under News Corp Australia’s True Crime Australia arm builds on the success of Jubelin’s award-winning podcast I Catch Killers.
[Listen to Breaking Badness here]
Anatomy of a Scam launches second season
Voice cloning, deep fakes and AI are amongst the new cutting edge technologies being used by scammers explored in the second season of Anatomy of a Scam.
The latest season – launching during ACCC’s Scams Awareness Week – brings listeners the real-life stories of victims and insights from cyber experts to peel back the layers of a scam, reveal their inner workings and help protect Australians from falling into these increasingly sophisticated traps.
Hosted by journalist Deb Knight and tech expert Trevor Long, and produced by 9Podcasts in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank, Anatomy of a Scam season two focuses on ‘impersonation scams’, which account for approximately 80% of all scams reported to Scamwatch and which have only proliferated thanks to the new wave of AI-enabled technology.
[Listen to Anatomy of a Scam here]
Tourism Tasmania, Starcom and ARN invite Australians to ‘Come Down for Air’ via a podcast partnership
Tourism Tasmania and its media agency, Starcom, are encouraging Australians to ‘Come Down for Air’ via the release of a podcast episode recorded in the open air on Tasmania’s east coast.
Produced in partnership with ARN/iHeart Radio, the campaign sees an episode of The Imperfects podcast encourage audiences to make an emotional connection with the island state.
Created and hosted by the founder of The Resilience Project, Hugh van Cuylenburg, Australian comedian Ryan Shelton, filmmaker Josh van Cuylenburg and with executive producer Bridget Northeast, The Imperfects models vulnerable conversations with well-known Australians, helping listeners to embrace imperfections, build authentic connections and improve their health and happiness.
The episode will be supported by an eight-week tourism category exclusive sponsorship of The Imperfects’ bonus episode, including pre-roll, mid-roll and integrated advertisements. The campaign also includes a broad reach radio campaign across the ARN network, with commercials voiced by Hugh van Cuylenburg.
[Listen to The Imperfects here]
