Compiled by Tess Connery, Grace Gollasch and Jasper Baumann
Putting some pep in your step with Turia Pitt’s Pep Talk
At the beginning of the month, LiSTNR welcomed its new podcast, Turia Pitt’s Pep Talk, hosted by motivational speaker Turia Pitt.
Pitt knows better than most about getting through hard times. She believes it’s the small steps, taken consistently, that create the mindset needed to do extraordinary things.
Turia Pitt’s Pep Talk is available now and new episodes will drop Monday to Friday on LiSTNR or wherever you get your podcasts.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to Pitt about Pep Talk and why people resonate with her podcasts.
Following the success of her January podcast series called The First 30, which helped listeners kick start their new year with 30 days of inspiration, Pitt is now providing listeners with regular daily pep talks to deliver ongoing support.
“The First 30 in January was essentially like a daily pep talk from me, just to give people some mindset tips and strategies as they started the New Year. That was really, really successful, so then we thought, okay, I guess this is what the audience is really after.”
Pep Talk comes in bite size, five-minute episodes, which mean that listeners can easily fit it into busy schedules – and as Pitt says, “a lot of people don’t have time to sit down and listen to a whole hour of conversation.”
“You don’t want to waste any time, and you don’t want to waste the time of anyone who is listening either. It’s more of a podcast that you might listen to in the morning, when you make a cup of coffee, to just start your day in a good frame of mind.”
Joining Pitt on the podcast is a lineup of guests that include former Australian World Surfing champion Layne Beachley, former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, Australian anaesthetist and cave diver Dr Richard Harris.
“We’re hoping that for the guest, what they have to say can easily be split up into five key takeaways within within the 10 minutes,” says Pitt.
“It’s not so much like an interview or a conversation, but me asking them something like, what’s five things that you’ve learned about going through a tough time? Or what what were the things that you learned about X, Y, or Z?”
Turia Pitt
Pep Talk isn’t Pitt’s first dive into podcasting, as she already hosts Turia Pitt is Hard Work. When asked what it is that she thinks people enjoy about her podcasts, Pitt points to the fact that she provides listeners with a space where all of their feelings are valid.
“I think a lot of the time people really resonate with some of the stuff that I’ve said, not because it’s incredibly insightful or revelatory, but because I think it helps people feel less alone. Often when you’re going through something tough you’re feeling depressed, you’re feeling down, you’re feeling sad, you’re feeling irritated. What we do is we berate ourselves – we say, well, why are you so depressed? Why can’t you just get motivated? Whereas I think all these feelings are really normal.
“In this culture of toxic positivity that we have going on today, you’ve got to be able to pick yourself back up straightaway. You’ve got to be able to find a silver lining and always be really energetic and motivated. I think that’s bullshit – at least it doesn’t reflect my life.”
Ultimately, Pitt hopes that Pep Talk will be a tool that people can use to make their days just that little bit better.
“I hope it gives them something practical that they can use to in their day. Anything that’s going to make their day feel easier, or lighter, or less stressful, or help them relieve pressures at home, or make them think about things in a different way, or help them to reframe their challenges. If it does any of that, I’ll be really happy.”
[Listen to Turia Pitt’s Pep Talk here]
Hamish and Andy reclaim the Podcast Ranker crown in March results
The March rankings on Triton Digital’s Podcast Ranker have been released, and see LiSTNR’s Hamish and Andy reclaim the top position, lifting seven places.
Cementing their place on top, Hamish and Andy finished the month with 954,669 monthly listeners, and 2,066,766 monthly downloads.
Rounding out the top three are Casefile True Crime, staying steady ad #2, and last month’s #1, The Kyle and Jackie O Show podcast, dropping two places to come in third.
The highest new entry to the March ranker was Bloke In A Bar, from BIAB Media. The podcast covers all things footy – from interviews with NRL players to analysts from former NRL player Denan Kemp. Bloke In A Bar made its debut at #10.
LiSTNR’s The Children in the Pictures podcast wins 2023 radio gold award
LiSTNR’s Australian-produced The Children in the Pictures podcast series has won gold in the ‘narrative/documentary podcasts’ category at the 2023 New York Festivals Radio Awards.
LiSTNR’s The Children in the Pictures won gold against a shortlist of 30 of some of the world’s greatest documentary makers including the BBC, ABC in Australia, ESPN, Crooked Media, IHeart Media in the US, and Radio Canada.
The Children in the Pictures is a LiSTNR and DNX Media original docu-series podcast that follows the Queensland police investigation into notorious child exploitation website, ‘The Love Zone’, which hosted thousands of members around the world who created, uploaded, and shared videos and photographic material of unimaginable acts against children.
In the series, Australian documentary maker Akhim Dev follows an elite team of Australian investigators, Taskforce Argos, who use their global connections and controversial undercover strategies to take down hands-on abusers and save The Children in the Pictures. Considered a landmark investigation, it is the first time undercover agents were able to take over and run a vast and secretive criminal network from the inside.
[Listen to The Children in the Pictures here]
Australian True Crime hits new milestone with 65 million downloads
Australian True Crime reached a new milestone with over 65 million all-time downloads. The true-crime podcast has been consistently growing, now boasting 1.2 million monthly downloads or 276,800 weekly downloads.
Hosted by Meshel Laurie and Emily Webb for the past four years, Australian True Crime has explored high-profile cases to lesser-known mysteries and covered a range of true crime stories.
Meshel Laurie said, “I’m thrilled that Australian True Crime has reached this incredible milestone.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to help people share their own true crime stories week after week. We have so much to thank our audience for, it’s their intelligence and open-heartedness that make it possible.”
[Listen to Australian True Crime here]
MIK Studio launches new podcast publisher MIK Made
MIK Studio has announced the launch of its podcast publisher, MIK Made – a creative ecosystem producing high-quality podcasts.
As part of their publisher partnership with MIK Made, podcasters will receive show production support, access to state-of-the-art facilities, a branding re-fresh (including photoshoots, social templates and studio set design), a bespoke social media strategy, monthly check-ins to monitor growth and optimisation, and a dedicated sales team to drive revenue for their show.
Dylan Adams, Head of Audio at MIK Studio, said, “We are passionate about helping creators bridge the gap between independent and mainstream podcasting media. We’re going out with a handful of titles, some existing and some new, to showcase that we can plug in at any stage of the life-cycle of a show.”
There’s No Place Like Home is a finalist in the 15th Annual Shorty Awards
There’s No Place Like Home is a finalist in the 15th Annual Shorty Awards, an international competition honouring outstanding work in digital and social media.
There’s No Place Like Home is a ten-part series, created in collaboration with Commonwealth Bank Next Chapter, that reveals the true scourge of domestic and family violence in Australia.
Future Women’s founder and managing director Helen McCabe said being shortlisted is a testament to the importance and impact of victim-survivors telling their own stories, in their own words.
“In the last two years, Australia has had its own reckoning about sexual assault, abuse and domestic violence. This recognition shows the value of centring victim-survivors in these conversations not just in Australia, but on the global stage.”
[Listen to There’s No Place Like Home here]
SEN continues podcast growth with over one million downloads for SEN Breakfast
Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) continues to show significant podcast growth, with eight SEN podcasts appearing in the top 150 based on the March Australian Podcast Ranker.
With the unveiling of an all-new line up involving Garry Lyon, Tim Watson, Kane Cornes, David King and Nathan Buckley, SEN Breakfast was SEN’s most popular podcast throughout the month and 11th on the overall list with 1.12 million downloads.
The Whateley podcast is also featured in the top 20 on the Australian Podcast Ranker, with The Run Home With Joel & Fletch the most popular podcast from Sydney’s SEN 1170am programs.
ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia renews its multi-year partnership with Audioboom
ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia has announced the extension of its commercial partnership with podcast network, Audioboom.
The renewal of this successful partnership further showcases ARN’s influential and valuable commercial podcast proposition for brands and advertisers alike.
Audioboom’s mission is to power podcasting for creators and brands globally. The podcast platform’s impressive podcast slate includes: Casefile True Crime, No Such Thing As A Fish, True Crime with Kendall Rae, F1: Beyond The Grid, Murder, Mystery & Makeup, The Tim Dillon Show and more.
Audioboom is the 4th largest podcast publisher in Australia with more than 7.2 million downloads last month.
Stuart Last, CEO of Audioboom, said: “With Australia’s deeply engaged podcast audience and ARN’s proven capabilities, furthering this strategic relationship will provide our creators with the best commercial opportunities in the region – a key component to Audioboom’s global podcast strategy.”
SBS podcasts and radio streams to be available on LiSTNR in multi-year partnership
LiSTNR and SBS have announced a multi-year partnership that will see at least 40 of SBS’s premium podcasts, plus six of its digital radio stations, available on LiSTNR.
A range of SBS’s most popular podcasts will be housed on LiSTNR, including SBS News In Depth, Eyes on Gilead: A Handmaid’s Tale Podcast, Seen with Yumi Stynes, My Ramadan, The Ugly Ducklings of Italian Cuisine, and The Uluru Statement from the Heart which is available in over 80 languages.
In addition, digital radio brands SBS Radio1, SBS Radio2, SBS PopAsia, SBS PopDesi, SBS Chill, and SBS Arabic24 will be available on LiSTNR.
LiSTNR head of news & information, Melanie Withnall, said: “LiSTNR is delighted to announce it is partnering with SBS. SBS provides audio content in all of Australia’s most spoken languages and it is great for LiSTNR to be able to share this content with our users from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and also to provide different perspectives in news and information.”
