Podcast Production
Podcast Production
Interviewing and cutting tape, scripting and editing, scoring and sound designing—I like to get my hands dirty at every stage of the production process for a narrative podcast. Here’s some of my recent dirty work:
My Work
Hanko
Hanko are the carved stamped seals often used in Japan instead of signatures. This is a story I reported and produced about a tradition that has proved surprisingly persistent during the digital era, and how the COVID pandemic may have finally brought a change to an ancient, analog practice.
Alphabetical Order
In much of the western world, alphabetical order is simply a default we take for granted. It’s often the one we try first -- or the one we use as a last resort when all the other ordering methods fail. But it wasn’t always this way. And the story of how it achieved dominance says a lot about our changing conception of the world.
The sound of late night television is a complex beast with many moving parts. In this episode I wrote and produced, Broadcast Mixer Fred Hedemark reveals the high and lows of a working day in the control room of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, as he and his team bring the sound of Late Night with Seth Meyers to life.
Late Night
In the summer of 1952, Denmark was going through one of the worst polio outbreaks in the world. This is a story I produced and sound designed about he incredible push to contain it—led by Bjørn Ibsen and carried out by thousands of nurses, students and volunteers—which would give rise to the concept of intensive care in hospitals.
Intensive Care
Rohingya United
Robi Alam is a Rohingya refugee whose family fled violence and persecution in Myanmar. After a decade living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, Robi’s family were resettled in Australia. Rohingya United is a local football team he formed, with friends from the refugee camp, to raise awareness of the Rohingya issue.
In the late ‘90s, Brian Johnson and Brian Morden were suburban teenagers obsessed with video games and music. And then, through an extraordinary wish, the two friends found themselves on a journey that made gaming history. This was a very moving episode I co-wrote, and a great reminder that when the story is compelling and is told well, all you have to do as a producer is get out of the way.
The Autumn, She’s Been Hit
In this sound-rich piece of gonzo storytelling, I tried to “hack” my brain using various memorisation techniques, from the ancient to the modern, in order to pass a Japanese language test. In the process, I also learned about my small neighbourhood in western Tokyo, my place in Japan, and what it takes to really know another language.
Chronicle of Darkness
During the annual World Series of Birding, teams compete to see who can identify the most bird species in 24 hours. For 'Team Galbatross’ the goal is different (and much harder): they only identify female birds. This piece follows them through forests, beaches, and wetlands, as they try to show how studying female birds can reshape our understanding of nature in ways that are crucial for conservation.
Birding The Gender Gap
What happens when one of history’s greatest composers begins to lose the very sense he relies on most? In this episode I co-wrote and produced, we explore how Ludwig van Beethoven continued to compose groundbreaking music even as his world fell into silence, using odd tools, novel inventions, and sheer determination to help him along the way.
The Deaf Composer
Personal Projects
14 Days (2022)
A year after the first series, I go on a pilgrimage of sorts to the place where it all started; driving from Melbourne to Sydney and back, making a new audio story every day.
14 Days (2021)
After landing in Australia during the Covid pandemic, I had to stay in hotel quarantine for two weeks. I spent that time creating a short audio story every day.