It's hard to think of anybody who's had a longer or deeper involvement in Australian podcasting than Rachel Corbett. Best known for her long stint as a co-host on 10's The Project, her current day job is as network director at Nova Podcasts. She’ll explain how Nova develop its suite of podcasts, how they promote them using their radio network, how they collaborate with their corporate cousins at News Corp, and how international partnerships with shows like Diary Of A CEO have helped Nova shape a successful podcasting network – all of which I found fascinating as I research Australian incumbent media’s embrace of podcasting. Rach was previously the head of podcasts at Mamamia, and pioneered their successful transition from a highly popular website into the podcasting juggernaut Mamamia is today… Before that, Rach was one of the first radio broadcasters to take podcasting seriously – pioneering the road later taken by Hamish and Andy, turning a successful radio drive programme into a stand-alone podcast with her co-host Paul Murray.Rach also runs her own successful podcast education business, Podschool, and somehow, she still finds time to get behind the microphone – her current efforts include Me And My Tiny Human, which charts her journey with solo parenting.This episode was recorded in September 2025. Image:rachelcorbett.com.au
Who better to feature in our first episode than the host of one of Australia's most popular, informative, and idiosyncratic podcasts? Matt Bevan from the ABC's If You're Listening joins Dom to explain how his podcast grew from a segment on Radio National's venerable Breakfast programme, on which Matt was reading the news during the first Trump Administration.We explore the evolution of the podcast's intense fortnight-based production schedule, how it evolved to produce radio, video, streaming and television versions of the show, as well as one of the special ingredients that makes the show so compelling – his team's unlimited access to the ABC's enormous content archives, and news content deals.For a podcast investigating how podcasts are made, with a particular focus on the role of incumbent media companies in their success, it's hard to think of a more fascinating first case study than If You're Listening. (Image: ABC News.)
