Compiled by Trent Thomas and Tess Connery
Sarah Grynberg on returning for season six of A Life of Greatness
A Life of Greatness with Sarah Grynberg has returned for a sixth season on LiSTNR this week as Grynberg invites listeners to tune in to a series of rich conversations with respected thought leaders, much-loved personalities and global humanitarians. With the aim to provide simple tools, tips, and strategies brought to light to help live a life beyond limits – towards courage, joy, love, and a more meaningful way of being.
Podcast Week‘s Trent Thomas caught up with Grynberg to talk about the new season of the series, which Grynberg said has naturally evolved since its inception.
“The success of the podcast is making sure the calibre of the people I interview is exceptional. I get a lot of people put forward to me and I will be really fussy about who I choose. I want to interview people that I truly believe can give information to my listeners that will help change their lives and have lived a life of greatness in my eyes. Being my own producer works nicely in the sense that I do make sure that I really investigate a person.”
In an Australian podcast first Grynberg interviews New York Times bestseller, yogi and spiritual leader Sadhguru. Grynberg also speaks to Dutch motivational speaker and extreme athlete, Wim Hof, as well as entertainer and radio host, Ed Kavalee. Grynberg was excited about all three guests but said that an exceptional amount of work went into getting Sadhguru.
“To even just get him on the podcast was probably about eight months in the making, and it’s the only Australian podcast interview he’s ever done. When you get someone like Sadhguru, you probably haven’t heard of him, but he is massive in this realm. It was phenomenal to be able to sit with him for an hour and everything that comes out of his mouth, you’re like awestruck. It was like speaking to God he’s just so unbelievable. Then I have Ed Kavalee, so you couldn’t get two more different kinds of people. And I’ve also got Wim Hof. It is such a diverse group of people and I think that’s what adds to the success of it too.”
When asked about what’s next for A Life of Greatness now that she has released six seasons, Grynberg said that she just wants to keep growing the brand.
“It’s to be able to grow the podcast even bigger than what it is. It drops every Tuesday with an interview. And then I’ve been doing my five minutes Unlock the Greatness Within, which is me talking about a topic that releases every Friday as well. My aim would be just to grow the podcast bigger than what it is already and grow the community of people and get it out there to as many people as I can.”
[Listen to Life of Greatness here]
How Tanya Hennessy combined radio with podcasting on Hennessy’s Hotline
Tanya Hennessy will be dialling up the fun in her new Nova Podcast Hennessy’s Hotline. Handing the reins to listeners, Hennessy will dive head first into the craziest real-life stories when Hennessy’s Hotline launches on February 3rd.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to Hennessy for a feature that will be published in full tomorrow morning.
“I’m obsessed with Rachel Corbett, I’m obsessed with her brain,” Hennessy says. “A lot of people think that podcasting is really similar to radio and I vehemently disagree, I think they’re completely different. When I was switching over from from radio to podcasting, I found it really like overwhelming because it’s like ‘wait, there’s no competition? There’s no ads? It’s not live?’. Rachel just intrinsically understands podcasting and content, so I was just really attracted to working with her.”
The idea of Hennessy’s Hotline was born when Hennessy and Corbett decided to bring the radio world and the podcast world together.
“This has been in the works for so long, we’ve just been throwing ideas left, right, and centre. One of the ideas came from what I missed in radio – talking to listeners.
“Rachel and I wanted to combine the most interesting part of radio, which I think is the stories that the listeners have, with podcasting. New world meets old world!”
The callers featured on the podcast are real people dialling in to the show, and for Hennessy it was a surprise just how many people wanted to tell their stories.
“We got so many. I put it up on my socials, but I just didn’t know what response we’d get. We got so many voicemails. We filled up the whole voicemail thing so we had to get another one! They’re all really cool – it’s so wild when people like just leave a voicemail like, ‘hey, Tanya, I saw this and I thought you’d be interested!’. Or ‘hey, oh my God, I saw the topic was this and I’ve got something’, or ‘hey, I’ve got a really great idea for a topic you should do next time’.
Make-up and skincare learnings shared on Skinfluence
Nova Entertainment has announced the new podcast Skinfluence – the podcast for all beauty lovers. The show features celebrity make-up artist Michael Brown and skincare expert Alisha Bhojwani each week as they tackle the latest trends and help level up listeners skincare knowledge.
In a statement on LinkedIn, Brown commented: “Very excited to FINALLY announce that Alisha Bhojwani and I are co-hosting a brand new podcast with Nova Entertainment!
“With months of planning, zoom chats and test runs, so proud that our first weekly episode of SKINFLUENCE will launch this Monday Feb 7th – The podcast for ALL beauty lovers, regardless of who you are, we want everyone to feel included within the beauty industry.
“So, join us each Monday as we both tackle the latest beauty trends, level up your skincare knowledge and share our best beauty tips, to have you looking and feeling your best!
Trailer now LIVE wherever you get your pods!”
[Listen to Skinfluence trailer here]
LiSTNR launches podcast with Australian War Memorial
LiSTNR has announced a new partnership with Australian War Memorial to create the podcast Up Close – Conversations with Modern Veterans. In the podcast, Adam Shand will help shed light on the reality of life for Australian Defence Force members.
Throughout the series, Shand uncovers the driving factors that lead young people to enlist in the first place, the rigorous training, highs and lows of military service and what life looks like after the uniform comes off.
Across the six episodes, Shand interviews Fred Campbell OAM, former Royal Australian Navy Warrant Officer, Aunty Lorraine Hatton OAM, Quandamooka Elder of the Noonuccal and Ngughi tribes in South-East Queensland and Indigenous Elder for the Australian Army, David Nicolson, former Australian Army Trooper, and Dr Kim Morgan-Short, a former Royal Australian Air Force Reservist and a Director at the War Widows Guild, Queensland.
Joe Rogan: Spotify announces new rules for Covid coverage
Spotify has announced a new approach to dealing with Covid information after hundreds of musicians and content creators pulled their content from the streaming service in protest against Rogan’s misinformation around vaccines.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said that the company was “working to add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about Covid”.
“This advisory will direct listeners to our dedicated Covid-19 hub, a resource that provides easy access to data-driven facts, up-to-date information as shared by scientists, physicians, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources,” Ek explained.
“This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days. To our knowledge, this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform.”
The Chaser pulls Joe Rogan prank
Speaking of Rogan, he is the latest victim of a prank by The Chaser after the comedy group briefly took over the top ranking for ‘Joe Rogan’ on the platform, with a fake podcast promoting vaccines.
“People like Neil Young have been pulling their music to get back at Spotify, which is very noble but probably isn’t going to convince many people to get jabbed,” explained The Chaser’s Charles Firth. “We figured most of Rogan’s audience is so gullible it’d be easier if we just pretended to be Joe for a day and declare that vaccines are safe. Knowing how quickly his fans fall for most scams, we expect they’ll all be fully vaccinated within the next six to eight hours.”
In playing the fake episode, Spotify listeners were met with a message endorsing vaccines, with the self-proclaimed ‘Joe Rogan’ declaring “I’m just a shoot-from-the-hip moron in his 50s who’s balding and an idiot, I can do what I like.”
Asked whether he expected retaliation from Spotify for the prank, Firth explained he isn’t worried. “At first we thought Spotify might be upset with us pretending to be their star podcaster, and pull our show as a result,” he explained, “but then we remembered they don’t have any problem with misinformation being spread on their platform, so I think we’re good.”
The team has also purchased the domain name JoeRogan.com.au, which now redirects users to the federal government’s vaccine booking website.
Shameless Media has biggest week ever, new launch soon
Shameless Media has continued its momentum into 2022 by registering its best week ever for downloads. The company, home to the bi-weekly Shameless podcast hosted by Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald, announced the news in a statement, and also hinted at a new podcast:
“We are so excited to announce our download figures for last week (Jan 24-30) 🎉 We can’t wait to keep creating across Shameless – and introduce a brilliant new podcast to our stable – in 2022. Lots of cool things coming soon 🎧”
