Compiled by Tess Connery and Grace Gollasch
The weird and the wonderful: Titus O’Reily on Sports Bizarre
Earlier this month, Titus O’Reily and Triple M’s Mick Molloy brought their podcast, Sports Bizarre, to LiSTNR. From the cricket pitch to the track, the footy field over to the courts and even into the pool, O’Reily and Molloy dive into the deep history of every kind of sport, where listeners will hear stories from around the globe.
Podcast Week’s Tess Connery spoke to O’Reily about bringing the podcast to life and the perks of working across multiple platforms.
“Mick and I both love bizarre sports stories – we’ve done them on The Front Bar, we’ve done them on radio, but podcasting lends itself to doing these long, involved stories. That’s where it came from,” says O’Reily.
“We just also liked the idea of doing something a bit different where we could talk about any sport, in any country, at any time of the year, at any time in history.”
Having launched in July last year, O’Reily says that bringing the podcast to LiSTNR now made perfect sense.
“We had a lot of interest from different parties that have come out, and then LiSTNR contacted us – we liked a lot of what they were offering. Mick’s got a relationship with Triple M Sydney, so it was pretty easy fit once we started chatting.”
With a podcast focussing on ”bizarre sports stories,” it’s easy to wonder where the pair find their stories. For O’Reily, the sheer amount of wild tales out there means that it’s not too difficult to find content every week.
“I like to think that if I was just telling you this story, would you begin to doubt whether it was true? They’re all 100% true, I do a lot of research on them all.
“One of my favourites was with Dennis Rodman, I wondered how he became friends with Kim Jong Un in North Korea – everyone knows that he is friends with him, but I wanted to know how they ended up in North Korea in the first place. I found out that his agent, when he booked the gig didn’t know that there were two Koreas. They were on the plane to North Korea, when one of his other advisors pointed out Pyongyang is quite different.
“We love those ones where you think ‘that can’t be true,’ that’s the bar we set.”
When asked what he hopes listeners get from Sports Bizarre, O’Reily says that he hopes the podcast will put a smile on people’s faces, and give them something good to chat about at the pub.
“We just hope that people will trust us and listen, regardless of how obscure the topic is – that they know we have the right kind of antenna for a bizarre story. We’ve just done three episodes on table tennis, which I think most people would say, ‘that can’t be that interesting,’ but there are so many really weird things going on.
“It’s about getting that combination of the obscure and the well known together, but all combined by just the thread of being very bizarre.”
Of course the podcast isn’t the only thing O’Reily is working on, with gigs across radio, TV, and print.
“It’s just the modern world, I think you have to work across a bit of everything to do it,” says O’Reily. “You could probably just be on TV in the 80s, or you could just be in radio, but with the diversification of media, you almost have to do a little bit of everything. It’s almost like back in the 50s where you had to be able to sing and dance and act.
“It’s fun because they’re all slightly different things. Some things you come in and just do a guest spot on, and others you’re having to do hours of work to write a script. It’s quite interesting.”
[Listen to Sports Bizarre here]
Grant and Chezzi Denyer’s journey to becoming better people and redefining success
Throughout Grant Denyer‘s career, he and his wife Chezzi have been the subject of countless news stories. From articles about their relationship to the births of their three children (Sailor, 11, Scout, seven, and Sunday, two) there has been no milestone left that hasn’t been reported on.
However, in addition to the good news, the Denyers have been plagued by fabricated media fodder with stories about addiction, breakdowns and marital woes, all of which have been unequivocally untrue.
From the comfort of their Bathurst home, the Denyers spoke with Anita Anabel on the Mediaweek and Chattr podcast, The Entertainment Hotline. What transpired was a no holds barred, raw and honest chat.
In order to combat the media fodder, Grant and Chezzi decided to create the It’s All True podcast, a platform in which they could tell their story “straight from the horse’s mouth”. Now in its seventh season, the series has taken on a new direction where the couple dives into topics that they not only find interesting, but in turn, helps them and the community of listeners that they have built.
“We talk about what’s happening in our lives at the moment,” Chezzi said. “Grant and I have been on this great journey of trying to be much better people, especially since we’ve become parents. We like learning new things.”
“We’re as flawed as anyone right next to us,” Grant said in agreement. “So, we’re like crash test dummies for alternative health systems.”
[Listen to It’s All True here]
MAFS’ Harrison Boon chats to Dom and Ella on Sit With Us
Sit With Us, hosted by Domenica Calarco and Ella Ding, has released a highly anticipated episode featuring Married at First Sight’s Harrison Boon.
In this episode, Boon sits down with the hosts to share his side of the story, and emotions run high as he discusses his experience on the show.
During the episode, Boon breaks down in tears. However, Ding expresses her scepticism about his emotional display, prompting a heated discussion about authenticity and emotional expression.
The episode also features Boon discussing his feelings of self-hatred when watching his behavior on the show, as well as his claims of being controlled and gaslit by his partner. Boon opens up about his issues with intimacy during the honeymoon and shares insights into the performative nature of the show, including Brontes’ tendency to “perform” for the cameras.
The Neurodivergent Woman returns for a fourth season
Clinical Psychologist Monique Mitchelson and clinical neuropsychologist Michelle Livock are returning for the fourth season of The Neurodivergent Woman Podcast following the first three seasons of the show.
The DM Podcast is a podcast for neurodivergent women, covering autism to ADHD and everything in between- aiming to educate and inspire women who think differently.
In episode one of the new season, Mitchelson and Livock are diving into autistic burnout, the signs, the causes and what exacerbates autistic burnout as well as preventative and recovery strategies.
More topics being covered this season include friendships and relationships in adulthood, perfectionism, neurodivergence and sex and decolonisation and disability- with special guests along the way.
[Listen to The Neurodivergent Woman here]
Podshape launches new sleep aid podcast with SleepScape
Australian audio content creation company Podshape is launching a new sleep aid podcast on March 31.
SleepScapes are recorded live in the places using the latest spatial microphone technology and will be available in Spatial Audio with headtracking on compatible devices and platforms.
Recorded using 8 microphones, enabling a binaural listening experience, the new sleep podcast allows our listeners to immerse themselves in each SleepScape – like they were actually there
From the waves crashing at Bondi Beach, to the serenity of sitting in a vineyard at the Barossa Valley, sitting under a tree in Byron Bay or laying by a waterfall in the Daintree Rainforest, listeners can choose where they want to sleep.
[Listen to the SleepScape trailer here]
The Fantasy Lab asks Beau Ryan about his Fantasy football team
In a recent episode of The Fantasy Lab, co-hosts Tim Moltzen and Josh Halling chat to Beau Ryan about all things Fantasy football.
Ryan revealed he was playing Fantasy football when he was playing professionally, but did he ever choose himself for his own fantasy team?
Halling said to Ryan, “Very excited to hear that you’re a fantasy enthusiast. And not just this year. I heard that you’re into it sort of many, many years ago.”
Ryan revealed he was into it when he played professionally, to which Moltzen asked, “Is that legal?”
Halling then asked if he had ever picked himself for his Fantasy team, to which Ryan said, “Never, never.”
[Listen to the Fantasy Lab here]
Pedestrian and The Betoota Advocate team up for new vodcast, The Show Off
Pedestrian and The Betoota Advocate are blasting into your eye and ear holes from Thursday with their new entertainment vodcast collab, The Show Off, available on 9Now and all good podcast services.
After years of not-so-passive aggressive online banter between the two sites, Pedestrian’s Head of Editorial, Josephine Rozenberg-Clarke along with The Betoota Advocate’s Entertainment and Lifestyle Reporter Effie Bateman and Sports Reporter (and token bloke) Wendell Hussey will form an unholy union to give viewers and listeners their spicy takes on the biggest moments in streaming, film and pop culture each week.
From which new series you need to be obsessing over right now, to an in-depth dissection of *that* pivotal Pedro Pascal moment, to which celeb has been canceled so hard they’re now worthy of an “In Memoriam” – no entertainment stone will be left unturned on The Show Off.
Listen to The Show Off from Thursday, March 30.
LiSTNR’s This Arvo in Sydney brings Sydneysiders daily local news
This Arvo in Sydney, a new original podcast from LiSTNR, is the newest local news podcast created specifically for Sydney. Building on the day’s headlines, This Arvo in Sydney is created by a team of broadcast and investigative journalists who will tackle the big issues impacting Sydneysiders.
Produced and published Monday to Friday, each episode takes a deep dive into topics affecting the city and lives of Sydney locals.
Hosted by LiSTNR journalist Sacha Barbour Gatt and featuring newly recruited investigative journalists Clair Weaver, Joey Watson, and Bension Siebert, as well as the 2DayFM and Triple M news teams, the podcast will keep listeners informed from 2pm, in time for the afternoon commute and dinnertime discussions.
This Arvo in Sydney host and journalist, Sacha Barbour Gatt, said: “I’m really excited to be working on This Arvo in Sydney. Our city has been crying out for a daily news podcast that provides an afternoon catch-up on the news headlines, together with a spotlight on issues relevant to Sydneysiders. We are all about diving deeper and discovering interesting stories.
[Listen to This Arvo in Sydney here]
