Honorary Associate Professor Siobhan McHugh is a leading creator and thinker in spoken word audio. Born in Dublin, Siobhan is an award-winning writer, podcaster, documentary-maker, and noted oral historian. Her book, The Power of Podcasting: Telling Stories through Sound (Columbia University Press 2022), is a wide-ranging analysis of the podcast medium that includes insider accounts of award-winning narrative podcasts she has made. It’s been hailed by industry folk and academics for its passion, authority and scope.

Siobhan has won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for non-fiction and has been shortlisted twice for the NSW Premier’s History awards. She has published six books, including The Snowy: The People Behind the Power, which won the NSW Premier’s Douglas Stewart Award for Non-fiction in 1990. Her radio documentaries and documentary/storytelling podcasts have won international awards [seven gold and four bronze, New York Festivals; US Signals award; Grand Prix Drum Media UK 2023; Silver, Europe Rose D’Or] five Australian Podcasting Awards and a Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism. Others have been shortlisted for a Walkley, a Eureka science award, and the United Nations Media Peace Prize.

Siobhan is interviewed by Dr Helen Wolfenden. Helen is a lecturer in radio at Macquarie University. Helen spent the first part of her professional life as a radio broadcaster (presenter, producer, manager and researcher) with the ABC and the BBC. Her academic research focuses on the affordances of spoken word audio. Helen teaches in the Radio, Podcasting, and Audio Media Major which equips students with professional and practical skills to produce radio and podcasts.

Video production: Marcus Arruzza and Mike Baber.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:50 Siobhan’s background
0:04:04 Podcasting broadly
0:14:30 Case Study: The Greatest Menace
00:35:45 Case Study: Heart of Artness
00:44:12 Advice for academics
00:49:35 Advice for students
00:53:06 Podcasting as an academic field
00:57:13 Siobhan’s listening recommendations