True crime, pop culture and everything in between: Meet SA’s top podcasters
The Taeuber sisters’ TV news reporting careers ended in difficult circumstances, but now 200,000 people a month listen to their podcast. Here’s why it’s so popular.
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They say they like to think of themselves as the “Media Watch for influencers”.
And whatever the Taeuber sisters are doing, it’s working.
The triplets have become an online sensation with their Outspoken The Podcast, which has hit over eight million streams since launching in 2019 and averages more than 200,000 monthly downloads.
Reaching as high as 49 on the Australian Podcast Ranker, it is all about discussing influencers and pop culture in Australia.
“The concept for the show is what you and your friends are talking about in your group chat,” says Sophie Taeuber, who co-hosts with sisters Amy and Kate.
“We like to think we are the Media Watch for influencers.”
While running a PR firm, Hula Media, the sisters still find time for the podcast. With commercials and sponsorships, Sophie said it even brings in extra money.
“The amount of money you make is sometimes dependent on the amount of downloads you get,” she said.
This summer, the triplets will be releasing a new series Unspoken.
“Each week, we’ll be investigating the unspoken side of the most nostalgic pop culture stories,” Sophie said.
The new series will air on Thursdays, with their regular influencer and pop culture show running every Tuesday.
It is seven years since Amy and Sophie lost their journalist roles with 7NEWS after lodging a sexual harassment complaint against a senior male colleague. Sophie said in hindsight the split with the station “worked out really well” for them.
“It’s put us on this different path of being in control of our own futures and being able to be our own bosses and do something creative,” she said.
There is a podcast for every subject you could ever imagine – from motherhood, comedy, music, true crime and pop culture – and local podcasts are rake in millions of downloads a year.
The Advertiser has put together a list of the top podcasts made in Adelaide and picked the brains of the hosts to find out what makes them so successful. Meet SA’s top podcasters.
Dying Rose
Hosts: Douglas Smith, Kathryn Bermingham and Emily Olle
Dying Rose tells the story of how the authorities reacted to the deaths of six Aboriginal women and girls.
The hard-hitting seven part podcast follows three reporters from The Advertiser, Douglas Smith, Kathryn Bermingham and Emily Olle as they investigate untold stories of the six families.
The idea for the podcast stemmed from a conversation The Advertiser editor Gemma Jones had with Peramangk and Ngarrindjeri mother Courtney Hunter-Hebberman at an International Women’s Day event.
In its first week, it had 70,000 downloads and drew millions of page views across its online coverage. It has since had more than 600,000 global downloads.
“We hoped that Dying Rose would spark a national conversation about the systemic racial bias that Indigenous families say they face within Australia’s institutions,” Ms Olle said.
“To see the incredible reception from the audience and have these women’s stories told to millions of Australians was truly amazing. These families showed immense bravery in how they opened up their homes and lives to us. “
The team said they conducted “hundreds” of hours of interviews and their investigation took them across the borders to the NT and NSW, even overseas in Bali.
“Their voices have finally been heard and we hope to see the conversations sparked by Dying Rose continue on the national stage,” Ms Olle said.
The podcast team including Dan Box and Jasper Leak are Walkley Award finalists in the long form radio/audio category.
The Beautiful Nightmare
Listeners per episode: 2k
Hosts: Shanelle Franklin and Tamara Linke
From careers in radio came a podcast which has now been short-listed for Best Comedy Podcast in the 2023 Australian Podcast Industry Awards.
Best friends Shanelle Franklin and Tamara Linke first met doing segments together on community radio before eventually going to competing radio stations. The two still remained close and one day decided to start podcasting.
“I had the idea to do a podcast and I pitched it to Tamara, she liked it, so we formulated it together and we’ve been doing it for almost three years,” Ms Franklin said.
Thus, Motherhood The Beautiful Nightmare, recently renamed The Beautiful Nightmare, was created.
“We dropped the motherhood part as we had a lot of listeners that were men and women that weren’t mothers and they almost felt like listening to the podcast was a club they weren’t part of,” Ms Franklin said.
“They loved the content because it didn’t bang on overly about motherhood. It was a comedy podcast that saw the lightheartedness in the things women go through.”
Ms Linke juggles the podcast on top of her Voice acting career and Ms Franklin is an MC full-time.
“It is hard work, podcasting seems to be easier than what it actually is,” Ms Franklin said.
The success of their podcast gave the besties the chance to run two sold-out live shows, with more to come.
The Adelaide Show
Listeners per episode: 4k
Hosts: Steve Davis and Colin Richard
Steve Davis was sick of seeing too many “infuriatingly lazy jokes” about Adelaide being boring, so he decided to start a podcast with friend Colin Richard to fight back.
“It was originally called Another Boring Thursday Night In Adelaide and one of our popular segments was The Adelaide Visa Council,” he said.
“In these segments we would read out tweets by people using the words ‘boring’ and ‘Adelaide’, and sit in a pseudo courtroom to discuss whether or not we should revoke their Adelaide Visa.
“We then advised them directly and often got a lot of feedback from people apologising for their wrongdoing. Most of the time they just laughed.”
12 months in, the duo noticed fewer ‘boring’ references about our city, and rebranded as The Adelaide Show.
Now, the podcast is known for its interviews with notable South Aussies including names like cricketer Andrew Sincock, Mr South Australia Keith Conlon and the late Sir James Hardy.
Mr Davis said the podcast takes him around six hours per week to organise, and he does it purely for enjoyment rather than profit.
“I made a deliberate decision in the beginning to make The Adelaide Show a gift to the community,” he said.
“My thinking is that if I am not getting paid, then guests will be able to enter that spirit of generosity.”
Just Lawful
Listeners per episode: 3k
Hosts: Sean Fewster and Daniel Panozzo
Unlike other crime podcasts Just Lawful focuses on showing the reality of crime, not discussing true crime.
Hosted by chief court reporter for The Advertiser Sean Fewster and Daniel Panozzo, the podcast features cases Mr Fewster has covered and gives a Voice to victims and survivors.
“Victims and survivors of crime are the most marginalised and under-represented participants in the legal system. They are not afforded enough of a Voice, and their trauma is not taken into account enough,” Mr Fewster said.
“We do this because we believe they not only deserve to be heard, but need to be heard in order for the system to be fair and equitable.”
The podcast launched in 2021 with FIVEaa and has taken home s SA Press Club award and high commendation and an MEAA SA Media Award.
It has also been incorporated into SA’s Year 11 and Year 12 legal studies curriculum.
“Best of all, survivors and victims of crime know they can come to us and have their stories told accurately, in a manner that prioritises their needs and agency. That’s what is truly important to us,” Mr Fewster said.
But the podcast is no stranger to backlash.
“There are members of SA Police, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the legal profession, the Catholic Church and the state’s criminal element who would much rather we never broadcast anything ever again. Which suggests, to us, we’re doing things right,” Mr Fewster said.
The Mums Edit
Hosts: Lil McAvaney, Stephanie Campbell and Renee Barendregt
This motherhood podcast was born out of the first-hand experience of three friends becoming mums.
Lil McAvaney, Stephanie Campbell and Renee Barendregt banded together after finding mum life “isolating” and wanted to create a supportive community.
“We didn’t have time to catch up with our friends as often, and thought that we could bring the element of friendship and a virtual mothers group to mothers across Australia, while still being able to potter around the house with their baby,” Ms Campbell said.
“The podcast has amassed an online community of 49,000 since January 2022, which is something we are extremely proud of.”
After gaining online traction, the podcast started making money through sponsorships as well as advertisements on various social media platforms.
“Thankfully, we’ve never had any backlash. We’ve found this to be surprising, as topics within the space of motherhood can often be controversial,” Ms Campbell said.
“We think the reason we’ve never had backlash is because when discussing our points of view or experiences, we always recognise that every mother has their own preferences for how they do things, and we never give black and white advice.”
This Song Is Yours
Listeners per episode: 1.1k
Hosts: Simon Finck
Music lover Simon Finck toyed with the idea of starting a music podcast in 2017 and eventually took the plunge in 2020.
“The podcast was incredibly lucky to have its first guests include artists like Kev Temperley from Eskimo Joe, Something for Kate, Katie Noonan, and The Avalanches, so there was immediate interest with those artists attached,” Mr Finck said.
As the podcast grew in popularity, as did the reward. Mr Finck said although money-making was minimal in the first year, the last two have been more successful, with his YouTube channel bringing in the opportunity to collaborate with international artists and being booked around the country for music events.
“Initially, I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, but now I just love getting the stories from other people about what they learnt from the podcast,” Mr Finck said.
Over the last three years, Mr Finck has interviewed like Taylor Swift’s producer Jack Antonoff, Paul Kelly, Gracie Abrams, Ben Folds, London Grammar, k.d. lang, Laufey, Counting Crows, Hanson, Maisie Peters, Crowded House, and more.
The Crowject Podcast
Listeners per episode: 2.6k
Host: Peter Cirocco and more
The brainchild of a huge Crows fan became a podcast beloved by footy fans across SA and beyond.
Peter Cirocco started The Crowject in 2018, and since then has made 300 episodes and branched out to videos, merchandise and a book.
The podcast has raised over $30,000 selling ‘Go Crom’ merch range to various charities such as Catherine House, FightMND and Sophie’s Legacy and Rainbow Crows – the club’s LGBTIQ supporter group.
“We now have a well-established group of paid subscribers on our Patreon platform, and we enjoy this tight-knit community we’ve created,” Mr Cirocco said.
“We are in it to support each other, and to also ensure there is fun and banter to be had even away from things AFC. Every week varies, dependent on how much news is around, what people’s reactions are.”
Mr Cirocco works as a nurse practitioner in addiction medicine but still finds time to dedicate to podcasting.
The Crowject features a number of co-hosts and collaborators including Elodie Kraniac, Anthony Cream, Ray O’Hara, Lleyton Ashwell, Jade Hickey, Lachlan Dand, Ben McLean, Jordan Mahoney, Sophie Dayman, and Connor Nelson.
“We are all good friends off the pod and enjoy each other’s company. There are times it is hard to juggle both work and this, but we all pitch in to help out. It is a collective,” Mr Cirocco said.
AdeLOL
Hosts: Dan Schmidt and Tom Stewart
Duo Dan Schmidt and Tom Stewart combined their love of all things SA and history to create a their podcast AdeLOL.
The pair worked together at a youth mental health organisation and when Mr Schmidt decided to leave, they, in their own words “did what any two white men would do, which was start a podcast”.
“I do all the research and find crazy stories from South Australia’s history, then tell the story to Tom, who has no idea about the topic, and sometimes it’s funny. It’s always 100 per cent unplanned once we hit record and never edited,” Mr Schmidt said.
With episodes covering the first and only woman to ever be hanged in SA to the beginnings of the German Adelaide Hills town Hahndorf, the podcasts gives its listeners a slice of history with playful — and sometimes crude — banter.
Despite its success, the pair mainly record for passion rather than pennies.
“We’re regularly approached by ad companies trying to make us put commercials in the podcast, but we’re not really about a sponsor or ad unless it aligns with our values and is South Australian,” Mr Schmidt said.
“The last thing people want to hear is another podcast promoting something they don’t actually care about like every other podcast is doing. If we can make a few bucks to keep the show on the internet and cover our venue hire fees, we’re happy.”
Kossie & Dom Uncensored
Listeners per episode: 2k
Hosts: Dominic Rinaldo and John Kosmina
New to the podcast game is Kossie & Dom Uncensored, a show hosted by former soccer player John Kosmina and radio personality Dominic Rinaldo.
Only three episodes in, Mr Rinaldo said the podcast is all about the soccer universe.
“It got started after a conversation with my good mate John Kosmina, we wanted to do a podcast about soccer that tells it how it is,” he said.
“We try to talk about the topics of the week, so we need to keep on top of what’s going on in the soccer world.”
Mr Rinaldo said it takes about half a day to record each episode.
“There are a lot of great stories out there, so we want to share them with our followers,” Mr Rinaldo said.
“You don’t have to follow soccer to listen, we have lots of great stories to tell and we want people to enjoy it.”
In future episodes, they hope to feature interviews and eventually extend to an hour long episodes.
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