Double-A B-Listers C-minus

Former ABC stand-in turned ABC litigant Antoinette Lattouf needs something to do in between posting predictable Pally agitprop, so she’s teamed up for a podcast with another Antoinette.

Azure Antoinette and the one you may possibly have heard of, Antoinette Lattouf

Women’s Agenda – “a hub sharing the latest news and views affecting how women live and work … independent and 100 per cent female owned and run” – tells the thrilling tale:

How do you open a podcast between two outspoken women whose similarities end with the name Antoinette?

One simple line: “Welcome to the shit show.”

Casual vulgarity is lazy and dull – although in this case it’s probably a fair call.

After meeting at an event last year, Australian broadcaster, columnist and award-winning journalist Antoinette Lattouf and American poet, DJ and speaker Azure Antoinette found something special amid the cacophony of their clashing personalities.

Spoiler alert: they did not find a special ability to shut the hell up.

It led to the creation of The Antoinette’s podcast, which was launched in Sydney on Thursday night following the release of Episode 1.

The launch featured two big chairs and attracted three unimpressed comments.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make: throughout the course of their individual careers, both Antoinette’s have run into trouble.

Their bad luck continues here with multiple possessive apostrophe errors. Women’s Agenda has 100 per cent female ownership but not quite the same rate of punctuation accuracy.

Before they began creating the podcast, Antoinette Lattouf phoned Azure Antoinette and asked her: “Are you sure you want to do this?”

The same warning should be offered by law to potential listeners.

There’s one other thing the Antoinette’s share in common: it’s their fearlessness.

Tragically, the most fearless people among us – female media identities, usually – very rarely deploy their courage where it may be of greatest value. Being a fearless podcaster seems a waste of resources. It’s like being a multilingual mime.

The pair are not afraid of trouble together.

“The thing you need to know about me is I will always stand up, and I will always do what’s right,” Azure said at the launch.

Azure is shown in the image above. Sitting down.

As an African-American woman, Azure was often branded as “rogue” or a “wild card” in her home country when speaking out on issues of social justice.

She was called those terrible, unforgivable, brutal things yet still she survives. Respect.

“I couldn’t do this podcast in America,” Azure admitted at the launch.

Why not? What's stopping her? Besides, it’ll be available in the US anyway. Does Azure know how podcasts work?

The two-time Grammy-considered artist writes poetry, music and art that always pushes the boundaries.

The phrase “Grammy-considered” is pushing a few boundaries right here.

The Antoinette’s podcast is produced by DM Podcast, the independent media team behind the Australian satirical publication, The Betoota Advocate. And Azure was unsure at first if it was the one for The Antoinette’s.

Please. It’s The Antoinettes. No apostrophe. You can see it in their title.

As she told the audience at the launch party, a team of white men producing a podcast with two women of colour didn’t seem right.

Hang on – there are two women of colour? Has white gal Latouf been sacked again?

But she was pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm towards the project.

“I was impressed to find such solidarity – and not just that, it was their interest,” Azure said.

Lattouf faces similar prejudice for her passion.

Azure just told the writer she’s impressed by her white producers’ “solidarity” and “enthusiasm”, which was immediately presented as evidence of … prejudice. Fascinating.

The differences between the Antoinette’s could not have been clearer as they spoke to a packed crowd at the launch event.

While Lattouf sat forward in her chair, ready to crack on with the show, Azure laid back in her seat, arms flopped on the arm rest.

That’s the most important kind of diversity there is, people. Posture diversity. Too bad podcasts aren’t visual, but there you go. Good luck to these heroic ladies.

(Via Jill. Image via X.)

UPDATE. Given how emotionally invested the Aussie Antoinette is in Gaza, perhaps the girls should discuss how Hamas wrecked the joint. As Eylon Levy observes, "I can’t believe they sacrificed all this for a one-day killing and raping spree": 

9 minutes of how Gaza used to look like before October 7th.

Hamas ruined the lives of more than 2 mln people pic.twitter.com/3ZqqcPloMJ

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 17, 2024