The Masterclass Podcast

“The minute I walk into that space, I turn my audio ears on.”

ABC broadcaster Kirsti Melville is an award-winning radio documentary maker, who always starts planning for an audio feature by thinking about sound. Melville describes how she triages the audio in any recording environment, and how she works with sound to create immersive and impactful storytelling.

"I often talk about it in quite filmic terms. Think about it in terms o...

“Your voice is such a personal quality…It’s like your own aural fingerprint.”

As an ABC voice coach and journalist, Tamara Oudyn is shaping the diverse voices of the national broadcaster. Here she describes the lessons she teaches cadets, including the role of the 3ps - pitch, pace and pausing - in broadcasting. 

Her emphasis is on training young journalists to sound like themselves on air. 

“Authority comes from being comfortable ...

"The thing that I love about audio is that...it's really intimate."

ABC journalist Jo Lauder says audio can be really effective in transporting the listener to a particular time and place. She explains how she goes about planning different types of audio pieces, whether for Triple J's Hack or long-form narrative podcasts like Saving the Franklin. She says it is crucial to engage the listener right from the start.

"You grab them wit...

“Who measures objectivity? Who judges objectivity?”

Objectivity is traditionally seen as a cardinal tenet of journalism, but Daniel Browning's long experience in Australian newsrooms has left him questioning whether objectivity is possible, or even beneficial.

The Bundjalung and Kullili man, who leads the ABC's Indigenous Radio unit, says First Nations communities have been failed by the Australian media.

He champions the idea of s...

“Always get the name of the dog, the brand of the beer, and the title of the song that was playing as the car crashed off the road.”

This is one writing commandment that the award-winning writer for Good Weekend Konrad Marshall keeps top of mind, as told to him by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom French. For Marshall, that attention to detail is one trademark that helps set his work apart.

As a feature writer, he sees his main job as enga...

“Focus on the intimate and particular.”

When it comes to feature writing, Stephanie Convery says it is often the small details that count. Her work with Guardian Australia involves shining a light on inequality, and frequently focuses on people’s personal circumstances. She likens features to creative writing in the need to draw on literary devices to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ the reader why a story matters.

She says the key to sta...

“You can’t go in with no idea of what you might hope to get out of it, but you have to be open to what happens in the interview.”

As former host of Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to people for a living. Here she outlines her rules for interviewing, including the pre-interview research process and how to structure questions. She describes the importance of an ethical approach, particularly when in...

"If you haven't grabbed the readers' attention within the first 10-12 words, you lose them."

Saffron Howden's job is training journalists how to write news for Australian Community Media. She sees news journalists as storytellers dealing in facts, who need to always be thinking about their audience. In this episode, she offers tips on the craft of writing a strong news story.  

"Focus on...the thing people are going to care about. ...

"It's about fairness in the search for the truth, and fairness in publishing our stories."

The Age's Nick McKenzie has put fairness at the centre of his journalistic identity. It's led him to break some of the nation's biggest stories, winning him 16 Walkleys, but also has meant he's been sued for defamation on multiple occasions. In this episode, he lays out the steps he takes to ensure his reporting is fair and ethical.

"Journali...

"Every story that you do, you need to talk to people." 

Julia Bergin's journalistic career has taken her as far afield as Japan and the Northern Territory, meaning she's had to work at building up her contact book time and time again. In this episode, she talks about all that goes into finding the right interviewees for a story.

"It's broadening this remit of interviewing from just a Q&A to the groundwork that happens before. A...

“You have to learn by doing, and you will only get better with practice.”

Angus Thomson started with Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet in 2022, and is currently their health reporter. In this episode he explains how he goes about finding news stories, reflecting on his experience as a student at The University of Melbourne and as a professional journalist. He has a key piece of advice for those unsure of where to start in finding a ...

In 2018, Silvi Vann-Wall was a journalism student who was chosen as a finalist in a nationwide podcasting competition.  Suddenly she found herself on a stage, pitching her idea to the best podcasters in the world.   Her advice on developing your podcast concept is very simple, "You must be able to describe it in one sentence by the time you're ready to pitch.  Otherwise, keep trying!"   She went on to ...

“The most helpful part of the series arc is dragging people to the next episode,” says ABC’s Matt Bevan, the host of China, If You’re Listening.  That’s the fifth season of his geopolitical pod, for which he’s done both chronological and thematic season arcs.  In this episode of the Masterclass, he shares what he’s learned about shaping narrative arcs across a season for a podcast...

Audience and sustainability are two key factors for Deadset Studio's Executive Producer Rachel Fountain in thinking about what podcasts will work. "When you know who the podcast is for, you can think about what they might be using it for, and tailor your content to that," she says.  Rachel has worked on many popular podcasts at ABC Audio Studios, including Days Like These and Pineapple Project, and here she shares the sec...

"It's never finished, but you get closer and closer to 'I'm happy with this'".  Martin Peralta is one of Australia's most sought after sound designers, having worked on ABC podcasts including Trace and Unravel, as well as Gimlet's Science Vs, and many others. In this episode, he outlines his work processes, his secrets for finding the right sound design and how to use music in podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy i...

"A good piece of work is written once.  A great piece is written five times."  To Elizabeth Kulas, the host of ABC's Days Like These, narrative structure is front of mind in planning and writing every podcast episode.   Formerly the host of 7am, she gives a Masterclass in structuring your episode.

Louisa Lim teaches Audio Journalism and Podcasting at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advanc...

In season 2 of The Masterclass, Louisa Lim explores podcasting with some of the world's best podcasters.  In this episode, Marc Fennell, the creator and host of the smash hit podcast Stuff the British Stole, gives a masterclass in how to tell complicated stories in a way that people can understand. 

Louisa Lim teaches Audio Journalism and Podcasting at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism...

Louisa Lim explores the booming phenomenon of podcasts with investigative journalist Richard Baker and the ABC’s Rachael Brown. What makes this genre so compelling to audiences, and what does it tell us about ourselves and how far can you push the the story telling?

Host details:
Louisa Lim has been a journalist for more than two decades. She was a foreign correspondent in China for a decade for BBC and NPR. She sub...

Louisa Lim moderated a lively discussion between Natasha Mitchell, host of the ABC's Science Friction and Robert Smith from Planet Money on NPR. They tackled topics such as their individual approaches to a story, how podcasts are pushing the boundaries of narrative story telling and how much of yourself should you insert into a story?

Host details:
Louisa Lim has been a journalist for more than two decades. She was a fore...