My prediction for 2027 is that one of Australia’s primary podcasts and partnerships will crash and burn. In writing this, I hope it acts as a warning rather than a premonition. This is not about all the new fangled things that need to be part of your product now. It’s about what happens when the joy of what you have created has gone.
Firstly, lets go back to 2016. Zara McDonaldand Michelle Andrews were working forMamamia, which was just starting up the podcast arm of the business. Zara and Michelle had become friends over the long hours they worked together and come up with the idea of an audio product “for smart people who love dumb stuff”.
They told the Sydney Morning Herald they pitched the concept to their Mamamia bosses Mia Freedman and Jason Lavigne. It was accepted, and then rejected, very late in the piece. Soon after the pair resigned.
Their podcast, Shameless, launched independently on March 12, 2018. Mamamia’s first podcast, The Quicky, launched nearly a year later. Shameless Media also launched in 2018.
One of the things I admire about Shameless is that if you want to know what is going on with them, you have to listen. Hundreds of thousands of mostly women do. It has topped the Triton Australian Podcast ranker. A cool additional fact is Sophie Greiner and Bella Filacuridi who created and launchedDomeFest this year, the Coachella of podcast festivals by and for podcast fans, met at a networking event for female founders which they had turned up to solo. Making chit chat they realised they had both just listened to the most recent Shameless episode and were hugely invested in the show.
While Zara and Michelle didn’t feature in the inaugural festival, either would be bucket list for Sophie and Bella, as it inspired the concept.
At the Shameless Media Upfronts in September, a new slate of podcasts were revealed as well as a partnership with KICpod‘sLaura Henshaw and Steph Claire Smith. The network has over 170 million listens, 1.9 million social followers, and 113,000 newsletter subscribers. It held, in 2025, near 10% of Australia’s podcast wealth and made around $10 million.
They are top performers, now adding significantly more responsibility and output.
Shameless may have been one that got away for Mamamia, but Mia Freedman has also grown her empire vastly since then. Mamamia Out Loud has been top of our ranker most of this year. However I’ll park Mamamia for the moment, and come back to it.
Last week was the 2027 Upfronts for Seven Media Group, the new name of the mergedSouthern Cross Austereo andSeven West Media.One of the major announcements was that Lu & Jarch (Luisa Dal Din and Jack Archdale), currently heard 2-4pm nationally on Triple M, will host nationalHit Network Drive next year, replacing Carrie & Tommy.
Also revealed was that their podcast We Mean Well,will shift to LiSTNRto come under the Seven Media Group umbrella too, from Acast. It began in July 2022.
This sounds great, right? Having all your eggs in one basket.
Lu and Jarch, and The Toni and Ryan podcast, the latter being amongst the most successful podcasts Australia has ever produced and also part of the Acast stables, are not specifically targetted at women. Their audience demographic is vast, and in Toni and Ryan’s case, global.
Toni Lodge and Ryan Jon Dunn come from radio, and I suspect never intend to return. They don’t need to. For Lu and Jarch it is the other way around, which is increasingly a way that broadcast networks
I attended SXSW, the final one held in Sydney this time last year, and caught a session on chemistry featuring Lu, Jarch and Ryan. One of the questions afterwards to Lu & Jarch was from an avid listener who had only discovered that day that the two were also on radio. She wasn’t the only one.
There is a certain freedom with podcasting independently, or with a non radio affiliated network, in that you can make your own luck and act with more creative control.
For better or for worse on both counts.
I don’t know if Lu and Jarch yet can conceive the amount of work that will go into their three hour M-F drive show AND a separate entity podcast that currently releases two hour long episodes a week.
Perhaps the aim will be to meld some of the content together.We Mean Well also has subscriber bonus bits through Patreon. Irrespective, for Lu & Jarch in 2027, to use the podcast words of Abbie Chatfield – “It’s a Lot”. Jarch became a dad for the first time earlier this year too.
The Seven Media Group Upfront also mentioned that Hamish and Andy will add video to their podcast episodes. Hamish & Andy are the juggernauts of the industry. Like Shameless,The Hamish & Andy podcast launched in March 2018 soon after the pair ‘retired’ from live radio. It’s been No 1 on the ranker more than anyone else. Even on their ‘Government mandated breaks’ over the festive period, they have so much vintage content from their 25 years of working together their Remembering Project of best bits continues to rank in their absence.
The two great mates are no stranger to the camera so maybe consistent video episodes won’t be a big deal. But, I suspect that, to paraphrase Dolly Parton‘s‘it takes a lot of money to look this cheap’, for Hamish BlakeandAndy Lee, it takes more time than we will ever know to sound so effortless. Now they have to additionally think about how they look, what they wear, and how the set looks. Or maybe a lack of care for that will become a running gag too.
Another of the LiSTNR podcasts that will up the video content is Life Uncut hosted by Laura Byrne and Brittany Hockley, launched in July 2019. They left ARN iHeart this time last year too. I heard the news at SXSW the same day as the Lu, Jarch and Ryan session.
“After six successful years together, ARN and Life Uncut will part ways at the end of 2025, allowing us to focus on new iHeart Originals launching in 2026. More details on our upcoming podcast slate and The Pick Up will be shared at our Upfront on 29 October.”
And what an Upfront that was! This year’s feels like going to the markets late Sunday afternoon. Most of the good stuff is gone.
The Pick Up was Laura and Brittany’s networked KIISradio program, which also ended when they left ARN. Since they joined SCA and LiSTNR they haven’t been offered a radio role. Their podcast however, in the September podcast ranker, was #4, with more than 900K monthly downloads and nearly 100,000 additional listeners on this time last year. It’s going great guns.
This month there has been two major announcements for Life Uncut. Firstly Brittany is pregnant. This is a much wanted baby after a long infertility journey. Secondly, the pair have created a Patreon subscription model which supports a whole host of bonus extras.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd7yYTWB0iB/
There has been some backlash to this from longtime listeners as you can read in the comments above, as well as a lot of support. To my eyes this is an example of sharing the load, while consolidating what listeners already love. But, having your first baby after such a long wait, changes your priorities. Sharnelle Vella will attest to this, making the decision to not return from maternity leave to her ABC Melbournebreakfast radio program.
“(S)ince becoming a mum to Eve, I’ve realised just how much I want to spend this precious time with her.
Every parent knows how quickly these early months pass. Right now, I want more time at home with my baby and my family.”
The more responsibility you add to your shoulders, the harder it is to put down. Sometimes, as we have also seen in the breakdown of Kyle and Jackie O‘s two decade long professional relationship, all the things that used to work and flow easily, don’t anymore. Once one person has mentally checked out, it is very hard to rebalance. Especially as you add more ingredients to the pot.
Breakfast too is particularly punishing, if you are trying to maintain other projects alongside the early alarms.
While I know that everything is fresh, new and exciting for Elliot Garnaut and Isaac Smith right now, kicking off on KIIS 101.1 breakfast this morning with Ash London, and having their No Utes in the Valet picked up by ARN as well. Maintaining both might feel a little harder in six months.
That brings me back to Mia Freedman and Mamamia.
In August last year Mia took several months leave, saying in an Outloud episode:
“Before we go, I have some news… I’m taking a few months off. I guess it’s long service leave.
“I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years now. It started as a weekly show, it’s now a daily show.
“It’s not even my day job. My day job was co-founder of Mamamia, running a business.
“The business and the show can live without me for a while. I’m going to find out if I can live without it.”
She handed over her No Filter podcast hosting responsibilities to Kate Langbroek and, in July this year, the CEO reins to her son Luca Lavigne. It was a move that Mia chose to share internally, with Mamamia listeners, not through a media release. I reflected on the decision at the time in the article below.
Mamamia also held Upclose events in October with their theme “Fewer, Bigger, Deeper“. Contrary to what everyone else is doing, Mamamia is consolidating what they already do well.
Many of the podcast bars in this country have been set by Mamamia, one being the value of continuing to release new episodes over Christmas and avoiding any ‘mandated break’. Mamamia Out Loud,over 2025/26, picked up new subscribers trying to find options for the long trips in the car to see family and the like, and those extras have paved their additional success this year.
Fewer, Bigger, Deeper appears a counterintuitive stance. But perhaps Mamamia have clocked that there are listeners who feel that their regular favourites are spreading themselves too thin, and that’s impacting the quality and value of episodes.
It’s still got to be good content. The kind of chat that leads to word of mouth spread. Not something cobbled together because you have committed to releasing x many episodes a week and all the good stuff has been talked about already.
Mamamia has seen a limit and stepped back from the edge.
In 2027 some may fall over.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.
Photos within are the author’s.
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