A visualised podcast - in the flesh

One of the smartest podcasts that the Australian ABC produces is called “If You’re Listening”, by Matt Bevan.

Here it is on YouTube; and here’s that same episode on ABC Listen as an audio podcast.

Originally an audio podcast, the ABC started making it into a video podcast in July 2023. The show is very heavy in terms of archive footage - and, as I understand it, Bevan records in both video and audio (in his basement at home), and then two separate teams go and edit it: once for video and once for audio.

The audio version (of the episode I linked to) is 22'28"; the video version is 21'15". They are wildly different in terms of editing - here’s just the first fifteen seconds, with a transcript above the audio of each: the video is on the top.

The video trial must have been a success - the audio version now airs on ABC Radio National; the video version airs on the ABC News Channel.

A lot of the times, we hear a “visualised podcast” being touted as something that is just a television chat show with a cheaper set. It’s easy to film a “chatcast”, a simple interview with two people, on video: just run a few cameras, and you can even mix automatically between then if you want. With an online tool like Riverside, you get a mixed video file free as part of the deal if you want.

But this is a piece of content that is deliberately remade for both types of output. There’s lots to learn, I think, from how they do it. The format seems almost unique: I certainly don’t think I’ve ever seen this sort of thing before.

It speaks volumes that the ABC haven’t put this show onto Spotify in video. Spotify, if you didn’t know, lets you upload video podcasts directly; but when you do that, the audio from the video file is what everyone hears. If you’re doing two separate edits, as the ABC does, then tough - a Spotify listener will just get the audio from the video file. And that’s not always the right plan.

Anyway, I tell you all this because Matt Bevan was here in Brisbane last Friday, speaking at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival. I didn’t really know what to expect, but in the sold-out event, he did an hour-long version of the show, complete with hundreds of clips of audio and video, talking about why nobody can predict the future (and why you’re a fool if you think you can). I shuffled in my seat a little when he started telling people not to believe people who call themselves “futurologists”. Um.

(And if I can guess his email address correctly, I’m hoping he lets me know what his tech stack was for doing the show: I think I could cobble together what he did with Keynote, but there’s a lot of really clever moving pieces as he does it, and I suspect he’s running something a little cleverer.)

Anyway, the show is worth a listen, or a watch, if you haven’t see it.

Classifieds

• Maths, Art or Magic? Radio scheduling and programming is easier when you know how to make it consistent and position it to succeed. Buy Robin Prior’s new book and discover clock-building, formatting, the forward-sell, music research, and much more.
• Supercharge your radio show with world-class prep: the right show prep delivered to you on time, EVERY day, without fail. Grab a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep and stop chasing round looking for things to use on your show, running out of time before the show, and trying to sight-read the newspapers!

• In Germany, Radiozeit is keen to highlight a new patent for producing a cost-efficient real-time transcription and visual display of live audio. This is a very nice thing, and makes radio significantly more accessible. Not just that, but they’ve also launched a full monitoring tool for radio stations, so you can search through shows and be able to categorise elements, etc. Impressive small company.

• Emergency broadcasting: I might be doing a talk in a month or so about radio’s emergency broadcasting - giving some good examples of radio stations producing emergency broadcasting that connected with audiences who needed it. One of the benefits of being independent is that I’m able to talk about anyone: commercial, public, community; and able to talk about both programming solutions to emergency situations, but also engineering solutions, too - the famed “radio in a suitcase” temporary solutions, or other solutions that broadcast radio with nothing more than an internet-enabled mobile phone and a bucket with a transmitter in it. Do you have any good examples or stories you’d like me to share at an international broadcast conference? Do let me know.

• Interesting to read the howls of protest from the Australian radio industry, after I suggested last week that the regulator ACMA should suspend Kyle and Jackie O show from the airwaves, and shift them to an age-protected online live stream. Reaction to this was really clear - anyone not involved with the radio industry wholeheartedly agreed with me, and were astonished that they’ve been allowed to broadcast their obscene content for so long; and… anyone that was involved in the commercial radio industry was totally horrified that I’d suggest that media regulator ACMA actually do some media regulation. “But people can just turn off, can’t they?” was one response; another telling me to “let the market decide”; another deciding that all the show needed was another censor (but this time, an independent one) - not a single person involved in radio suggesting that ARN, as the licensed broadcaster, deserved any punishment or had any responsibility; yet every single one also saying they don’t defend the content. The difference here was so stark and so obvious, it’s clear that this is a systemic issue in the commercial radio industry, not a one-off - there’s a genuine belief that obscene content on the radio is just fine here, and I’m the whinging pom for objecting to it. Meanwhile, of course, no word from ACMA on their next move.

• The BBC’s radio stations fell off TuneIn last week for 24 hours, but came back after I asked a few people at the BBC whether this was a permanent change. I also discovered that Apple Music lets you listen to radio without a subscription. Here’s how to listen to BBC Radio outside the UK.

  • Still no on-demand radio on the app, by the way. It’s been on the web for a few months now.

• I’m in Sydney from Wednesday afternoon until mid Friday; and will be spending Thursday at SXSW Sydney. Here are my contact details (I should mention - I’ve a new US number, to go with my UK and Australian one).

• Updated on my personal blog: Why you (probably) don’t need a VPN; why you should cover up your barcode on your airline boarding pass; and how to avoid showing some shortcodes in Hugo’s RSS output which I’m sure you’ll find thrilling.

Where I am speaking next

• Radiodays Europe, Riga, Latvia, (Mar 22-24, 2026)

Supporters

Thank you to the supporters below, plus Greg Strassell, Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for being regular supporters.

If you’d like to support my work in any way, you can BuyMeACoffee - become a member to give regularly or just give a one-off coffee, or five. Here’s where to do that. Or, alternately, here’s a way direct with Stripe.

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My website has more detail about who I am, and what I do, and whether I can help you further.

Selected bits from Radioland are in RadioInfo in Australia, and RAIN News in the US
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