The South Coast Writers Festival kicks off at Wollongong Town Hall from August 18-20. It will showcase a diverse range of genres including crime, horror, politics, poetry, podcasting, and literary fiction. In the lead up, meet Siobhán McHugh, who will be revealing insights into the literary podcast.

Siobhán McHugh is a narrative podcast producer, consultant, critic, author and academic who has won seven gold podcast awards at New York Festivals. Siobhán’s collaborations include Walkley-award-winning The Greatest Menace, about a ‘gay prison’ experiment, described as "Australia’s S-Town". She partnered with The Age on hit podcasts Phoebe’s Fall, Wrong Skin and The Last Voyage of The Pong Su and co-hosts Heart of Artness, about cross-cultural aspects of Aboriginal art production. She spoke alongside Dana Chivvis, producer of Serial, at one podcast summit.

Siobhán’s book, The Power of Podcasting: telling stories through sound (2022), is "packed with useful insights and ideas: the most in-depth guide to the best audio storytelling around the world" – Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole).

You can see Siobhán in The Podcast on Saturday, August 19 at Wollongong Town Hall.

What is your latest project? 

An eight-part narrative podcast (listen free on Audible) called The Greatest Menace, which investigates what we believe was the world’s only ‘gay prison’. It operated in a small NSW country town until homosexuality (described by the NSW Police Commissioner in 1957 as ‘the greatest menace’ then facing the country) was decriminalised in 1984. From the time it opened in 1957, gay men could be arrested even for having private consensual relations. Like ‘lab rats’, they were studied by a committee led by a University of Sydney psychiatrist, charged by the government to investigate ‘causes and treatment of homosexuality’ – i.e to ‘cure’ it.

We tracked down people who were associated with the prison on the inside and the outside, and traced the sometimes devastating impact it had on their lives. We also provide the bigger historical context: who implemented this policy, why, how and to what effect, and how did this compare with other countries at the time?

That might sound heavy, but there is lots of humour and heart along the way, and we meet some fascinating people, from gay rights activists to host Patrick Abboud’s wonderful Lebanese mother. 

Why this work? 

I advise how to tell stories through sound and adapt them to suit the podcast medium, a super-intimate environment where people listen alone and through headphones. So podcasting is great for stories with a strong personal element and for subjects rich in detail and nuance.

The Greatest Menace has both: at one level it’s a dogged investigation of a prison few people had heard of; at another, it’s Pat’s own story of navigating being a gay man in a homophobic Arab-Australian community, which is hard for even his family to come to terms with.  

What do you love about it? 

The chance to work for two years as a tight team with two brilliant documentary makers, Patrick Abboud and Simon Cunich, all three of us committed to pushing the narrative podcast form to the utmost, to tell the story with maximum artistry and journalistic rigour.

The Greatest Menace has won 15 major awards, so it’s great to see that effort recognised by our peers. The judges at the 2023 Australian International Documentary Conference in Melbourne summed it up beautifully: this ‘investigation into the world’s only ‘gay prison’ combined forensic reporting with personal insight to tell a story that was by turns shocking, heartwarming, funny, and gripping. It carefully excavates a dark history full of painful truths about systemic homophobia and the legacy it leaves behind, never shying away from the intricacies and unusual moments that Pat comes across along the way. The makers demonstrate an expertise in the form, and it was the sort of series that reminded us of why we love audio storytelling.’ 

What challenges have you run into? 

In-depth research is vital, but then you have to figure out how to turn 102 hours of interview recordings and eight hours of actuality (scenes) into only about six hours of finished podcast!

You also have to be very ethical in your editing, so as not to misrepresent people – for instance, in the first draft episode, I found us a policeman who once helped the Vice Squad entrap gay men by making overtures to them in public places as they were surveilled. That was a ghastly practice, but the cop was a complex man with his own moral code, and it was important to honour that, not make him seem cartoonishly evil.

Getting the music right was also crucial – we had a wonderful composer, Nick Wales, and an excellent sound design team, Unison, but with our bonus episode, done on a public holiday, key people were away and we nearly got palmed off with a hideous Hallmark mix featuring cheesy violins that traduced the authentic emotion of David, a man who stayed in the closet for 60 years after being imprisoned for the ‘crime’ of wanting a gay relationship. 

What are you most excited about for your event at the South Coast Writers Festival? 

The chance to help people understand how to tell stories via podcast. To do this, they need to understand how audio works as a medium – how to write for it, sound engaging and real as a host, use music and ambient sound to add pace, mood and texture, and carve up the story into digestible and compelling episodes that deliver emotion, nuance and tension, and are full of 3D characters, plot twists and complexity.

My book gives behind-the-scenes info on how we did this with other award-winning podcasts I co-produced, Phoebe’s Fall and The Last Voyage of the Pong Su, and it also delves into the whole podcast canon including global hits such as S-Town and Serial. 

Siobhan will be appearing on Saturday, 19 August at the South Coast Writers Festival. Tickets available here

The Podcast

From 11:15am - 12:15pm on Saturday in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

What makes for a great podcast? Caroline Baum, the journalist behind the contemporary biography podcast series, Life Sentences, and Siobhan McHugh, multi-award-winning podcast podcast producer (The Greatest Menace) and author of The Power of Podcasting: telling stories through sound, speak with Pamela Cook about podcasting as a medium, how great narrative podcasts are made, and why we've fallen in love with audio storytelling all over again. BUY TICKETS