David & Lisa Campbell dive head-first into The Austenverse with new podcast

Smooth FM presenter David Campbell and his wife – award-winning casting director Lisa Campbell – are launching a brand new podcast: Into The Austenverse.

Imagine a Venn diagram. One circle is Pop Culture. The other is Classical Literature. Right in the middle? Into The Austenverse.

2025 marks 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen, whose groundbreaking novels not only transformed literature but continue to shape and inspire modern culture.

With a devoted community of ‘Janeites’ in Australia and around the world, opinions on the many adaptations are as passionate as they are plentiful.

Into The Austenverse dives into the entire Austenverse and its ever-expanding world of adaptations, reimaginings and cultural references.

“For Lisa, Austen is a lifelong passion,” says David. “For me, she’s been a cultural icon whose influence I’ve seen pop up everywhere, though I’d not read her work until recently. With Into The Austenverse, we get to bring those perspectives together, dive into the books and the adaptations and have some fun along the way. It’s the perfect mix of pop culture and classic literature, and we can’t wait to share it with listeners.”

“Two hundred and fifty years on, Austen still feels completely relevant,” says Lisa. “Her characters are sharp, funny, and flawed, and her themes of love, family, ambition, and social pressure are as universal today as they were in her time. That’s why the Austenverse keeps expanding. People never stop finding new ways into her world, and that’s what makes exploring it so exciting to us.”

Into The Austenverse is produced by Luckiest Productions and hosted on the Nova Podcasts platform.

The first episode launches on Monday, September 22, with new episodes released weekly and available wherever you get your podcasts.