The award-winning news pod that’s engaging new generations of listeners

Journalist Hamish Macdonald considers Geraldine Doogue a national living treasure, and says co-hosting ABC Radio National’s Global Roaming podcast with this legend of Australian broadcasting is one of the great privileges of his career.

“I am absolutely loving doing this podcast with Geraldine. I learn from her every day,” Macdonald tells Radio Today.

“We have very long and very intense editorial meetings. We have great fun.”

So, being crowned dual winner of Best News Podcast in the 2024 Radio Today Podcast Awards was the icing on the cake.

“We’re very honoured to receive the award,” Macdonald says. “We didn’t expect it, and I guess when we set out with the new podcast this year, we never imagined that we would be securing recognition like this so soon. So the whole team is thrilled to pieces.”

The philosophy behind the podcast is simple: Australian listeners care about international news and are eager to know how it affects us. Yet few Australian outlets bother to dig deeper into international headlines – or engage new generations of listeners.

This is where Global Roaming comes in.

The podcast sets out to challenge two notions; 1, that audiences don’t care about international news and politics, and 2, that quality media is dry or academic.

Since launching in January this year, the program has clocked up 512k downloads and 207k listeners.

“We’re trying to tell the big and complicated stories of our very crazy times in a way that’s really engaging and accessible and curious,” Macdonald explains.

“As part of that we’re trying to create space for different ideas and different views and really thoughtful conversation in a way that is respectful and lively and, where possible, fun.”

Each week they take one topic, be it dropping fertility rates, Iran’s war or, yes – the Trump trial – and dissect it in an informal style with a lively, well-informed guest.

Within each 28-minute episode both hosts then analyse what their guest said, and how it fits with what their own skilled observations.

And, to keep their audiences plugged in, they share what they’re reading, watching and listening to, that’s of particular interest to current affairs junkies.

Here’s a sample: