Toni & Ryan hit podcast gold

He’s a modern media jack of all trades, and current Workdays host on Melbourne’s KIIS 101.1 FM.

She is a voiceover artist with a background in sound engineering and a wealth of experience in broadcast media.

Together, Ryan Jon Dunn and Toni Lodge have struck podcast gold.

Having only launched last August, the Toni & Ryan podcast cracked five million downloads in in March – racking up 1.3 million downloads in February alone.

Early interest was generated when they started producing and posting the video clips that go with the podcast, before making the podcast itself.

In an interview with The Age Green Guide, Dunn says “‘We were like, the last thing the world needs is another couple of middle-class white people banging on about something, but we had fun doing it. People were asking, where’s the podcast?”

He adds ‘‘We thought, if we do it for a month and get bored, we’ll move on, and we haven’t got bored yet.’’

The article notes that Toni & Ryan is a curious beast in the world of commercial audio. It draws its budget from the crowd funding platform Patreon and its audience is predominantly outside Australia.

With a focus on everyday life and pop culture – with the kind of bold, sometimes explicit discussions you might expect from oversharing siblings – the podcast is carried on most major platforms.

Dunn and Lodge met while working together on a summer radio show.

They initially began recording videos for Lodge to use in her search for a job. They posted them online, with no strategy in mind.

Lodge tells the Green Guide ‘‘We woke up and there were all these comments. What’s your podcast called? Are you guys in a relationship? Which tickles me, of course,’’ says Lodge. ‘‘We were sitting together in the studio, and I was like, mate, I’m all in if you’re all in. And he went, yeah. All right.’’

Lodge and Dunn believe honesty is key to their success.

“Both of us are very honest with each other,’’ says Lodge ‘‘I don’t think I’ve ever had a relationship with somebody where I don’t feel judged, ever.’’

‘‘People have said, it feels like you’re sitting with two mates around the table at your mum and dad’s house, out the back. We’ve never had a conversation in real life that couldn’t have worked on the podcast, and vice versa.’’

The Toni & Ryan podcast is available on Apple, iHeart and Spotify