The 13 Podcasts You Need to Listen to in 2022
With more than two million podcasts available, how do you find the right one for you? Leaders in business, the arts and sport share the shows that inform their thinking and challenge their beliefs.
Fast Track: Career Conversations with Margie Hartley
Laura Berry
Chief executive officer, Supply Nation
"Margie is an executive coach to leaders in Australia and abroad. In her podcasts, she gets to the core of daily challenges we face and is able to distil easily digestible business, leadership and career conversations. I love hearing from other leaders about pertinent issues facing them in business and how they’ve tackled them. Sometimes the podcast will cover something I’ve not encountered or given much thought to. Having the awareness of different leadership aspects and approaches that have or haven’t worked for others has helped me navigate otherwise unfamiliar situations at work.”
A Podcast of One’s Own with Julia Gillard
Janette Kendall
Non-executive director, Tabcorp, Vicinity Centres, Costa Group and others
"There isn’t a single episode I haven’t enjoyed. Julia interviews extraordinary women – from politicians to business leaders, social workers to activists, scientists to educators. It’s given me a broader perspective into the challenges women face around the world. It has shown me that each of us can make a difference in the context of the work we do, the way we lead and the way we live.”
Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat
Seiji Armstrong
Head of machine learning, trust and safety engineering, Google
"This podcast is nothing flash, no bells and whistles, but it serves as a reminder of the art of conversation and the importance of connection when listening and sharing ideas with people. I practice active listening and a lot of my job is to inspire people to ask the right questions and arrive at solutions organically. I can only do this by understanding how people think, challenging them to explore different perspectives and by no imposing too much of my own ideas into their design.”
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Black Magic Woman with Mundanara Bayles
Wesley Enoch
Playwright, director and Indigenous chair in the creative industries, QUT
"Mundanara is such an insightful interviewer and she brings culture to the forefront of every topic she looks into. She does a series of interviews supported by Indigenous Business Australia, in which she unpacks the entrepreneurial knowledge and practices of First Nations peoples and shows the human impact of business solutions within our communities. She proudly says that her podcast is 80 per cent personal and 20 per cent business and it’s strengthened my practice of bringing a human face to work I do. Often, as Aboriginal people, we think we have to leave our personality at the door to be professional but this podcast deals with the whole person without compartmentalising culture, place, business and community.”
No Limitations and Conversations
Alexis George
CEO, AMP
"I listen to podcasts every morning while walking my dogs. My favourite at the moment is No Limitations and I keep going back to ABC Radio’s Conversations. I’m constantly trying to understand people. I love listening to stories of great leaders who have challenged the status quo, been entrepreneurial, taken risks or done amazing things. As the new CEO of a listed company, I find these stories challenge me to think differently, be more inquisitive and be brave in my decision-making. I also try to remember that I’m human, don’t have to be perfect and need to look after myself if I want to look after those who depend on me.”
Meet the Leader, World Economic Forum
Claudia Vickers
Director, CSIRO Future Science Platform In Synthetic Biology
"Leading and managing people is a very challenging thing. A good leader creates an environment for other people to do great things. It gives you the opportunity to have impact way beyond what you could have as an individual. This podcast lets me engage purposefully with leadership, as opposed to practising it day-to-day without thinking much about it. Hearing other people’s thoughts allows you to reflect on your own.”
Energy Insiders and Energy Unplugged
Charlie Day
CEO, Jupiter Ionics
"In the energy space, these are my go-to podcasts. Giles Parkinson’s Energy Insiders is an ongoing discussion about the energy transformation in Australia, while Energy Unplugged is from Aurora Energy Research, a multinational based out of the United Kingdom. Obviously, I stay abreast of the press in my area but the podcasts let you hear firsthand from some key players and go into a bit more depth in the discussions. Energy Unplugged gives me a more international perspective, which is useful given that the energy transition is intrinsically a global phenomenon. It’s helpful to hear from leaders in a much more one-on-one, unfiltered way.”
Handpicked with Naomi Simson
Kate Roffey
President, Melbourne Football Club
"Each week, Naomi Simson hosts a business owner, from all walks of life. The owner will have a specific problem – financing the business, growing the business, online marketing... One I found interesting was when to call time on your business and how you decide to either sell it or close it down. I related to that one; I sat on the advisory board of a company a woman had built from scratch and grown into a very big company. She decided to sell it and we helped her through the process. At some point in time, you move on – not just in business but in life – do other things and give someone else a chance. I always say, ‘If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.’”
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Psych Health and Safety
Lucy Brogden
Chair and commissioner, National Mental Health Commission, and chair, The Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance
"I have a particular interest in creating mentally healthy workplaces. This podcast focuses on the science, the evidence, the data and the key people working in this area. I pick up lots of new ideas and perspectives here. Many of the issues we grapple with in our workplaces can be resolved if we just ask people what they want and need.”
Coffee Pods with Holly Ransom
Robyn Stokes
CEO and director, Bionics Queensland
"In many leadership podcasts, there’s a lot of talking about the same topics in a fairly repetitive way. Holly Ransom has a lot to offer. She interviews amazing people and goes to the heart of cultural change, human interaction, social impact and what’s needed in terms of leadership direction and organisational change.”
Dare to Lead with Brené Brown
Didier Elzinga
Founder and CEO, Culture Amp
"Our foundational value at Culture Amp is ‘have the courage to be vulnerable’. When we wrote that, I’d never heard of Brené Brown. I credit my wife, Greta Bradman, for introducing me to her. Brené has a way of saying incredibly profound things very simply. Every time I listen to her it reminds me of the person I want to be. The power of vulnerability to build trust and support growth has been integral to everything about Culture Amp. But it isn’t just the golden side – her way of explaining the challenges as well has been incredibly important. The line ‘vulnerability without boundaries is not vulnerability. It is confession, manipulation, desperation or shock and awe’ helped us explore what it means to truly ‘rumble’, to use her phrase.”
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