Thanks for joining me on the journey of Streets of Your Town—The Journo Project. Where every week I will speak face to face and one on one with one of the best journalists from around the country, revealing candid audio insights from the the top practitioners of the reporting craft.
One of Australia’s leading investigative reporters Hedley Thomas, features in our first episode of The Journo Project podcast.
He’s the co-creator and presenter of the phenomenally successful podcast “The Teacher’s Pet”.
The success of his true crime podcast caught Hedley by surprise, not least of which because this was the first time he had ever produced one.
“I knew it would be a challenge because I hadn't done it before, and my grasp of technology is pretty tenuous,” he says.
“Anyone who knows me well can relate stories about my hopelessness with the vagaries of technology and the systems.
“So I thought that combining long form journalism with a podcast, and this incredible story about Lyn Dawson and her disappearance in 1982, and suspected murder, with the kind of deep diving that I wanted to do on the investigative side.
“I felt that it could tick a lot of boxes, possibly even give me some credibility on the technology side for a change. And I was also intrigued about this new medium.”
More than 50 million downloads later, Hedley now has a worldwide phenomenon on his hands.
But this is only his latest project. The respected reporter has been in the pursuit of truth for many years, winning Australia's most prestigious journalism honour—the Gold Walkley Award—not once but twice. And all without having a social media presence.
He advises young reporters not to let building a social media presence take time away from the more important aspects of journalism.
“I don't do Twitter,” Hedley tells The Journo Project.
“I just think that it's a great time waster. If they spent less time doing that and more time honing skills, the sorts of skills that I think will stand them in much better stead like, reading for example, books about investigative journalism, reading even, if they're interested in crime and in solving or trying to investigate cold cases.
“And that's also about their mental health. Like if they become high profile, it seems to me that all they do is attract haters, and people who just want to tweet abuse at them. So what's the point of it?
“Strangers tweeting anger, and hate, and abuse at each other in this little echo chamber that the overwhelming majority of Australians don't give a fig about. Why are we doing it? Why are journalists so enamoured of it? I don't get it.”
He says despite the emergence of digital technology, the art of investigative journalism has not changed much in his practice.
“For me, a lot of it is gut feeling, in terms of the identification of an angle, or a story that is going to be one I want to pursue,” he says.
"If I have an edge over some of my colleagues, and I'm not saying that I do, because I don't want to blow my trumpet, but some of them who've known me a long time have said that, they think I can perceive and read and see things, and see the underlying angle that others aren't seeing.
“See the potential for what might look like a plain vanilla kind of story, to actually being, no there's something really rotten about this.”
He says the the recent Australian Federal Police raids on media outlets will have a chilling effect both on journalists, and whistleblowers, and is an extremely worrying trend.
“My view is that it was significantly about intimidating would be whistle blowers, who will be seeing the very public spectacle of police going in en masse to the offices of the National Public Broadcaster, and into the home of one of my colleagues at News Corp.
“And the coverage of that, has a chilling effect on people who know that bad things are happening, or being covered up, that need to be highlighted in the media.”
Take the time to listen to Hedley’s full interview, and details of the threats against his and his family’s life that he’s had to endure as part of his work, on the podcast link at the top of this newsletter. Streets of Your Town—The Journo Project is also available on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and other podcast providers.
Behind the scenes
For the Hedley Thomas appreciation society out there, you’ll be glad to know my investigative reporting uncovered his favourite brew: a skinny flat white! I’m sure he’d appreciate a few more of those as thanks for the amazing work he does for our democratic process! It was great to meet Hedley at the place where he wrote so many of the scripts for The Teacher’s Pet—the Brookfield General Store.
The Wandering Journo’s itinerary
I now have 15 incredible Aussie journos confirmed for the weekly rollout of Streets of Your Town—The Journo Project! They’ll be landing weekly in your inbox. Please feel free to share my email and share the word about my upcoming episodes with Peter Greste, Trent Dalton, Adele Ferguson, Antoinette Latouff, Isabella Higgins, Mark Willacy and Hugh Riminton, to name just a few! Let’s tell the world about the amazing journalists that we have in Australia, and what incredible changes for good that they have helped make to our society.
What I’m reading
“Look at dishes this way and washing up isn’t the shouldering of a burden but a renewal of the conditions by which all this—the talking, the eating, the communion—can happen again. (Your closest friends already know this; what more concrete expression of intimacy is there than a friend elbow deep in dirty dishwater, long after everyone else has gone home?) As a religious person without a religious affiliation, handling a dirty sink isn’t work; it’s a sweeping of the altar.”
Letter of Recommendation: Washing Dishes - NYTimes Magazine
I just love The New York Times, and am such a proud subscriber. I encourage all of you to subscribe to and support a media organisation that you’re passionate about. It’s not just the big exposes and the incredible photography of the NYT that gets me excited as a journalist, but also the wonderful slice of life pieces that are written so beautifully. This one is a great example. Who could have thought that washing the dishes could produce such philosophical insights? LOVE IT. It proves to me yet again, that stories are hidden everywhere, and often in the most unlikely places. We just have to find them, and tell them.
Next week: Peter Greste
You’re not going to want to miss next week’s episode. Put it in the diary for a Friday landing now—none other than PETER GRESTE talking direct to your earbuds about what he sees as the global war on journalism, as well as taking us behind the scenes of how he ended up in that Egyptian jail for 400 days for his reporting, on what he describes as a run of the mill story that he never expected could end in such incredible circumstances. We also hear the background to his illustrious career before and since, such as how he was awarded the prestigious internationally recognised Peabody Award for his documentary on Somalia. We also hear how Professor Greste is now the UNESCO Chair of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland and founding member and Director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.
Merch!
All you journo lovers out there I’m sure would know the journo love of a good freebie. Thanks to so many of you who have subscribed to my free newsletter and podcast and to those extra special members of The Wandering Journo tribe who decided to support my work by becoming PAID subscribers—YIPPEE TO YOU! Your support helps me celebrate great Aussie journos and fulfil the vision I have for the quality of this podcast—enabling me to travel around Oz to meet these amazing journalists face to face and ensure you feel right in the middle of the action listening in our conversation with that glorious face to face audio quality. Not scratching your head trying to hear through the crackles of a bad mobile phone line or dodgy computer connection! For those paid subscribers, you have some special Wandering Journo merchandise coming your way. And what better merch could a journo design than a coffee cup and a pen—two things journos are pretty notorious for nabbing at every opportunity! (Shhhhhh!)
If you believe in journalism and wish to support it, subscribe to the paid version of this newsletter. The same content is free for anybody but your support helps sustain this podcast.
How Hedley Thomas made a world renowned podcast without social media