I might have a story for you - with Matt Levinson: Recent Episodes
Matt Levinson
What makes creative Sydneysiders tick? Getting below the surface with the people who make great things happen in our city, the people who create companies and radio stations, paintings and music, buildings, landscapes and so much more. Hosted by Matt Levinson.
Having fallen in love with The Sound of Music and never wanting it to end, Kerri Glasscock packed her bags at 15 and moved away from her family and her tiny country town to make a play for the theatre. She performed and put on shows and started the classic 505 jazz and theatre venues - rated in the top 150 jazz clubs worldwide by Downbeat - as well as turning the The Sydney Fringe into one of the most adventurous slots on the city’s calendar. Along the way, she emerged as a key change agent for Sydney's culture, advocating for reform, leading the review of the state’s culture policy - and this year taking the helm of Create NSW, the state’s creative agency. Kerri has an instagram grid full of extraordinary cakes, a magnetic personality and she’s larger than life - of course, I’ve always wanted to know more, and this conversation more than delivered.
Philip Thalis has been described as an influencer for a better future. As one of Australia's most respected architects, he’s literally shaped the physical environment of Sydney. In being awarded the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour - the Gold Medal - he was described as a role model for the architect as a public intellectual. Through his research, teaching, his magisterial tome Public Sydney and his persistent advocacy, he’s changed the way we think about our city - I’m constantly challenged to look at the city differently by the care and affection in his social media posts. So, of course, I’ve always wanted to know more!
Amanda Tattersall is a community organiser, author and researcher. She was a founder of GetUp, the Sydney Alliance and Labor for Refugees, and she makes the excellent Changemakers podcast, too. Amanda’s prolific and undeniably deeply creative in her impact, and she’s also become a powerful voice in the still far too taboo space of mental health and the way our brains work. Despite all that, she’s far from a household name, so, of course, I’ve always wanted to know more.
Ebony Wightman doesn’t like the term ‘trigger warning’ because it can stop people from talking about lived experience.
This deeply insightful conversation uncovers a whole life’s worth of experiences from the dark depths of loneliness, poverty and attempting to take her life through to the joy of creativity, community and expressing yourself.
Her work has been shown across Sydney from the Hawkesbury and Blacktown to the Biennale and Art Gallery of NSW, and her advocacy is driving real policy change.
In short, she’s doing the work of changing our city’s culture, and I’ve always wanted to know more.
Caroline Butler-Bowdon - universally known as CBB - has been a curator and a museum director, a PhD researcher, a government leader with a track record of significant change and she’s now the State Librarian.
She’s one of those people who seem to attract good people into their orbit, who become a centre of gravity all their own.
I see these people and the buzz of activity that forms around them, and especially with CBB, I’ve always wanted to know more.
Danièle Hromek is at the centre of an incredible moment. Creative, entrepreneurial, full of ideas, she’s right in the centre of a profound shift that’s underway towards a growing appreciation of Country, and of connecting and designing with Country, and it’s changing the way we think about and plan our cities. What I love about her work is the fluid way she works across so many domains - built urban environments, theatre and art, culture. I’ve seen her name pop up in so many different places, and I’ve always wanted to know more about the person behind all that work.
James Bradley grew up a couple of streets back from the beach, and it never let him go. Despite stints selling newspapers in a pub and working in a video shop, as a judge’s associate and a solicitor, it’s his career as a writer that’s given voice to that deep and abiding love and fascination with the ocean. With 10 books to his name and at least as many awards, his latest epic story is that of the ocean itself. It was a joy to sit down and hear how it came to be.
Cath Dwyer is a radio maker and journalist who’s helped shape the culture of radio here. A former Young Journalist of the Year and Human Rights medal winner, she founded the ABC’s pioneering participatory journalism project ABC Open, and has worked in radio at all levels from community stations through to Radio National and Triple J. At a time when the role of public media is more contested than ever, I loved getting the opportunity to talk to someone who knows it inside and out.
Brooke Webb is larger than life. From sneaking in to a Nirvana gig through a broken window (and landing right on the stage, in front of Dave Grohl’s massive right calf), to touring Sonic Youth. Running away to join the circus through to her current gig as Chief Executive of the Sydney Writers Festival. She’s lived a hundred different lives and relished every one. You often hear cliches about life being a journey, Brooke’s life is an adventure that criss crosses time zones and continents.
Georgia Weir founded the life changing community running program Deadly Runners. She competed in the New York, Gold Coast, North Coast and Chicago marathons. But she wasn’t always a runner, in fact she came to the sport as an absolute last resort, having lived through some incredibly tough times - the perfect prep for the high highs of running at the highest level, and coaching First Nations running talent.
Belqis Youssofzay is an architect who grew up in Afghanistan and India, moving to Sydney’s central coast as a teenager. From dreamy photography to the Powerhouse renewal, her work reflects that unique journey - this fascinating conversation covers so much ground, from Muriel’s Wedding and swimming cossies to the role of museums and culture in society. A real joy to get this time with one of the city’s most interesting new architects.
Kenny Yong-soo Son makes stunningly handcrafted metal objects from metal, concrete and sometimes timber, beautifully shaped spoons, a cup, dustpan and broom, a light shade, even a starkly geometric bookmark. If that wasn’t enough, he runs one of Sydney’s much loved restaurants, Sang By Mabasa, pushing the thinking around Korean food. His work is extraordinary, and deeply tied up in family and friendship, the everyday as well as the exquisite. When I found out the one person was behind both I had to find out more.
Mel Greblo is a startup founder and CEO working to help women rebuild their lives after family violence. At least a quarter of Australian women are affected by this insidious and deeply destructive form of abuse, which so often leaves victim survivors financially impoverished with battered self esteem, a tough base to build a new life. Helping them back up is such an important mission, I was fascinated to talk with Mel about her life and how she came to be doing this work.
Ricky Simandjuntak has had a hand in so much that is good about music in our city right now. Sampa The Great, The Kid Laroi, Becca Hatch, ONEFOUR - four entirely different acts, all global stars or stars in the making - and you can see him front and centre in the new Netflix doco Against All Odds, as ONEFOUR’s manager. I started talking with Ricky for a project on live music, and there was so much in it about music, culture, branding, identity and so much else, I had to know more.
Jess Hill has almost unbelievable stores of nerve. A teen actor who convinced advertisers to get on board with a Dolly meets Time magazine startup at 19, she’s made a career of doing things few of us have the courage for. Fearless and tenacious in pursuit of a story, she’s rigorous, passionate and deeply affecting in the telling of them. Despite staring down a deadly cancer, Jess has changed the conversation on one of the most insidious and destructive aspects of our culture - coercive control and family violence. After following her work for years, I deeply appreciated this window into Jess’s incredible life.
Topher Boehm took the risky move of going foraging for native flowers to create the yeast for his beers instead of getting a typical off-the-shelf starter, and the results are truly imaginative and special.
His story starts in Dallas Texas, with stops in Rome and northern Spain, and an unfolding love affair with Sydney. It takes in cosmology and big data astrophysics, and building the tables and chairs in the brewery from scrap. I loved this conversation and hope you do too.
Kenny Sabir was playing a violin three-and-a-half. Programming a computer at four. He started Sydney’s Elefant Traks record label and the label’s flagship band The Herd; and he’s a software engineer who’s worked at Bell Labs, IBM’s Watson Lab, the Garvan and now leads R&D for the $100m livestock management startup AgriWebb. He’s pretty extraordinary, and I’ve always wanted to know more about what makes him tick.
Shaun Christie-David has created some of Sydney’s best places to eat. In the infamously precarious world of running restaurants, he’s making opportunities for refugees and people seeking asylum, Aboriginal people, people who’ve dealt with addiction and a range of disadvantage to find their way into good work. It’s practical and extraordinary work, and yet despite knowing all that, it was a chance conversation one night that really piqued my curiosity - I had to know more about what made him tick.
Meagan Loader is one of the most influential people in music and radio. A key player in the creation of FBI radio and Double J, she’s nudged and shaped the careers of countless talented people. Meagan is someone who creates space for people to succeed and succeed on a large scale, she’s mischievous and fun, empathetic and encouraging, she taught me so much. I feel so indebted to her, for her encouragement, leadership and disarming humour, and I’ve always wanted to sit down and get below the surface.
Jess Cook is an absolute force, one of those people who electrifies a room. She’s a leader in Sydney’s creative community with a record of building real things - particularly the big welcoming room and stage that is 107 Projects in Redfern - but go back and she’s been involved in countless shows, performances, projects and festivals. When I first met Jess I was blown away by her creative entrepreneurial spirit and energy, but I’d never had the chance to sit down and chat, until now.
Ben Peake is an architect, responsible for playful, clever and creative work like Annandale’s photogenic Concrete Blonde house and Blacktown’s Woodcroft neighbourhood centre. He writes about architecture. He’s won awards. But he’s also kicked against the edges of the profession, pushing for change, including campaigning for the iconic Sirius building. So it might surprise you to know he came to architecture late, after plenty of surprising stops along the way including a career in IT, a tilt at electoral politics and a website devoted to the Hoff.
Sacha Coles has left his stamp on some of Sydney’s most interesting and talked about public spaces, from the Goods Line, Tumbalong Park and Pirrama Park, to the new Harbour Bridge bike ramp. He’s been deeply involved in shaping the conversation around landscape architecture and urban design, so I’ve always wanted to know more about what makes him tick.
Dan Ilic is the most relentlessly creative person I know. Comedian, actor, TV producer, prolific on social media, podcaster and radio host, he’s driven surges of controversy for decades, stirring up front page stories, howls from politicians and passionate audiences. He’s also incredibly purposeful, often dropping everything for a crucial campaign. What’s most surprising to me is that he’s not a household name, I’ve always wanted to know more.
Gemma Smith’s work has taken shape as paintings on canvas and chessboards, architectural sculptures and a big Sistine Chapel Ceiling esque painting high above Brisbane’s Supreme Court. It’s uncontrived, yet controlled and deliberate. There’s something joyful and exhilarating, all wildly gesticulating brush strokes and colour. The process seems crucial and it’s something you don’t see in the gallery, I’ve always been intrigued to know more.
Lynn Dang is a tech leader, with long stints at computing giants Microsoft and IBM, and a mentor to many through her roles with Australia for UNHCR, SheEO and others. She’s passionate, focused, with a powerful influence. Exactly the sort of person you’d hope would be shaping the talent pipeline for a major tech company. And at least part of that strength and empathy stems from her family’s escape from Vietnam when Lynn was four years old.
Cam Webb’s band Seaworthy make music that’s quintessentially Australian - like the Go Betweens’ Cattle & Cane, Ed Kuepper’s Electrical Storm or Warumpi Band’s My Island Home - and he's one of the country's science stars, studying mosquitoes, which puts him at the intersection of some of the biggest issues we face. He's someone I’ve always wanted to get to know better.
Kaylene Milner was an eisteddfod kid who now plays drums in post punk band Loose Fit. She achieved the ultimate entree to Sydney’s fashion world, but now makes knitted band jumpers as Wah Wah. Straddling DIY culture and high end fashion, she’s a deep thinker on the business of creativity.
Nik's won stacks of advertising awards, hosted a show on Triple M that was in the papers every week, he’s changed the sunglasses business and he’s teaching the next gen of designers at UTS. He's driven by purpose, skilled and deliberate about the work of storytelling. Plus he has a lot of nerve.
Lee Tran’s not just an excellent eating companion or even an oracle to the best places to eat (both true), in a real way she’s changed the culture around food in Sydney – she's almost certainly the only person I’ll ever meet who’s had a sandwich named after her.