In this History Now series talk, Leigh Boucher and Geraldine Fela explore the phenomenon of history podcasting and explore its challenges beyond more traditional history outreach channels.
In the ever-expanding podcast media universe, history is a significant player. Podcasts led by historians regularly feature in ‘top-ten’ download lists, and there is clearly an appetite amongst podcast listeners to hear experts interpret and make meaning from the past. The contrast with declining trends in book sales by academic historians could not be sharper. Many within the discipline (and the broader humanities) are understandably excited about the potential of podcasts to reach new audiences, but podcasting the past also represents big challenges.
Geraldine Fela and Leigh Boucher have worked with UTS Impact Studios, Guardian Podcasts and The ABC to produce history podcasts based on extensive original research. Come and hear them explore the complex and exciting process of podcasting history. What possibilities has working in this form opened up for historical interpretation, and how have they reached new audiences with their work? What, if anything, did they have to ‘give up’ in the move from written history to aural storytelling, and has this been a comfortable transition?
This presentation is part of the History Council of New South Wales’s 2025 History Now series
2025 History Now is presented by the History Council of NSW, the Chau Chak Wing Museum and the University of Sydney's Vere Gordon Childe Centre.
Leigh Boucher is an Associate Professor of Modern History at Macquarie University, where his research explores questions of race, gender and sexuality in Australian political and social history. He has published work in Australian Historical Studies, History Australia, Cultural Studies, Victorian Studies, Postcolonial Studies and in numerous edited collections. His most recent co-authored book (w/ Arrow, Baird and Reynolds) is Personal Politics: Gender, Sexuality and the Remaking of Australian Citizenship (Monash 2024). He is currently working on a history of HIV/AIDs in and around Darlinghurst, which will be the topic of a podcast released with History Lab later this year.
Geraldine Fela is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University. Her research and teaching traverses histories of gender and sexuality, labour, social movements and medicine. Her first book, ‘Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis’ was published by UNSW Press in July 2024. In 2023 Geraldine was awarded a place in the ABC’s ‘Top 5’ Humanities Media Residency program and has since developed a close research partnership with ABC Radio National. In 2024/2025 she spent a year working as a producer and in-house historian on the 6-part radio documentary series Conspiracy? War on the waterfront based on her postdoctoral research examining the 1998 waterfront dispute.
