Siobhan McHugh is an internationally recognised podcast producer,
documentary-maker, oral historian, writer, journalism academic, podcast
critic and podcasting consultant. Siobhan’s book,
The Power of Podcasting – Telling Stories Through Sound, is a critique of podcasting as a new medium and industry, a rare insider’s guide to how great narrative podcasts are made and an unashamed love letter to audio storytellers old and new. (free sample chapter
here). A
US and European edition was published by Columbia University Press in 2022.
Recent podcasts on which Siobhan was consulting producer (advising on script, narrative structure and sound)
include The Greatest Menace, a queer true crime history about a ‘gay prison’ experiment hosted by Patrick Abboud, and Motherlode, a podcast hosted by Greg Muller on early hacktivism, including the back story to Julian Assange.
Trailer for The Greatest Menace.
In 2022 The Greatest Menace won three awards at New York Festivals, including GOLD for Best Social Justice Podcast, and the Media Diversity Australia award from the prestigious Walkley Foundation. It also won BEST DOCUMENTARY at Signal US, Best Audio Documentary at Australian International Documentary Conference and a Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism (equivalent of US Peabody).
Narrative podcasts Siobhan worked on have won seven gold awards at New York Festivals. She has given keynotes, talks and workshops around the world on the power of podcasting as a new medium, including to the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (whose members broadcast to over three billion people), the Australian Educational Podcasting Conference (
video here at 9mins) and the Oral History Network of Ireland (on theory and practice of how to craft compelling audio narrative from interview:
video here).
In 2022, Siobhan founded the Hub for Innovation in Podcasting, to bring together those who make, study and listen critically, carefully or enthusiastically to podcasts.
Siobhan has worked closely with
The Age newsroom in Melbourne, led by multi-awardwinning journalist Richard Baker, to make groundbreaking narrative podcasts. Collaborations include
Phoebe’s Fall (2016), an investigation into the bizarre death in a Melbourne garbage chute of a young woman;
Wrong Skin (2018), about the disappearance of a young couple from a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia and the collision between culture and power; and
The Last Voyage of the Pong Su (2019), about a North Korean drug smuggling operation on Victoria’s shipwreck coast. All won GOLD at New York Radio Festival, and a slew of other awards.

Siobhan McHugh with host Richard Baker and executive producer Rachael Dexter at a production meeting for The Last Voyage of the Pong Su.
Other podcast projects include
Gertie’s Law, an innovative podcast from the Supreme Court of Victoria, described by a
Sydney Morning Herald critic as the best podcast of 2019; and
Heart of Artness, about crosscultural relationships behind the production of contemporary Aboriginal art.
Heart of Artness was
funded by an Australian Research Council grant and an
episode won
GOLD at New York Radio Festival 2019.
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“RadioDoc Review is invaluable!” (Alan Hall, Falling Tree Productions, UK)
In 2013, Siobhan founded the first journal of radio documentary and podcast studies, RadioDoc Review. Its board comprises top international audio producers and scholars, who periodically select the best audio documentaries, storytelling podcasts and features from around the world. These works receive in-depth reviews, from different cultural perspectives, written by top producers or scholars. The aim is to develop critical analysis of this poorly understood form: to articulate the principles that underpin the best audio storytelling and soundworks. RadioDoc Review is an open access journal published by the University of Wollongong, Australia, where Siobhan is honorary Associate Professor in Journalism.
NEW EDITION of THE SNOWY!
Siobhan is also the author of six social history books, over 60 radio documentaries made mostly at the ABC (now available as podcasts), numerous print features and a short memoir. She has also scripted international television documentary. Her best known book (Winner, NSW Premier’s Literary Award) is a social history of the Snowy Mountains HydroElectric Scheme, birthplace of Australian multiculturalism. A new updated edition, The Snowy – A History (UNSW Press) was published for the 70th anniversary of the scheme in 2019. Siobhan was delighted to be interviewed about it by Richard Fidler, the most popular podcaster in Australia. Her associated children’s book, Snowy (Scholastic) has also been republished in 2019. Aimed at ages 9-13, it is a rollicking adventure story featuring two feisty twelve-year-old girls who try to save a treasured home from being inundated by a Snowy dam.
Siobhan with Richard Fidler, OzPod Conference 2016
ORAL HISTORY
Siobhan believes passionately in the affective power of voice. Her article, The Affective Power of Sound: Oral History on Radio, is among the most cited in the distinguished US journal
Oral History Review, and was chosen to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the US Oral History Association in 2016. This
online version includes illustrative audio clips – listening to them while reading the analysis is by far the best way to understand the concept. As well as being adapted for the stage, Siobhan’s oral histories have underpinned numerous public appearances: she has been an invited speaker at professional and academic gatherings from Harvard University to China and Iran and was a regular
presenter at the annual summit of top media innovators,
Global Editors Network (GEN).
Siobhan is Honorary Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the University of Sydney, where in 2022 she launched the Hub for Innovation in Podcasting. The HIP aims to develop an international community of podcasting scholars and practitioners. HIP Talks commenced 17 March 2022 with
THE MAKING of THE GREATEST MENACE.
Host Patrick Abboud and consulting producer Siobhan McHugh at an early production meeting for The Greatest Menace podcast.
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Siobhan at the Library of Congress, Washington DC. Pleased to see they hold my books – among their 33 million!
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Siobhan’s POWER of VOICE essay on TRANSOM Public Radio USA
This audio and text of a female Vietnam veteran I recorded shows how much more emotional impact SOUND has compared to printed words.
 Print version did not have the impact of audio
IRAN – KEYNOTE at the 3rd International Radio Festival of Iran
A memorable occasion – my talk on the making of the Snowy Scheme documentary showed how grand national narratives can be told through personal interviews. The oral histories of refugees and migrants trying to make a start in a new country resonated, despite the language and cultural differences. Iranians – or Persians as they call themselves – are warm and hospitable: a nation of poets and picnickers!
 At the Blue Mosque in Isfahan, Iran
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Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme
Snowy 60th Anniversary August 2009 National Archives of Australia
Siobhan’s talk at the National Archives of Australia was part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme on the 17th of October.
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7 comments
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September 16, 2016 at 11:08 am
Michael Mulligan
Siobhan,We did meet at the snowy reunion in Talbingo. Just noticed on page 83 of The Snowy book a couple of other names which I only just recognised. 4th guy from left with fag in mouth is Zigmund Matuzewski and the guy 6th from left beside Trevor Mille is Dusan Gavrilovich. Regards Michael
September 16, 2016 at 12:55 pm
Siobhan McHugh
Great to know! Thanks, Michael
September 18, 2016 at 6:59 pm
Alison Howell
Hi Siobhan, I just spent a wet Sunday immersed in “My Story Snowy”. Thank you – a wonderful read for all kinds of reasons. Alison Howell, Cooma.
September 18, 2016 at 8:52 pm
Siobhan McHugh
So nice to hear, Alison! Thanks for posting.
August 15, 2017 at 7:25 am
Ruby Davies
I am rereading with great interest your book Cottoning On. Extremely topical atm since Four Corners, Pumped was aired.
Your book sets out the interplay of forces involved in the setting up of cotton is Australia – its location to Australia after the US government tightened environmental use of various pesticides and defoliants. Me thinks if it was mooted today to park WATER in such vast and shallow dams laced along OUR river systems – that there would be a huge outcry.
Thanking you for such great research and a very readable, page-turning even publication
Warm regards
Ruby Davies
August 15, 2017 at 4:37 pm
Siobhan McHugh
Thanks, Ruby. It is indeed hard to believe how lax the regulation of pesticides was then – and how easy it was for the early irrigators to get those water licences. I put my science degree, from another life, to good use researching the book. I’m glad it resonates still and has placed vital information on the record. In fact, Four Corners contacted me about that very program.
Best wishes,
Siobhan
October 16, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Don Punnett
Hi ,Just finished reading your Snowy book a great read . However it may be of interest to you that in the listing of men killed during construction is my brother who was working for Kaiser under the alias David Burns. His real name was Max Alexander Punnett dob 19 June 1944. As you can see five days before his 21 st ..