Siobhán publishes scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals along with academic blogs,articles for The Conversation and in-depth critiques of narrative podcasts for RadioDoc Review. Her general academic research profile is here.  Orcid ID Profile is here.

This OPEN ACCESS article is her insider account of the making of THE GREATEST MENACE, a podcast about a gay prison that has won 17 awards and triggered an apology in state parliament. It addresses ethical, editorial and creative issues that arose in production.

SHORT CLIP: SIOBHAN MCHUGH on THE INVISIBLE ART OF AUDIO STORYTELLING, Macquarie University 2024.

 

She also produces Non-Traditional Research Outcomes (NTROs), as practice-based research: usually narrative podcasts and audio documentaries. See this short article for discussion of how she situates NTROs as academic research.

Siobhán’s current research focus is how podcasting is developing as a new medium. She is interested in how podcasting can extend the impact of journalism, include marginalised voices and build connection. She is also examining the aesthetics of narrative podcasts and how podcasting may develop in culturally diverse and non-Anglophone settings, such as Asia.

See her short article on teaching Chinese journalists about podcasting.

SELECTED NARRATIVE PODCASTS/NTROs: 

THE GREATEST MENACE (2022), a podcast about a ‘gay prison’ in Australia. FREE on Audible. 9x episodes, c. 6hrs. 

McHugh, S, w Richard Baker, Rachael Dexter, Kate Cole-Adams, Tom McKendrick (2019). The Last Voyage of the Pong Su. Podcast, 10 x episodes, 6hrs 7mins. The Age. NTRO. https://www.theage.com.au/pong-su

McHugh S, w Greg Muller, Evan Martin (2019). Gertie’s Law. Podcast, 12 x episodes, c. 10hrs. Supreme Court of Victoria. NTRO.  https://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/podcast

McHugh, S, w Richard Baker, Rachael Dexter, Greg Muller, Tom McKendrick (2018). Wrong Skin. Podcast, 6 x episodes, c. 4hrs. The Age. NTRO. https://www.theage.com.au/wrong-skin

McHugh, S. Heart of Artness (2018-19), podcast series, 6 x episodes, c.4hrs. NTRO. https://artness.net.au/

McHugh, S. w Margo Neale and Ian McLean (2018). The Conquistador, The Warlpiri and the Dog Whisperer.Earshot, ABC Radio National, 13 April 2018, 30mins. NTRO. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/the-conquistador,-the-warlpiri-and-the-dog-whisperer/9617950

Bachelard, M., Baker, R., McHugh, S., McKendrick, T., Posetti, J., Young, T. (2016), Phoebe’s Fall. Podcast series, 6 episodes, c. 3hrs30mins. The Age, 22 September -27 October 2016. NTRO. http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2016/phoebesfall/index.html

McHugh S. and Baker J., (2013). Eat Pray Mourn: Crime and Punishment in Jakarta. ABC Radio National 360 Documentaries, Sydney, and ABC Radio.  Selected in competition for programming at 40th International Features Conference (Radio), Leipzig, 11-15 May 2014. Featured, Ubud Writers Festival, 2014. Bronze award, New York Radio Festival. NTRO: collaboration between journalism and anthropology. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/360/eat-pray-mourn/4598026

McHugh, S. (2009). Marrying Out Part I: Not in Front of the Altar. ABC Radio National, Hindsight, Sydney, radio documentary, 53mins. NTRO.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/hindsight/marrying-out—-part-one-not-in-front-of-the-altar/3068558

McHugh, S. A. (2009). Marrying Out Part 2: Between Two Worlds. ABC Radio National, Hindsight, Sydney, radio documentary, 53mins. NTRO.

https://tr.uow.edu.au/uow/items/e6d84a5a-29a4-4da2-a429-d150ec26507b/1/

SELECTED ACADEMIC ARTICLES:

McHugh, S (2025). Intimacy, Trust, and Justice on The Greatest Menace, a Podcast Exposing a “Gay Prison”.  Media and Communication, (13). https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.9066  #openaccess – free pdf download.

McHugh, S. (2024). ‘The Invisible Art of Audio Storytelling,’ in Oxford Handbook of Radio and Podcast Studies, A. Bottomley & M. Hilmes (eds.), Oxford, New York. pp. 321-338

McHugh, S (2022). ‘From Phoebe’s Fall to The Last Voyage of the Pong Su: How an Australian Newspaper Made Hit Narrative Podcasts,’ in Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, M. Lindgren & J. Loviglio (eds.). Routledge: Oxford, New York, pp. 247-356.

‘The Narrative Podcast as Digital Literary Journalism: Conceptualizing S-Town.’ Literary Journalism Studies, in press (2020). Winner, the John C. Hartsock award

for best article published in the journal  Literary Journalism Studies in 2021.
 

McHugh, S., McLean, I., Neale, M. (2020).  ‘Notes from a cross-cultural frontier: investigating Australian Aboriginal art through podcasts,’ Liminalities – A Journal of Performance Studies, Vol 16, (4). http://liminalities.net/16-4/podcasts.pdf

McHugh, S (2017).  ‘Memoir for Your Ears: The Podcast Life’, in Mediating Memory: tracing the limits of memoir, B. Avieson, F. Giles, & S. Joseph (eds), Routledge: Oxford.

McHugh, S. (2016) ‘The Affective Power of Sound’, in R. Perks & A. Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader, Routledge: Oxford, pp. 490-507. Library Holdings: 11 Australian, 36 international.

McHugh, S. (2016). ‘How podcasting is changing the audio storytelling genre.’ The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, 14 (1), pp. 65-82. [2,313 downloads on Researchgate, 1 May 2020].

McHugh, S. (2014). ‘RadioDoc Review: developing critical theory of the radio documentary and feature form.’ Australian Journalism Review, 36 (2), pp. 23-35.

McHugh, S. (2014).  ‘Audio storytelling: unlocking the power of audio to inform, empower and connect.’ Asia Pacific Media Educator, 24 (2), pp 1-16.

McHugh S.A. (2012), “The Affective Power of Sound: Oral History on Radio”, Oral History Review (39): 187-206 Online here. NOTE: this is a multimedia article with illustrative audio clips

McHugh, S.A. 2012, “Incorrigibly Plural: A Dubliner’s Diaspora”, Australasian Journal of Irish Studies, (12),  pp123-35

McHugh S.A. (2012) ‘Oral history and the radio documentary/feature: introducing the “COHRD” (Crafted Oral History Radio Documentary) form”, The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media,  10, (1),  pp35-51. See http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=123/view,page=0/

McHugh, S. (2011) “The Power of Voice”:  short essay comparing the impact of print and audio texts, with clips. Commissioned by Transom, US-based public radio forum founded by Peabody-award winning broadcaster Jay Allison.

McHugh, S. (2009), ‘Not in front of the altar: mixed marriages and sectarian tensions between Catholics and Protestants in pre-multicultural Australia’, History Australia, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 42.1-42.22. (multimedia)

McHugh, S. A. (2007), ‘The aerobic art of interviewing‘, Asia Pacific Media Educator, vol. December, no. 18, pp. 147-154.

 McHugh, S. A. (2006), ‘Minefields and miniskirts: the perils and pleasures of adapting oral history for the stage‘, Oral History Association Of Australia Journal, no. 28, pp. 22-29.

McHugh, S. A., Allam, L., Atwood, B., Campbell, M., Choo, C., Clark, I., Beed Davey, G., Dimond, G., George, K., Haebich, A., Harrison, J., Hodgson, S., Hollinsworth, D., Hutchings, S., Kidd, R., Lacey, R., McLeavy, L., Morrisey, P., Mellor, D. & Plater, D. (2002), ‘The Carers’, in A. Haebich & D. Mellor (eds), Many Voices: reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation, 1 edn, National Library of Australia, Australia, pp. 113-38.  Library Holdings: 139 Australian, 181 international (incl. British Library, Cambridge).

McHugh, S. A. (1996), ‘Power Cuts’, in L. Murphy (ed), Wee Girls: women writing from an Irish perspective, 1 edn, Spinifex, Melbourne. pp. 100-21.  Library Holdings: 31 Australian, 144 international (incl. Cambridge, Cornell. Library of Congress, Princeton, Yale).

 

INVITED PUBLICATIONS

 

 

McHugh, S. ‘Podcasts: Radio Reinvented’, UNESCO Courier, 13 Feb 2020. [in various languages] https://en.unesco.org/courier/2020-1/podcasts-radio-reinvented

McHugh, S. ‘Subjectivity, Hugs and Craft: Podcasting as Extreme Narrative Journalism, Nieman Storyboard, Harvard University. 8 October 2019.

 

 

SELECTED PUBLIC LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS

2024: MASTERCLASS: “Wrangling complex oral history on queer true crime into a compelling narrative podcast: The Making of The Greatest Menace”.  Oral History Association of Australia conference, University of Melbourne, 23 Nov 2024.

 

2023: ‘Audio, Medium, Podcast: How It Works’. Keynote Address to Emerging Research In Podcast Studies international symposium for PhD candidates, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada & Dublin City University, Ireland, 24 Sept 2023 (online)

 

2023: ‘Podcasting and the Academy: harnessing the intimacy of audio for research and storytelling.’ Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Comunicación, Universidad CEU San Pablo, Madrid, SPAIN, 14 Sept 2023. (residency)  Details

 

2023: ‘What Makes A Compelling Narrative Nonfiction Podcast? The Making of The Greatest Menace.’ European Communications and Research Association Conference (ECREA), Autonomous University of Barcelona, SPAIN. 7 Sept 2023 

 

  1. National Radio Festival of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, 4 August. ‘The Affective Power of Voice for Podcasting.’ VIETNAM

 

2022: ‘The Invisible Art of Audio Storytelling: transforming oral history into a narrative podcast’. 90-min seminar, Medea Research Network, University of Malmo, SWEDEN 

 

2022: ‘The Power of Podcasting for Education: understanding the audio medium.’ PODFest, Biggio Center, Auburn University, Alabama. 1 Dec 2022. Keynote, with Bonni Stachowiak, host of Teaching in Higher Ed podcast; Catherine Ross, leader of Columbia University’s CTL and host of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning podcast

 

  1. Podcasting as a New Medium: Applications and Implications for the Academy’. Australian Educational Podcasting Conference, Swinburne Institute of Technology, 6 October 2021. Video – Starts 9.00. KEYNOTE

2020 Oral History Network of Ireland, annual public lecture: ‘The Poetry of Podcasting: Emphasising the Oral in Oral History.’ 9 December 2020. View VIDEO.

McHugh, S.A. 2011 ‘Indigenous Voices of Australia’, hosted by Native American Program, Harvard University. Seminar, 12 October 2011.

McHugh, S.A. 2011 ‘Oral History as Crafted Radio Narrative: in pursuit of a higher truth’.  Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia University, Montreal, 16 October 2011. Seminar.

McHugh, S.A. 2011 ‘The Power of Voice’. Uni in the Brewery, University of Wollongong, 2 November 2011. Public presentation. Film here.

McHugh, S. A. 2011, ‘Mixed Marriage and The Myth of ‘Anglo-Celtic’ Australia’, John Hume Institute of Global Irish Studies, University of NSW, 11 March 2011. FILM of lecture here.

McHugh, S. A. 2010. ‘The Snowy Mountains Scheme: how a hydro-electric scheme helped build a nation’,Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, 11th International Radio Festival, Zibakenar, IRAN.

McHugh, S. 2009, ‘Power for the People’: National Archives of Australia, 16 August. PUBLIC LECTURE. AUDIO here.

McHugh, S.A. 2001, Images and Imaginings: Perspectives in Irish Studies, National University of Ireland. ‘Stolen Children, White Lies and Good Habits: Aboriginal children and the Irish nuns who ‘grew them up’’. NUI Galway, 28 March. PUBLIC LECTURE

McHugh, S. A. 2000, ‘How television compromises history: the making of the Irish Empire series’, Irish-Australasian Studies Conference, University of Notre Dame: Mary Durack 27 April 2000. PUBLIC LECTURE

McHugh, S. A. 1997. ‘Trust me – I’m Irish: reflections on cross-cultural interviewing’, Crossing Borders: Oral History Association of Australia National Conference, Oral History Association of Australia, Alice Springs. KEYNOTE.

FOR CONFERENCES – LITERARY FESTIVALS – MUSEUM INSTALLATIONS – AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS, see my University of Wollongong website.

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My Doctorate awarded 2011 with commendation from Prof Alessandro Portelli of University of Rome. Title: ‘Oral History and the Radio Documentary/Feature: Intersections and Synergies.’

My dissertation (90,000 words) is now available online. It asks how oral history and the radio documentary form can inform each other, theoretically and practically. Contains some great insights from radio practitioners and oral historians, as well as a detailed case study of the making of Marrying Out, my award-winning documentary on mixed-religion marriage and family conflict.