Hey Jasmine! Tell us a bit about yourself. I’m a Melbourne-based writer, podcaster and creator. My full-time job is at Pedestrian Group where I get to write for titles including PEDESTRIAN TV, Refinery29 Australia and VICE. Outside of that, I’m the co-founder of Culture Club alongside fellow media-slashie Maggie Zhou. 

Culture Club is a podcast that focuses on pop culture, current affairs, the internet and our own lives. Each episode we can go from talking about Rihanna and Taylor Swift to then reading a professor’s comments on artificial intelligence or sharing our favourite books of the month. It’s totally ours so we get to talk about whatever takes our fancy. What made you start your podcast Culture Club? I’d been thinking about starting a podcast for a little while but knew I wanted a co-host. The idea was floating around in my mind when I met Maggie through Instagram. I was interning at Fashion Journal and was asked to recommend someone to take my place. I recommended Maggie. 

As I was still contributing to the magazine at the time, I noticed we had very similar ideas and our editor even told me once via email that we’d pitched the same story so should share a byline. Maggie and I would also send long voice notes to each other via Instagram, sharing our ideas when we posted pop culture news on our IG stories. 

I thought ‘why don’t we work together?’ I asked Maggie what she thought of the idea and three years later, here we are! 

How do you plan your ideas for the podcast? For our regular pop culture episodes we take note of what’s happening in the news cycle. We’re also constantly on TikTok and Instagram, seeing what conversations are happening, what people our age are talking about, and which topics deserve space to go a little deeper. 

Throughout the week we might DM each other links to Instagram posts or articles and tell the other one that we want to chat about it on the podcast. 

Then, the day before (or the day of) the podcast recording, we divide our topics and each research and make notes on Google docs to read from. What’s the recording and editing process like? A lot of people think that we’re in the same room when we record but that’s not the case! We’ve recorded in person twice in three years. 

Maggie creates a video call on a Zencastr link. This way, we can see each other on camera. We each plug in our own microphones to our laptops, hit record and off we go for an hour.

Our editor is actually my sister, the musician India Raine. She receives our conversation via a Google Drive and works her magic on adding our opening music, cutting out ‘umms’, ‘ahhs’ and coughs, as well as making our conversation sound seamless. 

Tell us about the best thing that’s come out of doing your podcast. We started this podcast as two freshly-graduated freelance writers, (Maggie was actually still at university) in the depths of 2020’s lockdown. We scrappily figured out how to do it ourselves and three years on it’s brought us so many opportunities. The best thing is getting to have full creative control and have interesting conversations not just with each other but with the audience that we’ve built over the years. What’s the collaboration process like with your podcast co-host? While we started out as media acquaintances, through the podcast we’ve become best friends and so our collaboration process is super fun. We both have different life experiences and takes on situations and I like it when we don’t always agree on the same topic. 

I’ve heard from some listeners that they also like when we don’t agree on something but can listen to each other and hear the other one out. 

What tools and mediums do you use when you create your podcast? The best thing about podcasting is that it doesn’t take a huge up-front investment to get going. 

I use a Blue Yeti USB Microphone that’s served me well for three years and we use Acast to host the podcast for a monthly fee which Maggie and I split. All we need is a quiet space, our laptops, mics and the free version of Zencastr. India Raine edits on Logic Pro X.

Do you have a favourite spot to work from at home? I record the podcast in my home office. When we first started I was such a perfectionist that I’d create a make-shift studio in my sister’s wardrobe. Now a quiet room is enough. 

How do you keep creatively inspired? I stay creatively inspired by having a break and consuming media for fun, not just work. In 2021, I think we took only a couple of weeks off recording because we didn’t want to let anyone (including ourselves) down. 

Now, Maggie and I are better at still working on the podcast but making sure we have enough time for leisure, reading and spending time with friends and family. We always make better episodes when we’re not exhausted by the news cycle. How did you find working on the MSI Prestige 13 EVO? The MSI Prestige 13 EVO is so lightweight! I was genuinely shocked when I picked it up. It feels like paper yet is also sturdy at the same time. The processing is fast and I love the aesthetics of the white laptop and light-up keyboard. I think it would make for a great on-the-go laptop.

Any tips for budding podcasters out there? It can be hard in our busy world but staying consistent has been our greatest friend. We also try to stay in our lane and not focus too much on what other pop culture podcasts are doing – especially in such an over-saturated market. Our audience listens to Culture Club for us and our take on the world so we think about what they’d like to hear.

This breezy chat was presented by MSI and their new Prestige 13 EVO. It’s super-powerful and incredibly light with an impressive battery life, so you can create all day from anywhere with ease. For more, head to au.msi.com