MSing About

A chat about addiction lends itself to how slogans and advertising can kick addiction along with flashbacks to some old-time radio commercials like young Johnny Farnham lending his vocal talents to Coca-Cola and doctors promoting cigarettes. 

Katrina has been training to be a train driver so while the conversation tried to stay on track it occasionally ran off he rails to incorporate coupling, shunting, Jethro Tull, Thomas the Tank Engine, Menu on the Orient Express and Bullet Trains. All aboard!

Concerts. Most of us have been to concerts, some good ones, some not so good ones. In this podcast Katrina and Ian share concert memories that include The Bee Gees, Midnight Oil, Prince, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Joe Cocker, Robbie Williams, INXS, Cat Stevens, Dire Straits, Jethro Tull and The Wiggles. 

A bit of reminiscing about Ian's 20 years of working in radio with some stories about radio pioneers and personalities like Grace Gibson, John Laws, Mike Carlton and Ward 'Pally' Austin.

What’s in a Name? Katrina Christensen (Scandinavian names) and Ian Heydon (Scottish and English names) got chatting about surnames being patronymic, locative and occupative, which sounds awfully serious but it isn’t! There’s a privately owned village in Norfolk in England called Heydon. Ian stayed there and it is where Monty Python filmed their Village Idiot sketch. Coincidence? 

As always, this MSing About podcast was a lot about nothing and a bit about something. Somehow a whole heap of trivia flowed from cockatoos to chickens to dolphins to seahorses to Monty Python to astrophysics to spider wasps to Siamese twins to unicorns to the history of the universe. Ian blames Katrina. Katrina blames Ian. Still, a lot of fun!

Unhappy Campers… Most Aussies and Kiwis love the idea of camping out… the great outdoors… the inexpensive adventure… the yarns and songs around the campfire. Ahhh yes… the flames flicker in the fire, the smoke floats higher and higher, and the sound of the wind in the wire… What could possibly go wrong?!

What do Mel Gibson, Rod Stewart, Bob Hawke, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Johns, Humphrey B. Bear and the last man hanged in Australia have in common? Us!!!

What’s your favourite sitcom of all time? Friends, Seinfeld, Cheers, Frasier, The Office, Happy Days, Mother and Son, Fisk, Blackadder, Ab-Fab, Fawlty Towers, Fleabag, The Simpsons? And is the world ready for a new sitcom starring an aging bald man in a wheelchair?!

With six sleeps to go until The Voice referendum, Katrina and Ian have a bit of a serious conversation.

What a crack-up! Somehow Katrina, Ian and Dave get 20 minutes out of eggs.

This podcast is about getting old and dying… or not getting old and dying. And there’s not a maudlin thought to be had! In fact, there are a lot of laughs. Now, what do you want at your funeral? 

Why do bees hum? Because they don’t know the words. A bee’s dick is Australian slang for a tiny measurement length and a Bee’s Knees Cocktail is made with gin, lemon and honey. Those are just some of things Katrina and Ian neglect to mention in this 19 minutes of busy banter about bees! 

Today’s MSing About podcast has a lot about sex and how power is an aphrodisiac. While maybe not as high-profile as, say, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Aussie politicians have been known to look for a bit on the side… from Ben Chifley to Harold Holt to John Gorton to Billy Snedden to Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke. My question is, where do they find the time?! There's also som...

It's another podcast that loses control of the rudder... Just how does a sensible question about cauliflower move on to Kris Kristofferson's ears, Ann-Margret's legs and a poet who is buried standing up in Westminster Abbey? 

It's back to school week. Florence went to school in New Zealand in the 1930s... Ian went to boarding school in Sydney in the 1960s... Dave did his learning on the School of the Air in Alice Springs... Katrina did her school time in Queensland in the 70s and 80s... and you know what they have in common? None of them have grown up yet! 

This podcast zips through the A to Z of Australia. Katrina and Ian manage to visit umpteen towns across our big, brown land in some pretty bouncy banter. Their 97-year-old friend Florence drops in for a bit and Dave has a silly poem about Australia which he performed at The Long Yard in Tamworth years ago to give the serious bush poets a chuckle. 

This one is called The Popcorn Podcast because Katrina and Ian go to the movies for the flicks they love and flicks they hate. Their 97-year-old friend, Florence, drops in with her two favourite movies – one was made in 1937 and the other in 1975. That one picked up five Oscars. Dave is on hand for an irreverent rave about westerns and the late Bill Collins makes an appearance.

 Katrina and Ian have a random chat about the pleasures and perils that may come with dating, love and marriage, 97-year-old Florence drops by to tell us about three men in her life, Dave has a musical look at loaded questions that can pop up in a relationship and a courtship tip from the 1950s thanks to Brylcreem. 

97-year-old Florence drops in with her pet duck, pet lamb, pet kittens and a pet dog... Dave drops in with cats that get on his goat... Ian and Katrina debate about whether cats or dogs make the best pets... there's Peking Duck, toilet ducks and Daffy Duck. From the archives is an old radio commercial for Loveable Bras and, well, there's a lot about nothing, and a bit about something!

A trailer for upcoming weekly podcasts.