Seeking Sydney #podcast Show hosted Kathy Prokhovnik

 ‘Seeking Sydney’ is a ten-episode podcast that looks at the people and events that have shaped modern Sydney. Through interviews and research, Sydney’s landscapes and landmarks become places of connection.

‘Seeking Sydney Podcast Show is hosted, written and directed by Kathy Prokhovnik.

To connect with Kathy ....
https://kathyprokhovnik.com/ 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It's good morning, Kath Prokovnik. Welcome to Yellow Shelf. Thanks, Joe. And thanks for Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

It's such a great idea. Oh, Kathy, we're connected in so many ways. Um, and it's great to have you on. You've got a podcast show that's called Seeking Sydney. And I was in Sydney yesterday thinking about well, I'm going to be talking to Kath tomorrow. Tell us about, tell us about your show.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Okay. Well, um, where it came from was originally like years ago, years ago, um, I was stuck at home with, you know, teenagers and whatever, and I wanted to write a travel book. Yeah. And I thought, well, I can't travel, but I am surrounded by Sydney, you know, so here I am. And then my mother, who was very interested in history, said something about Governor Macquarie. And one of my kids said, you know, who's Governor Macquarie? And I thought, oh my God, that's terrible. They don't know anything about, you know, their own history of their own town. And I thought, I need to write about this, you know, I need to let them know what that is. And, you know, thinking back on it now, I was, I was looking, just looking at the colonial history, you know, I was just thinking of that very sort of surface colonial history. But when I started researching and digging into it, I just discovered so much more. And it was just so fascinating. And I realized I had to go way back to the indigenous history and you know, include all of that because you know, that's that's the land we're on. And you know, so so then it went from there. I wrote a book, but um that hasn't been published. But then a publisher said to me, turn it into a podcast, you know, and I had 10 chapters, and she said, do 10 episodes, you know, get some more interviews. So I started, you know, I started doing that, adapting it into a podcast. I've never done a podcast, and I just thought, you know, how hard can it be? So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

That was the next year of my life, yeah, yeah. So that story, what a great story to get to where you are. Um and yeah, interesting, isn't it? Because the world, I mean, Yellow Shelf, obviously, we talk to podcast show hosts and we talk to authors, and you know, people need to realize how they intertwine, like you just explained. A publisher says, Hey, not ready for it as a book, but try it as a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah, yeah. Incredible. And she was so right, you know, she was so right. It just fitted. I mean, it changed completely what I'd put in the book, but I used a lot of that research, and then the interviews were just brilliant. Like the people I spoke to were so generous, and they gave me so much of their time and their thinking, you know, it was just fantastic. And so I'd cut bits of the interview in with bits of the research for each episode. Yeah, um, and that was just great, just great.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

And Kath, you you're putting it all together, you're putting your episodes out there. Who um who's your audience? Like who, like, uh is it curious people about Sydney and Sydney's history? Like, who's who's listening and who should listen?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah, well, you know, I still have at the back of my mind that I was writing it for my teenage kids. Yeah. So, you know, I want it to be anyone who can listen to this. But, you know, when I delved into it, there's five million people in Sydney, and there's, you know, 17 million visitors in what was it, the last quarter of last year, you know. So there's a lot of people who are probably interested to learn something about Sydney beyond, you know, the harbour bridge and the opera house.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

You know, and um, that's that's who I'm writing for. I'm writing for a general audience of people who are interested in what sort of lies beneath, you know. I I take landmarks and use them to sort of ground what I'm talking about. So I think it's very, you know available.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah, yeah. And you know, Kath, when I was listening to episodes, it took me back, believe it or not, to when I was in my 20s, I lived in London. And living in London, because I was this, you know, tourist, even though I was living and working there, um, you know, you would often go out and do things and learn things about the city and do walking tours and go to different places, not just the main tourist attractions, because often they were really expensive, but you would learn about the city. And I used to think to myself, gosh, you know, I come back to Australia to live and I don't do that. You know, I don't kind of we don't do it in our own backyards, do we?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And I mean, I haven't quite arranged it like walking tours. No, no, yeah. But but no, but you could use it like that if you're thinking, you know, like chapter one really is like it links Bondi to La Peruse, and that's sort of going down Anzac Parade. So it could be a you know a bit of a day tour, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So yeah, I guess it was that for me living back in London, it was that eager to learn about where I was and um and then feeling like I I should because I'm here and I'm living here, but I'm not gonna be here forever. So, but yeah, we don't do it in our own backyard, we don't learn and embrace that learning. And I guess that's what I was thinking when I was listening. Your podcast does that. We there's things in your shows that I knew nothing about.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Well, I mean, that's that's my usual response that people listen to it and they say, Oh, I didn't know that, you know. And and I just think, well, you know, job done, you know, that's that's brilliant. Yeah, yeah. Because I probably didn't know it either until I started researching.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

That's the interesting journey journey about being a podcast host. And Kathy, tell us a bit about you. So tell us about Kathy, who before this, what Kathy was doing. Um, because this is your first podcast show. It is. Tell us about you. What do we need to know?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Oh, well, I'm a writer, I've been a writer all my life, and that's sort of been my profession as a writer and an editor. Um, you know, I've written a lot of short stories. Um, I love flash fiction these days, you know, less than 500 words. I really like that form. Yeah, um, I've written a couple of novels, which has been an interesting idea. Um, but you know, they're still in the bottom drawer of my desk. Yeah. Um, but that's that's my sort of professional life. Personally, I've you know, I've got two lovely children and five beautiful grandchildren, and you know, that's another enormous part of my life. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Oh, awesome. And Kath, what's it? What's ahead for the podcast show? Do you have plans for episodes? Are you gonna keep going? What's the what's the thing?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Look, you know, I did the 10 episodes, and they, you know, in the book, it does go sort of from the east coast of Sydney to out to, you know, way beyond Parramatta out to the Blue Mountains. And that's essentially what I've done with the 10 episodes in in uh the podcast as well. I'm I've actually started on a new project. Well, I started on a new project as soon as I finished the podcast, and that was that's been an amazing journey doing some ghost writing for someone. Okay, and you know, like how he's let me into his life to learn so much that I can write his story. So I I've sort of you know finished the podcast, moved on to the ghostwriting, and and when I've done that, I actually have another project in mind writing about my grandparents. So there's always this thing's going on, Kathy. Yeah, yeah, there's so much. I mean, I you know, I I enjoyed the podcast project, and I enjoyed, you know, as a writer, you're usually on your own, but with a podcast, you're working with other people, which I really enjoyed, you know, particularly the sound engineer Marty Gallagher, you know, he was brilliant and he like he brought to life things that you know I just wrote on the page. Yes, and um so you know, I enjoyed that whole process of working with people. So, you know, maybe, maybe Kathy.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

It is my hope that people hear our episode today and they think I'm gonna go and check that out, and then people listen, and then people give you feedback, and then you're maybe inspired to do similar or another podcast series. That would be amazing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Um Kathy, how if we're watching anywhere in the world and we're curious about you and the show, I'll put it in the show notes. But tell us how do we connect with you? You're on Substack, like where do you want us to go?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Uh, the podcast is on you know, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, and also I've got a blog where I put all the show notes, and um in the blog I also um do a bit more explanation and put in all the acknowledgments and everything. So, you know, that goes a bit beyond what's what's in the spoken podcast. So the blog is just you know, if you just Google my name, Kathy Prokovnik, it it comes up. Um that's where I am.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Fabulous. Well, I'll put some links in the show notes to make it easy for anyone to get curious. Kathy, thanks for joining us. Thanks, Joe.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

That was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Cheers. Thank you.