Coronacast: A daily podcast about the coronavirus

Desciption

2020 started in a way no one could have expected: with a global pandemic. Enter “Coronacast”, a daily, 10-minute podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, providing the latest evidence on the pandemic by responding to questions from the audience. When the podcast was launched in March 2020 as the reality of a pandemic was dawning on the globe, we expected the podcast to maybe run for a couple of months. Now, more than 18 months on we are still making a daily show with no end in sight.

Challenges we’ve faced:

– How to find something new to talk about on the same story every day?
– How to facilitate a Q+A format in a non-live environment with a story that’s constantly changing
– How to establish trust with the audience, giving them the full story without glossing over difficult information?
– How to talk about something as intrinsically fraught and anxiety-inducing as a deadly pandemic without turning listeners off with doom and gloom or, on the other hand, seeming flippant?