[00:00:00] Maddy Stratten: Hi, and welcome to a special edition mini episode of On The Couch. On The Couch is where we collaborate with experts, practitioners, authors, advocates, and influencers to explore current social themes, sex positive topics, and share stories and insights that matter. My name is Maddy Stratten and I'm a health promotion officer with the Caddyshack Project. I will be co hosting this episode with my colleague and friend, Winnie Adamson.

[00:00:24] Winnie Adamson: Hello listeners, I'm Winnie Adamson. We are excited to bring this episode to you today. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, enjoy this episode of On The Couch.

[00:00:35] Maddy Stratten: I would like to start by Acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands that were never ceded, on which we work, live and record upon.

We are grateful to be recording on beautiful Dharawal country today. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and to those who may be visiting our website or listening to our podcast today. This is a special edition episode as our guest today is Jade Scott, a third year public health student placement with us from the University of Wollongong. Welcome to The Couch, Jade.

[00:01:05] Jade Scott: Hello, thanks for having me.

[00:01:08] Winnie Adamson: Maddy, you are right, this mini episode is a special one and we are getting a glimpse behind the curtains of On The Couch as we hear Jade share about her experience working with us on her project.

[00:01:19] Maddy Stratten: But before we get into your project, Jade, Winnie, do you want to give our listeners a bit of a teaser for more of On The Couch, behind the scenes content?

[00:01:28] Winnie Adamson: Uh, yes, I do.

[00:01:30] Maddy Stratten: I knew you would.

[00:01:31] Winnie Adamson: The Caddyshack team have been busy little bees and working pretty hard to produce a reflective podcast series called Behind The Couch, launching in 2025.

While we were editing, producing and reviewing the On The Couch webinars and turning them into a podcast, we revisited each individual episode and we saw the series through a really new and different lens. We were moving content created for webinars into a podcast and it really made us think about what we were creating and repurposing. We had really great reflective discussions and it just felt way too good to keep to ourselves.

So we've decided to essentially record these discussions and reflect on key themes and topics that we see On The Couch, including community care, transgender healthcare, consent, coordinates of belonging and dismantling stigma and shame and more.

So you'll have to keep an eye out for that when it's released in 2025.

[00:02:28] Maddy Stratten: Exciting times. So I just want to place us so that our listeners can imagine where we are today. So we're currently in the recording studio at the University of Wollongong on beautiful Dharawal country. And since Jade's placement project is on podcasting, we thought we'd just jump over here, record this episode for Jade's final piece of her three month placement. As our listeners would know, we like to start our episodes getting to know our guests and their coordinates of belonging. We've spent the last eight weeks together now, so I feel like we've started to get to know each other pretty well, but let's take some time here to locate ourselves and our coordinates of belonging, while giving a bit of a backstory as to why we have found ourselves here.

Jade, would you like to start?

[00:03:16] Jade Scott: Yes, for sure. Um, so I chose public health because I've always been interested in health and social issues, like why certain communities are more vulnerable to certain diseases than others. And growing up in a rural town, I saw firsthand how access to quality health care isn't the same for everyone.

And it really made me question why these health inequalities exist. So that's where my passion started for public health. But as I've progressed in my studies, my passion has evolved and I've developed a real interest in sociology and how sociological thinking connects with health issues. As you know, Winnie sociology opens your brain up to a whole new way of thinking, which I really enjoy connecting this type of thinking when learning about public health issues, which are often complex and nuanced, often arising from many interrelated and contributing factors.

[00:04:07] Winnie Adamson: Yes, I completely agree and I did study sociology and it really is connected to health and public health and health promotion. I've always been really interested and fascinated by social change and social causes and how that really influences human behavior and human connection.

I think taking that thinking into health promotion really has benefits to it, and I can see that, Jade, with you having been on placement with us. I think when we look collectively at the relationships that we have with health, but health as a community and a culture, especially with sexual health, I think I, just my own coordinates of belonging, I have quite a mixed background professionally, I do have a degree in sociology.

I was pretty passionate about sexual health, um, really from that educational promotional context. I started postgrad in sexology, but deferred to focus more on the career aspects as I think I jumped in a little too quick studying and needed to kind of have that life experience.

So I've worked across NGOs and private organizations around event management, accounting, and also in this role now with health promotion. And I think I'm really grateful for my diverse experiences. And I think that's really shaped how I personally see things and see health promotion too.

[00:05:25] Maddy Stratten: Yeah, for sure, I think that really shows that there's no one pathway into this field. And that's why I really love hearing everyone's backstory and how they ended up into this space, especially all of us coming from that social science lens as well.

And I know a lot of students in the past have come to us as placement and, and asked us, you know, how did you get into this space? Like, how did you get into this work? And everyone's story is so different. And so I really love hearing that. For me, I started here at UOW in a Bachelor of Indigenous Studies, and I had a really big focus on public health, which is the degree that I ended up graduating with.

I then continued my studies at University of Sydney, and I completed my Master of International Public Health, which I really enjoyed. I actually did that part time so that I could get some work experience in non government organizations as well as some work in developing countries, which is where I really started to notice that I was choosing topics for my assignments around sexual and reproductive health.

So, um, which makes sense why I've landed myself where I am now. Um, I love hearing about our collective interests and our passions and where those coordinates of belonging connect our fields of existence. So, thank you. Um, I also want to do a little shout out here, um, of, you know, all of those years of hospo and pizza making and beer pouring and all of those jobs that got us through that time.

So yeah, quick shout out to that.

[00:06:59] Winnie Adamson: Definitely. They definitely build those skills, right?

[00:07:02] Maddy Stratten: Yeah, for sure. If you can make it in hospo or retail! Okay, so I want to get on to talking about your public health placement, Jade, can you take us back to the beginning of your placement? I know you get a lot of options and a lot of placement opportunities, but why did you select us as your placement?

And what were you drawn to about On The Couch and Caddyshack project?

[00:07:30] Jade Scott: Yeah, sure. So, um, I chose this placement as my first preference and I really have to thank Emma, one of the UOW placement supervisors for that, cause she totally sold this placement to me. She was like, it's so exciting. You should definitely do it.

So yeah, that's how I chose this placement. And another reason I just really wanted to open myself up to another area of public health that I hadn't really explored so I thought what a great opportunity to explore sexual health and reproductive health in this space and especially in podcasting.

[00:08:05] Winnie Adamson: Yeah, it's been such a great experience working with you on this placement.

 Um, working on, On The Couch, team meetings at Nan Tien Institute, uh, doing resource deliveries, we've even installed condom dispensers together, um, site visits to needle exchange programs along with your actual project as well. But how has this placement process been for you? Are there any lessons learnt or highlights?

[00:08:31] Jade Scott: Yeah, so honestly, it has all been really awesome and such a good learning opportunity. Like you said, all those different, opportunities I've been able to be involved in is really awesome. But, um, the biggest highlight for me was just working with the Caddyshack team.

I love how you're all so knowledgeable, but I also really admire, your passion and dedication. You all really challenge each other to grow and think in new ways. And that's really inspiring to see that you just care about what you're doing and so reflective in what you do.

Um, it's been amazing to see how health promotion officers work and how you're always thinking outside the box and pushing the boundaries of traditional health promotion. And also just recording this podcast today has been definitely a major highlight. It's been so cool and such a unique experience as a student, especially on placement, to be involved in the entire production process of this episode.

So yeah, I think that's definitely a highlight.

[00:09:26] Maddy Stratten: Yeah. And just for our listeners, again, to imagine where we are, Jade is behind the production desk today, so she has all of the buttons to press and the screens to look at. Winnie and I, as co hosts, are really sitting back and relaxing. Jade is our, you know, producer.

[00:09:47] Winnie Adamson: Yeah, definitely. And that must be really fun to do. And we're also going to do all of the, um, the production editing as well. So that'll be fun after we record today.

It's so great to hear that you've had such a positive experience. I know Caddyshack has had a lot of students over the years, and this has been my first experience with a student.

And I found it a really great one because, I think it's also been a great moment for myself, too. Like, it's so clear, Jade, that you're really passionate about your studies, and we've had some really great chats about sexual health, more specifically consent education, and the books that we've been reading on it.

And that's been really rewarding, I guess, in a sense of being, like a mentor and hopefully really creating that safe environment for you to develop and learn in.

[00:10:39] Maddy Stratten: Yeah, sometimes we really do get those standout students that we just connect with personally, but also professionally. And I think we've just kind of skipped ahead, um, I feel as though in terms of the relationship of the three of us to be able to just read each other's brains. And especially, you know, when we're working on those resources together, you know, you were doing your project, but we're like, actually, Jade, come in and help, you know, brainstorm this with us.

And it's just been a great, yeah, experience. And it really does show that, you know, those standout students do make an impact on the work that we do and continue to do. Um, I want to get into talking about your project more specifically. Can you give us the elevated top line pitch of your project?

[00:11:23] Jade Scott: Yeah, sure. So my project is a comparative analysis of sexual health and wellbeing podcasts.

The aim is to understand the sexual health and wellbeing podcast production processes, engagement, and reach while providing insights to improve On The Couch podcast. Something I've heard a lot from the Caddyshack team is the question, So what? And so what is we, weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. This project is really about bringing together comparable podcasts from across multiple Australian states to share knowledge and ultimately improve innovative sexual health education and promotion.

[00:11:58] Maddy Stratten: Mm-Hmm. We were talking about this yesterday, weren't we? When we were at the Mental Health Festival at UOW and we were saying how, um, really unique it is to be able to go outside of New South Wales. Like a lot of the podcasts that you chose for this comparative analysis were across different states. So it's really, um, quite a unique project. Before we get into the detail of your project, I want to highlight some of those key findings from your literature review that you conducted because I feel as though it really provided that evidence for the need for sexual health education to be on podcasting platforms.

And I remember when, um, you sent me the literature review to review. I was reviewing your literature review and I remember reading it and I spun around in my chair, we were in the office, and I said, “Everyone stop. Listen to this.” Like, this is why we are doing what we're doing. So can you, yeah, hit us with some of those impactful statistics.

[00:13:00] Jade Scott: Yeah, sure. So in my literature review, I focused on the role of podcasting and health education, as well as more specifically sexual health podcasting. Um, and that found that 89 percent of young Australians listen to podcasts weekly and 75 percent of young podcast listeners in the US listen to podcasts to learn something new. With 67 percent preferring learning from podcasts over books which is really huge. .

[00:13:27] Maddy Stratten: Massive.

[00:13:28] Jade Scott: Yeah, definitely.

[00:13:29] Maddy Stratten: Yeah.

[00:13:29] Jade Scott: The literature highlights how podcasts improve access to sexual health information for adolescents and young people, making them a valuable tool for enhancing sexual health literacy. Additionally, podcasts help overcome barriers like geographical distance, embarrassment, and confidentiality concerns, making them particularly effective for sexual health education.

[00:13:52] Maddy Stratten: Huge. And like looking at some of those, sources that you've used in your literature review, they are all recent studies.

So that's 2024, 2022 statistics. So this is real time and I think, Winnie, I feel as though for us, it was a real confirmation for why we're doing this.

[00:14:11] Winnie Adamson: Yeah, definitely. And then it even goes to highlight, like, why we want to bring about Behind The Couch. Our own reflective process in a podcast format, because I think these discussions we've had about the content that we create are golden, and also the fact that we are still learning it too like, it's a growth in itself as well, but I think it's so um, what you said earlier, Jade, like, embarrassment or concerns, it's a safe environment for someone to learn.

[00:14:47] Jade Scott: And so easy as well. Yeah,

[00:14:49] Winnie Adamson: Yeah, definitely.

[00:14:50] Maddy Stratten: It's accessible. And I mean, we hear people talk about where they listen to podcasts when they're taking the dog for a walk or on the train or, you know, I, I'm sure, um, I've heard someone say that they were doing gardening. So I'm wondering if they had headphones on and somebody's like yelling out from the house being like, I can't hear you, I'm listening to you On The Couch. Yeah.

[00:15:15] Winnie Adamson: So getting back to what you did in your project, can you walk us through the methodologies for this project?

[00:15:22] Jade Scott: Yeah. So I began by conducting a literature review, I then conducted a comparative analysis of a set of six competitive sexual health podcasts and these included Doing It, Talking Frank, Sticky Q's, Sexual Health Matters, Sydney Sexual Health Centre Podcast and Love Clews.

I examined 26 factors, including format, style, episode length and host expertise. I then sent each podcast a questionnaire of five questions to gain insights into their podcast production processes, promotion strategies, and impact measures. The responses from the questionnaire were analyzed using thematic analysis, which revealed key themes.

[00:16:05] Maddy Stratten: Yeah. We've been so excited about this project throughout the whole process, and I think at every stage in its development, we've had these light bulb moments. And I just want to reflect on one specific light bulb moment that we had, Jade, um, one week when we were planning out your timeline, and we did a bit of a pivot and a slight change in direction with these methodologies for this project.

And I think it's a real strength to be able to adjust on the spot and in the moment and evolve and not get stuck on one idea for your project. So, I really congratulate you and how you've been able to, um, be flexible with that. Because I really feel as though changing those methods to include that questionnaire with podcast hosts really added so much insight and value to the project.

I remember when we were talking about, you know, do we, do we reach out to podcast hosts? Are they even going to reply? How are we going to do this? Every single one of them replied. And I think that really shows this collectiveness of the sector in that we're all trying to share knowledge and build each other up and, you know, share experiences so that we're not starting from scratch and we're not trying to reinvent the wheel.

And I think, yeah, being able to, pivot during your project and including that in your methodologies has really added so much.

[00:17:30] Jade Scott: Yeah, and it was really cool how excited all the podcasts were to be involved, which is really cool.

[00:17:36] Winnie Adamson: Yeah, they really, they really got involved in it, which is so nice. Yeah.

And really rewarding. Yes. Yeah, definitely. And I'm sure would give you that real sense of like, yes, what I'm doing is actually something, it's real.

 Can you talk us through the process of a comparative analysis? We would love to hear about how you created your spreadsheet and glossary of definitions.

[00:18:00] Jade Scott: Yeah, so, um, creating the competitive set spreadsheet was a whole new experience for me and I had to do some research on how to put one together and I found a few guides online that were really helpful.

But I suppose after talking to you both about what information would be most useful for Caddyshack, we finalized a glossary of categories that, I compared each podcast against. We also realized some terms might not be super clear. So we created a definitions glossary to make sure everything was easy to understand, especially for people not familiar with the podcasting world.

[00:18:35] Winnie Adamson: Yeah. The glossary was really clear and really well thought out. And it really added to the project as well and really helped us. Um, can you also share your search strategies for podcasts in this space and your matrix for deciding how you choose podcasts to include in your comparative analysis?

[00:18:57] Jade Scott: Yeah, the search strategy involved first searching Spotify and Podbean with terms like sexual health, sex, relationships, wellbeing, dating and consent.

I also did a Google search and found three podcasts, Sexual Health Matters by Shine SA, Doing It by Sexual Health Victoria and Sydney Sexual Health Centre Podcast. Plus I got some great recommendations from you both. From there I compiled a big table of podcasts and we narrowed it down to those most similar to On The Couch.

It ended up being podcasts from four different states, mostly run by sexual health clinics or education organizations.

[00:19:36] Maddy Stratten: And this then led into the second phase of your project, which was the addition of the questionnaire. Can you walk us through the questionnaire development, and I guess really what that looks like when you were making the questions and then reaching out to podcast hosts and what that experience was like?

[00:19:56] Jade Scott: Yeah, so the questionnaire development started with us brainstorming ideas of what each question would look like and what we wanted the responses to be. And like an example of one of the questions was "reflecting on when you first began producing the podcast, how did you navigate the production process?"

So we kind of just made sure they were super open ended and just, yeah, really allowed them to interpret the question and answer the way they wanted to. Which I suppose was really helpful when we got the responses because they were very, like, different.

[00:20:27] Maddy Stratten: And they also, um, really encouraged the responses to share their story, right?

And that's what we were wanting. They were the responses that we were really wanting to get out of it. It's sure the details are great, but actually share your experience because everyone's experience is going to be really different and unique. And I think the way that you worked on those questions helped to get that result.

[00:20:54] Jade Scott: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. , and then I was lucky enough to find contact details for most of them. And Maddy and I had fun playing detectives to track down one of the podcast details. And, yeah, for Sticky Q's, I couldn't find a contact online.

So I gave Sexual Assault Support Service Tasmania, who produced the podcast, a call. And they were super helpful. And they connected me with Tom Duff, one of the podcast co hosts. And this was really cool to talk to a podcast host themselves. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:25] Winnie Adamson: I also remember Jade, you talking about when you were actually talking to Tom. Can you share a bit more about that?

[00:21:32] Jade Scott: Yeah. So I called, Sexual Assault Support Service Tasmania and they were like, yeah, we'll get in contact with Tom, like give him your email. And I thought that would just kind of be it. But then 10 minutes later he called back and then he's like, oh, hi, like I'm Tom, like from Sticky Q's. And I was like, wow, this is so weird, like actually talking to a podcast host and like I have to respond. I can't just listen to his voice. So yeah, that was really cool to actually, yeah, get in contact with the podcast.

[00:22:03] Maddy Stratten: Yeah. I think, um, it's a real skill that for Winnie and I is something that we continue to learn. And I think I'm just going to say as well, Winnie and I have talked about this offline about how like, you were so brave and like incredibly, you just cold called people

I, yeah. We would never have done that . You just sent out emails and like cold called people and then you would come back in next week and you'd be like, so yeah, I spoke to so and so at like Victoria sexual, and I was like, wait, what? Like ,like so proud . Yeah. Um, so yes, we are just, in awe of your ability to pick up the phone and make a phone call. Absolutely. Without overthinking it and just being like, yeah, no, I called and I spoke to the podcast co host today.

And I was like, oh, wow.

[00:23:00] Jade Scott: Yeah. Well, I was definitely nervous. But I just figure that they don't know me, so I don't, it doesn't matter, right?

 [00:23:09] Maddy Stratten:  love this story and this really natural, but considered approach to collecting data. So I really congratulate you again, Jade, for being organized, but flexible. And that's what's required for projects like this, that's what is the reality in health promotion. So yeah, it's really great to be able to have that real life experience as part of your placement. Do you want to talk us through the data analysis process now?

[00:23:35] Jade Scott: Yeah. Thanks. It was really rewarding to see the responses come in from the, all the podcasts. So yeah, the data analysis, I use thematic analysis to analyze the data from the comparative analysis as well as the questionnaire responses by coding the responses, identifying themes, and then linking them back to the research question and aim.

The key themes from the data, were self development and capacity building, navigating the production process, barriers and opportunities in promotion and audience engagement and digital analytics as the primary impact measure.

[00:24:12] Winnie Adamson: I think, yeah, something that has been so great about this project is its impact on, On The Couch as a whole. And can you share your final findings and the recommendations for the podcast?

[00:24:25] Jade Scott: Yeah, sure. So key results I found included five out of seven podcasts had no formal training in podcasting. Sydney Sexual Health Centre stated that it was "a learning process largely by trial and error with self learning, mainly YouTube videos."

 This highlights an opportunity for professional development to enhance podcast quality, ease of production, and listener engagement.

An example of podcast development that Sticky Q's engaged in was working with a mentor, improv specialist, and they had a consultant to advise them on their speaking manner, audience engagement, and storytelling.

 Four podcasts produce their entire podcast internally, and the remaining three outsource tasks of production, often editing.

Promotion is a major challenge for most podcasts, particularly for smaller teams with limited resources. Both Sticky Qs and Sydney Sexual Health Centre acknowledge promotion is a skill they're severely lacking in. All podcasts primarily rely on unpaid promotion methods, including social media, newsletters, and internal networks. Talking Frank was the only podcast utilising paid promotion, such as social media ads, Spotify campaigns, and bus advertising, which they noted in the questionnaire that "paid social media campaigns were effective in growing listenership."

Engagement strategies were limited for all podcasts and were predominantly through social media and reviews. All podcasts use digital analytics to track and measure impact, with some like Talking Frank, Sticky Q's and Love Clews also using qualitative feedback through surveys, reviews and social media.

However, the other podcasts relied solely on listener statistics, with Doing It stating, "listener statistics is the only measure we have."

[00:26:15] Maddy Stratten: Yeah, I feel as though there's so many lessons that we can learn from these results and a lot of the stuff that is coming up through this project, we have kind of already been starting to talk about and think about how we're going to better evaluate this podcast and improve it for the future. But I know your project kind of wraps up with some key recommendations for improving On The Couch and for, peer sexual health podcasts as a whole. Do you want to dive into those?

[00:26:44] Jade Scott: Yeah, absolutely. So the key recommendations I found were to conduct further research, utilizing focus groups with target audiences to gather feedback on improving the podcast, enhancing engagement strategies, and identifying future recommendations.

Also, to enhance organic social media marketing through Facebook community groups and developing high quality Instagram reels to improve engagement and attract new listeners.

Also, consider paid promotion strategies such as Spotify ads or targeted social media campaigns, as these strategies are used successfully by similarpodcasts like Talking Frank.

And lastly, to explore the benefits of engaging in professional development to increase capacity in production and promotion strategies.

[00:27:33] Maddy Stratten: Um, around that conducting further research, it's great that this has been one of your recommendations for this project because we have lucky enough to have engaged with an honors student at University of Technology in Sydney.

And he's on a 12 month project with us to evaluate On The Couch as a podcast, and that will include focus groups, with young people and also with health professionals because recognizing that On The Couch has a really diverse audience base So really great that we'll be able to have some of that data.

[00:28:09] Winnie Adamson: I was also just thinking, um with this podcast, it was Maddy and I learning it.

 Um, I think it was, um, SSHC. Sydney's Sexual Health Centre, that said was all largely trial and error, self learning, um, YouTube videos, which is pretty much what we did as well. Because, we've learned a lot of this ourselves, and that's been a really fun process, but it's really interesting to see how these other podcasts who we admire and that we love are doing that too.

[00:28:43] Maddy Stratten: It's refreshing, right? It's like, it's reassuring actually, like, we've done a lot of the work. There's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes and the tip of the iceberg is the release.

But there's all of this work that happens and all of these conversations that happen. So I, yeah, I really see what you're saying because yeah, we all seem to kind of be on the same page. Yeah.

[00:29:06] Winnie Adamson: Yeah.

[00:29:07] Maddy Stratten: And there's things we can learn from each other, and that's what we're here for.

[00:29:09] Winnie Adamson: Yeah, and like sharing knowledge and turning this, learning through podcasting into a real health promotion strategy.

[00:29:20] Maddy Stratten: It's an innovative digital initiative that should and could be used across many health promotion teams. And there's a real opportunity to, yeah, jump on board.

[00:29:34] Winnie Adamson: Um, Yeah, most of our promotion is all through, um, social media marketing. Um, we're mostly Instagram, really, we focus on, and we do try and create really high quality reels, but it takes a lot of time. There's a lot of energy. There's a lot of, you know, you've got to find that quote that really emphasizes the whole podcast and also something that's going to entice people to want to go and listen to it and engage in it.. You've got to find the right music. I mean, don't even get me started on trying to find the right music for the reels, but it is a lot of fun, but it does take a lot of time.

[00:30:10] Jade Scott: Yeah. , it's funny you said that, Winnie, because, um, Grace from Love Clews also said and I'll quote from Grace , who said that "making the edited videos took so much time and energy. So I didn't do it as much as I would have liked. Learning about what makes a good podcast video is a whole other kettle of fish that I have had a lot of professional development on since. So there would be things that I would do differently now."

[00:30:36] Winnie Adamson: definitely can relate. Absolutely. Um.

[00:30:41] Maddy Stratten: And, and I just like to mention too, that that's organic social media marketing that we do. And I think, um, sometimes it can be a little disheartening when we have, um, a beast that is Meta and Instagram who really censor sex positive, sexual health, sex education, consent content.

Um, and I know that that's, you know, probably an episode in itself to get into and I won't go on a rant, but it is really difficult and disheartening when you put all of this work in to make this reel. Yes, people have a short attention span, so lots of people are going to scroll past. That's just a natural thing with Instagram.

But thankfully we haven't been shadow banned, but I know a lot of similar, um, pages to us have been, but I do know that the algorithm doesn't really favor our content and isn't pushing it out. So then when we get, any kind of engagement we are celebrating because it's actually being seen and hopefully it's resonating with our audience.

[00:31:53] Jade Scott: Yeah. And what you just said, Maddy about Meta um, Talking Frank also said something similar by "Meta's automated censorship can cause challenges promoting sexual health content. "

[00:32:04] Winnie Adamson: Yeah, definitely. And it's such a shame, like you said, Maddy this is a whole other podcast and we don't want to go in a rant but it is just such a shame when I think Instagram is the perfect platform to really be promoting sex positive content because people are on it a lot of the day and it really does change the way we think and what type of stuff we're engaging with. And so when these things are being censored, especially with us, like we'll just try to promote, a lot of the time, options for people to go and get the correct advice, um, like testing, where to get tested for STIs, about the STIs, what symptoms to look out for. And when that's getting censored, when it's purely like health information, I think it's really disheartening too.

[00:32:55] Maddy Stratten: And I mean, we were talking about this when we were walking here this morning, Winnie around like the information and being able to make an informed choice and you can still make. your choice, whatever that's going to be, but you need to be able to be informed so that you can accept the risks and, you know, understand the impacts of that choice.

 Yeah, you're so right, Instagram is such a, uh, impactful platform because we know that young people are on it. Us included, um, a lot of the day.

Um, going back to the project, uh, it's also about this wider impact on podcasting as a positive platform for delivering sexual health education, right? So hopefully we have some listeners who are keen to start their own channels and get sex positive, sexual health information out there in this way.

Um, you know, of course, making sure that it is reliable and, making sure that we're getting those consistent messages out there we're not further stigmatizing.

 As we start to wrap up our chat today, after completing this placement project, Jade, what are your big vision pie in the sky dreams for how the future of podcasting in the sexual health education space could look like?

[00:34:13] Jade Scott: Yeah, sure. So

[00:34:15] Maddy Stratten: Big question.

[00:34:16] Jade Scott: Big question. Um, I would firstly say that. Maybe moving it from less of a side project to like it should be definitely the main thing with those statistics we talked about earlier with young listeners choosing podcasts to learn information. It's definitely a real need for it and I think it should be prioritized more.

And yeah, ensuring true co-design with young people and health professionals on what they really want to hear, and, um, what podcasting looks like for them and continually improving it.

[00:34:51] Winnie Adamson: Mm, yeah, definitely. What needs to happen to get us there, like where do we go from here?

[00:34:58] Jade Scott: Yeah, so I think people like you both and health promotion officers and educators would lead us there by continuously challenging traditional forms of health promotion and staying reflective, current and adaptable.

[00:35:12] Winnie Adamson: Yes. Love that. Love that. We'll be there.

We'll lead the way. Pioneers. Oh, thank you so much for your time and your commitment to this placement project. It has honestly been such a great experience and we really look forward to seeing where you go in your career.

And to our listeners, if you'd like to know more about Jade's project, or if you would like to read her final report, please reach out to us and we can connect you.

[00:35:40] Maddy Stratten: Yeah. And please do that because Jade has worked really hard and has really done a lot of the, the groundwork for us as a team at Caddyshack Project, but I think for, sexual health promotion across the state and as we are hear nationally now as well, interstate.

 I think this is the future of sexual health promotion and there's a real opportunity to share in our knowledge and continue to build each other up.

[00:36:10] Winnie Adamson: Yeah. Thank you, Jade.

[00:36:12] Maddy Stratten: Yeah, thanks again, Jade. It's been such a joy to have you.

[00:36:16] Jade Scott: Yeah. Thank you so much for this opportunity and having me On The Couch.

[00:36:19] Winnie Adamson: Thanks for listening to On The Couch. We create this podcast because we are allies and actively challenging discrimination, microaggressions, and exclusionary behaviors. We want to create spaces where people feel safe to share their thoughts, knowing they will be heard and respected.

Such an environment fosters collaboration, innovation, and contributes to a more inclusive society. Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook, where you can share On The Couch with your colleagues, friends, and family. This On The Couch episode is made by Maddy Stratten, Winnie Adamson, and Jade Scott. And supported by Jennifer Farinella and Naomi Viret.

Until next time, peace, love, and protection.