Show Notes
This week, Darren Palmer sits down with his old friend from Australia’s year 2000s drag queen era Shane Jenek, known by the world as Courtney Act, to recount his childhood home in Queensland, crossing paths with Lady Gaga and what home is looking and feeling like to him right now.
Follow Shane on IG @courtneyact and find his book ‘Confetti and the Rainbow Garden’ here:
https://www.booktopia.com.au/confetti-and-the-rainbow-garden-shane-jenek/book/9781763550735.html
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If your home away from home was a podcast, it would be *Almost Home with Darren Palmer*. An insightful and heartwarming series hosted by Aussie interior designer Darren Palmer. Each week, he sits down with an inspiring guest to discuss everything from colour schemes to childhood dreams - discovering what it means to create a sense of home, one story at a time.
Welcome to… Darren Palmer’s Almost Home.
Follow on Instagram and TikTok @darrenpalmerofficial
And full episode with video on Youtube @darrenpalmerhome
Show Credits:
Host & Executive Producer: Darren Palmer
Executive Producer: Amelia Chappelow
Podcast & Video Producer: Lauren Cooper
Audio Engineers: Grant Offner & Nick Loane
Art Director: Brigitte Greene
Photographer: Dario Hardaker
DOPs: Marcus Coblyn, Harri Gilbert, Nolan Verheij, Ed Renew
Gaffers: Gabriel Morrison, Maxed Out Lighting
Senior Video Editor: Brad Hurt ASE
Video Editor: Rihanna Smith-Williams
Freelance Video Editor: Emma Baggott
Motion Designer: Rob Harper & Tom Cotton
Colourist: Vincent Taylor
Senior Copywriter: Antonia Minutolo
Copywriter: Amanda Thacker
Head of Commercial: Louise Magnifico
Project Management: Kate Vickery
Talent Management: Joseph Hanrahan
Amplification Partner: iHeart
Collaboration Partner: King Kyle Productions
This is a MIK Made production
Say: [email protected]
More from Darren Palmer's Almost Home
This week, Darren Palmer heads to Palm Beach, Australia to hang out with award-winning designer and surfboard innovator Hayden Cox, founder of Haydenshapes Surfboards, whose FutureFlex surfboard technology helped flip the surfboard world on its head. They dive into surfing, surfboard design, creativity, and building a home with nothing but instinct, curiosity and bold vision. Along the way, you’ll hear how Hayden’s passion, problem-solving, and family life shape his day-to-day, and Darren can’t help but agree.
Darren joins his friend and design icon Steve Cordony in his Sydney apartment, to explore the early inspirations behind Steve’s farmhouse in the hills of Orange. As Steve reflects on Rosedale Farm with Darren, they discover how our childhood experiences shape the spaces we create, and how caring for our inner world is just as vital as shaping our outer one. Together, they explore the intersections of memory, design and wellbeing, and the importance of taking time for ourselves.
This week, you’ll meet journalist & author Brooke Boney who is Darren’s first guest in between homes as she returns to Australia from studying at Oxford University. Together they explore all the nuances of what it means to be ‘home’, and after Brooke’s life changing decision to leave the Today Show, more importantly WHO makes us feel at home.
This week, Darren Palmer is joined by his friend and colleague Scott Cam, host of The Block, for a conversation about life before and after the spotlight, and what home means to him. From his early life and Bondi upbringing to being talent-spotted in a pub in his thirties, Scott reflects on the values of craftsmanship, family and hard work that have shaped both his career and the homes he’s built along the way.
This week on Almost Home, Darren Palmer sits down with his friend and one of Australia’s most loved journalists, Allison Langdon (A Current Affair, 60 Minutes, Today). They share stories from their country-town upbringings to lives that have taken them far beyond their comfort zones, and how those roots continue to shape who they are today.