Show Notes
Sports podcasts usually ask the big questions. Who scored? Who won? Who’s making finals?
We’re more interested in questions like: Why are sporting uniforms so often tragic? Are court moppers the unsung heroes of sport? Could Twilight secretly be a sports movie? And why do we all have a weird emotional attachment to our old team kits?
Welcome to the first episode of Benched, a sports podcast from a queer perspective where we explore the culture, characters and chaos that make sport so much more than a game.
Hosted by Rudy Jean Rigg, Hannah Wilkinson and Mitch Brown, Benched brings together athletes, artists, fans and storytellers to unpack the weird, wonderful and unexpected corners of sport.
Our first episode features AFLW icon, artist and advocate Darcy Vescio, talking queer identity, creativity, activism and finding new ways to challenge the way we think about sport.
Follow us @teambenched everywhere to join the team and make sure you chuck us a 5 star review - it helps out a bunch!
Presented by Pride Cup Production - Humdinger Studios Design - Nat Gills Key Art Photography - Hailey Moroney, Archer Studios
This podcast acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Benched
This week on Benched, we’re ditching the script to sit down with Victoria’s Minister for Sport and Equality, Steve Dimopoulos MP. We chat through what it actually looks like to navigate life in the public eye as an out politician, how a sticky dancefloor meeting at The Peel led to his ultimate gay anthem, and whether grassroots sports clubs are genuinely safe for queer people…or if we just have better public marketing. Plus, we break down what it takes to rebuild trust and get queer adults back into the games they left behind.
This week on Benched, we're going off the bench and behind the mic to unpack what it’s really like telling other people's queer stories for a living, while trying to live your own off the clock: what footy media actually looks like from the other side of the white line, whether sports journalism is genuinely safe to work in as a queer woman, visibility as a double-edged sword, and the untold queer AFLW stories that have never been covered properly.
Two Melbourne City teammates, two completely different roads to the top of international football, so what actually holds a team, a career, and a fight for better conditions together?
Is professional wrestling the ultimate form of physical theatre? Where does sports performance end and improv comedy begin? And what happens when a fan’s obsession with the WWE crosses the line into a full-on existential crisis?
What does it actually take to communicate with your teammates mid-game? What happens when your partner is also your teammate? And what exactly qualifies someone as a WAG? This week on Benched, we’re getting into the things you probably won’t hear in the post-game press conference: gossiping, dating within your team, reality TV, line dancing, AFLW pay and funding, and the surprisingly complex logistics of yelling at your teammates on the field.