S1E1: People dig it

In this first episode of Bad Diaries Podcast, we talk about Bad Diaries Salon, the live literary series that we co-produce and co-curate – from the concept’s beginnings in 2017, when Jenny first put a call out on Twitter, to running 20 salons, with more than 70 readers, between 2017 and 2022.

We talk about what makes the Bad Diaries Salon engine (juggernaut!) run so smoothly, recite the Bad Diaries Salon rules, and talk about the gold at the heart of salons: “people dig the concept, they get it straight away, and they love it”; “it works, it just works, it’s the little concept that could – it can fill a big space; it can also get little and quiet and beautiful”.

We introduce Bad Diaries Podcast, our hopes and plans for the podcast. The salons exist in the room in the moment, a contract between readers and audience, that you have to be there to experience. With the podcast, we want to create something to return to. We’ll talk all things diaries – our own, other people's, published and unpublished – and feature guest interviews with writers who've read at live salons, and with people publishing diaries, designing them, and using them in fiction, film and other media.

Find full show notes for this episode on the Bad Diaries Salon website baddiariessalon.com, or get in touch via Instagram or Facebook – we're @baddiariessalon everywhere.

Thanks for joining us for Bad Diaries Podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review us, wherever you get your podcasts.

Bad Diaries Podcast is recorded and produced in Naarm Melbourne, Australia, on the lands of the Kulin Nation; and in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, on the iwi lands of Taranaki Whānui, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. We pay our respects to Mana Whenua, and to Elders past, present and emerging, of these lands.