This week on Benched, we’re hanging out with the absolute icon Benjamin Law (The Family Law, Wellmania)! We dive straight into what sport looks like when you’re growing up queer and Asian-Australian on the Sunshine Coast; from dodging school PE trauma to taking on adult acrobatics classes at 44. Ben spills on what competing on Australian Survivor actually taught him, why he wrote a powerhouse Quarterly Essay on the Safe Schools program, and why writers and creatives secretly need to get out of their minds and move their bodies too.

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.

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. #sport #sportpodcast #australia

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We're joined by multi-Quill-Award-winning ABC Sports journalist and co-host of The Footy with Broden Kelly Marnie Vinall, alongside retired AFLW All-Australian turned Channel 7 commentator Kate McCarthy, for an unmissable conversation about comebacks, community, commentary, and how being visible changes who trusts you with a story.

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.

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.