Newsmakers with Mia Freedman

August 14, 2024


G’day, Kate Watson here.

As most of you know, The Squiz is an independent media company started by Claire Kimball and a band of media tragics she assembled 7 years ago. (One of those tragics was me if you hadn’t caught that).

Building an independent media company in Australia is not easy. The big media companies are very big. As we’ve been on our journey, we have watched Mia and her business, Mamamia, with increasing awe. Because each year, we appreciate more and more just how hard it is.

Fun as well? Yes.

Exciting? Yes.

Fulfilling? Hell yes.

But hard.

So to have Mia agree to come on Newsmakers, well, I was thrilled. I had so many questions. I wanted to learn and understand how she has done it. Mostly because so much of it has been about putting herself out into the world - for judgement, for feedback, for critique. That is a really hard thing to do.

It’s not all we talk about - we also talk news and how Mia comes at it. She talks to me about cancel culture, she talks about filters on social media and I ask her about the biggest issue for women right now.

She talks about young men and where we are letting them down. She talks about the culture at Mamamia and about the challenges and benefits of working with family.

I found this to be truly a conversation. Mia is immediately familiar and very generous with her time. She lives and breathes content. She’s a true Newsmaker.

Settle in - we even talk about Botox.

Your friend in news

Kate Watson

You can listen to the full podcast here or scroll down for an edited transcript. 

Introducing this week’s Newsmaker: Mia Freedman from Mamamia

If you don’t already know, Mamamia began in 2007 as a blog by Mia Freedman. She is a former magazine editor who worked at and lead titles such as Dolly, Cosmopolitan and Cleo.

In 2008, she was joined by her husband Jason, and together, they have built Mamamia into Australia's largest women's media business: with millions of monthly readers and millions more listeners to their podcast network.

Their mission is to make the world a better place for women and girls. Their website reads: “We’re candid. Unflinchingly honest. And speak the resounding truth about what it means to be a woman - no matter what that looks like.”

Mia herself hosts and co-hosts 6 podcasts each week. Out Loud is described as the show “about what women are actually talking about”. And No Filter - Mia’s interview show - is about “riveting stories and fascinating lives” and is one of the largest podcasts in the country.

Mia Freedman on…

Disagreeing

Kate: How do we find the people that we can trust? And where do you think that's gonna come from?

Mia: I think what's really sad is this idea that you have to agree or endorse everything somebody thinks about everything to agree with them about one thing. So it's this idea that people, what people used to say when they met me or when they spoke about me is, I don't agree with everything you say. And I'm like, well, I don't agree with everything I say either. Name one person in your life that you agree with everything that they say or everything that they think.

But somehow this idea that anyone who has even one opinion out of a hundred that's different to mine, well, then I must discount the other 99. And I think part of that is identity politics. Part of that is just our inability to tolerate disagreement and sit in that.

And that's why my favourite thing to do every week is our podcast Out Loud. We disagree all the time, but we have strong opinions loosely held … I think that's a good way to approach life.

The biggest policy issue for Aussie women

KW: What do you think the biggest issue is for women for our policymakers?

MF: Women aren't a monolith, women are just people. So what's important to women is what's important to all Australians, which I would say at the moment is cost of living. In terms of what I see in my life, what women are struggling the most with is childcare. And again, takes 2 people to have a baby. So it should be an issue for all people. But in most cases, that is something that falls predominantly to women.

My kids are older now, but every year I have friends and colleagues … and there's this idea of when your child starts school, it's like this beacon of ‘if I can wait until then and I won't have to pay for childcare - they're at school - it's sorted every day’ … And then they get to school, and you watch these women suddenly go ‘my God, I've got to drop them off. They start at 9am and they finish at 3pm. How?’ And they look around, and they're like, why isn't anyone talking about this?

Regret

KW: How much do you come across that feeling of regret for what you've done or what you've said?

MF: Loads because it’s never been intentional. I've never gone ‘you know what I want to do is be cruel or be unkind or be offensive’. Have I said or expressed things in ways that have been clumsy? Have I been not educated enough about the right word to use? Absolutely. But there's a difference between murder and manslaughter. And I think what cancel culture and the outrage economy has done is really flattened that difference. And the difference there is intention … what the internet doesn't allow is that nuance...

Listen to the full podcast interview here.

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Hear from some of our other Newsmakers

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