News Fighters podcast to join forces with A Rational Fear in 2023
This article is at least a year old
After two years with Melbourne comedy podcast network Sanspants Radio and after doing pilots at Southern Cross Austereo in 2020 as well as being a 2SER radio segment in 2021, cult news comedy podcast News Fighters will join Dan Ilic’s A Rational Fear podcast feed as a monthly show starting in 2023.
“With the Queen dead, Scott Morrison gone and Barnaby on the backbench, there’s just not enough dumb material to do a weekly show anymore” said NEWS FIGHTERS host/producer Dylan Behan. “Doing the show monthly be much more sustainable - and Dan’s all about sustainability!”
Added A Rational Fear creator/host Dan Ilic:
“Dylan Behan has a brutally satirical eye, and that eye is forced to watch a lot of news… which is why it’s also very swollen, and red. Rather than see a doctor, part TV editor, part cyclops, Dylan Behan, is bringing NEWS FIGHTERS to the A RATIONAL FEAR feed. I’m not a doctor, but I think that should allow his eye to retract to normal size. Currently it’s hideous. Yuk.”
Winner of the Best Aussie Comedy Podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards for three years running (2020-2022), A RATIONAL FEAR has previously hosted other spin-off podcasts including JAN FRAN HAS ISSUES, JULIA ZEMIRO’S WHO CARES? and climate leader podcast GREATEST MORAL PODCAST OF OUR GENERATION (GMPOOG).
About News Fighters
NEWS FIGHTERS started in January 2019 and has released over 120 episodes poking fun at two prime ministers, two monarchs, six budgets, five state elections and countless once-in-a-century crises like floods, bushfires and a pandemic. It even found laughs in the sad and tragic, like Christopher Pyne’s podcast PYNE TIME.
In 2021 NEWS FIGHTERS became a weekly segment on 2SER radio Sydney, has been mentioned on The Project and in The Guardian, regularly charts in iTunes Top 200 Australian comedy podcasts chart and has received glowing write ups from MediaWeek (“it’s really very funny”) and fickle comedy blog Australian Tumbleweeds ( “sharp…pretty good”). From 2021 to 2022 it was distributed by Melbourne podcast distributor Sanspants Radio and Acast, where the old episode archive will remain available (as well as on Youtube where new segments will still be uploaded).
About Dylan Behan
Creator/producer Dylan Behan is an award-nominated TV video editor who worked with The Chaser for over 10 years and was senior editor on Tonightly with Tom Ballard. He also studied comedy writing at The Second City in Toronto and was an arts/comedy journalist with The Brag Magazine/Revolver for over 5 years.
About Dan Ilic
‘Investigative Humourist’ Dan Ilic is one of Australia’s most prolific comedy voices, known for his work across TV, film, radio and stage.
Known for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to shame the Australian Government’s record on climate action in Times Square, New York City before the Glasgow climate talks in 2021.
Host of the popular podcast and live comedy show A Rational Fear, Dan brings together industry leaders, journalists, comedians and politicians, to use comedy to explore big issues such as climate change, press freedom and the intersection of culture and the internet. A Rational Fear won Best Comedy Podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards in 2020 and 2021.
Starting his career on TV shows including The Ronnie Johns Half Hour (TEN), Hungry Beast (ABC) Can of Worms (TEN), and Insiders (ABC).
He has sold out shows at the Sydney Opera House, entertained with seasons on ABC Radio National, and performed stand-up under rocket fire in Kandahar.
As a journalist, in 2008 Dan scooped the world to the news Heath Ledger’s Death and covered US election for Fairfax Media, In 2015 was appointed the senior satire producer of Al Jazeera’s youth publisher AJ+ and in 2016 he covered US l election while Executive Producer of Satire for Fusion/Gizmodo Media Group in the USA.
He landed back in Australia as the Executive Producer and Showrunner of the daily satirical TV show Tonightly with Tom Ballard (ABC), then more recently, the AACTA nominated At Home Alone Together (ABC), a coronavirus comedy lifestyle show.
Dan was recognised by the Obama Foundation in 2019 as an Obama Foundation Leader Asia Pacific for his work in satire and climate change activism, and was a 2020 Bertha Foundation Fellow.
This is a press release which we link to from Podnews, our daily newsletter about podcasting and on-demand. We may make small edits for editorial reasons.
Companies mentioned above:
Acast
Australian Podcast Awards