Dating as a black woman in Australia? It’s enough to make an award-winning podcast | Kerrie O'Brien
. It was set up by Cox’s widow, Que Minh Luu, who is director of content at Netflix ANZ, and a group of his loved ones including Benjamin Law, Clare Holland, Kali Reid, Jess Bineth and Scott Spark. Offered in partnership with podcast studio Audiocraft and production studio Unison, it provides a great opportunity for aspiring audio producers and is designed to support local and underrepresented voices.
With the fellowship money, she intends to create a second series of the show, which also won podcast of the year and best fiction podcast at the 2021 Australian Podcast Awards. Dating in Australia and America, where she lived before coming here, is very different to dating in Zimbabwe. “I find it very difficult to decipher whether a guy is flirting with me or just being nice. In comparison to being back in Zimbabwe [where] if a guy likes you, they will tell you quite plainly,” she says. “Here, it’s a lot more subtle in general. It is a lot harder to decipher people’s intentions.
Judges of the Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship this year were JCAF board member and audio producer Jess Bineth, head of development at Dreamchaser Monique Keller, and 2021 JCAF fellow and podcaster Jay Ooi.Bineth says the fellowship was set up to support innovative, bold work and to play a role in uplifting and supporting voices that are otherwise unrepresented in the audio space. “Audio fiction is really hard to do well and in Australia Christine is leading the pack.