I love radio. It’s the most intimate medium for sharing stories, and still the most evocative way of transporting you across times and places.
I’ve produced and presented radio and podcasts on community, commercial and public radio across Australia for 2SER, FBI, ABC Radio, Fairfax Radio and Disrupt Radio.
I devised, wrote and presented the national ABC Radio show, Sunday Takeaway, which was the first radio show in the world to broadcast an interview with a Deaf person for the Deaf community. I also regularly produced and presented packages for RN’s popular Life Matters, including sharing the stories of some incredible and inspiring people who came to Australia as refugees and have enriched our community.
Most recently, I hosted the Screen Show on RN and devised, produced and presented popular series The Next Shift for digital radio start up Disrupt Radio, exploring the future of work with some of the world’s most influential leaders and innovative thinkers.
What I love most is creative audio and oral history. I continue to make popular documentaries for Radio National. Riddle. Mystery. Enigma was the first podcast to have a puzzle encoded into it and nominated for the prestigious Prix Marulič awards and Stones and Sticks and Such Like, which was adapted from my story in Growing Up Asian in Australia (Black Inc, 2008), is still studied in schools around the country. Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite was the first radio documentary in the world to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s, to reveal the identity of the man behind the poster behind the lyrics to the song, and to make an Australian connection.
But the documentary I’m proudest of is the one I made with my dear old mum Sushila after she moved into her nursing home, telling the story of her groundbreaking life through some of her 500-odd saris.
If you’d like me to help you tell your story, either in conversation or as a series, get in touch and let’s talk! I can format, schedule, produce, write and record in collaboration with you. In the meantime, hear more by clicking on the links!
The Next Shift
Limited Series for Disrupt Radio
Explore the future of work today. How do you work with AI before it takes your job? How can you manage a bad boss or a Gen Z intern?
How important is diversity when everyone’s working from home?
Sunil Badami has had more jobs than he’s had haircuts. He’s been a trainee clown, financial planner, pub manager, journalist and now he’s an academic specialising in the future of work.
Discover how you can shift up to the next level, wherever you work, whatever you do.
Listening to Darlinghurst: Eccentrics
Episode for UTS History lab/impact studios/ramsay foundation
From now-closed pubs to the squats and residentials where interesting people used to live, this wonderful oral history project explored the byways and alleys of Darlinghurst, once dubbed “Razorhurst”.
“I so wanted to get Sunil’s voice in this, he’s such a vivid storyteller, and he knows so much…”
Award-winning producer Catherine Freyne.
“It’s a real curation and it differs from traditional oral histories where you’re asking questions and getting answers. This is Sunil curating his story of Darlinghurst.”
Acclaimed historian Dr Anna Clark of the Australian Centre for Public History.
Mum’s Saris
Documentary feature for Earshot, RN
As he helped his mother Sushila pack up her home to move into residential aged care, writer Sunil Badami uncovered something even more valuable than his grandmother’s century-old wedding sari: the stories of some of the most important saris — and moments — in Sushila’s long and trailblazing life. And in sorting out what to hold onto and what to let go of, Sunil discovered what might have always been the most precious thing of all.
Riddle. Mystery. Enigma.
Documentary Feature for Radiotonic, RN
Recipient of Ian Walker Foundation Funding and Shortlisted for Prix Marulič International Radio Awards 2016
Riddle. Mystery. Enigma. takes you on a journey from the familiar to the unexplored, through the mysterious history of cryptology and coding, and how it affects our lives today. Part radio documentary; part radio code breaking exercise; definite radio goose chase. Plus you get the opportunity to solve our own intriguing secret code, encrypted into the episode.
Yes, this is secret coded radio. Keep your ears open, you don’t want to miss anything.
Stones and Sticks and Suchlike
Documentary Feature for Life Matters, RN
Growing up as one of only three Indian kids at school and struggling to fit in, Sunil Badami was called a lot of things – curry muncher, towel head … and a lot worse. Despite his mother’s excellent advice about what to do when being called names, there was one that really got under his skin: his own name. Until he discovered what it really meant.
Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!
Documentary Feature for Pocketdocs, RN
It was 20 years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play – and it’s the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ masterpiece album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Of all the iconic songs it boasts, one of the most haunting and evocative has the most incredible story behind it.
Writer and Beatles tragic Sunil Badami went on the trail of the fascinating and talented people (and horses) who have been immortalised in the song. He unearths a connection closer to home than he could have ever imagined. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear how every song in the soundtrack is a version of the song itself!
I Got the Lot!
Documentary Feature for Life Matters, RN
We’ve all dreamt of winning the lottery. But what about having the brainpower to win a TV quiz show, outright?
Sunil Badami took the plunge as a contestant on Australia’s longest running quiz shows.
This is the story of the day he got the lot.