Sweetman Podcast

Welcome to episode two of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS.
This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, and from there we go wherever the conversation takes us. Of course I’ll let them talk about who they are, what they do, and current or past work, but it’s less the focus than the original Sweetman Podcast, which was audio only.
For this pod, each guest is asked to bring an object, something to talk about. We get going from there.
Dr Chris Bowden, an academic from Victoria University of Wellington, was high on my original list of potential guests, one of the first people I reached out to when rebooting my podcast. We met for the first time in the slightly awkward introduction to this conversation and interview. Chris’ PhD focused on understanding young men’s experience of losing a close male friend to suicide. Aware of his work with Mates in Construction, and as an educational psychologist, I was interested to talk with Chris and I’m so glad I did.
You’ll hear us talk about Joy Division and Metallica, and we will talk about Chris’ life and work. It is a heavy conversation, but there is so much heart and humility from Dr Bowden that I would hope there’s enough light at the end of the tunnel. But absolutely take care if and when watching or listening to this pod episode.
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Each month I host an open mic called ‘Say The Thing’. Poems, stories, anything people want to read or speak, provided the wrote it.
I usually read a poem or two, or some short prose to kick off, so that no one else feels they have to be the ‘first reader’.
This month I read two new/ish Harry Nilsson poems, since that’s my current writing obsession.
I read two that I’d only just written and shared, Harry Lied:
And Bojanglin’ — ostensibly about the song, ‘Mr. Bojangles’
So you can read along or read the poems instead, or check the text after.
But I like sharing the odd audio recording and preserving them for the archive.
So this was last week at Say The Thing.
We have two more events (Oct/Nov) for 2026.
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Welcome to episode one of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS.
This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, and from there we go wherever the conversation takes us. Of course I’ll let them talk about who they are, what they do, and current or past work, but it’s less the focus than the original Sweetman Podcast, which was audio only.
For this pod, each guest is asked to bring an object, something to talk about. We get going from there.
Duncan Sarkies very kindly agreed to be my first guest. And I don’t even introduce him on camera (how rude!) Duncan’s a writer of films and TV, also novels, plays, and a book of short stories. He is fresh off a spoken word show at the TAHI Festival which I reviewed:
That show featured him reading stories from his most recent novel, Stargazers.
We also talk a bit about the project, Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium.
But beyond that this is a free-flowing conversation that isn’t about any one thing, isn’t pre-planned at all, and isn’t edited. Which is exactly what I want to do with this series of podcasts.
It is very much about creativity and connecting and conversation. Which is also what I want. Less of an interview, with some questions arriving about as naturally as possible (hopefully).
So, my apologies that the sound isn’t quite how I want it, but this is a work in progress. So audio-quality is on the ‘To Fix’ list. But this is listenable. And watchable. And I hope you like it.



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Here’s a reading of a couple of pieces from The Richard Poems, and four new pieces, three of my Harry Nilsson poems, and a poem I wrote just two days before reading.
I was the opening for A Party of Poets at The Cabana, in Napier. A terrific event, an incredible lineup to be part of — what I loved was we were all different. The seven poets reading all had different themes, content, and delivery.
It’s not my right to record and share the others — but here’s my set.
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You’ll know if you’ve been checking in here in any way that I’m obsessing over Harry Nilsson, in general, and also writing what is becoming a sequence — possibly even a whole book — of “Harry poems”.
So I turned up to the Poetry in Motion open mic last night to give a couple of them a run. Not bad. Apart from saying “Harry Wilson” because the light on stage wasn’t great and I’m an idiot! But hey, I walked that back quickly enough.
Anyway, here they are if you want to have a listen.
Not sure how I felt after reading them out. Which is a good thing at this point I think. Not sure if these are poems for performance or the page. My feeling at this point is they’re somewhere in between — which is an interesting, and slightly worrying state. The good thing is it means there’s work still to be done.
There’s always work still to be done.
Thanks for reading Sounds Good! ! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Sounds Good! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



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