Meshel Laurie’s Smart Fella Productions launches Mean-agers with Madeleine West

Meshel Laurie’s Smart Fella Productions, the team behind chart-topping podcasts Australian True Crime and Calm Ya Farm, have launched their latest podcast, Mean-agers with Madeleine West and child psychologist Angela Murray. As part of the Acast Creator Network, Acast - the world’s leading independent podcast company - will host, distribute and monetise the podcast through ads, sponsorship and branded content.

Mean-agers will help answer questions that Madeleine West, the actress turned author, and now podcaster wants to know along with every parent: How do you help your babies make the transition into young adults? How do you survive the teen years with your sanity, families and sense of humour intact? And why are teens so mean?

To help answer Madeleine’s questions is child psychologist and former school counsellor Angela Murray. Angela brings a wealth of experience to listeners, having worked with teens with a range of issues from anxiety to OCD, eating disorders, ADHD, family separation and cognitive assessments.

Each week Madeleine and Angela will sit down to tackle the issues of parenting a ‘mean-ager’, one outburst at a time. They will also be answering listener questions submitted by voice message.

Meshel Laurie, founder and CEO of Smart Fella Productions, said: “Mental health experts the world over tell us the two groups hardest hit by the isolation and uncertainty of the Covid 19 pandemic have been teenagers and mothers. As if they didn’t argue enough!”

“So we thought it was time we shoved fake instagram perfection in the kitchen junk drawer and wrapped our arms around real feelings, even if they’re sometimes a bit awkward, embarrassing or even shameful because even though we love our kids, sometimes we don’t like them very much.”

Jordon Lott, Content Development Manager for Acast Australia and New Zealand, said: “Meshel has a brilliant ear for what makes a great podcast, so we’re always excited when Smart Fella brings us something new. Mean-agers will fill a gap in the category of Australian parenting podcasts and I’m confident it will help to start conversations between teenagers and parents, creating meaningful change in people’s lives; as we know podcasting has the power to do.”

Acast — the creator-first podcast company that works with some of Australia’s biggest shows — will distribute Mean-agers, making it available across all podcast apps and players such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.