When entire Australia was in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, two former international students from Indonesia started a new podcast 'Kremes' and gave tips to their audience – international students and recently-arrived migrants – about staying positive and productive.
The hosts, two Indonesian women, recent engineering graduates in Perth, prefer to be known as 'A' and 'T' by their listeners.
Kremes is an Indonesian word for crunchy, crisp food. The hosts chose this name because they wanted the podcast to be fresh and crisp. So, food is an important metaphor for the podcast.
“We are foodies, and we also like to talk about fresh and crisp topics, things that are trending, fun and current for our generation, topics that are new,” says 'T'.
“We not only want the podcast to have impact and crunch, but also to be entertaining. Food entertains and sustains us; perhaps our podcast can sustain our listeners too," she says.
The topics on the ‘Kremes’ podcast are mostly about education, employment, cross-cultural issues that new migrants want to know about, to help them adapt to their new life in Australia.
'A' and 'T' often talk about issues that relate to themselves being young and Indonesian in Australia, and their listeners feel they are part of the conversation. 'T' says this is because the personal cross-cultural experiences they talk about are experiences that many others share.
'A' came to Australia from Indonesia 10 years ago. She and 'T' studied together in Australia and have been close friends since their student days.
That closeness is the foundation for the connection they share on the podcast and inspired them to develop the podcast in the first place.
“When we hung out together we talked for hours, and so we thought if we could give advice to each another, why not share it with others who also perhaps need it?” says 'A'.
A popular area of interest for Kremes listeners is Education in Australia. 'T' says a lot of people want to know about the Kremes team’s educational experience. 'A' and 'T' moved to Australia and studied here, and many of their listeners are in the same situation.
Keeping it "honest and raw"
They say people also want tips about life in Australia, especially about culture and language.
“People want to know about our lives, and get tips about adjusting in Australia,” says 'T'.
'A' and 'T' discuss some real-life issues and advise people on these topics. They believe they can only be truly open or give advice on sensitive issues by staying anonymous.
“We want us to be honest and raw and I don’t want people to just tune into our podcast knowing who we are and kind of just bandwagoning. I want them to listen because they want to hear the content; they want to hear what we say about the matter. The best way to do it is to keep it anonymous for now.”
Sharing her own experience, 'A' says after she graduated as an engineer, she was told at a job interview that she got the interview only because she was a woman.
“Things like that where it’s really is how it is – nothing sugar-coating – that just happened last year. So, I think an experience like that is easier to talk about if we are unidentified.”
Although the Kremes podcast discusses some serious cross-cultural issues, the hosts hope their self-deprecating humour makes it easy to listen to.
