Hear a podcast of the Aware saga

In a Singapore podcast space dominated by light-hearted banter shows and slickly made programmes from major networks, a work of indie journalism is making listeners' ears perk up.

Saga is a 12-part account of the 2009 takeover of the leadership of women's rights group Aware (Association of Women for Action and Research) by Christian conservatives and the revolt by veteran members who fought to reclaim the seats.

It was released on Dec 9 last year, with the final episode released on Jan 13.

It is believed to be the first Singapore-made serialised and scripted work of journalism for the podcast medium.

In other words, it is focused on a single true story, deeply researched and unfolding over a series of episodes, that had not first appeared on radio or other formats.

Such podcasts have been popular in the United States. They include the true-crime podcasts Serial and Dirty John (later adapted into a television show) and The Dropout, the story of disgraced medical company chief Elizabeth Holmes.

As of Jan 28, on the Apple podcast charts for Singapore, Saga is ranked fifth in the society and culture category.

While ranked below shows fronted by former American First Lady Michelle Obama, philanthropist Bill Gates and veteran British journalist Louis Theroux, it is also the highest Singapore-made entry, in any language.

In the iTunes podcast store, the show has earned five out of five stars based on 78 reviews.

The show, made with the support of Aware, is written and produced by Jasmine Ng and Kelly Leow and hosted by former broadcast journalist Bharati Jagdish.

In a Zoom call, Leow, 30, Aware's communications manager, said she proposed the podcast format at a discussion a few years ago when the subject of how to mark the 10th anniversary of the battle came up.

In 2009, the media dubbed it "the Aware saga" because of its twisty, drawn-out nature.

Elaborating on the decision to make a podcast, Ng, 48, a film-maker and Aware volunteer, says that there was a growing realisation that the struggle was a key moment in Singapore's cultural history that needed to be preserved for posterity.

"Several of our founding members have passed on. We knew we had to archive everything," says Ng.

The long-form podcast format, compared with, say, a commemorative book, offers several advantages, say the producers.

Because Aware had archived audio recordings of the two tumultuous meetings that bookended the affair, the producers could let listeners feel the electricity in the room. Especially at the first annual general meeting, which saw Mrs Claire Nazar, a lawyer nominated by outgoing president Constance Singam, elected as president.

A group of women, all strangers to veteran members, would take nine of 12 positions on the executive committee.

"Those few hours play out like a radio play. You can contrast the upbeat attitudes at the beginning with the distinct sense of confusion and tension in the voices halfway through," says Leow.

The second general meeting would spawn the "shut up and sit down!" meme.

It was a line shouted by Ms Sally Ang, one of the new executive committee members, at one point in an attempt to quell the crowd. It failed.

There are also emotional interviews with Aware leaders and members expressing remorse that the crisis had happened on their watch.

Spreading the story over 12 episodes, with several ending in cliffhangers, gave film-maker Ng and former journalist Leow the space to make characters come alive and keep the story suspenseful.

An original score by Weish and Din of the band .gif, two of several musicians involved, added texture.

More than 50 persons were interviewed for the project. Carried out by host Jagdish, most were done in a sound studio.

In addition to speaking to participants, experts were called in to provide context about Singapore's religious and cultural landscape, discuss the fault lines exposed by the incident and reflect on its aftermath.

Leow says the long-form podcast format plays to the strengths of an event like the Aware saga, one packed not just with factual information but also emotional highs and lows.

"Saga provides a fresh lens on the experiences and emotions of everyone involved. That is where the medium really shines. It's one voice speaking at a time, to one listener. It's intimate and warm, it's human and personality-driven."

Listeners in Singapore, especially younger ones, are hungry for in-depth podcast content, says Paige Parker, the American-born, Singapore-based author of the memoir Don't Call Me Mrs Rogers.

"Young people are eager for more interesting conversations. Since they are gaining much of their news on social media, podcasts make sense, especially when people are so busy," she says in an e-mail interview.

To that end, from March 1, her podcast, Pass The Power, will launch.

It features Ms Parker, 52, interviewing notable persons across various fields. They include veteran diplomat Professor Tommy Koh, hotelier Loh Lik Peng, chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board Beh Swan Gin, film-maker Boo Junfeng and theatre practitioner Tracie Pang.

Each 40-minute episode - 13 have been planned for the first season and 10 have been recorded - will feature what Ms Parker calls "conversations of hope" with a focus on optimism, the importance of intention, skills and hard work, among other themes.

Prof Koh, for example, talked about his mother, whom he described as a "woman ahead of her time" and why the humanities and arts are important in a world focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

With Pang, Ms Parker covered how theatre has had to change during this period, finding the new generation of actors and what makes an actor stand out from the crowd.

Ms Parker has partnered entertainment company Gushcloud International to produce the shows.

One insight she has gained from doing the interviews is that most of her subjects did not have tiger mums. Instead, they were driven by passion. Some also acknowledged that luck and serendipity played a role in their careers, she says.

Podcasts and commuting - whether by bus, train or car - go together. What happens when everyone has to work from home?

"Bluetooth is a game-changer," says Mr Ernest Luis, podcast editor with The Straits Times and The Business Times. With the technology, listeners can move around the home untethered. Or they might use their smart home devices to pipe an episode or two while doing chores.

"We saw a big jump in listenership during Singapore's Covid-19 circuit breaker period," adds Mr Luis, 50, explaining how podcasts have become a companion for many staying indoors.

From 2018, when both newspapers launched podcasts, the unique proposition was not well-known personalities, but the domain knowledge of journalists.

"We now want listeners to feel as if the show is worth their time tuning in, as they pick up a tip or two that can sometimes be life-changing, or improve their general knowledge of cutting-edge issues in sustainability or green issues, for example," he says.

Last year, the newspapers' podcasts were downloaded almost half a million times, showing growth of more than 150 per cent over the previous year. There are now 10 regular shows covering personal finance, business, health and news analyses.

Standouts include a recently launched show, BT's Mark To Market, hosted by senior correspondent Ben Paul and based on his weekly market trends and analysis column, and ST's Health Check, a show by senior health correspondent Joyce Teo, which offers healthier living tips and debunks myths.

On the Apple podcast chart for Singapore, ST Health Check is ranked 13th in the health and fitness category and is the highest-ranked local show there, while BT Mark To Market, sitting at No. 14, is also the highest-ranked local show in the business category.

In 1997, in a mansion in a suburb of San Diego, police responding to a tip made a grisly discovery: The bodies of 21 women and 18 men, dressed in identical black shirts, jogging pants and Nike shoes.

They were members of the Heaven's Gate cult and had ingested poison believing that their souls could leave their bodily "containers" to board a spaceship hiding behind a comet passing close to Earth.

In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of the mass suicide, journalist Glynn Washington launched the Heaven's Gate podcast.

In 10 episodes, he explores the history of the cult and in doing so, delves into his own family's troubling past.

When he was a child, his family belonged to the Worldwide Church of God, an apocalyptic group with similarities to Heaven's Gate.

But for slightly differing circumstances, Washington believes he might have become the sort of person who would kill himself if his leader had told him to do so.

He interviews current members of the Heaven's Gate group and examines the cult mindset, in particular the reasons that led surviving followers - some of whom tell Washington of their regret at not joining their friends in 1997 - along a path to the San Diego mansion.

At the same time, he considers how his journey diverged from theirs.