Seen is a podcast series about inspiring individuals who have carved a space for themselves in the mainstream despite being told they don’t belong.
Over ten new episodes, host Yumi Stynes goes deep with guests including Indigenous Human Rights advocate Antonia Burke, AFLW star Darcy Vescio, tech innovator Tea Uglow, human rights activist Debbie Kilroy and more. Each shares the transformative moments when they finally felt truly seen.
The first episode of Seen season 2 launches on Tuesday February 27, with new episodes weekly.
Host: Yumi Stynes
Producers: Mandy Yuan, Laura Brierley Newton, Marcus Costello
Sound Design and Mix: Ravi Gupta
Executive Producer: Kate Montague
Theme Music: Yeo
Art: Evi O Studios
SBS team: Caroline Gates, Max Gosford, Joel Supple, Micky Grossman
Original concept by: Bernadette Phương Nam Nguyễn
Transcript
DARCY VESCIO: I remember walking towards the oval and and looking out, and there were all these women just kicking perfect drop punts and marking with outstretched arms. And I'd never really seen, other people who weren't men, with those skills.
YUMI STYNES: I'm Yumi Stynes inviting you to listen to season two of SEEN. A podcast celebrating the trailblazers who lead the way, take risks, and show huge courage even while never seeing themselves represented positively in mainstream culture.
KWEEN KONG: The thing that he was always worried about was ‘people are going to laugh at you. They're gonna laugh at you. Are you ready to be made fun of,’ you know?
‘Can you imagine an Islander wearing tights’ and I'm like, ‘yeah, like that's hot.’
YUMI STYNES: As an Asian, single, working mom, I think a lot about my own identity. And, I mean, I love myself sick, but I grapple with motherhood, the maddening persistence of sexism, daily casual racism, gendered violence, death threats, and generational cycles that need to be broken. And these things connect our guests this season too.
I talk to some of the most inspiring people in the country...
TEA UGLOW: I feel like the corporate version of inclusion is really just wrapping you in a fire blanket and sitting on you. you can't be hurt, and you're definitely part of it, because we're sitting on top of you.
YUMI STYNES: And others who have met systemic barriers with huge courage and resilience
DEBBIE KILROY: Prisons are the most horrific places, darkest places, and especially in solitary confinement when you've been told that someone that you love has died and you've got nobody
YUMI STYNES: These are people who subvert the narratives of being the good minority, they disrupt and they break cycles of trauma.
TARANG CHAWLA: People say to me when they're like, Oh, I've heard your sister's story, and I know that it's well intentioned, but I have half a mind saying, I don't know if you do. You know the story of the man who killed her.
YUMI STYNES: It's a season of courageous leaders who show us what's possible.
ANTONIA BURKE: I remember this massive feeling behind me. it's like someone was nudging me from behind going, why are you giving your power away? And I'd never stood up in my community before ever. That was the moment where my community saw me and I really felt seen in that moment because people were listening
YUMI STYNES: These are stories of triumph over voices of judgement, hate and doubt of bravely taking up space and finding the happiness you deserve.
TEA UGLOW: the thing that I really, really strongly believe is that, um, it's important to see people and to make them visible and to say, I see you, or like to say, I am like you and to be seen,
YUMI STYNES: Listen to season two of SEEN on the SBS Audio website or app or wherever you get your podcasts.
