Happy New Year, and welcome to 2026! With Julie Eckersley departing We Interrupt This Broadcast for her new role at Screen Queensland, we’re excited to welcome Loani Arman, Aven Yap and Robbie Miles, who will be joining Kirsty Stark as hosts. We’re thrilled to expand the WITB team with a great mix of people and personalities who all have the best interests of the industry at heart - and we have big plans for the podcast this year! Tune in to this episode to hear more about who we are and what we’re excited about. Plus, we announce our upcoming first appearance as a team at AACTA Festival, where we’ll be hosting a panel (register and say hi!), and running an activation to capture your big ideas about the future of the industry (more news in the episode!). --- Loani Arman is a writer, director, and screen executive with over 20 years in the Australian screen industry, including her AIDC Award winning documentary My Body Says and as executive producer of the AACTA-winning series Latecomers. She most recently co-wrote a feature film adaptation of a hugely popular horror title. Aven Yap is a producer, writer, content creator working across Australia and Asia, and founder of Nimbus Creative. His credits span scripted and documentary projects for ABC, Nine, Disney+/NatGeo, and his award-winning short Piano Mums has a feature adaptation in development with investment from Screen Queensland and Screen Australia. Robbie Miles is a producer, educator and screen industry strategist with a deep interest in how creative work actually gets made. He currently leads industry engagement at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) and develops projects across film, television and digital platforms through Miles Ahead Productions. Kirsty Stark is an Emmy award-winning producer at Epic Films with a strong commitment to industry support, particularly in areas that promote career sustainability for freelancers and industry growth. She is the founder of CrewHQ, a nationwide crew database, and CrewCon, a conference for freelance crew. Kirsty is also Deputy Chair of The Mercury, and a host of We Interrupt This Broadcast. --- Our podcast schedule for 2026: Last Tuesday of the month - Monthly round-up episode All other Tuesdays - Deep Dive interviews Next week’s episode will be a special bonus AACTA Festival preview with Sam Buckland, with our regular schedule kicking off in February. Listen on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. --- Links for your enjoyment: Aven crashes out in Sunnybank Plaza: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTJ5xttDI_K Robbie Miles in The Guardian: What It’s Like Winning Mastermind Australia: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/19/mastermind-australia-sbs-winner See you in February, and don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list to get all of our episodes in your inbox when they’re released! --- If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple or give us 5 stars on Spotify to help us spread the word. We Interrupt This Broadcast is hosted by Kirsty Stark, Loani Arman, Robbie Miles and Aven Yap. This episode was edited by Kirsty Stark. This episode is sponsored by AFTRS, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Head to aftrs.edu.au to find an AFTRS course that’s made for you.
