Our take: Bension’s spicy new chapter, melon-gate and we 💛 Ted Lasso

**Chris Spyrou** (0:07)
Dan Mullins, welcome to Our Take.

**Dan Mullins** (0:10)
Good to be with you. Dan.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:12)
So, like, the thing is, whenever I have someone on the Saturday episode of The Briefing, Our Take, I get them to introduce themselves.
Now Justine filled in for Sach last week. Justine is obviously LiSTNR's new senior producer and journalist, a very, very respected journalist and podcaster. Dan Mullins, what is the cell for you?

**Dan Mullins** (0:33)
Former executive producer of The Briefing, but now I'm head of Factual, acting head of Factual.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:37)
Uh-huh, that's right. Dan was my first technical boss on The Briefing. I believe you were part of my hiring interview.

**Dan Mullins** (0:44)
I was.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:45)
And you signed off. Do you regret that decision?

**Karli** (0:48)
No, not at all. All these years later.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:50)
I don't.
Well, welcome to Our Take. This is my baby. This is my baby I've been pitching for a few years, where it's our ties off, our shoes are off, we're kicking back, we're relaxed, we're talking about the week that was what you and I, usually what Sacha and I made of the week, and also what our listeners made of the week that was. But we are joined by Dan this week. Thank you so much, because Sacha is very ill once again.

**Dan Mullins** (1:10)
Yeah, there's a lot of it going around.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:12)
Yeah, it's terrible.

**Dan Mullins** (1:13)
And if she's listening, we're thinking of her.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:14)
Oh, you're making it sound like it's very, but I think it's the gravitas in your voice that makes it sound really grim. We are, we're thinking about you, Sacha. And look, we kick off every weekend with a debrief, like a story that's made the rounds that we can't stop talking about. Then we open up the inbox where we read listener comments, DMs and things like that. Then of course, it is my favourite time, which is the weekend quiz. That's the best that we pull in people from around the building, see if they've been paying attention to the show.
And cap it all off with a weekend list where we recommend what to watch, see, do, eat, listen to, a staple of our weekend episode. But first, let's kick it off with the debrief. And the story that we were chatting nonstop about was this one.

**Bension Siebert** (1:57)
Becoming a sex worker saved my investigative journalism career. And if you tell me that I can't do both of those things at the same time, I say, in this economy? I'm Bension. You might remember me from such news outlets as ABC News, InDaily and The Briefing.

**Dan Mullins** (2:09)
Yeah. What I loved about Bension's chat was it was like he's found a new way to pay for an old ambition, right? So his passion is investigative journalism.
Why aren't writers doing it? Artists, musicians, because there's a stigma attached to sex work, which shouldn't be attached to sex work. But he's showing, hey, it can be done. And what struck me was that he also said that by and large, the feedback has been really positive from the public and from his peers as well. So it's a good way that other creatives could see, hey, there is a path forward here. If I really want to be a writer, and I've spent 60 hours a week stacking shelves at Bunnings, by the time you get home, you don't really feel like sitting down at the laptop and working.
Maybe this is the way they can.

**Chris Spyrou** (2:57)
Maybe it is. Well, look, the context here is that Bension Siebert, whose voice you probably would recognize if you're a long-term listener of The Briefing. He was one of our co-hosts here. And I think it was about a week after his role was made redundant. He booked his first in-person sex work client. And he's now using all that money that he's making from sex work to fund his own independent journalism and independent investigations. And we had him on the pod in the middle of the week to talk about the big journey that was to lead him there. I found it really fascinating because when I first met Bension, and you're probably the same, Dan, we met Bension with the button up shirt, the very serious investigative reporter, like serious about facts and facts, very thorough investigative journalist. And as time got on and we got to learn him and know him, like, this makes sense now.
But it's a very interesting contrast. And behind the scenes, I've been talking to him a little bit about this journey because he was very nervous about, he called this his second coming out. He was nervous about how the industry would react and how his peers would react. But like you said, it's actually been largely quite positive.