Human/Ordinary

Human/Ordinary is a fascinating podcast featuring stories that have shaped Melbourne, exploring what it means to be human. The independent production fronted by all-round genius Sam Loy, delves into the extraordinary tales everyday people have to tell. Milk Bar Mag was lucky enough to catch up with Sam and talk about the origins, the future and why you should be listening to Human/Ordinary.

Thanks for meeting us, Sam. You’re quite the creative guy, working as a writer, actor, producer and director. Could you tell our readers a little more about you and your creative path? 

I’m what you might call a ‘lapsed writer’. I had always been keen on writing, right from when I was a young tacker, and went to uni straight out of high school to study professional writing.

But, as I tell any young person these days who’ll listen, I don’t think anyone should take on further education just after they’ve completed 13 years of learning and have officially become an adult. Because I left without finishing my degree and spent the next 8 or so years living the life of a tortured artist while doing fuck-all creatively. I did do a bit of film work and some theatre, but nothing that paid the bills.

I went around the world, got into adventures, had my heart broke and also did some breaking, and then came back to Melbourne and went back to Uni to become a youth worker. That saw me through until my daughter was born and I was thrust into a cold and damp existential crisis.

The only way out was to re-embrace my past creativity, and I chose the highly-profitable and glamorous path of producing a podcast.

You’re a youth worker by day, but by night study our culture, our relationships and all the things that make us human and package it as Human/Ordinary. What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned putting these episodes together? 

I don’t think I learnt it from the podcast —  because youth work teaches you the same thing — but it has reinforced for me the idea that everybody is the result of their own unique experiences. You can’t know someone from just one aspect of their life. It’s a trite statement, but I do think we have more in common than we realise, but we use these little facets of each others lives to make groups and divide. It’s very tribal.

In your original episode, Episode 00 — Big Trouble in Little Coburg, you begin by saying you planned to just make a story. Did you ever foresee that you would go on to complete Season Two?

The funny thing is the original name of my podcast was My New Two Month Project, because I have a habit of starting a new thing, doing it heaps, and then just abandoning it. I’ve dabbled in t-shirt printing, magic, music and blog writing to name a few. And I honestly thought that this podcast would be the same.

But as soon as I got into it, I absolutely loved it. Plus, people were enjoying the stories, so it was a no-brainer to keep going. I think I’ve been smarter about how much time I can feasibly invest in the podcast, as opposed to the ways I’ve approached other creative endeavours in the past. I have a couple of jobs and a family that keeps me busy, so I try to be realistic about what I can accomplish and then I work my arse off to achieve that.

Could you give readers a run through of what they can expect when they listen to the Headstone series, the second season of Human/Ordinary? 

The idea for Headstone started years ago when I lived near the Melbourne General Cemetery. I used to walk through it because I found it peaceful and I liked looking at the headstones and making up stories based on the epitaphs. Then I started to think that it would be a good idea to make a TV show which unearthed some of these stories.

Fast forward 8 or so years and I adapted that idea as a podcast. My marketing line is that Headstone is a series of stories about death, dying, and living with our mortality. So there’s a love story about how my Nan and Pop got together and supported each other until my Pop died; a story about the Chinese community in Melbourne honouring dead strangers; one about grief; and another where I tell the story behind an Elvis Presley memorial in Melbourne.

I try not to make them morbid, but some of them can be pretty sad. Ultimately, I think that death — as one of the only things that is truly universal — should be spoken about and prepared for a lot more.

Do you think there is a need to share local stories with the community without a personal bias? Is that hard to achieve? 

I think bias is a hard thing to achieve because our interpretation of the world is linked to our personal experience of it. At the risk of sounding like a post-modern dweeb, I think that we need to be aware of the way our subjective experiences colour are objective appraisals of what’s going on around us. And we need to understand that what may seem fundamental to us may not to another, and vice versa.

Nah, that sounds like classic post-modern dweebishness. But I do think that one of the ways to make our world better, is by humanising all the people living in it. Intrinsic to that is telling people’s stories so we can understand and empathise with the ways they see the world.

Or we could just keep fighting each other, I dunno.

Why do you think the medium of podcasts has seen quite the resurgence in recent time? 

I think it’s very accessible — for both creators and the audience — so that they’re easy to make and consume. Some podcasts can be recorded and uploaded within the same day, making them timely and responsive to an audience. Then you can just download and listen on your phone as you’re doing the dishes or walking the dog.

Podcasts also can be very personable, so that the listener can feel that they’re being spoken to directly. Once you get rid of the aesthetics and camera techniques of tv and movies, content becomes a lot more intimate, because you’re just left with someone’s voice. And they’re right in your ear holes, telling you a story.

What’s more, I think there’s an amazing diversity of content out there. There’s pretty much something for everybody. There’s a podcast called Whiskey Cats, which is literally just about whiskey and cats. It’s actually popular, and I think that’s fantastic. Nothing like that could be made in any other medium and be interesting.

Do you have plans to create a Season Three? If so, can you give your fans a snippet of what they can expect? 

We’re actually trying to get backing to make Headstone more of a permanent thing, so we’ll have to see how that goes.

If nothing happens on that front, there will certainly be a Season Three. I’m liking the idea of making each season about something in particular at the moment, and I’m thinking for the next season I’d like to focus on stories about work. We spend so much of our lives working, or looking for work, or wishing we could change our jobs and longing for the day when we don’t have to work anymore.

I’m really interested in people who do jobs that are a little bit different or sometimes ignored. I’ve always wanted to find out what it’s like to be the person who washes the windows on a high-rise building, or works at a sewerage farm, or as a ‘charity-mugger’ (chugger). I’d love to find out what their days are like and what they think about what they do.

Jump on their website to learn more about Human/Ordinary or to start listening.

Human/Ordinary
Podcast
humanordinary.com