Do we like Toni Lodge?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful found and a Webby-winning, fan-loved record, but little on record about her views on causes, so we can't score higher.
Toni Lodge is a Melbourne podcaster who got her start behind the scenes in radio. She was an audio imaging producer on KIIS Melbourne's Jase and PJ breakfast show, which is where she crossed paths with Ryan Jon Dunn, who was hosting there.
The podcast began as a side project during Covid. They posted a demo on TikTok, the response caught them off guard, and about a year later they quit their radio jobs to do it full time. That is a proper leap, and it paid off: a Spotify exclusive in 2022, a move to Acast in 2024, and a Webby People's Voice Award in 2025.
Her best-known solo moment is a love letter to Australia. Lodge was knocked back from the Australian Children's Choir audition for being 29, so she took a GoPro around the country and remade Qantas's I Still Call Australia Home ad herself. It's been watched over a million times, and Qantas replied with “This is everything.”
On the harm check, we found nothing. There are no reports of her pushing anything against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and no sign she keeps company that does. The honest caveat is that the show is chaotic comedy and everyday-disaster storytelling, so the coverage doesn't tell us much about her views on bigger issues.
The good stuff is modest but real. A St Kilda Beach clothes drive in 2023 sent unwanted clothes to a charity program, and she's talked about the show with plain humility. Looking back at the early days, she said “There were all these people being like, where's the podcast?”
There is no court record, no allegations and no public blow-up in the sources we read, which is rare for anyone with a million monthly listeners. So it's a yes from us, with the small flag that the file is thin and we'd love to hear her say more on the things that matter.