In this second episode of Bad Diaries Podcast, we take another dive into the Bad Diaries universe.

We ask each other, Were you always a writer? We talk about our own history and practice of keeping diaries, personal journals and writing notebooks, and how that’s changed over time. Tracy curses her long-ago diary-reading boyfriend, and we ponder value, worth and hierarchies of writing.

Tracy reads diary entries made on an overseas work trip (seaweed conference in Thessaloniki? Yes, please!), when she was scheduled to fly from Vancouver to Auckland on 11 September 2001.

Jenny reads from DiArama – her 1980s diaries that she blogged, pseudonymously, in the 2010s – from April 1983, featuring bands, beer, boys, bad TV, and re-reading Blyton.

We talk about the postures we assume, and the voices and ideas we try out, in our diaries.

Then we talk about My Mum’s Bad Diaries, the podcast in which Jenny reads her own diaries to her 20-something daughter. Season 1 – in 27 episodes, covering 1980 to 1981 – was released in 2022, and Season 2 – starting in 1982 – is out weekly in 2023.

Find full show notes for this episode on the Bad Diaries Salon website baddiariessalon.com, or get in touch via Instagram or Facebook – we're @baddiariessalon everywhere.

Thanks for joining us for Bad Diaries Podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review us, wherever you get your podcasts.

Bad Diaries Podcast is recorded and produced in Naarm Melbourne, Australia, on the lands of the Kulin Nation; and in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, on the iwi lands of Taranaki Whānui, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. We pay our respects to Mana Whenua, and to Elders past, present and emerging, of these lands.