Michelle Macklem

🏆 Big news! GIRL v. HORSE just received a Murrow Award! 💜November is Epilepsy Awareness Month, so it hits deep to win such a prestigious award. Epilepsy is often invisible, but @espn 30for30 gave us the space to show what it can really look and feel like. Michelle, Morgan, and the team used sound to make it tangible. real. Visceral.  Sound Design: Michelle Macklem @meeshmack Original Score: Morgan Kibby @morgankibby Huge love to our whole team (swipe to see everyone). 💜 “The Edward R. Murrow Awards honor work that upholds the RTDNA Code of Ethics, shows technical excellence, and reminds us why journalism in the public interest matters.” “To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful.” — Edward R. Murrow Thank you @rtdna.news for this recognition. To learn more about Epilepsy please check out @epilepsyfdn @epilepsysociety #EpilepsyAwarenessMonth #EpilepsyAwareness #MurrowAwards #SoundDesign #AudioStorytelling #30for30 #ESPNPodcasts #epilepsy

Thrilled to share that Girl V. Horse just won Gold for Best Sound Design at the 2025 @signalawards 🥇 Huge congrats to our brilliant team who turned neighs into nuance 🐴 @nicoleteeny @mariahdennis @cmdjazmine @audreyqq @morgankibby @adizaheghan #30for30 #podcast #postaudio

Well well well, my Ambie award for best sound design for Girl V Horse has made it down under, and it was worth the weighty effort. What an unboxing! @theambies @nicoleteeny Congrats to the whole Girl V. Horse team, the sound world was a collaborative effort and helped the story to come to life. 🫶🏻 The team 🐴 EP/ host @nicoleteen producer @mariahdennis story editors @cmdjazmine and @audreyqq composer @morgankibby sound design and mix by me @meeshmack For 30 for 30 Podcasts and ESPN: 
Lead Producer @adizaheghan Senior Editorial Producer is Preeti Varathan
Line Producer was Catherine Sankey Associate Producer @gus_navarro 
special thanks to @julialowriehenderson About the show: Nicole Teeny wants to do something possibly absurd: race an ultramarathon against a horse. It all started with a theory and a diagnosis.In GIRL v. HORSE, a four-part podcast from @ESPN ’s 30 for 30 Podcasts, Nicole comes to terms with being diagnosed with epilepsy, and hating the loss of control, decides to push her body to the limit. In the process, she investigates how evolution drove humans to become runners—and what horses have to do with it—all while training to beat a steed and settle the battle between mind versus body and girl versus horse. Who will win?

All 4 episodes are out now! Follow “30 for 30” in your podcast player to listen. #sounddesign #soundpost #podcast #audiopost

A screamin’ good time at M&E this week with the skilful & gorg @eleanorbrezzi at the helm. Thanks to new pals @nicdullow and @symmetriasound for lending their voices to my weirdo sound design requests. I’ll be sure to make gold out of em.

I’m making it grid official - I won an Ambie, the top awards for excellence in audio storytelling 🏆✨ Thrilled that my sound design work for Girl v. Horse has been recognized on this platform, it took a lot of hard work to pull this sonic universe together: a combo of horse hooves and foley footsteps, desert winds and epic seizure scenes. This series was seriously cinematic. Thanks to EP / writer / runner @nicoleteeny for inviting me on this epic ride. Grateful to get to work with the timbre and beauty of our composer Morgan Kibby’s work. Truly a standout score. And thanks to the whole team for helping bring this story to life: Story editor was Jazmine (JT) Green. @cmdjazmine 
Additional editing by Audrey Quinn. @audreyqq 
Mariah Dennis was our Associate Producer @mariahdennis 
Sound Design and Mixing by me 〽️〽️
Original music and theme song composed by Morgan Kibby. @morgankibby 
The Mysterious Horse was brought to life by Summer Banks. @winter.streams 
Our production assistant was Mariel Sarkis marielsarkis
Fact-checking: Spoorthy Raman 
Legal: Seema Tilak 
Additional production support from Veronica Simmonds For 30 for 30 Podcasts and ESPN: 
Adizah Eghan was our Lead Producer @adizaheghan 
Senior Editorial Producer was Preeti Varathan
Line Producer was Catherine Sankey
And our Associate Producer was Gus Navarro.
and Julia Lowrie-Henderson @julialowriehenderson for believing in the project <3 #Ambies #GirlvHorse #SoundDesign #Podcasting #ESPN30for30

So I finally did it—I raced 50 miles against a horse! And survived to tell the tale—specifically on ESPN 30 for 30 podcasts! 🐎💨 GIRL v. HORSE, my memoir podcast series, just dropped! 🎧📻 Both ultramarathons—the race and the podcast—I’m equally proud of. After I was diagnosed with epilepsy, what started out as a wacky pipe dream (based on a scientific theory) to run against a horse turned into a guiding force that carried me through the toughest parts of my journey. As an athlete and as an artist, this quest and the act of making it into a podcast were my way of navigating and processing everything. There’s some really personal stuff in there! So be warned! Also, expect a sports story, a dash of science, a love-story subplot, lots and lots of running, and of course, horses! Listen & share wherever you get your podcasts! 🌟 Also…I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but damn; it’s like, really good. And for that—I have to thank being surrounded the best of the best. Y’all, my team was littttterally the who’s-who-of-podcasting: Our story editor was Jazmine (JT) Green. @cmdjazmine With additional editing by Audrey Quinn. @audreyqq Mariah Dennis was our Associate Producer @mariahdennis Sound Design and Mixing by Michelle Macklem. @meeshmack Original music and theme song composed by Morgan Kibby. @morgankibby The Mysterious Horse was brought to life by Summer Banks. @winter.streams Our production assistant was Mariel Sarkis @marielsarkis Fact-checking: Spoorthy Raman Legal: Seema Tilak @create_llp Additional production support from Veronica Simmonds @veesimmonds For 30 for 30 Podcasts and ESPN: Adizah Eghan was our Lead Producer @adizaheghan Senior Editorial Producer was Preeti Varathan Line Producer was Catherine Sankey @cath_frost And our Associate Producer was Gus Navarro. @gus_navarro Special shout out to Executive producer for ESPN films and 30 for 30 Marsha Cooke And Adam Neuhaus @neuhaus and Julia Lowrie-Henderson @julialowriehenderson for believing in the project and Eve Troeh @evetroeh for support. …and yes, GIRL v. HORSE was created, hosted, and executive produced by me, Nicole Teeny. @nicoleteeny #GIRLvHORSE #espn #30for30

Girl V Horse Ep1 session scroll, phew 😌!! Girl V Horse is a stunning new genre-busting podcast for @ESPN ’s @30for30 that combines love, sports and magical realism… all set on the backdrop of an epic race between horse and woman, mind and body. I worked closely with creator/ host @nicoleteeny to craft an intensive and immersive sound world that brought her vision to life. It was amazing working with this all-star team who crafted and challenged this narrative into being EP/ host @nicoleteeny , producer @mariahdennis , story editors @@cmdjazmine and @audreyqq , ESPN editor @adizaheghan , composer @morgankibby and sound design and mix by me @meeshmack . From a sound perspective, it was such an honour working with Morgan Kibby’s electric/ punchy/ dreamy music. Synths galore I tell ya! Working with a composer’s original music is just the absolute best <3 About the show: Nicole Teeny wants to do something possibly absurd: race an ultramarathon against a horse. It all started with a theory and a diagnosis.In GIRL v. HORSE, a four-part podcast from @ESPN ’s 30 for 30 Podcasts, Nicole comes to terms with being diagnosed with epilepsy, and hating the loss of control, decides to push her body to the limit. In the process, she investigates how evolution drove humans to become runners—and what horses have to do with it—all while training to beat a steed and settle the battle between mind versus body and girl versus horse. Who will win?

All 4 episodes are out now! Follow “30 for 30” in your podcast player to listen.

my July in some micro soundscapes ☺️ It’s wombat (Waring) season here in Naarm. Cool and misty mornings. But the wattle has started blooming!! Now moving into orchid (Guling) season. Winter is truly 2-3 different seasons here. Been a hard month but we keep showing up. Liberation for Palestine now.

honoured to be a part of this colossal Oxford handbook on radio and podcasting, and contribute my chapter: “NOISY FEEDS: Reciprocal Listening, Decolonial Struggle, and Play in Podcasting” my chapter is primarily based on interview research I did with some thoughtful and talented peers: Janet Rogers, John Hill (@flourish_caster ), Eleanor McDowell (@eleanormcdowall ), Ariana Martinez (@resonancearchive ), Karinne Keithly-Syers and Jazmine JT Green (cmdjazmine). we spoke about the potential spaces for art to flourish within the realm of podcasting, and what it looks like to break from form and tradition that’s steeped in colonial praxis. thanks to my early readers and editors Leah Jing McIntosh (@l___j___m___ ) and Jess Shane <3 and so grateful to the handbook’s editors Michele Hilmes and @andrewjbottomley for helping shape my chapter and asking me to be a part of this. it’s been a long process from starting this work in 2020 to publishing, but some of my central questions still remain. I’ll leave you with this: “The demands of capital often necessitate paid work as the central force for our engagement with the world, but there is hope in the simpler, smaller gestures spoken about here, from recordings of children skipping across ice to the transmission of loss and sorrow. Perhaps the desire to reach more people by growing large audiences has become counter to the need to truly connect.” DM me if you want more info on the chapter!

Reverb tails can be used to create a sense of finality and end a scene. But I’m finding lately its very overused! So, turn down those CATHEDRAL or BIG HALL settings and try out applying reverb with more subtlety. This short vid shows you how I apply reverb as an item FX in Reaper. It’s defs NOT a one size fits all. I still use a reverb send or sometimes render the FX onto the item (like Pro Tools’ audiosuite). But I do find its the most flexible way to draw a tail where the automation doesn’t get messed up from moving things around in my session. This session and all the examples used are from the podcast SHOCKING, HEARTBREAKING, TRANSFORMATIVE. Thank you Jess! 📍This was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation in so-called australia. This country is founded on land that was stolen from Indigenous people. Sovereignty was never ceded. 📺 Follow me on youtube for more detailed explanations of my intention and process [@] michellesounds 🔮The DAW I’m using is Reaper V7 🔌 The plug in is Oril River, a free reverb #sounddesign #podcast #audiopost #sounddesigner #orilriver

I’m starting with the end! Sound designing the end of music cues that is… A music cue, or cue, is what’s commonly referred to as the piece of music being used in a narrative podcast, film or television. Often, I find they’re places where the sound design can have a moment to shine, whether it’s creating space for the listener to connect with the story or transiting to the next scene. This session and all the examples used are from the podcast SHOCKING, HEARTBREAKING, TRANSFORMATIVE (SHT for short hehe). A big warm thanks to the creator Jess Shane for being cool with me sharing the content! Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts. 📍This was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. In so-called australia, we live, work and record on land that was forcibly taken from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. There still has been no Treaty with any First Nations groups. The impacts of colonisation are ever-present. 📺 Follow me on youtube for more detailed explanations of my intention and process [@] michellesounds 🔮The DAW I’m using is Reaper V7 #sounddesign #podcast #audiopost #sounddesigner

I’m starting a series of weekly narrative sound design tutorials called SOUNDS SIMPLE to share tips from my craft. Working with sound doesn’t need to be complicated. Often times, the most important skill is developing focused and detail orientated listening. So join me and let’s learn to listen better, together! I’ll be posting short snippets here and longer, longer videos on the y’tube @ michellesounds. #sounddesign #sounddesigner #audiopost #postaudio #podcast